Author: Haller, Albrecht von
Biography:
HALLER, Albrecht von (1708-77: Deutsche Biographie)
As a foreign and "prior" author, Haller can be given only a cursory headnote. Renowned throughout Europe for his scientific achievements, he was also a poet--and an influential one. Born on 16 Oct. 1708, he was the son of Niklaus Emanuel Haller (1672-1721), a lawyer from a well established family in Bern, Switzerland, and his wife Anna Maria Engel. He himself married three times; although his first two wives died young along with their two children, his third wife, Sofie Amalia Cristina Teichmeyer, whom he married in 1741, gave him three sons and three daughters who grew to maturity. He studied at the universities of Tübingen and Leiden, where he earned his medical degree in 1727. Further studies in England, France, and Germany extended his knowledge of mathematics and botany, widened his circle of correspondents, and laid the foundation of his fame as a polymath. George II appointed him to a chair at the University of Göttingen in 1736 and made him his personal physician. He was ennobled as Baron von Haller in 1749. He stayed at Göttingen until 1753, when he resigned to return to Switzerland. His productivity was extraordinary, notably in the areas of physiology and botany but also in literature. His most famous poem, "Die Alpen," was composed in 1729 and published in his first collection, Gedichte ("Poems") in 1832. Some of his prose fiction, many of his scientific works, and a memoir were translated earlier but the two works in this bibliography were the first volumes in English devoted to his verse. He died at Bern on 12 Dec. 1777. (deutsche-biographie.de 10 Jan. 2022; Encyclopaedia Britannica [1911]; Nouvelle biographie générale [1852-66] 23, cols 168-80; WorldCat) HJ
Other Names:
- Baron Haller
- Haller