Ludwig Laistner (3 November 1845 – 22 March 1896) was a German novelist, mythologist, and literary historian. He was born in

Esslingen am Neckar Esslingen am Neckar (Swabian: ''Esslenga am Neckor'') is a town in the Stuttgart Region of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany, seat of the District of Esslingen as well as the largest town in the district. Within Baden-Württemberg it is th ...

. He studied theology in

Tübingen Tübingen (, , Swabian: ''Dibenga'') is a traditional university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer rivers. about one in three ...

from 1863 to 1867 and was a pastor for two years before heart trouble obliged him to resign. He took instead a position as a private tutor in Munich, where he joined ''

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 ...

'', a poets' society, and worked with

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 n ...

on the ''Neuen deutschen Novellenschatz'', a compilation of short stories. From 1880 he devoted himself entirely to literature, eventually becoming the literary advisor of the Cotta publishing house. He wrote historical novels and poems, and ''Das Rätsel der Sphinx'' (1889), a book on

mythology Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narra ...

from an

Idealist In philosophy, the term idealism identifies and describes metaphysical perspectives which assert that reality is indistinguishable and inseparable from perception and understanding; that reality is a mental construct closely connected to id ...

perspective which argued that

dream A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Humans spend about two hours dreaming per night, and each dream lasts around 5 to 20 minutes, althou ...

s and nightmares were the ultimate source of many famous myths. The book was highly praised by

Rudolf Steiner Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner (27 or 25 February 1861 – 30 March 1925) was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as ...

and was a direct predecessor of

psychoanalytic PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might ...

interpretation. He was a translator of medieval student songs such as those of the ''

Carmina Burana ''Carmina Burana'' (, Latin for "Songs from Benediktbeuern" 'Buria'' in Latin is a manuscript of 254 poems and dramatic texts mostly from the 11th or 12th century, although some are from the 13th century. The pieces are mostly bawdy, irreverent ...

'', and wrote book reviews for '' Allgemeine Zeitung''. His last efforts (1893–96) were on a new edition of the works of

Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as tr ...

. He died in Stuttgart.

Works

* ''Barbarossas Brautwerber'', epic poem (Stuttgart 1875) * ''Nebelsagen'' (Stuttgart 1879) * ''Golias'', translations of medieval student songs (Stuttgart 1879) * ''Novellen aus alter Zeit'' (Berlin 1882) * ''Der Archetypus der Nibelungen'' (Munich 1887) * ''Das Rätsel der Sphinx'' (Berlin 1889)

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Laistner, Ludwig 1845 births 1896 deaths People from Esslingen am Neckar German historical novelists German literary historians German male novelists 19th-century German novelists 19th-century German male writers 19th-century German writers German male non-fiction writers