Christian Morgenstern


Christian Otto Josef Wolfgang Morgenstern was a German author and poet from Munich. Morgenstern married Margareta Gosebruch von Liechtenstern on 7 March 1910. He worked for a while as a journalist in Berlin, but spent much of his life traveling through Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, primarily in a vain attempt to recover his health. His travels, though they failed to restore him to health, allowed him to meet many of the foremost literary and philosophical figures of his time in central Europe.
Morgenstern's poetry, much of which was inspired by English literary nonsense, is immensely popular, even though he enjoyed very little success during his lifetime. He made fun of scholasticism, e.g. literary criticism in "Drei Hasen", grammar in "Der Werwolf", narrow-mindedness in "Der Gaul", and symbolism in "Der Wasseresel". In "Scholastikerprobleme" he discussed how many angels could sit on a needle. Still many Germans know some of his poems and quotations by heart, e.g. the following line from "The Impossible Fact" :
Embedded in his humorous poetry is a subtle metaphysical streak, as e.g. in "Vice Versa", :
Ein Hase sitzt auf einer Wiese,

des Glaubens, niemand sähe diese.

Doch im Besitze eines Zeißes

betrachtet voll gehaltnen Fleißes

vom vis-à-vis gelegnen Berg

ein Mensch den kleinen Löffelzwerg.

Ihn aber blickt hinwiederum

ein Gott von fern an, mild und stumm.
"A rabbit in his meadow lair

Imagines none to see him there.

But aided by a looking lens

A man with eager diligence

Inspects the tiny long-eared gnome

From a convenient near-by dome.

Yet him surveys, or so we learn

A god from far off, mild and stern."
Gerolf Steiner's mock-scientific book about the fictitious animal order Rhinogradentia, inspired by Morgenstern's nonsense poem Das Nasobēm, is testament to his enduring popularity.
Morgenstern was a member of the General Anthroposophical Society. Dr. Rudolf Steiner called him 'a true representative of Anthroposophy'.
Morgenstern died in 1914 of tuberculosis, which he had contracted from his mother, who died in 1881.

Gallows Songs

Morgenstern's best known works are the Galgenlieder. This volume of humorous verses was followed by Palmström in 1910. Published posthumously were the important companion volumes Palma Kunkel in 1916, Der Gingganz in 1919, and Alle Galgenlieder in 1932. In German these works have gone through dozens of different editions and reprints and sold hundreds of thousands of copies.

Morgenstern as translator

Christian Morgenstern was also an acclaimed translator, rendering into German various prominent works from Norwegian and French, including the dramas and poems of Henrik Ibsen, Knut Hamsun, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson and August Strindberg.

Musical settings

Morgenstern's poems have been set to music by composers such as Erik Bergman, Hanns Eisler, Sofia Gubaidulina, Paul Graener, Friedrich Gulda, Paul Hindemith, Robert Kahn, Yrjö Kilpinen, Matyas Seiber, Rudi Spring, Siegfried Strohbach and Graham Waterhouse, Timothy Hoekman.

Essays, reviews and aphorisms

In his early years Christian Morgenstern wrote a considerable number of essays and reviews for various German periodicals. They have been collected together and published in Volume 6 of the German collected works of Morgenstern. His philosophical and mythical works were largely influenced by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, the Austrian educationalist Rudolf Steiner, and the Russian writers Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Leo Tolstoy.
Perhaps Morgenstern's most philosophical volume is a collection of aphorisms published posthumously in 1918 entitled Stufen: Eine Entwickelung in Aphorismen und Tagebuch-Notizen . It has given rise to a number of celebrated quotations. These include:
A complete edition of the works of Christian Morgenstern in German in nine volumes is currently being prepared by Verlag Urachhaus under the direction of Professor Reinhardt Habel. Volumes 1 and 2 comprise Morgenstern's lyrical writings and poems; volume 3: humoristic writings, including the complete Gallows Songs; volume 4: epic and theatrical writings; volume 5: collected aphorisms; volume 6: critical essays and reviews; volumes 7-9: complete correspondence. The volume titles in German are: