Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann (January 24, 1776 –
June 25, 1822), better known by his
pen
name E.T.A. Hoffmann (Ernst Theodor
Amadeus Hoffmann), was a German
Romantic author of
fantasy and horror, a jurist,
composer, music
critic, draftsman and caricaturist. He is the subject and hero
of
Jacques Offenbach's famous but
fictional opera
The Tales of
Hoffmann. Hoffmann's stories were very influential during
the 19th century, and he is one of the major authors of
the Romantic movement.
Life
Youth
Hoffmann's ancestors, both maternal and paternal, were
jurists.
His father, Christoph Ludwig Hoffmann
(1736–97) was a barrister in Königsberg
, Prussia
, and also a poet and amateur musician who played
the viola da gamba. During
1767 he married his cousin Lovisa Albertina Doerffer (1748–96).
Ernst Theodor Wilhelm, born on January 24, 1776, was the youngest
of three children, of whom the second died in infancy.
His
parents separated during 1778, the father going to Insterburg
(now Chernyakhovsk) with his elder son, Johann
Ludwig Hoffmann (1768–after 1822), while Ernst's mother stayed in
Königsberg with her relatives: two aunts, Johanna Sophie Doerffer
(1745-1803) and Charlotte Wilhelmine Doerffer (c. 1754-79)
and their brother, Otto Wilhelm Doerffer (1741–1811), who were all
unmarried. This trio educated the youngster.
The household, dominated by the uncle (whom Ernst nicknamed
O
Weh or "Oh dear" in a play on his initials), was pietistic and
uncongenial. Hoffmann was to regret his estrangement from his
father. Nevertheless,he remembered his aunts with great affection,
especially the younger, Charlotte, whom he nicknamed
Tante
Füßchen ("Aunt Littlefeet"). Although she died when he was
only three years old, he treasured her memory (e.g. see
Kater
Murr) and embroidered stories about her to such an extent that
later biographers sometimes assumed her to be imaginary, until
proofs of her existence were found after
World War II.
Between 1781 and 1792 he attended the Lutheran school or
Burgschule, where he made good progress in classics. He
was taught drawing by one Saemann, and counterpoint by a Polish
organist named Podbileski, who was to be the prototype of Abraham
Liscot in
Kater Murr. Ernst showed great talent for
piano-playing, and busied himself with writing and drawing. The
provincial setting was not, however, conducive to technical
progress, and despite his many-sided talents he remained relatively
ignorant, both of classical forms and of the new artistic ideas
that were then developing in Germany. He had however read
Schiller,
Goethe,
Swift,
Sterne,
Rousseau, and
Jean
Paul, and wrote part of a novel called
Der
Geheimnisvolle.
Around 1787 he became friends with
Theodor Gottlieb von
Hippel the Younger (1775-1843), the son of a pastor, and nephew
of
Theodor
Gottlieb von Hippel the Elder, the well-known writer friend of
Immanuel Kant. During 1792, both
attended some of Kant's lectures at the
University of Königsberg.
Their friendship, although often tested by an increasing social
difference, was to be life-long.
During 1794, Hoffmann became enamored of Dora Hatt, a married woman
to whom he had given music lessons. She was ten years older, and
during 1795 gave birth to her sixth child.
During February 1796,
her family protested against his attentions, and, with his
faltering consent, they asked another of his uncles to arrange
employment for him in Glogau 
, Prussian
Silesia
.Rüdiger Safranski. E. T. A. Hoffmann: Das Leben
eines skeptischen Phantasten. Carl Hanser, Munich, 1984. ISBN
3446138226
Gerhard R. Kaiser. E. T. A. Hoffmann. J. B. Metzlersche,
Stuttgart, 1988. ISBN 3476102432
The provinces
From 1796 Hoffmann obtained employment as a clerk for his uncle,
Johann Ludwig Doerffer, who lived in Glogau with his daughter
Minna.
After passing further examinations he visited
Dresden
, where he was amazed by the paintings in the
gallery, particularly those of Correggio
and Raphael. During the summer of
1798 his uncle was promoted to a court in Berlin
, and the
three of them moved there during August — Hoffmann's first
residence in a large city. It was there that Hoffmann first
attempted to promote himself as a composer, writing an operetta
called
Die Maske and sending a copy to Queen
Luise of Prussia. The
official reply advised to him to write to the director of the Royal
Theatre, a man named Iffland.
By the time the latter responded, Hoffmann
had passed his third round of examinations and had already left for
Posen
in South Prussia in
the company of his old friend Hippel, with a brief stop in Dresden
to show him the gallery.
From June 1800 to 1803 he worked in Prussian provinces in the area
of
Greater Poland and
Masovia. This was the first time he had lived
without supervision by members of his family, and he started to
become "what school principals, parsons, uncles, and aunts call
dissolute."His first job, at Posen, was endangered after Carnival
on
Shrove Tuesday 1802, when
caricatures of military officers were distributed at a ball. It was
immediately deduced who had drawn them, and complaints were made to
authorities in Berlin, who were reluctant to punish the promising
young official.
The problem was solved by "promoting"
Hoffmann to PÅ‚ock
in New East Prussia, the former capital of
Poland (1079-1138) where administrative offices were relocated from
Thorn
. He visited the place to arrange lodging,
before returning to Posen where he married "Mischa" (Maria, or
Marianna Tekla Michalina Rorer, whose
Polish surname was Trzcińska). They moved to
PÅ‚ock during August 1802.
Hoffmann despaired because of his exile, and drew caricatures of
himself drowning in mud alongside ragged villagers. One of his
tasks was to devise surnames for
Jews. He found
some poetic ones like
Goldbaum and
Apfelbaum. He
did make use, however, of his isolation, by writing and composing.
He started a diary on 1 October 1803.
An essay on the
theatre was published in Kotzebue
's periodical, Die Freimüthige, and he
entered a competition in the same magazine to write a play.
Hoffmann's was called
Der Preis ("The Prize"), and was
itself about a competition to write a play. There were fourteen
entries, but none was judged worthy of the award: 100
Friedrichs d'or. Nevertheless, his entry was
singled out for praise. This was one of the few good times of a sad
period of his life, which saw the deaths of his uncle J. L.
Hoffmann in Berlin, his Aunt Sophie, and Dora Hatt in
Königsberg.
At the
beginning of 1804 he obtained a post at Warsaw
. On
his way there, he passed through his hometown and met one of Dora
Hatt's daughters. He was never to return to Königsberg.
Warsaw
Hoffmann assimilated well with Polish society; the years spent in
Prussian Poland he recognized as the happiest of his life. In
Warsaw he found the same atmosphere he had enjoyed in Berlin,
renewing his friendship with
Zacharias
Werner, and meeting his future biographer, a neighbour and
fellow jurist called Julius Eduard Itzig (who changed his name to
Hitzig after his baptism). Itzig had been a member of the Berlin
literary group called the
Nordstern, and he gave Hoffmann
the works of
Novalis,
Ludwig Tieck,
Achim
von Arnim,
Clemens Brentano,
Gotthilf Heinrich von
Schubert,
Carlo Gozzi, and
Calderon. These relatively late introductions
marked his work profoundly.
He moved in the circles of
August Wilhelm Schlegel,
Adelbert von Chamisso,
Friedrich de la Motte
Fouqué,
Rahel Levin, and
David Ferdinand Koreff.
Unfortunately, his fortunate position was not to last: on 28
November 1806 during the
War
of the Fourth Coalition,
Napoleon Bonaparte's troops captured
Warsaw, and the Prussian bureaucrats lost their jobs. They divided
the contents of the treasury between them and fled.
During January 1807
his wife and two-year-old daughter Cäcilia returned to Posen, while
he pondered whether to move to Vienna
or go back
to Berlin. A delay of six months was caused by severe
illness. Eventually the French authorities demanded that all former
officials swear allegiance or leave the country. As they refused to
grant him a passport to Vienna, he was forced to return to
Berlin.He visited his family in Posen before arriving in Berlin on
18 June 1807, hoping to further his career there as an artist and
writer.
Berlin and Bamberg
The next fifteen months were some of the worst in Hoffmann's
life.The city of Berlin was also occupied by Napoleon's troops.
Obtaining only meagre allowances, he had frequent recourse to his
friends, constantly borrowing money and still going hungry for days
at a time; he learned that his daughter had died. Nevertheless, he
managed to compose his Six Canticles for
a cappella choir:
one of his best compositions, which he would later attribute to
Kreisler in
Lebensansichten des Katers Murr.
On 1
September 1808 he arrived with his wife in Bamberg
, where he began a job as theatre manager.
The director, Count Soden, left almost immediately for Würzburg,
leaving a man named Heinrich Cuno in charge. Hoffmann was unable to
improve standards of performance, and his efforts caused intrigues
against him which resulted in him losing his job to Cuno.
He began
work as music critic for the Allgemeine musikalische
Zeitung, a newspaper in Leipzig
, and his articles on Beethoven were especially well
received, and highly regarded by the composer himself. It
was in its pages that the "
Kapellmeister Johannes Kreisler" character made his
first appearance.
Hoffmann's breakthrough came during 1809, with the publication of
Ritter Gluck, a story about a man who meets, or believes
he has met, the composer
Christoph Willibald Gluck
(1714-87) more than twenty years after the latter's death. The
theme alludes to the work of
Jean Paul,
who invented the term
Doppelgänger
the previous decade, and continued to exact a powerful influence
over Hoffmann, becoming one of his earliest admirers. With this
publication, Hoffmann began to use the pseudonym E. T. A. Hoffmann,
telling people that the "A" stood for
Amadeus, in homage
to the composer
Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart (1756–91). However, he continued to use Wilhelm in
official documents throughout his life, and the initials E. T. W.
also appear on his gravestone.
The next year, he was employed at the Bamberg Theatre as stagehand,
decorator, and playwright, while also giving private music
lessons.He became so enamored of a young singing student, Julia
Marc, that his feelings were obvious whenever they were together,
and Julia's mother quickly found her a more suitable match. When
Joseph Seconda offered Hoffmann a position as musical director for
his opera company (then performing in Dresden), he accepted,
leaving on 21 April 1813.
Dresden and Leipzig
Prussia had declared war against France on
16
March during the
War of
the Sixth Coalition, and their journey was fraught with
difficulties. They arrived on the 25th, only to find that Seconda
was in Leipzig; on the 26th, they sent a letter pleading for
temporary funds. That same day Hoffmann was surprised to meet
Hippel, whom he had not seen for nine years.
The situation deteriorated, and in early May Hoffmann tried in vain
to find transport to Leipzig. On
8 May, the
bridges were destroyed, and his family were marooned in the city.
During the day, Hoffmann would roam, watching the fighting with
curiosity. Finally, on
20 May, they left for
Leipzig, only to be involved in an accident which killed one of the
passengers in their coach and injured his wife.
They arrived on
23 May, and Hoffmann started
work with Seconda's orchestra, which he found to be of the best
quality. On
4 June an armistice began, which
allowed the company to return to Dresden.
But on 22 August, after the end of the armistice, the
family was forced to relocate from their pleasant house in the
suburbs into the town, and during the next few days the Battle of
Dresden
raged. The city was bombarded; many people
were killed by bombs directly in front of him. After the main
battle was over, he visited the gory battlefield. His account can
be found in
Vision auf dem Schlachtfeld bei Dresden. After
a long period of continued disturbance the town surrendered on
11 November, and on
9 December the company travelled to
Leipzig.
On
25 February Hoffmann quarrelled with
Seconda, and the next day he was given notice of twelve weeks. When
asked to accompany them on their journey to Dresden in April, he
refused, and they left without him. But during July his friend
Hippel visited, and soon he found himself being guided back into
his old career as a jurist.
Berlin
Grave of E.
Translated, the inscription reads: E.
Hoffmann, born on January 24th, 1776, in Königsberg, died on
June 25th, 1822, in Berlin, Counsillor of the Court of Justice,
excellent in his office, as a poet, as a musician, as a painter,
dedicated by his friends.
At the end of September 1814, in the wake of Napoleon's defeat,
Hoffmann returned to Berlin and succeeded in regaining a job at the
Kammergericht, the chamber court. His opera
Undine was performed by the Berlin
Theatre. Its successful run came to an end only after a fire on the
night of the 25th performance. Magazines clamoured for his
contributions, and after a while his standards started to decline.
Nevertheless, many masterpieces date from this time.
During the period from 1819 Hoffmann involved with legal disputes,
while fighting ill health. Alcohol abuse and syphilis eventually
caused weakening of his limbs during 1821, and paralysis from the
beginning of 1822. His last works were dictated to his wife or to a
secretary.
Prince Klemens
Wenzel von Metternich's anti-liberal crusades began to put
Hoffmann in situations that tested his conscience. Thousands of
people were accused of treason for having certain political
opinions,and university professors were monitored during their
lectures.
King
Frederick William
III of Prussia appointed an Immediate Commission for the
investigation of political dissidence; when he found its observance
of the rule of law too frustrating, he established a Ministerial
Commission to interfere with its processes. The latter was greatly
influenced by Commissioner Kamptz. During the trial of
"Turnvater" Jahn, the founder of the
gymnastics association movement, Hoffmann found himself annoying
Kamptz, and became a political target. When Hoffmann caricatured
Kamptz in a story (
Meister Floh), Kamptz began legal
proceedings. These ended when Hoffmann's illness was found to be
life-threatening. The King asked for a reprimand only, but no
action was ever taken. Eventually
Meister Floh was
published with the offending passages removed.
Hoffmann died in Berlin on 25 June 1822 at the age of 46, his grave
is preserved in the
Protestant
Friedhof III der Jerusalems- und Neuen Kirchengemeinde
(Cemetery No.
III of the congregations of Jerusalem's Church and New Church
) in Berlin-Kreuzberg
, south of Hallesches Tor
.
Works
Literary
- Fantasiestücke in Callots Manier (collection of
previously published stories, 1814)
- "Ritter Gluck", "Kreisleriana", "Don Juan", "Nachricht von den
neuesten Schicksalen des Hundes Berganza"
- "Der Magnetiseur", "Der goldne
Topf" (revised in 1819), "Die Abenteuer der
Silvesternacht"
- Die Elixiere des
Teufels (1815)
- Nachtstücke (1817)
- "Der Sandmann", "Das Gelübde",
"Ignaz Denner", "Die Jesuiterkirche in G."
- "Das Majorat", "Das öde Haus", "Das Sanctus", "Das steinerne
Herz"
- Seltsame Leiden eines Theater-Direktors (1819)
- Klein Zaches, genannt Zinnober (1819)
- Die Serapionsbrüder (1819)
- "Der Einsiedler Serapion", "Rat Krespel", "Die Fermate", "Der
Dichter und der Komponist"
- "Ein Fragment aus dem Leben dreier Freunde", "Der Artushof",
"Die Bergwerke zu Falun", "Nußknacker und
Mausekönig" (1816)
- "Der Kampf der Sänger", "Eine Spukgeschichte", "Die Automate",
"Doge und Dogaresse"
- "Alte und neue Kirchenmusik", "Meister Martin der Küfner und
seine Gesellen", "Das fremde Kind"
- "Nachricht aus dem Leben eines bekannten Mannes", "Die
Brautwahl", "Der unheimliche Gast"
- "Das Fräulein von
Scuderi", "Spielerglück" (1819), "Der Baron von B."
- "Signor Formica", "Zacharias Werner", "Erscheinungen"
- "Der Zusammenhang der Dinge", "Vampirismus", "Die ästhetische
Teegesellschaft", "Die Königsbraut"
- Prinzessin Brambilla (1820)
- Lebensansichten
des Katers Murr (1820)
- "Die Irrungen" (1820)
- "Die Geheimnisse" (1821)
- "Die Doppeltgänger" (1821)
- Meister Floh (1822)
- "Des Vetters Eckfenster" (1822)
- Letzte Erzählungen (1825)
Musical
Vocal Music
- Messa d-moll (1805)
- Trois Canzonettes à 2 et à 3 voix (1807)
- 6 Canzoni per 4 voci alla capella (1808)
- Miserere b-moll (1809)
- In des Irtisch weiße Fluten (Kotzebue), Lied (1811)
- Recitativo ed Aria „Prendi l’acciar ti rendo“ (1812)
- Tre Canzonette italiane (1812); 6 Duettini italiani (1812)
- Nachtgesang, Türkische Musik, Jägerlied, Katzburschenlied für
Männerchor (1819-21)
Works for stage
- Die Maske (Libretto: E. T. A. Hoffmann), Singspiel (1799)
- Die lustigen Musikanten (Libretto: Clemens Brentano), Singspiel
(1804)
- Bühnenmusik zu Zacharias Werners Trauerspiel „Das Kreuz an der
Ostsee“ (1805)
- Liebe und Eifersucht (Calderón and August Wilhelm Schlegel)
(1807)
- Arlequin, Ballettmusik (1808)
- Der Trank der Unsterblichkeit (Libretto: Julius von Soden),
romantische Oper (1808)
- Wiedersehn! (Libretto: E. T. A. Hoffmann), Prolog (1809)
- Dirna (Libretto: Julius von Soden), Melodram (1809)
- Bühnenmusik zu Julius von Sodens Drama „Julius Sabinus“
(1810)
- Saul, König von Israel (Libretto: Joseph von Seyfried),
Melodram (1811)
- Aurora (Libretto: Franz von Holbein) heroische Oper (1812)
- Undine (Libretto:
Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué), Zauberoper (1816)
- Der Liebhaber nach dem Tode (beginning only)
Instrumental
- Rondo für Klavier (1794/95)
- Ouvertura. Musica per la chiesa d-moll (1801)
- Klaviersonaten: A-Dur, f-moll, F-Dur, f-moll, cis-moll
(1805-1808)
- Große Fantasie für Klavier (1806)
- Sinfonie Es-Dur (1806)
- Harfenquintett c-moll (1807)
- Grand Trio E-Dur (1809)
- Walzer zum Karolinentag (1812)
- Teutschlands Triumph in der Schlacht bei Leipzig, (by "Arnulph
Vollweiler", 1814; lost)
- Serapions-Walzer (1818-1821)
Nutcracker
Hoffmann's most familiar story is
Nussknacker und
Mausekönig ("
The
Nutcracker and the Mouse King", 1816), which inspired
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet
The Nutcracker (1892). His
story
Der Sandmann ("The
Sandman", 1816) similarly inspired
Léo
Delibes's ballet
Coppélia
(1870).
The Nutcracker story has many mimed phantasies with Marie (Clara in
the ballet), Fritz and Pate Drosselmayr, the mean Mouse King and
the Nutcracker. Many versions of the story have been published as
children's books. Nutcracker performances have become a yearly
feature in many cities around Christmas. Yet these stories, as with
the majority of his literary work, also have philosophical themes.
It is through stories that Hoffmann expresses his aesthetic,
ethical and political concerns. Moreover, the original Hoffmann
stories (including the Nutcracker) often have dark themes.
Assessment
Hoffmann is one of the best-known representatives of
German Romanticism, and a pioneer of the
fantasy genre, with a taste for the
macabre combined with
realism that influenced such authors as
Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849),
Nikolai Gogol (1809–1852),
Charles Dickens (1812–1870),
Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867),
Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821–1881), and
Franz Kafka (1883–1924). Hoffmann's
story
Das Fräulein von
Scuderi is sometimes cited as the first
detective story and a direct influence on
Poe's "
The Murders in the
Rue Morgue".
The twentieth-century Russian literary theorist
Mikhail Bakhtin characterised Hoffmann's
works as
Menippea, essentially satirical
and self-parodying in form, thus including him in a tradition that
includes
Cervantes,
Diderot and
Voltaire.
Robert Schumann's piano suite
Kreisleriana (1838) has its title from
one of Hoffmann's books (and according to
Charles Rosen's
The Romantic
Generation, is possibly also inspired by "The Life and
Opinions of Tomcat Murr", in which Kreisler appears).
Jacques Offenbach's masterwork, the opera
Les contes d'Hoffmann
("The Tales of Hoffmann", 1881), is based on the stories
Der Sandmann ("The Sandman",
1816),
Rat Krespel ("Councillor
Krespel", 1818), and
Das verlorene Spiegelbild ("The Lost
Reflection") from
Die Abenteuer der
Silvester-Nacht ("The Adventures of New Year's Eve",
1814).
Pyotr Ilyich
Tchaikovsky's ballet
The
Nutcracker (1892) is based on "Nutcracker and Mouse
King".
Hoffmann also influenced 19th century musical opinion directly
through his music criticism. His reviews of
Beethoven's
Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67 (1808) and other important
works set new literary standards for writing about music, and
encouraged later writers to consider music as "the most Romantic of
all the arts." Hoffmann's reviews were first collected for modern
readers by
Friedrich Schnapp, ed.,
in
E.T.A. Hoffmann: Schriften zur Musik; Nachlese
(1963) and have been made available in an English translation in
E.T.A. Hoffmann's Writings on Music, Collected in a
Single Volume (2004).
Hoffmann strove for artistic polymathy. He created far more in his
works than mere political commentary achieved through satire. His
masterpiece (it is generally agreed) is
Lebensansichten des Katers
Murr ("The Life and Opinions of Tomcat Murr", 1819–1821).
This novel deals with such issues as the aesthetic status of 'true'
artistry, and the modes of self-transcendence that accompany any
genuine endeavour to create. Hoffmann's portrayal of the character
Kreisler (a genius musician) is wittily counterpointed with the
character of the tomcat Murr — a virtuoso illustration of artistic
pretentiousness that many of Hoffmann's contemporaries found
offensive and subversive of Romantic ideals.
Hoffmann's literature indicates the failings of many so-called
artists to differentiate between the superficial and the authentic
aspects of such Romantic ideals. The
self-conscious effort
to impress must, according to Hoffmann, be divorced from the
self-aware effort to create.This essential duality in
Kater Murr is conveyed structurally through a discursive
'splicing together' of two biographical narratives.
Later influence and references
See also
- Gofmaniada, an upcoming
Russian puppet-animated feature film about Hoffman and several of
his stories.
References
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