GEIBEL, EMANUEL (1815-1884) , German poet, was born at Lubeck on Oct. 17, 1815, the son of a pastor in the city. He studied theology- at Bonn and Berlin, but his real interests lay not in theology but in classical and romance philology. In 1838 he accepted a tutorship at Athens, where he remained until 1840. His first poems, Zeitstimmen, political poems directed against radicalism, appeared in 1841; a tragedy, Konig Roderick, in 1843. In the same year he received a pension from the king of Prussia, which he retained until his invitation to Munich by the king of Bavaria in 185I as honorary professor at the university. Meanwhile he had produced K onig Sigurds Braut f alert (1846), an epic, and Juniuslieder (1848, 33rd ed., 1901), lyrics which both in content and in poetic form showed a great advance on his early work. A volume of Neue Gedichte (Munich 185 7) mainly on classical subjects, was followed by the Spatherbstblatter (1877). His later years were spent in Lubeck, where he died on April 6, 1884. His works further include two tragedies, Brunhild (1858, 5th ed., 1890), and Sophonisbe (1869), and translations of French and Spanish popular poetry. Beginning as a member of the group of political poets who heralded the revolution of 1848, Geibel became gradually conservative. He was the chief poet to welcome the establishment of the empire in 1871 and was one of the early singers of German imperialism. His strength lay not, however, in his political songs but in his purely lyric poetry, such as the fine cycle Ada and his still popular love-songs.
Geibel's Gesammelte Werke were published in 8 vols. (1883, 4th ed. 1906) ; his Gedichte have gone through about 13o editions. An excel lent selection in one volume appeared in 1904. See also K. Goedeke, E. Geibel (1869) ; C. C. T. Litzmann, E. Geibel, aus Erinnerungen, Brie/en and Tagebiichern (1887) , and biographies by C. Leimbach (2nd ed., 1894), K. T. Gaedertz (1897) and Kohut (1g15). See further F. E. A. Geibel, Der Briefwechsel von E. Geibel and P. Heyse (1922).