Eduard Mörike

Eduard Friedrich Moerike ( born September 8, 1804 in Ludwigsburg, Wuerttemberg Duchy; † June 4, 1875 in Stuttgart, Kingdom of Württemberg ) was a German poet of the Swabian school, storyteller and translator. He was also a Protestant minister, but quarreled until his early retirement Always include the " day job ".

• 2.1 translations

Life

Training

Moerike was born as the seventh child of Medizinalrates Karl Friedrich Moerike and the pastor's daughter Charlotte Dorothea nee Bayer. He had a total of twelve siblings. After the death of his father in 1817 he came to his uncle Eberhard Friedrich Georgii to Stuttgart, the envisioned for his nephew religious career.

According Moerike visited after a year in the Stuttgart school illustrious 1818 the Protestant seminary Urach, a humanistic gymnasium in the former Uracher Canons, and from 1822 to 1826 the Tubingen. [S 1] Although his academic performance was only moderate, and the Uracher Seminar took him despite failed "Land exam ", but the local study of ancient classics was formative for the later writers.

Many lifelong friendships Mörike go also back at his seminar time, which has transfigured him this time in retrospect. Thus in the poem of 1827 on a two-year previous visit in Urach [S 2] In Tübingen were among his fellow students on the one hand Wilhelm Waiblingen, who gave him even contact with the elderly Friedrich Hölderlin procured, [H 1] on the other hand Ludwig Bauer, with whom he devised the fantasy land Orplid; the poem singing Weylas (You're Orplid ) is 1831 again emerged in retrospect [BM 1] The triple alliance of friends was suspenseful. Bauer, the Moerike had once taken into custody from an attack of drunken Waiblingen, Moerike warned of its demonic influence. [Q 1] But in retrospect designated Moerike at his investiture as the priest now deceased Waiblingen as "one of Jesus' Gospel intimately penetrated servant ." [O 1]

In the Easter holidays 1823 Moerike met in Ludwigsburg Gasthaus Maria Meyer ( 1802-1865 ), who was there (not least because of their mysterious beauty ) employed as a waitress. Later biographical accounts of the native of Schaffhausen woman in the wake of the sect founder Julian of Kriidener obviously contain a lot of embellishment. [M 1] Moerike fell stormily into the mystery, to the dismay of his older sister Louise, who implored the danger that " his noble self- in close connection with the unclean threatened ". [M 2] Moerike led to contact with Maria up to a year-end broken off ( and destroyed ) Exchange of letters no further, and withdrew from a target of their reunion in July 1824. [M 3] from this drastic experience was the cycle of the Peregrina - poems of the present different from the years 1824 to 1867 ten versions. [M 4]

After a mediocre exam and a religious test before Württemberg consistory him " quite inadequate, yet by no means to be despised knowledge" [Q 2] certified, lived ( and suffered ) Moerike an eight-year " Vicariate of slavery " as a vicar and later parish administrator: 1826 Oberboihingen, Möhringen; 1827 Koengen; 1829 Pflummern, Plattenhardt ( there as parish administrator at the Antholianuskirche and engagement with Luise Rau, the daughter of the late pastor, dissolved 1833), Owen; 1831 Eltingen; 1832 Ochsenwang ( in the local Moerike house are shown letters, drawings and parochial reports); 1833 Weilheim an der Teck, again Owen, Ötlingen. His service was interrupted until February 1829 from December 1827 through leave, which he had applied for health reasons, perhaps triggered by the death of his sister Louise. However, stuck behind his general doubts about an ecclesiastical career:

"You ahnest no doubt already the reason that unsavory atmosphere. Ists The spiritual life. I am now convinced it is not good for me ... the doctor [ told me ] impacted a holiday at some time by the consistory ... My health may diß very well need them, but mainly I want the time to use me by any work, the confidence of the to acquire Cotta order, however, by business for him a way out and there might e bey appointing a library to find. "

Moerike would, therefore, prefer dedicated to writing, dared but, unlike his time Hölderlin, not to make his way as a freelance writer: a contract with the publisher Friedrich Gottlob Franckh, of him in to regular " Narrative and other aesthetic essays [n ] " whose "Ladies newspaper" committed against an annual fee of 600 guilders [Q 3] sparked Moerike after a few months.

Parish Office

1834 Moerike eventually became pastor in Cleversulzbach, where his mother and his youngest sister Klara lived with him in the rectory. His sermons, which were tailored to the understanding of his community, have not indicated how much Moerike contended with contemporary theology. Only in the privacy of a letter from December 1837 diagnosed Moerike against Friedrich Theodor Vischer one now "land knowledgeable nascent theological bankruptcy ," [S 3] alluding to the controversy over David Friedrich Strauss ' book life of Jesus, the historical criticism of the Gospel accounts of conservative circles was convicted (eg, at Tubingen ). Moerike took Strauss' book calmly note because not existed for him faith from the assent to the gospel accounts, but from the sensations that were input to the poet Moerike when he pointed his life.

He was able to explain Christian teachings in a seemingly rational way, which of course does not fit to our present rational knowledge. An example are his statements about the " otherworldly continuance ," he consoled relatives of deceased: "For me this is a foregone natural thing " that the departed live "on the site of a new nature ," that is one thing without divine intervention, no matter of faith, but also no mere reasoning. [S 4] Similarly, rational explanations were Moerike to spooky sound effects at the parsonage, which he recorded in a diary, which Justinus Kerner published later. [S 5]

As Mörike mother died in 1841, he buried her on the Clever Sulzbacher Cemetery next to the mother of Friedrich Schiller, whose almost forgotten grave he had at the beginning of his pastorate discovered there and marked with a simple cross ( poem on the grave of Schiller's Mother, 1835). [Q 4]

After Moerike for health reasons at the parochial ministry had sent support several times by a vicar, he applied for 1843, the retirement, including an annual pension of 280 florins was granted him mercy 's sake (his pastor content initially had 600 florins in). [Q 5] A literary treatment of his time in Cleversulzbach created Moerike with his poem to Cleversulzbach in the lowlands. [ C1 ]

Retirement

Moerike settled in 1844, retired at the age of 39 years, after a short stay in Schwäbisch Hall in Bad Mergentheim down. His pension and occasional fees were not sufficient to repay the debt, in which he was advised by sureties for his brothers, for example for the Scheerer bailiff Karl Moerike, who had served one years imprisonment in Hohenasperg for seditious machinations ( in the process Edward had to testify as a witness ). [Q 6]

That's why he initially did not think of a marriage and married until 1851 in the Mergentheimer Castle Church Margaret of Speeth, the Catholic daughter of his landlord and friend of his sister Clara, who still lived with him. However, the denominational difference was the reason that Mörike oldest friend William Hartlaub ( pastor in the near Wermutshausen ) distanced itself from him. The relationship between Clara and Margarethe should tarnish later. [Q 7]

The couple moved to Stuttgart, where Moerike from 1856 to 1866 taught literature at Queen Catherine's pen. [Q 8] They had two daughters, Fanny (* 1855) and Marie (* 1857). In addition to his appointment as professor at Katharinenstift were Moerike during this period other honors received: 1852 honorary doctorate from the University of Tübingen, 1862, the Bavarian Maximilian Order and 1864 the Knight's Cross of the Württemberg Friedrich Order. He had contact with other writers, so visited him Theodor Storm (who wondered about Mörike habit for Grace ) and Friedrich Hebbel. A deeper friendship united him at this time with the painter Moritz von Schwind. [S 6]

The Moerike Cabinet in Fellbach City Museum presents paintings, records and paraphernalia from Mörike narrowest family circle

The grave system of Eduard Moerike on the Prague Cemetery in Stuttgart, adorned by a tomb, on which a Tondo can be seen with the picture Mörike in profile

Monument to Eduard Moerike, the marble base is provided with a classicizing relief and is surmounted by a bust Mörike, which was created by the sculptor Wilhelm Roesch

In the period 1867-1873, the poet often changed places and homes, including in Lorch. [Q 8] tension between Clare and Margaret spilled over on the couple, and on the occasion of the engagement of the 18 -year-old Fanny argument arose, after Margaret temporarily moved out. 1873 Moerike decided to separate, and went with Marie for a short time to Fellbach, so honors him the city with the regular ceremony of their Moerike price. During this period, his annual income was as high as 1955 florins. [Q 9]

Moerike was buried in 1875, two years after its opening, at the Stuttgart Prague Cemetery; Vischer held the grave speech. To Mörike fifth anniversary of his death, a monument was erected in Stuttgart.

Throughout his life he was an avid collector of everyday objects. Especially the collecting of fossils and so it was that he, like a paleontologist on the Swabian Alb pulled and gathered up all the fossils. At home, he compared them with other finds, or read literature. All too often, but then grabbed him by the muse and so created poems like The petrifacts Collector [ Z 1]. With its frequent parades, the groupage was both annoying, on the other hand, it was good and beautiful gifts for friends and relatives.

After Moerike many schools are named, including the Moerike -Gymnasium in Ludwigsburg, Moerike school in Esslingen am Neckar, the Moerike school in Tübingen, the elementary schools Moerike school in Leonberg and Eduard Moerike school Ötlingen, the Evangelical Moerike -Gymnasium Stuttgart and the Eduard Moerike High School in New city on the stove.

Works

Moerike was referred to during his lifetime as the most important German poets from Goethe. [ EK 1] Despite the late honors but few recognized its literary significance. Jakob Burckhardt was one of them, or Theodor Storm and Ivan Turgenev. Moerike was long regarded as a typical representative of the Biedermeier, the sings of the familiar and close home, Georg Lukács did it from one of the " cute dwarfs " among the poets of the 19th century. [P 1] Today, one recognizes the unfathomable in Mörike work and the modernity of his radical escape from the world.

• Poems (1838, extended in 1848 and 1864). [ D 1] [L 1] From the phase during the Vicariate, in which he tried to work as a freelance writer, among other things, come The sad coronation (1828), September morning and He's 's ( 1829). His poems were set to music, inter alia, heard of Hugo Distler, Othmar Schoeck and Peter Schindler and Hugo Wolf, whose songs Moerike also a setting of the early The Fire Rider (1823 or 1824).
• The so-called " tavern as to Rome " in the Castle Park of Hohenheim, hired in 1830 by Moerike. Here he completed the novel painter Nolten. Painters Nolten (1832 ). [D 2 ] Roman, processes its own involvement in the intrigues of certain Moerike action, such as his encounter with Mary Meyer ( Peregrina ) in the figure of Elizabeth. This includes a puppet show The Last King of Orplid. From 1853 until his death Moerike worked on a second version, which is more attributable to the realism of romance and as almost Ended fragment appeared posthumously in 1877. Nolten painter applies his action as one of the bleakest German novels. In particular, through its chapter loose, complicated structure, the interpretation is struggling to bring light to his darkness. [ L 2]
• Lucie Gelmeroth (1839 ). The amendment is identical to the 1833 printed in Urania Paperback " sketch" Miss Jenny Harrower to the change of name of the main character and layout of the action from England to Germany. This was planned from Moerike as board in his second novel he is but because of personal difficulties (separation of Luise Rau, arrest of his brother Karl) not completed it, but only handed in this slot at the Publisher. The story told as a retrospective action of the novel revolves around the encounter of a student with a children's girlfriend in his native city, which is accused of murder, and whom he married after proof of their innocence. This, too, echoes are found to Mary Meyer. [BM 2]
• The Treasure (1835 ). This story was also provided as a plug- in Mörike second novel.
• The farmer and his son (Wonderland, 1839)
• The rain brothers (opera, by Ignaz Lachner composed 1839)
• Idyll of Lake Constance, or Fischer Martin ( Seven Songs, 1846). The hexameter poem was written in the Mergentheimer time and made Moerike beyond his homeland known. [Q 10 ] In his contemporaries, led by Jacob Grimm and Ludwig Uhland, it received positive feedback. The work apparently hit a basic feeling of the era, the escape into a world of harmony. [L 3]
• The Stuttgart Hutzelmännlein (1853 ) in: The history of the beautiful Lau ( which was also addressed in the Crime Scene Crime: Bienzle and the beautiful Lau, SWR )

After 1856 no major prose works were written more, and until his death, wrote Moerike, apart from a few Dedication and occasional poems, little more verses.

Translations

Moerike had an excellent knowledge of Greek and Roman poetry and published several translations. He has translated Callinus, Tyrtaios, Theognis and some Homeric hymns. First editions of translations Mörike:

• Classische anthology (Stuttgart 1840)
• Theocritus, Bion and Moschus (Stuttgart 1855, together with Friedrich Notter )
• Anacreon and the so-called anacreontic songs (Stuttgart 1864), again - as in the classical anthology - as processing of existing translations

Title page of the first edition of Mörike poems (1838 )

Contemporary binding of the poems from 1838 with " romance - book decoration " of the back

Mörike sofa on which originated many of his poems, now in Ludwigsburg Municipal Museum

Werkausgaben

• Works and letters. Historical- Critical Edition in 28 volumes. Klett- Cotta, Stuttgart 1967ff.
• Works in one volume. Edited by Herbert G. Goepfert. Hanser, Munich 1993 ( dtv 1995).
• Greek poetry. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 1960.
• Complete Works in two volumes. Winkler world literature. Artemis & Winkler, Zurich, Vol 1: 5th edition, 1997, Vol 2: 3rd edition, 1996.