Titus Ullrich (22 August 1813 – 17 December 1891) was a German poet, dramatist, art critic and literary critic from the
County of Kladsko. Some of his songs were set by
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann (; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career a ...
.
The son of a farmer and grandson of the Mayor of
Habelschwerdt (now
Bystrzyca Kłodzka
Bystrzyca Kłodzka ( cs, Kladská Bystřice, german: Habelschwerdt) is a historic town in Kłodzko County, in Lower Silesian Voivodeship in southwestern Poland. It is the administrative seat of Gmina Bystrzyca Kłodzka. As of December 2021, the ...
), he was born in the Hallmannschen Haus, Ring no. 7, where his mother had taken refuge during the disorder of the war. Raised by his grandfather, he entered the Glatzer Gymnasium in 1825, and proceeded in 1832 to
Breslau to study philosophy and classics, continuing his studies in Berlin one year later. He earned his doctorate in 1836.
The death of his father thwarted his plan of a
habilitation
Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...
, and he took employment as a private tutor in Berlin. His first works, ''Das Hohe Lied'' and ''Viktor'', were published in 1845 and 1847 and attracted a cult following. These ambitious philosophical epics championed the ideas of
Ludwig Feuerbach. In 1848 he improved his financial position by taking a job as a columnist at the ''
National-Zeitung
The ''National-Zeitung'' (NZ, ''National Newspaper'') was a weekly, extreme right newspaper, published by Gerhard Frey, who also founded the far right Deutsche Volksunion (German People's Union) as an association in 1971, turning it into a politi ...
'', where he remained until 1860. He was one of the founders of the
Rütli
Rütli () or Grütli (; ) is a mountain meadow on Lake Lucerne, in the Seelisberg municipality of the Swiss canton of Uri.
It is the site of the Rütlischwur in traditional Swiss historiography, the oath marking the foundation of the origi ...
literary group. In 1854 he travelled to Italy, and in 1857 he was able to visit the major art exhibition in Manchester, taking the opportunity to explore England and Scotland, and, on the way home, Belgium and Paris. His observations were published in the ''National-Zeitung'' and were collected after his death as ''Reisestudien'' (1893).
Towards the end of 1860 he was appointed privy secretary in the offices of the General Intendant of the Royal Theatre. He was later promoted to Privy Counsellor to the King, and then commissary. He continued to publish poetry but later regretted that he had not devoted more effort to his creative writing. His marriage to Emilie Ribbeck was happy and his life generally uneventful. He went into retirement in 1887, and died in Berlin in 1891.
Selected works
* 1845: ''Das Hohe Lied''
* 1847: ''Viktor''
* after 1887: ''Dichtungen''
Posthumous
* 1893: ''Reisestudien aus Italien, England und Schottland''
* 1894: ''Kritische Aufsätze über Kunst, Litteratur und Theater''
Bibliography
* Brümmer: ''Lexikon der deutschen Dichter und Prosaisten des 19. Jahrhunderts''
*
* ''Schlesische Zeitung'', 3 July 1887
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ullrich, Titus
1813 births
1891 deaths
People from Bystrzyca Kłodzka
Writers from the Province of Silesia
German male poets
19th-century German poets
19th-century German male writers