E.T.A. Hoffmann
There are a few artists whose work helps define a period, whose career spans across multiple disciplines, and whose legacy has become an annual holiday treat. E.T.A. Hoffmann is one of them. He was born Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann in 1776 in Königsberg, and lived to embody the German Romantic movement. As an adult, he changed Wilhelm to Amadeus, in honor of his passion for the music of Mozart. Although he was interested in the arts, after legal studies at the University of Königsberg, Hoffmann became a court official. In 1802, he was transferred as a punishment to the Polish town of Plock, after he circulated an inappropriate sketch he had made of another court official. Two years later, he was promoted to an appointment in Warsaw, where he connected with the city's musical scene. With the fall of Warsaw to Napoleon's troops in 1806, and the resulting end of the Prussian administration, Hoffmann was without a regular job for two years. However, during this time his artistic work began to flourish. In 1808, he became the orchestra conductor for a theatre in Bamberg. In addition to composing music, he also began to write. His reviews of musical works appeared in Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung. His ballet, Arlequin, premiered in 1811. After holding a conductor position in Dresden, Hoffmann moved to Berlin in 1814, where he spent the rest of his short, but productive life. In addition to his musical compositions, including Undine and Aurora, Hoffmann published two novels and fifty stories, as well as becoming a judge with the Superior Court in Berlin. His stories were fantastical journeys where the magical aspects appear as real as our everyday lives. These writings inspired four operas and ballets: Tales of Hoffmann Offenbach, Coppélia Delibes, Cardillac Hindemith, and the perennial The Nutcracker Tchaikovsky from the story, "Nussknacker und Mausekönig" "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King". E.T.A. Hoffmann died in 1822.
