Otto Ludwig (February 11, 1813 – February 25, 1865) was a German dramatist, novelist and critic born in

Eisfeld Eisfeld is a town and a municipality in the Hildburghausen (district), district of Hildburghausen, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated on the river Werra, 12 km east of Hildburghausen, and 19 km north of Coburg. The former municipalit ...

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and larg ...

. He was one of Germany's first modern realists and one of the most notable dramatists of the period.

Biography

His father, who was

syndic Syndic (Late Latin: '; Greek: ' – one who helps in a court of justice, an advocate, representative) is a term applied in certain countries to an officer of government with varying powers, and secondly to a representative or delegate of a universi ...

of Eisfeld, died when he was twelve years old, and he was brought up amidst uncongenial conditions. He had devoted his leisure time to poetry and music, which unfitted him for the mercantile career planned for him. The attention of the Duke of Meiningen was directed to one of his musical compositions, an opera, ''Die Köhlerin'' ''(The Charcoal Burner)'', and Ludwig was enabled in 1839 to continue his musical studies under

Felix Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include sy ...

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

. But ill health and constitutional shyness caused him to give up a musical career and he turned exclusively to literary studies, and wrote several stories and dramas. Of the latter, ''Der Erbförster'' ''(The Hereditary Forester)'' (1850) attracted immediate attention as a masterly psychological study. It was followed by ''Die Makkabäer'' ''(The Maccabees)'' (1852), in which the realistic method of ''Der Erbförster'' was transferred to an historical milieu, which allowed more brilliant coloring and a freer play of the imagination. With these tragedies, to which may be added ''Die Rechte des Herzens'' ''(The Rights of the Heart)'' and ''Das Fräulein von Scuderi'' ''(The Lady of Scuderi)'', the comedy ''Hans Frey'', and an unfinished tragedy on the subject of Agnes Bernauer, Ludwig ranks immediately after

Christian Friedrich Hebbel Christian Friedrich Hebbel (18 March 1813 – 13 December 1863) was a German poet and dramatist. Biography Hebbel was born at Wesselburen in Dithmarschen, Holstein, the son of a bricklayer. He was educated at the ''Gelehrtenschule des Johann ...

as Germany's most notable dramatic poet at the middle of the 19th century. Meanwhile he had married and settled permanently in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

, where he turned his attention to fiction. He published a series of admirable stories of Thuringian life, characterized by the same attention to minute detail and careful psychological analysis as his dramas. Some of these include ''Die Heiteretei und ihr Widerspiel'' (1851), and Ludwig's masterpiece, the powerful novel, ''Zwischen Himmel und Erde'' ''(Between Sky and Earth)'' (1855). In his ''Shakespeare-Studien'' (1871) Ludwig showed himself a discriminating critic, with a fine insight into the hidden springs of the creative imagination. So great, however, was his enthusiasm for

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

, that he was led to depreciate

Friedrich Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friends ...

in a way which found little favour among his countrymen. He died in Dresden in 1865. His detailed analyses and observations of Shakespearean plays were published posthumously.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ludwig, Otto 1813 births 1865 deaths People from Saxe-Hildburghausen 19th-century German dramatists and playwrights German male dramatists and playwrights 19th-century German male writers People from Hildburghausen (district)