Victor Von Scheffel

German poet and novelist whose immensely popular humorous epic poem Der Trompeter von Säckingen (1854; “The Trumpeter of Säckingen”) and historical novel Ekkehard (1855) appealed to sentimental popular taste and made him one of the most widely read German authors of his time.

Scheffel was trained in law at the universities of Munich, Heidelberg, and Berlin and began a career in the Baden civil service in 1848. He soon obtained a leave of absence to travel and study painting in Italy, and in 1853 he resigned his legal post and turned to literature. He served as librarian to Prince Fürstenberg at Donaueschingen from 1857 to 1859. In 1865 he was given the title of privy councillor, and in 1876 he was given a patent of hereditary nobility by the grand duke of Baden.

Scheffel’s popularity was based on genuine talent as a fluent poet and on his romantic, nationalistic stance that rejected the strictures of contemporary realism in favour of a rosy view of Germany’s ancient glories. His meticulously researched book Ekkehard, set at the 10th-century monastery of St. Gall, was one of the most popular German novels of the century.

He died 9 April 1886, Karlsruhe, Germany.