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Baron von Münchhausen is one of the most popular heroes in literary history. Who was this baron really celebrating his 300th birthday this year?
He rides cannonballs to spy on enemy camps, climbs the moon with a bean stalk, and pulls his hair out of the swamp without his wig slipping. The baron’s stories were told and illustrated over and over, translated into numerous languages, and filmed numerous times. But is there something there?
The fact is, Baron von Munchausen really existed. He was born on May 11, 1720 in Bodenwerder in what is now Lower Saxony. Probably mounted a cannonball, but no. But he had an exciting life, as his descendant Anna von Münchhausen investigated.
High-flying Munchausen: The Baron’s stories reached the whole world (pictured: Hans Albers as Baron)
Imago Images / Prod.DB
In the middle of a turbulent world
“At 17 he traveled to the Czar’s Court in Saint Petersburg,” says von Munchausen. Back then, it was the most glamorous courtyard in the western world. Munchausen went Page with the Prince of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel and went with him to the Turkish-Russian-Austrian war to access the Black Sea.
These were major events in turbulent European history, and young Munchausen was right in the middle. “At age 30 he returned to Weserbergland and lived the leisurely life of an owner. In the evening he gathered his friends and neighbors: he was, of course, the long-distance traveler in this group, “said von Münchhausen.
A fabulous narrator, but not a liar.
This traveling traveler liked to tell stories from his youth. He did not freely invent his adventure stories, but “expanded them with wit and ingenuity.”
Mücnhausen was certainly a good storyteller in good company, but he never wrote a line of his stories. “How they got into the world is a curious series of coincidences,” said von Münchhausen.
The stories take their course
Some of the Münchhausen stories were told and ended in a magazine published in Berlin in 1781: “Vademecum for funny people”. The magazine fell into the hands of a scholar who needed money in London. He translated part of the story into English, published it anonymously, and it was a great success.
A volume traveled to Göttingen with an English student and fell into the hands of author Gottfried August Bürger, who also needed money and translated it back into German.
The German edition also immediately became a best seller. Then Mister von Munchhausen, in the quiet Bodenwerder, found out about the book and was outraged. I did not expect someone to use his name and person and tell these amazing stories on his behalf. He found it hurtful. Münchhausen was unable to file a complaint. Bürger’s book had been published anonymously.
He must be lying!
Munchausen was an old and unhappy man at the time. At age 70, he had a second marriage to Bernhardine von Brunn, 17. “This young woman wanted to have fun, she wanted to be cared for and to have peace and quiet,” says von Münchhausen.
Shortly after the wedding, the baron filed for divorce. His wife turned to lawyers in Hannover: “They enthusiastically wrote writings interpreting that Hieronymus Münchhausen was known the world over for telling stories,” von Münchhausen knows. The baron was sealed as unreliable, while the client was classified as “completely innocent.”
He couldn’t get rid of the liar baron label. The true Hieronymus of Munchausen died alone and embittered in 1797. The poetic Munchausen, however, still rides on the cannonball, beaming, with tricorn, sword, and powdered wig.
