Otto Julius Bierbaum

Otto Julius Bierbaum (28 June 1865 – 1 February 1910) was a German writer.

Bierbaum was born in Grünberg, Silesia. After studying in Leipzig, he became a journalist and editor for the journals Die freie Bühne, Pan and Die Insel. His literary work was varied. As a poet he used forms like the Minnesang or the folksong and the Anacreontics style. Composers such as Pauline Volkstein set his texts to music.

In 1897 Bierbaum published his novel Stilpe which inspired Ernst von Wolzogen to establish, in 1901, the first cabaret venue ever in Berlin, the Überbrettl . His novel Zäpfel Kerns Abenteuer was an adaptation of Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio. Bierbaum's final novel, Yankeedoodlefahrt, was published in 1909 and is the source of the winged words "Humor ist, wenn man trotzdem lacht" ("Humor is when you laugh anyway"), which has become a proverb in modern German.

Bierbaum died at Kötzschenbroda near Dresden.

Works 
 Erlebte Gedichte (1892)
 "Traum durch die Dämmerung"
 Die Schlangendame (1896)
 Stilpe (1897)
 Das schöne Mädchen von Pao (1899)
 Eine empfindsame Reise im Automobil (1903)
 Zäpfel Kerns Abenteuer (1905)
 Yankeedoodlefahrt (1909)
 Samalio Pardulus (1911) Story illustrated by Alfred Kubin
 Prinz Kuckuck – Leben, Taten, Meinungen und Höllenfahrt eines Wollüstlings
 Nemt, Frouwe, disen Kranz, und andre Gedichte : op. 57 / (Text) von Otto Julius Bierbaum komponiert von Christian Sinding (From the Sibley Music Library Digital Score Collection) 
 Innocence. Unschuld. (Words by) Bierbaum. English versionby Edwin Schneider. (Music by) Arthur Olaf Andersen. For piano and voice (From the Sibley Music Library Digital Score Collection) 
 Sieben Gedichte aus Otto Julius Bierbaums Der neubestellte Irrgarten der Liebe : für eine Singstimme mit Klavierbegleitung, op. 85, for piano and voice(From the Sibley Music Library Digital Score Collection) 
 Vier Gedichte von Otto Julius Bierbaum : für eine Singstimme mit Klavier, op. 101, for piano and voice (From the Sibley Music Library Digital Score Collection)

Literature 
 
 Projekt Gutenberg-DE
 Literaturportal: Otto Julius Bierbaum
 "Stilpe" on LibriVox
 Fritz Droop: Otto Julius Bierbaum, ein deutscher Lyriker. Hesse & Becker, Leipzig 1912.
 Klaus Peter Muschol: Otto Julius Bierbaums dramatische Werke. Univ., München 1961.
 Peter Muschol: Otto Julius Bierbaum Dichter und Corpsstudent. 1865 bis 1910. WJK-Verlag, Hilden 2010.
 Dushan Stankovich: Otto Julius Bierbaum – eine Werkmonographie. Lang, Bern und Frankfurt a. M. 1971.
 Izabela Taraszczuk: Zwei Wege zur Kommunikation: Otto Julius Bierbaum und Georg Beuchelt. In: Bąkiewicz, Marta Jadwiga (Hrsg.): An der mittleren Oder. Eine Kulturlandschaft im deutsch-polnischen Grenzraum. Paderborn 2016, pp. 246–264, .
 William H. Wilkening: Otto Julius Bierbaum – the tragedy of a poet. A biography. Heinz, Stuttgart 1977, .

References

External links 

 
 Vertonungen Bierbaumscher Gedichte
 Otto Julius Bierbaum Links collected at the library of the FU Berlin
 Monacensia Literaturarchiv
 Otto Julius Bierbaum Literaturportal Bayern
 
 
 

1865 births
1910 deaths
People from Zielona Góra
Writers from the Province of Silesia
19th-century German novelists
20th-century German novelists
German fantasy writers
German editors
German poets
German male journalists
German journalists
German male poets
German male novelists
German-language poets
19th-century German male writers
19th-century German writers
20th-century German male writers