Geibel, EMANUEL VON

Geibel, EMANUEL VON, one of the most popular of modern German poets, was born at Lübeck on 18th October 1815. After his studies at Bonn he lived at Berlin, in the poetical circle of Chamisso, Gaudy, and Kugler; next went to Athens in 1838 as tutor in the family of the Russian ambassador, but returned to Lübeck two years later to work up the material he had collected in Greece, and to pursue his studies in Italian and Spanish literature. At the beginning of 1843 a pension of 300 thalers was bestowed upon him by the king of Prussia. Geibel now resided alternately at St Goar with Freiligrath, at Stuttgart, Hanover, Berlin, and Lübeck, till in 1852 he was appointed professor of Aesthetics in the university of Munich by the king of Bavaria—a post he retained till 1868, when he retired to Lübeck. He contributed translations from the Greek poets to the Classische Studien of Ernst Curtius (1840), and in the same year published his own Gedichte (120th ed. 1893), the beauty and religious tone of which made them at once great favourites with the Germans. The results of his Spanish studies were the Spanische Volkslieder und Romanzen (1843), which were followed by the Spanisches Liederbuch (1852), published in conjunction with Paul Heyse. In 1857 appeared his tragedy of Brunchild, and in 1864 his Gedichte und Gedankblätter. In 1868 he published another tragedy called Sophonisc. He died at Lübeck, 6th April 1884. His poems are distinguished by fervour and truth of feeling, richness of fancy, and a certain pensive melancholy, and have procured him a popularity—especially among cultivated women—such as no poet of Germany has enjoyed since the days of Uhland. An edition of his Gesammelte Werke was published at Stuttgart in 8 vols (1883 et seq.). See Lives by Gaedertz (1885) and Litzmann (1887).