Skip to main content

Author: BÜRGER, Gottfried Augustus

Biography:

BÜRGER, Gottfried August (1748-94: Proquest Biographies)

He was born on 1 Jan. 1748 in Molmerswende, near Halberstadt, in Germany (then Prussia); his father was a Lutheran minister. He studied at the Pädagogium in Halle and in 1764 entered the university there to study first theology and then law. His grandfather, displeased by Buerger’s wild behaviour, withdrew him in 1767 but in 1768 he began studying at the University of Göttingen. It was while a student that he first published some of his poems. Contact in Göttingen with the “Sturm und Drang” poets inspired him to use folk ballads in his verse. His most famous poem, “Lenore,” was published in 1773 and was followed by a volume of poems in 1778. He taught at the university but his financial situation was never good and one of his positions at the university was unpaid. Bürger was married three times: in 1774 to Dorette Leonhart; in 1784 to her sister Auguste; and in 1790 to a woman whose name is unknown. The last marriage was unhappy and ended in divorce after two years. A second edition of his poems was subjected to biting criticism from Friedrich Schiller in an essay published in Allegemeine Literaturzeitung in 1791 and Bürger was discouraged from writing verse in his final years. He died at Göttingen on 8 June 1794.  (Proquest Biographies 4 Sept. 2023)

 

Other Names:

  • Buerger
  • G. A. Buerger
  • Gottfried August Burger
  • Gotterfried Augustus Bürger
 

Books written (14):

Norwich/ London: [no publisher: printed in Norwich by John March, sold by Johnson], 1796
London: [no publisher: printed "for the Author"], 1796
London: Edwards; Harding, 1796
London: Miller, 1796
2nd edn. London: Miller, 1796
London: [no publisher: "printed and sold by" Sampson Low and others], 1798
Dublin: John Archer, 1799
Edinburgh: Printed by J. and A. Denovan, 1809
2nd edn. London: J. Scott and J. White, 1809