FT265


The picturesque university town of Bamberg in Upper Franconia (part of Bavaria) is a popular tourist destination thanks to its mediæval architecture and numerous attractions – the magnificent dome with its trademark statue of the Bamberg horseman; the enchanting rose garden nearby; the traditional breweries producing the famous Rauchbier (smoked beer); and the notorious Druden­haus – the witch prison that sealed the fate of thousands of innoc­ents during the 17th-century witch trials. Though this reminder of Bamberg’s terrible past no longer stands, documents and various artefacts of the trials can still be viewed in the city museum. There is also ample opportun­ity to embark on a boat trip alongside “Little Venice” on the river Regnitz, or enjoy the panoramic views from the castle hill.

What many don’t know, however, is that German writer and composer ETA Hoffmann, whose fantastic tales were key texts of German Romantic­ism, lived in Bamberg from 1808 to 1813. In 1930, his former residence was turned into what is now the ETA Hoffmann Museum.

Before entering the museum, we should take a closer look at the life and work of Hoffmann.


LIFE AND TIMES
Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann was born in Königsberg, Prussia, on 24 January 1776, the youngest of three children (one died as an infant). His father Christoph, a barrister, fancied himself as a poet and amateur music­ian on the side, and married his cousin Lovisa Dörffer in 1767. They separated in 1778, with father Christ­oph and eldest son Johann moving to Insterburg, while Lovisa stayed in Königsberg together with her two aunts and their brother, all of whom were responsible for the education of the young Ernst.

Hoffmann attended the Lutheran Burgschule between 1781 and 1792, where he showed great talent for piano, writing and drawing; however, provincial Königsberg did little to nurt­ure the new artistic ideas developing in the German states at that time.

In 1794, Hoffmann fell in love with Dora Hatt, a former pupil and a marr­ied woman 10 years his senior. After protests from her family, one of Ernst’s uncles was asked to arrange employment for Ernst in Glogau, Prussian Silesia. So, from 1796, Hoffmann was employed as a clerk for his uncle. In 1798, said uncle was promoted, and Hoffmann found himself on the move again, this time to Berlin. Here, he attempted to promote himself as a composer, sending a copy of his operetta Die Maske (The Mask) to Queen Luise of Prussia. The official reply advised him to write to the director of the Royal Theatre, but by the time he responded, Hoffmann had already left for the provincial town of Posen in the province of South Prussia (now in Poland).

Here, his first job was jeopardised when his caricatures of military officers were distributed during a ball on Shrove Tuesday in 1802. As punishment, Hoffmann was ‘promoted’ to Plock in New East Prussia, but before moving he married ‘Micha’ (Maria Rorer). Despairing over his exile in Plock, he kept busy with caricatures, writing and composing and finally obtained a post in Warsaw in 1804. Once again, good fortune didn’t last long: in November 1806, Napoleon’s troops liberated Warsaw, and the Pruss­ian bureaucrats lost their posit­ions instantly. Hoffmann had no other option but to send his wife and two-year-old daughter Cäcilia back to Posen, while he, after a considerable delay caused by severe illness, returned to Berlin. The next 15 months proved to be some of the most difficult in Hoffmann’s life: the city was also occupied by Napoleon’s troops, he had to borrow money constantly and then received news that his daughter had died.

Eventually, on 1 September 1808, Hoffmann and Micha relocated to Bamberg, where he took up a position as a theatre manager. Hoffmann was unable to improve the standards of performance, and his efforts resulted in intrigue against him, which in turn resulted in him losing his job. He started to write as a music critic for the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, a Leipzig-based news­paper. It was in the same paper that the character of Kapellmeister Johannes Kreisler made his first appearance; he went on to appear in three Hoffmann novels, most notably Tomcat Murr.

However, Hoffmann’s real breakthrough came in 1809 with the public­ation of Ritter Gluck, a story about a man who believes he met the composer Christoph W Gluck more then 20 years after Gluck’s death. Hoffmann also began to use the pen name ETA Hoffmann, informing people that the ‘A’ stood for Amadeus, in homage to the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The wine merchant, book dealer and librarian Friedrich Kunz was to become Hoffmann’s first publisher.

The following year, Hoffmann was employed at the Bamberg Theatre as stagehand, decorator and playwright, while giving private music lessons. He became so deeply infatuated with a young singing student, 13-year-old Julia Marc, that Julia’s mother couldn’t help noticing and quickly found a more suitable match for her daughter. During this time, he composed the romantic opera Aurora, as well as the Miserere and the Duettini for young Julia. When Joseph Seconda offered Hoffmann a position as a musical director for his opera company in Dresden, the disill­usioned and love-struck composer packed his belongings once again and left Bamberg on 21 April 1813.

As so often before, things took a turn for the worse. Prussia had declared war against France, and upon his arrival in Dresden, Hoffmann learned that Seconda was now in Leipzig. The situation deteriorated, the bridges were destroyed and Hoffmann and his wife were marooned in the city. Finally, and after much difficulty, they arrived in Leipzig on 23 May, and Hoffmann started work. A few days later, an armistice began, and the company was allowed to return to Dresden. They got there to find the armistice at an end and the city under bombardment. After Dresden surrendered in November, the company had to make their way back to Leipzig the following month.

Towards the end of September in 1814, in the wake of Napoleon’s defeat, Hoffmann moved back to Berlin, where he succeeded in regaining a position at the court chambers and having his opera Undine performed at the Berlin Theatre. Hoffmann became increasingly embroiled in legal disputes in his later years, while constantly battling ill health. Alcohol abuse and syphilis had led to the weakening of his limbs by 1821, with paralysis setting in the following year. His last works were dictated to his wife or a secretary. He died in Berlin on 25 June 1822 at the age of 46, and is buried near the Hall­esches Tor in the Jerusalem And New Churches Community Cemetery.


TALES OF HOFFMANN
During his relatively short life, Hoffmann not only composed music and painted, but also wrote numerous short stories and novels. He remains one of the best-known representatives of the German Romantic movement and a forerunner of the later fantasy genre. His taste for the macabre, combined with a vein of realism, influenced authors such as Poe, Gogol and Kafka. Hoffmann’s stories often reveal the darker and more grotesque side of human nature by introducing supernatural characters into their lives. He also poked fun at the hypocrisy of the bourgeoisie through numerous animal fables. While it’s evident that much of Hoffmann’s writing reflects the polit­ical upheavals of his times, one might equally argue that his many personal tragedies and hardships contributed to the overtly dark tone of his work.

Although probably best known for his story Nussknacker und Mausekönig (Nutcracker and Mouse King), which inspired Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker ballet, Hoffmann wrote several influential novels. While his works are too numerous to discuss in detail, some of his most popular stories must be mentioned. One of his masterpieces is no doubt Lebensansichten des Katers Murr (The Life and Opinions of Tomcat Murr), which he wrote between 1819 and 1821. In the novel, the character of Kreisler (a hypochondriac and antisocial musical genius) is wittily counterpointed with the character of the feline Tomcat Murr, a prime example of bourgeois vanity and pretentiousness. Murr writes his memoirs and, in doing so, uses Kreisler’s bio­graphy as a blotting pad. However, due to a printer’s error the two lives get spliced together in a fantastical double narrative.

Equally captivating is Die Elixiere des Teufels (The Devil’s Elixir), a novel penned in 1815. The story concerns the monk Medardus, a highly intelli­gent and educated young man prone to vanity and worldly temptations. One day, he secretly drinks the devil’s elixir of the title, kept in the monastery like some mysterious relic. The strange brew evokes the darkest desires in Medardus, and he can’t help but feel a burning desire for Aurelie, a girl of almost unearthly beauty. Eventually, he breaks his vows and embarks on an adventurous journey far away from the restrictions of a religious life… with only one aim in mind: to find the object of his desire.

On a par with the two aforementioned tales is Der goldne Topf (The Golden Pot – 1813), a complex novella about a Dresden student named Anselmus, who one day accidentally knocks over the basket of a hideous old apple-seller, scattering her apples in all directions. She scolds him with the words “Run into the crystal which will soon be your downfall”. Anselmus flees until he reaches the River Elbe. Suddenly, he hears strange voices and the sound of crystal bells coming from a tree. From that point on, the action revolving around three golden pots turns truly magical and alchemical, shifting constantly between alternate worlds. Hoffmann’s inspiration for the Apfelweibla (apple-woman) was the iron-cast face of an old woman on a doorknob at Bamberg’s Eisgrube 14. Incidentally, the original doorknob is now in the city museum and has been replaced with a replica.

Der Sandmann (The Sandman), Rat Krespel (Councillor Krespel) and Das Verlorene Spiegelbild (The Lost Reflection) are the basis for Jacques Offenbach’s popular opera Les contes d’Hoffmann (Tales of Hoffmann), and Der Magnetiseur (The Hypnotist) is one of the staples of German fantastic literature.


THE MUSEUM
Apparently, the ETA Hoffmann house was originally built in 1762. As already mentioned, Hoffmann and his wife Micha lived in the building from 1809–1813. More precisely, they shared the second floor (kitchen and living room) and the attic, which included a bedroom and study (or the “poet’s room” as it is now called). The original furniture is no longer on display. In 1930, Hoffmann’s former rooms were turned into a museum dedicated to his life and work. Over the years, the museum has been extended, with all of its rooms renovated and converted into display areas.

The “magic garden” is a tranquil place where the writer penned his whimsical stories about plants and the insect and animal kingdom, and is found on the ground floor towards the back of the house. Pleasant enough, but it perhaps lacks true magic. Also on the ground floor, the visitor will find the enchanting “mirror cabinet” created in 1999 – imagine Alice in Wonderland refracted through Hoffmann’s imagination and dipped in a strange blue light. On the first floor are the museum shop and various smaller rooms displaying original artefacts as well as various objects and merch­andise dedicated to the writer and composer. Victorian-style toy automata are also on display, with miniature replicas of some of his theatrical designs. The second floor boasts more pictures, paintings and artefacts, as well as the “Undine-corner” (named for Hoffmann’s opera), while in the attic one can glimpse the surreally decorated music and composer’s room and admire the “poet’s room”. All the staircases in the building are narrow and framed by banisters that give the impression of paper-cut-outs.

The museum is run by the ETA Hoffmann Society, and should be on the “must-visit” list for every admirer of this unique figure.


The museum is open to the public (a small entry fee applies) from Tue–Fri / 4pm–6pm, and on weekends and holidays from 10am to noon. However, these opening times apply only for the months May to October, and it is advisable to check with Bamberg Tourism Service first: +0049(0)951-2976200.

The ETA Hoffmann museum is located at Schillerplatz 26, 96047 Bamberg.




The original version of this article in FT265 ran with incorrect photo credits. The photos should have been credited to Robert Hofbauer. Apologies to Robert for the error.