Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau

Prince Hermann Ludwig Heinrich von Pückler-Muskau (born as Count Pückler, since 1822 Prince) (30 October 1785 - 4 February 1871) was a German nobleman, who was an excellent artist in landscape gardening and wrote widely appreciated books, mostly about his travels in Europe and Northern Africa (ps. "Semilasso").

Life

He was born at Muskau Castle (now Bad Muskau) in Upper Lusatia, then ruled by the Electorate of Saxony. He served for some time in a cavalry regiment at Dresden, and afterwards travelled through France and Italy, often by foot. In 1811, after the death of his father, he inherited the big "Standesherrschaft" (barony) of Muskau. Joining the war of liberation against Napoleon I of France, he left Muskau under the General Inspectorate of his friend, the writer and composer Leopold Schefer. As an officer under the Duke of Saxe-Weimar he distinguished himself in the field and was made military and civil governor of Bruges.

After the war he retired from the army and visited England, where he remained about a year, studying parks and the High Society, being himself a member of it. In 1822, in compensation for certain privileges which he resigned, he was raised to the rank of "Fürst" by King Frederick William III of Prussia. In 1817 he had married the Dowager Countess Lucie von Pappenheim, née von Hardenberg, daughter of Prussian statesman Prince Karl August von Hardenberg; the marriage was legally dissolved after nine years, in 1826, though the parties did not separate and remained on amicable terms.

Again, he visited England and - being a daring character - he travelled in Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt up the Nile, Asia Minor, and Greece, living after his return at Berlin and Muskau, where he spent much time in cultivating and improving the still existing "Park von Muskau" there. In 1845 he sold this estate, and, although he afterwards lived from time to time at various places in Germany and Italy, his principal residence was his seat, Schloss Branitz near Cottbus, where he laid out another splendid park, as he had already done at Muskau.

In 1863 he was made an hereditary member of the Prussian House of Lords, and in 1866 he attended — by then an octogenarian — the Prussian general staff in the Austro-Prussian War. In 1871 he died at Branitz, and, in accordance with instructions in his will, his body was cremated.

The artist

As a landscape gardener, he is considered to be an outstanding artist on a European level.

As a writer of books of travel he held a high position, his power of observation being keen and his style lucid, animated, and witty. His first work was "Briefe eines Verstorbenen" (4 vols., 1830-1831, English version "The travels of a German prince in England", tr. Sarah Austin, London 1832), in which he expressed many independent judgments about England and other countries he had visited and about prominent persons whom he had met. Among his later books of travel were "Semilassos vorletzter Weltgang" (3 vols., 1835), "Semilasso in Afrika" (5 vols., 1836), "Aus Mehemed Ali's Reich" (3 vols., 1844) and "Die Rückkehr" (3 vols., 1846-1848).

He was also the author of the still famous "Andeutungen über Landschaftsgärtnerei" (1834, "Remarks on landscape gardening"), the only book he published under his name.

Publications

* "Briefe eines Verstorbenen" (4 vols., 1830-31 (including a description of the Park of Warwick, which influenced strongly Edgar Allan Poe's "The Park of Arnheim") [Bettina Clausen, "Edgar Poe - Der Park von Arnheim", in: Bettina Clausen/Lars Clausen (eds.), "Spektrum der Literatur", 15th ed., Bertelsmann Lexikon Verlag, Gütersloh 1990]
* "Andeutungen über Landschaftsgärtnerei [,] verbunden mit der Beschreibung ihrer praktischen Anwendung in Muskau" (the only publication featuring him as author), 1834
* "Tutti Frutti", 5 vols., 1834
* "Semilassos vorletzter Weltgang", 3 vols., 1835
* "Semilasso in Afrika", 5 vols., 1836
* "Der Vorläufer", 1838
* "Jugend-Wanderungen", 1835
* "Südöstlicher Bildersaal" (on Greece), 1840
* "Aus Mehemed Ali’s Reich" (on Egypt), 3 vols., 1844
* "Die Rückkehr", 3 vols., 1846-48
* "Briefwechsel und Tagebücher des Fürsten Hermann von Pückler-Muskau" (letters and diaries), 9 vols., ed. Ludmilla Assing, Hamburg 1873-76, Bern ²1971
* "Liebesbriefe eines alten Kavaliers. Briefwechsel des Fürsten Pückler mit Ada von Tresckow" (love letters), ed. Werner Deetjen, 1938

Fürst-Pückler-Eis

His name is still remembered in German cookery through a sweet called "Fürst-Pückler-Eis" (Prince Pückler Glace) - not invented by him, but named in his honour - which is a spectacular fore-runner to Baked Alaska.

References

*Ludmilla Assing-Grimelli, ed., "Pückler-Muskaus Briefwechsel und Tagebücher" ("Pückler-Muskau's letters and diaries", 9 vols., Hamburg 1873-1876, reprinted Bern 1971)
*Ludmilla Assing, "Fürst Hermann von Pückler-Muskau", 1873
*Eduard Petzold, "Fürst Hermann von Pückler-Muskau in seiner Bedeutung für die bildende Gartenkunst" ("Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau - his impact on landscape gardening"), 1874

Notes

External links

* [http://www.artnet.de/library/06/0699/T069967.asp Grove Dictionary of Art]