Pierre-Jean de Béranger

Pierre -Jean de Beranger ( born April 19, 1780 in Paris, † July 16, 1857 ) was a French poet and songwriter in the early 19th century. The day also in the literature hardly noticed the author was in 1830 as one of the great poets of France, one placed on a par with Victor Hugo and Alphonse de Lamartine.

Youth and literary beginnings

Beranger came (other than the noble -sounding name suggests ) from small Parisian ratios and grew after early separation of his parents with his grandparents in Paris, then with an aunt in the province. In 1796 he came back to his hometown. He had not enjoyed, after all, the aunt had taught him to read and write an education. He suggested initially more bad than good by, for example, as a supervisor of a reading corner or as a typesetter, but he practiced even his pen.

In 1803 he sent some poems to younger brother Lucien Bonaparte Napoleon and got him a small pension, and in 1809 a clerk posts in the school administration, which gave him time to read and writers and he held until 1821.

The years of success and fame

After diligent, but unsuccessful attempts as a dramatist, epic poet and serious poet Beranger discovered in 1812 his talent to compose on familiar tunes new texts, the first thought to the lecture and sing along in relevant wine bars, love, drinking and love of life celebrated.

Suddenly in France, he became known in 1813 with the hidden political chanson Le Roi d' Yvetot, a paean to a kind and peaceful village "king", which represented a lovely counterpart to the constantly warring and always dictatorial ruling Emperor Napoleon.

After his overthrow in 1814 and the return of the old royal family of the Bourbons, Louis XVIII. Beranger was, however, soon returned to the opposition, and wrote satirical songs against the carrier and beneficiaries of the restoration, ie from exile returned nobles, power-hungry Jesuits, opportunistic military and newly rich bourgeois. He also wrote songs in praise of the once -hated Napoleon and was thereby one of the fathers of the emerging around 1820 Napoleon legend, ie the political myth of the great emperor, who had a strong hand not only multiplied the glory of France and Europe freed from the yoke of absolutist despot, but allegedly also provided for the welfare of the little people.

As Beranger in 1821 a two-volume edition of his poems published (a first collection, chansons morales et autres, was as early as 1815 published ), this, because he is also king and church was not spared, banned and he had the first time briefly in jail, what his reputation enormously increased. The 1825 appearing Chansons nouvelles consecrated him the most popular poet of the time, whose catchy texts in all strata of the population, especially since the lower arrived. When he after the release of his fourth collection 1828 ( Chansons inedites ) again, including for lese majesty, was put in jail, they were showered with protests from all over Europe, he was so famous now and outside of France.

The slow descent

After the July Revolution of 1830, Beranger joined the new regime of "Citizen King" Louis -Philippe, which deprived him of the beloved and fertile opposition role. Although he tried it with a vague commitment to the critical neglect of the new powerful lower layers, but he no longer had the old bite. In 1833, he gave a final collection out ( Chansons nouvelles et dernières ), which consisted partly still out to 1830 incurred politically aggressive texts, sometimes even from those who preach only humanitarian and social care.

Thereafter, he hardly published, but managed his position of a across the country respected and courted moral authority. In 1848 he was elected without his involvement in the National Assembly, but moved very quickly from politics. In his last years Beranger had to experience how his income shrank and his work rapidly forfeited to appreciation. Although arranged after his death, Emperor Napoléon III. a state funeral and printed a nimble publisher quickly nor his memoirs and a collection Dernières chansons, but fell soon after, his name forgotten.

Works

• Lieb was the king, O -la -la! Satirical and patriotic songs Transfr by Martin Remané. [ Einl Jan O. Fischer d from Czech. transl. by Ilse Teweleit ] Berlin:. Rütten & Loening 1981 267 p