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Joseph Victor von Scheffel

German poet and novelist (1826-1886)

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 19, 2026
Entity authorityQ9082
Source-derived summary

Joseph Victor von Scheffel (16 February 1826 – 9 April 1886) was a German poet and novelist. His novel Ekkehard (1855) became one of the most popular German novels in the 19th century.

Biography

He was born at Karlsruhe. His father, a retired major in the Baden army, was a civil engineer and member of the commission for regulating the course of the Rhine; his mother, née Josephine Krederer, the daughter of a prosperous tradesman at Oberndorf am Neckar, was a woman of great intellectual powers and of a romantic disposition. Young Scheffel was educated at the lyceum at Karlsruhe and afterwards (1843–1847) at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Heidelberg University, and the Friedrich Wilhelm University of Berlin.

After passing the state examination for admission to the judicial service, he graduated as Doctor juris and for four years (1848–1852) held an official position at the town of Säckingen. Here he wrote his epic poem Der Trompeter von Säkkingen (The Trumpeter of Säckingen) (1853), a romantic and humorous tale which immediately gained extraordinary popularity. It reached more than 250 editions and was made into an opera by Viktor Nessler in 1884. Scheffel next undertook a journey to Italy.

Returning home in 1853 he found his parents more than ever anxious that he should continue his legal career.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Joseph Victor von Scheffel” as german poet and novelist (1826-1886). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Joseph, Victor and Scheffel.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1826, 1886, 1855, 1843—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Joseph, Victor and Scheffel providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Joseph Victor von Scheffel”, the useful work is to connect “german poet and novelist (1826-1886)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q9082. The first chronological checks are 1826, 1886, 1855 and 1843.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Joseph Victor von Scheffel” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.