Baron Munchhausen
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Karl Friedrich Hieronymus, Baron von Münchhausen (May 11, 1720 - February 22, 1797) was a German nobleman who in his youth was sent to serve as page to Anton Ulrich and later joined the Russian military. He served until 1750, in particular taking part in two campaigns against the Turks. Returning home, Munchhausen supposedly told a number of outrageous tall tales about his adventures.
According to the stories, as retold by others, the Baron's astounding feats included riding cannonballs, travelling to the Moon, and pulling himself out of a bog by his own hair.
These stories were collected and published, in English, in London in 1785, by Rudolf Erich Raspe: Baron Munchausen's Narrative of his Marvellous Travels and Campaigns in Russia (also called The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen). However, much of the humorous material in them is borrowed from other sources. Indeed, the Baron himself was not notable for immodesty within his profession and relative to his accomplishments, and Raspe's publication rather damaged his reputation.
In 19th century the story had undergone expansions and transformations by many notable authors and translated in numerous languages, totalling over 100 various editions.
Baron was an object of numerous works of art, but the final say to his visual image belongs to an edition of the book produced in 1862 and illustrated by the artist Gustave Doré, who was also known for his work illustrating Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy and the Christian Bible.
In 1943 Raspe's book was adapted into a German language film Münchhausen directed by Josef von Báky. Terry Gilliam adapted the stories into the 1988 film The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, filmed in Belchite Spain. Baron Munchhausen's adventures have also been published in Russia, where they are quite commonly known.
In 1998 a multi-player storytelling game titled The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Münchhausen was produced by James Wallis of Hogshead Publishing. Players of the game take on the role of a noble person and challenge one another to relate an improvised tale based on an opening line given by another player (for example: "Grand Poobah, please tell our assemblage about the time you single handedly defeated the entire Turkish army using only a plate of cheese and a corkscrew!"). Players are able to interject and introduce a limited number of complications to the tall tale at any time, and eventually all vote for the best storyteller.
Additionally, the Baron lends his name to the psychological factitious disorder Munchausen syndrome in which a 'patient' will feign illness in order to receive the sympathy and attention of others; and also Munchausen syndrome by proxy in which a 'patient' is someone (usually a child) in the care of the person suffering the disorder. The patient in the later case may suffer abuse at the hands of the sufferer in order for the 'patient' to receive medical attention, whilst the sufferer receives the sympathy of others.
External links
de:Karl Friedrich Hieronymus Freiherr von Münchhausen
fr:Karl Friedrich Hiéronymus, baron de Münchhausen
nl:Baron van Münchhausen
