Attachments for Munchausen Hieronymus Karl Friedrich von. Who really was Baron Munchausen? What was Munchausen's full name?

The biography of the German baron with the difficult-to-pronounce surname Munchausen is full of unprecedented adventures. The man flew to the moon, visited the stomach of a fish, and fled from the Turkish Sultan. And the main thing is that all this actually happened. This is what Baron Munchausen personally says. It is not surprising that the thoughts of an experienced traveler instantly turn into aphorisms.

History of creation

The author of the first stories about the adventures of Baron Munchausen is Baron Munchausen himself. Few people know that the nobleman actually existed. Karl Friedrich was born into the family of Colonel Otto von Munchausen. At the age of 15, the young man went to military service, and after retiring, he spent his evenings telling tales:

“He usually began his story after dinner, lighting a huge meerschaum pipe with a short stem and placing a steaming glass of punch in front of him.”

The man gathered neighbors and friends in his own house, sat down in front of a blazing fireplace and acted out scenes from the adventures he had experienced. Sometimes the baron added small details to plausible stories to interest listeners.

Later, a couple of such tales were published anonymously in the collections “Der Sonderling” (“The Fool”) and “Vademecum fur lustige Leute” (“Guide to Merry People”). The stories are signed with Munchausen's initials, but the man did not confirm his own authorship. Fame among local residents grew. Now the King of Prussia Hotel has become a favorite place for conversations with listeners. It was there that the writer Rudolf Erich Raspe heard the stories of the cheerful baron.

In 1786, the book “Baron Munchausen’s Narrative of His Wonderful Travels and Campaigns in Russia” was published. To add spice, Raspe inserted more nonsense into the baron's original stories. The work was published in English.

In the same year, Gottfried Bürger - a German translator - published his version of the baron's exploits, adding more satire to the translated narrative. The main idea of ​​the book has changed dramatically. Now the adventures of Munchausen have ceased to be just fables, but have acquired a bright satirical and political connotation.

Although Burger’s creation “The Amazing Travels of Baron von Munchausen on Water and on Land, Hikes and Fun Adventures, as He Usually Talked about them Over a Bottle of Wine with His Friends” was published anonymously, the real Baron guessed who made his name famous:

“University Professor Burger disgraced me throughout Europe.”

Biography

Baron Munchausen grew up in a large, titled family. Almost nothing is known about the man’s parents. The mother was involved in raising her offspring, the father had a high military rank. In his youth, the baron left his home and went in search of adventure.

The young man took on the duties of a page under the German Duke. As part of the retinue of an eminent nobleman, Friedrich ended up in Russia. Already on the way to St. Petersburg, all sorts of troubles awaited the young man.

The baron's winter trip dragged on; night was already approaching. Everything was covered with snow and there were no villages nearby. The young man tied his horse to a tree stump, and in the morning he found himself in the middle of the city square. The horse was hanging, tied to the cross of the local church. However, troubles regularly happened to the baron's faithful horse.

After serving at the Russian court, the attractive nobleman went to the Russian-Turkish War. To find out about the enemy's plans and count the cannons, the baron made the famous flight riding on a cannonball. The shell turned out to be not the most convenient means of transportation and fell along with the hero into the swamp. The Baron was not used to waiting for help, so he pulled himself out by the hair.

“Lord, how tired I am of you! Understand that Munchausen is famous not because he flew or didn’t fly, but because he didn’t lie.”

The fearless Munghausen fought the enemies sparing no effort, but was still captured. The imprisonment did not last long. After his release, the man went on a trip around the world. The hero visited India, Italy, America and England.

In Lithuania, the baron met a girl named Jacobina. The charming woman charmed the brave soldier. The young people got married and returned to Munchausen’s homeland. Now the man spends his free time on his own estate, devoting a lot of time to hunting and sitting by the burning fireplace, and is happy to tell anyone about his tricks.

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

Often funny situations happen to a man while hunting. The Baron does not spend time preparing for the campaign, so he regularly forgets to replenish his supply of bullets. One day the hero went to a pond inhabited by ducks, and the weapon was unsuitable for shooting. The hero caught the birds with a piece of lard and tied the game to each other. When the ducks soared into the sky, they easily lifted the baron and carried the man home.

While traveling around Russia, the baron saw a strange beast. While hunting in the forest, Munchausen came across an eight-legged hare. The hero chased the animal around the neighborhood for three days until he shot the animal. The hare had four legs on his back and stomach, so he did not get tired for a long time. The animal simply rolled over onto its other paws and continued running.

The baron's friends know that Munchausen visited all corners of the Earth and even visited the planet's satellite. The flight to the moon took place during Turkish captivity. Accidentally throwing a hatchet onto the surface of the Moon, the hero climbed a stalk of chickpeas and found it lost in a haystack. It was more difficult to go back down - the pea stalk withered in the sun. But the dangerous feat ended in another victory for the baron.

Before returning home, the man was attacked by a bear. Munchausen squeezed the clubfoot with his hands and kept the animal for three days. The man's steel hug caused his paws to break. The bear died of hunger because he had nothing to suck. From this moment on, all local bears avoid the harrow.

Munchausen had incredible adventures everywhere. Moreover, the hero himself perfectly understood the reason for this phenomenon:

“It’s not my fault if such wonders happen to me that have never happened to anyone else. This is because I love to travel and am always looking for adventure, while you sit at home and see nothing but the four walls of your room.”

Film adaptations

The first film about the adventures of the fearless baron was released in France in 1911. The painting, entitled “Hallucinations of Baron Munchausen,” lasts 10.5 minutes.

Because of his originality and colorfulness, the character was liked by Soviet filmmakers and animators. Four cartoons about the baron were released, but the 1973 series won great love among viewers. The cartoon consists of 5 episodes, which are based on the book by Rudolf Raspe. Quotes from the animated series are still in use.

In 1979, the film “That Same Munchausen” was released. The film tells the story of the baron's divorce from his first wife and his attempts to tie the knot with his longtime lover. The main characters differ from the book prototypes; the film is a free interpretation of the original work. The image of the baron was brought to life by an actor, and his beloved Martha was played by an actress.

Films about the exploits of a military man, traveler, hunter and moon conqueror were also filmed in Germany, Czechoslovakia and Great Britain. For example, in 2012 the two-part film “Baron Munchausen” was released. The main role went to actor Jan Josef Liefers.

• Munchausen means “house of the monk” in German.
• In the book, the hero is presented as a dry, unattractive old man, but in his youth Munchausen had impressive appearance. The mother of Catherine the Second mentioned the charming baron in her personal diary.
• The real Munchausen died in poverty. The fame that overtook the man thanks to the book did not help the baron in his personal life. The nobleman's second wife squandered the family fortune.

Quotes and aphorisms from the film “That Same Munchausen”

“After the wedding, we immediately went on a honeymoon: I went to Turkey, my wife went to Switzerland. And they lived there for three years in love and harmony.”

“I understand what your problem is. You are too serious. All the stupid things on earth are done with this facial expression... Smile, gentlemen, smile!”

“All love is legitimate if it is love!”

“A year ago, in these very regions, can you imagine, I met a deer. I raise my gun - it turns out there are no cartridges. There is nothing but cherries. I load my gun with a cherry pit, ugh! - I shoot and hit the deer in the forehead. He runs away. And this spring, in these very regions, imagine, I meet my handsome deer, on whose head a luxurious cherry tree grows.”

“Are you waiting for me, dear? Sorry... Newton delayed me."

Report from the company commander Munchhausen to the regimental chancellery (written by a clerk, hand-signed Lieutenant v. Munchhausen). 02/26/1741

Munchausen's wedding. Latvian postcard. In the background is the church in Pernigel (Lielupe) near Riga, where Munchausen actually got married.

Carl Friedrich Hieronymus Baron von Munchausen(German) , May 11, Bodenwerder - February 22, ibid.) - German Freiherr (baron), descendant of the ancient Lower Saxon family of Munchausens, captain of the Russian service, historical figure and literary character. The name Munchausen has become a household name as a designation for a person who tells incredible stories.

Biography

Youth

Karl Friedrich Hieronymus was the fifth of eight children in the family of Colonel Otto von Munchausen. The father died when the boy was 4 years old, and he was raised by his mother’s sister, Aderkas, who was taken as governess to Anna Leopoldovna. The mother died three days after giving birth. In 1735, 15-year-old Munchausen entered the service of the sovereign Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel Ferdinand Albrecht II as a page.

Service in Russia

Return to Germany

Having received the rank of captain, Munchausen took a year's leave “to correct extreme and necessary needs” (specifically, to divide the family estates with his brothers) and left for Bodenwerder, which he got during the division (). He extended his leave twice and finally submitted his resignation to the Military College, with the assignment of the rank of lieutenant colonel for blameless service; received an answer that the petition should be submitted on the spot, but he never went to Russia, as a result of which in 1754 he was expelled as having left the service without permission. Munchausen for some time did not give up hope of achieving a profitable retirement (which, in addition to a prestigious rank, gave the right to a pension), as evidenced by the petition to the Military College of his cousin, the Chancellor of the Principality of Hanover, Baron Gerlach Adolf Munchausen; however, this had no results, and until the end of his life he signed as a captain in the Russian service. This title turned out to be useful to him during the Seven Years' War, when Bodenwerder was occupied by the French: the position of an officer in the army allied with France spared Munchausen from standing and other hardships associated with the occupation.

Life in Bodenwerder

From 1752 until his death, Munchausen lived in Bodenwerder, communicating mainly with his neighbors, to whom he told amazing stories about his hunting adventures and adventures in Russia. Such stories usually took place in a hunting pavilion built by Munchausen and hung with the heads of wild animals and known as the “pavilion of lies”; Another favorite setting for Munchausen's stories was the inn of the King of Prussia Hotel in nearby Göttingen. One of Munchausen’s listeners described his stories this way:

The baron's stories (such subjects that undoubtedly belonged to him as the entry into St. Petersburg on a wolf harnessed to a sleigh, a horse cut in half in Ochakovo, a horse in a bell tower, fur coats gone wild, or a cherry tree growing on a deer's head) spread widely throughout the surrounding area and even penetrated in print, but maintaining decent anonymity. For the first time, three Munchausen plots (anonymously, but those in the know knew well who their author was) appear in the book “Der Sonderling” by Count Rox Friedrich Linar (). In 1781, a collection of such stories (16 stories, including scenes from Linar, also some “wandering” stories) was published in the Berlin almanac “Guide for Merry People”, indicating that they belonged to Mr. M-g-, famous for his wit. z-well, living in G-re (Hannover); in 1783, two more stories of this kind were published in the same almanac (it is unclear whether the baron himself played a role in their publication). However, the publication of Raspe's book, or, more precisely, its German version of Burger, published in 1786 near the baron, in Göttingen, infuriated the baron due to the fact that the hero was provided with his full name. The Baron considered his name dishonored and was going to sue Burger (according to other sources, he did, but was refused on the grounds that the book was a translation of an English anonymous publication). In addition, Raspe-Bürger’s work immediately gained such popularity that onlookers began to flock to Bodenwerder to look at the “liar baron,” and Munchausen had to station servants around the house to ward off the curious.

Last years

Munchausen's last years were overshadowed by family troubles. His wife Jacobina died in 1790. 4 years later, Munchausen married 17-year-old Bernardine von Brun, who led an extremely wasteful and frivolous lifestyle and soon gave birth to a daughter, whom 75-year-old Munchausen did not recognize, considering the father of the clerk Huden. Munchausen started a scandalous and expensive divorce case, as a result of which he went bankrupt and his wife fled abroad. This sapped Munchausen's strength, and he died shortly afterwards in poverty from apoplexy. Before his death, he made his last characteristic joke: when asked by the only maid caring for him how he lost two toes (frostbitten in Russia), Munchausen replied: “They were bitten off by a polar bear while hunting.”

Carl Friedrich Munchausen
German Karl Friedrich Hieronymus Freiherr von Münchhausen
Illustration by Gustave Doré
Creator:	R. E. Raspe
Works:	"Stories of Baron Munchausen about his amazing travels and campaigns in Russia"
Role played by:	Yuri Sarantsev; Oleg Yankovsky

Munchausen - literary character

The literary Baron Munchausen became a well-known character in Russia thanks to K. I. Chukovsky, who adapted the book by E. Raspe for children. K. Chukovsky translated the baron's surname from English “Münchausen” into Russian as “Munhausen”. In German it is written “Münchhausen” and transliterated into Russian as “Munchausen”. Many foreign and Russian authors, both in the past and present, turned to the interpretation of the image of Baron Munchausen, complementing the formed image (character) with new features and adventures. The image of Baron Munchausen received the most significant development in Russian - Soviet cinema, in the film “That Same Munchausen”, where the scriptwriter Grigory Gorin gave the baron bright romantic character traits, while distorting some facts of the personal life of Karl Friedrich Hieronymus von Munchausen. In the cartoon "The Adventures of Munchausen" the baron is endowed with classic features, bright and magnificent.

Evgeny Vishnev wrote and in 1990 published a fantasy story “The Herd of Star Dragons”, preserving Raspe’s style of presentation, where a distant descendant of Baron Munchausen acts (in the distant future, in space). Vishnev’s character is also an amateur astronomer, and he names the comet he discovered after his ancestor.

In 2005, the book by Nagovo-Munchausen V. “The Adventures of the Childhood and Youth of Baron Munchausen” (“Munchhausens Jugend- und Kindheitsаbenteuer”) was published in Russia, which became the first book in world literature about the childhood and youthful adventures of Baron Munchausen, from the birth of the baron to his departure to Russia.

Appearance of real and literary Munchausen

The only portrait of Munchausen by G. Bruckner (), depicting him in the uniform of a cuirassier, was destroyed during the Second World War. Photographs of this portrait and descriptions give an idea of ​​Munchausen as a man of a strong and proportionate physique, with a round, regular face (physical strength was a hereditary quality in the family: Munchausen’s nephew Philip could put three fingers into the muzzles of three guns and raise them). The mother of Catherine II especially notes in her diary the “beauty” of the commander of the honor guard. The visual image of Munchausen as a literary hero represents a wizened old man with a dashingly curled mustache and a goatee. This image was created by illustrations by Gustave Doré (). It is curious that, by giving his hero a beard, Doré (generally very accurate in historical details) allowed an obvious anachronism, since in the 18th century they did not wear beards. However, it was during Doré's time that goatees were reintroduced into fashion by Napoleon III. This gives rise to the assumption that the famous “bust” of Munchausen, with the motto “Mendace veritas” (Latin: “Truth is in lies”) and the image of three ducks on the “coat of arms” (cf. three bees on the Bonaparte coat of arms), had a political meaning that was understandable to contemporaries subtext of the caricature of the emperor (see portrait of Napoleon III).

Film adaptations

Musicals

The world's second monument to Baron Munchausen was erected in 1970 in the USSR, the city of Khmelnitsky, Ukraine. The authors of the sculpture - M. Andreychuk and G. Mamona - captured an episode from the baron's story, in which Munchausen was forced to ride half a horse.

Categories:

• Personalities in alphabetical order
• Born on May 11
• Born in 1720
• Born in Lower Saxony
• Deaths on February 22
• Died in 1797
• Died in Lower Saxony
• Characters in alphabetical order
• Munchausenian
• Nobles of Germany
• History of the 18th century
• Prototypes of literary characters
• Characters of the Famous Captains Club

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Who doesn’t know the famous inventor - Baron Hieronymus von Munchausen. Soviet films, cartoons and books contributed to this. But the book hero had a prototype - the real Baron Munchausen and maybe someone else doesn’t know his story?

The history of the Munchausen family dates back to the 12th century - it was at this time that the family was founded by the knight Heino, who took part in the crusade led by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. All the descendants of the knight fought and died. And one of them survived because he was a monk. It was he who gave the family a new name - Munchausen, which means “house of the monk”. Since then, the family coat of arms of the Munchausen family has featured a monk with a book and a staff.

There are a lot of Munchausens! Since the 12th century, almost 1,300 people have gathered on the family tree, about 50 are alive today. There are a dozen and a half castles scattered throughout Lower Saxony that once belonged or belong today to members of this venerable family. And the family is truly respectable. In the 18th and 19th centuries, he gave eight persons the rank of ministers of different German states. There are also such bright personalities as the famous 16th-century land-sknecht Hilmar von Munchausen, who earned a lot of money with his sword to buy or rebuild half a dozen castles. Here is the founder of the University of Göttingen, Gerlach Adolf von Munchausen, and the botanist and agronomist Otto von Munchausen. There are half a dozen writers, and among them is the “first poet of the Third Reich” Berris von Munchausen, whose poems were chanted by Hitler Youth teenagers as they marched through the streets. And the whole world knows only one thing - Karl Hieronymus Friedrich von Munchausen, according to the genealogical table, number 701. And, probably, he would remain number 701, if during his lifetime two writers - R. E. Raspe and G. A. Burger - They did not let the funny stories they heard from Munchausen, or the funny stories they themselves invented, which have brought smiles to the faces of a variety of people in all corners of the world for two centuries, into the world. If we keep in mind the literary hero, then he, in fact, is not German, but rather a citizen of the world; only his name speaks about his nationality.

The very first line in millions of books on which this name appears reads: “I left home for Russia in the middle of winter...” And millions of readers for the third century perceive Russia, according to his stories, as a country where “wolves devour horses as they run.” , where snow covers the ground up to the tops of churches and where a stream of urine freezes right in the air."

Hieronymus Carl Friedrich Baron von Munchausen was born on May 11, 1720 at the Bodenwerder estate near Hanover. His home now houses the mayor's office and a small museum. Karl was the fifth child among eight children in the family.

Two hundred and sixty-five years ago, a seventeen-year-old young man from Germany crossed the border of the Russian Empire. The young man was to serve as a page in the retinue of another noble guest of Russia - Prince Anton Ulrich of Brunswick. The rest of the pages refused to go to Russia - it was considered a distant, cold and wild country. They said that hungry wolves and bears were running along the streets of the cities. And the cold is such that words freeze, they are brought home in the form of ice, they thaw in the warmth, and then a speech sounds... “It’s better to freeze in Russia than to perish from boredom in the palace of the Duke of Brunswick!” - our hero reasoned. And in February 1738, the young Baron Hieronymus Karl Friedrich von Munchausen arrived in St. Petersburg. Jerome had long since outgrown the short pants of a page; he dreamed of the glory of his ancestors. After all, the founder of their family was the knight Heino, who in the 12th century participated in a crusade under the banner of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. Another of his ancestors, Hilmar von Munchausen, already in the sixteenth century, was a famous condottiere - commander of an army of mercenaries; The military booty was enough for him to build several castles in the Weser River valley. Well, the young man’s uncle, Gerlach Adolf von Munchausen, is a minister, founder and trustee of the University of Göttingen, the best in Europe...

Cute boy! He did not yet know what awaited him in Russia, he did not imagine that wolves and bears were not the most terrible inhabitants of the area. That words freezing in the cold are not the greatest miracle; he was to see the Ice Palace!.. In those years, Russia was ruled by Empress Anna Ioannovna, the niece of Peter I. She largely continued the work of her great uncle. But Anna despised the descendants of Peter and Catherine - after all, Catherine was from the “vile class”. The descendants of Ivan, Peter’s brother and co-ruler who died early, called Catherine “portomoy”, that is, a laundress, behind her back. This means that power should belong to the “Ivanovichs” and nothing more! But Anna Ioannovna herself did not have children; she was widowed early. Therefore, in order to transfer power along the Ivanovo line, Anna Ioannovna decided to marry her niece Anna Leopoldovna to some European prince and bequeath the throne to their child - her great-nephew. Prince Anton Ulrich of Brunswick was one of the possible suitors. He was a noble and educated young man, a knowledgeable and brave officer. But his matchmaking dragged on for almost seven years! Because Anton Ulrich, for all his merits, knew nothing about politics, did not know how to hide his feelings and weave intrigues. Well, there was plenty of intrigue: the all-powerful favorite of the Empress Biron, Field Marshal Minich, Chancellor Osterman, many other courtiers, foreign diplomats - everyone played “their own game,” entered into temporary alliances and betrayed yesterday’s friends. In this drama, young Munchausen turned out to be just an extra. He didn't know the "play" as a whole. He saw only individual characters and heard only some of their remarks. But even what he witnessed gave rise to a feeling of anxiety, of imminent disaster.

In 1738, von Munchausen smelled gunpowder for the first time. He accompanied Prince Anton Ulrich of Brunswick on a campaign against the Turks. At that time they fought only in the summer. In addition, the “theater of military operations” was located far to the south; it was necessary to cross half of Russia. The army marched through the steppes. The Crimean Tatars - allies of the Turks - set fire to the steppe grass; their flying cavalry detachments appeared from smoke and flame, like devils from the underworld, and attacked the columns and convoys of the Russians. The army lacked clean water, food, ammunition... But, despite the hardships and dangers of the campaign, Munchausen decided: his place was in the army. For another six months, the young man performed the duties of a page: he accompanied Prince Anton Ulrich everywhere, attended receptions, balls and maneuvers with him. Once, at a parade in St. Petersburg, a soldier’s gun accidentally went off. And then the ramrod was kept in the barrel. Page Munchausen heard a shot, something whistled right next to his ear. The ramrod pierced the leg of Prince Anton Ulrich's horse like an arrow. The horse and rider fell onto the pavement. Fortunately, the prince was not injured. “You can’t make this up on purpose,” thought Munchausen. “There will be something to talk about at home...” Finally, after long and persistent requests, Prince Anton Ulrich released his page for military service. In 1739, Hieronymus von Munchausen entered the cuirassier regiment as a cornet.

Cuirassier regiments had recently appeared in the Russian cavalry. They could withstand both the light Turkish-Tatar cavalry and the heavy cavalry of the Europeans. Cuirassiers could “pierce” even an infantry square bristling with hundreds of bayonets. Because the cuirassiers wore a metal breastplate - a cuirass; their weapon in battle was a heavy broadsword. Only stout young men were recruited into the cuirassiers, and the horses were a match for them; they were bought abroad. A year later, Munchausen was already a lieutenant, commander of the first, consider it, guards company of the regiment. He turned out to be a smart officer and quickly got up to speed. The “noble and respectable lord lieutenant” takes care of the ordinary cuirassiers and horses, demands money from his superiors for fodder and ammunition, writes reports, compiles reports: “I humbly ask you to send a cornet to assist me, for... to keep men and horses clean alone It’s impossible to cope.” “In connection with the receipt of provisions and fodder for this month of February 741 for people and horses, two statements are attached.” “The fallen horse... was expelled and this messenger was informed about it in the form”... But there was no war for Lieutenant Munchausen. Russia made peace with the Turks, and during the Swedish campaign of 1741-1743 his company did not participate in hostilities. And without war, how can an officer advance in the ranks?

And soon trouble came to the Brunswick family. Events in St. Petersburg developed rapidly. Anton Ulrich and Anna Leopoldovna finally got married and had their first child, named Ivan. Empress Anna Ioannovna, shortly before her death, proclaimed him heir to the throne John III, and her favorite Biron as regent under him. But Biron couldn’t resist even a few months - everyone always hated him. The parents of the baby emperor hatched a conspiracy, Field Marshal Minikh arrested Biron. The emperor's mother Anna Leopoldovna herself became the “ruler of Russia” with her young son, and father Anton Ulrich received the title of generalissimo. Everything would be fine, but... Anna Leopoldovna was a useless ruler, and her husband, under ordinary circumstances, probably would not have risen above a colonel. Power in Russia was weaker than ever. And only those who were in power did not notice this.

And at this time, Tsarevna Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Great, lived as Cinderella at court. No, not a dirty woman, on the contrary: she was the first beauty and fashionista in Russia. But “Petrov’s daughter”, deprived of power, is a fate, perhaps, worse than an orphan’s lot. Maybe that’s why they loved her in the guards and pitied her among the people. In addition, Elisabeth - as she signed herself - never felt safe. The “Ivanovites” always wanted to get rid of her: to marry her to some foreign duke, for example, or to tonsure her as a nun. Unless they dared to finish him off. The clouds over the crown princess's head were thickening: it became known about her secret negotiations with the French envoy, and through him, with the Swedes. The matter smelled of treason! In the fall of 1741, an order was received for the guard to move out from St. Petersburg. This was not surprising - after all, the war with Sweden had begun. But Elizabeth was afraid that the guards were being taken away on purpose to make it easier to deal with them. The crown princess had no choice, she came to the barracks of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, and then, at the head of a detachment of 300 grenadiers, went to the Winter Palace - for power and the crown. The entire “Brunswick family” and its associates were sent first to the fortress, then into exile... For some time, noble prisoners were kept in Riga Castle. And Lieutenant Munchausen, who guarded Riga and the western borders of the empire, became the involuntary guard of his high patrons. The disgrace did not affect Munchausen (after all, he left his retinue on time), and, nevertheless, the lieutenant lost peace for a long time and became more careful in his words and actions. And he received the next rank - captain - only in 1750, moreover, the last of those presented for promotion. This was a bad sign: his military career was not going well, and there were no more patrons at the top.

But life and service went on as usual and brought many meetings and impressions. In 1744, two royal persons crossed the border of the Russian Empire: Princess Elizabeth of Anhalt-Zerbst and her daughter Sophia Frederica Augusta - the future Empress Catherine the Great. They were met by an honor guard of Russian cuirassiers, commanded by the stately lieutenant Baron von Munchausen. Eh, if the lieutenant had known that the future Empress Catherine the Great waved to him with a lily hand from the carriage window, he would probably have become even more dignified. And the princess mother wrote in her diary: “I very much praised the cuirassier regiment I saw, which is really extremely beautiful.” The young and sociable baron had many friends in St. Petersburg and Riga. One of them, the Baltic nobleman von Dunten, invited Munchausen to his estate for a hunt. The lieutenant shot a lot of game and was completely smitten - he fell in love with the owner's beautiful daughter Jacobina von Dunten. In the same year, 1744, Jerome and Jacobina got married in a local church. Having received the long-awaited rank of captain, Munchausen asked for a year's leave and left with his wife for Germany. He needed to settle inheritance matters with his brothers. The Munchausens had two estates, Rinteln and Bodenwerder, and three brothers - go figure, divide them!.. The Baron extended his leave for another year, but it expired, and the captain did not turn to the military authorities with a new petition. At this time, one of the brothers was killed in the war. The two remaining heirs simply cast lots - and soon Hieronymus Karl Friedrich Baron von Munchausen took legal possession of the family estate of Bodenwerder near Hanover, on the Weser River. That is, he returned as an owner to where he was born 32 years ago, on May 11, 1720. Returned from Russia as if from the Moon or the North Pole. After all, few returned from Russia: some died, while others remained to live there and became Russian Germans. Moreover, he left as a minor, and returned as a husband - in the literal and figurative sense of the word.

And at this time, a roll call took place in the cuirassier regiment. Where is Captain Munchausen? There is no Captain Munchausen. And there are no good reasons for his absence either. And therefore, in 1754, Baron Munchausen, aka Minichhausin, aka Menechhausen (as the staff clerks distorted his name), was expelled from the regiment and the Russian army.

It would have been more profitable and honorable to retire, and Munchausen regretted his carelessness, but his belated requests remained unanswered. True, this did not prevent Munchausen from being recommended as a captain in the Russian Imperial Army until the end of his days. And the baron began to live as a master. At first, he cleaned up the neglected park and built a pavilion in the fashionable “grotto” style. But pretty soon Munchausen’s economic fervor faded, or maybe the money just ran out. It was impossible to live like a lord on the modest income from the estate. And finally, the baron became bored. After all, from a young age, Munchausen was always in the center of a large company: among his peers, pages or fellow officers. And now he found himself alone in his charming but provincial Bodenwerder, far from his former friends and relatives... Jerome and Jacobina von Munchausen loved each other, but God did not give them children. Perhaps the baron flourished only on the hunt - he was a passionate and skillful hunter. And at the halt, the neighboring landowners began to listen: the amazing stories of Munchausen were heard. He would like to tell the truth, and he had something to tell about his experience... But the faces of the listeners immediately became boring - what do they care about the fact that Munchausen spent almost fourteen years in Russia under two empresses and an infant emperor, witnessed rapid rises and crushing falls, conspiracies and coups, he himself barely escaped punishment... No, that’s not what his friends wanted to hear: “Is it true that Russians can live under the snow?” “That’s right,” Munchausen picked up. “One day I tied a horse to a peg and went to sleep right in the snow. In the morning I woke up already on the ground, and my horse was hanging on the cross of the bell tower. It turns out that the entire village was buried under snow, and in the morning it melted!..”

And off we go. Here, by the way, I remembered the ramrod-arrow (only in the baron’s story he pierced a flock of partridges), and many other incredible cases seen, heard, read and invented. The fame of Munchausen's stories quickly spread throughout the area, and then throughout Germany. It would seem, what was special about them? After all, before, various lies and tales were passed from mouth to mouth; some even ended up in magazines and books. And yet Munchausen’s stories were unique. A hero appeared in them, and this hero was created by the narrator from himself. The hero had the same name, the same title, the same biography as the author - a noble nobleman with an unusual fate. All this gave Munchausen’s inventions some credibility, and the narrator seemed to be playing “believe it or not” with the listener. Well, of course, these were funny stories that people laughed at with all their hearts. In addition, the baron turned out to be an excellent narrator and performer of his stories, like today's satirical writers who themselves read their works from the stage. Munchausen knew how, as they say, to capture the attention of the public. And not only his friends at a hunting rest stop, not only guests on his estate; he was not shy about a large audience. A contemporary from Göttingen recalled Munchausen’s performance in the restaurant of the King of Prussia Hotel: “He usually began to talk after dinner, lighting his huge meerschaum pipe with a short mouthpiece and placing a steaming glass of punch in front of him... He gesticulated more and more expressively, twirled his hands on his head his little smart wig, his face became more and more animated and red, and he, usually a very truthful person, at these moments wonderfully acted out his fantasies.” A very truthful person! Yes, it was Hieronymus Karl Friedrich Baron von Munchausen who was a truthful person, a man of word and honor. Besides - proud and hot-tempered. And so, imagine, the offensive, unfair nickname “lugenbaron” - the liar baron - stuck to him. Further - more: both “the king of liars” and “the liar of the lies of all liars”... Munchausen’s reputation especially suffered when his stories appeared in print.

In 1781, the first stories with a transparent signature “Mr. M-h-s-n” appeared in the magazine “Guide for Merry People”. And a few years later, the German scientist and writer Rudolf Erich Raspe, forced to flee to England, remembered the tales of his fellow countryman and wrote a funny book “The Story of Baron Munchausen about his amazing travels and campaigns in Russia.” At the same time, Raspe remained anonymous, and the hero, on whose behalf the story is told, appeared before readers for the first time as an outright liar and braggart. The collection was published in 1785 and went through five editions in three years! The very next year, a book in German by the famous poet Gottfried August Burger appeared in Germany under the long title, in keeping with the fashion of the time, “Amazing Travels on Land and Sea, Military Campaigns and Merry Adventures of Baron von Munchausen, which he usually talks about over a bottle.” among his friends" (1786, 1788). The burgher returned Munchausen to Germany, supplemented the fantastic adventures with satire, and included new plots (for example, duck hunting with a piece of lard and string, rescue from a swamp, flying on a cannonball). And artistically, Burger’s book is, of course, more perfect. This is how another, fictional Munchausen appeared. This other completely obscured the real one, flesh and blood, and dealt blow after blow to his creator. Hieronymus von Munchausen was furious. He didn’t understand how it was possible to distort the meaning of his fantasies so much? He amused his listeners and amused himself at the same time. Yes, his hero fools the listener, but completely disinterestedly! And with all his exploits he affirms: there are no hopeless situations, just don’t despair, or, as the Russians say, we will live - we will not die!.. Meanwhile, it was popularity that played a cruel joke on the baron.

Munchausen's fantasies were perfectly understood by those for whom he composed them: family and friends, friends and neighbors, familiar writers and scientists - all people, as they say, were in his circle. But the “stories of M-h-z-na” very soon found their way among the burghers, artisans and peasants, and they perceived them a little differently. No, they laughed too, of course. Maybe even louder than the nobles. But, having laughed it off, they shook their heads: what a liar, and also a baron! It is a sin to lie, as both Mutter and Fatter, Mein Gott in heaven, and the pastor in the church taught from childhood. And who is lying and who is making things up - go figure, we have no time for subtleties. Let the barons reason, they have nothing more to do, and our brother from noble gentlemen only receives insults and oppression... To add insult to injury, Munchausen’s wife, Jacobina, with whom he lived in love and harmony for 46 years, died in 1790. The Baron felt completely alone. He was a widower for four years, and suddenly... How often does this word appear in his stories! But there the hero always makes the only right decision. And in life... His friend, retired Major von Brun, with his wife and daughter were visiting Munchausen’s estate. Munchausen really, well, just really liked young Bernardine von Brun. And the von Brun family liked the Munchausen estate more. The estate is small, four acres of land - but what land! On the banks of the “quiet Weser” you stick a stick in the ground and it will bloom. What about the house? It will stand for another three hundred years. (That’s right, it now houses the mayor’s office and a small Munchausen museum.) It’s even better that the owner is of advanced age: how long does he have left to make people laugh? It seems that only the baron himself did not notice - or did not want to notice - what everyone around him saw and understood. It was like an obsession: the boundary between reality and fantasy was erased, and the author imagined himself as the hero of his stories - forever young and indestructible... As one would expect, this marriage brought nothing but troubles to everyone. Bernardina, a true child of the “gallant age,” turned out to be flighty and wasteful. From the very beginning she neglected her marital duties, and the baron himself turned out to be... oh, old age is not a joy! Therefore, when Bernardina became pregnant, Munchausen refused to recognize the child as his own. A scandalous divorce process began, which completely ruined Munchausen.

He was no longer able to recover from the shocks he experienced.

The Baron was dying alone in an empty, cold house. Only his huntsman's widow, Frau Nolte, looked after him. One day she discovered that the baron was missing two toes and screamed in surprise. “Nothing! - the Baron reassured her. “They were bitten off by a Russian bear while hunting.” So, with the last joke - like a farewell sigh - on his lips, Hieronymus Karl Friedrich Baron von Munchausen died. This happened on February 22, 1797. His debts were paid only by the second generation of heirs. But he left behind the immortal Munchausen - a comedy created at the cost of personal drama. This - different - Munchausen, during the lifetime of his creator, set off on an endless journey across borders and centuries: now riding half a horse, now in the belly of a monstrous fish, now riding a cannonball. He also returned to Russia - where the real Baron Munchausen began his journey and without which his amazing stories would not have existed. But that's a completely different story.

The baron was buried in the Munchausen family crypt in the village of Kemnade, near Bodenwerder. In the church book he is called a “retired Russian captain.” Centuries later, the floors and crypt were opened in the church, and they wanted to transfer the remains buried there to the cemetery. An eyewitness (the future writer Karl Hensel), who was then still a boy, described his impressions this way: “When the coffin was opened, the men’s tools fell out of their hands. In the coffin lay not a skeleton, but a sleeping man with hair, skin and a recognizable face: Hieronymus von Munchausen "A wide, round, kind face with a protruding nose and a slightly smiling mouth. No scars, no mustache." A gust of wind swept through the church. And the body instantly disintegrated into dust. “Instead of a face there was a skull, instead of a body there were bones.” The coffin was closed and did not move to another place.

Well, for us, of course, it’s like this:

An intelligent face is not a sign of a gentleman's intelligence. All stupid things on earth are done with this facial expression. Smile gentlemen, smile. (With)

Baron Munchausen is not a fictional person, but a very real person.

Karl Friedrich Munchausen (German: Karl Friedrich Hieronymus Freiherr von Münchhausen, May 11, 1720, Bodenwerder - February 22, 1797, ibid.) - German baron, descendant of the ancient Lower Saxon family of Munchausens, captain of the Russian service, historical figure and literary character. The name Munchausen has become a household name as a designation for a person who tells incredible stories.

Hieronymus Karl Friedrich was the fifth of eight children in the family of Colonel Otto von Munchausen. His father died when the boy was 4 years old, and he was raised by his mother. In 1735, 15-year-old Munchausen entered the service of the sovereign Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel Ferdinand Albrecht II as a page.

Munchausen's house in Bodenwerder.

In 1737, as a page, he went to Russia to visit the young Duke Anton Ulrich, the groom and then the husband of Princess Anna Leopoldovna. In 1738 he participated with the Duke in the Turkish campaign. In 1739 he entered the Brunswick Cuirassier Regiment with the rank of cornet, whose chief was the Duke. At the beginning of 1741, immediately after the overthrow of Biron and the appointment of Anna Leopoldovna as ruler and Duke Anton Ulrich as generalissimo, he received the rank of lieutenant and command of the life campaign (the first, elite company of the regiment).

The Elizabethan coup that took place in the same year, overthrowing the Brunswick family, interrupted what promised to be a brilliant career: despite the reputation of an exemplary officer, Munchausen received the next rank (captain) only in 1750, after numerous petitions. In 1744, he commanded the guard of honor that greeted the Tsarevich's bride, Princess Sophia-Friederike of Anhalt-Zerbst (the future Empress Catherine II), in Riga. In the same year he married the Riga noblewoman Jacobina von Dunten.

Having received the rank of captain, Munchausen takes a year’s leave “to correct extreme and necessary needs” (specifically, to divide the family estates with his brothers) and leaves for Bodenwerder, which he received during the division (1752). He extended his leave twice and finally submitted his resignation to the Military Collegium, with the assignment of the rank of lieutenant colonel for blameless service; received an answer that the petition should be submitted on the spot, but he never went to Russia, as a result of which in 1754 he was expelled as having left the service without permission, but until the end of his life he signed as a captain in the Russian service.

Turkish dagger that belonged to Hieronymus von Munhausen. Museum exposition in Bodenwerder.

From 1752 until his death, Munchausen lived in Bodenwerder, communicating mainly with his neighbors, to whom he told amazing stories about his hunting adventures and adventures in Russia. Such stories usually took place in a hunting pavilion built by Munchausen and hung with the heads of wild animals and known as the “pavilion of lies”; Another favorite place for Munchausen's stories was the inn of the King of Prussia Hotel in nearby Göttingen.

Bodenwerder

One of Munchausen’s listeners described his stories this way:
“He usually began to talk after dinner, lighting his huge meerschaum pipe with a short mouthpiece and placing a steaming glass of punch in front of him... He gesticulated more and more expressively, twisted his little smart wig on his head, his face became more and more animated and red, and he, usually very a truthful man, at these moments he wonderfully acted out his fantasies.”

The horse cannot get drunk, because during the assault
Ochakov's back half is lost.

The baron's stories (such subjects that undoubtedly belong to him as the entry into St. Petersburg on a wolf harnessed to a sleigh, a horse cut in half in Ochakovo, a horse in a bell tower, fur coats gone wild, or a cherry tree growing on a deer's head) spread widely throughout the surrounding area and even penetrated in print, but maintaining decent anonymity.

Museum exposition in Bodenwerder.

For the first time, three Munchausen plots appear in the book “Der Sonderling” by Count Rox Friedrich Lienar (1761). In 1781, a collection of such stories was published in the Berlin almanac “Guide for Merry People”, indicating that they belong to Mr. M-z-n, famous for his wit, living in G-re (Hanover); in 1783, two more stories of this kind were published in the same almanac.

But the saddest thing was ahead: at the beginning of 1786, the historian Erich Raspe, convicted of stealing a numismatic collection, fled to England and there, in order to get some money, he wrote a book in English that forever introduced the baron into the history of literature, “Baron Munchausen’s Stories about His wonderful travels and campaigns in Russia." Over the course of a year, “Stories” went through 4 reprints, and Raspe included the first illustrations in the third edition.

The Baron considered his name dishonored and was going to sue Burger (according to other sources, he filed, but was refused on the grounds that the book was a translation of an English anonymous publication). In addition, Raspe-Bürger’s work immediately gained such popularity that onlookers began to flock to Bodenwerder to look at the “liar baron,” and Munchausen had to station servants around the house to drive away the curious.

Munchausen's last years were overshadowed by family troubles. In 1790, his wife Jacobina died. 4 years later, Munchausen married 17-year-old Bernardine von Brun, who led an extremely wasteful and frivolous lifestyle and soon gave birth to a daughter, whom 75-year-old Munchausen did not recognize, considering the father of the clerk Huden. Munchausen started a scandalous and expensive divorce case, as a result of which he went bankrupt and his wife fled abroad.

Now the city administration is located in the Munchausen house.
The burgomaster's office is located in the bedroom of the previous owner.

Before his death, he made his last characteristic joke: when asked by the only maid caring for him how he lost two toes (frostbitten in Russia), Munchausen replied: “they were bitten off by a polar bear while hunting.” Hieronymus Munchausen died on February 22, 1797, in poverty from an apoplexy, alone and abandoned by everyone. But he remained in literature and in our minds as a never despondent, cheerful person.

Bodenwerder

The first translation (more precisely, a free retelling) of the book about Munchausen into Russian belongs to the pen of N.P. Osipov and was published in 1791 under the title: “If you don’t like it, don’t listen, but don’t interfere with lying.” The literary Baron Munchausen became a well-known character in Russia thanks to K.I. Chukovsky, who adapted the book by E. Raspe for children. K. Chukovsky translated the Baron's surname from English “Munchausen” into Russian as “Munchausen”. In German it is written “Munchhausen” and translated into Russian as “Munchhausen”.

The image of Baron Munchausen received the most significant development in Russian and Soviet cinema, in the film “That Same Munchausen,” where the scriptwriter G. Gorin gave the baron bright romantic character traits, while distorting some facts of Hieronymus von Munchausen’s personal life.

In the cartoon "The Adventures of Munchausen" the Baron is endowed with classic features, bright and magnificent.

In 2005, Nagovo-Munchausen V.’s book “The Adventures of the Childhood and Youth of Baron Munchausen” (“Munchhausens Jugend-und Kindheitsabenteuer”) was published in Russia. The book became the first book in world literature about the childhood and youthful adventures of Baron Munchausen, from the birth of the baron to his departure to Russia.

The only portrait of Munchausen by G. Bruckner (1752), depicting him in the uniform of a cuirassier, was destroyed during the Second World War. Photographs of this portrait and descriptions give an idea of ​​Munchausen as a man of a strong and proportionate physique, with a round, regular face. The mother of Catherine II especially notes in her diary the “beauty” of the commander of the honor guard.

The visual image of Munchausen as a literary hero represents a dry old man with a dashingly curled mustache and a goatee. This image was created by the illustrations of Gustave Doré (1862). It is curious that, by giving his hero a beard, Doré (generally very accurate in historical details) allowed an obvious anachronism, since in the 18th century they did not wear beards.

However, it was during Doré's time that goatees were reintroduced into fashion by Napoleon III. This gives rise to the assumption that the famous “bust” of Munchausen, with the motto “Mendace veritas” (Latin: “Truth is in lies”) and the image of three ducks on the “coat of arms” (cf. three bees on the Bonaparte coat of arms), had a political meaning that was understandable to contemporaries subtext of the caricature of the emperor.

And we have such a monument to Munchausen in Sochi near the Seaport.