Hoffmann, Heinrich August

Hoffmann, Heinrich August, German poet, philologist, literary historian, and composer who was also known as Hoffmann von Fallersleben; b. Fallersleben, near Braunschweig, April 2, 1798; d. Schloss Korvei, near Höxter, Jan. 19, 1874. He was educated at the univs. of Göttingen and Bonn. From 1823 to 1838 he was custodian of the library of the Univ. of Breslau, where he also was made extraordinary prof. of German language and literature in 1830 and ordinary prof. in 1835. His Unpolitische Lieder (1840–41) was viewed as a political statement by the Prussian authorities (in spite of its title), and he was removed from his Univ. position in 1842. After the revolutionary events of 1848, he returned to Prussia, and in 1860 he was made librarian to Prince Lippe in Korvei. Hoffmann was a talented composer who wrote melodies for many of his texts. Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms, Wolf, and other composers also set his texts. He publ. the important study Geschichte des deutschen Kirchenliedes bis auf Luthers Zeit (Breslau, 1832; 3^rd ed., 1861); with E. Richter, he ed. the standard folk song collection Schlesische Volkslieder mit Melodien (Leipzig, 1842). He also publ. an autobiography (Hannover, 1868). His Das Lied der Deutschen (1841) includes the text of his Deutschland, Deutschland, über alles, which he wrote to Haydn’s hymn Gott herhalte Franz den Kaiser. It served as the German national anthem from 1922 until the end of World War II. Its third verse, Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit, was later sung as the national anthem of the Federal Republic of Germany.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire