Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann, short biography. Hoffmann: works, complete list, analysis and analysis of books, short biography of the writer and interesting life facts

Hoffmann Ernst Theodor Amadeus (01/24/1776 – 06/25/1822) was a German writer who opened a whole movement in literature called romantic. The most famous work- fairy tale “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.”

“If you have eyes, then you can see transparent marzipan castles and sparkling candied fruit groves. And they will be everywhere. In other words, you are able to see miracles."

Childhood

Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann was born on January 24, 1776. At birth he was given the name Wilhelm, but later he changed it to Amadeus - in honor of his idol Mozart. The boy's father was a fairly well-known lawyer, Christoph Ludwig Hoffmann. But he did not raise his son. When the future writer was only three years old, his parents divorced. And the boy was sent to live with his grandmother, where he spent almost his time with his uncle. He worked as a lawyer, but at the same time he was very creative personality. It was he who determined all later life Ernst Theodor, sending him to study law.

At the age of 24, Hoffman graduated from the University of Koenigsberg and entered the public service. But at the same time, the young man never liked the work itself. All yours free time he gave to music and painting. And he learned to play the piano so well that he even began giving lessons. At this time he wrote his first large works – piano sonatas for violins, harp and cello.

The beginning of a creative career

In 1802, Hoffmann fell out of favor with his superiors after he drew several vicious political cartoons as a joke. He was not arrested, but they decided to exile him further away - to the remote province of Plock. The writer himself called it a “vile place,” but it was there that he creativity began to open up more and more. He actively took up music, painting, and studied Italian.

And when he was “pardoned” and transferred to work in Warsaw, Hoffmann already had considerable creative baggage behind him. Serious ones were written dramatic works– singspiel “The Merry Musicians”, music for the drama “Cross on the Baltic Sea” and the opera “Love and Jealousy”.

At the same time, Hoffman began to take an active interest in literature. He avidly reads German romantics - Schlegel, Friedrich von Hardenberg, Tieck, Bretano and others. Impressed by most of the works, Ernst Theodor himself decides to write something similar.

Literary activity

In 1806, Napoleon invades Warsaw. All institutions in the city were closed, and Hoffman was left practically without a livelihood. But his friends helped him cross to Berlin. There he met the famous music critic I.F. Rokhlits. And he offered to write him a fictional story about creative person who has fallen into extreme poverty. This is how the famous work “Kreisleriana” appeared. And after him the musical short stories “Don Juan” and “Cavalier Gluck” were written.

A few years later, another old friend of Hoffmann was found - Franz Holbein. He invited the writer and composer to work at the Bamber Theater, where Ernst Theodor’s creative nature was able to develop to its fullest. He wrote music for performances, participated in productions, created scenery and even worked on the architectural decoration of the theater building.

Since 1816, Hoffmann decided to finish his musical creativity. The last work he created was the opera “Ondine,” which was very warmly received by audiences and critics. But after that, Ernst Theodor focused entirely on literature. Moreover, he wrote mainly fairy tales and mystery novels. Among the most significant works of that time - “The Devil’s Elixir”, “The Golden Pot”, “Princess Brambilla”, “Serapin’s Brothers” and, of course, “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King”.

Creation of the Nutcracker

This legendary tale was conceived by Hoffmann while he was babysitting the children of his friend and biographer Julius Hitzig. Even the names of the main characters - Fritz and Marie - are not fictitious, and the characters accurately convey their character traits.

The work itself was written in the fall of 1816. After this, Hoffmann handed over the manuscript to the publisher Georg Reimer. And the fairy tale was immediately published in the collection of “Children's Stories”, which was published just before Christmas. "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" became a real sensation among readers and critics.

Even the military appreciated the work. Thus, one Prussian military leader said that Hoffmann very vividly described the scenes of the Nutcracker’s battle with the mouse army and “convincingly and according to all military science spoke about every stage of the battle.”

Death of a Writer

The famous German writer and composer Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann died on June 25, 1822. Before that, he had been very ill for six months, having caught a cold back in January. True, the disease was further aggravated by proceedings with the Prussian government. It was at this time that serious charges were brought against Hoffmann for ridiculing high officials and even for violating official secrets. Regular searches were carried out in the writer's house, his manuscripts were confiscated for study. Naturally, it was very difficult to be treated in such an atmosphere. And Hoffmann’s health only worsened.

They even tried to summon the writer several times for questioning, but the doctors came to his defense and forbade him to travel anywhere. Over time, Ernst Theodor became very ill. He could no longer hold a pen in his hands, but continued to create. Following the author's dictation, the friends managed to complete several of his works. Among them are "Lord of the Fleas", "Corner Window" and "Naivety". But by June 24, paralysis shackled Hoffmann’s entire body, and the next morning the German writer died.

28.12.2017 19:00

Satire, grotesque, fantasy

“They knew the gap between dreams and reality, the grimaces of time, the power of objective circumstances”
V.A. Kuleshov " Literary connections Russia and Western Europe in the 19th century."

N.V. Gogol and E.T.A. Hoffman. Speaking about the work of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, it is impossible not to recall the name of another writer who influenced Gogol in many ways. Gogol’s “teacher” was the German romantic Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann.

“But aren’t there strange things in the world?” - we read in Gogol’s letter to S.T. Aksakov. There are, and some more! If only he knew that the writer Anna Seghers, in her short story “Meeting on the Way,” brought together Gogol, Hoffmann and Kafka in Prague. What would happen if? Of course, they could not meet in person (Hoffman: 1776 - 1822, Gogol: 1809 - 1852). It is known that while traveling, the Russian writer once found himself in the city of Bamberg, but only admired the cathedral, without going into the theater where Hoffmann once served. From Gogol’s letters we know that he read “The Everyday Views of Murr the Cat” and admired them.

After writing “Hans Küchelgarten,” he admitted: “I loved the Germans without knowing them, or perhaps I confused German scholarship on philosophy with the Germans.” "Germany! A country of high motives. Country of air ghosts!

However, Hoffmann was not very appreciated in Germany, but was adored in Russia. “He had an electric effect on young serious minds, who considered his word a poetic insight into the very depths of creativity,” testified P.V. Annenkov.

Of course, the element of fantasy in the poetic contemplation of the world should be entirely attributed to the influence of German romanticism on Gogol

Plots that were similar to Gogol and Hoffmann - the resurrection of corpses, the revival of portraits, the production of mechanical dolls - acquire an extraordinary emphasis and development. All this is in their spirit - the faithful original coexists with a dead fake, the living and the inanimate merge in a supernatural act, “realism” goes hand in hand with “mechanism,” and both rest on magic.

The main topic of E.T.A. Goffman and N.V. Gogol - the theme of art and the artist. Gogol's “Portrait” is connected with Hoffmann's short story “The Church of the Jesuits”. Both works are about the painful doubt of an artist who is looking for a new, personal form for his talent.

In “Nevsky Prospect” the image of the artist Piskarev seems close to the image of the dreamer Anselm from the short story “The Golden Pot”. In "Princess Brambilla" Hoffmann sets out a theory very close to Gogol's comic practice. And the characteristic conviction of Hoffmann in the greed and even madness of the world was also inherent in Gogol. Madmen inhabit his St. Petersburg world. In “Notes of a Madman,” Gogol gives his answer to the question about the nature of madness. This question also occupied Hoffmann. The analogy with Chrysler suggests itself. Similarities with Hoffmann are also found in the story “The Nose”. Despite all the differences in the source material, the fiction of both writers is full of deep meaning.

There was no congeniality between Hoffman and Gogol

These are completely different poetic natures with diametrically opposed creatively. The refined, extravagant mystifier Hoffman and the idealist and dreamer Gogol, who, through conscious imitation of Hoffman’s poetics, went to bitter recognition real life, to her cold reproduction.

Today, you can analyze the work of the two writers yourself by getting to know them better at our exhibition.

Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann... There is something magical in this name. It is always pronounced in full, and it appears to be surrounded by a dark ruffled collar with fiery reflections.
However, this is how it should be, because in fact Hoffmann was a magician.
Yes, yes, not just a storyteller, like the Brothers Grimm or Perrault, but a real wizard.
Judge for yourself, because only a true magician can create miracles and fairy tales... out of nothing. From a bronze doorknob with a grinning face, from nutcrackers and the hoarse chime of an old clock; from the sound of the wind in the leaves and the night singing of cats on the roof. True, Hoffmann did not wear a black robe with mysterious signs, but walked in a shabby brown tailcoat and instead magic wand I used a quill pen.
Wizards will be born wherever and whenever they please. Ernst Theodor Wilhelm (as he was originally called) was born in the glorious city of Königsberg on the day of St. John Chrysostom in the family of a lawyer.
He probably acted rashly, for nothing resists magic more than laws and law.
And here is a young man who, from the very early childhood more than anything in the world he loved music (and even took the name Amadeus in honor of Mozart), played the piano, violin, organ, sang, painted and wrote poetry - this young man, like all his ancestors, was supposed to become an official.
Young Hoffman submitted, graduated from the university and served for many years in various judicial departments. He wandered through the cities of Prussia and Poland (which was also Prussian at that time), sneezed in dusty archives, yawned at court hearings and drew caricatures of members of the panel of judges in the margins of protocols.
More than once the ill-fated lawyer tried to quit his job, but this led to nothing. Having gone to Berlin to try his luck as an artist and musician, he almost died of hunger. IN small town Bamberg Hoffmann had the opportunity to be a composer and conductor, director and decorator in the theater; write articles and reviews for the “General Musical Newspaper”; give music lessons and even participate in the sale of sheet music and pianos! But this did not add fame or money to him. Sometimes, sitting by the window in his tiny room right under the roof and looking at the night sky, he thought that things in the theater would never go well; that Julia Mark, his student, sings like an angel, and he is ugly, poor and unfree; and in general life was not a success...
Julchen was soon married off to a stupid but rich businessman and taken away forever.
Hoffmann left the disgusted Bamberg and went first to Dresden, then to Leipzig, was almost killed by a bomb during one of the last Napoleonic battles and finally...
Either fate took pity on him, or the patron saint John Chrysostom helped, but one day the unlucky bandmaster took a pen, dipped it in an inkwell and...
It was then that crystal bells rang, golden-green snakes whispered in the foliage, and the fairy tale “The Golden Pot” (1814) was written.
And Hoffmann finally found himself and his magical land. True, some guests from this country visited him before (“Cavalier Gluck”, 1809).
A lot of wonderful stories soon accumulated, and a collection of them was compiled called “Fantasies in the Manner of Callot” (1814-1815). The book was a success, and the author immediately became famous.
“I’m like children born on Sunday: they see things that other people can’t see.”. Hoffmann's fairy tales and short stories could be funny and scary, bright and sinister, but the fantastic in them arose unexpectedly, from the most ordinary things, from life itself. This was the great secret, which Hoffmann was the first to guess.
His fame grew, but there was still no money. And now the writer is again forced to put on the uniform of a justice adviser, now in Berlin.
Melancholy overcame him in this "human desert", but still it was here that almost all of him were written best books: "The Nutcracker and mouse king"(1816), "Little Tsakhes" (1819), "Night Stories" (very scary), "Princess Brambilla" (1820), "Everyday views of the cat Murra" and much more.
Gradually, a circle of friends formed - the same romantic dreamers as Hoffmann himself. Their funny and serious conversations about art, about secrets human soul and other subjects were embodied in the four-volume cycle “The Serapion Brothers” (1819-1821).
Hoffmann was full of plans, the service did not burden him too much, and everything would have been fine, but only... “The devil can put his tail on everything”.
Councilor Hoffman as a member court of appeal stood up for an unjustly accused man, provoking the wrath of police director von Kamptz. Moreover, the daring writer portrayed this worthy figure of the Prussian state in the story “Lord of the Fleas” (1822) under the guise of Privy Councilor Knarrpanti, who first arrested the criminal and then selected a suitable crime for him. Von Kamptz complained to the king in a rage and ordered the manuscript of the story to be confiscated. A lawsuit was brought against Hoffmann, and only the troubles of his friends and a serious illness saved him from persecution.
He was almost completely paralyzed, but did not lose hope until the end. The last miracle was the story “The Corner Window,” where an elusive life was captured on the fly and captured for us forever.

Margarita Pereslegina

WORKS OF E.T.A.HOFFMANN

COLLECTED WORKS: In 6 volumes: Transl. with him. / Preface A. Karelsky; Comment. G. Shevchenko. - M.: Artist. lit., 1991-2000.
Russia has always loved Hoffmann. Educated youth read to them in German. In the library of A.S. Pushkin there was full meeting Hoffmann's works French translations. Very soon Russian translations appeared, for example, “The History of Nutcrackers”, or “The Nutcracker and the King of Mice” - that’s what “The Nutcracker” was called then. It is difficult to list all the figures of Russian art who were influenced by Hoffmann (from Odoevsky and Gogol to Meyerhold and Bulgakov). And yet, some mysterious force for a long time prevented the publication of all E. T. A. Hoffmann’s books in Russian. Only now, almost two centuries later, we can read the writer’s famous and unfamiliar texts, collected and commented on, as befits the works of a genius.

SELECTED WORKS: 3 volumes / Intro. Art. I. Mirimsky. - M.: Goslitizdat, 1962.

THE EVERYDAY VIEWS OF THE CAT MURR COUPLED WITH FRAGMENTS OF THE BIOGRAPHY OF Kapellmeister JOHANNES KREISLER, ACCIDENTALLY SURVIVING IN THE RECOVERY SHEETS / Trans. with him. D. Karavkina, V. Grib // Hoffman E.T.A. Lord of the Fleas: Stories, novel. - M.: EKSMO-Press, 2001. - P. 269-622.
One day, Hoffmann saw that his pupil and favorite tabby cat named Murr was opening his desk drawer with his paw and laying down there to sleep on the manuscripts. Has he really learned to read and write? This is how the idea for this extraordinary book, in which thoughtful reasoning and “heroic” adventures of the cat Murr are interspersed with pages of the biography of his owner, Kapellmeister Kreisler, who is so similar to Hoffmann himself.
The novel, unfortunately, remained unfinished.

THE GOLDEN POT AND OTHER STORIES: Trans. with him. / Afterword D. Chavchanidze; Rice. N. Golts. - M.: Det. lit., 1983. - 366 pp.: ill.
Behind the visible and tangible world there is another, wonderful world, full of beauty and harmony, but it is not open to everyone. This will be confirmed to you little knight The Nutcracker, and the poor student Anselm, and mysterious stranger in an embroidered camisole - gentleman Gluck...

GOLDEN POT; LITTLE TZAHES, NAMED ZINNOBER: Fairy Tales: Trans. with him. / Intro. Art. A. Gugnina; Artist N. Golts. - M.: Det. lit., 2002. - 239 pp.: ill. - (School library).
Don't try to unravel the secret of Hoffmann's two most magical, deepest and most elusive stories. No matter how you weave a network of social and philosophical theories, the green snakes will still slide into the water of the Elbe and only sparkle with emerald sparks... Read and listen to these fairy tales, like music, following the play of melody, the whims of fantasy, entering enchanted halls, opening the gates of wonderful parks... Just while you're daydreaming, don't trip over some basket of apples. After all, her owner may turn out to be a real witch.

KREYSLERIANA; LIFE VIEWS OF THE CAT MURRA; DIARIES: Transl. with him. - M.: Nauka, 1972. - 667 p.: ill. - (Lit. monuments).
KREYSLERIANA; NOVELLS: Trans. with him. - M.: Music, 1990. - 400 p.
"Kreysleriana"
“There is only one angel of light who can overcome the demon of evil. This bright angel is the spirit of music..." Kapellmeister Johannes Kreisler utters these words in the novel Murr the Cat, but for the first time this hero appears in Kreislerian, where he expresses Hoffmann's most sincere and profound thoughts about music and musicians.

"Fermata", "Poet and Composer", "Singing Competition"
In these short stories, Hoffman plays out in different ways the themes that worried him all his life: what creativity is; at what cost is perfection in art achieved?

SANDMAN: Stories: Trans. with him. / Rice. V. Bisengalieva. - M.: Text, 1992. - 271 p.: ill. - (Magic Lantern).
"Ignaz Denner", « Sandman» , "Doge and Dogaressa", "Falun Mines"
Evil sorcerers, nameless dark forces and the devil himself is always ready to take possession of a person. Woe to him who trembles before them and lets darkness into his soul!

"Mademoiselle de Scudéry: A Tale from the Time of Louis XIV"
The novella about the mysterious crimes that struck Paris in the 17th century is Hoffmann’s first work translated into Russian and the first detective story in the history of literature.

SANDMAN: [Stories, short stories] / Preface. A. Karelsky. - St. Petersburg: Crystal, 2000. - 912 p.: ill.
"Adventure on New Year's Eve"
“Inconsistent with anything, just God knows what kind of incidents” happen at this time. On an icy, blizzard night, in a small Berlin tavern, a traveler who casts no shadow and a poor artist who, strange to say... is not reflected in the mirror, can meet!

"Lord of the Fleas: A Tale in Seven Adventures of Two Friends"
The kind eccentric Peregrinus Tys, without knowing it, saves the master flea and all the fleas of the ruler. As a reward, he receives a magic glass that allows him to read other people's thoughts.

SERAPION BROTHERS: E.T.A.HOFFMANN. SERAPION BROTHERS; “SERAPION BROTHERS” IN PETROGRAD: Anthology / Comp., preface. and comment. A.A.Gugnina. - M.: Higher. school, 1994. - 736 p.
E.T.A. Hoffmann’s collection “The Serapion Brothers” is published almost in the same form in which it appeared during the life of the author and his friends - writers F. de la Motte Fouquet, A. von Chamisso, lawyer J. Hitzig, doctor and poet D.F. Koreff and others, who named their circle in honor of the clairvoyant hermit Serapion. Their charter stated: freedom of inspiration and imagination and the right of everyone to be themselves.
A hundred years later, in 1921, in Petrograd, young Russian writers united in the Serapion Brotherhood - in honor of Hoffmann and the romantics, in the name of Art and Friendship, in spite of the chaos and war of parties. A collection of works by the new “serapions” Mikhail Zoshchenko, Lev Lunts, Vsevolod Ivanov, Veniamin Kaverin and others is also published in this book for the first time since 1922.

THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING: A Christmas Tale / Transl. with him. I. Tatarinova; Il. M. Andrukhina. - Kaliningrad: Blagovest, 1992. - 111 p.: ill. - (The Magic Piggy Bank of Childhood).
“Tick-and-tock, tick-and-tock! Don't wheeze so loudly! The mouse king hears everything... Well, the clock, the old tune! Trick-and-truck, boom-boom!
Let's tiptoe into Councilor Stahlbaum's living room, where Christmas candles are already burning and gifts are laid out on the tables. If you stand to the side and don’t make noise, you will see amazing things...
This fairy tale is almost two hundred years old, but strange! The Nutcracker and little Marie have not aged at all since then, and the Mouse King and his mother Myshilda have not become any kinder.

Margarita Pereslegina

LITERATURE ABOUT THE LIFE AND WORK OF E. T. A. HOFFMANN

Balandin R.K. Hoffman // Balandin R.K. One hundred great geniuses. - M.: Veche, 2004. - P. 452-456.
Berkovsky N.Ya. Hoffmann: [About life, the main themes of creativity and Hoffmann’s influence on world literature] // Berkovsky N.Ya. Articles and lectures on foreign literature. - St. Petersburg: ABC-classics, 2002. - P. 98-122.
Berkovsky N.Ya. Romanticism in Germany. - St. Petersburg: ABC-classics, 2001. - 512 p.
From the content: E.T.A.Hoffman.
Belza I. Wonderful genius: [Hoffmann and music] // Hoffmann E.T.A. Kreisleriana; Novels. - M.: Music, 1990. - P. 380-399.
Hesse G. [About Hoffmann] // Hesse G. The magic of the book. - M.: Book, 1990. - P. 59-60.
Goffman E.T.A. Life and creativity: Letters, statements, documents: Trans. with him. / Comp., preface. and after. K.Guntzel. - M.: Raduga, 1987. - 462 p.: ill.
Gugnin A. “Serapion’s brothers” in the context of two centuries // Serapion’s brothers: E.T.A.Hoffman. Serapion brothers; "Serapion's Brothers" in Petrograd: An Anthology. - M.: Higher. school, 1994. - P. 5-40.
Gugnin A. Fantastic reality of E.T.A.Hoffman // Hoffman E.T.A. Golden pot; Little Tsakhes, nicknamed Zinnober. - M.: Det. lit., 2002. - P. 5-22.
Dudova L. Hoffman, Ernst Theodor Amadeus // Foreign writers: Biobibliogr. Dictionary: In 2 hours: Part 1. - M.: Bustard, 2003. - P. 312-321.
Kaverin V. Speech on the centenary of the death of E.T.A.Hoffman // Serapion brothers: E.T.A.Hoffman. Serapion brothers; "Serapion's Brothers" in Petrograd: An Anthology. - M.: Higher. school, 1994. - pp. 684-686.
Karelsky A. Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffman // Hoffman E.T.A. Collection Op.: In 6 vols. - M.: Khudozh. lit., 1991-2000. - T. 1. - P. 5-26.
Mistler J. The Life of Hoffmann / Trans. from fr. A. Frankovsky. - L.: Academia, 1929. - 231 p.
Piskunova S. Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffman // Encyclopedia for children: T. 15: World literature: Part 2: XIX and XX centuries. - M.: Avanta+, 2001. - P. 31-38.
Fümann F. Little Tsakhes, nicknamed Zinnober // Meeting: Stories and essays by GDR writers about the era of Sturm and Drang and Romanticism. - M., 1983. - P. 419-434.
Kharitonov M. Fairy tales and the life of Hoffmann: Preface // Hoffman E.T.A. Little Tsakhes, nicknamed Zinnober. - Saratov: Privolzhsk. book publishing house, 1984. - pp. 5-16.
The artistic world of E.T.A. Hoffmann: [Sb. articles]. - M.: Nauka, 1982. - 295 p.: ill.
Zweig S. E. T. A. Hoffmann: Preface to the French edition of “Princess Brambilla” // Zweig S. Collection. cit.: In 9 volumes - M.: Bibliosphere, 1997. - T. 9. - P. 400-402.
Shcherbakova I. Drawings by E.T.A. Hoffmann // Panorama of Arts: Vol. 11. - M.: Sov. artist, 1988. - pp. 393-413.

Hoffmann, Ernst Theodor Amadeus (Wilhelm), one of the most original and fantastic German writers, was born on January 24, 1774 in Konigsberg, died on July 24, 1822 in Berlin.

A lawyer by training, he chose the judicial profession, in 1800 he became an assessor of the Chamber of Richt in Berlin, but soon he was transferred to service in Warsaw for several offensive caricatures, and with the invasion of the French in 1806 he finally lost his position. Possessing remarkable musical talent, he lived with music lessons, articles in music magazines, was opera conductor in Bamberg (1808), Dresden and Leipzig (1813-15). In 1816, Hoffmann again received the post of member of the royal chamberlain in Berlin, where he died after suffering painfully from tabes spinal cord.

Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann. Self-portrait

He studied music with love from his youth. In Poznań he staged Goethe's operetta Joke, Cunning and Revenge; in Warsaw - “The Merry Musicians” by Brentano and, in addition, the operas: “The Canon of Milan” and “Love and Jealousy,” the text of which he himself compiled based on foreign models. He also wrote music for the opera “Cross on the Baltic Sea” by Werner and an opera adaptation of “Ondine” by Fouquet for the Berlin theater.

An invitation to collect articles scattered in the Musical Newspaper prompted him to publish a collection of short stories, Fantasies in the Manner of Callot (1814), which aroused considerable interest and earned him the nickname “Hoffmann-Callot.” This was followed by: “Vision on the Battlefield of Dresden” (1814); novel “Elixirs of Satan” (1816); fairy tale “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” (1816); collection “Night Studies” (1817); essay “The Extraordinary Sufferings of the Theater Director” (1818); collection "Serapion's Brothers" (1819-1821, which includes famous masterpieces“Mister Martin the Cooper and His Apprentices”, “Mademoiselle de Scudery”, “Arthur’s Hall”, “Doge and Dogaressa”); fairy tale story “Little Tsakhes, nicknamed Zinnober” (1819); "Princess Brambilla" (1821); novels "Lord of the Fleas" (1822); “The Everyday Views of Murr the Cat” (1821) and a number of later works.

Geniuses and villains. Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann

Hoffmann was an extremely original personality, gifted with extraordinary talents, wild, intemperate, passionately devoted to nocturnal revelry, but at the same time excellent business man and lawyer. With a sharp and healthy rationality, thanks to which he quickly noticed the weak and funny sides of phenomena and things, he, however, was distinguished by all kinds of fantastic views and an amazing belief in demonism. Eccentric in his inspiration, an epicurean to the point of effeminacy and a stoic to the point of harshness, a fantasist to the point of the ugliest madness and a witty mocker to the point of unimaginative prosaicism, he combined in himself the strangest opposites, which are also characteristic of most of the plots of his stories. In all his works one notices, first of all, a lack of calm. His imagination and humor irresistibly draw the reader along. Gloomy images are constant companions of the action; the wildly demonic breaks even into the everyday world of philistine modernity. But even in the most fantastic, formless works, the features of Hoffmann’s great talent, his genius, his ebullient wit are revealed.

How music critic, he stood behind G. Spontini and Italian music v. K.M. f. Weber and blossomed German opera, but contributed to understanding Mozart And Beethoven. Hoffmann was also an excellent caricaturist; he owns several cartoons

THIS. Hoffmann is a German writer who created several collections of short stories, two operas, a ballet and many short musical works. It was thanks to him that the symphony orchestra. On his tombstone are carved the words: “He was an equally distinguished lawyer, poet, musician and painter.”

Hoffmann was born in 1776. in the city of Konigsberg in a wealthy family. His father was a lawyer at the royal court. A few years after the boy was born, the parents divorced. Ernst stayed to live with his mother.

Hoffmann spent his childhood and youth in his grandmother's house. He grew up withdrawn, often left to his own devices. Of the adult family members, only his aunt took care of him.

The boy loved to draw and played music for a long time. At the age of twelve, he was already fluent in playing various musical instruments and even studied music theory. He received his main education at a Lutheran school, and after graduating he entered the University of Königsberg, where he studied jurisprudence.

Having become a certified lawyer, he took the position of assessor in the city of Poznan. However, he was soon fired because of a caricature he drew of his boss. The young man moves to Plock, where he also gets a job as an official. In his free time he writes, draws and plays music, because he dreams of becoming a composer.

In 1802 married, and in 1804 was transferred to Warsaw. After Napoleon's troops occupied the city, all Prussian officials were taken away. Hoffman was left without a livelihood. In 1808 he managed to get a job as a bandmaster in the theater. Gives private lessons. He tries his hand at being a conductor, but this debut cannot be called successful.

In 1809 His work “Cavalier Gluck” is published. In 1813 Hoffmann receives an inheritance, and in 1814. he accepts an offer from the Prussian Ministry of Justice and moves to live in Berlin. There he attends literary salons, completes previously started works and conceives new ones, in which the real world is often intertwined with the fantastic world.

Soon popularity comes to him, but for the sake of earning money, Hoffman continues to go to work. Gradually he becomes a regular at wine cellars, and upon returning home he sits down at the table and writes all night long. The addiction to wine does not affect the performance of the functions of an official and he is even transferred to a place with a higher salary.

In 1019 he got sick. He is being treated in Silesia, but the disease is progressing. Hoffmann can no longer write himself. However, even lying in bed he continues to create: the short story “Corner Window”, the story “Enemy”, etc. are written under his dictation.

In 1822 brilliant writer died. Buried in Berlin.

Biography 2

Amadeus Hoffman is a wonderful writer, composer and talented artist, who wrote both many wonderful orchestral parts and a large variety of paintings. He is truly a very versatile man, with many different talents and interests, the results of which he happily shared with the world.

Amadeus was born, but at birth he was given the name Wilhelm, which he later changed, in Könisberg in 1776. However, in his childhood, a misfortune happened to the boy - his parents decided to divorce, because they simply could not be together anymore, the boy was three years old at that time, and subsequently he was raised by his uncle. From childhood, the boy was surrounded by love and care, which is why he grew up to be a slightly boorish, selfish person, but undoubtedly talented in the field of painting and music. Combining these two branches of art, the young man achieved a fairly good reputation in the circles of art critics and other high-profile figures. Following the instructions of his uncle, the young man decided to begin studying law at a local university, and later, having passed the exam brilliantly, he was offered workplace in the city of Poznan, where his talent was received with cordiality. However, in this city young talent He became addicted to revelry so early that after several of his antics they decided to send him to Polotsk, after scolding him and demoting him. There he meets his future wife, marries her, and begins to lead a more meaningful life.

However, due to the fact that there were no ways to earn money for the young talent, his family was in poverty. He worked as a conductor and also wrote articles about music for magazines that were not particularly popular. But during his poverty, he also discovered a new direction in music, namely the famous romanticism, according to which music is an expression of the sensual emotionality of the human soul, which, experiencing certain experiences, creates such a beautiful thing as music. This, to its extent, also brought him some popularity, after which he was noticed, and in 1816 he received a position in Berlin and became a legal adviser, which gave him a consistently high income. And having lived his life like this, he died in 1822 in the city of Berlin from old age.

Biography by dates and interesting facts. The most important.

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