Gottfried August Bürger

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Bürger, Gottfried August (Molmerswende, Harz, 1747-94, Göttingen), a son of the manse, studied in Halle where he associated with the dissolute Professor C. A. Klotz. In 1768 he migrated to Göttingen. In spite of his leanings to dissipation he was appointed magistrate at Altengleichen near Göttingen in 1772. He came into contact with the Göttinger Hainbund at this time, and in 1773 wrote his vivid popular ballad ‘Lenore’, published in the Göttinger Musenalmanach für 1774. In 1774 he married Dorette Leonhart, only to discover almost immediately that he preferred her sister, Auguste, who is the ‘Molly’ of his poems, of which the first collection (Gedichte) appeared in 1778. Bürger, who neglected his official duties and got into financial difficulties, resigned in 1784 and became a lecturer at Göttingen. His wife died shortly afterwards and Bürger then married Auguste, who, however, died in childbirth in 1786. Münchhausen (see Münchhausen, K. F. H. von), the grotesquely absurd fictitious adventures of an irrepressibly inventive liar, which was only in part Bürger's work (see Raspe, R. E.), appeared in the same year and was expanded in 1788. Bürger became a professor at Göttingen in 1789. His third bride was Elise Hahn, but this marriage in 1790 was a catastrophe, and ended in divorce in 1792. His collected poems, published in 2 vols. in 1789, were savagely reviewed by Schiller in 1791 (Über Bürgers Gedichte). The double sensation of being discredited by the scandal of his third marriage and by Schiller's depreciation of his poems is thought to have contributed to his early death.

Bürger had a spontaneous and fluent talent which is apparent both in the originality of his ballads and in the successful exploitation of personal experience in his lyric poems. In his political verse he takes as early as 1773 a forthright stand against exploitation (Der Bauer. An seinen Durchlauchtigen Tyrannen). The judgement of his work has perhaps been too often coloured by the failures of his life. Sämmtliche Schriften (4 vols.), ed. K. Reinhard, were published 1796-1802 (reissued 1970). Gedichte (2 vols., with biography), ed. E. Consentius, appeared in 1920 (revised edn. of 1909), Sämtliche Werke, ed. G. and H. Häntzschel (with bibliog.), in 1987, Briefe von und an Gottfried August Bürger (4 vols.), ed. A. Strodtmann, in 1874, repr. 1970. See also Blümchen Wunderhold, Das, and Des Pfarrers Tochter von Taubenhain.