Adelbert von Chamisso

Born in France in 1781, he left with his aristocratic family during the upheaval of the French Revolution and grew up in Prussia. Writing in German, he became part of the Romantic era and is still most widely remembered for Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte (Peter Schlemihl’s Remarkable Story), first published in 1814.

His life was unusually wide-ranging. Alongside poetry and fiction, he devoted himself to natural science and botany, and he took part in a round-the-world expedition that helped deepen his scientific work. That blend of imagination and close observation gives his career a special character: he was both a literary figure and a working naturalist.

He died in Berlin in 1838. Today, he is often introduced as a poet, writer, and botanist at once—a combination that fits a life shaped by exile, curiosity, and a rare ability to move between art and science.