Hermann Theodor von Schmid (also Hermann Schmid; 30 March 1815 – 19 October 1880) was an Austrian-German novelist, dramatist, and theatre director.

Life

He was born in Waizenkirchen (now in Austria, but at that time still in

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

) and studied law at

Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...

, where he obtained his doctorate and entered the judiciary. He began his literary career as a dramatist with ''Camoëns'' and ''Bretislav'' (1843), which caught the attention of the Bavarian king

Ludwig I en, Louis Charles Augustus , image = Joseph Karl Stieler - King Ludwig I in his Coronation Robes - WGA21796.jpg , caption = Portrait by Joseph Stieler, 1825 , succession=King of Bavaria , reign = , coronation ...

and led to a position at the court theatre. After the

Revolution of 1848 The Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Springtime of the Peoples or the Springtime of Nations, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe starting in 1848. It remains the most widespread revolutionary wave in Europea ...

, his support for Johannes Ronge and the failure of his marriage caused him professional difficulties and he was obliged to retire from the service, moving into a two-storey house at the head of the

Tegernseer Landstraße The Tegernseer Landstraße (nicknamed TeLa) is a street in the Obergiesing borough of Munich, Germany, which runs in a southeastern direction and is a total of 4.6 kilometers long. It begins in the north as a straight extension of the Regerstraße ...

in the south-east of the city. He obtained great popularity in the 1860s as a prolific writer of historical novels based on events in Austrian and Bavarian history. He was granted the

Order of St Michael , status = Abolished by decree of Louis XVI on 20 June 1790Reestablished by Louis XVIII on 16 November 1816Abolished in 1830 after the July RevolutionRecognised as a dynastic order of chivalry by the ICOC , founder = Louis XI of France , h ...

in 1869, the next year was appointed director of the ''Volkstheater'' on Gärtnerplatz, resigning the position after a few years. He was ennobled in 1876. He died in Munich, where today a street bears his name.

Work

His plays, collected in 1853, include several

historical drama A historical drama (also period drama, costume drama, and period piece) is a work set in a past time period, usually used in the context of film and television. Historical drama includes historical fiction and romance film, romances, adventure f ...

s, such as ''Karl Stuart'' and ''Columbus'', but his greater success was in portraying

peasant A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasants ...

life, as in ''Die Z'widerwurz'n'' (1878) and ''Der Tatzelwurm'' (1880). In his novels, too, such as ''Almenrausch und Edelweiss, Der Habermeister'', he was at his best when describing

n customs. His most ambitious work was his lyric epic ''Winland oder die Fahrt um's Glück'' (1877). His collected works appeared in 50 volumes (Leipzig, 1873–1884).

List of works

*''Camoens'', drama, 1843 *''Bretislav'', drama, 1843 *''Karl Stuart I.'', tragedy, 1845 *''Herzog Christoph der Kämpfer'', drama, 1847 *''Straßburg'' (or ''Eine deutsche Stadt'') 1849 *''Liebesring'', libretto, 1847 *''Columbus'', 1857 *''Fürst und Stadt'' (1858, later under the title ''Münchener Kindeln'') *''Huberbäuerin'', 1860 *''Das Schwalberl'', peasant novel, 1860 *''Theuerdank'', comedy, 1861 *''Alte und Neue Geschichten aus Bayern'', stories, 1861 *''Mein Eden'', novel, 1862 *''Die Türken in München'', novel, 1862 *''Der Kanzler von Tirol'', novel in three volumes, 1863 *''Im Morgenroth'', novel, 1864 *''Der Jägerwirth von München'', novel, 1864 *''Almenrausch und Edelweiß'', novel, 1864 *''Im Morgenrot. Eine Münchener Geschichte aus der Zeit Max Joseph's III'', 1864 *''Baierischen Geschichten aus Dorf und Stadt'', stories in two volumes, 1864 *''Der bayrische Hiesel. Volks-Erzählung'', 1865 *''Friedel und Oswald'', novel in three volumes, 1866 *''Der Tatzelwurm'', folk play, 1866 *''Almenrausch und Edelweiß'', folk play, 1867 *''Sankt Barthelmä'', novel, 1868 *''Mütze und Krone'', novel in five volumes, 1869 *''Das Münchener Kindel. Erzählung aus der Zeit des Kurfürsten Ferdinand Maria'', 1874 *''Concordia'', novel in five volumes, 1875 *''Der Bauernrebell. Roman aus der Tirolergeschichte'', 1876 *''Winland oder die Fahrt um's Glück'', lyric epic, 1876 *''Zum grünen Baum'', novel, unfinished

Bibliography

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Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schmid, Hermann von Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni 1815 births 1880 deaths German male novelists German male dramatists and playwrights 19th-century German novelists 19th-century German dramatists and playwrights 19th-century German male writers

Life

Work

List of works

Further reading

Bibliography

Notes