author
Georg Büchmann
1822–1884
Best remembered for collecting the sayings that stuck in everyday speech, he turned a love of language into one of Germany’s most enduring quotation books. His work helped preserve famous lines and “winged words” for generations of readers.
1 Audiobook
Geflügelte Worte: Der Citatenschatz des deutschen Volkes
by Georg Büchmann, Walter Robert-tornow
About the author
Born in Berlin in 1822, Georg Büchmann was a German philologist who studied theology, philology, and archaeology at the University of Berlin. He later worked as a teacher, including in Brandenburg an der Havel and at a trade school in Berlin, and he was given the title of professor in 1872.
Büchmann is chiefly known for Geflügelte Worte (first published in 1864), a wide-ranging collection of quotations and well-known expressions. The book became especially influential because it gathered literary and historical sayings that had entered common use, helping readers trace where familiar phrases came from.
He died in Schöneberg in 1884. Though he was a scholar by training, his lasting reputation comes from making literature and learned culture more accessible to everyday readers.