LINDAU, PAUL (1839- ), German dramatist and novelist, the son of a Protestant pastor, was born at Magdeburg on the 3rd of June 1839. He was educated at the gymnasium in Halle and subsequently in Leipzig and Berlin. He spent five years in Paris to further his studies, acting meanwhile as foreign correspondent to German papers. After his return to Germany in 1863 he was engaged in journalism in Düsseldorf and Elberfeld. In 1870 he founded Das neue Blatt at Leipzig; from 1872 to 1881 he edited the Berlin weekly, Die Gegenwart; and in 1878 he founded the well-known monthly, Nord und Süd, which he continued to edit until 1904. Two books of travel, Aus Venetien (Düsseldorf, 1864) and Aus Paris (Stuttgart, 1865). were followed by some volumes of critical studies, written in a light, satirical vein, which at once made him famous. These were Harmlose Briefe eines deutschen Kleinstädters (Leipzig, 2 vols., 1870), Moderne Märchen für grosse Kinder (Leipzig, 1870) and Literarische Rücksichtslosigkeiten (Leipzig, 1871). He was appointed intendant of the court theatre at Meiningen in 1895, but removed to Berlin in 1899, where he became manager of the Berliner Theater, and subsequently, until 1905, of the Deutsches Theater. He had begun his dramatic career in 1868 with Marion, the first of a long series of plays in which he displayed a remarkable talent for stage effect and a command of witty and lively dialogue. Among the more famous were Maria und Magdalena (1872), Tante Therese (1876), Gräfin Lea (1879), Die Erste (1895), Der Abend (1896), Der Herr im Hause (1899), So ich dir (1903), and he adapted many plays by Dumas, Augier and Sardou for the German stage. Five volumes of his plays have been published (Berlin, 1873-1888). Some of his volumes of short stories acquired great popularity, notably Herr und Frau Bewer (Breslau, 1882) and Toggenburg und andere Geschichten (Breslau, 1883). A novel-sequence entitled Berlin included Der Zug nach dem Westen (Stuttgart, 1886, 10th ed. 1903), Arme Mädchen (1887, 9th ed. 1905) and Spitzen (1888, 8th ed. 1904). Later novels were Die Gehilfin (Breslau, 1894), Die Brüder, (Dresden, 1895), Der König von Sidon (Breslau, 1898). His earlier books on Molière (Leipzig, 1871) and Alfred de Musset (Berlin, 1877) were followed by some volumes of dramatic and literary criticism, Gesammelte Aufsätze (Berlin, 1875), Dramaturgische Blätter (Stuttgart, 2 vols., 1875; new series, Breslau, 1878, 2 vols.), Vorspiele auf dem Theater (Breslau, 1895).
His brother, Rudolf Lindau (b. 1829), was a well-known diplomatist and author. His novels and tales were collected in 1893 (Berlin, 6 vols.). The most attractive, such as Reisegefährten and Der lange Holländer, deal with the life of European residents in the Far East.
See Hadlich, Paul Lindau als dramatischer Dichter (2nd ed., Berlin, 1876).
LINDAU, a town and pleasure resort in the kingdom of Bavaria, and the central point of the transit trade between that country and Switzerland, situated on two islands off the north-eastern shore of Lake Constance. Pop. (1905) 6531. The town is a terminus of the Vorarlberg railway, and of the Munich-Lindau line of the Bavarian state railways, and is connected with the mainland both by a wooden bridge and by a railway enbankment erected in 1853. There are a royal palace and an old and a new town-hall (the older one having been built in 1422 and restored in 1886-1888), a museum and a municipal library with interesting manuscripts and a collection of Bibles, also classical, commercial and industrial schools. The harbour is much frequented by steamers from Constance and other places on the lake. There are also some Roman remains, the Heidenmauer, and a fine modern fountain, the Reichsbrunnen. Opposite the custom-house is a bronze statue of the Bavarian king Maximilian II., erected in 1856.
On the site now occupied by the town there was a Roman camp, the castrum Tiberii, and the authentic records of Lindau date back to the end of the 9th century, when it was known as Lintowa. In 1274, or earlier, it became a free imperial town; in 1331 it joined the Swabian league, and in 1531 became a member of the league of Schmalkalden, having just previously accepted the reformed doctrines. In 1647 it was ineffectually besieged by the Swedes. In 1804 it lost its imperial privileges and passed to Austria, being transferred to Bavaria in 1805.
See Boulan, Lindau, vor altem und jetzt (Lindau, 1872); and Stettners, Führer durch Lindau und Umgebungen (Lindau, 1900).
LINDEN, a town in the Prussian province of Hanover, 3 m. S.W. by rail from the city of that name, of which it practically forms a suburb, and from which it is separated by the Ihme. Pop. (1905) 57,941. It has a fine modern town-hall, and a classical and other schools. Chief among its industries are machine building, weaving, iron and steel works and the manufacture of chemicals, india-rubber goods and carpets.