Born on January 22, 1816, in Calw, Württemberg, he began an apprenticeship with a mechanic in Tübingen, but later devoted himself to pharmacy. His first attempts at poetry earned him the favor of the then Hereditary Prince Friedrich Wilhelm Wilhelm von Hohenzollern, and Märklin became acquainted with Ludwig Uhland, Gustav Schwab, Justinus Kerner, and Eduard Mörike. He actively participated in the Baden uprising of 1848/49, and fled to Switzerland after its suppression. Later interned at Hohenasperg Fortress, he was released after 18 months and emigrated to America in the fall of 1852. After a short stay in New York, he left with his friend Heinrich Loose for Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he worked as a pharmacist, helped found the city’s Turnverein, and published a radical labor paper. As a leading journalist in Wisconsin, Märklin worked with Carl Schurz to bring many German American citizens to the Republican Party.
In 1861, he accepted a post as a medical assistant in the 34th Wisconsin Volunteers’ Regiment, serving until the end of the Civil War. In 1869, he established a pharmacy in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, which he owned until its destruction by fire; in 1878, he returned to Milwaukee. There he operated a pharmacy for several years, until he moved to live with his son in Chicago, where he died on February 20, 1892.
He continued to write and remained an enthusiastic Turner until his death.
“Lebensskizze,” from Im Strome der Zeit. Dichtungen von Edmund Märklin. Milwaukee, Wis.: C. N. Caspar, 1886.