CHAMISSO, ADELBERT VON [Louis CHARLES ADELAIDE DE] (17811838)

This article appears in Volume V05, Page 826 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: CAU-CHA

CHAMISSO, ADELBERT VON [Louis CHARLES ADELAIDE DE] (17811838) , German poet and botanist, was born at the chateau of Boncourt in Champagne, France, the ancestral seat of his family, on the 3oth of January 1781. Driven from France by the Revolution, his parents settled in Berlin, where in 1796 youpg Chamisso obtained the post of page-in-waiting to the queen, and in 1798 entered a Prussian infantry regiment as

ensign

ENSIGN (through the Fr. enseigne from the Latin plural insignia)

.
His family were shortly afterwards permitted to return to France; he, however, remained behind and continued his career in the army. He had but little education, but now sought distraction from the soulless routine of the Prussian military service in assiduous study. In` collaboration with Varnhagen von Ense, he founded in 1803 the Berliner Musenalmanach, in which his first verses appeared. The enterprise was a failure, and, interrupted by the war, it came to an end in 1806. It brought him, however, to the notice of many of the literary celebrities of the day and established his reputation as a rising poet. He had become lieutenant in 18or, and in 1805 accompanied his regiment to Hameln, where he shared in the humiliations following the treasonable capitulation of that fortress in the ensuing year. Placed on parole he went to France, where he found that both his parents were dead; and, returning to Berlin in the autumn of 1807, he obtained his release from the service early in the following year. Homeless and without a profession, disillusioned and despondent, he lived in Berlin until 18ro, when, through the services of an old friend of the family, he was offered a professorship at the lycee at Napoleonville in La Vendee. He set out to take up the post, but

drawn

DRAWN

into the charmed circle of Madame de Stael, followed her in her

exile

EXILE (Lat. exsilium or exilium, from exsul or exul, which is derived from ex, out of, and the root sal, to go, seen in salire, to leap,
consul
- CONSUL
- CONSUL (in Gr. generally ihraros,ashortened form of errpavgybs 8hraeos, i.e. praetor maximus)
, &c.; the connexion with solum, soil, country is now generally considered wrong)

to Coppet in Switzerland, where, devoting himself to botanical research, he remained nearly two years. In 1812 he returned to Berlin, where he continued his scientific studies. In the summer of the eventful year, 1813, he wrote the

prose

PROSE

narrative Peter Schlemihl, the man who sold his shadow. This, the most famous of all his works, has been translated into most European languages (English by W. Howitt). It was written partly to divert his own thoughts and partly to amuse the children of his friend Hitzig. In 1815 Chamisso was appointed botanist to the Russian ship " Rurik," which Otto von Kotzebue (son of August von Kotzebue) commanded on a scientific voyage round the world. His diary of the expedition (Tagebuch, 1821) affords some interesting glimpses of England and English life. On his return in 1818 he was made custodian of the botanical gardens in Berlin, and. was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences, and in 1820 he married. Chamisso's travels and scientific researches re-strained for a while the full development of his poetical talent, and it was not until his

forty

FORTY

-eighth year that he turned again to literature. In 1829, in collaboration with Gustav Schwab, and from 1832 in conjunction with Franz von Gaudy, he brought out the Deutsche Musenalmanach, in which his later poems were mainly published. He died on the 21st of August 1838.
As a scientist Chamisso has not left much mark, although his Bemerkungen and Ansichten, published in an incomplete form in O. von Kotzebue's Entdeckungsreise (

Weimar

WEIMAR

, 1821) and more completely in Chamisso's Gesammelte Werke (1836), and the botanical

work

WORK

, Ubersicht der nutzbarsten and schiidlichsten Gewdchse in Norddeutschland (1829) are esteemed for their careful treatment of the subjects with which they deal. As a poet Chamisso's reputation stands high, Frauen Liebe and Leben (1830), a cycle of lyrical poems, which was set to music by Schumann, being particularly famous. Noteworthy are also Schloss Boncourt and Salas y

Gomez

GOMEZ, DIOGO (DIEGO) (ff. 1440-1482)

. In estimating his success as a writer, it should not be forgotten that he was cut off from his native speech and from his natural current of thought and feeling. He often deals with gloomy and some-times with ghastly and repulsive subjects; and even in his lighter and gayer proudctions there is an undertone of sadness or of satire. In the lyrical expression of the domestic emotions he displays a fine felicity, and he knew how to treat with true feeling a tale of love or vengeance. Die Lowenbraut may be taken as a sample of his weird and powerful simplicity; and Vergeltung is remarkable for a pitiless precision of treatment.
The first collected edition of Chamisso's works-was edited by J. E. Hitzig, 6 vols. (1836); 6th edition (1894); there are also excellent editions by M.

Koch

KOCH
KOCH, ROBERT (1843–1910)

(1883) and O. F. Walzel (1892). On Chamisso's life see J. E. Hitzig, " Leben and Briefe von Adelbert von Chamisso
(in the Gesammelte Werke) ; K. Fulda, Chamisso and seine Zeit (1881) ; G. Hofmeister, Adelbert von Chamisso (1884); and, for the scientific side of Chamisso's life, E. du Bois-Raymond, Adelbert von Chamisso als Naturforscher (1889).

End of Article: CHAMISSO, ADELBERT VON [Louis CHARLES ADELAIDE DE] (17811838)

If you wish, you can link directly to this article.

<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/CAU_CHA/CHAMISSO_ADELBERT_VON_Louis_CH.html">
CHAMISSO, ADELBERT VON [Louis CHARLES ADELAIDE ...
</a>

(Previous)
CHAMINADE, CECILE (1861 )

(Next)
CHAMKANNI

JCSM was founded in 1997 and exists to help the community and bring people into a life-changing and productive relationship with Jesus Christ. JCSM offers over 200,000 free web pages, including its weekly inspirational emails that were sent continuously for over a decade.

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries
P.O. Box 9297
San Diego, CA 92169
1-888-887-0417 or Email