Lecture by Dr. Hans Mehlin: The Humorist and Poet Joseph Victor von Scheffel and the Hotzenwald

To mark the 200th anniversary of the famous Baden poet’s birth, former forest district manager Hans Mehlin presents the humorous poet Joseph Victor von Scheffel as a friend of the Hotzenwald. As the “discoverer” of the Hotzenwald around 1850, the painter and poet Scheffel described the freedom-loving people of the “Wälder” and the “Wald” in humorous “epistles.” Scheffel described himself as a friend of the people of the Hotzenwald. He liked this sort of people. Scheffel’s wandering songs and drinking songs also reflect this humor, as in “Im schwarzen Walfisch von Askalon” or in Scheffel’s hiking song “Wohlan die Luft geht frisch und rein.” His culinary preferences in the poor Hotzenwald were “Herdöpfel, Surkrut, and Bräntz.” Scheffel wrote not only “The Trumpeter of Säckingen” but also humorous anecdotes and funny songs; he painted pictures of the countryside and its people and composed cheerful, humorous poems. Hans Mehlin tells the story of the young Baden revolutionary Scheffel, his arrival in Säckingen, and his arrest in Säckingen in 1851, when Scheffel had “drunk more than his fill.” Scheffel advised: “Always have a good thirst and never lie dry on the shore.” No other poet walked through the Hotzenwald on foot as often as Scheffel. Admission is free; donations are welcome.