Elisabeth Kulmann

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Elisabeth Kulmann, steel engraving by Carl Barth
Elisabeth Kulmann

Elisabeth Kulmann ( Russian Елисавета Борисовна Кульман / Liza Borisovna Kulman * 5 . Jul / 17th July  1808 . Greg in Saint Petersburg , † November 19 . Jul / 1. December  1825 . Greg ibid) was a German - Russian poet .

Life

Elisabeth Kulmann was the youngest daughter of a German, Maria (née Rosenberg), and of the Russian officer Boris Feodorowitsch Kulmann, grandson of a German family from Alsace who immigrated to Russia . When her father died early, the mother and her nine children fell into great poverty, but they were given a good upbringing nonetheless. Elisabeth, who had a great talent for languages, grew up multilingual. Thanks to her mother's training, she was able to speak and read fluently in Russian and German at the age of six . She also received foreign language lessons from a family friend, Karl Friedrich von Großheinrich. In addition to her two mother tongues, she learned French , Italian , English , Spanish , Portuguese and Modern Greek fluently up to the age of 15. She mastered not only the living languages, but also the classical languages Latin , Ancient Greek and Church Slavonic . Modern Greek people declared that they could speak their language as well as they could. Together with the two daughters of the Saint Petersburg mine director Meder, she was also taught mathematics , science , drawing, dance and music.

Kulmann's first poems appeared at the age of eleven. It was then that she began to make German verse; later she composed her two other favorite languages, Russian and Italian. She also worked as a translator. For example, she translated works by the ancient Greek poet Anakreon in eight languages ​​and Alfieris Saul into Russian. She translated two other tragedies by Alfieri into German, as well as dramas by the Russian poet Oserow , Iriartes fables and fragments from Milton , Metastasio and from the Lusiads by the Portuguese poet Luís de Camoes . Shortly before her death, she translated modern Greek folk songs into German on sleepless nights . But she was particularly fond of studying and influencing Hellenic poetry.

Johann Heinrich Voss judged some of Kulmann's original poems: “One is tempted to regard this work as a masterful translation of poems by a hitherto unknown poet from the most brilliant epoch of Greek literature.” The German writer Jean Paul spoke enthusiastically about the work of young girl, and Goethe , to whom, like Jean Paul, samples of her poetry were sent by her teacher Grossheinrich, did not hold back with his recognition for the unusual talent.

Kulmann composed more than 100,000 verses within six years, although not all of them reached a high level. The form of rhyming or only partially rhymed tripod iamb , which she used with particular fondness, is not a particularly happy one either, but she treated it with virtuosity. She possessed excellent powers of observation and portrayal, mind and imagination; the influence of Slavic poetry and the modern Greek folk song is noticeable. She knew how to give foreign material, such as her descriptions of American and African literature, great vividness, and to animate the more numerous taken from the immediate vicinity with childlike grace. Goedeke judged: “Your style is simple, clear, without verbal embellishments, but moving through the mere presentation; only now and then it gets lost in breadth, never in flat. "

The fulfillment of Goethe's prophecy that Kulmann would take an honorable place in future literature prevented her untimely death. Deprivation and work had weakened her health early on. When Saint Petersburg was hit by a severe flood in November 1824, she became seriously ill. Although she was still active as a writer, she died around a year later at the age of only 17 in her hometown. In the local Smolenk cemetery she received her final resting place with a monument made of Carrarian marble donated by the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and the Grand Duchess Helena Palowna. This is decorated with celebrating inscriptions in the eleven languages ​​she speaks.

The Russian Academy of Sciences published Kulmann's poems in Russian in three volumes (St. Petersburg 1833). The Academy praised "an unusual art of invention, abundance of imagination, alluring charm of story, a flowing style of writing, a tasteful and deceptive imitation of the ancient Greek poet and nobility of feelings." In it your all poems , the one with a picture and 134 pages of biographical introduction by Karl Friedrich von Großheinrich were only published in Germany with the third edition (Leipzig 1844; 8th edition Frankfurt am Main 1857). A selection from her works was published in Heidelberg in 1875, the third edition of her Italian poems Saggi poetici in 1847 in Milan. Alexis Timofeew composed a fantasy by Elisabeth Kulmann , which was published in Leipzig in 1842 in a German translation.

Works

  • All the poems . With the life, portrait and monument of the poetess. Published by Karl Friedrich von Großheinrich. Pitichesky, Petersburg 1835.
  • Moon, darling of my soul . Published by Hansotto Hatzig. Pictures by Ilka Christoph. - Heidelberg: bvb-edition Meichsner u. Schmidt, 1981, 1st edition - LXVIII, 272 p .; bvb-edition No. 26; ISBN 3-921522-26-9

Settings

In 1851 Robert Schumann set some of Kulmann's poems to music and wrote this group of songs by his Ор. 103 (girls' songs by Elisabeth Kulmann for two soprano voices (or soprano and alto) with accompaniment of the pianoforte) and Op. 104 with the words "Seven songs by Elisabeth Kulmann in memory of the poet".

literature

  • A. Stahr: Elisabeth Kulmann, Russia's greatest poet . In: Europe . Volume 1, 1839, pp. 68-84.
  • Wilhelm Bernhard Mönnich : Elisabeth Kulmann. A biographical sketch . Nuremberg 1842. (Annual report of the trade school in Nuremberg, 1842/43.).
  • KF Großheinrich: Elisabeth Kulmann and her poems . Leipzig 1844.
  • E. Lamprecht: Elisabeth Kulmann. Biographer. Sketch. With samples from d. Poems . Zwickau 1867.
  • F. Miltner: Elisabeth Kulmann. Seals . Heidelberg, 1875, pp. I-XXII.
  • Thekla von Gumpert (ed.): P. Schanz: A Nordic wonder flower. Daughters album. Conversations in domestic circles ... Vol. 19. Glogau 1879, pp. 430–458.
  • E. Thomson: Elisabeth Kulmann . In: Annual report of the School of the Reformed Congregations for 1908/1909 . St. Petersburg 1909, pp. 3–58.
  • H. Culmann: The miracle girl. A European memory. For the commemorative year d. German-Russian Poet Elisaweta Culmann. 1825-1925 . Pirmasens 1926.
  • Guido K. Brand : A child. In: The Early Completed. A contribution to the history of literature . W. de Gruyter & Co., Berlin 1929 [1928], pp. 217-226.
  • F. Miltner: The poet Elisabeth Kulmann and her teacher Karl Grossheinrich from Leutershausen . In: E. Kulmann: Moon, my soul's darling: a selection of her poems . Heidelberg 1981, pp. XXI-XL.
  • I. Vielhauer: The Russian Korinne: Elisabeth Kulmann 1808-1825 . In: Castum peregrini . Vol. 38, H. 189/190. Amsterdam 1989, pp. 26-44.
  • F. Göpfert: Two Russian poets and their relations to the German cultural area: Elizaveta Kul'man and Sarra Tolstaja . In: The world of the Slaves . Vol. 38. NF 17, H. 2. Munich 1993, pp. 225-234.
  • I. Gramlich: Elisabeth Kulmann (1808–1825): poet, translator, linguistic genius . In: People on the way . No. 7, Stuttgart 1998.
  • I. Gramlich: Elisabeth Kulmann (1808-1825) . In: Library current. Bulletin of the Sankt Michaelsbund, Landesverband Bayern e. V. Issue 2. Munich 1998, pp. 76-79.
  • I. Gramlich: In the footsteps of an angel: On the 175th anniversary of the death of the German-Russian poet Elisabeth Kulmann . In: People on the way: Association newspaper of the Landsmannschaft of Germans from Russia . No. 8/9. Stuttgart 2000, pp. 42-45.
  • G. Hansburg: Essays on Poetess Elisabeth Kulmann . In: A. Bosch (Ed.): Russia-German contemporary history under monarchy and dictatorship . Volume 4. Nuremberg, Munich, Großburgwedel 2005, ISBN 3-9809613-2-X , pp. 76–127.
  • Carola L. Gottzmann / Petra Hörner: Lexicon of the German-language literature of the Baltic States and St. Petersburg . 3 volumes; Verlag Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2007. ISBN 978-3-11-019338-1 . Volume 2, pp. 797-799.

Web links

Commons : Elisabeth Kulmann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Max Koch : Kulmann (Elisabeth) . In: Allgemeine Encyclopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste , 2nd section, 40th vol. (1887), p. 219 f.
  2. ↑ Short biography at www.wortblume.de
  3. ^ Elisabeth Kulmann . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 10, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1885–1892, p. 291.
personal data
SURNAME Kulmann, Elisabeth
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Russian poet
DATE OF BIRTH July 17, 1808
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Petersburg
DATE OF DEATH December 1, 1825
Place of death St. Petersburg