Christian August Vulpius
Biography
In July 1788 a young woman handed Goethe a petition on behalf of her unemployed brother. This is the brother. He was born in Weimar in 1762, and what followed for him — the court theatre, the library, a career — ran through the connection that petition began.
Established by protection, 1790
The Neue Deutsche Biographie is blunt about the mechanism: it was only through Goethe's protection that Vulpius established himself as dramaturg at the court theatre after returning to Weimar in 1790. Two years after his sister's petition, in other words, the unemployed brother had a post at the theatre Goethe would shortly be running. That is patronage working exactly as patronage works, and the reference work does not dress it up.
The library, step by step, 1797–1827
Registrar at the Weimar library in 1797, library secretary in 1800, librarian and inspector of the coin cabinet in 1805. He spent three decades inside the institution whose Rococo hall is now the town's most photographed room, and he died in Weimar in 1827 — after which Friedrich Wilhelm Riemer rose through the same library.
The bestseller nobody credits him with, 1798/99
He wrote Rinaldo Rinaldini, der Räuberhauptmann, published in three volumes in 1798/99, and it became one of the great popular successes of the age — the ADB records that it went through many editions and produced a swarm of sequels and imitations, some by him and some by other hands. Classical Weimar is remembered for what Goethe and Schiller wrote. What people in Germany were actually reading, in quantity, was the brother-in-law's robber novel.
Questions visitors ask
- How is Christian August Vulpius connected to Goethe?
- His sister Christiane's petition on behalf of her unemployed brother, presented to Goethe in July 1788, began the connection. The Neue Deutsche Biographie states plainly that it was only through Goethe's protection that Vulpius established himself as dramaturg at the court theatre after returning to Weimar in 1790.
- What did Christian August Vulpius write?
- Rinaldo Rinaldini, der Räuberhauptmann, published in three volumes in 1798/99 — one of the great popular successes of the age, which went through many editions and produced a swarm of sequels and imitations.
- Where did Christian August Vulpius work in Weimar?
- At the ducal library — registrar from 1797, library secretary from 1800, librarian and inspector of the coin cabinet from 1805, for three decades until his death in 1827 — and as dramaturg at the court theatre from 1790.
- Can I visit places connected to him?
- Yes: the Anna Amalia Library, where he worked for three decades, and the National Theatre, where he served as dramaturg.
Notable Works & Achievements
Rinaldo Rinaldini, der Räuberhauptmann (3 vols, 1798/99)
Connected Places in Weimar
Platz der Demokratie 1, 99423 Weimar
Registrar there from 1797, library secretary from 1800, librarian from 1805.
Theaterplatz 2, 99423 Weimar
He established himself as dramaturg at the court theatre from 1790.
Historical Context
The period's popular literature, written by the man in the household nobody quotes.
For roughly sixty years a duchy of a few thousand people held the centre of German literature, because its ruler kept inviting writers to live there and then gave them jobs. That is the whole mechanism, and it ran from Goethe's arrival in 1775 to his death in 1832.
Read more about this period →Quick Facts
1762
1827
German