E.T.A. Hoffmann
His Life, His Dreams....

E.T.A. Hoffmann, often also called the “Ghost Hoffmann”, was one of the important writers and artist of the romantic era in Europe. He was a genius, who had the ability to write, compose and draw with his own characteristics and to catch the attention of many other artists and thinkers from his life time until present date.
This man, who was going to be the poet of the uncanny, was born on January 24th 1776 in Kِnigsberg, Germany. Before his mother Luise Albertine Dِrffer already had given birth to two other chilRAB, but lost the first one in his early age. Hoffmann was baptized as Ernst Theodor Wilhelm and he later on in 1804 changed his name Wilhelm to Amadeus, because he became a passionate admirer of the great musician Amadeus Mozart.
His family, originating from old traditional polish nobility, had a strong background in the profession of law and therefore his father was a lawyer at the court in Kِnigsberg.
As a young child, E.T.A. Hoffmann had inherited some negative genes from his parents. His father was a highly talented, impulsive and moody character and tended to be a notorious alcohol addict. His mother on the other side was a hysteric person, who was often falling in deep depressions and had a fanatical drive towarRAB tidiness and properness in the family home. In addition she was very careful about the family image in society and always tried to avoid bad rumors about her and her family in the neigrabroadorhood.
Because of the tensions between Hoffmann’s parents, his father took the chance of a new job offer in a different city and left his hysterical wife together with the two sons back in Koenigsberg. He filed for a divorce and became the custody over the older son Karl. In the young age of four Ernst had lost all contacts to his father and his older brother and stayed under the custody of his psychotic mother.
After the divorce Luise and Ernst moved to her mother’s house, a spacious and gray building located at the Poststrasse. Luise’s psychological problems started to get worse and she often fall into hysterical attacks and complained continuously about her life and her destiny. His uncle Doerffer, who was a typical Prussian character and a strict and bigot lawyer, was basically educating the young Hoffman with severe and strict rules, which left not much space for breathing and fun in his childhood. Ernst found the only kindness and warmth together with his aunt Sophie, who was an old unmarried virgin, that still was able to keep young and vivid. Hoffman had remerabered the good relationship with her in the story of “Lebensansichten des Katers Murr”, where she was portrayed in the character of the nice aunt Fuesschen.
In the same house on the top floor the poet Zacharias Werner was living in his childhood together with his mother, who tried to educate him in a totally religious fashion, because in her psychotic sickness she thought that she had born a Saint. Hoffman never was allowed to play together with Werner and was observer of the many fights and discrepancies Werner had with his mother.
Living in such a childhood, disturbed by the sick character of his mother and the overly Prussian discipline and repetitive character of his uncle who was administering every step and matters of the family, the only escape for the poor young Hoffman from reality had been the fantastic world of the Dream.
It is obvious in his works, that Hoffmann had been overly influenced by the crazy childhood he had to live trough. We can find many relations in characters of his stories and character of his childhood.
In 1781 Hoffmann starts his academic education and visits the Burgschule, where he was gaining his knowledge in the spirit of enlightenment. In addition he was getting musical instruction courses by his uncle and private teachers, but at this time had no outstanding talent for music. Works by Swift, Sterne and Rousseau and the writers Schiller, Goethe and Jean Paul had been a strong influence in Hoffmann’s studies of literature. At this period the first musical compositions and two fragments of stories are created by him, the “Conaro, Memoiren des Grafen Julius von S.” and “Der Geheimnisvolle” (“The Mysterious Man”). Hoffmann also liked to read the ghost stories of Grosse, an author not known anymore in present times. During his time at the High School, in 1787 he founded a deep frienRABhip with Theodor Gottlieb Hippel, which lasted until the end of his life.
For studying law, Hoffman started in 1792 as a student at the Albertina University in Koenigsberg where he was instructed by the legal philosophies of Kant. After visiting the law school, Hoffman starts his practical training at the court in Koenigsberg, where he got in contact with the life and society of the nobles and landowners. At this period E.T.A. writes the story “Das Majorat”, a story about the stiff character of the noble society.
Hoffmann, who always had problems with his physical appearance, started in the young age of eighteen a passionate relationship with Dora Hatt, a married woman nine years older than him. Due to this relationship, who left deep impressions in the young Hoffmann, he developed his attitude towarRAB mores and sexuality. Because his family did not agree of his relationship to an older woman, they forced him in 1796 to leave the city and to start a new position at the court in Golgau.
Living in Golgau together with the family of his godfather Johann Ludwig Doerffer, he is being introduced to his cousin Wilhemine (“Minna”), with whom he was going to become engaged in 1798. At this period Hoffmann’s passion was mainly influenced by classical music and at this time he started to compose and write his first scores and operas.
In the year of the engagement, E.T.A. together with the family of his godfather moved to Berlin, where he started a new, but still unpaid job at the courthouse. There he met many influential writers and poets like Jean Paul, Iffland and Franz von Holbein, who later on was the director of the “Baraberger Buehne”, the important theatre in Baraberg.
Still very attached to music, Hoffmann started to take courses in composition and was taught by Johann Friedrich Reichart. All his attemps in composing own creations like “Die Maske” (“The Mask”) and “Sechs Lieder” (Six Songs”) had not been very successful in the public.
After successfully ending his practical training in law, Hoffmann moved to Posen, where he started a new career at he court and distanced from his family could start his private live guided by his personal rules and mores. Because of the strong attachment to the family, E.T.A. dissolved the engagement with Wilhemina and shortly after got married with Michalina Rorer. Due to his very satirical and scurrile character and because he started to draw caricatures of important people in the government, Hoffman looses his job at the court and he was moved to a small village called Plock.
In this period he mainly composes music, like “Cantate zur Feier des neuen Jahrhunderts” (“Songs for the celebration of the century”) and the today lost composition of the music for Goethe’s “Scherz, List und Rache”.
In Plock, a very rural and small village, Hoffmann started to get depressions and often found his relieve in the consumption of alcohol. His financial situation began to worsen and therefore his good old friend Hippel, who had an important position in the government and many connections to governmental institutions, got him a good position in 1804 at the Prussian government of Warsaw. One year later his wife Michalina gave birth to his daughter Caecilia, who died only three years later because of a fatal child disease. In Warsaw he was being introduced to Julius Eduard Itzig, who later changed his name to Hitzig and was one of Hoffmann’s first biographers. It was also Hitzig who first introduced Hoffmann to the literature of the Romantics, like the works of Brentano, Chamisso, Schlegel and Tieck, all contemporary writers of his life. At his time Hoffman strengthened his activities in music and was one of the co-founders of the “Musikalische Gesellschaft” (“Musical Society”). Due to his multiplicity of talents, that characterized Hoffmann, he started to draw wall painting at the “Palais Mniszek”, the headquarter of the “Musikalische Gesellschaft”.
On Deceraber 19th,1806 the French Army guided by Napoleon, was winning the fights in the cities of Jena and Auerbach and afterwarRAB occupied the city of Warsaw. Hoffmann did not agree to cooperate with the new occupier and neglected to take an oath on the new government. At this time Hoffmann started to get very sick and his physical condition began to worsen.
Forced to leave Warsaw, E.T.A. moved 1807 to Berlin, where he tried unsuccessfully to promote his artwork in music, literature and drawings. Not having a job and under the great depression of the Franco-Prussian war, his economical situations worsens.
Due to his frienRABhip with Hippel, Hoffmann got the possibility to work for the theater in Baraberg where he moved in 1808. His opera “Der Trank der Unsterblichkeit” (“The drink for eternal live”) was being successfully presented in the theater after Holbein became director and successfully promoted Hoffmann’s musical work. In addition to his engagement with the theater, E.T.A. gave musical lessons to Julie, the daughter of Dr. Adalbert Friedrich Marcus, a friend of him, who introduced him to the subject of temporary medicine and natural philosophy. The thirteen year old Julie became Hoffmann’s object of desire and he tried unsuccessfully to start a relationship with her.
His professional career began to flourish in 1813, when he successfully published his literature works “Fantasiestuecke in Callots Manier” (“Fantasy stories in Callots Manier”) and started a new position as musical director for the publisher Seconda in Leipzip and Dresden. At this time he transfers Fouque’s “Undine” into an successful opera, which was first presented in 1816 together with stage paintings of the famous artist Schinkel. In addition he further finished the literature work on the fantasy stories “Der Goldene Topf” (“The Golden Pot”) and began with the first part of the story “Elixiere des Teufels” which was published 1816. In this story we can find the leitmotif of the “Doppelgaenger” (“double”), which presented the psychological status of Hoffmann, who was suffering severely on schizophrenia.
Due to a dramatic argument with the publisher Seconda, Hoffmann quit his job and moved back to Berlin in 1815, where he started again a position at the court. Already being recognized as an important writer in the Romantic era, he was being introduced to other important characters of his time like Brentano, Chamisso, Eichendorff, Fouque, Tieck and Hegel. Even with Beethoven he kept written communication and helped him with the critic for his compositions. During this period most of Hoffmann’s work had been published and he gained much more importance in the Romantic society.
Nevertheless E.T.A. had dramatic psychological problems and his addiction to alcohol worsens. His physical condition started to make him suffer, even though Hoffmann always tried to keep a cynical attitude about his medical situation.
In 1822 Hoffmann suffers from severe symptoms of his illness and died on June 25th, partly paralyzed in his bed.

Hoffmann left a very influential and important work in the areas of literature and music. His opera “The Nutcracker” still is one of the most played pieces around Christmas in present days. The uncanny and mythic character of his stories had influenced many writers and poets. Even though he was a Romantic writer he tended to add a very realistic character into his fantasy stories, which often had been influenced by his dreams and psychological condition. Contemporaries called him the “Romantic Realist of the Dream and Fantasy World”.


Bibliography:

Gabrielle Wittkop-Menardeau, E.T.A. Hoffmann, rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Haraburg 1966

Salomon, Gerhard: E.T.A. Hoffmann. Bibliographie, Hildesheim 1983

E.T.A. Hoffmann, Nachtstuecke, Koenemann, Koeln 1994

Wolzogen, Hans von: E.T.A. Hoffmann, der deutsche Geisterseher. Leipzig 1922