Louis Charles Adelbert von Chamisso (1781-1838) was a member of the old and aristocratic French family Chamisso de Boncourt, who were expelled from France by the Revolution, in which they lost their estates. Adelbert lived with his parents in Berlin, where he subsequently entered the Prussian army, accompanied the navigator Otto von Kotzebue on a voyage round the world, and then held for some years an appointment at the Botanic Garden in Berlin, where he died. He was a very versatile writer. Besides his lyrics and the fantastic story of Peter Schlemihl, which gained him a name in German literature, he wrote De animalibus quibusdam e classe vermium Linnæi, Über die Hawaiisprache, and Bemerkungen und Ansichten auf einer Entdeckungsreise unter Kotzebue.
Heinrich Heine (1799-1856) was born at Düsseldorf, of Jewish parents. He devoted himself to a mercantile calling at Hamburg for a while, then studied law at Berlin, Bonn, and Göttingen, adopted Christianity in 1825, edited the Political Annals in company with Murhard, lived at Berlin, Munich, and Hamburg, and finally in Paris, where he received a pension for his literary services up to his death.
Moritz Gottlieb Saphir was born in 1795 at a small Hungarian town, where his grandfather, under the decree of the Emperor Joseph II. compelling the Jews to take family names, had adopted the name of Saphir. Intending at first to become a merchant, this idea soon grew distasteful to him. He went to Prague to study the Talmud; then began to devote himself entirely to literature, and soon wrote some verses, which showed his satirical talent. At Vienna his satirical muse made him so many enemies that he went to Berlin, where he wrote and edited a great many humorous books. He was obliged to leave Berlin also, and going to live at Munich, he got into trouble on account of some satirical passages which were supposed to refer to the King of Bavaria, and which resulted in his imprisonment. He died at Baden, near Vienna, in 1858.
Wilhelm Hauff was born at Stuttgart in 1802, studied theology at Tübingen, became tutor in a private family at Stuttgart, and subsequently edited a paper in that town. He aimed at improving the public taste, which had been greatly influenced by H. Clauren. With this object he wrote a novel, The Man in the Moon, purporting to be written by Clauren. Having lost the ensuing law-suit, Hauff wrote his celebrated Controversy about the Man in the Moon. He also wrote Die Memoiren des Satans, Lichtenstein, Die Bettlerin von Pont des Arts, Die Phantasien im Bremer Rathskeller, etc. He died at Stuttgart, September 18th, 1827.
Eduard Mörike (1804-1875), born at Ludwigsburg, studied at Tübingen, was pastor at Keber-Sulzbach, near Heilbronn, then teacher at Stuttgart. He belonged to the Suabian school of poets, wrote verses and novels, among the latter, Das Stuttgarter Hutzelmännlein, Iris, Idylle am Bodensee, etc.
Friedrich Theodor von Vischer (1807-1889), a celebrated writer on Æsthetics of the Hegelian school. He was born at Ludwigsburg, studied theology, and accepted a position as vicar at Harrheim. He went to Tübingen in 1833, and became first an extraordinary and then ordinary professor of æsthetics and German literature. On account of the too great liberality of his inaugural address he was at once suspended for two years. In 1848 he entered the Frankfort Parliament, where he occupied a position as an extreme radical. In 1855 he was called to the Polytechnical Institute at Zürich, and later filled a similar position at Stuttgart. Besides his greatest work, entitled Æsthetics, or the Science of the Beautiful, he wrote The Sublime and the Comic, and a third part to Goethe’s Faust, a parody of Goethe’s second part, as well as a great deal of prose and verse in a satirical and aphoristic vein, and many critical works on æsthetics.
Fritz Reuter (1810-1874), born at Stavenhagen, in Mecklenburg-Schwerin, studied law at Rostock, went to Jena in 1832 and joined the Burschenschaft, which was then in very ill favour with the strongly Conservative government as promulgating Liberal tendencies. He was imprisoned, and after being in custody a year was sentenced to death. This sentence was modified by the king to lifelong imprisonment. He was taken to Fort Dömitz, and remained there until 1840, when he was released in consequence of the Prussian amnesty. He took charge of his father’s estate at Stavenhagen, later going to Treptow as a tutor in a private family; later he devoted himself exclusively to literature at Neubrandenburg and then at Eisenach, where he died. His novels, comedies, and poems were all written in the Low-German dialect. Some of the best known are Seed-Time and Harvest, Olle Kamellen, Ut mine Festungstid (Aus meiner Festungszeit), Die Reis’na Constantinopel.
Ernst Kossak (1814-1880), born at Marienwerder, and died at Berlin. Wrote Aus dem Wanderbuch eines litterarischen Handwerksburschen, Historietten, Berliner Silhouetten, etc.
Gottfried Keller (1815-1887), born at Zürich, took up landscape-painting, and went to Vienna to continue his art studies. Returning to his native town in 1842, he gave up painting and devoted himself entirely to literary pursuits. Receiving some pecuniary aid from the Zurich Senate, he went to Heidelberg in 1848, and to Berlin in 1850, to study philosophy and dramaturgy. He then returned to Zürich. Among his novels, Der grüne Heinrich and Die Leute von Seldwyla are best known.
Friedrich Wilhelm von Hackländer (1816-1877), novelist and comedy-writer, born at Burtscheid, near Aachen. Entered the mercantile profession, left it for the army, which he soon found distasteful. Discovering a talent for story-telling, he wrote many novels and sketches about military life, and some more ambitious works of fiction, as Europäisches Sklavenleben.