Hoffmann von Fallersleben, August Heinrich

Hoffmann von Fallersleben, August Heinrich 

Born Apr. 2, 1798, at Fallersleben; died Jan. 19, 1874, at Corvey. German poet and philologist.

As a poet Hoffmann was influenced by K. T. Körner and as a philologist by the brothers J. and W. Grimm. In his collection Nonpolitical Songs (parts 1–2, 1840–41) he criticized feudal orders from positions of bourgeois democracy. The idea of the unity of Germany found expression in his song “Deutschland, Deutschland über alles” (1841), which was later used by reactionaries as the national anthem of imperialist Germany and later also of the fascist Reich. His scholarly works are devoted to the history of the German song. Of major importance was the publication of his Political Poems out of Germany’s Past (1843). He was the composer of popular songs for children.

WORKS

Gesammelte Werke, vols. 1–8. Berlin, 1890–93.
Unpolitische Lieder und Zeitgedichte. Leipzig, 1953.

REFERENCES

Marx, K., and F. Engels. Ob iskusstve, vol. 2. Moscow, 1967. Pages 111, 217, 592.
Istoriia nemetskoi literatury, vol. 3. Moscow, 1966. Pages 426–30.
Neef, T. Hoffmann von Fallersleben als vaterländischer und politischer Dichter. Münster, 1912.
Sturm, W. “Hoffmann von Fallersleben.” Das Wort, Moscow, 1939, no. 3.
Drei Dichter von 1848. Rudolstadt, 1948.

S. V. TURAEV