
Nikolaus Lenau was the
pen name
A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.
A pen na ...
of Nikolaus Franz Niembsch Edler von Strehlenau (13 August 1802 – 22 August 1850), a German-language
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
n poet.
Biography

He was born at Csatád (Schadat), Kingdom of Hungary, now
Lenauheim
Lenauheim (until 1926 Cetad; german: Lenauheim, formerly ''Tschatad''; hu, Csatád) is a communes of Romania, commune in Timiș County, Romania. It is composed of three villages: Bulgăruș (formerly Bogaroș; german: Bogarosch; hu, Bogáros), Gr ...
,
Banat
Banat (, ; hu, Bánság; sr, Банат, Banat) is a geographical and historical region that straddles Central and Eastern Europe and which is currently divided among three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania (the counties of T ...
, then part of the
Habsburg monarchy
The Habsburg monarchy (german: Habsburgermonarchie, ), also known as the Danubian monarchy (german: Donaumonarchie, ), or Habsburg Empire (german: Habsburgerreich, ), was the collection of empires, kingdoms, duchies, counties and other polities ...
, now in
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
. His father, a Habsburg government official, died in 1807 in
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
, leaving his children in the care of their mother, who remarried in 1811. In 1819 Nikolaus went to the
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...
; he subsequently studied Hungarian law at Pozsony (
Bratislava
Bratislava (, also ; ; german: Preßburg/Pressburg ; hu, Pozsony) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000 — approxim ...
) and then spent the next four years qualifying himself in medicine. Unable to settle down to any profession, he began writing verse. The disposition to sentimental melancholy inherited from his mother, stimulated by disappointments in love and by the prevailing fashion of the
romantic
Romantic may refer to:
Genres and eras
* The Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement of the 18th and 19th centuries
** Romantic music, of that era
** Romantic poetry, of that era
** Romanticism in science, of that e ...
school of poetry, descended into gloom after his mother's death in 1829.
[
Soon afterwards, however, a legacy from his grandmother enabled him to devote himself wholly to poetry. His first published poems appeared in 1827, in ]Johann Gabriel Seidl
Johann Gabriel Seidl (21 June 1804 – 18 July 1875)
was an Austrian archeologist, poet, storyteller and dramatist. He wrote the lyrics to "Gott erhalte, Gott beschütze unsern Kaiser, unser Land!" This was the 1854 version of the Austrian I ...
's ''Aurora''. In 1831 he moved to Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...
, where he published a volume of ''Gedichte'' (1832) dedicated to the Swabian poet, Gustav Schwab
Gustav Benjamin Schwab (19 June 1792 – 4 November 1850) was a German writer, pastor and publisher.
Life
Gustav Schwab was born in Stuttgart, the son of the philosopher Johann Christoph Schwab: he was introduced to the humanities early in li ...
. He also made the acquaintance of Ludwig Uhland, Justinus Kerner, Karl Mayer
Karl Mayer is a fictional character portrayed by Richard Burgi and created by television producer and screenwriter Marc Cherry for the ABC television series ''Desperate Housewives''. He is the ex-husband of housewife Susan Mayer (Teri Hatcher) an ...
and others. His restless spirit longed for change, and he determined to seek peace and freedom in America.[
In October 1832 he landed at ]Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
and settled on a homestead in Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
. He also lived six months in New Harmony, Indiana, with a group called the Harmony Society. Life in the primeval forest fell lamentably short of the ideal he had pictured. He disliked Americans with their eternal English lisping of dollars (''englisches Talergelispel''), and in 1833 returned to Germany. The appreciation of his first volume of poems revived his spirits.[
From then on he lived partly in Stuttgart and partly in ]Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
. In 1836 his '' Faust'' appeared, in which he laid bare his own soul to the world;[ in 1837, ''Savonarola'', an epic in which freedom from political and intellectual tyranny as an essential component of Christianity was stated. In 1838 his ''Neuere Gedichte'' proved that ''Savonarola'' had been the result of a passing exaltation. Of these new poems, some of the finest were inspired by his hopeless passion for Sophie von Löwenthal, the wife of a friend. In 1842 appeared ''Die Albigenser'', and in 1844 he began writing his '' Don Juan'', a fragment of which was published after his death.][
Soon afterwards he developed signs of mental ill-health. In October 1844, he jumped from a window one morning and ran down a street shouting "Revolt! Freedom! Help! Fire!".] He was placed in an asylum, under restraint, for the remainder of his life. He died in the asylum at Oberdöbling near Vienna[ and was buried in the cemetery of Weidling, near Klosterneuburg. On his grave is the replica of an open book with an extract from one of his poems (''An Frau Kleyle'') inscribed on the left-hand page, while on the right-hand page there is the final stanza from his poem ''Vergangenheit''. The city of Stockerau in Lower Austria has proclaimed itself "Lenau City", because Nikolaus Lenau went on extensive walks in the alluvial forests next to Stockerau and the ]Danube
The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...
and was inspired to write one of his most famous lyric poems, "Schilflieder", during this time. He has various streets and squares in Vienna and the surrounding area named after him.
His political poems, such as "By the Grave of a Minister," reveal Lenau's liberal sympathies with their attacks on the despotism of Metternich's reactionary system and the alleged corruption of the Catholic Church. Lenau's fame rests mainly upon his shorter poems; even his epic
Epic commonly refers to:
* Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation
* Epic film, a genre of film with heroic elements
Epic or EPIC may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and medi ...
s are essentially lyric in quality. His excellent poem, "Herbst", expresses the sadness and melancholy he felt after his sojourn in the United States and his strenuous travels across the Atlantic to return to Europe. In it, he mourns the loss of youth, the passing of time and his own sense of futility. The poem is archetypal of Lenau's style and culminates with the speaker dreaming of death as a final escape from emptiness. He is the greatest modern lyric poet of Austria, and the typical representative in German literature of that pessimistic '' Weltschmerz'' which, beginning with Lord Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...
, reached its culmination in the poetry of Giacomo Leopardi
Count Giacomo Taldegardo Francesco di Sales Saverio Pietro Leopardi (, ; 29 June 1798 – 14 June 1837) was an Italian philosopher, poet, essayist, and philologist. He is considered the greatest Italian poet of the nineteenth century and one of ...
.[
Lenau's ''Sämtliche Werke'' were first published in 4 vols. by ]Anastasius Grün
Count Anton Alexander von Auersperg, also known under the name Anastasius Grün (11 April 180612 September 1876), was an Austrian poet and liberal politician from Carniola, a former Habsburg crown land in today's Slovenia.
Biography
He was born ...
in 1855, but there are several more modern editions, as those by Max Koch
Maxwell "Max" Koch (17 July 1854 – 1 April 1925) was a German-born Australian botanical collector.
Biography
Born in Berlin, Koch was apprenticed to a merchant's office, but, not liking the work, joined the crew of a Glasgow-based sailing sh ...
in Joseph Kürschner
Joseph Kürschner (20 September 1853, in Gotha – 29 July 1902, on a journey to Huben) was a German author and editor most often cited for his critical edition of classics from German literature.
Biography
At first engaged in mechanical engi ...
's ''Deutsche Nationalliteratur'' of 1888 (vols. 154 and 155), and E. Castle (2 vols., 1900).
See also
* “Die Nacht” and “Die Sennin,” songs by Sophie Seipt
Sophie Seipt, also seen as Sophie Seibt (1812-1889), was a German composer and arranger who wrote several pieces for cello and piano.
Seipt was born in Cologne. Little is known about her education. Her music has been recorded commercially by Kalei ...
(1812-1889) based on poems by Lenau.
* ''Notturno
Notturno is the Italian word for nocturne. It may refer to:
Film
* ''Tango notturno'', a 1937 German film
* ''Notturno'' (film), a 2020 Italian-French-German documentary
Music
* ''Euroclassic Notturno'', classical music recordings assembled by B ...
'', a 1933 song cycle by Othmar Schoeck
Othmar Schoeck (1 September 1886 – 8 March 1957) was a Swiss Romantic classical composer, opera composer, musician, and conductor.
He was known mainly for his considerable output of art songs and song cycles, though he also wrote a number of ...
which includes settings of nine poems by Lenau.
References
External links
*
*
Internationale Lenau-Gesellschaft
*
*
*
Nikolaus Lenau austria-forum (aeiou)
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lenau, Nikolaus
19th-century Austrian poets
Austrian male writers
German-language poets
Danube-Swabian people
Edlers of Austria
Poètes maudits
Deaths in mental institutions
People from the Kingdom of Hungary
People from Timiș County
1802 births
1850 deaths
19th-century male writers