Adelbert von Chamisso (Louis Charles Adelaide de Ch.), poet and naturalist, was born on January 30, 1781, as the son of a Lorraine officer at Boncourt Castle (Champagne) and died on January 21, 1838, in Berlin. After their complete impoverishment due to confiscation, his parents fled with the child to Liège in 1790 to escape the French Revolution. From there, they traveled through The Hague, Düsseldorf, and Bayreuth to Berlin. In Berlin, Chamisso became a lieutenant in a Prussian regiment in 1801. Disappointed with military service, he resigned in 1806 and devoted himself to scientific studies in France and at the estate of Mme. de Stael. From 1812 to 1815, he studied medicine and botany in Berlin. From 1815 to 1818, Chamisso participated as a naturalist in a Russian circumnavigation of the globe, which he described in his "Remarks and Views on an Expedition" (1821). His symbolic novella about the sold shadow, "Peter Schlemihl's Miraculous Story," was written during the Wars of Liberation in 1813 in Kunersdorf. Translated into almost all world languages, it made its author internationally famous. The most charming illustrations for "Peter Schlemihl's Miraculous Story" were published in 1908. With them, Emil Preetorius (1883-1973) - a contributor to the magazines "Simplicissismus" and "Jugend" - began his career as a renewer of book art and one of the most influential graphic artists of our century. Thomas Mann wrote his essay "Adelbert von Chamisso" in 1921 specifically for the standalone edition of this novella.