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Adelbert von Chamisso | |
|---|---|
 Portrait, 1831 | |
| Born | Louis Charles Adélaïde de Chamissot (1781-01-30)30 January 1781 |
| Died | 21 August 1838(1838-08-21) (aged 57) |
| Citizenship | Prussia |
| Occupation(s) | Poet and botanist |
| Known for | Peter Schlemihl, the man who sold his shadow,Views and Remarks on a Voyage of Discovery,Description of a Voyage Round the World, description of many trees of Mexico |
| Spouse | Antonie Piaste |
| Parents |
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| Awards | Prussian Academy of Sciences |
| Scientific career | |
| Author abbrev. (botany) | Cham. |
Adelbert von Chamisso (German pronunciation:[ˈaːdl̩bɛʁtfɔnʃaˈmɪso]; 30 January 1781 – 21 August 1838) was a Germanpoet, writer andbotanist. He was commonly known in French asAdelbert de Chamisso (orChamissot)de Boncourt, a name referring to the family estate atBoncourt.
The son of Louis Marie, Count ofChamisso, by his marriage to Anne Marie Gargam, Chamisso began life as Louis Charles Adélaïde de Chamissot at thechâteau ofBoncourt atAnte, inChampagne, France, the ancestral seat of his family.[1] His name appears in several forms, one of the most common beingLudolf Karl Adelbert von Chamisso.[2]
In 1790, theFrench Revolution drove his parents out of France with their seven children, and they went successively toLiège,the Hague,Würzburg, andBayreuth, and possiblyHamburg, before settling inBerlin. There, in 1796, the young Chamisso was fortunate in obtaining the post of page-in-waiting to the queen ofPrussia, and in 1798 he entered a Prussian infantry regiment as anensign to train for a career as an army officer.[citation needed]
Shortly thereafter, thanks to thePeace of Tilsit, his family was able to return to France, but Chamisso remained in Prussia and continued his military career. He had little formal education, although he is a noted alumnus of the French Highschool of Berlin (Französisches Gymnasium), that has existed since 1689 for the express purpose of accommodating the children of exiled French nobles. While in thePrussian military service inBerlin he assiduously studiednatural science for three years. In collaboration withVarnhagen von Ense, in 1803 he founded theBerliner Musenalmanach, the publication in which his first verses appeared. The enterprise was a failure, and, interrupted by the Napoleonic wars, it came to an end in 1806. It brought him, however, to the notice of many of the literary celebrities of the day and established his reputation as a rising poet.[1]
Chamisso had become a lieutenant in 1801, and in 1805 he accompanied his regiment toHamelin, where he shared in the humiliation of the town's capitulation the next year. Placed onparole, he went to France, but both his parents were dead; returning to Berlin in the autumn of 1807, he obtained his release from the Prussian service early the following year. Homeless and without a profession, disillusioned and despondent, Chamisso lived in Berlin until 1810, when through the services of an old friend of the family he was offered a professorship at thelycée atNapoléonville in theVendée.[1]
He set out to take up the post, but instead joined the circle ofMadame de Staël, and followed her in herexile toCoppet inSwitzerland, where, devoting himself tobotanical research, he remained nearly two years. In 1812 he returned to Berlin, where he continued his scientific studies. In the summer of the eventful year, 1813, he wrote the prose narrativePeter Schlemihl, the man who sold his shadow. This, the most famous of all his works, has been translated into mostEuropean languages (English byWilliam Howitt). It was written partly to divert his own thoughts and partly to amuse the children of his friendJulius Eduard Hitzig.[1]
In 1815, Chamisso was appointed botanist to theRussian shipRurik,[3] fitted out at the expense of CountNikolay Rumyantsev, whichOtto von Kotzebue (son ofAugust von Kotzebue) commanded on a scientific voyage round the world.[1] He collected at theCape of Good Hope in January 1818 in the company ofKrebs,Mund and Maire.[4] Hisdiary of the expedition (Tagebuch, 1821) is a fascinating account of the expedition to thePacific Ocean and theBering Sea. During this trip Chamisso described a number of new species found in what is now the San Francisco Bay Area. Several of these, including theCalifornia poppy,Eschscholzia californica, were named after his friendJohann Friedrich von Eschscholtz, the Rurik'sentomologist. In return, Eschscholtz named a variety of plants, including the genusCamissonia, after Chamisso. On his return in 1818 he was made custodian of the botanical gardens in Berlin, and was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences, and in 1819 he married his friend Hitzig's foster daughter Antonie Piaste (1800–1837). He became a leading member ofthe Serapion Brethren, a literary circle around E. T. A. Hoffmann.
In 1827, partly for the purpose of rebutting the charges brought against him by Kotzebue, he publishedViews and Remarks on a Voyage of Discovery, andDescription of a Voyage Round the World. Both works display great accuracy and industry. His last scientific labor was a tract on theHawaiian language. Chamisso's travels and scientific researches restrained for a while the full development of his poetical talent, and it was not until his forty-eighth year that he turned back to literature. In 1829, in collaboration withGustav Schwab, and from 1832 in conjunction withFranz von Gaudy, he brought out theDeutscher Musenalmanach, in which his later poems were mainly published.[1]
Chamisso died in Berlin at the age of 57. His grave is preserved in theProtestantFriedhof III (Cemetery No. 3 of the congregations ofJerusalem's Church and theNew Church) inBerlin-Kreuzberg, to the south of theHallesches Tor.
Chamisso collected numerous zoological and botanical specimens as well as occasional human bones.[5] His collections are in the care of a number of European museums.
Chamisso is chiefly remembered for his work as a botanist; his most important contribution, done in conjunction withDiederich Franz Leonhard von Schlechtendal, was the description of many of the most importanttrees ofMexico in 1830–1831. Also, hisBemerkungen und Ansichten, published in an incomplete form in Kotzebue'sEntdeckungsreise (Weimar, 1821) and more completely in Chamisso's Collected Works (1836), and the botanical work,Übersicht der nutzbarsten und schädlichsten Gewächse in Norddeutschland (Review of the Most Useful and the Most Noxious Plants of North Germany, with Remarks on Scientific Botany), of 1829, are esteemed for their careful treatment of their subjects.[1] In 1824 he became a member of theRegensburg Botanical Society.[6]
The generaChamissoaKunth (Amaranthaceae) andCamissoniaLink (Onagraceae) and many species were named in his honor.[7]
Chamisso's earliest writings, which include a verse translation of the tragedyLe Comte de Comminge in which "heilsam" is used in place of "heilig", show a 20-year-old still struggling to master his new language, and a number of his early poems are in French. Between 1801 and 1804 he became closely associated with other writers and edited their journal.
As a poet Chamisso's reputation stands high.Frauenliebe und -leben (1830), a cycle of lyrical poems which was set to music byRobert Schumann, byCarl Loewe, and byFranz Paul Lachner, is particularly famous. Composers such asPauline Volkstein also used Chamisso’s texts in their compositions. Also noteworthy areSchloss Boncourt andSalas y Gomez. He often deals with gloomy or repulsive subjects; and even in his lighter and gayer productions there is an undertone of sadness or ofsatire. In the lyrical expression of the domestic emotions he displays a fine felicity, and he knew how to treat with true feeling a tale of love or vengeance.Die Löwenbraut may be taken as a sample of his weird and powerful simplicity; andVergeltung is remarkable for a pitiless precision of treatment. The first collected edition of Chamisso's works was edited by Hitzig and published in six volumes in 1836.[1]
Otto von Kotzebue namedChamisso Island after him.[9] Chamisso is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of Chilean snake,Philodryas chamissonis.[10]
He is the author of the famous story,Peter Schlemihl, about a man who sold his shadow, and is the poet of the short poem "Tragic Story" which tells about a wise monk without the benefit of common sense who tries to change the direction of his pigtail.[11]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Chamisso, Adelbert von".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 5 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 825–826.
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