Ernst Hoffmann was a German romantic writer, artist, lawyer and composer. He was a very versatile person. During his biography, he managed to create many brilliant works in the field of literature and music.
Music
During the period of biography 1807-1808. Hoffman lived in . At this time, he made money as a tutor, teaching music lessons.
However, this money was completely insufficient even for a meager existence, as a result of which he often experienced serious financial difficulties.
Nevertheless, Hoffmann continued to be interested in art, since he saw only in it. Over time, he discovered his talent as a composer.
Over the course of several years, he wrote many musical works, including the operas Aurora and Ondine, Harlequin and piano sonatas.
In 1808, Hoffmann worked as a theater conductor. After that he conducted in German theaters.
An interesting fact is that when he was about 30 years old, he changed his name “Wilhelm” to “Amadeus”, because he was a great admirer. It is fair to say that he also proved himself excellent as a music critic.
Hoffmann's biographers agree that his literary works are inseparable from music. This can be clearly seen in the short stories “Cavalier Gluck” and “Kreisleriana”.
In 1815, Hoffmann lost his position as bandmaster, and therefore was forced to return to the service he hated so much. However, working as a lawyer allowed him to be financially independent and left him plenty of time for creativity.
Works of Hoffmann
During his life, Hoffmann composed dozens of fairy tales, stories and novels. Many animated and feature films have been made based on his works. In addition, performances based on the playwright's plays are staged all over the world.
As a writer, Hoffman realized himself most of all in the last decade of his biography. The following works brought him the greatest popularity:
- "Elixirs of Satan";
- "Lord of the Fleas";
- “The Life Beliefs of Murr the Cat”;
- "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King";
- "Serapion's brothers."
Personal life
During his biography, Hoffman repeatedly fell in love with women. While still a student, he dated a young girl, Dora, for several years. However, he could not propose to her because she was married and had five children.
In 1800, Hoffmann met Michaelina Rohrer-Trzczyńska. The young people often communicated and found a lot in common with each other. After 2 years, he realized that he was in love with a girl.
For this reason, Hoffmann broke off his engagement to his cousin Minna Dörfer in order to marry Michaelina. An interesting fact is that for the sake of his future wife, he converted to Catholicism.
Hoffmann never regretted his decision. He loved his wife to the point of unconsciousness, who supported him in every possible way and was a reliable support for him.
Death
From 1818, Hoffmann's health began to gradually deteriorate. This was facilitated by problems at work, as well as alcohol abuse. Soon he was diagnosed with a spinal cord disease.
In addition, the writer had strained relations with government officials. In his works, he repeatedly criticized and ridiculed the police, informers and spies held in high esteem by the Prussian government.
He even managed to get the chief of police fired, causing him to be hated by the entire police department.
At the beginning of 1822, Hoffmann's health deteriorated sharply. Soon he developed paralysis, which constantly progressed and did not allow him to fully engage in creativity. The day before his death, paralysis reached the composer’s neck.
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HOFFMANN, ERNST THEODOR AMADEUS(Hoffman, Ernst Theodor Amadeus) (1776–1822), German writer, composer and artist, whose fantasy stories and novels embodied the spirit of German romanticism. Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann was born on January 24, 1776 in Königsberg (East Prussia). Already at an early age he discovered his talents as a musician and draftsman. He studied law at the University of Königsberg, then served as a judicial officer in Germany and Poland for twelve years. In 1808, his love of music prompted Hoffmann to take the post of theater conductor in Bamberg; six years later he conducted orchestras in Dresden and Leipzig. In 1816 he returned to public service as an adviser to the Berlin Court of Appeal, where he served until his death on July 24, 1822.
Hoffmann took up literature late. The most significant collections of stories Fantasies in the manner of Callot (Fantasiestücke in Callots Manier, 1814–1815), Night stories in the style of Callot (Nachtstücke in Callots Manier, 2 vol., 1816–1817) and Serapion brothers (Die Serapionsbrüder, 4 vol., 1819–1821); dialogue about the problems of theater business The extraordinary suffering of one theater director (Seltsame Leiden eines Theaterdirectors, 1818); story in the spirit of a fairy tale Little Tsakhes, nicknamed Zinnober (Klein Zaches, genannt Zinnober, 1819); and two novels - Devil's Elixir (Die Elexiere des Teufels, 1816), a brilliant study of the problem of twinning, and Everyday views of the cat Murr (Lebensansichten des Kater Murr, 1819–1821), partly autobiographical work, full of wit and wisdom. Among the most famous stories of Hoffmann, included in the mentioned collections, is the fairy tale golden pot (Die Goldene Topf), gothic story Majorate (Das Mayorat), a realistic psychological story about a jeweler who is unable to part with his creations, Mademoiselle de Scudery (Das Fraulein von Scudéry) and a series of musical short stories, in which the spirit of some musical works and the images of composers are extremely successfully recreated.
Brilliant imagination combined with a strict and transparent style provided Hoffmann with a special place in German literature. The action of his works almost never took place in distant lands - as a rule, he placed his incredible heroes in everyday settings. Hoffmann had a strong influence on E. Poe and some French writers; Several of his stories served as the basis for the libretto of the famous opera - Hoffmann's fairy tale(1870) J. Offenbach.
All of Hoffmann's works testify to his talents as a musician and artist. He illustrated many of his creations himself. Of Hoffmann's musical works, the most famous was the opera Undine (Undine), first staged in 1816; Among his compositions are chamber music, mass, and symphony. As a music critic, he showed in his articles such an understanding of the music of L. Beethoven, which few of his contemporaries could boast of. Hoffmann was so deeply revered
Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann was born in 1776. His place of birth is Koenigsberg. At first, Wilhelm was present in his name, but he himself changed the name because he loved Mozart very much. His parents divorced when he was only 3 years old, and he was raised by his grandmother - his mother's mother. His uncle was a lawyer and a very smart man. Their relationship was quite complicated, but the uncle influenced his nephew and the development of his various talents.
early years
When Hoffman grew up, he also decided that he would become a lawyer. He entered the university in Koenigsberg, after studying he served in different cities, his profession was a judicial official. But such a life was not for him, so he began to draw and play music, which is how he tried to make a living.
Soon he met his first love Dora. At that time she was only 25, but she was married and had already given birth to 5 children. They entered into a relationship, but gossip began in the city, and relatives decided that they needed to send Hoffmann to Glogau to another uncle.
The beginning of a creative journey
In the late 1790s, Hoffmann became a composer and took the pseudonym Johann Kreisler. There are several works that are quite famous, for example, the opera he wrote in 1812 called “Aurora”. Hoffmann also worked in the Bamberg theater and served as bandmaster and was also a conductor.
As fate would have it, Hoffman returned to civil service. When he passed the exam in 1800, he began working as an assessor at the Poznań Supreme Court. In this city he met Michaelina, with whom he married.
Literary creativity
THIS. Hoffmann began writing his works in 1809. The first short story was called “Cavalier Gluck”, it was published by the Leipzig newspaper. When he returned to law in 1814, he simultaneously wrote fairy tales, including “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.” At the time when Hoffmann was creating, German romanticism flourished. If you read the works carefully, you can see the main trends of the school of romanticism. For example, irony, the ideal artist, the value of art. The writer demonstrated the conflict that occurred between reality and utopia. He constantly makes fun of his characters who are trying to find some kind of freedom in art.
Researchers of Hoffman's work are unanimous in their opinion that it is impossible to separate his biography, his work from his music. Especially if you watch short stories - for example, “Kreysleriana”.
The thing is that the main character in it is Johannes Kreisler (as we remember, this is the author’s pseudonym). The work is an essay, their topics are different, but the hero is the same. It has long been recognized that it is Johann who is considered Hoffmann's double.
In general, the writer is a rather bright person, he is not afraid of difficulties, he is ready to fight the blows of fate in order to achieve a certain goal. And in this case it is art.
"Nutcracker"
This tale was published in a collection in 1716. When Hoffmann created this work, he was impressed by the children of his friend. The children's names were Marie and Fritz; Hoffmann gave their names to his characters. If we read Hoffmann’s “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King,” an analysis of the work will show us the moral principles that the author tried to convey to children.
Briefly the story is this: Marie and Fritz are preparing for Christmas. The godfather always makes a toy for Marie. But after Christmas this toy is usually taken away as it is very skillfully made.
The children come to the Christmas tree and see that there is a whole bunch of gifts there, the girl finds the Nutcracker. This toy is used to crack nuts. Once Marie started playing with dolls, and at midnight mice appeared, led by their king. It was a huge mouse with seven heads.
Then the toys, led by the Nutcracker, come to life and enter into battle with the mice.
Brief Analysis
If you analyze Hoffmann's work "The Nutcracker", it is noticeable that the writer tried to show how important goodness, courage, mercy are, that you cannot leave anyone in trouble, you must help, show courage. Marie was able to see his light in the unsightly Nutcracker. She liked his good nature, and she tried with all her might to protect her pet from her nasty brother Fritz, who was always hurting the toy.
Despite everything, she tries to help the Nutcracker, giving sweets to the impudent Mouse King, so long as he does not harm the soldier. Courage and courage are demonstrated here. Marie and her brother, the toys and the Nutcracker team up to achieve the goal of defeating the Mouse King.
This work is also quite famous, and Hoffmann created it when, in 1814, French troops led by Napoleon approached Dresden. At the same time, the city in the descriptions is quite real. The author talks about the life of people, how they rode on a boat, visited each other, held folk festivals and much more.
The events of the fairy tale take place in two worlds, this is the real Dresden, as well as Atlantis. If you analyze the work “The Golden Pot” by Hoffmann, you can see that the author describes a harmony that you cannot find in ordinary life during the day with fire. The main character is the student Anselm.
The writer tried to beautifully tell about the valley, where beautiful flowers grow, amazing birds fly, where all the landscapes are simply magnificent. Once upon a time, the spirit of the Salamanders lived there, he fell in love with the Fire Lily and inadvertently caused the destruction of Prince Phosphorus' garden. Then the prince drove this spirit into the world of people and told him what Salamander’s future would be: people would forget about miracles, he would meet his beloved again, they would have three daughters. Salamander will be able to return home when his daughters find lovers who are ready to believe that a miracle is possible. In the story, Salamander can also see the future and predict it.
Works of Hoffmann
It must be said that although the author had very interesting musical works, nevertheless, he is known as a storyteller. Hoffmann's works for children are quite popular, some of them can be read by a small child, some by a teenager. For example, if you take the fairy tale about the Nutcracker, then it will be suitable for both.
“The Golden Pot” is a rather interesting fairy tale, but filled with allegories and double meanings, which demonstrates the basics of morality that are relevant in our difficult times, for example, the ability to make friends and help, protect, and show courage.
Suffice it to recall “The Royal Bride” - a work that was based on real events. We are talking about an estate where a scientist lives with his daughter.
The underground king rules the vegetables; he and his retinue come to Anna’s garden and occupy it. They dream that one day only human vegetables will live on the entire Earth. It all started with Anna finding an unusual ring...
Tsakhes
In addition to the fairy tales described above, there are other works of this kind by Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann - “Little Tsakhes, nicknamed Zinnober.” Once upon a time there lived a little freak. The fairy took pity on him.
She decided to give him three hairs that have magical properties. As soon as something happens in the place where Tsakhes is located, significant or talented, or someone says something similar, then everyone thinks that he did it. And if the dwarf does something dirty, then everyone thinks about others. Possessing such a gift, the little one becomes a genius among the people, and he is soon appointed minister.
"New Year's Eve Adventure"
One night just before the New Year, a traveling comrade ended up in Berlin, where a completely magical story happened to him. He meets Julia, his beloved, in Berlin.
Such a girl actually existed. Hoffman taught her music and was in love, but her family engaged Julia to someone else.
"The Story of the Missing Reflection"
An interesting fact is that in general, in the author’s works, the mystical appears somewhere every now and then, and it’s not worth talking about the unusual. Skillfully mixing humor and moral principles, feelings and emotions, the real and unreal world, Hoffman achieves the full attention of his reader.
This fact can be seen in the interesting work “The Story of the Missing Reflection.” Erasmus Speaker really wanted to visit Italy, which he was able to achieve, but there he met a beautiful girl, Juliet. He committed a bad act, as a result of which he had to go home. Telling everything to Juliet, he says that he would like to stay with her forever. In response, she asks him to give his reflection.
Other works
It must be said that Hoffmann’s famous works are of different genres and for different ages. For example, the mystical "Ghost Story".
Hoffmann is very drawn to mysticism, which can be seen in stories about vampires, about a fatal nun, about a sandman, as well as in a series of books called “Night Studies.”
An interesting fairy tale about the lord of fleas, where we are talking about the son of a rich merchant. He doesn't like what his father is doing, and he doesn't intend to go down the same path. This life is not for him, and he is trying to escape from reality. However, he is unexpectedly arrested, although he does not understand why. The Privy Councilor wants to find a criminal, but he is not interested in whether the criminal is guilty or not. He knows for sure that every person can have some kind of sin.
Most of Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann's works contain a lot of symbolism, myths and legends. Fairy tales are generally difficult to divide by age. For example, take “The Nutcracker”, this story is so intriguing, filled with adventures and love, events that happen to Mary, that it will be quite interesting for children and teenagers, and even adults will re-read it with pleasure.
Cartoons are made based on this work, plays, ballets, etc. are repeatedly staged.
The photo shows the first performance of "The Nutcracker" at the Mariinsky Theater.
But other works by Ernst Hoffmann may be a little difficult for a child to understand. Some people come to these works quite consciously to enjoy Hoffmann's extraordinary style, his bizarre mixture.
Hoffman is attracted to the theme when a person suffers from madness, commits some kind of crime, and has a “dark side.” If a person has imagination, has feelings, then he can fall into madness and commit suicide. In order to write the story "The Sandman", Hoffman studied scientific works on diseases and clinical components. The novella attracted the attention of researchers, among them was Sigmund Freud, who even dedicated his essay to this work.
Everyone decides for themselves at what age they should read Hoffmann’s books. Some people don't quite understand his overly surreal language. However, as soon as you start reading the work, you are inevitably drawn into this mixed mystical and crazy world, where a gnome lives in a real city, where spirits walk the streets, and lovely snakes are looking for their handsome princes.
Hoffmann's fate was tragic. The script was simple. A gifted artist-commoner strives to build a new culture and thereby elevate the Motherland, and in return receives insults, poverty, reaching poverty, and abandonment.
Family
In Königsberg, lawyer Ludwig Hoffmann and his cousin wife gave birth to a son, Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann, on a cold January day in 1776. In a little over two years, the parents will divorce due to the unbearably difficult character of the mother. Three-year-old Theodor Hoffman, whose biography begins with fractures, ends up in the respectable burgher family of his lawyer uncle. But his teacher is no stranger to art, fantasy and mysticism.
At the age of six, the boy begins his studies at a reform school. At the age of seven he will acquire a faithful friend, Gottlieb Hippel, who will help Theodore in difficult periods and remain faithful to him until his death. Hoffmann's musical and pictorial talents manifested themselves early, and he was sent to study with the organist-composer Podbelsky and the artist Zeman.
University
Under the influence of his uncle, Ernst enters the law department of the University of Königsberg. At this time he was teaching there, but his lectures did not attract the attention of such a person as Hoffmann. The biography says that all his aspirations are art (piano, painting, theater) and love.
A seventeen-year-old boy is deeply infatuated with a married woman who is nine years older than him. However, he graduates with honors from the educational institution. His love and relationship with a married woman is revealed, and in order to avoid a scandal, the young man is sent to Glogau to his uncle in 1796.
Service
For some time he served in Glogau. But he is always busy trying to be transferred to Berlin, where he ends up in 1798. The young man passes the next exam and receives the title of assessor. But while practicing law out of necessity, Hoffmann, whose biography shows a deep passion for music, simultaneously studies the principles of musical composition. At this time, he will write a play and will try to stage it on stage. He is sent to serve in Poznan. There he will write another musical and dramatic play, which will be staged in this small Polish town. But gray everyday life does not satisfy the artist’s soul. He uses caricatures of local society as an outlet. Another scandal occurs, after which Hoffmann is exiled to provincial Plock.
After a while, Hoffman finally finds his happiness. His biography changes thanks to his marriage to a quiet, friendly, but far from her husband’s stormy aspirations girl Mikhalina, or Misha for short. She will patiently endure all the antics and hobbies of her husband, and a daughter born in marriage will die at the age of two. In 1804, Hoffmann was transferred to Warsaw.
In the Polish capital
He serves, but devotes all his free time and thoughts to music. Here he writes another musical performance and changes his third name. This is how Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann appears. The biography speaks of admiration for the work of Mozart. My thoughts are occupied with music and painting. He paints the Mniszech Palace for the “Musical Society” and does not notice that Napoleon’s troops have entered Warsaw. The service is stopped, there is nowhere to get money. He sends his wife to Poznan, and he tries to get to Vienna or Berlin.
Need and lack of money
But in the end, life brings Hoffmann to the town of Bamberg, where he receives the position of bandmaster. He also takes his wife there. Here the idea of the first story “Cavalier Gluck” arises. This period does not last long, but it is truly terrible. No money. The maestro even sells his old frock coat to eat. Hoffmann simply makes do with music lessons in private homes. He dreamed of devoting his life to art, but as a result he became deeply despairing, which apparently affected his health and his too early death.
In 1809, the irrational story “Cavalier Gluck” was published, in which the free personality of the artist is contrasted with a musty society. This is how literature enters the life of a creator. Always striving for music, Hoffmann, whose biography is complete and multifaceted, will leave an indelible mark on another form of art.
Berlin
After lengthy and inconsistent, like any great artist, tossing and turning, on the advice of his school friend Hippel, Hoffmann moved to Berlin and again “harnessed” to work in the field of the judiciary. He, in his own words, is “in prison” again, which does not prevent him from being an excellent expert in law. By 1814, his works “The Golden Pot” and “Fantasies in the Manner of Callot” were published.
Theodor Hoffmann (his biography shows this) is recognized as a writer. He visits literary salons, where he is shown signs of attention. But until the end of his life he would retain an enthusiastic love of music and painting. By 1815, poverty was leaving his home. But he curses his own fate, like the fate of a lonely, small, crushed and weak man.
Prose of life and art
Ernst Hoffmann, whose biography continues very prosaically, still serves as a lawyer and compares his hated work with the meaningless, endless and joyless work of Sisyphus. Not only music and literature, but also a glass of wine becomes an outlet. When he forgets himself for a bottle in a tavern and then returns home, he has frightening fantasies that fall on paper.
But “The Worldly Views of Murr the Cat,” who lives in his home in love and comfort, becomes perfection. The hero of the novel, Kreisler, a priest of “pure art,” changes cities and principalities of the country in search of a corner where he can find harmony between society and the artist. Kreisler, whose autobiography is not in doubt, dreams of raising a person from colorless everyday life to the heights of the divine spirit, to higher spheres.
Completion of life's journey
First, Murr's beloved cat will die. Less than a year will pass before the great romantic, who was already charting a new realistic path in literature, Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann, will die of paralysis at the age of 46. His biography is the path of searching for a way out of the “game of dark forces” to the “crystal streams of poetry.”
Hoffmann, Ernst Theodor Amadeus (Wilhelm), one of the most original and fantastic German writers, was born on January 24, 1774 in Konigsberg, died on July 24, 1822 in Berlin.
A lawyer by training, he chose the judicial profession, in 1800 he became an assessor of the chamberlain in Berlin, but soon for several offensive caricatures he was transferred to service in Warsaw, and with the invasion of the French in 1806 he finally lost his position. Possessing remarkable musical talent, he provided music lessons, articles in music magazines, and was an opera conductor in Bamberg (1808), Dresden and Leipzig (1813-15). In 1816, Hoffmann again received the post of member of the royal chamberlain in Berlin, where he died after suffering painfully from tabes spinal cord.
Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann. Self-portrait
He studied music with love from his youth. In Poznań he staged Goethe's operetta Joke, Cunning and Revenge; in Warsaw - “The Merry Musicians” by Brentano and, in addition, the operas: “The Canon of Milan” and “Love and Jealousy,” the text of which he himself compiled based on foreign models. He also wrote music for the opera “Cross on the Baltic Sea” by Werner and an opera adaptation of “Ondine” by Fouquet for the Berlin theater.
An invitation to collect articles scattered in the Musical Newspaper prompted him to publish a collection of short stories, Fantasies in the Manner of Callot (1814), which aroused considerable interest and earned him the nickname “Hoffmann-Callot.” This was followed by: “Vision on the Battlefield of Dresden” (1814); novel “Elixirs of Satan” (1816); fairy tale “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” (1816); collection “Night Studies” (1817); essay “The Extraordinary Sufferings of the Theater Director” (1818); the collection “The Serapion Brothers” (1819-1821, which includes the famous masterpieces “Master Martin the Cooper and His Apprentices”, “Mademoiselle de Scudéry”, “Arthur’s Hall”, “Doge and Dogaressa”); story-fairy tale “Little Tsakhes, nicknamed Zinnober” (1819); "Princess Brambilla" (1821); novels "Lord of the Fleas" (1822); “The Everyday Views of Murr the Cat” (1821) and a number of later works.
Geniuses and villains. Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann
Hoffmann was an extremely original person, gifted with extraordinary talents, wild, intemperate, passionately devoted to night revelry, but at the same time an excellent business man and lawyer. With a sharp and healthy rationality, thanks to which he quickly noticed the weak and funny sides of phenomena and things, he, however, was distinguished by all kinds of fantastic views and an amazing belief in demonism. Eccentric in his inspiration, an epicurean to the point of effeminacy and a stoic to the point of harshness, a fantasist to the point of the ugliest madness and a witty mocker to the point of unimaginative prosaicism, he combined in himself the strangest opposites, which are also characteristic of most of the plots of his stories. In all his works one notices, first of all, a lack of calm. His imagination and humor irresistibly draw the reader along. Gloomy images are constant companions of the action; the wildly demonic breaks even into the everyday world of philistine modernity. But even in the most fantastic, formless works, the features of Hoffmann’s great talent, his genius, his ebullient wit are revealed.
As a music critic, he stood for G. Spontini and Italian music against K. M. f. Weber and the blossoming German opera, but contributed to the understanding Mozart And Beethoven. Hoffmann was also an excellent caricaturist; he owns several cartoons
