Munchausen

Munchausen – the difference between live and literature
Munchausen – not only a book but a phenomenon
Munchausen - Babel

The Website

You are just visiting the website of the Munchausen-Library. The private library for research concerning the phenomenon of Munchausen likes to inform you about its aims and results and also about the library itself.

... fulltext  ...online

The part of the website which is written in English contents the most important informations but not all. The version in German language shows you some essays in fulltext online. Some abstracts will be translated into English step by step.

Munchausen – the difference between live and literature

• In the 18th century there was a Baron. His name was Hieronymus Carl Friedrich von Munchausen (1720 - 1797). He was an officer during the war between Russia and Turkey in the 1730ies. Afterwards he lived as a gentleman on his estates in Bodenwerder near Hameln on the Weser. He became fameous as adventurer telling strange stories.

• In 1785 there was a book, entitled "Baron Munchausen’s Narrative of his Marvellous Travels". The preface says, that the Baron Munchausen was telling these stories. But he did not exactly these. This Baron is fiction.

• These two barons are the same and they are not the same.

• No doubt Rudolf Erich Raspe was born in spring of 1736, not in 1737 as it is mentioned in nearly all libraries of the world.

Misanderstandings concerning Munchausen

There are a lot of misunderstandings, errors and mistakes giving a wrong impression of the figure of Munchausen and of the circmstances of its origin as for example:

• "The real Baron has told these famous stories" - No, today we only know of three tales that the Baron in fact has related them to his friends.
• "The 'Sequel of the Adventures of Baron Munchausen' was written to ridicul the description of the discoveries of James Bruce, the Abyssinian Traveler." No, Rudolf Erich Raspe, the author of the Munchausen-tales, did not use the scientific work of James Bruce in five volumes but only the summary in one volume by Samule Shaw, Esq.
• The Sequel does not deal at first about the experiences of James Bruce, who is mentioned only once. But it deals a lot about the French Revolution.
• "The tales of Munchausen are written for children". No, this book was written as a political satire, in its early versions against the direction of politics in foreign affairs at the time of George III.

Munchausen – not only a book but a phenomenon

• Munchausen - an idea and a mythe

• Munchausen - not only a scientific term but some scientific terms:

- Munchausen-tale: tall-story

- Munchausen-syndrom: psychic ilness

- Munchausen-Trilemma: philosophical term in  

   theory of cognition

- Munchausen-methode: used for selfregulated

  ways to work

• Munchausen - an instrument of social memory

• Munchausen exists since more than 200 years. There are more than 2000 manners of publication like book, comic or movie. The baron lives in about 60 languages.

• Munchausen - a book without author.

• Munchausen knows two authors.
  • Rudolf Erich Raspe (1736 - 1794)
  • Gottfried August Bürger (1747 - 1794)

• Nobody knows the number of authors of Munchausen.

• Munchausen concentrates subjects of tales which originates from the Greek and Roman times until the age of enlightenment.

Munchausen - Babel

The Munchausen-Tales exist in many languages and also in several special characters. Today we know all these variants indicated in the following schedule. The marked ones are represented in the library.

Afrikaans			Kirghiz
Arabian			Latin
Bulgarian			Lettish
Catalan			Lithuanian
Chinese			Malay
Czech			Mongolian
Danish			Netherlandish
English			Norwegian
Esperanto			Ossetic
Estonian			Polandish
Faeroe			Portuguese
Finnish			Rumanian
French			Russian
Georgian			Serbo-Croatian
German			Slovakian
German dialect			Slovenian
Grecian			Spanish
Hebrew			Swedish
Icelandic			Turkish
Indonesian			Ungarian
Italian			Urdu
Irish			White-Russian
Japanese			Yiddish

02/2008© by Bernhard Wiebel