Udo Brachvogel

Background

Udo Brachvogel was born on September 26, 1835, at Herrengrebin near Danzig, and was the son of Ferdinand Brachvogel.

Education

Brachvogel received a classical education and studied law at the universities of Jena and Breslau.

Career

After passing his first state examination in 1858, Brachvogel visited Vienna, where he counted among his friends the poet Friedrich Halm (Baron Münch-Bellinghausen), and the tragedienne Juli Rettich. There he published his first volume of poems, under the title Jugendgedichte (1860).

He did not establish himself as a lawyer, but during the next six years, 1860-66, lived in Hungary as clerk or agent of a private company. When the latter dissolved Brachvogel emigrated to the United States. In 1867 he was in St. Louis on the editorial staff of the German newspaper Die Westliche Post, and in 1875 he removed to New York in answer to a call to the editorship of the Belletristisches Journal, for many years a leading German literary journal published weekly.

In 1886 Brachvogel resided in Omaha, Nebraska, where at first he edited a German political daily, but soon became the agent of the Germania Life Insurance Company of New York. As general agent of the same company he was subsequently transferred to Chicago, but the last years of his life he spent in New York City as correspondent of various journals in America and abroad. A second volume of his poems appeared shortly before his death, in 1912, entitled Gedichte (Leipzig and New York), with a dedication to his wife, and a very good portrait of the author.

Upon this volume of German verse, an excellent collection of the best of his many scattered ballads and metrical translations, Brachvogel's reputation as an author will mainly depend. His prose style, especially in his late period, does not satisfy high standards. In his poetical work the influence of Ferdinand Freiligrath is apparent both in form and spirit. We find the same devotion to the theme of personal and political freedom, and the fondness for the descriptive historical ballad. Noteworthy examples of the latter type are the poems: "Capua, " "R"mische Nacht, " "Jacobus de Benedictis, " "Persepolis, " "Canossa, " "Hängende-Gärten Mythe, " "Commoedia divina und Tragoedia humana. "

The most ambitious among Brachvogel's prose translations was his rendering of Bret Harte's Gabriel Conroy, published in 1876 (Stuttgart), a year after the appearance of the original. An appreciative essay on Bret Harte appeared shortly after.

Brachvogel similarly introduced Bayard Taylor to German readers and translated Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter for Walter Damrosch's opera on that theme (1894). Others of his published essays were: "Die deutsche Presse in den Vereinigten Staaten" (in Armin Tenner's Amerika, Berlin and New York, 1884) and Das Theissland und sein Dichter (New York, 1881). The latter is reminiscent of Brachvogel's early residence in Hungary, and euolgizes Hungary's greatest lyrical poet Sandor Petofy, a martyr to the cause of political freedom in the Hungarian revolution of 1849. The chief value of the essay consists in the author's artistic rendering into German of some of the choicest lyrics of the Hungarian poet-patriot. He was too young to take part in the revolutionary struggle of 1848-49, as did Hecker, Schurz, Sigel, Brentano, Ottendorfer, and many others who became journalists in the United States and continued there the fight for liberty and union with pen and sword.

Brachvogel arrived in the United States after the Civil War was over, nor was he of the aggressive disposition of his contemporary Joseph Pulitzer, associated with him in 1868 on the staff of the Westliche Post in St. Louis.

At the latter's death Brachvogel corrected some of the legends that had grown up about the meteoric career of his much admired friend.

Achievements

• Brachvogel's collection consists of correspondence, writings, scrapbooks, photographs, and printed matter. It also includes letters written to Brachvogel and his wife; autographed portraits; manuscripts of essays, poems, and other writings including Gedichte and Brachvogel's German translation of Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter; and scrapbooks of news clippings containing Brachvogel's contributions on music, art, literature, and the theatre, and notes of his journeys from Mainz to New York, and from New York to Saint Louis. Also, notebooks, reviews, and obituary notices. The second volume of his poems was an excellent collection of the best of his many scattered ballads and metrical translations, Brachvogel's reputation as an author will mainly depend. In the group "Americana" there are two pieces which take rank with the best produced by German verse-writers in America, viz. : "Ne-ah-ga-rah (Donner der Wasser), " and "Indianer-Sommer"; there are also occasional poems above the level of daily journalistic effort, as: "La Cuba Libre, " "Die Maine, " "Titanic-Requiem. " Some of the earlier poems as: "Pour la Gloire, " "Die Spinnerin, " and "Eine Ungenannte" show flashes of poetic inspiration arising from deep human sympathy; the selections from American poets, Longfellow, Bret Harte, Joaquin Miller, Poe, Whittier, and others, exhibit the author's artistic skill as a translator.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Gedichte (Classic Reprint) (German Edition)

    (Excerpt from Gedichte Qinuue 'hmm, nur Die man glutin t...)

  • Nach dem fernen Westen (German Edition)

    (“Nach dem fernen Westen” ist der zweite Teil des Werks "L...)

Views

Brachvogel was born into an age of old world culture when literature and journalism were not yet distinct callings, and when lyrical composition was the pastime of most persons of education and refinement.

In Brachvogel's poetical work, the influence of Ferdinand Freiligrath is apparent both in form and spirit. We find the same devotion to the theme of personal and political freedom and the fondness for the descriptive historical ballad.

Personality

Udo Brachvogel was guided by a peaceful star, so he was not a fighter, a leader, or man of action; he was an observer, a thinker, a contemplative poet.

Connections

Udo Brachvogel was married on January 12, 1878, to Kathe Muller of Oldenburg, Germany, whom he met at the home of his friend, Carl Schurz.

Father:

Ferdinand Brachvogel

associate:

Joseph Pulitzer

A newspaper publisher of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the New York World.

Wife:

Kathe Muller

Friend:

Juli Rettich

tragedienne

Friend:

Carl Schurz

Friend:

Friedrich Halm

poet

References

• Deutsch in Amerika. Beitrage zur Geschichte der Deutsch Amerikanischen Literatur.
• Deutsch-Amerikanisches Conversations-Lexicon, Vol. 2: Mit Specieller Rücksicht Auf Das Bedürfniß Der in Amerika Lebenden Deutschen, Mit Benutzung ... Mitwirkung Vieler Hervor (German Edition)