Educated at the universities at Halle and Heidelberg, Eichendorff studied law until 1808 when he traveled in Europe. He returned to Germany in 1809 and assisted his brother and father in the running of the family estate. He finished his studies in Vienna in 1812 and the following year joined the Prussian Army. After two years fighting in the Napoleonic Wars, he entered the Prussian civil service. Until his retirement due to ill health in 1844, he held a variety of public positions including school inspector. During his university years he met and became friends with Von Arnim and Bretano and was greatly influenced by the latter. In 1815, he published his first novel, Presentiment and Actuality which won critical acclaim. Eichendorff's masterpiece is Aus Dem Leben eines Taugenichts [The Life of a Good-for-Nothing] (1826). Today, he is considered to be the greatest German lyric poet of the Romantic movement and many of his works were put to music by composers such as Schumann, Schubert and Brahms. His other works include The Marble Statue (1819), Krieg den Philistern (1824), Dichter und ihre Gesellen (1833) and Libertas und ihre Freier (1866 posthumous). |
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