bavarikon4UCollections of Writings from the “Crocodiles”
The "Sammlung von Schriftstücken aus dem Kreise der Krokodile", which was curated by Friedrich Bodenstedt (1819-1892), Wilhelm Hertz (1835-1902) and Joseph Victor von Scheffel (1826-1886), mainly contains humorous poems by several authors from this literary association. It comes from the estate of the writer and journalist Oskar Horn (1841-1908), who for some time was their secretary, accountant and treasurer.
Jokes were not uncommon among the "crocodiles". The humorous poem about the "Crocodile of Singapore" by Hermann Lingg (1820-1905), gave the Munich circle of poets its name; even its strict "pope of poets" Emanuel Geibel (1815-1884) responded with amiable humour to the funny mask, which a sculptor friend of the "crocodiles" modelled in clay, and he wrote two further crocodile songs. From time to time, anonymous texts were also recited, with the anonymous author revealing himself as the creator of his own mocking and joking poem. This idiosyncrasy was followed, for example, by the "crocodile" founder and later winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Paul Heyse (1830-1914), when at a festive dinner, he coquettishly ironised himself by verses such as "Laß dein episches Geflöte, laß die tragische Poesie! / Der berufne 'junge Goethe' / wird ein alter Goethe nie." And about the guest author of the "crocodiles" Joseph Victor von Scheffel, Heyse reported that at first he "had behaved somewhat stiffly and taciturnly [...] until the humour in him woke up and a joking word thrown down in the driest tone bore witness to his fresh presence of mind." (Paul Heyse, Jugenderinnerungen und Bekenntnisse, 1901).