Baron de Münchhausen

The historical character

the Baron de Münchhausen is born the May 11th 1720 with Bodenwerder in the Weserbergland, (old duchy of Brunswick). Its true name is Karl Friedrich Hieronymus Freiherr von Münchhausen. It was in its youth the page of the Duke of Brunswick-Lüneberg. It follows its Master in 1740 to become Mercenaire Russian army. It fights during ten years in the army of Catherine II of Russia against the Turkish S of the Ottoman Empire, in the Crimea. He marries Jacobine von Dunten in 1744 in Latvia. He is named in 1750 captain of cavalry before leaving the Russian army. At the time of its return in Germany, he entrusts to the writer Rudolphe Erich Raspe his extraordinary adventures. He fixes himself then at Hanover. The baron was called the baron de Crac (baron of the lie): he would have travelled on the moon on a ball of gun, he would have also danced with Venus. He suffers enormously from a reputation of liar and insane due to his account. Widower in 1790, it remarie in 1794, a union which is completed by a divorce. He dies the February 22nd 1797 of the typhoid fever, ruined. Its destiny and its facundity became as legendary as that of its counterpart of in addition to the Rhine, Cyrano of Bergerac. He had fun to tell his adventures, enriching them by extraordinary details, who ensured to him a reputation of fabulator except par.

The popular hero

It is the resumption of an imaginary collective amplified by the marvellous one and liveliness of a nostalgic soldier of exploits a little like Tartarin de Tarascon.

Adventures of the baron

Works of fiction putting in scene the baron are numerous, it is appropriate to distinguish:

original work
adaptations of original work
pastiches/adventures apocryphal books/new adventures
the parodies

Original work

The German writer Rudolf Erich Raspe, collects, orders and publishes these accounts in 1785 (the alive one of the baron de Münchhausen), in English, under the title Baron Münchhausen' S Narrative off his marvellous Travels and Campaigns in Russia .

One year later, into 1786, the adventures are translated into German by Gottfried August Bürger, (° 1747 - † 1794) professor at the university of Göttingen. More than one translation, it alters the stories and provides a more poetic version and satirist that the book of Raspe.

The book will be translated German into French by Théophile Gautier wire with illustrations of Gustave Doré. This translation very pleasant, although is cut down by certain passages judged too " politically incorrects" for its contemporaries.

This book often was republished and illustrated by many illustrators such as: Alfred Croqwill (° 1804 - † 1872) - George Cruikshank (° 1792 - † 1878) - Gustave Gilded (° 1832 - † 1883) - Rene Giffey (° 1884 - † 1965) - Theodore Hosemann (° 1807 - † 1875) - Alfred Kubin (° 1877 - † 1959) - Daniel Maja (° 1942) - Peter Sheaf Newell (° 1862 - † 1924) - Willy Plonck (° 1870 - † 1956) - William Strang (° 1859 - † 1921) -

Adaptations of original work

Jean Image carried out a feature-length film of animation in 1978 for Antenne 2: Fabulous Adventures of the legendary Baron de Munchausen . The companions of the Baron are: Cavallo, faster than the wind; Hercules, a very strong man; Ouragane whose breath exceeds that of a hurricane and Jécoute which can intend grass to push. The features of the Baron point out those of the Baron de Crac de Cami.

Pastiches and continuations apocryphal books

Authors imagined new peregrinations of the Baron, epic and rocambolesques, which fit perfectly in the literary long tradition of the character.

In two cartoons, Olivier Supiot re-uses the character of the baron to plunge his reader in new adventures quite as drolatic as rocambolesques.

Feature-length film of animation in 13 episodes of Jean Image, the Secrecy of Selenites is the continuation of the Fabuleuses Adventures of the legendary Baron de Munchausen . It was diffused for the 1st time on April 3rd, 1985.

Parodies

; The Baron de Crac

Cami imagined a parodic, burlesque counterpart of the Baron de Münchhausen: the Baron de Crac, military French, commander about the Royal-Jabot, courtier of Louis XV. Of its retirement in Gascogne, with the castle of Cracodière, he tells with his guests filled with wonder in advance the exploits which established its universal reputation (episodes of hunting, scenes of battles, incidents/accidents, missions of the king…). He has a faithful servant named Dodu. Extract: I always had horror, you know it, my friends, of these extraordinary accounts, these incredible prowesses whose are too often praised hunters or fishermen with taken care. The modest memory of hunting that I will tell you has at least for him to be absolutely veracious. Moreover, you will judge some…

Honors

Monument

July 18th, 2005 was inaugurated in the central park of Kaliningrad a monument, on the initiative of the club " Enkel Münchhausens" , in gift of the twin town Bodenwerder. The statue represents the baron on a ball of gun.

Philately

Numismatics

Literature

One can perceive the traces of the Baron de Münchhausen in the Viscount pourfendu of Italo Calvino.

Psychiatry

The baron gave his name to a serious pathology: the Syndrome of Münchausen. The victims of this syndrome simulate all the symptoms of a disease in order to draw to them the attention of the doctors. They can also cause the appearance of symptoms at one their close relations (Syndrome of Münchausen per procuration, also called syndrome of Meadow).

References of works of fiction putting in scene the baron

Original work and its adaptations

Pastiches

Parodies

See too

References

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