Vermehren Johann Bernhard 1777 06 06 001

Johann Bernhard Vermehren (6 June 1777 in

Lübeck Lübeck (; or ; Latin: ), officially the Hanseatic League, Hanseatic City of Lübeck (), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 220,000 inhabitants, it is the second-largest city on the German Baltic Sea, Baltic coast and the second-larg ...

– 29 November 1803 in

Jena Jena (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 in ...

) was an early Romantic poet and scholar. He earned a doctoral degree in philosophy from the

University of Jena The University of Jena, officially the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (, abbreviated FSU, shortened form ''Uni Jena''), is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany. The university was established in 1558 and is cou ...

in 1799, obtaining

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

one year later and teaching as ''

Privatdozent ''Privatdozent'' (for men) or ''Privatdozentin'' (for women), abbreviated PD, P.D. or Priv.-Doz., is an academic title conferred at some European universities, especially in German-speaking countries, to someone who holds certain formal qualifi ...

'' until his early death from

scarlet fever Scarlet fever, also known as scarlatina, is an infectious disease caused by ''Streptococcus pyogenes'', a Group A streptococcus (GAS). It most commonly affects children between five and 15 years of age. The signs and symptoms include a sore ...

. His first poems appeared in

Friedrich Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, philosopher and historian. Schiller is considered by most Germans to be Germany's most important classical playwright. He was born i ...

's ''

Musenalmanach A ''Musen-Almanach'' ("Muses' Almanac") was a kind of literary annual, popular in Germany from 1770 into the mid-19th century. They were modelled on the ''Almanach des Muses'' published in Paris from 1765. Development in the 1770s The first examp ...

''. The appearance in 1800 of his ten ''Letters on a Reassessment of Friedrich Schlegel's " Lucinde"'' brought him to the attention of the author in question; however, in general, criticism of the 350-page work was biting, and it was quickly superseded by

Friedrich Schleiermacher Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher (; ; 21 November 1768 – 12 February 1834) was a German Reformed Church, Reformed theology, theologian, philosopher, and biblical scholar known for his attempt to reconcile the criticisms of the Age o ...

's ''Vertraute Briefe'' ("Familiar letters") on the same subject. With Schlegel's assistance, Vermehren produced two issues of his own ''Musenalmanach'', the first at

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

in 1802 and the second at

the next year. They contained fifteen poems by Schlegel and the work of Sophie Mereau (1770–1806), Stephan August Winkelmann (1780–1806), Klopstock and Hölderlin. Family tradition ascribed to him the book ''Jesus, wie er lebte und lehrte'' which was published in Halle in 1799, and in the last year of his life he wrote a fairy-tale, ''"Schloss Rosenthal"'' ("Rosenthal Castle"). On 2 December 1803,

Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...

mentioned the death slightingly in a letter to Schiller: "Poor Vermehren has died. Probably he would still be living had he continued writing his mediocre verse. The post office job has proved fatal." Vermehren married on 20 April 1801. His wife was Henriette Eber, twelve years older, a widow of the Jena Postmaster and daughter of the privy councillor Prof. Johann Ludwig von Eckardt (1732–1800). They had one son, Johann Bernhard Vermehren, who would become a privy councillor in the Supreme Court of Appeals for the

Ernestine duchies The Ernestine duchies (), also known as the Saxon duchies (, although the Albertine appanage duchies of Weissenfels, Merseburg and Zeitz were also "Saxon duchies" and adjacent to several Ernestine ones), were a group of small states whose numb ...

. After Vermehren's death, Henriette (died 1842) married the mathematician

Johann Heinrich Voigt Johann, typically a male given name, is the German form of ''Iohannes'', which is the Latin form of the Greek name ''Iōánnēs'' (), itself derived from Hebrew name '' Yochanan'' () in turn from its extended form (), meaning "Yahweh is Gracious" ...

(1751–1823).

Bibliography

* Peter Guttkuhn: ''Vergebens um Goethes und Schillers Gunst gebuhlt. Zum 200. Todestag des Romantikers Johann Bernhard Vermehren.'' In: '' Lübeckische Blätter'', Lübeck 2003, pages 325–329. * Oskar F. Walzel
''Vermehren: Johann Bernhard.''
In: ''

Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB; ) is one of the most important and comprehensive biographical reference works in the German language. It was published by the Historical Commission of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences between 1875 and 1912 in 56 volumes, printed in Lei ...

'' (ADB). Band 39, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1895, pages 623–626. {{DEFAULTSORT:Vermehren, Johann Bernhard 1777 births 1803 deaths German poets German male poets 18th-century poets from the Holy Roman Empire 18th-century scholars from the Holy Roman Empire