Christian Friedrich von Blanckenburg
Christian Friedrich von Blanckenburg was a notable figure born in 1774 in Pomerania, who had a dual career as a military officer and a writer. He began his military service in the Prussian army in 1759, participating in significant conflicts, including the Seven Years' War, where he was wounded in the battle of Kunersdorf. Due to declining health, he resigned from military life in 1776. Blanckenburg was deeply passionate about literature, amassing extensive personal libraries, although his first collection of six thousand books was lost in a fire. His literary contributions include "Versucht über den Roman," published in 1774, which is recognized as the first German treatise on the theory and criticism of the novel. Through this work, he explored the emotional impact of literature and character development, linking the novel's narrative to national identity. Additionally, he engaged with contemporary literature, notably reviewing Goethe's "The Sorrows of Young Werther." Blanckenburg spent his later years in Leipzig, where he continued to write until his death in 1769.
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Christian Friedrich von Blanckenburg
- Born: January 26, 1744
- Birthplace: Colberg, Pomerania
- Died: May 4, 1796
- Place of death: Leipzig, Germany
Biography
Christian Friedrich von Blanckenburg was born in 1774 in Pomerania (now in Germany), at his family’s estate of Moitzelin. He attended the Military Academy in Berlin, and then joined the Regiment of Dragoons, as a cornet, in 1759. Blanckenburg served in the Prussian army during the Seven Years’ War and was injured at the battle of Kunersdorf. He resigned his military commission in 1776 because his health was declining.
Throughout his life, Blanckenburg combined his military profession with a love of literature. While stationed in Poland, he accumulated a collection of six thousand books, which were destroyed in a fire. At the time of his death, Blanckenburg had collected another library of four thousand books.
His interest in literature also spurred him to become a writer. His most significant book, Versucht über den Roman (1774), was the first German work on the theory and criticism of the novel as a literary form. He also published a volume of his unfinished novel about the history of the German Empire and German manners in 1775, and around the same time wrote an article for a literary journal reviewing Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s novel The Sorrows of Young Werther.
Versucht über den Roman focuses on the emotive power of literature, the development of individual characters, and how the novel can be used to depict national manners and characteristics. In keeping with this work, Blanckenburg’s review of Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther praises the book for showing how the protagonist’s character and death are created by individual circumstances within the protagonist.
In 1778, Blanckenburg settled in the city of Leipzig and lived there until his death in 1769. In the final years of his life he published a translation of some of Samuel Johnson’s works as well as several other small works.