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Baron Munchausen is a fictional German nobleman in literature and film, loosely based on a real baron, Hieronymus Karl Friedrich, Freiherr von Münchhausen ((:ˈmʏnç(h)aʊzən); 11 May 1720 – 22 February 1797). The real-life Münchhausen became a minor celebrity for telling outrageous tall tales based on his military service in the Russo-Turkish War. After hearing some of Münchhausen's stories, the writer Rudolf Erich Raspe adapted them anonymously into literary form, first as German magazine pieces and later in an English-language volume about a fictional "Baron Munchausen". The book was soon translated into German and expanded by the poet Gottfried August Bürger. The real-life Münchhausen was deeply upset at the development of a fictional character bearing his name. The fictional Baron's exploits, narrated by himself, focus on his impossible achievements as a sportsman, soldier, and traveler, such as riding on a cannonball and traveling to the Moon. Raspe's book was a major international success, and versions of the fictional Baron have appeared on stage, screen, radio, and television; though the Baron Munchausen stories are no longer well-known in English-speaking countries, they are still popular in continental Europe. The character has inspired numerous memorials, and several medical conditions and other concepts are named after him, including Munchausen syndrome, the Münchhausen trilemma, and Munchausen numbers. ==Historical figure== Hieronymus Karl Friedrich von Münchhausen was born in Bodenwerder, Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg. He was a younger son of the "Black Line" of Rinteln-Bodenwerder, an aristocratic family in the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg. His cousin, Gerlach Adolph von Münchhausen, was the founder of the University of Göttingen and later the Prime Minister of the Electorate of Hanover. Münchhausen started as a page to Anthony Ulrich II of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, and followed his employer to the Russian Empire during the Austro-Russian–Turkish War (1735–39). In 1739, he was appointed a cornet in the Russian cavalry regiment, the Brunswick-Cuirassiers. On 27 November 1740, he was promoted to lieutenant. He was stationed in Riga, but participated in two campaigns against the Turks in 1740 and 1741. In 1744 he married Jacobine von Dunten, and in 1750 he was promoted to Rittmeister, a cavalry captain. In 1760 Münchhausen retired to live as a ''Freiherr'' at his estates in Bodenwerder, where he remained until his death in 1797. It was there, especially at parties given for the area's aristocrats, that he developed a reputation as an imaginative after-dinner storyteller, creating witty and highly exaggerated accounts of his adventures in Russia. Over the ensuing thirty years, his storytelling abilities gained such renown that he frequently received visits from traveling nobles wanting to hear his stories. One guest described Münchhausen as telling his stories "cavalierly, indeed with military emphasis, yet without any concession to the whimsicality of the man of the world; describing his adventures as one would incidents which were in the natural course of events." However, Münchhausen was considered an honest man, rather than a liar. As another contemporary put it, Münchhausen's unbelievable narratives were designed not to deceive, but "to ridicule the disposition for the marvellous which he observed in some of his acquaintances." Münchhausen's wife Jacobine von Dunten died in 1790. In January 1794, Münchhausen married Bernardine von Brunn, fifty-seven years his junior. Von Brunn reportedly took ill soon after the marriage and spent the summer of 1794 in the spa town of Bad Pyrmont; however, contemporary gossip claimed that she spent her time dancing and flirting. Von Brunn gave birth to a daughter, Maria Wilhemina, on 16 February 1795, nine months after her summer trip. Münchhausen filed an official complaint that the child was not his, and spent the last years of his life in divorce proceedings and alimony litigation. Münchhausen died without issue on 22 February 1797. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Baron Munchausen」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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