VARNHAGEN VON ENSE, KARL AUGUST (1785-1858)

This article appears in Volume V27, Page 922 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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VARNHAGEN VON ENSE, KARL AUGUST (1785-1858) , German biographer, was born at Dusseldorf on the 21st of February 1785. He studied

medicine

MEDICINE

at Berlin, but devoted more attention to philosophy and literature, which he after-wards studied more thoroughly at

Halle

and Tubingen. He began his literary career in 804 as

joint

JOINT (through Fr. from Lat. junctum, jungere, to join)

-editor with Adelbert von Chamisso (q.v.) of a Musenalmanach. In 1809 he joined the Austrian army, and was wounded at the battle of Wagram. Soon afterwards he accompanied his superior officer, Prince Bentheim, to Paris, where he carried on his studies. In 1812 he entered the Prussian civil service at Berlin, but in the following year resumed his military career, this time as a captain in the Russian army. He accompanied Tettenborn, as adjutant, to Hamburg and Paris, and his experiences were recorded in his Geschichte der Hamburger Ereignisse (London, 1813), and his Geschichte der Kriegszuge des Generals von Tettenborn (1815). At Paris he entered the diplomatic service of Prussia, and in 1814 acted under Hardenberg at the congress of Vienna. He also accompanied Hardenberg to Paris in 1815. He was

resident

RESIDENT

minister for some time at Karlsruhe, but was recalled in 1819, after which, with the title of " Geheimer Legationsrat," he lived chiefly at Berlin. He had no fixed official appointment, but was often employed in important political business. In 1814 he married Rahel Antonie Friederike, originally called Levin, afterwards Robert, and sister of the poet, Ludwig Robert (1778-1832). She was born in 1771 at Berlin, where she died in 1833. By

birth

BIRTH (a word common in various forms to Teutonic languages from the root of the verb " to bear ")

she was a Jewess; but before her

marriage

MARRIAGE

she made profession of Christianity. Although she never wrote anything for publication, she was a woman of remarkable intellectual qualities, and exercised a powerful influence on many men of high ability. Her husband, who was devotedly attached to her, found in her sympathy and encouragement one of the

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

sources of his inspiration as a writer. After her death he published a selection from her papers, and afterwards much of her correspondence was printed. Varnhagen von Ense never fully recovered from the shock caused by her death. He himself died suddenly in Berlin on the loth of October 1858.
He made some reputation as an imaginative and

critical

CRITICAL (in alphabetical order of authors)

writer, but he is famous chiefly as a biographer. He possessed a remark-able power of grouping facts so as to bring out their essential significance, and his style is distinguished for its strength, grace and purity. Among his principal works are Goethe in den Zeugnissen der Mitlebenden (1824) ; Biographische Denkmale (5 vols., 182430; 3rd ed., 1872) ; and biographies of General von Seydlitz (1834),

Sophia

SOPHIA (1630-1714)

Charlotte, queen of Prussia (1837), Field-

Marshal

MARSHAL (med. Lat. marescalcus, from O.H.Ger. marah, horse, and scalc, servant)

Schwerin (1841), Field-

Marshal

MARSHAL (med. Lat. marescalcus, from O.H.Ger. marah, horse, and scalc, servant)

Keith (1844), and General Billow von Dennewitz (1853). His Denkwurdsgkeiten and vermischte Schriften appeared in 9 vols. in 1843-59, the two last volumes appearing after his death. His niece, Ludmilla Assing, between 186o and 1867, edited several volumes of his correspondence with eminent men, and his Tagebucher (14 vols., 18617o). Blatter aus der preussischen Geschichte' appeared in 5 vols. (186869) ; his correspondence with Rahel in 6 vols. (1874-75) ; and with Carlyle (1892). His selected writings appeared in 19 vols. in 187176. There is also an extensive literature dealing with Rahel Varnhagen von Ense; see especially her husband's Rahel, ein Bach des Andenkens (3 vols., 1834) ; Aus Rahels Herzensleben (1877); E. Schmidt-Weissenfels, Rahel and ihre Zeit (1857); Briefwechsel zwischen Karoline von Humboldt, Rahel and Varnhagen von Ense (1896); O. Berdrow, Rahel Varnhagen (190o).

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