Eichendorff's Birthday

Ich schlaf am liebsten unterm Himmelsbette,

leicht mit dem Sternenmantel zugedeckt.

100th death commemoration

Joseph von Eichendorff was born 226 years ago, in 1788. A lot of interesting figures in German letters were born in that decade: Carl von Clausewitz (1780), Karl Friedrich Schinkel and Achim von Arnim (1781), Sulpiz Boissereé (1783), Jacob Grimm, Bettina von Arnim, Harmann von Pückler-Muskau  (1785), Ludwig Börne, Ludwig I, and Carl Maria von Weber (1786), Ludwig Uhland (1787), Arthur Schopenhauer (1788), and Georg Simon Ohm (1789).

Of course, I didn't know all of these dates by heart. I frequently look at geboren.am. One of my professors in graduate school used to say: "Die Daten, meine Damen und Herren, sind sehr wichtig."

As an undergraduate I loved Eichendorff's stories. In fact, the literature of the Romantic period was my real introduction to the study of literature, in contrast to simply reading and enjoying it.

Postcard picture credit: Goethezeitportal