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ALEXIS, WILLIBALD

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 577 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ALEXIS, WILLIBALD , the See also:pseudonym of GEORG WILHELM HEINRICH HARING (1798-1871), See also:German See also:historical novelist. He was See also:born on the 29th of See also:June 1798 at See also:Breslau, where his See also:father, who came of a See also:French refugee See also:family, named Hareng, held a high position in the See also:war See also:department. He attended the Werdersche Gymnasium in See also:Berlin, and then, serving as a volunteer in the See also:campaign of 1815, took See also:part in the See also:siege of the Ardenne fortresses. On his return he studied See also:law at the See also:universities of Berlin and Breslau and entered the legal profession, but he soon abandoned this career and devoted himself to literature. Settling in Berlin he edited, 1827-1835, the Berliner Konversationsblatt, in which for the first two years he was assisted by See also:Friedrich Christoph See also:Forster (1791–1868) ; and in 1828 was created a See also:doctor of See also:philosophy by the university of See also:Halle. In 1852 he retired to See also:Arnstadt in Thuringia, where after many years of broken See also:health he died on the 16th of See also:December 1871. Haring made his name first known as a writer by an idyll in hexameters, See also:Die Treibjagd (182o), and several See also:short stories in which the See also:influence of See also:Tieck is observable; but his See also:literary reputation was first established by the historical See also:romance Walladmor (1823), which, published. as being " freely translated from the See also:English of See also:Sir See also:Walter See also:Scott, with a See also:preface by Willibald Alexis," so closely imitated the See also:style of the famous Scotsman as really to deceive even Scott's admirers. The See also:work became immediately popular and was translated into several See also:languages, including English. It was followed by Schloss See also:Avalon (1827), with regard to which the author adopted the same See also:tactics and with equal success. These historical novels, however, were of considerable literary merit, and would doubtless have achieved popularity even without the borrowed plumage. Soon after-wards Haring published a number of successful short stories (Gesammelte Novellen, 4 vols., 1830-1831), some books of travel, and in the novels Das Haus Dusterweg (1835) and Zwolf Ndchte (1838) showed for a while a leaning towards the " See also:Young German " school. In See also:Cabanis (1832), however, a See also:story of the See also:time of See also:Frederick the See also:Great, he entered the See also:field of patriotic-historical romance, in which he so far excelled as to have earned the name of " der Markische Walter Scott " (Walter Scott of the See also:Mark).

From 1840 onwards he published at short intervals a See also:

series of romances, each dealing with some See also:epoch in the See also:history of See also:Brandenburg. Among them may be especially noted Der See also:Roland von Berlin (1840), Der falsche Woldemar (1842), Die See also:Hosea See also:des Herrn von See also:Bredow (1846-1848), Ruhe ist die erste Bib-See also:gee pflick' (1852), Isegrimm (1854) and Dorothe (1856). In all these the author shows himself as a keen observer of men and things; the characters, situations and natural surroundings are excellently delineated, and the patriotic feeling which pervades them is not overdone. Haring also made a name for himself in the field of See also:criminology by commencing in 1842, in See also:conjunction with the publicist, See also:Julius Eduard See also:Hitzig (1780-1849), the publication of Der neue Pitaval (continued by A. Vollert, 36 vols., See also:Leipzig, 1842-1865; new edition, 24 vols., Leipzig, 1866-1891), a collection of criminal anecdotes culled from all nations and all times. This publication attained great popularity, and is to-See also:day of psychological See also:interest and value. His Gesammelte Werke were published in 20 volumes (Berlin, 1874) ; the Vaierlandische Ramane separately in 8 volumes (Berlin, 1881, 1884), and, since the expiry of the See also:copyright in 1901, in many cheap reprints. Cp. W. Alexis' Erinneiungen, edited by M. Ewert (1900), and essays by See also:Julian See also:Schmidt (Neue Bilder aus dem geistigen Leben unsrer Zeit, 1873), G. See also:Freytag (Werke, vols.

16 and 23), A. Stern (Zur Literatur der Gegenwart, 1880) and T. See also:

Fontane (in Bayreuther Blotter, vi., 1883).

End of Article: ALEXIS, WILLIBALD

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