Clemens Brentano
Clemens Brentano was a prominent German writer associated with the Romantic movement in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He was born into a culturally rich family, with significant literary connections through his mother, Maximiliane Brentano, and maternal grandmother, Sophie von La Roche, a friend of the famous writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Brentano's early life was marked by tragedy, losing both parents by his late teens, which deeply impacted his later work. He was well-traveled in Germany, spending time in cities like Halle, Jena, and Heidelberg, where he collaborated with fellow writer Achim von Arnim on the folk song collection "Des Knaben Wunderhorn."
Brentano's literary contributions include poetry, short stories, and fairy tales, with his writings celebrated for their imaginative imagery. His personal life included two marriages, the first to Sophie Mereau, which ended in sorrow with her early death, and a tumultuous second marriage that resulted in divorce. A significant turning point in Brentano's life was his conversion to Catholicism during a six-year seclusion in a monastery, where he became devoted to the spiritual writings of Sister Anne Catherine Emmerich. His later works reflect this religious fervor, with "The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ" being one of his notable publications. Brentano's legacy endures through his diverse body of work, including his acclaimed collection of fairy tales and the posthumously published "Romanzen vom Rosenkranz."
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Subject Terms
Clemens Brentano
Poet
- Born: September 9, 1778
- Birthplace: Ehrenbreitstein, Germany
- Died: July 28, 1842
- Place of death: Aschaffenburg, Bavaria (now in Germany)
Biography
German writer Clemens Brentano was a key player in German Romanticism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Born to Italian immigrant merchant Pietro Antonio Brentano and Maximiliane Brentano, Brentano was introduced to the arts and literature early in life by his mother, with whom he had a close relationship. Maximiliane Brentano’s own mother was writer Sophie von La Roche, a friend of Johann Wolfang von Goethe. At age six, Brentano and his sister were sent to Koblenz to live and study with their aunt; he subsequently attended the Jesuit Grammar School in Koblenz before proceeding to the Palatinate Open Education College in Manheim. Shortly after a fifteen-year-old Brentano finally returned to his family in Frankfurt, his mother died, devastating the young man. His father died only four years later.
In the following years, Brentano moved from one city to another frequently, studying and residing in Halle, Jena, Heidelberg, Vienna, and Berlin, among other locales. In 1801, he met and befriended Achim von Arnim upon moving to Göttingen, and the two traveled together in 1802. Among Brentano’s first publications was Godwi in 1801. The author married Sophie Mereau in 1803, having met her during his earlier excursions in Jena, and the couple was able to live off Brentano’s family fortune. When they moved to Heidelberg in 1804, Brentano and von Arnim began their collaboration onDes Knaben Wunderhorn, a three- volume collection of traditional German folk songs and poetry and original verses composed by the writers. Sadly, Sophie Mereau died in 1806 after the stillbirth of the couple’s third child. Only a few months later, Brentano embarked upon an ill-fated and tumultuous marriage to sixteen-year-old Auguste Bussmann; after only two years, the couple separated, divorcing in 1814.
In 1818, after years of relentless travel, Clemens Brentano secluded himself in the Roman Catholic monastery of Dülmen for six years. During this time, the writer converted to Catholicism and devoted himself to copying the dictation of Sister Anne Catherine Emmerich, who is reputed to have eaten nothing but Holy Communion and water for the last twelve years of her life and to have borne the Crown of Thorns and full stigmata in her final years. Following Sister Anne Catherine’s death in 1824, Brentano published The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ from her journals, and the writer fervently devoted himself to religion in his remaining years. Between 1833 and his death in 1842, Brentano lived in Munich, where he met painter Emilie Linder, who appeared in the writer’s erotic poems in his last years. Clemens Brentano’s writings are praised and known for their vivid and inventive imagery, and the posthumously published collectionRomanzen vom Rosenkranz is considered his best work. Also popular were his short stories and fairy tales, particularly Geschichte vom braven Kasperl und dem schönen Annerl, translated into English as the tale of honest Casper and fair Annie.