Archiv der Zwanglosen, Bd. 12 a (1886-1906)

Bayerische Staatsbibliothek

Description

The archive of the "Zwanglose Gesellschaft" ("informal society") is owned by the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (Bavarian State Library). It was the intention of the "informal society" as an association of Munich poets and scholars of Late Romanticism and of Biedermeier to oblige each member to attend a weekly evening gathering and to present a poem or prose text, but to leave them otherwise free of any obligation. The association, which continues to exist as gentlemen's club to this day, was founded in 1837 at the suggestion of the officer and legation secretary Franz von Elsholtz. Franz Graf von Pocci (1807-1876; Cgm 6372, Rar. 408) was one of the most active members. The present collected volumes of the society (1837-1912) contain among other writings, minutes of proceedings, poems, humourist presentations and many hand-made caricatures made during Pocci's lifetime. In them, the members perform in characteristically comical scenes: the first secretary Hans Ferdinand Maßmann, the artists and poets Pocci, Emanuel Geibel and Eduard von Schenk, the scholars Friedrich Beck, Ludwig Steub, Friedrich von Thiersch and Franz von Kobell, but also Jean Paul's son-in-law Ernst Förster, the botanist and traveller to Brazil Karl Philipp von Martius and many others. Among the water-coloured pen and pencil drawings there are for example foldouts of caricatures, such as the "Große Beleuchtung der Bavaria" ("Great Illumination of the Bavaria"), Cgm 8026(4, Nr. 27), or Pocci's "Traum in der Nacht vor dem Festdiner zu Schillers 100. Geburtstag" ("Dream in the night before the festive dinner for Schiller's hundredth birthday"), Cgm 8026(5, Nr. 21. Datum: 2016

Author

Peter Czoik

Rights Statement Description

CC0