Hieronymus Carl Friedrich von Münchhausen

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Reproduction of a contemporary portrait of Freiherr von Münchhausen in the uniform of his cuirassier regiment in Riga, Latvia. Location: Munchausenmuseum Bodenwerder

Hieronymus Carl Friedrich Freiherr von Münchhausen (born May 11, 1720 in Bodenwerder ; † February 22, 1797 ibid) was a German nobleman from the Electorate of Braunschweig-Lüneburg . The stories of Baron Münchhausen are ascribed to him.

Life

The manor house known as Münchhausen Castle , in which Hieronymus was born and in which he died
Münchhausen tells in a circle of friends
Pernigel Church (Liepupe) (2012)
Münchhausen's ride on the cannonball - drawing by August von Wille
Porcelain figurine from the Fürstenberg porcelain factory
Münchhausen pulls out of the swamp - drawing by Theodor Hosemann
Münchhausen's great overskirt - drawing by Gustave Doré

The storyteller , who became famous under the name Lügenbaron , belongs to the so-called black line of the aristocratic family of the Münchhausen family , whose most important representative during his lifetime was by no means himself, but rather the Prime Minister of the Electorate of Braunschweig-Lüneburg, Gerlach Adolph von Münchhausen (1688-1770).

Jerome was one of eight children and was in a castle Munchausen designated mansion of a manor born in Bodenwerder. His father was the lieutenant colonel of the cavalry Georg Otto von Münchhausen (1682-1724), landlord on Rinteln and Bodenwerder, who in turn was a great-great-grandson of the mercenary leader Hilmar von Münchhausen . The father died when Jerome was only four years old; his mother, Sibylle Wilhelmine von Reden from Hastenbeck (1689–1741), raised him.

Following aristocratic custom, Hieronymus went to the Brunswick court in Wolfenbüttel at the age of 13 . In 1737 he became the page of Duke Anton Ulrich von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel , the future husband of Anna Leopoldowna , a niece and designated successor of Tsarina Anna of Russia . Anton Ulrich should prove himself in the Russian aristocracy , already stayed in Saint Petersburg and served in the military . Munchausen traveled to Russia in December 1737, where he arrived in February 1738. In all probability he followed his master into the Russo-Austrian Turkish War (1736–1739) that same month . Some of the lies that are ascribed to him are based on these armed conflicts. The story of lies about the famous “Ride on the cannonball ” is probably based on the siege of the Ottoman Crimean fortress Ochakov by the Russian commander-in-chief von Münnich .

In 1739 Münchhausen was appointed ensign of the Russian "Brunswick Cuirassiers" by Tsarina Anna Ivanovna , whose regiment chief was Anton Ulrich. The cuirassiers were in Riga in garrison and took in the wake comfortable with Munchausen at the Russian-Swedish War (1741-1743) part. In 1740 Münchhausen was promoted to lieutenant . His career promised to run brilliantly under his patronage, because in the same year - after the death of Tsarina Anna - the newly born son of Anton Ulrich was named Ivan VI. appointed Tsar of Russia. But all hopes of the Guelphs and their entourage suddenly ended with a violent change of the throne when Anna's cousin Elisabeth , daughter of Peter the Great, overthrew one-year-old Ivan in 1741 and took him and his family captive for many years. Since then, Münchhausen's life has been overshadowed by Anton Ulrich's fate. Although he survived the overthrow unscathed - probably because he was fighting in Finland at the time - nothing came of his career, which had just begun: It was a whole decade until 1750 that he was promoted to Rittmeister . The garrison city of Riga became his main residence during these years. These Riga years probably influenced his skills as a narrator, because the German-Baltic aristocratic circles of friends liked to tell extensively and imaginatively.

From his friend, the Baltic country nobleman Georg Gustav von Dunten, he was repeatedly invited to his estate near the then Livonian , now Latvian town of Ruthern ( Dunte ), where both went duck hunting. Münchhausen is said to have acted as a storyteller for the first time in a tavern in the city. The baron also met his daughter Jacobine von Dunten (* 1726? In Dunte; † 1790 in Bodenwerder) on von Dunten's estate, whom he married on February 2, 1744 in the church of the nearby village of Pernigel (today: Liepupe ).

In 1750 Münchhausen said goodbye, returned to Germany and spent another 40 years with his wife childless on the inherited estate in Bodenwerder on the Weser . He led the life of a country gentleman who tends his estate, socializes with his neighbors and whose favorite pastime is hunting . His talent for storytelling gradually began to become famous among friends. Guests came to Bodenwerder, even from far away, to hear fabulous stories, including possibly the Kassel museum director Rudolf Erich Raspe . The first three of these stories were published in 1761 by Count Rochus Friedrich zu Lynar , whose brother Moritz Karl had once been the lover of Duke Anton Ulrich's wife Anna Leopoldowna during their St. Petersburg times ; Rochus Lynar was envoy in St. Petersburg in 1749 and then governor in Oldenburg from 1752 to 1765 ; Not too far away, in Daren (today the district of Vechta ), lived Münchhausen's sister Anna von Frydag , where you could have met again.

After the death of his wife in 1790, the old Münchhausen courted his godchild , the only 17-year-old daughter of Major von Brunn from Polle : on January 12, 1794, he married the 20-year-old Bernhardine Brunsig von Brunn. Shortly after the wedding, there were serious rifts. The 73-year-old baron filed for divorce because of marital infidelity . In a three-year high-profile, ruinous divorce process, the marriage ended. The baron lost almost all of his fortune. In 1794 he therefore had to formally cede the Bodenwerder estate to his nephew Wilhelm, but remained there. Bernhardine von Brunn was said to be missing on a trip to the Netherlands . There she married the Dutch drosten Abraham de Both from Didam in 1800 .

An occasional guest in Bodenwerder, the polymath and curator Rudolf Erich Raspe, steel - to debt to pay - 1774 coins from the Landgrave collections in Kassel. The theft was discovered and Raspe fled to England. In order to raise money, he published a series of anecdotes and travel adventures in London in 1785 under Münchhausen's name (see below), after Count Lynar had already published the first Münchhausiaden in 1761 and an anonymous author in 1781 . Raspe's book was a tremendous success and resulted in four new editions that were constantly being expanded. In 1786, these stories were translated into German by Gottfried August Bürger , and many more adventure stories were added. These publications made Hieronymus von Münchhausen world famous, but earned him the reputation of a “baron of lies” and - in his eyes - made him ridiculous. The anger over it, along with the late marital adventure and subsequent ruin, spoiled the rest of his years.

The lies

The narratives ascribed to the baron belong in the tradition of the lies , which goes back far into the literature of classical antiquity ( Lukian of Samosata : Vera historia ), Talmudic Judaism and the early oriental stories and from the humanistic faceties and Schwank collections of the 15th . and 16th century in Germany.

The various authors (see literary processing ) ascribe a total of well over a hundred to the baron . The best known include:

  • Münchhausen ties his horse to what he believes is a stake on a winter night, which is actually the tip of the weathercock of a church tower. After the snow melts, the horse dangles from the church tower. Münchhausen shoots the halter strap with his pistol, so that the horse falls down and he can continue his journey.
  • Münchhausen catches pieces of bacon tied to a line of ducks, which then flutter up and carry him through the air.
  • Münchhausen shoots a load of cherry stones on a deer's head, whereupon a tree sprouts in its antlers.
  • Münchhausen shoots chickens with a ramrod .
  • Münchhausen is hunting an eight-legged hare.
  • Münchhausen takes a wolf in the throat and turns its inside out.
  • Münchhausen brings his knife, which has fallen in the snow, up to him by means of a frozen stream of urine.
  • Münchhausen's horse is split in two by a gate. While the baron unknowingly rides with the front half to the watering place, the rear half has fun in the meadow with mares.
  • Münchhausen jumps with his horse through a moving carriage.
  • Münchhausen rides a cannonball over a besieged city, inspects the enemy positions and quickly switches to a ball flying in the opposite direction.
  • Münchhausen pulls itself out of the swamp with its own horse.
  • Münchhausen rides his horse on a set tea table without breaking the harness.
  • Münchhausen throws his silver ax so far that it lands on the moon. Using a beanstalk, he climbs up to fetch her.
  • On a cold winter's day, the sounds in the post horn of a coachman freeze. Later the horn thaws in the tavern and starts playing the music.
  • Münchhausen's swift-footed servant fetches a bottle of Tokaj from Vienna to Constantinople for the Sultan within an hour .
  • Münchhausen is riding a horse-drawn sleigh when a wolf attacks his horse from behind, eats it all up and then, stuck in the harness, takes over the horse's job.
  • Munchausen is attacked by a mad dog who bites into his overskirt. Later, the skirt itself shows signs of rabies and attacks its owner.

The joke with a large part of the stories is that physical or biological possibilities are taken to absurdity .

Literary processing

The figure Münchhausen and his stories of lies were often processed literarily. The following are to be mentioned in particular:

Rochus Graf zu Lynar

As early as 1761, Rochus Graf zu Lynar published three stories in his book Der Sonderling, written for the moral education of his servants , which - despite the lack of mention of the name Münchhausen - were recognizable to the baron for those who knew.

Vademecum for funny people

In 1781, in an anonymously published Vademecum for Funny People, sixteen anecdotes were published that were put into the mouth of a Mr. "Mhsn". Contrary to popular belief, the little book cannot be ascribed with certainty to the publisher August Mylius , in particular his name is missing on the title page. Munchhausen himself, known for his seclusion, was not at all enthusiastic about the publication. In 1783 a new edition of the Vademecum was published with two stories added. Some of the stories contained in the Vademecum appear in the older collections of lies mentioned.

Rudolf Erich Raspe

The German scholar Rudolf Erich Raspe , who lives in England, wrote his own Munchhausen book in the summer and autumn of 1785 on the basis of the two Vademecum texts, namely Baron Munchhausen's Narrative of His Marvelous Travels and Campaigns in Russia . He published it anonymously in December of that year. In April 1786 he expanded it mainly to include sea adventures. In May and July 1786, in the spring of 1787 and 1789, he published a 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th edition in England. There he also incorporated stories from Lukian and English war reports. A second volume finally followed in 1792.

Gottfried August Bürger

In September 1786 the German poet Gottfried August Bürger published his work Wonderful Journeys by Sea and Land - Campaigns and Funny Adventures of Baron von Münchhausen in Göttingen , which today can be considered the best-known version of the baron's adventures. The work is partly a translation of Raspe's original, partly Bürger's own creation.

On the basis of Raspe's fifth edition, Bürger published a second, expanded edition in autumn 1788. However, Bürger took no notice of Raspe's sixth edition or the second volume.

Translations and translations in foreign languages

Translations of Raspes and Bürger's works into other languages ​​such as French, Dutch and Swedish soon followed. Although they list the original on their title pages, the authors and translators of the other languages ​​without exception have invented, supplemented or changed or mixed several older models themselves.

Further edits

Münchhausen does somersaults with his horse. Engraving from Lustiges Post- und Reise-Vademecum , 1795

In 1795, Oehmigke in Berlin published an anonymous collection of Münchhausen anecdotes under the title Lustiges Post- und Reise-Vademecum, dedicated to lively travelers by Monsieur Heemkengrüben, former valet of Mr. von Münchhausen, and published by his laughing heir, Polkwitz 1795 . It reports, among other things, how Munchausen won a horse race by doing somersaults with the horse (Chapter 7), how he failed to breed fish by accidentally bringing in whales (Chapter 9) or from pancake bushes that he opened cultivated his goods (Chapter 14).

In 1833 Ludwig von Alvensleben dealt with the experiences of Münchhausen junior in Der Lügenkaiser . In 1839 Karl Leberecht published Immermann Münchhausen. A story in arabesques . In 1895, Fritz Pfudel's comedy was premiered in two acts The Blitzjunge or A Second Münchhausen . In 1906 Paul Scheerbart's Münchhausen und Clarissa appeared , and in 1912 his work The Great Light. A Munchausen Breviary . Finally, in 1933, Carl Haensel followed suit with Das war Münchhausen . In 1948 the five-act play Münchhausen, written in 1934, was premiered by Walter Hasenclever . In 1957 Kurt Frost's drama Immortal Münchhausen appeared and in 2006 Baron Münchhausen's true lies by Dirk Seliger and Anke Seliger. In 1969 the Maximilian Society published as an annual gift for 1968 in an edition of 1,600 copies: Freyherr von Münchhausen: Die Land-Abenteuer with 13 drawings by Josef Hegenbarth from his estate.

Illustrations

  • Munchausen on the duck hunt - by Gottfried Franz

  • The jump through the carriage

  • The ride on the cannonball

  • The horse at the church tower

  • The horse cut in half by the portcullis

  • The cherry tree antlers

  • The fox jumps out of the fur

  • The lion and the crocodile

  • The baron in the sea

  • Abseiling from the moon

Movie

Since 1911, Münchhausen stories have been filmed several times, both as real-life films and as animated films.

  • Probably the earliest film adaptation is the silent film Les aventures de Baron du Munchhausen by Georges Méliès from 1911.
  • The animated film Die Abenteuer des Baron Münchhausen or: The Truth About Everything from 1930/1931 is an early German film adaptation .
  • One of the most famous film adaptations is the 1943 UFA film Münchhausen with Hans Albers in the title role. The screenwriter was Erich Kästner , who was only allowed to write under a pseudonym (as Berthold Bürger ). With around 6.5 million Reichsmark cost of production of technically complex strip after the movie was Kolberg of Veit Harlan , the second most expensive film production of the Nazi era.
  • Baron Münchhausen (Czech: Baron Prášil ) by Karel Zeman , 1961.
  • A series of five cartoons under the name Die Abenteuer von Münchhausen was produced in 1973, 1974 in the Soviet Union and then in 1995 in Russia by Natan Lerner and Anatolij Solin .
  • The two-part Soviet television film Exactly That Munchausen from 1979 by Mark Sakharov with Oleg Jankowski in the lead role is a romantic tragic comedy and an allegorical satire of late Soviet society. Grigory Gorin's script is only vaguely based on the lies of Baron Münchhausen. In the film, the baron is portrayed as a non-conformist and uncompromising romantic hero who wants to cheer up dull, boring and monotonous life with inexhaustible imagination, unconventional behavior and a sharp tongue. In doing so, he encounters incomprehension and rejection on the part of conservative society, which tries to reprimand and ultimately destroy him.

Comic

Sequential art also deals with the theme of Münchhausen.

Memory of Munchausen

Fountain at the Munchausen Museum in Bodenwerder

The baron of lies is commemorated in a special way in his hometown of Bodenwerder in the Weserbergland . a. there is a Munchausen Museum and a fountain that reminds of the story of the halved horse. Since 1997 the city has also been awarding the Münchhausen Prize for special achievements in the field of performing and speaking. The grave of Hieronymus is located in the Münchhausen family crypt in the nearby Kemnade monastery .

In Dunte , Latvia, you can still visit the tavern where Münchhausen is said to have told his first lies, as well as parts of the former estate of the von Dunten family, including the restored forester's house, the renatured miller ponds, the manor house rebuilt as a museum and the old laundry. Since July 18, 2005, there has been a Munchausen Monument in Kaliningrad Central Park , which was erected on the initiative of the Club of “ Munchausen Grandchildren ” (Внучата Мюнхгаузена) as a gift from the twin town of Bodenwerder. It depicts Munchausen riding the cannonball. A Munchausen monument including a cannonball is also located on the Bender fortress in Transnistria , which claims to have been the starting and return point of the cannonball ride .

The baron was also the godfather for the concept of the Münchhaus (en) iade , a literary generic name for boastful lies. The story in which Münchhausen claims to have pulled himself out of the swamp, on the other hand, lives on in the term "Münchhausen method", according to which one frees oneself from one's own plight without the basically necessary outside help . Bootstrapping ). In mountain sports , this is the name given to a rescue technique to free oneself from a crevasse using various rope techniques . The Munchausen Trilemma is a theorem of critical rationalism . In medicine, Münchhausen finally gave its name to the Münchhausen syndrome and the Münchhausen proxy syndrome , two rare psychological disorders. In mathematics, the Münchhausen numbers were named after him.

The asteroid (14014) Münchhausen has been named after the Baron since 1994 .

Baron Münchhausen was also remembered by various coins and stamps:

Postage stamps

Output data
Face value: 0.30 lats
Issue date: April 1, 2005
Edition: 300,000
Printing house: Joh. Enschede
Netherlands
Draft: E. Viliama

For the 250th birthday in 1970, the Deutsche Bundespost issued a special 20 Pfennig stamp.

Postage stamp 1970
( Deutsche Bundespost )

On April 1, 2005, the Latvian Post issued a special stamp on the occasion of Münchhausen's 285th birthday. Postage stamp theme: The adventures of Munchausen . The brand shows Münchhausen and his hunting dog with a glass of red wine in front of an enthusiastic audience. A first day cover with a special cancellation from the Münchhausenwelt in Dunte ( Latvian : Minhauzena pasaule - see web links ) has been published to match the stamp . On September 3, 2012 in Liechtenstein there was a value in honor of the baron within a sentence “Heroes of Literature”. This brand has in Michel Stamp catalog number 1649. The initial issue date 7 May 2020 which gave German Post AG to mark the 300th birthday a special stamp in the denomination out of 80 euro cents. The design comes from the graphic artist Julia Warbanow from Berlin.

Commemorative medal 1991

The Latvian artist Jānis Strupulis created a commemorative medal with the image of the head of the young Munchausen in 1991 for the Museum of History and Art in the Latvian Jelgava (formerly German : Mitau ) as well as for the Munchausen Museum in Dunte .

The middle of the front of the medal is occupied by Münchhausen's head. Next to the depiction of Münchhausen's head is the year “1991” with the artist's seal incorporated in the center, which is represented as an “S” in a rectangle.

The inscription FREIHERR HIERONYM KARL FRIEDRICH VON MÜNCHHAUSEN is arranged in the outer upper three-quarter circle. In the lower quarter circle are the dates of life "1720 - 1797", separated from the rest of the inscription by a point.

Commemorative coin 2005

Latvian commemorative coin from 2005
Output data
Face value: 1 Lat (approx. EUR 1.40 )
Weight: 31.47 g
Diameter: 38.61 mm
Material: Sterling silver (925/1000)
Embossing: 2005, Royal
Dutch Mint
Draft: Arvids Priedite (graphic)
Jānis Strupulis (embossing form)

On the occasion of the reopening of the Munchausen Museum in the Munchhausen World ( Latvian : Minhauzena pasaule ) in Dunte ( Latvia ) in 2005, the Latvian Central Bank had a commemorative coin minted with a motif to the Baron Munchausen . Münchhausen lived there from 1737 to 1750.

  • Obverse : In the central field of the coin a dog with a lantern attached to its tail is depicted on a matt background. It is entwined by a chain of seven flying ducks, depicted on a shiny background, pulling Munchausen behind them.
  • The inscription "2005" is in the upper semicircle of the coin; Also arranged in a semicircle is the inscription VIENS SIMTS SANTIMU ( German : One Hundred Santims ) in the lower part of the coin.
Postcard motif for Münchhausen's wedding in Pernigel ( Liepupe )
  • Reverse: depictions from the stories of Baron Münchhausen are arranged in a circle on a shiny background: the baron with a rifle, his hunting dog at his feet, a pheasant, two hares, a deer and a wild boar. The outer circle of the coin contains the inscriptions BARONS MINHAUZENS and KFH Freiherr VON MÜNCHHAUSEN separated by a point on a matt background.
  • Edge: You can see the inscriptions LATVIJAS BANKA (German: Bank of Latvia ) and LATVIJAS REPUBLIKA (German: Latvian Republic ) separated by a point.

additional

literature

  • Wonderful voyages by land and water, campaigns and funny adventures of the Baron von Münchhausen, as he himself used to tell about the bottle in the circle of his friends . In: Kindler's new literary dictionary. Vol. 3, Bp-Ck, study edition, pp. 325f.
  • Doris Bachmann-Medick : External representation and lies: Translation as cultural exaggeration using the example of Münchhausen's stories of lies. In this. (Ed.): Translation as a representation of foreign cultures. Erich Schmidt, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-503-03765-9 .
  • Doris Bachmann-Medick:  Münchhausen, Hieronymus Freiherr von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 18, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-428-00199-0 , p. 524 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Gottfried August Bürger : The Baron von Münchhausen's only true experiences on water and on land, on horseback and on foot, in war and peace, in the air and in several countries / This year completely rewritten by himself. And provided with very strange drawings from nature taken by the painter August von Wille . Düsseldorf 1856 ( digitized version )
  • Lied Deurvorst: Het Uur van de Waarheid, Bährne Louise von Brun (1773-1839) en de men in hair leven . Uitgeverij Fagus, IJzerlo 2010.
  • Karl Ernst Hermann Krause:  Münchhausen, Hieronimus . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 23, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1886, pp. 1-5.
  • Leonid Lewin: When did Hieronymus von Münchhausen (1720–1797) come to Russia? In: Braunschweigisches Jahrbuch für Landesgeschichte . tape 78 , 1997, pp. 263-265 .
  • Leonid Levin : Russkij skasocnik baron Mgsn. [Baron von Münchhausen in Russia]. In: Rodina. N 1, Moscow, 1999, pp. 52-57.
  • Thankmar Freiherr von Münchhausen : A good man, not a liar. Hieronymus Freiherr von Münchhausen, called the Baron of Lies . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of February 22, 1997, No. 45, supplement Pictures and Times .
  • Edmund Pochhammer: Travels and adventures of the Freiherr von Münchhausen, as he used to tell the same among his friends. Stuttgart, Leipzig 1909, urn : nbn: de: 0111-bbf-spo-16610110
  • Werner R. Schweizer: Münchhausen and Münchhausiaden, Becoming and Fate of a German-English Burlesque. Francke Verlag, Bern / Munich 1969.

Movie

  • Günter Helmes : Erich Kästner as a media author: The scripts for the films Münchhausen and Then I prefer cod liver oil . In: Yearbook on Culture and Literature of the Weimar Republic 2007, pp. 167–181. ISBN 978-3-883778938 .
  • Günter Helmes : Münchhausen. Entertainment in NS format . In: The Century of Pictures, Vol. 1: 1900 to 1949 , ed. by Gerhard Paul. Göttingen 2009, pp. 632-639. ISBN 978-3-525-30012-1 .

Web links

Wikisource: Des Freyherrn von Münchhausen wonderful journeys  - sources and full texts
Commons : Karl Friedrich Hieronymus, Freiherr von Münchhausen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Baron of lies  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ As a cuirassier officer, he never wore the characteristic green Russian infantry uniform attributed to him in pictures and films (see illustration).
  2. ↑ From 1742 the regiment was called Grand Duke Peter-Cuirassiers (until 1761), cf. Georg Tessin : The regiments of the European states in the Ancien Régime des XVI. to XVIII. Century. 3 volumes, Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1986–1995, ISBN 3-7648-1763-1 . Vol. 1, p. 600. See also the connection to Münchhausen
  3. ↑ Gottfried August Bürger: Münchhausen on spiegel.de
  4. ↑ http://gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de/dms/load/img/?PPN=PPN80702600X&DMDID=DMDLOG_0001
  5. ^ Karl Leberecht Immermann: Münchhausen on spiegel.de
  6. ^ Paul Scheerbart: Münchhausen and Clarissa on spiegel.de
  7. ^ Paul Scheerbart: The great light on spiegel.de
  8. ↑ Памятники крепости - Страница 1 из 4. In: www.bendery-fortress.com. Archived from the original on September 24, 2016 ; accessed on September 24, 2016 .
  9. ^ Illustration of the postage stamp (2005) ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  10. ↑ a b commemorative coin (2005), obverse ( memento from September 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ↑ Commemorative coin (2005), reverse side ( Memento from June 27, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Münchhausen, Hieronymus Carl Friedrich von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Münchhausen, Hieronymus Carl Friedrich Freiherr von; Baron of lies
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Baron Munchausen
DATE OF BIRTH May 11, 1720
PLACE OF BIRTH Bodenwerder , Weserbergland
DATE OF DEATH February 22, 1797
Place of death Bodenwerder , Weserbergland