Rudolf Baumbach

Rudolf Baumbach
Born	(1840-09-28)28 September 1840 Kranichfeld, Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
Died	Meiningen
Nationality	German
Occupation	Poet

Rudolf Baumbach (28 September 1840 – 21 September 1905) was a German poet.

Life

Born in Kranichfeld in Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, the son of a local medical practitioner, he received his early schooling at the gymnasium of Meiningen, to which place his father had moved. After studying natural science at Leipzig as a member of the German Student Corps Thuringia and in various other universities, he engaged in private tuition, both independently and in families, in the Austrian towns of Graz, Brünn and Trieste.

In Trieste he caught the popular taste with an Alpine legend, Zlatorog (1877), and songs of a journeyman apprentice, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (1878), both of which ran into many editions. Their success decided him to embark upon a literary career. In 1885, he returned to Meiningen, where he received the title of Hofrat, and was appointed ducal librarian. He remained in Meiningen for the twenty years until his death on 14 of September 1905.

Baumbach was a poet of the breezy, vagabond school and wrote, in imitation of his greater compatriot, Joseph Viktor von Scheffel, many excellent drinking songs, among which Die Lindenwirtin ("The Linden Hostess") has endeared him to the German student world. But his real strength lay in narrative verse, especially when he had the opportunity of describing the scenery and life of his native Thuringia. Special mention may be made of Frau Holde (1881), Spielmannslieder (1882), Von der Landstraße (1882), Thüringer Lieder (1891) and his prose, Sommermärchen ("Summer legends", 1881).

Works in English translation

• Summer Legends (1888; translated by Helen B. Dole)
  • Tales (1888)
  • Tales from Wonderland (1891)
• "The Devils in Heaven." In: Short Stories, Vol. V (1891; translated by Albert Gleaves)
• "The Donkey's Spring." In: Romance, Vol. VII (1892; translated by K.R. Bowen)
• "The Fiddle-Bow of the Neck." In: Short Stories, Vol. XV (1894; translated by Fred J. Taussig)
• "The Fountain of Youth." In: Short Stories, Vol. XVIII (1895; translated by Minne B. Hudson)
• "The Water of Forgetfulness." In: Short Stories, Vol. XXXVI (1899; translated by Minna B. Hudson)
• The Meadow Sprite, and Other Tales of Modern Germany (1909; translated by Gertrude Ruth Schottenfels; contains: "The Meadow Sprite," "The Gold Tree," "The Water Sprite's Fiddlestick," "The Forgotten Chime" and "The Waters of Forgetfulness")

References

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: 

External links

• Works by Rudolf Baumbach at Hathi Trust
• Works by Rudolf Baumbach at Project Gutenberg