Documents for "German Literature: Biographies":

• Ackermann von Böhmen see Johannes von Saaz.

• Angelus Silesius pseud. of Johannes Scheffler , 1624-77, German poet. He is best known for his pastoral lyric cycles Heilige Seelenlust (1657-68) and Cherubinischer Wandersmann (1674-75), which can be interpreted...

• Antschel, Paul see Celan, Paul.

• Anzengruber, Ludwig 1839-89, Austrian writer. An actor and a clerk in the imperial police, Anzengruber had little success as a writer until the production (1870) of his anticlerical play Der Pfarrer von Kirchfeld [the...

• Arnim, Achim von 1781-1831, German writer of the romantic school. He is best remembered for his work with his brother-in-law, Clemens Brentano , on the folk-song collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn [the boy's magic horn] (1806-8). Arnim's novels include Gräfin Dolores (1810) and the unfinished Die Kronenwächter [the guardians of the crown] (1817). He was at his best in his historical novels, notably in Isabella of Egypt (1812, tr. 1927) and Owen Tudor (1809). Arnim had a predilection for the fantastic and the supernatural. Like Herder, he helped to create a popular German literary tradition. His wife, Bettina von Arnim, 1785-1859, whose maiden name was Elisabeth Brentano, was also a writer. She corresponded with Beethoven and Goethe and published the letters, not as historical documents but in the light of her own...

• Aue, Hartmann von see Hartmann von Aue.

• Auerbach, Berthold 1812-82, German novelist. He fought in the Revolution of 1848 and in the Franco-Prussian War. As a result of his Schwarzwälder Dorfgeschichten (1843-53, tr. of Vol. I Village Tales from the...

• Böll, Heinrich 1917-85, German novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. Böll presents a critical, antimilitarist view of modern society in a collection of masterful short stories, Wanderer, kommst du nach...

• Börne, Karl Ludwig 1786-1837, German journalist, of Jewish origin. His original name was Löb Baruch. He studied medicine and political science and held office in Frankfurt until, after the fall of Napoleon, a policy...

• Büchner, Georg 1813-37, German dramatist. He was a student of medicine and a political agitator. He died at the age of 24, leaving a powerful drama, Danton's Death (1835, tr. 1928), a pessimistic view of the French...

• Bürger, Gottfried August 1747-94, German poet. He is best known for his ballads in folk-song style; the famous Lenore (1773) was widely translated and had far-reaching influence. Bürger edited and wrote for the Göttingen Musenalmanach and taught aesthetics at the Univ. of Göttingen. He translated many works of Homer, Shakespeare, and others, as well as the famous stories of Baron Münchausen. His unconventional approach to poetry...

• Bahr, Hermann 1863-1934, Austrian dramatist and critic. His essay Zur Kritik der Moderne (1890) established modernism as a literary term, and his study Expressionismus (1916, tr. 1925) defined that literary...

• Becher, Johannes Robert 1891-1958, German poet and essayist. After an early association with the Expressionist movement, Becher turned to Communism. His anti-imperialist poetry, notably Der Leichnam auf dem Thron [the corpse...

• Benjamin, Walter 1892-1940, German essayist and critic. He is known for his synthesis of eccentric Marxist theory and Jewish messianism. In particular, his essays on Charles Baudelaire and Franz Kafka as well as his speculation on symbolism, allegory, and the function of art in a mechanical age have profoundly affected contemporary criticism. Benjamin was influenced by his close friendship with...

• Benn, Gottfried 1886-1956, German poet and critic, a physician. His early verse and poetic dramas, such as Der Vermessungsdirigent [the surveyor] (1919), were strongly expressionistic and even nihilistic. His later poems, among them the collection Statische Gedichte (1948), and his autobiography, Doppelleben [double life] (1950), reflect his ambivalent though ultimately negative reactions to the National Socialist era. Benn's essays on aesthetics and politics are well known, and his fictional works,...

• Bidermann, Jakob 1578-1639, German Jesuit dramatist and poet. Based on saint and martyr legends, Bidermann's plays were among the finest artistic expressions of the Counter Reformation in Germany. His chief work, Cenodoxus...

• Bieler, Manfred 1934-, German dramatist and novelist. Among Bieler's plays, written for radio, are Die achte Trübsal [the eighth misery] (1960), attacking anti-Semitism; Die linke Wand [the left wall] (1962),...

• Bodmer, Johann Jakob 1698-1783, Swiss critic, poet, and editor. He translated Milton's Paradise Lost and Middle High German poetry. Inspired by the Spectator, Bodmer published, with J. J. Breitinger, the critical journal Discourse der Mahlern (1721-23), which greatly influenced 18th-century German poetry. Bodmer, who championed Klopstock, Wieland, and Herder, is famous for his argument with Gottsched, whose rationalism he countered with...

• Boner, Ulrich fl. 14th cent., Swiss fabulist, a Dominican monk. His Edelstein (c.1345), a collection of 100 moralizing beast fables, was one of the first German books to be printed (1461).

• Brant, Sebastian 1457-1521, German humanist and moralist. He taught law at the Univ. of Basel and in 1503 became town clerk of Strasbourg. His verse allegory Das Narrenschiff [ship of fools] (1494) became world famous. Illustrated with woodcuts, it went through six editions in Brant's lifetime alone. The story tells of 112 fools—each representing a fashionable...

• Brecht, Bertolt 1898-1956, German dramatist and poet, b. Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht. His brilliant wit, his outspoken Marxism, and his revolutionary experiments in the theater have made Brecht a vital and...

• Brentano, Clemens 1778-1842, German poet of the romantic school; brother of Bettina von Arnim (see under Arnim, Achim von ). While studying at Halle and Jena he met Wieland, Herder, and Goethe, but his sympathies were with the younger German romantics. With Achim von Arnim he collaborated on Des Knaben Wunderhorn [the boy's magic horn] (1806-8), a folk-song collection that influenced Eichendorff, Heine, the brothers Grimm and several composers, notably Mahler. Brentano wrote plays, lyric poems, fairy tales,...

• Broch, Hermann 1886-1951, Austrian novelist. Broch is one of the masters of European modernism. Influenced by Immanuel Kant and Ludwig Wittgenstein, Karl Kraus, and the Vienna Circle, his trilogy Die Schlafwandler...

• Canetti, Elias 1905-94, English novelist and essayist, b. Ruschuk (now Ruse), Bulgaria. He came from a Sephardic Jewish background, spent most of his early years in Vienna, and, fleeing Nazism, emigrated to...

• Carossa, Hans 1878-1956, German poet and novelist. His autobiographical novel Childhood (1922, tr. 1930) and its sequels (1928, 1941) are noted for clear, graceful style. Führung und Geleit [guidance and...

• Celan, Paul pseud. of Paul Antschel , 1920-70, Romanian-French poet. Although he spent his early years in Romania and his later years in France, Celan wrote in German and is widely considered the greatest postwar poet in Europe. A...

• Celtes, Conradus Protucius pseud. of Konrad Pickel , 1459-1508, German scholar and humanist. He traveled widely, lectured at several universities, became librarian to Maximilian I, and founded various societies dedicated to classical learning. He...

• Chamisso, Adelbert von (Louis Charles Adelaide de Chamisso) , 1781-1838, German poet and naturalist, b. Château de Boncourt, France. He served as page at the court of William II of Prussia and, after army service and travels, became keeper of the royal...

• Conrad, Michael Georg 1846-1927, German critic and novelist. With Karl Bleibtreu, he founded (1885) the journal Gesellschaft as a rallying point for German writers of the naturalistic school. Conrad espoused the cause...

• Döblin, Alfred 1878-1957, German novelist and physician. His experiences as a psychiatrist in the workers' district of Berlin served as the basis for his experimental novel Berlin Alexanderplatz (1929, tr. 1931),...

• Dehmel, Richard 1863-1920, German poet. An ardent mountain climber and soldier, he expressed his restless temperament in passionate and impressionistic poetry. His verse, often dealing with social problems,...

• Droste-Hülshoff, Annette Elisabeth, Freiin von 1797-1848, German poet. Often called the greatest German woman poet, she has been especially praised for her religious Das geistliche Jahr (1850). Also noted are the ballad "Die Schlacht im Loener...

• Ebner-Eschenbach, Marie, Baronin von 1830-1916, Austrian writer. She began writing lyrics and plays with small success, but in middle age achieved fame as a writer of Novellen. Her popular works, in the style of "poetic realism,"...

• Eckermann, Johann Peter 1792-1854, German scholar and author. He assisted Goethe in various literary labors, was professor of English and German at the Univ. of Jena, and later was librarian at Weimar. His Conversations with...

• Eichendorff, Joseph, Freiherr von 1788-1857, German poet, a leader of the late romantics. He studied law, volunteered in Lützow's corps in the Napoleonic Wars, and, as a civil servant in Berlin, associated with Schlegel, Arnim,...

• Ekkehard name of several medieval German authors, monks of the monastery of St. Gall, which is in present-day Switzerland. Ekkehard I wrote the famous Latin epic Waltharius (c.930), celebrating the deeds...

• Eschenbach, Wolfram von see Wolfram von Eschenbach.

• Eulenspiegel, Till [Ger.,=owl-mirror, hence English Owlglass], a north German peasant clown of the 14th cent. who was immortalized in chapbooks describing his practical jokes on clerics and townsfolk. The first Till...

• Fallada, Hans pseud. of Rudolf Ditzen , 1893-1947, German novelist. Little Man, What Now? (1932, tr. 1933), his story of a young couple in Germany after World War I, was an immediate international success. It was followed by The World Outside (1934, tr. 1934), Once We Had a Child (1934, tr. 1935), and Jeder stirbt für sich allein [each man dies his own death] (1947). Fallada's work belongs to new objectivity of the 20th-century that expressed its intellectual detachment from man's fate in words and a style intended to...

• Faust Faustus , or Johann Faust , fl. 16th cent., learned German doctor who traveled widely, performed magical feats, and died under mysterious circumstances. According to legend he had sold his soul to the devil (personified by...

• Faustus see Faust.

• Feuchtwanger, Lion 1884-1958, German novelist. A pacifist, socialist, and friend of both Thomas Mann and Bertolt Brecht, he fled Germany for France in 1933; he was later arrested but dramatically escaped to the...

• Fischart, Johann b. 1548, d. 1590 or 1591, German satirist and moralist. He lived in Strasbourg. He translated and paraphrased works by Rabelais called Geschichtsklitterung (1572, 1575, and 1590); by the Dutch writer...

• Fontane, Theodor 1819-98, German writer. Although he is primarily important as a novelist, he did not begin to write fiction until he was almost 60 years old. Thereafter, during his last two decades, he produced...

• Fouqué, Friedrich Heinrich Karl, Baron de La Motte- 1777-1843, German poet and novelist. He wrote many chivalric romances, tales, and plays based on Norse mythology. He is chiefly remembered, however, for his fairy tale of the nymph who had no soul,...

• Frank, Anne 1929-45, German diarist, b. Frankfurt as Anneliese Marie Frank. In order to escape Nazi persecution, her family emigrated (1933) to Amsterdam, where her father Otto became a business owner. After...

• Frank, Bruno 1887-1945, German novelist and dramatist. His popular works include the historical novels The Days of the King (1924, tr. 1927), Trenck (1926, tr. 1928), and A Man Called Cervantes (1934, tr....

• Frank, Leonhard 1882-1961, German expressionist writer. He gained acclaim with his first novel, The Robber Band (1914, tr. 1928), and it was followed by such works as The Cause of the Crime (1920, tr. 1928), A Middle - Class Man (1924, tr. 1930), and Carl and Anna (1927, tr. 1929), his best-known novel, which he dramatized in 1929. In the Last Coach (1925, tr. 1935) is a volume of short stories. His writing is psychological in approach, antiwar, and shows a compassion for victims of an authoritarian society. Frank fled Germany in 1933 and did...

• Freiligrath, Ferdinand 1810-76, German poet. In 1844 he expressed radically liberal sentiments in his collection of political verse Ein Glaubensbekenntnis [a confession of faith] (1844) and was forced to flee from Germany....

• Freytag, Gustav 1816-95, German novelist and playwright. He taught at the Univ. of Breslau and edited the Grenzboten (1848-70). His most successful play, The Journalists (1855, tr. 1888), is an adroit comedy of...

• Frisch, Max 1911-91, Swiss writer. He obtained a diploma in architecture in 1941, and his designs included the Zürich Recreation Park. After 1955 he became recognized as one of Europe's major literary voices...

• Frischlin, Nikodemus 1547-90, German satirist and philologist. His dramas, written in Latin and seemingly dealing with antique or biblical subjects, were in fact merciless anti-Catholic and political polemics. His Julius redivivus (1584), a comedy in the style of Aristophanes, brings Olympian gods onto German soil, where they discuss contemporary figures. He was imprisoned for his attacks on local aristocrats and died while...

• Günther, Johann Christian 1695-1723, German lyric poet. The young Goethe was inspired by the naturalness and vigor of Günther's verse. Among his remembered poems is the drinking song "Brothers, Let's Be Merry."

• Gandersheim, Hrotswith von see Hrotswith von Gandersheim.

• Geibel, Emanuel von 1815-84, German poet. Although at first a revolutionary poet, he gradually became more conservative, reflecting the growing German nationalistic spirit. His poems (1840, 1857, tr. of selections...

• Gellert, Christian Fürchtegott 1715-69, German poet and moralist. His best-known works are Fabeln und Erzählungen (1746-48, tr. Fables and Other Poems, 1850), the novel Leben der schwedischen Gräfin von G------ (1747-48, tr. The History of the Swedish Countess of G------, 1752), and the collection of hymns, Geistliche Oden und Lieder (1757). His emphasis on simplicity and heartfelt expression made him one of Germany's literary and spiritual arbiters. Lessing, Klopstock, and Goethe were his students. His poems were set to music...

• George, Stefan 1868-1933, German poet, leader of the revolt against realism in German literature. He was poetically influenced by Greek classical forms, by the Parnassians, and by the French symbolists...

• Godfrey of Strasbourg see Gottfried von Strassburg.

• Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von 1749-1832, German poet, dramatist, novelist, and scientist, b. Frankfurt. One of the great masters of world literature, his genius embraced most fields of human endeavor; his art and thought are...

• Gottfried von Strassburg fl. 13th cent., German poet, also called Godfrey of Strasbourg. He is thought to have been official scribe of Strasbourg, but little is known of him. As author of the Middle High German Tristan (c.1210),...

• Gottsched, Johann Christoph 1700-1766, German literary critic, disciple of the Enlightenment. As professor of poetry and philosophy at the Univ. of Leipzig, he virtually dictated intellectual life in that city, and he...

• Grabbe, Christian Dietrich 1801-36, German dramatist and journalist. Critical of "Shakespearomania," Grabbe strove for a national German drama and wrote original, poetic historical tragedies. Hannibal (1835) and Hermannsschlacht...

• Grass, Günter 1927-, German novelist, lyricist, artist, and playwright, b. Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland). Writing from his experience in the Luftwaffe and as a prisoner of war, Grass deplores fascist militarism...

• Grillparzer, Franz 1791-1872, Austrian dramatist. His work combines German classicism and exuberant lyricism. Considered Austria's greatest playwright, he wrote Der Traum: ein Leben (1817-34, tr. A Dream is Life,...

• Grimm, Jakob 1785-1863, German philologist and folklorist, a founder of comparative philology. His interest in the relationship among Germanic languages led to his formulation of Grimm's law. His German grammar...

• Grimmelshausen, Hans Jakob Christoffel von 1625-76, German novelist. Impressed into the Thirty Years War at the age of 10, he educated himself in letters and the law. His Simplicissimus ( The Adventuresome Simplicius Simplicissimus; 1669),...

• Gryphius, Andreas 1616-64, German poet-dramatist, originally named Andreas Greif. He wrote in Latin, new High German, and Silesian dialect. Among his many sonnets, odes, epigrams, and religious lyrics is the famous...

• Gutzkow, Karl Ferdinand 1811-78, German writer. He entered journalism in 1831 and became a leader of the antiromantic and nationally conscious literary movement known as Young Germany. For his Wally die Zweiflerin [Wally...

• Hölderlin, Friedrich 1770-1843, German lyric poet. Befriended and influenced by Schiller, Hölderlin produced, before the onset of insanity at 36, lofty yet subjective poetry, modeled on classic Greek verse. Little...

• Handke, Peter 1942-, Austrian novelist and playwright. His controversial, avant-garde works often reflect his ironic sense of the constricting limitations of language and reason and the chaos of actual human...

• Hardenberg, Friedrich von see Novalis.

• Hartmann von Aue c.1170-c.1220, German poet whose name is also spelled von Ouwe. His chivalric romances Erec and Iwain are tales of Arthurian legend. Other works include the religious legend Gregorius; the idyl...

• Hauptmann, Gerhart 1862-1946, German dramatist, novelist, and poet. He showed the influence of the theories of Zola and the plays of Ibsen in his play Before Dawn (1889, tr. 1909), which inaugurated the naturalistic...

• Hebbel, Christian Friedrich 1813-63, German tragic dramatist. Born poor, he was largely self-educated. Hegel's historical theories influenced his work, which is a link between romantic and realist drama. Hebbel's first play,...

• Hebel, Johann Peter 1760-1826, German short-story writer and dialect poet. Editor of Der rheinländische Hausfreund [Rhineland home companion] from 1801 to 1811, Hebel gained popularity as author of realistic, often...

• Heine, Heinrich 1797-1856, German poet, b. Düsseldorf, of a Jewish family. One of the greatest of German lyric poets, he had a varied career. After failing in business he tried law but found it uncongenial and...

• Heinse, Wilhelm 1746-1803, German novelist. His principal novels, Ardinghello; or, An Artist's Rambles in Sicily (1787, tr. 1839) and Hildegard von Hohenthal (1795-96), typify elements of Sturm und Drang (Storm...

• Henschke, Alfred see Klabund.

• Herwegh, Georg 1817-75, German revolutionary poet. His best-known work, Gedichte eines Lebendigen [poems of a living man] (1841) stirred much liberal enthusiasm. Herwegh remained in exile after taking a leading...

• Hesse, Hermann 1877-1962, German novelist and poet. A pacifist, he went to Switzerland at the outbreak of World War I and became (1923) a Swiss citizen. The spiritual loneliness of the artist and his...

• Heym, Georg 1887-1912, German poet and novelist of early expressionism. Rebelling against the new romanticism, Heym created the "demon" metropolis. This became his symbol for the tyrannization of man and...

• Heym, Stefan 1913-2001, German writer, b. Chemnitz as Helmut Flieg. A Jew, he fled the Nazis (1933), moved to Prague, and settled (1935) in the United States, where he attended the Univ. of Chicago (B.A.,...

• Heyse, Paul 1830-1914, German realistic writer. Besides the 120 novellas on which his reputation rests, he wrote some 50 plays, 6 novels, and many fine translations, especially of Italian poets. He was the...

• Hochhuth, Rolf 1931-, German dramatist. His provocative first drama, The Deputy (1963), accuses Pope Pius XII and the Roman Catholic clergy of tolerating Nazi crimes against the Jews. It received productions worldwide...

• Hoffmann, Ernst Theodor Amadeus 1776-1822, German romantic novelist and composer, a lawyer. At one time an opera composer and musical director at Bamberg and a gifted music critic, he is most famous as a master of the gothic...

• Hofmannsthal, Hugo von 1874-1929, Austrian dramatist and poet. His first verses were published when he was 16 years old, and his play The Death of Titian (1892, tr. 1913) when he was 18. His varied gifts as poet and as...

• Holz, Arno 1863-1929, German critic and poet. His influence as a founder of the German naturalist school and as a critic is more important than his work itself. He was particularly influential in the...

• Hrotswith von Gandersheim or Roswitha von Gandersheim , 10th-century German dramatist, a nun. Of a noble Saxon family, Hrotswith was well educated. Her long epic poems—one including a fragment on Emperor Otto I, one on the founding of the abbey of...

• Huch, Ricarda 1864-1947, German novelist, historian, and poet. She is best known for her historical romances of Garibaldi, Defeat and Victory (1906-7, tr. 1928, 1929), and of the Thirty Years War, Der grosse...

• Hutten, Ulrich von 1488-1523, German humanist and poet, partisan of the Reformation, an outstanding figure in German political history. Hutten's career as poet was launched by his participation in the famous Episculae...

• Immermann, Karl Leberecht 1796-1840, German novelist and dramatist. As a Prussian official in Düsseldorf he was active in the local theater, writing and directing many plays, mostly historical tragedies. Most are forgotten...

• Jünger, Ernst 1895-1998, German writer. Jünger's early war novels were based on arduous army experience. Strongly influenced by Nietzsche , they glorified war and its sacrifice as the greatest physical and...

• Jahnn, Hans Henny 1894-1959, German novelist, dramatist, music publisher, and organ builder. Jahnn's early dramas, including Pastor Ephraim Magnus (1919) and Medea (1926), were laden with sexual-pathological images....

• Jean Paul see Richter, Johann Paul Friedrich.

• Jelinek, Elfriede 1946-, Austrian novelist and playwright, b. Mürzzuschlag. A trained musician who also studied art history and theater, she began her literary career with the poems of Lisas Schatten (1967) and turned to fiction in her first novel (1970). She became a well-known and extremely controversial figure in her homeland with the publication of three novels, Die Liebhaberinnen (1975, tr. Women as Lovers, 1994), Die Ausgesperrten (1980, tr. Wonderful, Wonderful Times, 1990), and the semiautobiographical Klavierspielerin (1983, tr. The Piano Teacher, 1988; film, 2001). A fiercely feminist writer and outspoken partisan of left-wing political views, she has often focused on issues of power and privilege, mainly the social subordination and...

• Johannes von Saaz (Johannes von Tepl) , c.1350-c.1414, Bohemian humanist and writer. Johannes is best known for his powerful work Der Ackermann aus Böhmen (c.1400, tr. Death and the Plowman ), a dialogue between Death and a recently widowed farmer. Among the first prose works in Modern High German, it is characterized by medieval style and form but it embodies Renaissance spirit in its...

• Johannes von Tepl see Johannes von Saaz.

• Johnson, Uwe 1934-84, German novelist. Johnson's works explore the complex effects on the average person of the postwar division of Germany, both halves of which he sees as zones of moral poverty. His...

• Kafka, Franz 1883-1924, German-language novelist, b. Prague. Along with Joyce, Kafka is perhaps the most influential of 20th-century writers. From a middle-class Jewish family from Bohemia, he spent most of...

• Kaiser, Georg 1878-1945, German expressionist playwright. His early plays dealt with the erotic and the psychological. In maturity Kaiser turned to social themes, glorifying the ideal of sacrifice for the mass...

• Keyserling, Eduard, Graf von 1855-1918, German novelist. A member of an old and aristocratic family in the Baltic province of Courland, he depicts with delicate precision the life of his social class. Several of his novels...

• Klabund pseud. of Alfred Henschke , 1890-1928, German poet, novelist, and dramatist. A skillful translator and adapter of Asian literature, he wrote original poems in a Chinese style. His play Kreidekreis...

• Kleist, Heinrich von 1777-1811, German dramatic poet. He is one of the most evocative and disturbing of the German Romantic writers. Kleist served (1792-99) in the Prussian army and led an unhappy life that ended in...

• Klinger, Friedrich Maximilian von 1752-1831, German dramatist. A friend of the young Goethe, he was a playwright for a theatrical troupe and later an army officer. His early work typified the Sturm und Drang period, so named after...

• Klopstock, Friedrich Gottlieb 1724-1803, German poet, important for his influence upon Goethe, the Göttingen poets, and the Sturm und Drang movement. His epic Messias (4 vol., 1748-73, tr. The Messiah ) created a literary storm when it first appeared in the Bremen Beiträge. The poem has the merit of being the first major modern work by a distinctively German poet, but the poem as a whole is weak, for Klopstock's genius was lyrical rather than epic. His rhapsodic,...

• Kotzebue, August von 1761-1819, German dramatist and politician. He wrote some 200 plays, including Menschenhass und Reue (1789, tr. The Stranger, 1798), Die Spanier in Peru; oder, Rollas Tod (1795, tr. Rolla, 1797), and Die beiden Klingsberg (1801, tr. Father and Son, 1914). His comedies and operatic librettos remained popular throughout the 19th cent. Among those who set his librettos to music were Beethoven, Schubert, and C. M. von Weber. After a stay in...

• Kraus, Karl 1874-1936, Austrian essayist and poet, b. Bohemia. His satirical review the Fackel lashed out at hypocrisy, intellectual corruption, and the machine age. His voluminous works include Worte in Versen...

• La Motte-Fouqué, Friedrich Heinrich Karl, Baron de see Fouqué.

• Laube, Heinrich 1806-84, German writer. Prominent in the liberal Young Germany movement, he wrote historical novels, among them the cycle Der deutsche Krieg [the German war] (9 vol., 1863-66). He was a successful...

• Lenau, Nikolaus pseud. of Nikolaus Niembsch Edler von Strehlenau , 1802-50, Austrian romantic poet, b. Hungary. He is considered Austria's chief lyric poet. Pessimism and melancholy dominate his work, which includes three volumes of vivid poems of peasant life...

• Lenz, Jakob Michael Reinhold 1751-92, German writer. He was a friend of Goethe, whom he first imitated, then lampooned. A gifted poet, he wrote lyric poems; plays, including the comedies Der Hofmeister (1774) and Die Soldaten...

• Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim 1729-81, German philosopher, dramatist, and critic, one of the most influential figures of the Enlightenment. He was connected with the theater in Berlin, where he produced some of his most famous...

• Lichtenberg, Georg Christoph 1742-99, German physicist and satirist. He taught at the Univ. of Göttingen, where his special field was electricity. Lichtenberg made several visits to England and was influenced by the satire of...

• Liliencron, Detlev, Freiherr von 1844-1909, German lyric poet, b. Schleswig-Holstein. First a Prussian army officer and later a minor government official, he retired in 1885 to devote himself to writing. Liliencron was one of the...

• Logau, Friedrich, Freiherr von 1604-55, German poet, b. Silesia. Influenced by Martin Opitz, Logau wrote epigrams in the contemporary fashion, bringing a wide range of literary expression to this succinct poetic form. The chief...

• Lohenstein, Daniel Caspar von 1635-83, German dramatist, novelist, and poet. Lohenstein is credited with having created baroque tragedy in Germany. He employed ancient themes of sensuality and inhumanity in Cleopatra (1661),...

• Ludwig, Emil 1881-1948, German biographer, originally named Emil Cohn. His vivid and dramatic (although sometimes unreliable) portraits of great men include Goethe (1920, tr. 1928), Napoleon (1924, tr. 1926),...

• Ludwig, Otto 1813-65, German writer. He was one of Germany's first modern realists; although his plots were melodramatic, he sketched accurate and detailed backgrounds. After Hebbel, he was the most notable...

• Mörike, Eduard 1804-75, German writer and clergyman, a leader of the Swabian school. Over 50 of his rich and varied lyrics, among them "Schlafendes Jesuskind" [the sleeping Child Jesus] and "Auf ein altes Bild"...

• Mann, Heinrich 1871-1950, German novelist; older brother of Thomas Mann. He was a prolific author; themes of social criticism dominate his works. The Poor (1917, tr. 1917) and The Chief (1925, tr. 1925) deal with...

• Mann, Thomas 1875-1955, German novelist and essayist, the outstanding German novelist of the 20th cent., b. Lübeck; brother of Heinrich Mann. A writer of great intellectual breadth, Mann developed literary themes that not only delved into the inner self but also related inner problems to changing European cultural values. To coordinate...

• Merck, Johann Heinrich 1741-91, German critic. He was the counselor of many young writers, including Goethe, whose genius he was first to recognize.

• Meyer, Conrad Ferdinand 1825-98, Swiss poet and novelist. He studied history and art and later turned to literature. He is best known for his historical novellas, which are marked by a feeling for the spirit of past...

• Meyer, Gustav see Meyrink, Gustav.

• Meyrink, Gustav 1868-1932, German author, b. Vienna. His original name was Gustav Meyer. A staff member of Simplicissimus from 1902, he became famous for his sketches, parodies, and comedies. His novels, including...

• Mombert, Alfred 1872-1942, German poet. He was briefly a lawyer and public official. His works, characterized by mysticism, fantasy, and simplicity of style, include Die Glühende [aglow] (1896), Die Schöpfung...

• Musil, Robert 1880-1942, Austrian novelist. His style, which has been compared to Proust 's, is marked by subtle psychological analysis. This is evident in the novel Young Törless (1906, tr. 1955) and in...

• Neidhart von Reuental c.1180-c.1245, Bavarian court poet. With his bright, humorous lyrics of village and peasant life, he introduced a new rustic note to the songs of the courtly minnesingers.

• Nestroy, Johann Nepomuk 1802-62, Austrian dramatist and actor. A successful performer in comedies and operettas, he later proved himself a brilliant writer of farces and satires. He wrote over 60 plays, including Lumpacivagabundus (1833), a parody of Raimund's Verschwender ; On the Ground Floor and the First Story (1835), which uses a split stage to demonstrate class differences; and Freedom in Krahwinkel (1948), a political satire. His critical wit and flouting of Viennese censure kept him in constant conflict with authorities, and he was imprisoned more than once. Although his reputation has been...

• Niembsch Edler von Strehlenau, Nikolaus see Lenau, Nikolaus.

• Novalis pseud. of Friederich von Hardenberg , 1772-1801, German poet. He studied philosophy under Schiller, Schlegel, and Fichte and was especially influenced by Fichte. He later studied geology. Novalis was one of the great German romantics;...

• Opitz, Martin 1597-1639, leader of the Silesian school of German poetry. His influence as poet, critic, and metrical reformer was widely recognized during his time; he was ennobled as Opitz von Boberfeld by...

• Otfried von Weissenburg 9th-century German monk and poet; pupil of Rabanus Maurus Magnentius. His Liber Evangeliorum (863-71) is a counterpart in Old High German to the 9th-century Old Saxon Heliand. Otfried's gospel tales...

• Ouwe, Hartmann von see Hartmann von Aue.

• Paul, Jean see Richter, Johann Paul Friedrich.

• Pickel, Konrad see Celtes, Conradus Protucius.

• Platen, August Graf von 1796-1835, German poet, whose original name was August Graf von Platen-Hallermünde. An opponent of romanticism, he satirized it in several works such as his travesty of the "fate tragedy," ...

• Rückert, Friedrich pseud. Freimund Raimar , 1788-1866, German scholar and poet. An editor and professor of Oriental languages, he wrote imitations of Asian and Middle Eastern poetry and made fine translations of Arabic, Persian, and Chinese...

• Raabe, Wilhelm 1831-1910, German novelist, whose pseudonym was Jakob Corvinus. At 23 he began to write novels and tales of village life; the charming idyll Die Chronik der Sperlingsgasse (1857) first brought him...

• Raimar, Freimund see Rückert, Friedrich.

• Raimund, Ferdinand 1790-1836, Austrian actor and dramatist. From 1817 he was a popular comedian in Vienna, and in 1823 he began to produce his own plays. Raimund wrote fine comedies of Viennese life, among them Der Bauer als Millionär [the peasant millionaire] (1826), Der Verschwender (1833, tr. The Spendthrift, 1949), and Der Alpenkönig und der Menschenfeind (1828, tr. The King of the Alps, 1850). Blending humor with pathos, these plays raised the Viennese folk comedy to a high literary level. Subject to depression, Raimund shot himself at a time when his public favor had temporarily...

• Remarque, Erich Maria 1897-1970, German-American novelist, whose original name was Erich Paul Remark. From his experience of trench warfare during World War I, Remarque drew a grimly realistic picture of the horror of...

• Reuter, Christian 1665-c.1712, German writer of satiric fiction and drama. Reuter's Schelmuffsky (1696, tr. 1962) was among the first picaresque novels in German. His plays for the traveling theater, including Graf...

• Reuter, Fritz (Heinrich Ludwig Christian Friedrich Reuter), 1810-74, German writer. His tales of Mecklenburg life are among the best of German provincial literature. Reuter's political views brought him a death...

• Richter, Johann Paul Friedrich pseud. Jean Paul, 1763-1825, German novelist. He studied theology at the Univ. of Leipzig and later taught in that city. His novels combine the idealism of Fichte with the romantic sentimentality of Sturm und Drang. Among his romances are Hesperus (1795, tr. 1865); Leben des Quintus Fixlein (1796; tr. by Carlyle, Quintus Fixlein, 1827), a charming prose idyl about a village schoolteacher; and Siebenkäs (1796-97, tr. 1845), in which a sensitive husband ends his unhappy marriage by feigning death and burial. Other works include the novel Titan (1800-1803, tr. 1862) and Levana (1807, tr. 1848), a treatise on education. Richter's writings were extremely popular in his lifetime, and were admired for their idealism and warm portrayals of simple life, as well as for their...

• Rilke, Rainer Maria 1875-1926, German poet, b. Prague, the greatest lyric poet of modern Germany.

• Roth, Joseph 1894-1939, Austrian novelist, essayist, journalist, and publisherb. Brody, Galicia. An outspoken critic of Hitler and militarism, he moved to Paris in 1933. Roth became one of Europe's leading...

• Saar, Ferdinand von 1833-1906, Austrian writer. His best works are his short stories, among them the two collections (1876, 1897) of Novellen aus Österreich [tales from Austria]. Saar was of the decadent school,...

• Saaz, Johannes von see Johannes von Saaz.

• Sachs, Hans 1494-1576, German poet, leading meistersinger of the Nuremberg school. A shoemaker and guild master, he wrote more than 4,000 master songs in addition to some 2,000 fables, tales in verse ( Schwanke ), morality plays, and farces. His Shrovetide plays, humorous and dramatically effective, present an informative picture of life in 16th-century Nuremberg. An ardent follower of Luther, Sachs wrote...

• Sachs, Nelly 1891-1970, German poet and translator who lived after 1940 in Sweden. Sachs describes her own experiences and the sufferings of the European Jews in the collections In den Wohnungen des Todes [in the...

• Scheffler, Johannes see Angelus Silesius.

• Schiller, Friedrich von 1759-1805, German dramatist, poet, and historian, one of the greatest of German literary figures, b. Marbach, Württemberg. The poets of German romanticism were strongly influenced by Schiller, and...

• Schlegel, August Wilhelm von 1767-1845, German scholar and poet. With his brother, Friedrich von Schlegel, he founded the Athenaeum, which he edited (1798-1800). He served as secretary to Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte (later Charles XIV of Sweden) and became professor (1818-45) of art and literary history at Bonn. Schlegel was one of the first critics to see the importance of social evolution in the history of art, and he was a...

• Schlegel, Friedrich von 1772-1829, German philosopher, critic, and writer, most prominent of the founders of German romanticism. Educated in law at Göttingen and Leipzig, he turned to literature, writing Die Griechen und Römer (1797). It was followed by experimental literary works, notably Lucinde (1799) and Alarcos (1802). With his brother, August Wilhelm von Schlegel, he founded and edited the Athenaeum, the principal organ of the romantic school. His lectures at Jena (1800) and in Paris (1802) had a widespread influence. His study in Paris of Sanskrit and of Indian civilization later contributed...

• Schnabel, Johann Gottfried b. 1692, d. after 1742, German author, whose pseudonym was Gisander. He fought in the War of the Spanish Succession. Schnabel's popular novel Die Insel Felsenburg [Felsenburg island] (4 vol., 1741-43)...

• Schnitzler, Arthur 1862-1931, Austrian dramatist and novelist. The son of a prominent Jewish Viennese physician, he studied and practiced medicine until he attracted critical notice with his drama Anatol (1893, tr. 1982), a cycle of one-act plays concerning a philanderer. He followed a similar format in La Ronde (1900, tr. 1982), a cycle of plays about related sexual liaisons, which later served as inspiration for a 1950 Max Ophuls film and a 1998 David Hare drama. Schnitzler's plays, novellas, and novels of fin-de-siècle Vienna are distinguished by their sparkling wit, brilliant style, and clinical observations of human psychology and social...

• Seghers, Anna 1900-1983, German novelist, whose original name was Netty Reiling Rádvanyi. She won fame with her first novel of social protest, The Revolt of the Fishermen, (1929, tr. 1930), but in 1933 she...

• Silesius, Angelus see Angelus Silesius.

• Spielhagen, Friedrich 1829-1911, German novelist. His works, chiefly on social and political themes, include Problematische Naturen (1861, tr. Problematic Characters, 1869) and Sturmflut (1876, tr. The Breaking of...

• Sternheim, Carl 1878-1943, German dramatist. In his successful comedy Die Hose (1911, tr. A Pair of Drawers, 1927) and in his later works he satirized as corrupt the manners, morals, and beliefs of bourgeois society....

• Stifter, Adalbert 1805-68, Austrian writer, b. Bohemia. Learned in law, mathematics, and science and accomplished as an artist, he was a tutor to important families and, later, a school inspector. His tales of the...

• Storm, Theodor 1817-88, German poet and novelist, b. Schleswig-Holstein. From 1843 to 1853 he practiced law in his native Husum, but he was exiled (1853-64) by Denmark for pro-Prussian sentiments. After...

• Strauss, Emil 1866-1960, German novelist. His writings exemplify the transition from naturalism to impressionism by containing elements of both. His novel Freund Hein (1902) rapidly gained fame for its portrayal...

• Strehlenau, Nikolaus Niembsch Edler von see Lenau, Nikolaus.

• Sudermann, Hermann 1857-1928, German dramatist and novelist. His play Die Ehre (1889; tr. Honor, 1906) was one of the first successes of the burgeoning German naturalist movement. Sudermann's works became immensely...

• Suttner, Bertha (Gräfin Kinsky), Freifrau von 1843-1914, Austrian novelist, known chiefly as an ardent pacifist. Her pacifist novel Die Waffen nieder (1889, tr. Lay Down Your Arms, 1892) had great social impact. Through her subsequent friendship...

• TeŭtonĬcus see Notker Labeo.

• Tepl, Johannes von see Johannes von Saaz.

• Thoma, Ludwig 1867-1921, German novelist, dramatist, and poet. Thoma satirized Bavarian rural and small-town life. His serious peasant novels Andreas Vöst (1905), Der Wittiber (1911), and Der Ruepp (1922),...

• Tieck, Ludwig 1773-1853, German writer. In his youth he led the transition from Sturm und Drang to romanticism, writing with W. H. Wackenroder Phantasien über die Kunst (1799), essays on aesthetics, and...

• Till Eulenspiegel see Eulenspiegel, Till.