Also known as:
German: Niembsch Edler von Strehlenau
LENAU, Nikolaus (Nikolaus Franz Niembsch von Strehlenau). - German-Hungarian poet, b. 13 Aug. 1802 at Csatád near Temesvár, d. 22 Aug. 1850 in the asylum of Oberdöbling near Vienna.
His poems, written over the course of his whole life (Gedichte, 1832; Neue Gedichte, 1838 and 1844), soon became famous. He attempted the subject of Faust (1836) in a kind of dramatic rhapsody, a work of doubt and gnawing discontent, which is under the evident influence of Spinozist doctrines, but wavers between acceptance and condemnation of pantheism and ends with the death of the hero. He then approached the epic-dramatic poem on a religious subject and wrote: Savonarola (1837) and Die Albigenser (1842), in which L. believes possible a religious feeling freed from dogma and a freedom withdrawn from every moral and political limit. The last work, the dialogue poem Don Juan (1844), remained unfinished, because the outbreak of latent madness made confinement in an asylum necessary in 1844.
His lyric poetry is of high artistic value, and it also reveals his very strong musical sensibility. They are for the most part descriptions of nature, a nature as if animated by elemental and demonic spirits; and it is always a landscape-state of mind, which mirrors the intimate desolation, the shadow of an I in which the light slowly fades.
L. does not belong to the Romantics but is freer and more modern, closer to Schopenhauerian and Leopardian pessimism. A Catholic in his youth, he later drifted away from the faith and, through Christianity conceived as a religion of suffering, thought he could attain that freedom of the spirit which he identified with his god. Die Albigenser are on the Index (decree of 30 Sept. 1845).
Bibliography7 worksEditions: Sämtliche Werke edited by A. Grün, 4 vols., Stuttgart 1851; Sämtliche Werke, edited by G. E. Barthel, 4 vols., Leipzig 1885-87 (wi
BIBL.: Editions: Sämtliche Werke edited by A. Grün, 4 vols., Stuttgart 1851; Sämtliche Werke, edited by G. E. Barthel, 4 vols., Leipzig 1885-87 (with an extensive biography); E. Castle, Sämtliche Werke und Briefe, critical edition by E. Castle, 6 vols., ibid. 1910-1923. Studies: R. Schröter, L.s Faust, Marburg 1922-23; H. Walther, L.s Savonarola, Frankfurt am Main 1925; M. Schaeffenberg, L.s Dichterwerk als Spiegel der Zeit. Ein Beitrag zur religiösen Geistesgeschichte des XIX. Jahrhunderts. Erlangen 1935; L. Bellanca, Pessimismo e religione nell'ultimo L., Palermo 1935; V. Errante, L., storia di un martire della poesia, Messina 1935.
Cori, Alba. “Lenau, nikolaus (nikolaus franz niembsch von strehlenau).” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VII, coll. 1098–1099. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1951. https://azioneromana.com/article/lenau-nikolaus-nikolaus-franz-niembsch-von-strehlenau.
MLA
Cori, Alba. “Lenau, nikolaus (nikolaus franz niembsch von strehlenau).” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VII, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1951, coll. 1098–1099. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/lenau-nikolaus-nikolaus-franz-niembsch-von-strehlenau.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec7_lenau_nikolaus_nikolaus_franz,
author = {Cori, Alba},
title = {Lenau, nikolaus (nikolaus franz niembsch von strehlenau)},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {VII},
pages = {1098--1099},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1951},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/lenau-nikolaus-nikolaus-franz-niembsch-von-strehlenau}
}
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