Alexander Kaufmann

Poet and folklorist, born at Bonn, 14 May, 1817; died at Wertheim, 1 May, 1893. He came of a well-known patrician family, whose members were prominent during the eighteenth century, some being in the city regiment of Bonn and others in the service of the former Elector of Cologne. Kaufmann was related to the two historical painters, Andreas and Karl Müller. At Bonn he studied jurisprudence, languages, and history; in 1844 he was appointed teacher of Prince Karl von Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg, who, in 1850, made him keeper of the archives at Wertheim, which post he retained until his death. He published "Gedichte" (1852), "Mainsagen" (1853), and "Unter den Reben" (1871). His original research for Karl Simrock's legends of the Rhine, and his own legends of the Main are very valuable. He collaborated with the highly imaginative poet Georg Friedrich Daumer in Mythoterpe, ein "Mythen-, Sagen- und Legendenbuch"; did critical research work on "Cæsarius von Heisterbach" (1850, 1862); and translated "Wunderbare Geschichten aus den Werken des Cæsarius von Heisterbach" (1888-91). His posthumous "Biographie des belgischen Dominikaners Thomas von Chantimpre" was published in 1899.