Eduard Mörike | |
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| Born | (1804-09-08)8 September 1804 Ludwigsburg, Electorate of Württemberg, Holy Roman Empire |
| Died | 4 June 1875(1875-06-04) (aged 70) Stuttgart, Kingdom of Württemberg, German Empire |
| Occupation | Writer |
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Eduard Friedrich Mörike (German pronunciation:[ˈeːdu.aʁtˈfʁiːdʁɪçˈmøːʁɪkə]; 8 September 1804 – 4 June 1875)[1] was a GermanLutheran pastor who was also aRomantic poet and writer of novellas and novels. Many of his poems were set to music and became establishedfolk songs, while others were used by composersHugo Wolf andIgnaz Lachner in their symphonic works.
Mörike was born inLudwigsburg. His father was Karl Friedrich Mörike (died 1817), a district medical councilor; his mother was Charlotte Bayer. After the death of his father, in 1817, he went to live with his uncle Eberhard Friedrich Georgii in Stuttgart, who intended his nephew to become a clergyman. Therefore, after one year at the StuttgartGymnasium illustre, Mörike joined the Evangelical SeminaryUrach, a humanist grammar school, in 1818 and from 1822 to 1826 attended theTübinger Stift.[2] There, he scored low grades and failed the admission test to Urach Seminary, yet was accepted anyhow. At the Seminary he went on to study the classics, something that was to become a major influence on his writing, and he made the acquaintance of Wilhelm Hartlaub andWilhelm Waiblinger. Afterwards he studiedtheology at theSeminary of Tübingen where he metLudwig Bauer,David Friedrich Strauss andFriedrich Theodor Vischer.[1] Many of these friendships were long-lasting. In Tübingen, with Bauer, he invented the fairylandOrplid – see the poemSong Weylas (You are Orplid)[3] dating from 1831.
Mörike became aLutheran pastor and, in 1834, he was appointed vicar of Cleversulzbach nearWeinsberg. In the Autumn of 1843 he stayed for over half a year with his friend Pastor Wilhelm Hartlaub (1804–1885) in the village ofWermutshausen [de], situated in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. During this time he produced a drawing of the Wermutshausen Petruskirche, dating from the early 1800s. This drawing is speculated, due to the perspective, to be from a top-floor room of a local brewery, distillery, and guesthouse at the edge of town, which remains in operation today as Gasthaus und Manufaktur Krone Wermutshausen. In town there is also a Museum commemorating this visit, in which guests can see the room in which Mörike lived. For reasons of health, Mörike retired quite early, and in 1851 became professor ofGerman literature at the Katharinenstift inStuttgart. This office he held until he retired in 1866.[4] He continued to live in Stuttgart until his death.
Mörike was a member of the so-called Swabian school of writers aroundLudwig Uhland. His poems (Gedichte, 1838), are mostly lyrical, yet often humorous and written in simple and seemingly everyday German.[4] His ballad "Schön Rotraut" – opening with the line "Wie heisst König Ringangs Töchterlein?" – became a popular favorite.[1]
His first published work was the novelMaler Nolten ("The painter Nolten", 1832), a tale about the life of a painter, and which revealed his imaginative power; it became fairly popular. The novellaMozart auf der Reise nach Prag ("Mozart on the way toPrague", 1856) was a humorous examination of the problems of artists in a world uncongenial to art. It is frequently cited as his finest achievement.[1][5] He also wrote a somewhat fantasticIdylle vom Bodensee, oder Fischer Martin und die Glockendiebe (1846), the fairy taleDas Stuttgarter Hutzelmännlein (1855), and published a collection of hymns, odes, elegies, and idylls of the Greeks and Romans, entitledKlassische Blumenlese (1840).[4] He also translatedAnacreon andTheocritus into German.[6]
Mörike'sGesammelte Schriften ("Collected Writings") were first published posthumously in 1878 (4 vols.). Later editions are those edited by R. Krauss (6 vols., 1905), and theVolksausgabe ("Popular edition"), published by Göschen (4 vols., 1905). Selections from his literary estate were published by R. Krauss inEduard Mörike als Gelegenheitsdichter (1895), and his correspondence withHermann Kurz,Moritz von Schwind, andTheodor Storm, by J. Bachtold (1885–1891); an edition of Mörike'sAusgewählte Briefe ("Selected letters"), in 2 vols., appeared 1903–1904.[4]
His work was greatly praised by the philosopherLudwig Wittgenstein who recommended him toBertrand Russell as
really agreat poet and his poems are among the best things we have...the beauty of Mörike's work is very closely related to Goethe's.[7]
Many of his lyrics were set to music byHugo Wolf,[8] Ludwig Hetsch,Didia Saint Georges,Elise Schmezer,Julie Waldburg-Wurzach,Pauline Volkstein, and Fritz Kauffmann.Ignaz Lachner set to music his operaDie Regenbrüder.[6]Hugo Distler composed 48 settings of Mörike's poetry in hisMörike-Chorliederbuch. Many of his poems became established folksongs.[5]Wilhelm Killmayer set several of his poems inhis song cycleMörike-Lieder in 2003.[9]
Mörike was also known to produce drawings in his time, though it is not the subject of much discussion. While staying in the town of Wermutshausen in the Autumn of 1843, Mörike produced a drawing of the Petruskirche, a small church built in the early 1800s.[citation needed]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Mörike, Eduard Friedrich".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 837.
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