Which German Romantic author wrote the novella 'Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts'?

Joseph von Eichendorff wrote the novella Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts. The work is one of the best-known expressions of German late Romanticism, following an unnamed young miller's son who leaves home after his father calls him a “good-for-nothing.” Rather than settling into respectable work, he embraces wandering, music, and chance.

The narrator travels through forests, estates, and cities, eventually reaching Vienna and Italy. His optimistic, seemingly naïve outlook turns ordinary travel into a sequence of romantic adventures involving mistaken identities, aristocratic secrets, love, and fortunate coincidences. The wandering hero is less a conventional idler than a figure who resists narrow bourgeois expectations.

Eichendorff completed the novella in 1822 or 1823. Extracts appeared in 1823, and the complete work was published in 1826 alongside The Marble Statue. Its prose is interwoven with songs and poems, including “Der frohe Wandersmann,” which helps explain its musical, open-ended character. Ludwig Tieck and E.T.A. Hoffmann were also important Romantic writers, but neither wrote this novella.