Wolf Helmhardt von Hohberg

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Wolf Helmhardt von Hohberg

Wolfhelm Hardt Hohberg (also Wolfgang Helmhard Freiherr von Hohberg ) (* 20th October 1612 in Lengenfeld bei Krems (Lower Austria); † 29. June 1688 in Regensburg ) was a writer of the baroque . His Georgica curiosa , an encyclopaedic work on all aspects of house and agriculture, was a highlight of the so-called house fathers literature .

life and work

Cover picture of "Georgica curiosa", part 1

The writer comes from the Hochberg family , at that time still part of the Silesian-Lower Austrian landed gentry. Orphaned at an early age, he was brought up with relatives. At the age of twenty he began a career as a soldier in an imperial regiment of "German (compatriot) servants ". The events of the Thirty Years' War brought him to Bohemia, Saxony, Pomerania and Mecklenburg. With the rank of captain he quit military service in 1641 and took over the small family estate Süßenbach an der Thaya. He was soon able to expand this property by purchasing a few more goods. Because of the persecution of Protestants, he had to give up his Austrian property in 1664 and settled in the Free Imperial City of Regensburg , the refuge for numerous “ exiles ” of the Austrian nobility. Here he maintained close relationships with fellow fates such as Greiffenberg , Kuefstein and Stubenberg . Hohberg died honored in Regensburg in 1688, the poet-mayor Johann Ludwig Prasch gave the funeral oration.

Hohberg had not received any systematic training, but acquired extensive knowledge and mastered both old and new languages. His main interest was always agriculture, the literary work was a product of the winter hours. In his literary inclinations he was based on the example of Virgil . In 1661 he published his verse epic The unpleasant Proserpine , the success of which encouraged him to submit a colossal epic in no less than 39,570 Alexandrian verses with the Habsburg Ottobert 1663-64 . Obviously inspired by Ariosto , Hohberg describes the adventures of a superhero of the Byzantine Middle Ages, whom he stylized as the forefather of the Habsburgs. In 1675 the magnificent emblematic work Lust- und Artzney-Garten was published, with 300 copper plates one of the most beautiful books of the century. In 1682 his Georgica curiosa appeared , in 1687 the 400-page version Georgica curiosa aucta . As the main works of their genre, these works can claim lasting interest. In contrast, the purely literary works of Hohberg were of little importance and quickly forgotten. After all, his reputation as a poet was so great that the author was accepted into the Fruitful Society in 1652 under the name “Der Sinnrich” , an association for the care of the German language and poetry.

Works (selection)

  • The unpleasant Proserpine. Regensburg 1661 (verse epic)
  • The Habsburg Ottobert. 3 vols. Erfurt 1663–64 (verse epic)
  • Pleasure and Artzeney Garden of the Royal Prophet David. Regensburg 1675 (rhyming psalm paraphrase)
  • Georgica curiosa, that is, Complicated report ... of the aristocratic country and field life. Nuremberg 1682 ( digitized 1st volume )
  • The perfect art of horse and riding. Nuremberg 1689

literature

  • Robert Bouchal - Johannes Sachslehner : Waldviertel. Mystical - mysterious - unknown. Vienna: Pichler Verlag 2002, ISBN 3-85431-274-1 , p. 144
  • Otto Brunner : Noble country life and European spirit. Life and work of Wolf Helmhard von Hohberg . Otto Müller Verlag, Salzburg 1949.
  • Gerhard Dünnhaupt : Wolfgang Helmhardt von Hohberg (1612-1688 ), in: Personalbibliographien zu den Druck des Barock , Vol. 3. Stuttgart: Hiersemann 1991, pp. 2151-59. ISBN 3-7772-9105-6 (list of works and literature)
  • Irmgard Jerschke: Wolf Helmhardt Freiherr von Hohberg . Diss. Munich 1936

Lexica articles

Literature on partial aspects

  • A. Krutiak: <The hilarious Proserpina> by Wolf Helmhardt von Hohberg. Diss. Vienna 1935
  • Oskar Dworak: Ariosto's influence on Wilhelm Helmhardt von Hohberg's <Habsburg Ottobert>. Diss. Vienna 1949

Web links

Commons : Wolf Helmhardt von Hohberg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Wolf Helmhardt von Hohberg  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. cf. Robert Bouchal - Johannes Sachslehner: Waldviertel , 2002, p. 144
  2. cf. Robert Bouchal - Johannes Sachslehner: Waldviertel , 2002, p. 144