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REUTER, FRITZ (1810-1894)

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 211 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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REUTER, FRITZ (1810-1894) , See also:German novelist, was See also:horn on the 7th of See also:November 1810, at Stavenhagen, in See also:Mecklenburg-See also:Schwerin, a small See also:country See also:town where his See also:father was burgomaster and See also:sheriff (Stadtrichter), and in addition to his See also:official duties carried on the See also:work of a See also:farmer. He was educated at See also:home by private tutors and subsequently at the gymnasiums of See also:Friedland in Mecklenburg-See also:Strelitz, and of See also:Parchim. In 1831 he began to attend lectures on See also:jurisprudence at the university of See also:Rostock, and in the following See also:year went to the university of See also:Jena. Here he was a member of the See also:political students' See also:club, or German Burschenschaft, and in 1833 was arrested in See also:Berlin by the Prussian See also:government; although the only See also:charge which could be proved against him was that he had been seen wearing its See also:colours, he was condemned to See also:death for high See also:treason. This monstrous See also:sentence was commuted by See also:King See also:Frederick See also:William III. of See also:Prussia to imprisonment for See also:thirty years in a Prussian fortress. In 1838, through the See also:personal intervention of the See also:grand-See also:duke of Mecklenburg, he was delivered over to the authorities of his native See also:state, and the next two years he spent in the fortress of Domitz, but in 1840 was set See also:free, an See also:amnesty having been proclaimed after the See also:accession of Frederick William IV. to the Prussian See also:throne. Although Reuter was now thirty years of See also:age, he went to See also:Heidelberg to resume his legal studies; but he soon found it necessary to return to Stavenhagen, where he aided in the 'management of his father's See also:farm. After his father's death, however, he abandoned farming, and in 185o settled as a private See also:tutor at the little town of Treptow in See also:Pomerania. Here he married Luise Kunze, the daughter of a Mecklenburg pastor. Reuter's first publication was a collection of miscellanies, written in Plattdeutsch, and entitled Lauschen un Riemels (" anecdotes and rhymes," 1853; a second collection followed in 1858). The See also:book, which was received with encouraging favour, was followed by Polterabendgedichte (1855), and De Reis' nah Belligen (1855), the latter a humorous poem describing the adventures of some Mecklenburg peasants who resolve to go to See also:Belgium (which they never reach) to learn the secrets of an advanced See also:civilization. In 1856 Reuter See also:left Treptow and established himself at Neubrandenburg, resolving to devote his whole See also:time to See also:literary work.

His next book (published in 1858) was Kein Hi sung, an epic in which he presents with See also:

great force and vividness some of the least attractive aspects of See also:village See also:life in Mecklenburg. This was followed, in 1860, by Hanne Nute un de lutte Pudel, the best of the See also:works written by Reuter in See also:verse. In 1861 Reuter's popularity was largely increased by Schurr-Murr, a collection of tales, some of which are in High German, but this work is of slight importance in comparison with the See also:series of stories, entitled 011e Kamellen (" old stories of bygone days "). The first See also:volume, published in 1860, contained Woans ick tau'ne Fru kam and Ut de Franzosentid. Ut mine Festungstid (1861) formed the second volume; Ut mine Stromtid (1864) the third, See also:fourth and fifth volumes; and Dorchlduchting (1866) the See also:sixth volume—all written in the Plattdeutsch See also:dialect of the author's home. Woans ick tau 'ne Fru kam is a See also:bright little See also:tale, in which Reuter tells, in a See also:half serious half bantering See also:tone, how he wooed the See also:lady who became his wife. In Ut de Franzosentid the See also:scene is laid in and near Stavenhagen in the year 1813, and the characters of the See also:story are associated with the great events which then stirred the See also:heart of See also:Germany to its depths. Ut mine Festungstid is of less See also:general See also:interest than Ut de Franzosentid, a narrative of Reuter's hardships during the See also:term of his imprisonment, but it is not less vigorous either in conception or in See also:style. Ut mine Stromtid is by far the greatest of Reuter's writings. The men and See also:women he describes are the men and women he knew in the villages and farmhouses of Mecklenburg, and the circumstances in which he places them are the circumstances by which they were surrounded in actual life. As in Ut de Franzosentid he describes the deep See also:national impulse in obedience to which Germany See also:rose against See also:Napoleon, so in ' Ut mine Stromtid he presents many aspects of the revolutionary See also:movement of 1848. In 1863 Reuter transferred his See also:residence from Neubrandenburg to See also:Eisenach; and here he died on the 12th of See also:July 1874.

In the works produced at Eisenach he did not maintain the high level of his earlier writings. Reuter's Samtliche Werke, in 13 vols., were first published in 1863-68. To these were added in 1875 two volumes of Nachgelassene Schriften, with a See also:

biography by A. See also:Wilbrandt; and in 1878 two supplementary volumes to the works appeared. A popular edition in 7 vols. was published in 1877–78 (last edition, 1902) ; there are also See also:editions by K. F. See also:Muller (18 vols., 1905),and W. Seelmann (7 vols., 1905-6). See O. Glagau, F. Reuter and See also:seine Dichtungen (1866; 2nd ed., 1875) ; H. See also:Ebert, F.

Reuter and seine Werke (1874) ; F. Latendorf, Zur Erinnerung an F. Reuter (1879); K. T. Gadertz, Reuter-Studien (189o) ; by the same, Aus Reuters See also:

alien and jungen Tagen (3 vols., 1894-1900) ; Briefe F. Reuters an seinen Voter, edited by F. See also:Engel (2 vols., 1895) ; A. Romer, F. Reuter in seinem Leben and Schaffen (1895) ; G. Raatz, Wahrheit and Dichtung in Reuters Werken (1895) ; E. See also:Brandes, Aus F. Reuters Leben (1899) ; K.

F. Muller, Der Mecklenburger Volksmund and F. Reuters Schriften (1902). A See also:

complete bibliography of F. Reuter will be found in the Niederdeutsche Jahrbuch for 1896 and 1902.

End of Article: REUTER, FRITZ (1810-1894)

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