Joseph von Eichendorff

Dennis Mahoney (University of Vermont)

Ed. by Herbert Rowland, Purdue University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.4.1: German-language Writing and Culture: Germany, 500-present.
Vol. editors: Nicole Kennedy (University of Newcastle), Gerhard P. Knapp (University of Utah), Jennifer Marston William (Purdue University), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jill E. Twark (East Carolina University)

Dates

Born 10 Mar 1788
Died 26 Nov 1857
Activity 1808-1857

Places

Born in Germany
Active in Germany

Activities

Primary

Novelist
Playwright / Dramatist
Poet

Resources

Joseph von Eichendorff (1788-1857), one of the last born and most eminent writers of literary German Romanticism, is familiar in the English-speaking world through the settings of his poetry by Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, and Johannes Brahms – to name just a few of the many composers who have been attracted by their innate musicality. In German-speaking countries, Eichendorff’s poem “Der frohe Wandersmann” [The Happy Traveller] has attained the status of a folk song independent of its placement and function within his perhaps most famous work, namelyAus dem Leben eines Taugenichts [From the Life of a Good-for-Nothing] (1826). Within the German literary canon, Eichendorff’s Taugenichts has continued to be widely read, although the long tradition of regarding both its main character and his creator as emblematic of the innocent, carefree, apolitical German – still propagated in Thomas Mann’s...

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3897 words

Citation: Mahoney, Dennis. "Joseph von Eichendorff". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 03 February 2023 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5445, accessed 15 December 2025.]