Hermann von Pückler-Muskau
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Fürst Hermann Ludwig Heinrich von Pückler-Muskau (en: Prince Hermann Ludwig Heinrich von Pückler-Muskau) (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").
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[edit] Life
He was born at Muskau Castle (now Bad Muskau) in Upper Lusatia under the Elector (later King) 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, 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 the King 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 the Maghreb, Egypt up the Nile, and Asia Minor, 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 Herrenhaus, and in 1866 he attended - by then an octogenarian - the Prussian general staff in the war with Austria-Hungary. 1871 he died at Branitz, and, in accordance with instructions in his will, his body was cremated.
[edit] 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.
[edit] Fürst-Pückler-Eis
His name is still remembered in German cookery through a sweet called "Prince Pückler Soufflé" - not invented by him, but named in his honour - which is a spectacular fore-runner to Baked Alaska. The dish consists of two block of ice-cream with a layer of banana in the middle, covered in meringue and cherries with some flaked almonds scattered around the sides
[edit] 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 fur die bildende Gartenkunst ("Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau - his impact on landscape gardening", 1874)
[edit] Notes
- Note regarding personal names: Fürst is a title, translated as Prince, not a first or middle name. The female form is Fürstin.
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
