The Serapion Brethren
Encyclopedia
The Serapion Brethren is the name of a literary and social circle, formed in Berlin
in 1818 by the German romantic writer E. T. A. Hoffmann and several of his friends. The Serapion Brethren also is the title of a four-volume collection of Hoffmann’s novellas and fairytales that appeared in 1819, 1820, and 1821.
and Leipzig
, where he had been working as an orchestra conductor and opera director, to return to work as a Prussian civil servant. In that year, he and a group of friends formed an association for the purpose of reading from and discussing works of literature (primarily their own). The group first met on October 12, which happened to be the feast day of Saint Seraphin of Montegranaro
. The friends therefore decided to refer to their group as an “order” and to give it the name The Seraphin Brethren [Die Seraphinenbrüder]. After about two years of gatherings at Hoffmann’s home or the Café Manderlee on the famous boulevard Unter den Linden
, the circle gradually dissolved, partly, it is thought, because of the departure of one of its members, Adelbert von Chamisso
, for a sailing trip around the world with the Russian Rurik Expedition, which had been organized to find a Northwest Passage
(Kremer, 1999, 165).
The Serapion Brethren included the following members:
Others participated from time to time in the group’s meetings as guests.
’s Phantastus (Kremer 1999, 164) (and, although Hoffmann did not say this, in the manner of Giovanni Boccaccio
’s The Decameron
, albeit in an urban rather than a pastoral setting). For the collection, Hoffmann first suggested to Reimer the title The Seraphin Brethren. Collected Novellas and Fairytales, after the old literary group. Once the group was reconstituted, however, Hoffmann dropped the subtitle and called the compilation simply The Serapion Brethren (Segebrecht 2001, 1213).
In eight meetings, the friends in the fictional framework narrative, Ottmar, Theodor, Lothar, Cyprian, Vinzenz, and Sylvester, orally present a total of 28 stories (only 19 have titles) and comment in some detail on their quality and on whether or not they adhere to a certain “Serapion Principle” that becomes clear to the reader as the narrative progresses. Attempts have been made, especially in older scholarly works, to assign the names of some of the real Serapion Brethren to the fictitious ones. Ellinger (1925, 40), for example, sees Ottmar, Theodor, Sylvester, and Vinzenz, as Hitzig, Hoffmann, Contessa, and Koreff, respectively. In reality, of course, all the narrators are Hoffmann himself, who, after all, was writing fiction (Steinecke 1997, 115).
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...
in 1818 by the German romantic writer E. T. A. Hoffmann and several of his friends. The Serapion Brethren also is the title of a four-volume collection of Hoffmann’s novellas and fairytales that appeared in 1819, 1820, and 1821.
Seraphin Brethren
In 1814, Hoffmann returned to Berlin from DresdenDresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
and 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...
, where he had been working as an orchestra conductor and opera director, to return to work as a Prussian civil servant. In that year, he and a group of friends formed an association for the purpose of reading from and discussing works of literature (primarily their own). The group first met on October 12, which happened to be the feast day of Saint Seraphin of Montegranaro
Seraphin of Montegranaro
Saint Seraphin of Montegranaro is an Italian saint. Born Felice de Nicola at Montegranaro of a poor, pious family, in his youth he was employed as a shepherd, an occupation which gave him much leisure for prayer and other pious exercises. Upon the death of his parents, he was subjected to harsh...
. The friends therefore decided to refer to their group as an “order” and to give it the name The Seraphin Brethren [Die Seraphinenbrüder]. After about two years of gatherings at Hoffmann’s home or the Café Manderlee on the famous boulevard Unter den Linden
Unter den Linden
Unter den Linden is a boulevard in the Mitte district of Berlin, the capital of Germany. It is named for its linden trees that line the grassed pedestrian mall between two carriageways....
, the circle gradually dissolved, partly, it is thought, because of the departure of one of its members, 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...
, for a sailing trip around the world with the Russian Rurik Expedition, which had been organized to find a Northwest Passage
Northwest Passage
The Northwest Passage is a sea route through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways amidst the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans...
(Kremer, 1999, 165).
Serapion Brethren
On November 13, 1818, Hoffmann’s publisher gave him a sizable advance on the publication of a multivolume collection of his novellas and fairytales. To celebrate this happy event (Hoffmann was quite impecunious at the time), the author invited his friends from the old Seraphin Brethren to his home on November 14 for the purpose of celebrating the advance and reviving the literary group. Another reason for celebration was the return of Chamisso from his travels. Hoffmann’s wife Micha brought the calendar, and the date was seen to be the feast day of Saint Serapion. Accordingly, the old order was rechristened The Serapion Brethren (Die Serapionsbrüder) (the Catholic list of saints [see “Catholic Online” at WWW.catholic.org]) shows eleven Saint Serapions; the one after which the group was named was probably Saint Serapion the Sindonite, a fourth-century Egyptian hermit and monk) (Kaiser 1988, 64; Pikulik 2004, 135).The Serapion Brethren included the following members:
- Hoffmann’s lifelong friend and occasional benefactor Theodor Gottlieb von HippelTheodor Gottlieb von HippelTheodor Gottlieb von Hippel was a German satirical and humorous writer.Hippel was born at Gerdauen in the Kingdom of Prussia, where his father was rector of a school. He enjoyed an excellent education at home, and in his sixteenth year he entered the University of Königsberg as a student of theology...
- Hoffmann’s colleague in the civil service and first biographer Julius Eduard HitzigJulius Eduard HitzigJulius Eduard Hitzig was a German author and civil servant.Born into the wealthy and influential Jewish Itzig family, he was between 1799 and 1806 a Prussian civil servant, became Criminal Counsel at the Berlin Supreme Court in 1815 and its director in 1825...
- Poet Friedrich de la Motte FouquéFriedrich de la Motte FouquéFriedrich 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...
- Novelist Adelbert von ChamissoAdelbert von ChamissoAdelbert 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...
- Dramatist, novelist, and merchant Karl Wilhelm Salice-Contessa
- Prussian military officer Friedrich von Pfuel
- Physician David Ferdinand KoreffDavid Ferdinand KoreffDavid Ferdinand Koreff was a German physician who was a personal doctor of Staatskanzler Karl August von Hardenberg and occupied one of the two chairs for animal magnetism created in 1817 at the University of Berlin. A personal friend of E.T.A...
- Theologian Johann Georg Seegemund
Others participated from time to time in the group’s meetings as guests.
The book title
In February 1818, the Berlin publisher Georg Reimer offered to publish a compilation of Hoffmann’s previously published but scattered novellas and fairytales. Hoffmann suggested uniting the disparate works by presenting them in a fictional framework of readings and conversations among a group of friends in the manner of Ludwig TieckLudwig Tieck
Johann Ludwig Tieck was a German poet, translator, editor, novelist, writer of Novellen, and critic, who was one of the founding fathers of the Romantic movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.-Early life:...
’s Phantastus (Kremer 1999, 164) (and, although Hoffmann did not say this, in the manner of Giovanni Boccaccio
Giovanni Boccaccio
Giovanni Boccaccio was an Italian author and poet, a friend, student, and correspondent of Petrarch, an important Renaissance humanist and the author of a number of notable works including the Decameron, On Famous Women, and his poetry in the Italian vernacular...
’s The Decameron
The Decameron
The Decameron, also called Prince Galehaut is a 14th-century medieval allegory by Giovanni Boccaccio, told as a frame story encompassing 100 tales by ten young people....
, albeit in an urban rather than a pastoral setting). For the collection, Hoffmann first suggested to Reimer the title The Seraphin Brethren. Collected Novellas and Fairytales, after the old literary group. Once the group was reconstituted, however, Hoffmann dropped the subtitle and called the compilation simply The Serapion Brethren (Segebrecht 2001, 1213).
In eight meetings, the friends in the fictional framework narrative, Ottmar, Theodor, Lothar, Cyprian, Vinzenz, and Sylvester, orally present a total of 28 stories (only 19 have titles) and comment in some detail on their quality and on whether or not they adhere to a certain “Serapion Principle” that becomes clear to the reader as the narrative progresses. Attempts have been made, especially in older scholarly works, to assign the names of some of the real Serapion Brethren to the fictitious ones. Ellinger (1925, 40), for example, sees Ottmar, Theodor, Sylvester, and Vinzenz, as Hitzig, Hoffmann, Contessa, and Koreff, respectively. In reality, of course, all the narrators are Hoffmann himself, who, after all, was writing fiction (Steinecke 1997, 115).