Demetrius Hans (Ritter von) Hopfen (3 January 1835 – 19 November 1904) was a Bavarian

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

and

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

. Hans Hopfen (originally Mayer), the son of Angelotta Mayer (1807-1880), was born in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

. At the age of 10 he was acknowledged by his father Simon Hopfen. Hans studied law and history from 1853 to 1858 in Munich, where he was a member of the Corps Franconia. He retired from the Bavarian civil service soon after the referendary and began publishing his songs and ballads (''Lieder und Balladen'') in Emanuel Geibel's ''Münchener Dichterbuch'' (1862); he was soon inducted into the Munich circle of writers known as ''

Die Krokodile ''Die Krokodile'' ('The Crocodiles') was a small poets' society in Munich which existed from 1856 to the 1870s. Background and beginnings King Ludwig I had constructed the Glyptothek and the Pinakothek to house art collections. Part of his inten ...

''. By the age of 25 he had earned a reputation as a gifted romantic with his lyrical poems (especially the powerful ballad of the ''Sendlinger Bauernschlacht'', one of the highlights of his career) and the humorous peasant novel ''Der alte Praktikant''. Efforts to further his education led him to

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

in 1862,

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

in 1863, and

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

in 1864, where he was in close contact with Franz Grillparzer. From 1865-66 he was Secretary General of the German Schiller Foundation (''Deutsche Schillerstiftung'') in Vienna under the presidency of

Paul Heyse Paul Johann Ludwig von Heyse (; 15 March 1830 – 2 April 1914) was a distinguished German writer and translator. A member of two important literary societies, the ''Tunnel über der Spree'' in Berlin and ''Die Krokodile'' in Munich, he wrote no ...

. After 1866, he worked as a freelance writer in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

. In 1888 he was ennobled by the Prince Regent Luitpold. He also gained importance as a leading figure of the '' Verband Alter Corpsstudenten'' (VAC), founded in 1888 and chaired by Hopfen from 1895 until his death. Soon after taking office, he submitted the plan for a monument dedicated to the German Student Corps at the

Rudelsburg The Rudelsburg is a ruined hill castle located on the east bank of the river Saale above Saaleck, a village in the borough of Naumburg in the county of Burgenlandkreis in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. The Rudelsburg was built in the Middle Ages by t ...

to Prince

Otto von Bismarck Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (, ; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898), born Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck, was a conservative German statesman and diplomat. From his origins in the upper class of J ...

. On 25 June he helped to lay the groundwork for this monument. He died in Lichterfelde, the suburb of Berlin, on 19 November 1904. Of Hopfen's lyric poems, ''Gedichte'' (4th ed., Berlin, 1883), many are of considerable talent and originality; but it is as a novelist that he is best known. The novels ''Peregre/ta'' (1864); ''Verdorben zu Paris'' (1868, new ed. 1892); ''Arge Si/ten'' (1869); ''Der graue Freund'' (1874, 2nd ed., 1876); and ''Verfehite Liebe'' (1876, 2nd ed., 1879) are attractive, while of his shorter stories ''Tiroler Geschichten'' (1884–1885) command most favour. An autobiographical sketch of Hopfen is contained in KE Franzos', ''Geschichte des Erstlingswerkes'' (1904).

Works

* ''Peregretta'', novel (Berlin 1864) * ''Der Pinsel Mings, eine sehr ergötzliche chinesische Geschichte in Versen'' (Stuttgart 1868) * ''Verdorben zu Paris'', novel (Stuttgart 1868, 2 vols.) * ''Arge Sitten'', novel (Stuttgart 1869, 2 vols.) * ''Aschenbrödel'', play (1869) * ''In der Mark'', play (1870) * ''Der graue Freund'', novel (Stuttgart 1874, 4 vols.) * ''Juschu. Tagebuch eines Schauspielers'' (Stuttgart 1875) * ''Verfehlte Liebe'', novel (Stuttgart 1876, 2 vols.) * ''Bayrische Dorfgeschichten'' (Stuttgart 1878) * ''Der alte Praktikant'' (Stuttgart 1878) * ''Die Heirat des Herrn von Waldenberg'' (Stuttgart 1879, 3 vols.) * ''Die Geschichten des Majors'' (Berlin 1880, 3rd ed. 1882) * ''Kleine Leute'', short stories (Berlin 1880) * ''Mein Onkel Don Juan. Eine Geschichte aus dem vorigen Jahrhundert'', historical novel (Berlin 1881) * ''Erzählung'' (Berlin 1881, 2 vols.) * ''Die Einsame'', short stories (Dresden 1882) * ''Gedichte'' (Berlin 1883) * ''Tiroler Geschichten'' (Dresden 1884-85, 2 vols.) * ''Das Allheilmittel'' (Dresden 1885) * ''Ein wunderlicher Heiliger'' (Leipzig 1886) * ''Der letzte Hieb'' (Stuttgart 1886) * ''Robert Leichtfuß'' (Stuttgart 1888)

Bibliography

References

External links

*
Projekt Historischer Roman Datenbank

Sonett-Archiv Hans Hopfen
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hopfen, Hans 1835 births 1904 deaths German poets Writers from Munich Writers from the Kingdom of Bavaria German male poets 19th-century poets 19th-century German writers 19th-century German male writers