Cornelius Hermann von Ayrenhoff

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Cornelius Hermann von Ayrenhoff (born May 28, 1733 in Vienna ; † August 15, 1819 there ) was an Austrian officer and writer of the Catholic Enlightenment .

Life

After attending the Jesuit grammar school in Vienna, Ayrenhoff joined the Harrach Regiment in Prague as a cadet at the age of 18 in 1751 . He took part in the Battle of Lobositz as a lieutenant in 1756 and was captured twice during the Seven Years' War .

Ayrenhoff had not harmed his career: he became major in 1769, colonel in 1776 and major general in 1783 (1783). As such, he was entrusted with the management of all the invalid corps. In 1794 his military career reached its climax with the promotion to field marshal lieutenant .

At the age of 70 Ayrenhoff took his leave in 1803. Almost blind and deaf, he died in Vienna at the age of 86.

Literary work

Lovers' performance Der Postzug Etching by Georg Melchior Kraus

As a captain, he had published the Roman drama Aurelius in 1766 . In his literary work, Ayrenhoff followed a classicist drama modeled on Louis de Racine and Pierre Corneille . He became one of the predecessors of Heinrich Joseph von Collin and Franz Grillparzer . Like Joseph von Sonnenfels , he was one of the literary representatives of Josephine rationalism . At a time when the younger generation looked to Weimar and romanticism was beginning to gain a foothold in Austria, Ayrenhoff still represented a rationalistic aesthetic in the spirit of Johann Christoph Gottsched . His tragedies were therefore forgotten during his lifetime. His comedies, the best of which, The Post Train or the Noble Passions (1769), was a favorite of the Prussian King Friedrich II, met with more approval.

First he published an anonymous Dramatic Conversations of an Imperial and Royal Officer , later a second edition followed in 4 volumes under his name, and in 1814 a third. Ayrenhoff's funeral and comedy games, such as Tumelicus , Hermanns Tod , The learned woman and others. a., have historical interest in that the author countered with them Friedrich Schiller and Johann Wolfgang Goethe , but especially Shakespeare , whose masterpieces he found true horrors. He wrote a total of six comedies, five tragedies, a "moral painting" and a farce.

Lovers' performance "The Post Train" Etching by Georg Melchior Kraus

At the Burgtheater , the up-and-coming court and national theater in Vienna, his struggle against the new literary currents was important, as his social position gave him influence, even if ultimately and ultimately no lasting literary success.

Others

The catholic enlightener Ayrenhoff was a member of the Viennese Masonic lodge for true unity and deputy master of the chair of the lodge Freimütigkeit in Gorizia .

In Vienna, Ayrenhoffgasse in the 9th district of Alsergrund commemorates him .

Works

  • Aurelius (1766)
  • Hermann's death (1768)
  • The mail train (1769)
  • The great battery (1770)
  • The learned woman (1775)
  • Alceste (1782)
  • Cleopatra and Antonius (1783) ( digitized version )

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Freemasonry around Joseph II. The Lodge for True Unity (exhibition) . Edited by Hans Wagner. Verlag Museum Schloss Rosenau, Austrian Freemasons Museum, Rosenau 1980, p. 16

Web links

Wikisource: Cornelius Hermann von Ayrenhoff  - Sources and full texts
personal data
SURNAME Ayrenhoff, Cornelius Hermann von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian officer and author
DATE OF BIRTH May 28, 1733
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH August 15, 1819
Place of death Vienna