Karl August Varnhagen von Ense
Encyclopedia
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
biographer, diplomat
Diplomat
A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...
and soldier
Soldier
A soldier is a member of the land component of national armed forces; whereas a soldier hired for service in a foreign army would be termed a mercenary...
.
Biography
He was born at DüsseldorfDüsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
, with siblings including Rosa Maria Varnhagen
Rosa Maria Assing
Rosa Maria Antonetta Paulina Assing nee Varnhagen, was a German lyric poet, prose-writer, educator, translator and silhouette artist. She was the elder sister of Karl August Varnhagen, the sister-in-law of Rahel Levin, and the mother of Ottilie and Ludmilla Assing...
. He studied medicine in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, but spent more time on philosophy and literature, which he later studied more thoroughly at Halle and Tübingen. He began his literary career in 1804 as editor with Adelbert von Chamisso
Adelbert von Chamisso
Adelbert von Chamisso was a German poet and botanist.- Life :He was born Louis Charles Adélaïde de Chamissot at the château of Boncourt at Ante, in Champagne, France, the ancestral seat of his family...
of the latter's Musenalmanach.
In 1809, he entered the Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n army, fought at Aspern and Wagram
Battle of Wagram
The Battle of Wagram was the decisive military engagement of the War of the Fifth Coalition. It took place on the Marchfeld plain, on the north bank of the Danube. An important site of the battle was the village of Deutsch-Wagram, 10 kilometres northeast of Vienna, which would give its name to the...
, where he was wounded. After the peace, he was made adjutant to Prince Bentheim who he accompanied to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
where he continued his studies. In 1812, he entered the Prussian civil service in Berlin, but he soon left to enter the Russian service as captain. He served in Tettenborn
Friedrich Karl von Tettenborn
Baron Friedrich Karl of Tettenborn was a famous cavalry general in the Austrian and Russian armies during the Napoleonic Wars.-Life:...
's corps as adjutant to Tettenborn on trips to Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
and Paris. He recorded his experiences in Geschichte der Hamburger Ereignisse (History of the events in Hamburg; London, 1813) and Geschichte der Kriegszüge Tettenborns (History of Tettenborn's Campaigns, 1814). He worked as a tutor and butler in the homes of several families of the wealthy Jewish bourgeoisie. This allowed him to learn from an early age young characters in his time, some already famous, such as: Adelbert von Chamisso
Adelbert von Chamisso
Adelbert von Chamisso was a German poet and botanist.- Life :He was born Louis Charles Adélaïde de Chamissot at the château of Boncourt at Ante, in Champagne, France, the ancestral seat of his family...
, Justinus Kerner
Justinus Kerner
Justinus Andreas Christian Kerner was a German poet and medical writer.-Life:He was born at Ludwigsburg in Württemberg...
, Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué
Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué
Friedrich Heinrich Karl de la Motte, Baron Fouqué was a German writer of the romantic style.-Biography:He was born at Brandenburg an der Havel, of a family of French Huguenot origin, as evidenced in his family name...
, Ludwig Uhland
Ludwig Uhland
Johann Ludwig Uhland , was a German poet, philologist and literary historian.-Biography:He was born in Tübingen, then Duchy of Württemberg, and studied jurisprudence at the university there, but also took an interest in medieval literature, especially old German and French poetry...
and many other poets of romanticism .
He accompanied Prince Hardenburg
Karl August von Hardenberg
Karl August Fürst von Hardenberg was a Prussian statesman and Prime Minister of Prussia. While during his late career he acquiesced to reactionary policies, earlier in his career he implemented a variety of Liberal reforms...
to the Congress of Vienna
Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from September, 1814 to June, 1815. The objective of the Congress was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars,...
(1814), and in 1815-19 was Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
n Minister-Resident at Carlsruhe
Carlsruhe
Carlsruhe is the name of several locations:*Karlsruhe, a city in Germany *Carlsruhe, Victoria, a town in Australia*Carlsruhe O/S and Bad Carlsruhe, German names of the village Pokój in Poland...
. After 1819, he resided chiefly in Berlin with the title of “Geheimer Legationsrat.” He had no fixed official appointment, but was often employed in important political business
Writings
Although he developed a reputation as an imaginative and critical writer, he is famous chiefly as a biographer. He possessed a remarkable power of grouping facts so as to bring out their essential significance, and his style is distinguished for its strength, grace and purity. Among his principal works are:- Goethe in den Zeugnissen der Mitlebenden (1824)
- Biographische Denkmäler (5 vols., 1824–30; 3rd ed., 1872)
- biographies of General von SeydlitzFriedrich Wilhelm von SeydlitzFriedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von Seydlitz was a Prussian soldier and one of the greatest German cavalry generals.-Early life:...
(1834), Field-Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von BlücherGebhard Leberecht von BlücherGebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Fürst von Wahlstatt , Graf , later elevated to Fürst von Wahlstatt, was a Prussian Generalfeldmarschall who led his army against Napoleon I at the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig in 1813 and at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 with the Duke of Wellington.He is...
, victor over Napoleon at Waterloo, Sophia CharlotteSophia Charlotte of HanoverSophia Charlotte of Hanover was the Queen consort of Prussia as wife of Frederick I of Prussia. She was the daughter of Ernst August, Elector of Hanover, and Sophia of the Palatinate...
, queen of Prussia (1837), Field-Marshal SchwerinKurt Christoph Graf von SchwerinKurt Christoph Graf von Schwerin was a Prussian Generalfeldmarschall, one of the leading commanders under Frederick the Great.-Biography:...
(1841), Field-Marshal KeithFrancis Edward James KeithJames Francis Edward Keith was a Scottish soldier and Prussian field marshal. As a Jacobite he took part in a failed attempt to restore the Stuart Monarchy to Britain, before joining the Spanish and Russian armies. He ultimately came to serve in the Prussian army under Frederick the Great where he...
(1844), and General Bülow von DennewitzFriedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von BülowFriedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von Bülow, Graf von Dennewitz was a Prussian general of the Napoleonic Wars.-Early life:...
(1853).
His Denkwürdigkeiten und vermischte Schriften appeared in 9 volumes in 1843-59, the two last volumes appearing after his death. His niece, Ludmilla Assing, between 1860 and 1867, edited several volumes of his correspondence with eminent men, and his Tagebücher (14 vols., 1861–70). Blätter aus der preussischen Geschichte appeared in 5 vols. (1868–69); his correspondence with his wife, Rahel, appeared in 6 vols. in 1874–75; and that with Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle was a Scottish satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era.He called economics "the dismal science", wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and became a controversial social commentator.Coming from a strict Calvinist family, Carlyle was...
in 1892.
His selected writings appeared in 19 volumes in 1871-76.
Family
In 1814, he married the salonisteSalon (gathering)
A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase their knowledge of the participants through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "either to...
Rahel Levin
Rahel Varnhagen
Rahel Antonie Friederike Varnhagen née Levin later Robert was a German-Jewish writer who hosted one of the most prominent salons in Europe during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. She is the subject of a celebrated biography, Rahel Varnhagen: The Life of a Jewess written by Hannah Arendt...
after she converted
Religious conversion
Religious conversion is the adoption of a new religion that differs from the convert's previous religion. Changing from one denomination to another within the same religion is usually described as reaffiliation rather than conversion.People convert to a different religion for various reasons,...
from Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
to Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
. Varnhagen was devotedly attached to her, and found in her sympathy and encouragement one of the chief sources of his inspiration as a writer. After her death in 1833, from the shock of which he never fully recovered, he published memorial volumes containing selections from her papers: Rahel, ein Buch des Andenkens für ihre Freunde (Rahel, a memorial book for her friends, 3 vols., 1834) and Galerie von Bildnissen aus Rahels Umgang (A gallery of portraits from Rahel's circle, 2 vols., 1836).