bavarikon4UMelchior Meyr
Melchior Meyr (1810-1871), son of the wealthy farmers Johann Georg (born 1786) and Anna Margareta Meyr (1787-1867), showed an inclination towards poetry and philosophy as early as during his school years in Nördlingen. After attending the Ansbach Gymnasium and St. Anna Gymnasium in Augsburg, he went to the University of Munich in 1829 to read philosophy. In December 1831, Meyr wrote to Goethe about his thoughts on the continuation of German poetry and was encouraged by him to write further poems. He then moved to the University of Heidelberg, but interrupted his legal studies and returned to Munich to prepare for a career as a professor of aesthetics and literary history. In 1835, he found a publisher for his first poem "Wilhelm und Rosina", based on Goethe’s model.
After receiving his doctorate in 1836, Meyr stayed in Erlangen, where he met Friedrich Rückert (1788-1866). With the help of Schelling, he succeeded in 1840 to obtain a travel grant from Crown Prince Maximilian (1811-1864). From then on until 1852 he lived in Berlin where he entertained many contacts and was active as a journalist. Since his work on Goethe did not progress, instead of drawing a grant Meyr was forced to write reviews and theatre critiques for his livelihood.
A new phase in his life began after his wooing for the hand of a diplomat's daughter, Caroline von Malzen (1833-1904), remained unrequited. Meyr lived alternately in Munich and Ebermergen. He frequented literary and artistic circles, in particular as founding member of the "crocodiles" (association nickname: "Ibis"), but he remained an outsider due to his critical attitude. As a result his "Erzählungen aus dem Ries" (1856-70) were published, Meyr's only works that - apart from the folkloristic treatise "Zur Ethnographie des Rieses" (1863) - have remained unforgotten to this day. In 1866, the anonymously published "Gespräche mit einem Grobian" also caused a stir because of their humorous and accurate depiction of the circumstances of his time.
In August 1868, King Ludwig II (1845-1886) awarded him the Order of St Michael. An annual salary of 500 guilders enabled Meyr to make a modest living. In 1859, this stipend was cancelled and replaced by a smaller donation of the Schiller Society, since the Munich poet prince Emanuel Geibel (1815-1884) had questioned Meyr's poetic talent.
