Alexander Kaufmann (14 May 1817 – 1 May 1893) was a German

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

and

folklorist Folklore studies (also known as folkloristics, tradition studies or folk life studies in the UK) is the academic discipline devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currency in the 1950s to distinguish the ac ...

from

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

Biography

Kaufmann came from a prominent local family, whose members had served in both the city government and service of the former

Elector of Cologne The Archbishop of Cologne governs the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cologne in western North Rhine-Westphalia. Historically, the archbishop was ''ex officio'' one of the prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire and ruled the Electorate of Colog ...

. He was also related to the painter Andreas Müller. At the

University of Bonn The University of Bonn, officially the Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (), is a public research university in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the () on 18 October 1818 by Frederick Willi ...

, he studied law, languages, and history. In 1844, Kaufmann was appointed to teach Prince Karl von Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg, who made him keeper of the Wertheim archives in 1850. Kaufmann would retain this post until his death.

Works

Poetry collections

* (1852) * (1853) * (1871)

Research and folklore

*Research for

Karl Simrock Karl Joseph Simrock (28 August 1802 – 18 July 1876) was a German poet and writer. He is primarily known for his translation of ''Das Nibelungenlied'' into modern German. Life He was born in Bonn, where his father was a music publisher. He s ...

's ''Legends of the

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

'' *Collected local legends of the

Main Main may refer to: Geography *Main River (disambiguation), multiple rivers with the same name *Ma'in, an ancient kingdom in modern-day Yemen * Main, Iran, a village in Fars Province *Spanish Main, the Caribbean coasts of mainland Spanish territ ...

* with poet Georg Friedrich Daumer; *Researched information for *Translated * (posthumous)

References

* 1817 births 1893 deaths German folklorists German Roman Catholics Writers from Bonn Writers from the Rhine Province University of Bonn alumni German male poets 19th-century German poets 19th-century German male writers German male non-fiction writers Scholars from the Kingdom of Prussia {{Germany-writer-stub