Alexander Kaufmann was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

 and folklorist

Folkloristics

Folkloristics is the formal academic study of folklore. The term derives from a nineteenth century German designation of folkloristik to distinguish between folklore as the content and folkloristics as its study, much as language is distinguished from linguistics...

 from Bonn

Bonn

Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....

.

Biography

Kaufmann came from a prominent local family, whose members had served in both the city government and service of the former Elector of Cologne

Archbishopric of Cologne

The Electorate of Cologne was an ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire and existed from the 10th to the early 19th century. It consisted of the temporal possessions of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cologne . It was ruled by the Archbishop in his function as prince-elector of...

. He was also related to the painters Andreas

Andreas Müller

Andreas Müller is a former German footballer, who played mainly as a defensive midfielder.-Football career:...

 and Karl Müller.

At the University of Bonn

University of Bonn

The University of Bonn is a public research university located in Bonn, Germany. Founded in its present form in 1818, as the linear successor of earlier academic institutions, the University of Bonn is today one of the leading universities in Germany. The University of Bonn offers a large number...

, he studied law, languages, and history. In 1844, Kaufmann was appointed to teach Prince Karl von Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg, who made him keeper of the Wertheim

Wertheim am Main

Wertheim is a town in southwestern Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg with a population of 24,202. It is located on the confluence of the rivers Tauber and Main.It is known for its wine, castle and medieval town centre.-Geography:...

 archives in 1850. Kaufmann would retain this post until his death.

Research and Folklore

• Research for Karl Simrock's Legends of the Rhine
• Collected local legends of the Main
• Mythoterpe, ein Mythen-, Sagen- und Legendenbuch with poet Georg Friedrich Daumer
  Georg Friedrich Daumer
  Georg Friedrich Daumer was a German poet and philosopher. He was educated at the gymnasium of his native city, at that time directed by the famous philosopher Hegel. In 1817 he entered the University of Erlangen as a student of theology, but abandoned that study for philosophy...
  
  ;
• Researched information for Cæsarius von Heisterbach
• Translated Wunderbare Geschichten aus den Werken des Cæsarius von Heisterbach
• Biographie des belgischen Dominikaners Thomas von Chantimpre (posthumous)