Matthias Claudius

Claudius, Matthias (Reinfeld, Holstein, 1740-1815, Hamburg), a pastor's son, attended the grammar school at Plön and then studied theology and law at Jena University. After a short spell as secretary to Graf Holstein in Copenhagen (1764-5), he worked on the Andreßcomptoir-Nachrichten (1768-70).

In 1771 he took over the editorship of the newspaper Der Wandsbecker Bothe, with which he identified himself so successfully that he himself is often referred to as ‘Der Wandsbecker Bothe’. Claudius, who, under the pseudonym Asmus, was the chief contributor to the newspaper, managed to give it a popular style without cheapness or vulgarity, and a homely, friendly tone without seriously relaxing intellectual standards. The basis of his writing was religious, and he maintained a broad and tolerant judgement. Der Wandsbecker Bothe ceased publication in 1776, but Claudius collected his prose and verse contributions and published them as Asmus, omnia sua secum portans oder sämtliche Werke des Wandsbecker Bothens (1775), which, with new material, continued in seven further volumes up to 1812.

Herder, a friend of Claudius, obtained for him in 1776 an administrative appointment in the government of Electoral Hesse at Darmstadt. But Claudius did not settle in public life and returned in 1777 to Wandsbeck. His marriage to a joiner's daughter in 1772 was uniformly happy. From 1785 he received a Danish pension. Among his friends at various stages of his life, apart from Herder, were J. H. Voß and Goethe.

Claudius, who is the father of German popular journalism, is also a poet with a delight in the minor happenings of life and a sincere simplicity in their expression. Three of his poems have become virtual folk-songs: ‘Der Tod und das Mädchen’, ‘Rheinweinlied’, and ‘Abendlied’, opening with the line ‘Der Mond ist aufgegangen’; written in 1779, it was included in Herder's collection of folk-songs (see Stimmen der Völker in Liedern) and set to music by J. A. P. Schulz. He is the originator of the designation ‘Freund Hein’ as a personification of death, and Asmus's works are accompanied by a line engraving of Freund Hein as a skeleton holding a scythe. Werke. Asmus omnia …, ed. U. Roedl, appeared in 1954; Sämtliche Werke, ed. J. Perfahl et al. 1968, 6th rev. edn. by H. Platschek and R. Siebke, in 1987; and a new edition of Der Wandsbecker Bothe (5 vols.) by K. H. Rengstorf and H. A. Koch in 1978.

"Asmus" redirects here. For the Polish village, see Asmus, Poland.

Matthias Claudius

Matthias Claudius (August 15, 1740 – January 21, 1815) was a German poet, otherwise known by the penname of “Asmus”.

Contents 1 Life 2 Works 2.1 Poems 3 References

Life

Claudius was born at Reinfeld, near Lübeck, and studied at Jena. He spent the greater part of his life in the little town of Wandsbeck, near Hamburg, where he earned his first literary reputation by editing from 1771 to 1775, a newspaper called the Wandsbecker Bote (Wandsbeck Messenger), in which he published a large number of prose essays and poems. They were written in pure and simple German, and appealed to the popular taste; in many there was a vein of extravagant humour or even burlesque, while others were full of quiet meditation and solemn sentiment. In his later days, perhaps through the influence of Klopstock, with whom he had formed an intimate acquaintance, Claudius became strongly pietistic, and the graver side of his nature showed itself. In 1814 he moved to Hamburg, to the house of his son-in-law, the publisher Friedrich Christoph Perthes, where he died on January 21, 1815.

Works

Claudius's poem Death and the Maiden was used by composer Franz Schubert in 1817 for one of his most celebrated songs, which in turn became the basis for the 1824 string quartet of the same name.

Claudius's collected works were published under the title of Asmus omnia sua secum portans, oder Sämtliche Werke des Wandsbecker Boten (8 vols., 1775-1812; 13th edition, by C. Redich, 2 vols., 1902). His biography has been written by Wilhelm Herbst (4th ed., 1878). See also M. Schneidereit, M. Claudius, seine Weltanschauung und Lebensweisheit (1898).

Poems

• Abendlied or Der Mond ist aufgegangen (Song of evening or The moon has risen)
• Der Mensch (People)
• Christiane
• Die Sternseherin Lise (Lise the astrologer)
• Die Liebe (Love)
• Der Tod (Death)
• Ein Wiegenlied bei Mondschein zu singen (A lullaby to sing in the moonlight)
• Täglich zu singen (To sing every day)
• Kriegslied (Song of battle)
• Der Frühling. Am ersten Maimorgen (Spring: On the first morning in May)
• Der Säemann säet den Samen (The sower sows the seeds)
• Der Tod und das Mädchen (Death and the maiden)
• Wir pflügen und wir streuen (We plough the fields and scatter - sung in Germany and England as a harvest festival hymn)

References

•  "Claudius, Matthias". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911. 

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