Wolf Heinrich Friedrich Karl Graf von Baudissin

* 30.01.1789 in Kopenhagen; ✝ 04.04.1878 in Dresden

Translator, Diplomat

Biography

Baudissin entered the Danish diplomatic service after completing his degree in law at Kiel, Göttingen and Heidelberg. His pro-German sentiments led him to refuse to obey his superiors and he was put under arrest for six months in consequence. Having occupied diplomatic posts in Paris and Vienna he left the service and went on extended trips to Italy, France, Greece and Turkey. He was also busy publishing translations from Middle High German, for example ‘Iwein mit dem Löwen’ by Hartmann von Aues.  In addition he translated plays in poetry and prose from English (inter alia Jonson), French (mainly Molière) and Italian (Gozzi, Goldoni).

From 1827 onwards he lived in Dresden and was a friend of Ludwig Tieck and of Ludwig’s daughter Dorothea.  In collaboration with Dorothea Tieck he translated 13 works of Shakespeare for the so-called Schlegel-Tieck translation – without, however, receiving credit from Tieck for his efforts. In 1836 he translated four apocryphal plays published by Tieck: Edward III, The Life and Death of Thomas Cromwell, Sir John Oldcastle and The London Prodigal.

Translations

• Viel Lärmen um nichts (1830)
• König Heinrich VIII (1818, reprinted 1830)
• Der Widerspenstigen Zähmung (1831)
• Die Comödie der Irrungen (1831)
• Maaß für Maaß (1831)
• Titus Andronicus (1831)
• Antonius und Cleopatra (1831)
• Troilus und Cressida (1832)
• Ende gut, Alles gut (1832)
• Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor (1832)
• Othello (1832)
• König Lear (1832)
• Liebes Leid und Lust (1833)

Other Translations

• Ben Jonson und seine Schule, mit Anmerkungen und einem historischen Überblick über die Geschichte der englischen Bühne. 2 vols. Leipzig, 1836.
• Molières Lustspiele. 4 vols. Leipzig, 1865-1867.

Literature

Primary Literature

• Shakspeare’s dramatische Werke. Ed. Ludwig Tieck. Translated by August Wilhelm Schlegel, complemented and elucidated by Ludwig Tieck. 9 vols. Berlin, 1825-1833.
• Vier historische Schauspiele Shakspear’s. Ed. Ludwig Tieck. Stuttgart, 1836.

Secondary Literature

• Atkinson, Margaret: ‘Wolf Baudissin: Translator’, German Life and Letters, 16 (1963). Pp. 164-173.
• Elze, Karl: ‘Wolf Graf Baudissin, Nekrolog’, Shakespeare-Jahrbuch, 14 (1879). Pp. 325-327.
• Goldmann, Bernd: Wolf Heinrich Graf Baudissin: Leben und Werk eines großen Übersetzers. Hildesheim, 1981.
• Goldmann, Bernd: ‘Zum Gedenken an Wolf Graf Baudissin’, Shakespeare-Jahrbuch, 114 (1978). Pp. 414-416.
• Neumann, Fritz-Wilhelm: ‘Klassische Übersetzung, Modernisierung und Eklektizismus: Ein Serienvergleich zu Macbeth und Much Ado about Nothing’. In: Ulrike Jekutsch et al. (eds.): Komödie und Tragödie – übersetzt und bearbeitet. Tübingen, 1994. Pp. 431-454.

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