EICHENDORFF, JOSEPH. – The last German Romantic poet, born at Lubowitz on 10 March 1788, died at Neisse on 27 November 1857. He was great because of the marked predominance of the lyrical element, which even in the novel and drama overshadowed narrative and action, but which gave his Lieder an incomparable lightness, extending into dream and music. This temperament, leading him to translate the ideal into action, also stamped his real life.
Foreseeing the impending conflicts for his homeland in Ahnung und Gegenwart (a novel already completed in 1811), and a bitter enemy of foreign domination, he enlisted as a volunteer when the struggle began and took part in the campaigns of 1813–15. A fervent Catholic, he not only exalted his religion in numerous literary and historical-artistic writings, also aimed at revising the dominant Protestant critical judgment and celebrating Catholicism as the sole source of modern poetry (Über die ethische und religiöse Bedeutung der neueren romantischen Poesie in Deutschland, 1847; Der deutsche Roman des 18. Jahrh. in seinem Verhältnis zum Christentum, 1851; Zur Geschichte des Dramas, 1854; Geschichte der poetischen Literatur Deutschlands, 1857; as well as the excellent German translation of Calderón’s religious dramas, 1846–57), but also pursued a corresponding course of action (for example, working for the restoration of the convent of Marienburg, and resigning from the Ministry of Religious Affairs in Berlin because of his strict Catholic convictions; an attitude ultimately harmful to his art, which would yield too much to concern for content: Julian, 1853; Robert und Guiscard, 1855; Lucius, 1857). He was also the popular Romantic lyric poet (his poetry drew considerably on the Volkslied, hence his collaboration on Arnim and Brentano’s Wunderhorn), characterized by pure faith, chaste senses, boundless love of nature, and harmless humor, which, between sensual pleasure and religion, resolutely chose the latter (Marmarbild). His Poesie (already published in 1813) were collected in 1857. The abundance of Lieder in his novels and novellas proves the predominance of sentiment; even Vita d'un bonne a nulla (his most famous novella) can therefore fail to please only those who are not true friends of poetry. His epic works are difficult to read; the finest tragedy is Der letzte Held von Marienburg.