Baron Munchausen Biography

The same Munchausen Karl Friedrich Jerome is the most famous offspring of a glorious dynasty. He was the fifth most senior of eight children in the family of the venerable Colonel Otto von Munhgauzen, who belonged to the old Baron family, which has been famous for the entire Saxony since the XII century, since the time of Friedrich II Gaugenstaufen, grandson Frederick Barbasseza.

The ancestor of the family is considered a knight Heyno, a participant in the Crusades. According to legend, almost all his descendants died on the battlefields. Only one survived - as it was believed, because he accepted the tonsure. As an exception, so that the dynasty does not fade away, the monk was strongly recommended to abandon the vow of celibacy and think tightly about the offspring ...

So the knight's clan received a new name - Munchausen, which means “the house of the monk”, and the image of the monk with a staff appeared on the family coat of arms. Among the close and distant relatives of the famous baron there were many influential people. It is enough to mention the founder of the University of Gettingen, Gerlah Adolf von Munhgauzen or the fantastically successful Landsknecht Hilmar von Munhgauzen - condotier in the service of Philip II Spanish, who fabulously rich and built several castles on the picturesque shores of the Oder and Weser.

Munchausens loved to travel and often went to service away from their home. The young page of the house in the German Bodenserder, where the famous Karl Jerome lived and died, was still preserved and still preserved-they built Munchausen in German soundly and firmly. Today it houses the burgomaster’s office and a small museum. Our hero left his native penalties early: Colonel Otto Munchausen died when Karl was fifth, and he did not have to count on a rich inheritance, with his older brothers.

Therefore, the young man did not sit still. Karl Friedrich Jerome von Munchausen in the uniform of Kirasir. In the huge Konduyite of the commune Bevern, Munchausen's autograph was preserved: "On April 4, his Grace Ferdinand Albrecht graciously enrolled me in his parties." Munchausen performed the duties of a lieutenant under him and studied military affairs.

The tall young baron was noticed by the second most senior son of the duke - Anton Ulrich. Karl became his confidant. At that time, the Russian Empress Anna Ioannovna was looking for a groom for her niece, Princess Mecklenburg-Shverinskaya Anna Leopoldovna. And in absentia she stopped a choice on Anton Ulrich - given his family ties with many German august families and King Prussian Frederick the Great.

The empress hoped that this marriage would help Russia overcome the dynastic crisis: being childless, she intended to transfer the throne to the son of Anton Ulrich. It was winter. It was snowing, ”Munchausen recalled. He went to Petersburg in the retinue of Anton Ulrich. True, not on the wolf, as the authors of entertaining books, but on an excellent officer horse will write about this.

The Northern Empire was opened to him as a fairy -tale country with ice palaces, which Empress Anna built in her capital for a fun. Russia at that time fought with Turkey. Arriving in St. Petersburg, Anton Ulrich became close to the Russian Commander -in -Chief - a talented commander Burhard Minikh. In July, in the retinue of his cartridge, Munchausen entered the fortress of Ochakov occupied by Russian troops.

He did not take part in the assault, but eagerly listened to the stories of officers who struck on the walls of the fortress, and in the future often recalled the ups and downs of the battle. The ardent imagination took him so far that reality did not keep up with him. In his thoughts, he already rode on his half -end, which lost the back during the assault. No wonder there are several monuments depicting Munhgauzen, trying in vain to drink a horse cut in half.

And in August, the summer page honestly waved a saber in the battle of the Stavuchans - victorious for the Russian army. It is with this episode of the Russo-Turkish war, the first and last battle in his life, that the legend of the flight on the nucleus over the Ottoman positions is connected. His service flowed mainly at court. In Russia, curiosity began to occur with him immediately, from which the famous bikes were later born.

Once, at a look at one of the soldiers of his company, a gun accidentally fired. The ramrod, scored in the barrel, flew out and crushed the leg of the ducal horse. The horse and the rider fell to the ground, however, Anton Ulrich was not injured. And soon, in the imagination of the baron, a story was born about how he scolded several partridges on a shomopol flew out of a gun ...

A gallant officer in front of Munhhausen Regent under the young John Antonovich, the son of Anton Ulrich, became the form of Great Duke Ernst Johann Biron. Guests from Germany did not like this gentleman: he fettered their freedom, constantly showing a despotic temper. It is possible that our hero participated in a conspiracy against Biron. As a result, the authorities passed into the hands of the Braunschweig couple - Anna Leopoldovna and Anton Ulrich, who became Generalissimus.

True, such a high title did not redeem the lack of political talents. There was no baron without a reward. He was assigned the rank of lieutenant - while he went around 12 other cornets, expecting an increase in the rank.Munchausen was entrusted with the command of Life-Companion, that is, the most selected, shock company of the Braunschweig regiment. He rotated at the court and, it seems, was supposed to gain an enviable success in catching happiness and ranks.

But the August family, as you know, lasted the power of the authorities for a long time - exactly a month. And then the guard under the drum fraction brought to the throne the daughter of Peter the Great - Elizabeth. The Braunschweig surname was transported for several years from one fortress to another, and then settled in Kholmogory under strict supervision. He remained in the guarantees for a long time, but did not feel disgraced.

Empress Elizaveta Petrovna did not show revenge in relation to the recent Page of Anton Ulrich. The baron served regularly, and sometimes even received delicate instructions. Khmelnitsky, Ukraine in February, he was entrusted with the command of the guard of honor, who met in Riga, the bride of Tsarevich Peter Fedorovich, Princess Sofia Frederika, the future Empress II and her mother, Johann-Elizabeth, who arrived in Russia incognito.

Ladies praised the gallantry of a stately officer. And the eldest of them even noted in her records that the lieutenant "was extremely beautiful." It can be assumed that Munchausen not only transferred the ladies to a convenient cart, taking care of comfort and warmth, but also occupied their witty conversation in excellent German and became the first guide in the country of white and brown bears.

By that time, he had something to tell about the features of the St. Petersburg court life. Exactly six years after that historical meeting, the baron finally received a promotion. From the same document we know that Munchausen knew how to speak Russian, although he owned only German. Apparently, the baron had been waiting for this rank for a long time.

And, becoming the captain, he immediately married the Riga noblewoman Jacobin von Dunten. It seemed to his comrades on the regiment that he had been the roots in Russia for a long time, but the baron was drawn to his homeland. Both his mother and his elder brother Hilmar had died by that time - and it was time to share the inheritance. Probably, Jacobin also preferred a snowy Europe, and a rented winter apartments - her own house.

Munchausen twice sent a petition for the extension of the vacation to Russia from Bodenverder and received a delay twice. Finally, he was finally fired in the year. After that, the Baron several times sent a petition to the Russian military department to Lieutenant Colonels - for many years of immaculate service. Most likely, it was an adventure in the calculation of the well -wishers who remained in his St.

Petersburg. The rank of lieutenant colonel promised a lifelong pension, which would have fallen to the Saxon landowner by the way. But he no longer went to Russia and did not receive an absentee increase. Hunting stories he forever returned to where he once was born-into a quiet estate on the banks of the Veser River. He built a gazebo for dear guests in the courtyard of the house, then it was dubbed a “pavilion of lies” and healed, as befits a venerable veteran of court and military battles.

Munchausenov had no children. Baron loved to read, even his ex -libris was preserved - very whimsical. But the main entertainment of the skillful shooter was hunting. And what is the hunt without friendly feasts and invigar stories? Baron Munchausen tells stories. Illustration for the book by R. Rate "Adventures of Baron Munchausen." Herfurt for his oral memoirs, Baron chosen the Rulender's tavern in Gettingen, on Judenstrasse, naive enthusiastic burghers gathered there - to listen to the baron’s stories behind the glass of good wine.

He narrated mainly about Russia, about his incredible adventures in a mysterious snowy country. One of the participants in those pirushki recalled: “Usually he began to tell after dinner, lighting his huge foam tube with a short mouthpiece and putting a smoking glass of punch in front of him ... He gestured more expressively, twisted his little dandy on his head, his face was increasingly revived and blushed, and he, usually a very true person, was remarkable at these minutes remarkably at these minutes.

their fantasies. " These were real hunting stories, when something really happened is based on, but the truth is served under the sharp sauce of spectacular inventions and exaggerations. Sometimes the baron was also invited to the court of Elector - as an unsurpassed narrator. It should be noted that in his artistic revelations, the baron never concerned the backstage plots of great politics and secrets of the august dynasties, although he could recall and give up a lot about Anton Ulrich, about John Antonovich, and about the future empress Catherine.

He kept these secrets holy, in a vibrant. The ambiguous glory Baron considered himself an improviser, an wit, he was flattered by a table success. But he did not intend to flutter his name in the press. However, already in the year in Hanover, a book entitled “Eccentric” with three jokes of Munchausen about his life in Russia - though without mentioning his name.

This was the first alarming sign.And after 20 years, in the year, in the magazine “Guide to Merry People”, mischievous stories appeared signed “Mr. M-H-S-N”, with a software epigraph: “Smart people love to fool around”. A kind of anonymous author recorded several stories of the baron, added something from himself-and made a literary sensation. In Mr. M-H-S-N, it was difficult not to recognize Munchausen-and he was furious.

He suspected a burgher, and the spread, and his other drinking companions of espionage. But this was only the beginning of ambiguous glory ... The spread was no less remarkable than the baron itself.