Background
Vladimir Karlovich Brimmer was born in 1783. He came from a poor family of Livonian nobles. The clan comes from Westphalia, from the 17th century they were in Swedish service, in the 18th century accepted Russian citizenship.
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Vladimir Karlovich Brimmer
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Vladimir Karlovich Brimmer was a Russian poet and translator. He began his literary career as a translator, working with the ballads of Schiller, Goethe, Langbein. Later he began to write poetry himself, as well as translate prose. He is the author of the polemic article On True and False Romanticism.
Education
Nothing is known about Vladimir’s education.
Career
Vladimir Karlovich promoted to the second lieutenant of the Orenburg garrison regiment. In 1804, in the rank of lieutenant, he quitted the army. In 1806, he joined the Imperial Military Orphanage (in the future, the Pavlovsk Cadet Corps) as an officer and later company commander. From 1818 he taught history and geography, and until the mid-1830s, the German language. In 1825, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel.
The beginning of Brimmer's literary work is considered to be a translation of an excerpt from Laocoon by G. Lessing, On the Limits of Poetry in Relation to Body Beauty, published in 1806. A turning point in the career of Vladimir Karlovich was a close acquaintance with G. Derzhavin. The poet spoke very warmly about his acquaintance, recommending him as a person capable and fluent in Russian, honest, but poor. Thanks to the patronage of Derzhavin, Vladimir Karlovich meets A. Shishkov. He translated his manifesto of January 1, 1816, into German. Derzhavin retained translations of the ballads of Goethe and Schiller made by Brimmer, as well as a draft of his article Thoughts on Goethe's Works.
Since 1816, Vladimir Karlovich became an active member of the Free Society of Lovers of Russian literature. In the magazine Competitor, owned by this society, he published translations of poems and prose by K. Wieland, Schiller, I. Herder, F. Klopstock, F. Mattison. During this period, he worked with unusual for his forms of moral-philosophical dialogue ("Talk about Sensitivity between the Sensitive and Cold-blooded) and allegorical tales (Wanderings of Harmony and Poetry).
Vladimir Brimmer’s own poems were created under the influence of pre-romantic and early-romantic aesthetics. In 1829-1833 he published several ballads and poems, including The Phenomenon (1829), which became a response to A. Delvig’s idyll The End of the Golden Age. One of the most famous works of Vladimir Karlovich is the polemic article On True and False Romanticism (1830), in which the author defined true romanticism as the poetry of self-knowledge, considering F. Petrarch to be the etalon of romanticism. He contrasted the sentimental and pre-romantic literature presented by Goethe and Schiller with F. and A. Schlegel, L. Teak, and other "false romantics" mired in mysticism.
Achievements
Politics
Nothing is known about Brimmer's political views.
Membership
In 1816, Vladimir Karlovich joined the Free Society of Lovers of Russian literature, becoming the censor of its bibliography by 1817. From 1818 he was published in the journals of the Society. During the conflict of 1820 caused by the speech of V.N. Karazin, he joined the liberal wing of society.
Personality
Even though sometimes the Brimmer family didn’t have enough money even for everyday needs, his friends spoke of him as an honest and noble man and eagerly recommended him to other people. Vladimir Karlovich was on friendly terms with many famous writers of that era.
Quotes from others about the person
G.R. Derzhavin: "So he has almost no daily food with his wife and children." (on the financial situation of Brimmer)
V. K. Kyukhelbeker: "Sensible and Ultimate." (on the article by V. Brimmer On True and False Romanticism)
Connections
Vladimir Karlovich was married and had several children.
- Friend:
- G. Derzhavin
- colleague:
- Alexander Shishkov
- Friend:
- P. Pletnev
- Club member:
- Vasily Karazin
G. Derzhavin and Vladimir Karlovich became close in 1814-1816. Under the patronage of Derzhavin, Vladimir was admitted to the Free Society of Lovers of Russian literature. The poet has preserved many translations by Brimmer.
Vladimir Karlovich is the author of the Shishkov manifesto translation.
References
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Born
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Died
1845 (aged 62) -
Nationality
Russian Empire
Career
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1798 - 1804