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See also:KOTZEBUE, See also:AUGUST See also:FRIEDRICH See also:FERDINAND VON (1761–1819) , See also:German dramatist, was See also:born on the 3rd of May, 1761, at See also:Weimar. After attending the gymnasium of his native See also:town, he went in his sixteenth See also:year to the university of See also:Jena, and afterwards studied about a year in See also:Duisburg. In 178o he completed his legal course and was admitted an See also:advocate. Through the See also:influence of See also:Graf See also:Gortz, Prussian See also:ambassador at the See also:Russian See also:court, he became secretary of the See also:governor-See also:general of St See also:Petersburg, In 1783 he received the See also:appointment of See also:assessor to the high court of See also:appeal in See also:Reval, where he married the daughter of a Russian See also:lieutenant-general. He was ennobled in 1785, and became See also:president of the magistracy of the See also:province of See also:Esthonia. In Reval he acquired considerable reputation by his novels, See also:Die See also:Leiden der Ortenhergischen Familie (1785) and Geschichte meines Vaters (1788), and still more by the plays Adelheid von Wul,ingen (1789), Menschenhass and Reue (1790) and Die Indianer in See also:England (1790). The See also:good impression produced by these See also:works was, however, almost effaced by a cynical dramatic See also:satire, Doktor See also:Bahrdt mit der eisernen Stint, which appeared in 1790 with the name of See also:Knigge on the See also:title-See also:page. After the See also:death of his first wife Kotzebue retired from the Russian service, and lived for a See also:- TIME (0. Eng. Lima, cf. Icel. timi, Swed. timme, hour, Dan. time; from the root also seen in " tide," properly the time of between the flow and ebb of the sea, cf. O. Eng. getidan, to happen, " even-tide," &c.; it is not directly related to Lat. tempus)
- TIME, MEASUREMENT OF
- TIME, STANDARD
time in See also:Paris and See also:Mainz; he then settled in 1795 on an See also:estate which he had acquired near Reval and gave himself up to See also:literary See also:work. Within a few years he published six volumes of See also:miscellaneous sketches and stories (Die jiingsten Kinder meiner Laune, 1793–1796) and more than twenty plays, the See also:majority of which were translated into several See also:European See also:languages. In 1798 he accepted the See also:- OFFICE (from Lat. officium, " duty," " service," a shortened form of opifacium, from facere, " to do," and either the stem of opes, " wealth," " aid," or opus, " work ")
office of dramatist to the court See also:theatre in See also:Vienna, but owing to See also:differences with the actors he was soon obliged to resign. He now returned to
his native town, but as he was not on good terms with See also:Goethe, and had openly attacked the Romantic school, his position in Weimar was not a pleasant one. He had thoughts of returning to St Petersburg, and on his See also:journey thither he was, for some unknown See also:reason, arrested at the frontier and transported to See also:Siberia. Fortunately he had written a See also:comedy which flattered the vanity of the See also:emperor See also:Paul I.; he was consequently speedily brought back, presented with an estate from the See also:crown lands of See also:Livonia, and made director of the German theatre in St Petersburg. He, returned to See also:Germany when the emperor Paul died, and again settled in Weimar; he found it, however, as impossible as ever to gain a footing in literary society, and turned his steps to See also:Berlin, where in association with Garlieb Merkel (1769–1850) he edited Der Freimutige (1803–1807) and began his Almanach dramatischer Spiele (1803–1820). Towards the end of 18o6 he was once more in See also:Russia, and in the See also:security of his estate in Esthonia wrote many satirical articles against See also:Napoleon in his See also:journals Die Biene and Die See also:Grille. As councillor of See also:state he was attached in 1816 to the See also:department for See also:foreign affairs in St Petersburg, and in 1817 went to Germany as a See also:kind of See also:spy in the service of Russia, with a See also:salary of 15,000 roubles. In a weekly See also:journal (Literarisches Wochenblatt) which he published in Weimar he scoffed at the pretensions of those Germans who demanded See also:free institutions, and became an See also:object of such general dislike that he was obliged to move to See also:Mannheim. He was especially de-tested by the See also:young enthusiasts for See also:liberty, and one of them, Karl See also:Ludwig See also:Sand, a theological student, stabbed him, in Mannheim, on the 23rd of See also:March 1819. Sand was executed, and the See also:government made his See also:crime an excuse for placing the See also:universities under strict supervision.
Besides his plays, Kotzebue wrote several See also:historical works, which, however, are too one-sided and prejudiced to have much value. Of more See also:interest are his autobiographical writings, See also:Heine Flucht nach Paris See also:im See also:Winter 1990 (1791), Uber meinen Aufenthalt in Wien (1799), Das merkwurdigste Jahr meines Lebens (18o1), Erinnerungen aus Paris (1804), and Erinnerungen von meiner Reise aus See also:Lie/See also:land nach Rom and Neapel (r8o5). As a dramatist he was extraordinarily prolific, his plays numbering over 200; his popularity, not merely on the German, but on the European See also:stage, was unprecedented. His success, however, was due less to any conspicuous literary or poetic ability than to an extraordinary facility in the invention of effective situations; he possessed, as few German playwrights before or since, the unerring See also:instinct for the theatre; and his influence on the technique of the See also:modern See also:drama from See also:Scribe to See also:Sardou and from See also:Bauernfeld to See also:Sudermann is unmistakable. Kotzebue is to be seen to best See also:advantage in his comedies, such as Der Wildfang, Die beiden Klingsberg and Die deutschen Kleinstddter, which contain admirable genre pictures of German See also:life. These plays held the stage in Germany See also:long after the once famous Menschenhess and Reue (known in England as The Stranger), Graf Benjowsky, or ambitious See also:exotic tragedies like Die Sonnenjungfrau and Die Spanier in See also:Peru (which See also:Sheridan adapted as See also:Pizarro) were forgotten.
Two collections of Kotzebue's dramas were published during his lifetime: Schauspiele (5 vols., 1797); Neue Schauspiele (23 vols., 1798-182o). His Sdmtliche dramatische Werke appeared in 44 vols., in 1827-1829, and again, under the title Theater, in 4o vols., in 1840-1841. A selection of his plays in 10 vols. appeared at See also:Leipzig in 1867-1868. Cp. H. Doring, A. von Kotzebues Leben (183o); W. von Kotzebue, A. von Kotzebue (1881) ; Ch. Rabany, Kotzebue, sa See also:vie et son temps (1893); W. Sellier, Kotzebue in England (19o1).
End of Article: KOTZEBUE, AUGUST FRIEDRICH FERDINAND VON (1761–1819)
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