EYHENDORF Joseph von Benedikt (Eichendorff Joseph Benedikt von)

(1788-1857)
Born March 10, 1788 in the castle Lubovits (Upper Silesia) in a noble family. As a child, was home schooled, and in 1801 enrolled in a Catholic school in Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland), and in 1805 began studying Law at the University of Halle. Since the invasion of Napoleon's army in 1806 the university was closed with two years Eyhendorf held in Heidelberg, where friends with K. Brentano and other leading representatives of Romanticism. After studying the following two years in Berlin and Jena, Eyhendorf in 1813 joined the famed volunteer flying squad 'shooters Lyuttsova', where he served until the end of the war with Napoleon in 1815. After marriage in 1816 served as a clerk in Berlin, Breslau, Danzig, and KцІnigsberg. In 1844, retired and until his death lived in Neisse (Silesia).
Although employment in the service, Eyhendorf left a very broad musical legacy - and in poetry and prose. He has written a lengthy romantic novel Premonition and reality (Ahnung und Gegenwart, . 1815), . five pieces, . Eight short stories (Novellen), . several translations from Calderon and other Spanish authors, . two literary-critical works, . three small poetic works of the epic genre and volumes of lyric poetry (1837),
. Of the prose works Eyhendorfa deserves special mention cheerful story from the life of a loafer (Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts, 1826).

As a poet-lyricist Eyhendorf certainly stands in the same row with the largest of the Romantics. His poems are marked freshness and optimism that gives him a special place among the poets of contemporary. As no one else knew how to correctly Eyhendorf found words to recreate the right atmosphere. Among his many sonnets are superb examples of this genre in German literature, his other lyrical poems are similar in style folk song. Lyrics Eyhendorfa so musical, that more than 1700 of them set to music, most notably R. Schumann's songs on texts by the poet.

Died in Eyhendorf Neisse November 26, 1857.