Chamisso - Adelbert von Chamisso

German Romantic poet and natural scientist. Born to a distinguished French aristocratic family, he was born at Château de Boncourt in Champagne. In 1790, he fled to Berlin with his parents after their property was confiscated during the French Revolution. He aspired to become a Prussian soldier and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1801. It was around this time that he began writing poetry in German and became interested in German philosophy and literature. He published a literary magazine with other young Romantic poets living in Berlin, including Fucé and Karl August Varnhagen von Ense (1785-1858). In 1806, he witnessed the defeat of Prussia at the hands of Napoleon's army, and left the military due to the conflict between his awareness as a German poet and his love for his native France. He commuted back and forth between Germany and France, and in 1812 in Paris he became acquainted with Madame de Stael, who was the greatest supporter of German culture at the time. He returned to Berlin in the same year and devoted himself to the study of medicine, botany and biology at the University of Berlin, and from 1815 he travelled the world with a Russian scientific expedition for three years, building the foundations of his career as a natural scientist, and was appointed director of the Royal Botanical Institute in Berlin in 1819. He showed talent in lyric poetry and ballads, but his fairy tale novel The Wonderful Tales of Peter Schlemil, published in 1814, won him worldwide fame for its romantic fantasy and realistic writing.

[Nakai Chiyuki]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

ドイツ・ロマン派の詩人、自然科学者。フランス名門貴族の出。シャンパーニュのボンクール城に生まれる。1790年、フランス革命で財産を没収された両親とともにベルリンに逃れる。プロシアの軍人を志し1801年少尉に任官。そのころからドイツ語で詩作を始め、ドイツの哲学、文学に傾倒。ベルリン在住のロマン派の若き詩人たち、フケー、ファルンハーゲンKarl August Varnhagen von Ense（1785―1858）らと文芸雑誌を刊行する。1806年ナポレオン軍によるプロシア敗退を体験、ドイツ詩人としての自覚と祖国フランスへの愛着の相克から軍役を退く。ドイツとフランスの間を往復、1812年パリで当時ドイツ文化の最大の理解者スタール夫人の知遇を得る。同年ベルリンに戻り、ベルリン大学で医学、植物学、生物学の研究に没頭し、1815年から3年間ロシアの学術探検隊に加わり世界旅行を体験、自然科学者としての基礎を築き、1819年ベルリンの王立植物研究所所長に迎えられる。叙情詩、バラードに詩才を示したが、1814年発表のメルヘン的な小説『ペーター・シュレミールの不思議な物語』は、ロマン主義的幻想と写実的筆致により世界的な名声を博した。

［中井千之］

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