A MEMORIAL TO MUNCHAUSEN

Western Star, 18 December 1928, Page 2

A MEMORIAL TO MUNCHAUSEN

The fame of Baron von Munchausen has been recognised by his townsmen, and a monument is being erected, to his memory in his native town, of Bodenwerder, in Hanover. There, in the very garden where he used to entertain his friends with stories of his valour and prowess, a- memorial will stand to the immortal honour of the world’s greatest liar. The Baron was born there in 1720, and forty years of life as a cavalry officer in the Russian army supplied him with enough stories and imagination to fill the remaining thirty seven years of his life with fabulous tales for his admiring circle of friends. He was, of course, only a pale shadow of the Baron von Munchausen ‘ we know, who is

largely the creation of a German professor, Rudolph Erich R.aspe, who published in 1785 ‘Baron Munchausen’s Narrative of His Marvellous Travels and Campaigns in Russia.’ The Baron is a less familiar name to this centalry than to the last, but some of his exploits have passed into the vocabulary of popular legend; the horse which continued its journey after being cut in two by a portcullis ; the French horn wliioh delivered itself of its frozen music when hung up near the kitchen fire ; and a hundred other extravagances which proved, perhaps, more diverting a hundred years ago than they are to-day.