The birth of the liar baron

Hieronymus von Münchhausen is born in Bodenwerder near Holzminden

Born into a minor noble family resident at Münchhausen Castle in Bodenwerder (today in southern Lower Saxony) on 11 May 1720, Hieronymus Carl Friedrich von Münchhausen was sent to the court of the Elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg in Wolfenbüttel at the age of 13. By 17, he had gained employment as a page to the duke. The bride of the Elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg had ambitions to become the new Russian Tsarina, and she and her husband decided to live in St Petersburg. Münchhausen went with them. It is probable that he served in the Russo-Turkish War. Some of the tall stories attributed to Münchhausen match the wider context of this conflict, such as the tale of the horseman riding on a cannonball. Moving to Riga upon the end of the war in 1739, Münchhausen spent a few quiet years in the army, as his royal employers had staged an abortive coup and were now languishing in prison. It is believed that he first started telling his truth-stretching stories whilst drinking in Riga’s many inns.

Münchhausen retired from the army at the age of 30 and returned to Germany, where he developed his storytelling talents amidst a close circle of friends. He soon acquired a reputation as a teller of fantastic travel stories, which people came from far and wide to hear. A collection of “Münchhausiades”, as his stories were known, was published for the first time in 1761, and others soon followed. One of his guests fled to England to escape criminal charges for theft and published a collection of the tales in English under Münchhausen’s name. These soon became popular and appeared in several printed editions. A German translation of the “accounts” by the poet Gottfried August Bürger in 1786 was supplemented by further stories. Bürger’s literary adaptation made the “Liar Baron von Münchhausen” into a household name.