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Joseph Viktor von Scheffel

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JOSEPH VIKTOR VON SCHEFFEL (1826-1886), German poet and novelist, was born at Karlsruhe on the 16th of February 1826. His father, a retired major in the Baden army, was a civil engineer and member of the commission for regulating the course of the Rhine; his mother, née Josephine Krederer, the daughter of a prosperous tradesman at Oberndorf on the Neckar, was a woman of great intellectual powers and of a romantic disposition. Young Scheffel was educated at the lyceum at Karlsruhe and afterwards (1843-1847) at the universities of Munich, Heidelberg and Berlin. After passing the state examination for admission to the judicial service, he graduated doctor juris and for four years (1848-1852) held an official position at Sackingen. Here he wrote his poem Der Trompeter von Sackingen (18J3), a romantic and humorous tale which immediately gained extraordinary popularity. It has reached more than 250 editions. Scheffel next undertook a journey to Italy. Returning home in 1853 he found his parents more than ever anxious that he should continue his legal career. But in 1854, defective eyesight incapacitated him; he quitted the government service and took up his residence at Heidelberg, with the intention of preparing himself for a post on the teaching staff of the university. His studies were, however, interrupted by eyedisease, and in search of health he proceeded to Switzerland and took up his abode on the Lake of Constance, and elaborated the plan of his famous historical romance Ekkehard (1857); (Eng. trans. by S. Delffs, Leipzig, 1872). The first ideas for this work he got from the Monumenta Germaniae. It gained popularity hardly inferior to that of the Trompeter von Sackingen. In 1901 it had reached the 179th edition. Scheffel next returned to Heidelberg, and published Gaudeamus, Lieder aus dent Engeren and Weiteren (1868), a collection of joyous and humorous songs, the matter for which is taken partly from German legends, partly from historical subjects. In these songs the author shows himself the light-hearted student, a _friend of wine and song; and their success is unexampled in German literature and encouraged numerous imitators. For two years (1857-1859) Scheffel was custodian of the library of Prince Egon von Fiirstenberg at Donaueschingen,'out giving up his appointment in 1859, visited Joseph Freiherr von Lassberg, at Meersburg on the Lake of Constance, stayed for a while with the grand duke Charles Alexander of Saxe-Weimar at the Wartburg in Thuringia, then, settling at Karlsruhe, he married in 1864 Caroline von Malzen, and, in 1872, retired to his Villa Seehalde near Radolfzell on the lower lake of Constance. On the occasion of his jubilee (1876), which was celebrated all over Germany, he was granted a patent of hereditary nobility by the grand duke of Baden. He died at Karlsruhe on the 9th of April 1886.

His works, other than those alriady mentioned, are Frau Aventiure. Lieder aus Heinrich von Ofterdingens Zeit (1863); Juniperus, Geschichte eines Kreuzfahrers (1866); Bergpsalmen (1870); Waldeinsamkeit (1880); Der Heini von Steier (1883); and Hugideo, eine alte Geschichte (1884). Volumes of Reisebilder (1887); Episteln (1892); and Briefe (1898) were published posthumously. Scheffel's Gesammelte Werke have been published in six volumes (1907). Cf. also A. Ruhemann, Joseph Victor von Scheffel (1887); G. Zernin, Erinnerungen an Joseph Victor von Scheffel (1887); J. PrOlss, Scheffels Leben and Dichten (1887); L. von Kobell, Scheffel and seine Frau (1901); E. Boerschel, J. V. von Scheffel and Emma Heim (1906).