MORITZ

See also:

• AUGUST (originally Sextilis)

AUGUST VON

See also:

• MORITZ AUGUST VON THUMMEL (1738-1817)

THUMMEL (1738-1817)  , German humorist and satirical author, was born on the 27th of May 1738 at Schonefeld near Leipzig . Educated at Rossleben and the university of Leipzig, where he studied law, he held from 1761 till 1783 various offices in the ducal court of Saxe-Coburg, where he became privy councillor and minister of state . He retired in 1783 and died at Coburg on the 26th of October 1817 . He wrote a comic prose epic, Wilhelmine, Oder der vermahlte Pedant (1764); and Die Inoculation der Liebe (1771), a tale in verse . His most famous work is his Reise in die mitldglichen Provinzen von Frankreich im Jahre 1785-.1786 (1791-1805), a " sentimental journey " in ten volumes, in which the influence of Wieland is unmistakable . Schiller, who found this work wanting in aesthetic dignity, yet allowed that the keen knowledge of men and things it displays makes it a valuable contribution to literature . Thiimmel's other writings are unimportant . His collected works were published at Leipzig in six volumes (1812), and again in 182o (7 vols.), with a biography by J . E. von Gruner . The most recent edition is that of 1855 (8 vols.) . See also F . Bobertag, Erzahlende Prosa der klassischen Periode vol. i .

(Kurschner's Deutsche Nat ionalliteratur, vol. exxxvi., 1886) . Wilhelmine has also been edited by R . Rosenbaum (1894) .