Rudolf Erich Raspe
Baron Munchausen is a fictional German nobleman. The character is loosely based on a real baron, Hieronymus Karl Friedrich, Freiherr von Münchhausen (1720-1797) Born in Bodenwerder, Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg, the real-life Münchhausen fought for the Russian Empire in the Russo-Turkish War of 1735-1739. Upon retiring in 1760, he became a minor celebrity within German aristocratic circles for telling outrageous tall tales based on his military career. After hearing some of Münchhausen’s stories, Raspe adapted them anonymously into literary form, first in German as ephemeral magazine pieces and then in English as the 1785 book, which was first published in Oxford by a bookseller named Smith. The book was soon translated into other European languages, including a German version expanded by the poet Gottfried August Bürger. The real-life Münchhausen was deeply upset at the development of a fictional character bearing his name and threatened legal proceedings against the book’s publisher. Perhaps fearing a libel suit, Raspe never acknowledged his authorship of the work, which was only established posthumously.
