(1781-1838)
[Illustration: CHAMISSO]
Louis Charles Adelaide de Chamisso, known as Adelbert von Chamisso, the
youngest son of Count Louis Marie de Chamisso, was born in the paternal
castle of Boncourt, in Champagne, January 30th, 1781. Driven into exile
by the Revolution, the family of loyalists sought refuge in the Low
Countries and afterward in Germany, settling in Berlin in 1797. In later
years the other members of the family returned to France and established
themselves once more as Frenchmen in their native land; but Adelbert von
Chamisso, German by nature and characteristics as well as by virtue of
his early education and environment, struck root in Germany and was the
genuine product of German soil. In 1796 the young Chamisso became page
to Queen Louise of Prussia, and while at court, by the Queen's
directions, he received the most careful education. He was made ensign
in 1798 and lieutenant in 1801, in the Regiment von Goetze. A military
career was repugnant to him, and his French antecedents did not tend to
make his life agreeable among the German officers. That the service was
not wholly without interest, however, is shown by the two treatises upon
military subjects written by him in 1798 and 1799.
As a young officer he belonged to a romantic brotherhood calling itself
"The Polar Star," which counted among its members his lifelong friend
Hitzig, Alexander zur Lippe, Varnhagen, and other young writers of the
day. He diligently applied himself to the mastery of the German tongue,
made translations of poems and dramas, and to relieve the irksomeness of
his military life incessantly studied Homer. His most ambitious literary
effort of this time was a 'Faust' (1803), a metaphysical, somewhat
sophomoric attempt, but the only one of his early poems that he admitted
into his collected works.
While still in the Prussian army, he edited with Varnhagen and Neumann a
periodical called the Musenalmanach (1804), which existed three years.
After repeated but vain efforts to obtain release from the uncongenial
military service, the capitulation of Hameln at length set him free
(1806). He left Germany and went to France; but, disappointed in his
hopes, unsettled and without plans, he returned, and several years were
lost in profitless and desultory wanderings. From 1810 to 1812 he was
again in France. Here he became acquainted with Alexander von Humboldt
and Uhland, and renewed his friendship with Wilhelm Schlegel. With
Helmina von Chezy he undertook the translation into French of Schlegel's
Vienna lectures upon art and literature. Chamisso was indifferent to the
task, and the translation went on but slowly. To expedite the work he
was invited to stay at Chaumont, the residence of Madame de Stael, where
Schlegel was a member of her household. Here his careless personal
habits and his inevitable pipe brought odium upon him in that polished
circle.
Madame de Stael was always his friend, and in 1811 he went to her at
Coppet, where by a happy chance he took up the study of botany, with
August de Stael as instructor. Filled with enthusiasm for his new
pursuit, he made excursions through Switzerland, collecting and
botanizing. The period of indecision was at an end, and in 1812, at the
age of thirty-one, he matriculated as student of medicine at the
University of Berlin, and applied himself with resolution to the study
of the natural sciences. During the war against Napoleon he sought
refuge in Kunersdorf with the Itzenplitz family, where he occupied his
time with botany and the instruction of young Itzenplitz. It was during
this time (1813) that 'Peter Schlemihl's Wundersame Geschichte' (Peter
Schlemihl's Wonderful History) was written,--one of the masterpieces of
German literature. His 'Faust' and 'Fortunatus' had in some degree
foreshadowed his later and more famous work,--'Faust' in the compact
with the devil, 'Fortunatus' in the possession of the magical
wishing-bag. The simple _motif_ of popular superstition, the loss of
one's shadow, familiar in folk-stories and already developed by Goethe
in his 'Tales,' and by Koerner in 'Der Teufel von Salamanca' (The Devil
of Salamanca), was treated by Chamisso with admirable simplicity,
directness of style, and realism of detail.
Chamisso's divided allegiance to France and Germany made the political
situation of the times very trying for him, and it was with joy that he
welcomed an appointment as scientist to a Russian polar expedition,
fitted out under the direction of Count Romanzoff, and commanded by
Captain Kotzebue (1815-1818). The record of the scientific results of
this expedition, as published by Kotzebue, was full of misstatements;
and to correct these, Chamisso wrote the 'Tagebuch' (Journal) in 1835, a
work whose pure and plastic style places it in the first order of books
of travel, and entitles its author, in point of description, to rank
with Von Humboldt among the best writers of travels of the first half of
the century.
After three years of voyaging, Chamisso returned to Berlin, and in 1819
he was made a member of the Society of Natural Sciences and received the
degree of Ph.D. from the University of Berlin, was appointed adjunct
custodian of the botanical garden in New Schoeneberg, and in September of
the same year he married Antonie Piaste.
An indemnity granted by France to the French emigrants put him in
possession of the sum of one hundred thousand francs, and in 1825 he
again visited Paris, where he remained some months among old friends and
new interests. The period of his great activity was after this date. His
life was now peaceful and domestic. Poetry and botany flourished side by
side. Chamisso, to his own astonishment, found himself read and admired,
and everywhere his songs were sung. To the influence of his wife we owe
the cycles of poems, 'Frauen-Liebe und Leben' (Woman's Love and Life),
and 'Lebens Lieder und Bilder' (Life's Songs and Pictures), for without
her they would have been impossible. The former cycle inspired Robert
Schumann in the first days of his happy married life, and the music of
these songs has made 'Woman's Love and Life' familiar to all the world.
'Salas y Gomez,' a reminiscence of his voyage around the world, appeared
in the Musenalmanach in 1830. The theme of this poem was the development
of the romantic possibilities suggested by the sight of the profound
loneliness and grandeur of the South Sea island, Salas y Gomez. Chamisso
translated Andersen and Beranger, made translations from the Chinese and
Tonga, and his version of the Eddic Song of Thrym ('Das Lied von Thrym')
is among the best translations from the Icelandic that have been made.
In 1832 he became associate editor of the Berlin Deutscher
Musenalmanach, which position he held until his death, and in his hands
the periodical attained a high degree of influence and importance. His
health failing, he resigned his position at the Botanical Garden,
retiring upon full pay. He died at Berlin, August 21st, 1838.
Frenchman though he was, his entire conception of life and the whole
character of his writings are purely German, and show none of the French
characteristics of his time. Chamisso, as botanist, traveler, poet, and
editor, made important contributions in each and every field, although
outside of Germany his fame rests chiefly upon his widely known
'Schlemihl,' which has been translated into all the principal languages
of Europe.