Poems Without Frontiers

Böttger was born in Leipzig to a family in which his father was a tax official. He spent most of his life in his native city where he attended the Thomasschule and the local university. Influenced by his father's lexicography, he also became attracted to the English language and its literature. From 1840, he became a renowned translator of several famous poets particularly Byron, Pope, Goldsmith, Milton and Shakespeare, but also Racine and Ponsard from the French.

He also created several poetry collections and dramatic works but lived modestly as a 'forgotten poet' when his works were not greeted by his later readers with a high degree of praise. Nor did his play, 'Agnes Bernauer', bring financial reward. Nonetheless, he was a member of a wider circle of artistes in which Robert Schumann had earlier been drawn by Böttgers Spring Poem as the inspiration for his first Symphony.

His works were published in six volumes in 1865.