Ludwig Uhland

Uhland, Ludwig (Tübingen, 1787-1862, Tübingen), was the grandson of a professor of Tübingen University and a son of the University Secretary. He was educated at the grammar school and after matriculation at the early age of 14 began to read law at the university, completing his studies in 1808. During these years he formed friendships with J. Kerner and K. Mayer and wrote ballads and Romantic poetry with folk-song affinities; he also became deeply interested in medieval literature and German legend and was subsequently regarded as a leading member of the Swabian School of the Romantic movement (see Romantik).

In 1810-11 his father sponsored a journey to Paris, on which Uhland was to study French law (Code Napoléon), but he also devoted appreciable time to studying and copying medieval MSS. in the Bibliothèque impériale (now Bibliothèque nationale). In 1812 he was appointed to a civil service post in the Württemberg Ministry of Justice, but resigned in 1814 because of conscientious disagreement with policy and set up his own private practice of law in Stuttgart. In 1815 he published his Gedichte containing the bulk of his output, most of which was written in youth. The poems include ‘Die Kapelle’, ‘Der Schmied’, ‘Die linden Lüfte sind erwacht’, and the ballads ‘Die Rache’ and ‘Des Sängers Fluch’ (1814), his outstanding masterpieces in this form, for which he became well known. Mrs Gaskell chose the last stanza of ‘Auf der Überfahrt’ (written 1823) as an epigraph introducing her first novel, Mary Barton (1848); the poem commemorates the death, in 1813, of Uhland's uncle, Pfarrer Hofer, and that of his cousin F. von Harprecht (b. 1788), a victim of the Napoleonic Wars (the Russian campaign). A few late poems written in 1829 and 1834 include ‘Tells Tod’ and ‘Das Glück von Edenhall’; meanwhile he wrote political poetry (Vaterländische Gedichte, 1817) and completed two verse tragedies ( Ernst, Herzog von Schwaben, 1818, and Ludwig der Bayer, 1819).

In 1820 Uhland married Emma Vischer (1799-1881), having the previous year become member of parliament for Tübingen. A staunch Liberal, he was not well viewed in government circles, but he was re-elected in 1826, this time for Stuttgart. In 1829 he achieved an ambition by being appointed to a chair of German language and literature at his native university. He resigned, however, three years later, when the government refused him leave of absence for which he had asked to attend to his parliamentary duties. From 1839, when he left parliament, he devoted himself to private scholarship. In 1848 he was elected as a Liberal to the new German parliament (see Frankfurter Nationalversammlung), resuming his literary and philological researches after its dissolution in 1849.

Uhland ranks as one of the founders of German literary and philological studies. His essay Walther von der Vogelweide appeared in 1822 and his Sagenforschungen in 1836. One of his most important publications was his scholarly Alte hoch- und niederdeutsche Volks-lieder (1844-5). Other fruits of research appeared posthumously in Schriften zur Geschichte der Dichtung und Sage (8 vols., 1865-73), ed. A. von Keller, W. L. Holland, and F. Pfeiffer. Werke (6 vols.), ed. H. Fischer, appeared in 1892, the critical edition by E. Schmidt and J. Hartmann (2 vols.) in 1898, an edition by H. Fröschle and W. P. H. Scheffler 1980 ff. and (4 vols.) 1980-4.

Famous German poet who figured posthumously in an interesting lawsuit in Berlin over ownership of a holograph parchment apport obtained in a séance with Else Arnheim in 1920. The medium, in trance, described the presence of Ludwig Uhland. There appeared in her hands, which were tightly clasped by a well-known German author, a yellowed piece of parchment with two short verses scrawled on it, signed: "Uh-land, 1920."

The handwriting was pronounced identical to that of Uhland's, the parchment was of his era, and the verses were in genuine Uhland style. A clairvoyant, to whom Uhland's handwriting and the parchment were shown, declared after touching both papers that they were written by the same hand but that a long interval had elapsed between the writing of them.

The German author whose hand had encircled the medium's when the parchment appeared claimed the paper. Since witnesses stated that it had been thrust into the medium's hand, the court decided that the parchment belonged to the medium.

Quotes:

"Take everything easy and quit dreaming and brooding and you will be well guarded from a thousand evils."

Johann Ludwig Uhland (26 April 1787 – 13 November 1862), was a German poet.

Ludwig Uhland, painting by G. W. Morff, 1818

Ludwig Uhland Stamp

He was born in Tübingen, and studied jurisprudence at the university there, but also took an interest in medieval literature. Having graduated as a doctor of laws in 1810, he went to Paris for a few months; and from 1812 to 1814 he worked as a lawyer in Stuttgart, in the bureau of the minister of justice.

He had begun his career as a poet in 1807 and 1808 by contributing ballads and lyrics to Seckendorff's Musenalmanach; and in 1812 and 1813 he wrote poems for Kerner's Poetischer Almanack and Deutscher Dichterwald. In 1815 he collected his poems in a volume entitled Vaterländische Gedichte, which almost immediately secured a wide circle of readers. To almost every new edition he added some fresh poems. His two dramatic works Ernst, Herzog von Schwaben (1818) and Ludwig der Baier (1819) are unimportant in comparison with his Gedichte.

As a lyric poet, Uhland must be classed with the writers of the romantic school. Like them, he found in the Middle Ages the subjects which appealed most strongly to his imagination. Yet his style has a precision, suppleness and grace which distinguish his most characteristic writings from those of the romantics. Uhland wrote poems in defence of freedom, and in the states assembly of Württemberg he played a distinguished part as one of the most vigorous and consistent of the liberal members.

In 1829 he was made honorary professor of German literature at the University of Tübingen, but he resigned in 1833, when the post was found to be incompatible with his political views. In 1848 he became a member of the Frankfurt Parliament that convened in the course of the 1848 revolution.

One of his best known poems is "Ich hatt' einen Kameraden", which is an integral part of military funerals.

He died on 13 November 1862 in Tübingen.

A town located south of Austin, Texas is name in his honor.

References

•  "Uhland, Johann Ludwig". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911. 

External links

• Quotations related to Ludwig Uhland at Wikiquote

• Works related to Ludwig Uhland at Wikisource

• Media related to Ludwig Uhland at Wikimedia Commons

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