Editing Ferdinand Freiligrath

{{Short description|German poet, translator and liberal agitator}}
[[Image:Ferdinand Freiligrath Hasenclever.jpg|thumb|Ferdinand Freiligrath]][[Image:Freiligrathhaus Unkel 1.jpg|thumb|Ferdinand Freiligrath lived in [[Unkel]] 1839/40]]'''Ferdinand Freiligrath''' (17 June 1810 – 18 March 1876) was a German poet, translator and liberal agitator, who is considered part of the [[Young Germany]] movement.

==Life==
Freiligrath was born in [[Detmold]], [[Principality of Lippe]]. His father was a teacher.<ref name="nie">{{Cite NIE|wstitle=Freiligrath, Ferdinand|year=1905}}</ref> He left a Detmold [[Gymnasium (school)|gymnasium]] at 16 to be trained for a commercial career in [[Soest, Germany|Soest]]. There he also familiarized himself with French and [[English literature]],<ref name="eb1911">{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Freiligrath, Ferdinand|volume=11||last1= Robertson |first1= John George |author1-link= John George Robertson |pages= 94-94||short=1}}</ref> and before he was 20 had published verses in local journals.<ref name="nie"/> He worked in [[Amsterdam]] from 1831 to 1836 as a banker's clerk.  After publishing translations of [[Victor Hugo]]'s ''Odes'' and ''Chants du crépuscule'', and launching a literary journal, ''Rheinisches Odeon'' (1836–38), in 1837 he started working as a bookkeeper in [[Barmen]], where he remained until 1839.<ref name="nie"/> Later on, he started writing poems for the ''[[Musen-Almanach]]'' (edited by [[Adelbert von Chamisso]] and [[Gustav Schwab]]) and the ''[[Morgenblatt für gebildete Stände|Morgenblatt]]'' (ed. [[Johann Friedrich Cotta|Cotta]]).{{Citation needed|date=December 2008}}

His first collection of poems (''Gedichte'') was published in 1838 in Mainz.<ref name="americana">{{Cite Americana|wstitle=Freiligrath, Ferdinand|year=1920}}</ref> This contained his poems "Löwenritt", "Prinz Eugen", and "Der Blumen Rache".<ref name="nie"/> His early poems were inspired by [[Victor Hugo]]'s ''[[Les Orientales|Orientales]]'', which he also partly translated into German; they often dealt with exotic subjects. The poem "Der Mohrenfürst", for example, tells the story of a black prince who was a fierce warrior. He is defeated in battle, sold as a slave and ends up as a drummer in a [[Circus (performing art)|circus]], only the lion's skin he wore that now decorates the drum still reminding him of his previous life. This poem was set as a song by [[Carl Loewe]].{{Citation needed|date=December 2008}}

His 1838 book of poems won immediate and wide favour, and he decided upon a literary career which he embarked upon in 1839.<ref name="americana"/> He cooperated in several now unimportant works,<ref name="nie"/> and in 1842 received a pension of 300 thalers from the [[Prussia]]n king, [[Frederick William IV of Prussia|Frederick William IV]]. He married, and, to be near his friend [[Emanuel Geibel]], settled at [[St. Goar]].<ref name="eb1911"/>

Freiligrath was a friend of the American poet [[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]]. In 1842, when Longfellow was taking a rigorous water cure at a health spa in the former Marienberg Benedictine Convent at [[Boppard]] on the Rhine, a fellow patient introduced him to Freiligrath at the latter's home in St. Goar. Freiligrath had a special interest in English and American poetry. There followed many meetings and outings in Germany where this topic was discussed, and Longfellow presented Freiligrath with copies of his books ''[[Hyperion (Longfellow)|Hyperion]]'' and ''Ballads and Other Poems''. The friendship developed further in their correspondence.<ref>James Taft Hatfield, "The Longfellow-Freiligrath Correspondence," ''Publications of the Modern Language Association'', Vol. 48, No. 4 (December 1933), pp. 1223-1291.</ref>

Due to political repression ([[censorship]]), and the encouragement of fellow poet [[August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben|Hoffmann von Fallersleben]],<ref name="manley">{{Cite book|title=Lebenserinnerungen Bis zum Jahre 1850: Selections|author=Carl Schurz|author-link=Carl Schurz|editor=Edward Manley|others=With notes and vocabulary|publisher=Allyn and Bacon|location=[[Norwood, Massachusetts]]|year=1913|page=[https://archive.org/details/lebenserinnerung00schuiala/page/n221 200] (note to p. 18)|url=https://archive.org/details/lebenserinnerung00schuiala}} A German reader. The notes are in English for the most part. The copy at archive.org is missing some pages of the notes.</ref> Freiligrath later became more political. In 1844, he surrendered his pension, and in his ''Glaubensbekenntnis'' (Confession of Faith) placed his poetic gifts at the service of the democratic agitation that was to culminate in the [[German revolutions of 1848–49|Revolution of 1848]]. Such poems as "Trotz alledem" (a translation of Burns's "A man's a man for a' that"), "Die Freiheit", "Das Recht" and "Hamlet" made his absence from Germany expedient.

He left for Belgium<ref name="nie"/> where he met [[Karl Marx]].{{Citation needed|date=December 2008}} From there, he proceeded to [[Switzerland]] and then to London, publishing in 1846 ''Englische Gedichte aus neuerer Zeit'', a volume of translations, and ''Ça ira'', a collection of political songs.<ref name="nie"/> He lived until 1848 in England, where he resumed his commercial career.<ref name="eb1911"/> At the invitation of Longfellow, he considered going to America, but on the short-lived triumph of liberalism returned to Germany as a democratic leader.<ref name="nie"/> In 1843, [[Franz Liszt]] set Freiligrath's poem "[[O lieb, so lang du lieben kannst]]" to music, published in 1847 — the song was later arranged by Liszt for solo piano as his "[[Liebesträume]]" No. 3 (1850), which subsequently became one of his most famous piano pieces. German composer [[Elise Schmezer]] set Freiligrath’s text to music in her ''Lieder, Romanzen und Balladen fur Tenor, opus 4.''<ref>{{Cite web |title=Elise Schmezer Song Texts {{!}} LiederNet |url=https://www.lieder.net/lieder/get_settings.html?ComposerId=11480 |access-date=2023-03-04 |website=www.lieder.net}}</ref>

Upon his return to Germany, Freiligrath settled in [[Düsseldorf]],<ref name="eb1911"/> and worked for the ''[[Neue Rheinische Zeitung]]'' (general editor: [[Karl Marx]], editor of cultural pages: [[Georg Weerth]]),{{Citation needed|date=December 2008}} a paper which he cofounded with Marx, [[Friedrich Engels]] and [[Wilhelm Wolff]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=G.V. Plekhanov: Notes on "Ludwig Feuerbach ..." (Part 1)|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/plekhanov/1892/engels/notes1.html|access-date=2021-10-21|website=www.marxists.org}}</ref> It was not long before he had again called down upon himself the ill-will of the ruling powers by a poem, ''Die Toten an die Lebenden'' (The Dead to the Living, 1848). He was arrested on a charge of ''[[lèse-majesté]]'', but the prosecution ended in his acquittal.<ref name="eb1911"/> This trial, in which he was acquitted, is memorable for another reason, being the first jury trial ever held in Prussia.<ref name="americana"/> He published ''Zwischen den Garben'' (1849) and ''Neue politische und soziale Gedichte'' (New Political and Social Poems, 1850).<ref name="nie"/> New difficulties arose; his association with the democratic movement rendered him an object of constant suspicion, and in 1851 he judged it more prudent to go back to London.<ref name="eb1911"/> There he became the director of the London branch of the Schweizer Generalbank and set up residence in the north-east of the city at 3 [[Sutton Place, Hackney]].{{Citation needed|date=December 2008}} He remained in London until 1868,<ref name="eb1911"/> supporting himself by office work and poetic translations, among which were an anthology, the ''Rose, Thistle, and Shamrock'' (1854), Longfellow's ''[[Hiawatha]]'' (1857), and [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Cymbeline]]'' and ''[[The Winter's Tale]]''. These kept up his popularity in Germany, where in 1866 a subscription of 60,000 thalers was raised for him, partly as a political manifesto.<ref name="nie"/>

Back in Germany after the amnesty of 1868,<ref name="manley"/> Freiligrath settled first in [[Stuttgart]] and in 1875 in the neighbouring town of [[Cannstatt]]. He became a [[nationalism|nationalist]], publishing the patriotic poems "Hurrah, Germania!" and "Die Trompete von Vionville", inspired by Germany's victory in the [[Franco-Prussian War]].<ref name="nie"/> His 1848 poem ''[[In Kümmernis und Dunkelheit]]''  attributed military symbolism to the [[National colours of Germany|colors of]] the [[German flag|German tricolor flag]] (which at the time stood only for the nation, not any political entity): the black was for gunpowder, the red for blood and the yellow the glow given off by the fire. He died in Cannstatt in 1876.<ref name="eb1911"/>

Among the first writers to translate Freiligrath into English was the Irish poet [[James Clarence Mangan]] (in the latter's ''Anthologia Germanica'', no. XIX, published in the [[Dublin University Magazine]] in 1845). A selection, by his daughter, from the English translations of his poems was published in the Tauchnitz ''Collection of German Authors'' (Leipzig, 1869).<ref>{{Cite AmCyc|wstitle=Freiligrath, Ferdinand}}</ref>

==Works==
* {{Internet Archive|id=poemsfromgerman00freigoog|name=Poems from the German. Edited by his daughter. 2nd copyright edition. Enlarged. Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz 1871}}

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* {{Cite Collier's|wstitle=Freiligrath, Ferdinand}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Ferdinand Freiligrath}}
{{Nuttall poster|Freiligrath, Ferdinand}}
* [http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/autoren/freiligr.htm The Projekt Gutenberg-DE entry on Freiligrath] {{in lang|de}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Ferdinand Freiligrath}}
* {{Librivox author |id=8505}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Freiligrath, Ferdinand}}
[[Category:1810 births]]
[[Category:1876 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Detmold]]
[[Category:People from the Principality of Lippe]]
[[Category:Writers from North Rhine-Westphalia]]
[[Category:19th-century German poets]]
[[Category:German-American Forty-Eighters]]
[[Category:19th-century German translators]]
[[Category:German male poets]]
[[Category:German-language poets]]
[[Category:19th-century German male writers]]
[[Category:German male non-fiction writers]]