Clemens Brentano Biography

Dromo's Den

BRENTANO, Clemens (1778-1842). A German novelist and poet of the Romantic school. He was born in Ehrenbreitstein, studied in Jena, lived in Frankfort, Heidelberg, Vienna, and Berlin, and for a time at a cloister in Dülmen, near Münster (1818). Thence he went to Regensburg, Munich, and Frankfort. He died in Aschaffenburg, July 28, 1842. Brentano's most characteristic poem is his Romanzen vom Rosenkranz (1852), a collection of subtle, mystic, and religious allegories, in which history, biography, legend, admiration for the Catholic church, and many other elements are cast into melodious form, while the drama Die Gründung Prags (1815) is a fantastic and bizarre production of undeniable power. His best work is in short stories, particularly in his fairy stories. The simplicity of his Geschichte vom braven Kasperl (1817) and of Gockel, Hinkel and Gackeleia (1838) is in pleasant contrast to the mystic romanticism of some of his other work. His most enduring contribution to literature is the compilation, with Arnim, of German folk songs in Des Knaben Wunderhorn (3 vols., 1806-08). He was an erratic member of a whimsically brilliant family. His grandmother, Sophie La Roche, had been a close friend of Wieland; his mother, Maximiliane, figures in Goethe's life, as does his sister, Bettina von Arnim (q.v.).

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. III (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 717.