Rudolf Baumbach

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Rudolf Baumbach
RudolfBaumbachSignatur.jpg

Rudolf Baumbach (born September 28, 1840 in Kranichfeld , † September 21, 1905 in Meiningen ) was a German poet. His pseudonym was Paul Bach .

biography

On September 28, 1840, Rudolf Baumbach was born as the son of court doctor Karl Julius Gustav Baumbach (1812–1847) and Marie Luise Caroline, née. Henning (1817–1909) was born in Kranichfeld. At the age of two he moved with his family to Meiningen, where his grandparents also lived. Baumbach was the oldest of four children, another died shortly after birth. In 1847 his father died of typhus. He was infected with this disease when he was the only doctor treating people who were already ill. Rudolf Baumbach was seven years old at the time and was raised by his mother and grandparents from now on.

He attended the Bernhardinum grammar school in Meiningen, where he discovered a talent for drawing and soon toyed with the idea of ​​becoming a painter. But his relatives talked him out of this. He graduated in 1860 and in the same year began to study natural sciences in Leipzig . In 1858 he became a member of the Corps Thuringia Leipzig .

Three years after beginning his studies, he moved to the University of Würzburg and continued his studies there. During his time as a student, Baumbach wrote a few occasional poems and songs. In 1864 he graduated and started to work as an assistant at the Botanical Institute in Freiburg im Breisgau . Even in his youth, Baumbach was very interested in nature. For lack of money he could not continue his research in Freiburg.

In order to earn money he began to work as a private tutor without a permanent job in Vienna , Brno and Graz . Baumbach had his first and only love affair with the daughter of an employer. Since neither of them had too much financial means, no stable relationship could develop. Baumbach's disappointment with this is reflected in many of the poet's works. He ended his relationship and his employment relationship and began to work as a tutor in Trieste .

In 1873 he joined the Alpine Association in Trieste , which dealt with the flora of the Alps . So he could finally dedicate himself again to his greatest passion, nature. The association brought out a newspaper, Enzian , whose editorial office Baumbach took over and for which he wrote some texts. In this way he developed into a writer.

His success as a writer made it possible for Baumbach to give up his position as a tutor and live on his fee. Due to the financial independence he had now gained, the poet was able to move back to his family in Meiningen in 1885, where he lived again in his parents' house with his mother and two sisters.

Baumbach made numerous trips in his life, one of which took him to his native Kranichfeld for the last time in 1893. Two years later, Baumbach suffered a severe stroke and was unable to write any more texts due to the resulting paralysis.

Rudolf Baumbach died in Meiningen on September 21, 1905. His former home now serves as the “Baumbachhaus” literature and local history museum of the Meiningen museums . The city of Meiningen had a monument with a bust for Rudolf Baumbach erected next to the building .

Works

House in Meiningen, today the "Baumbachhaus" literature museum

Born in Kranichfelder, Rudolf Baumbach lived and wrote according to the motto of simplicity and naturalness. The gifted bachelor , who loved wine, singing and socializing and who lived at a time when love relationships were determined by financial means, processed his disappointed loved ones and life experiences while writing numerous wonderful, cheeky and romantic poems , novels , stories and fairy tales .

Baumbach's literary work began with the design of beer newspapers and the poetry of Kneipliedern. This was followed by the works "Samiel hilf!" And "Mein Frühling", a collection of articles by Baumbach in the alpine newspaper "Enzian - A Gaudeamus for Mountaineers". The alpine legend “ Zlatorog ” about a snow-white chamois with golden horns, which he designed as a simple verse epic, testifies to his closeness to nature and the people of Slovenia ; Praised by Robert Hamerling , it brought Baumbach's breakthrough in 1878.

With volumes of poetry such as "Songs of a traveling journeyman", "New songs of a traveling journeyman", "Spielmannslieder" and "Von der Landstrasse", the artist inspired numerous readers in the years to come, who found a balance to the increasingly hectic everyday life and joie de vivre in his works found. The poem "Die Lindenwirtin" ("No more drop in a mug") set to music by Franz Abt , based on Aennchen Schumacher in Bad Godesberg through an additional stanza , became a popular Kommerslied .

In addition to “Zlatorog”, the sedate Biedermeier small town novel “Trug-Gold” from 1878 achieved the highest number of copies. Longing for his Thuringian homeland, Baumbach moved back to Meiningen in 1885, where he wrote "Thuringian songs" and "Krug und Inkwell".

All of these works are characterized by a simple language, formed into melodic and rhythmic verses, which have often been set to music, u. a. by Franz Abt , Alban Berg , Ferruccio Busoni , Felix Draeseke , Leo Fall , Alexander von Fielitz , Robert Fischhof , Peter Gast (Heinrich Köselitz) Franz von Gernerth , Luise Greger , Richard Heuberger , Viktor Keldorfer , Eduard Kremser , Wilhelm Kienzl , Erik Meyer -Helmund , Max Reger , Franz Schreker , Albert Thierfelder or Max Weinzierl . Many of them were included in student Kommers books or carried out into the world as folk songs, detached from their author. The song “Up on the yellow car” should be familiar to everyone. But Baumbach's fairy tales were and are still heard by children today.

Versepen

Monument to Rudolf Baumbach next to his house in Meiningen
Baumbach memorial at the Gabelbach hunting lodge
  • Zlatorog (1876)
  • Mrs. Holde (1880)
  • Horand and Hilde (1881)
  • The Godfather of Death (1884)
  • Emperor Max and his hunters (1888)

Novels, stories, fairy tales

  • Trug-Gold (1878; magazine published as early as 1876 under the title Die Goldmacher )
  • Trug-Gold: Tale from the seventeenth century . Goldschmidt, Berlin 1887 ( digitized edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf )
  • Summer fairy tale (1881)
  • Adventure and Swan (1883)
  • Stories and Fairy Tales (1885)
  • Once upon a time (1889)
  • New Fairy Tales (1892)
  • From the youth (1893; four novellas from the 1870s)

Songs

Song and poetry collections

  • Songs of a journeyman (1878)
  • New songs of a traveling journeyman (1880)
  • Minstrels songs (1881)
  • My spring (1882)
  • From the Landstrasse (1882)
  • Wanderlongs from the Alps (1883)
  • My spring: collected poems from "Enzian, a Gaudeamus for mountaineers" (1886)
  • Jug and inkwell (1887)

Baumbach community

On August 27, 1924, an association was founded in Meiningen to preserve the memory of the poet. The association took care of the poet's estate and the preservation of the house. Many well-known Meiningers became members of the Baumbach community. This included the founding members Friedrich Sorge , Eduard Fritze and Franz Nachbaur . In the following years other prominent personalities joined the association, such as Ernst von Sachsen-Meiningen , Feodora von Sachsen-Meiningen (1890–1972) , Ferdinand I (Bulgaria) and Friedrich Ebert .

literature

Web links

Commons : Rudolf Baumbach  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Rudolf Baumbach  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rudolf Baumbach (Paul Bach)
  2. ↑ Kösener Corpslisten 1960, 97 , 85
  3. ^ Rudolf Baumbach, Sommermärchen, Verlag AG Liebeskind, Leipzig, 1888
  4. ^ Seifert, Andreas: The Baumbach community. A contribution to the heritage of the city of Meiningen. Südthüringer Forschungen Heft 26, Meiningen 1992, pp. 75-85
  5. ↑ Archive Baumbachhaus / Meiningen museums
personal data
SURNAME Baumbach, Rudolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German poet
DATE OF BIRTH September 28, 1840
PLACE OF BIRTH Crane field
DATE OF DEATH September 21, 1905
Place of death Meiningen