The New International Encyclopædia/Hoffmann, August Heinrich
HOFFMANN, hṓf'mȧn, ,
called , fṓn fäl'ẽrs-lắ'ben
(1798-1874). A German poet, philologist,
and literary historian, born at Fallersleben. He
was educated at Göttingen and Bonn, and from
1823 to 1838 was librarian at the University of
Breslau, where he was also professor from 1830
till his dismissal (1842) for his Unpolitische
Lieder (1841-42). He was restored to his rights
as a Prussian citizen in 1848, having passed the
intervening years in Mecklenburg. He married
in 1849 and afterwards lived at Bingerbrück,
Neuwied, and Weimar, where he was an editor of
the Weimarisches Jahrbuch. From 1860 till his
death he was librarian of the Duke of Ratibor.
Popular at first as a liberal political poet, he
is cherished still for the ease, simplicity, and
grace of songs of common life, for many of which
he also composed melodies, Hoffmann was a
diligent editor of early German classics (Reincke
Vos, Monumenta Elnonensia, Theophilus), made
valuable contributions to philology now of
antiquarian interest only, and to literary history.
In 1868-70 Hoffmann published Mein Leben, an
autobiography in six volumes. Hoffmann's Works
are still uncollected, but the Poems (incomplete)
have been often reëdited. His Briefe an Ferdinand
Wolf were published in 1874. There is a
Life by Wagner (Vienna and Dresden, 1869).
Consult also Kreyenberg, in Preussische
Jahrbücher (Berlin, 1891).