Ludwig Bechstein was a German

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...

 writer

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

 and collector of folk fairy tale

Fairy tale

A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...

s.

He was born in Weimar

Weimar

Weimar is a city in Germany famous for its cultural heritage. It is located in the federal state of Thuringia , north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 65,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899...

, the illegitimate child of Johanna Carolina Dorothea Bechstein and Hubert Dupontreau, a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 emigrant who disappeared even before the birth of the child, and Ludwig thus grew up his first nine years in very poor economic conditions. His situation improved only when his uncle Johann Matthäus Bechstein

Johann Matthäus Bechstein

Johann Matthäus Bechstein was a German naturalist, forester, ornithologist and entomologist. In Great Britain, he was known for his treatise on singing birds .-Biography:Bechstein was born in Waltershausen in the district of Gotha in Thuringia...

, a renowned naturalist and forester

Forester

250px|thumb|right|Foresters of [[Southern University of Chile|UACh]] in the [[Valdivian forest]]s of San Pablo de Tregua, ChileA forester is a person who practices forestry, the science, art, and profession of managing forests. Foresters engage in a broad range of activities including timber...

 living in Meiningen

Meiningen

Meiningen is a town in Germany - located in the southern part of the state of Thuringia and is the district seat of Schmalkalden-Meiningen. It is situated on the river Werra....

 in the district of Schmalkalden-Meiningen

Schmalkalden-Meiningen

Schmalkalden-Meiningen is a Landkreis in the west of Thuringia, Germany. Its neighboring districts are the districts Wartburgkreis, Gotha, Ilm-Kreis, the district-free city Suhl, the district Hildburghausen, the Bavarian district Rhön-Grabfeld, and the district Fulda in Hesse.- History :The...

 in Thuringia

Thuringia

The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....

, adopted him in 1810. He was sent to school, and in 1818, started an apprenticeship

Apprenticeship

Apprenticeship is a system of training a new generation of practitioners of a skill. Apprentices or protégés build their careers from apprenticeships...

 as an pharmacist

Pharmacist

Pharmacists are allied health professionals who practice in pharmacy, the field of health sciences focusing on safe and effective medication use...

.

From 1829 to 1831 he studied philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

 and literature

Literature

Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...

 in Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

 and Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

 thanks to a stipendiate granted by Duke Bernhard II of Sachsen-Meiningen, who hired him subsequently as a librarian

Librarian

A librarian is an information professional trained in library and information science, which is the organization and management of information services or materials for those with information needs...

. This life-time post provided Bechstein with a continuous income, while leaving him a lot of freedom to pursue his own interests and writing.

Bechstein published many works and was a successful author of his time. His German Fairy Tale Book was even more popular than the Brothers Grimm

Brothers Grimm

The Brothers Grimm , Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm , were German academics, linguists, cultural researchers, and authors who collected folklore and published several collections of it as Grimm's Fairy Tales, which became very popular...

's collection when it was first published in 1845. He published several collections of folk tales, but also romances, poems, and novels.

Important works

• Thüringische Volksmärchen (1823)
• Sonettenkränze (1826, through which Duke Bernhard became interested in him)
• The Children of Haymon (1830, epic poem)
• Der Totentanz (The Dance of Death, 1831, epic poem)
• Grimmenthal (1833, novel)
• Luther (1834)
• The Legend Treasure and the Legendary Cycles of Thuringia (1835-38)
• Fahrten eines Musikanten (Journeys of a Musician, 1836-37, novel)
• Deutsches Märchenbuch (German Fairy-Tale Book, 1845; 41st ed., 1893); French translation with introduction and comments: Corinne and Claude Lecouteux, Paris, José Corti, 2010 (collection Merveilleux)
• New Natural History of Pet Birds (1846, humorous didactic poem)
• Berthold der Student (1850, novel)
• Deutsches Sagenbuch (1853)
• Thüringer Sagenbuch (1858)
• Thuringia's Royal House (1865)

Schools named after Ludwig Bechstein

• Staatliche Grundschule 6, Erfurt: Bechsteinschule (Public Elementary School)