(1740-1815)
[Illustration: MATTHIAS CLAUDIUS]
Matthias Claudius, best known as "the Wandsbecker Bote" (the Messenger
from Wandsbeck), was born at Reinfeld in Holstein, August 15th, 1740. He
was of excellent stock, coming from a long line of clergymen. It was
said that scarcely another family in Schleswig-Holstein had given to the
church so many sons.
There is but little to record of the quiet boyhood passed in the
picturesque stillness of the North German village. At the outset the
education of Claudius was conducted by his father, the village pastor.
From beginning to end his life was simple, moderate, and well ordered.
After finishing his school days at Ploen, he entered the University of
Jena (1759), with the intention of studying theology, in order to follow
the traditions of the family and enter the ministry. This idea he was
soon obliged to relinquish on account of a pulmonary weakness, and he
turned instead to the study of jurisprudence. His strongest attraction
was towards literature. He became a member of the literary guild in
Jena; and later, when he had attained fame as the "Wandsbecker Bote," he
was intimately associated with Voss, F.L. Stolberg, Herder, and others
of the Goettingen fraternity. His first verses, published in Jena in
1763, under the title "Taendeleien und Erzaehlungen' (Trifles and Tales),
gave no indication of his talents, and were no more than the usual
student efforts of unconscious imitation; they have absolutely no poetic
value, and are interesting only as they indicate a stage of development.
In editing his works in later years, Claudius preserved of this early
poetry only one song, 'An eine Quelle' (To a Spring).
After leaving the university in 1764, he took a position as private
secretary to Count Holstein in Copenhagen; and here, under the powerful
influence of Klopstock, whose friendship was at this time the most
potent element of his life, and in the brilliant circle which that poet
had drawn around him, Claudius entered fully into the life of sentiment
and ideas which conduced so largely to his intellectual development.
Some years later, after a fallow period spent in the quiet of his
father's house at Reinfeld, he settled at Wandsbeck, near Altona (1771),
where in connection with Bode he published the Wandsbecker Bote, the
popular weekly periodical so indissolubly associated with his name. His
contributions under the name of "Asmus" found everywhere the warmest
acceptance. In 1775, through Herder's recommendation, Claudius was
appointed Chief Land Commissioner at Darmstadt; but circumstances
rendering the position uncongenial, he returned to his beloved
Wandsbeck, where he supported his family by his pen until 1788, when
Crown Prince Frederick of Denmark appointed him revisor of the Holstein
Bank at Altona. He died in Hamburg, January 1st, 1815, in the house of
his son-in-law, the bookseller Perthes.
A collection of his works, with the title 'Asmus omnia sua secum
portans, oder Saemmtliche Werke des Wandsbecker Boten' (The Collected
Works of the Wandsbeck Messenger), appeared at Hamburg, 1775-1812. These
collected works comprise songs, romances, fables, poems, letters, etc.,
originally published in various places. The translation of Saint Martin
and Fenelon marked the pietistic spirit of his later years, and is in
strong contrast to the exuberance which produced the 'Rheinweinlied'
(Rhine Wine Song) and 'Urian's Reise um die Welt' (Urian's Journey
around the World).
Claudius as a poet won the hearts of his countrymen. His verses express
his idyllic love of nature and his sympathy with rustic life. The poet
and the man are one. His pure and simple style appealed to the popular
taste, and some of his lyrics have become genuine folk-songs.