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GUTZKOW, KARL FERDINAND (1811-1878)

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 745 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GUTZKOW, KARL See also:FERDINAND (1811-1878) , See also:German novelist and dramatist, was See also:born on the 17th of See also:March 1811 at See also:Berlin, where his See also:father held a clerkship in the See also:war See also:office. After leaving school he studied See also:theology and See also:philosophy at the university of his native See also:town, and while still a student, began his See also:literary career by the publication in 1831 of a periodical entitled See also:Forum der Journalliteratur. This brought him to the See also:notice of Wolfgang See also:Menzel, who invited him to See also:Stuttgart to assist in the editorship of the Literaturblatt. At the same See also:time he continued his university studies at See also:Jena, See also:Heidelberg and See also:Munich. In 1832 he published anonymously at See also:Hamburg Briefe eines Narren an eine Narrin, and in 1833 appeared at Stuttgart Maha-Guru, Geschichte eines Gottes, a fantastic and satirical See also:romance. In 1835 he went to See also:Frankfort, where he founded the Deutsche Revue. In the same See also:year appeared Wally, See also:die Zweiflerin, from the publication of which may be said to date the school of writers who, from their opposition to the literary, social and religious traditions of romanticism, received the name of " See also:Young See also:Germany." The See also:work was directed specially against the institution of See also:marriage and the belief in See also:revelation; and what-ever See also:interest it might have attracted from its own merits was enhanced by the See also:action of the German federal See also:diet, which condemned Gutzkow to three months' imprisonment, decreed the suppression of all he had written or might yet write, and prohibited him from exercising the functions of editor within the German See also:confederation. During his See also:term of imprisonment at See also:Mannheim, Gutzkow employed himself in the See also:composition of his See also:treatise Zur Philosophie der Geschichte (1836). On obtaining his freedom he returned to Frankfort, whence he went in 1837 to Hamburg. Here he inaugurated a new See also:epoch of his literary activity by bringing out his tragedy See also:Richard See also:Savage (1839), which immediately made the See also:round of all the German theatres. Of his numerous other plays the See also:majority are now neglected; but a few have obtained an established See also:place in the repertory of the German See also:theatre—especially the comedies Zopf and Schwert (1844),Das Urbild See also:des Tarliiffe (1847), Der Konigsleutnant (1849) and the See also:blank See also:verse tragedy, Uriel See also:Acosta (1847). In 1847 Gutzkow went to See also:Dresden, where he succeeded See also:Tieck as literary adviser to the See also:court theatre.

Mean-while he had not neglected the novel. Seraphine (1838) was followed by Blasedow and See also:

seine Sohne, a See also:satire on the educational theories of the time. Between 1850 and 1852 appeared Die See also:Ritter vom Geiste, which may be regarded as the starting-point for the See also:modern German social novel. Der Zauberer von Rom is a powerful study of See also:Roman See also:Catholic See also:life in See also:southern Germany. The success of Die Ritter vom Geiste suggested to Gutzkow the See also:establishment of a See also:journal on the See also:model of Dicken's See also:Household Words, entitled Unterhaltungen am hauslichen See also:Herd, which first appeared in 1852 and was continued till 1862. In 1864 he had an epileptic See also:fit, and his productions show henceforth decided traces of failing See also:powers. To this See also:period belong the See also:historical novels Hohenschwangau (1868) and Fritz Ellrodt (1872), Lebensbilder (1870-1872), consisting of autobiographic sketches, and Die See also:Vine Pestalozzis (187o), the See also:plot of which is founded on the See also:story of Kaspar See also:Hauser. On See also:account of a return of his See also:nervous malady, Gutzkow in 1873 made a See also:journey to See also:Italy, and on his return took up his See also:residence in the See also:country near Heidelberg, whence he removed to Frankfort-on-See also:Main, dying there on the 16th of See also:December 1878. With the exception of one or two of his comedies, Gutzkow's writings have fallen into neglect. But he exerted a powerful See also:influence on the opinions of modern Germany ; and his See also:works will always be of interest as the See also:mirror in which the intellectual and social struggles of his time are best reflected. An edition of Gutzkow's collected works appeared at Jena (1873–1876, new ed., 1879). E.

See also:

Wolff has published See also:critical See also:editions of Gutzkow's Meisterdramen (1892) and Wally die Zweiflerin (1905). His more important novels have been frequently reprinted. For Gutzkow's life see his various autobiographical writings such as Aus der Knabenzeit (1852), Ruckblicke auf mein Leben (1876), &c. For an estimate of his life and work see J. Proelss, Das junge See also:Deutsch-See also:land (1892); also H. H. Houben, Studien caber die Dramen Gutzkows (1898) and Gutzkow-Funde (1901).

End of Article: GUTZKOW, KARL FERDINAND (1811-1878)

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