The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Hoffmann, August Heinrich

HOFFMANN, August Heinrich, ow'goost hīn'riH hŏf'män, usually known as Hoffman von Fallersleben, German poet and philologist: b. Fallersleben, Hanover, 2 April 1798; d. Corvei, 19 Jan. 1874. He studied at Göttingen and Bonn, was appointed in 1823 custodian of the university library at Breslau, and in 1830 became extraordinary, in 1835 ordinary professor of the German language and literature in the university of that city. He resigned his librarianship at Breslau in 1838, and in 1842 was removed from his chair without a pension because of the liberal political views represented in his ‘Unpolitsche Lieder’ (1840-41). He led a wandering life till 1845, when he obtained the right of domicile in Mecklenburg. In 1848 he was granted a pension by the Prussian government, and from 1860 he was librarian to the Duke of Ratibor. Of his original writings the best known are his songs, not a few of which, especially that beginning ‘Deutschland, Deutschland über Alles’ (1841), have long received emphatic popular approval. For several of them he composed tunes. They were published in several volumes, among these being ‘Gedichte’ (1827); ‘Alemannische Lieder’ (1827); ‘Hundert Schullieder’ (1848); ‘Deutsches Volksgesangbuch’ (1848); ‘Soldatenlieder’ (1851); ‘Kinderwelt in Liedern,’ and ‘Alte und Neue Kinderlieder’ (1873). A complete edition of his ‘Kinderlieder’ was prepared by von Donop in 1877. ‘Mein Leben’ (1868; abridged edition continued to his death, by Gersterberg, 1892-94), is autobiographical. Consult also the ‘Life’ by Wagner (1869).