“Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff (10 March 1788 – 26 November 1857) was a German poet, novelist, playwright, literary critic, translator, and anthologist.” This sentence is from Wikipedia, where you can read more about Eichendorff in English. But that wouldn’t help your German much, right?
So I have searched and found a nice easy website with text aimed at German secondary school children, which should be a lovely reading exercise for you: Joseph von Eichendorff – Biografie und Vertreter der Romantik
Here are a few videos of some of his poems. This one ‘Morgengebet’ comes with the English translation as well.
So does this one, ‘Frühlingsgruß’, fitting for the month of March.
A lot of his poems have been set to music, like this one ‘Mondnacht’
One of the Novellas he wrote is called ‘Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts’ (Memoirs of a Good-for-Nothing). It is read in many schools, I also read it when at school in Germany.
I found a lovely video with Playmobil figures retelling the story on 10 minutes. Although fun to watch, it isn’t easy to understand, so if you want to know about the plot before you watch it, you can read it here in English.
Have you heard of Eichendorff or read any of his poems or novellas?
