Paul Lindau (3 June 1839 – 31 January 1919) was a German dramatist and novelist.

Life and Works

Lindau was born in

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river. Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebu ...

as the son of Carl Lindau, a lawyer (Justizkommissar) whose parents Hertz Levin (a physician) and Henriette Cohen had converted from

Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in th ...

Protestantism Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

. Hertz Levin changed his name to Hermann Lindau after conversion.Wilhelm, Gertraude, "Lindau, Paul" in: ''Neue Deutsche Biographie'' 14 (1985), p. 573-575
Online version
Paul was educated at

Halle Halle may refer to: Places Germany * Halle (Saale), also called Halle an der Saale, a city in Saxony-Anhalt ** Halle (region), a former administrative region in Saxony-Anhalt ** Bezirk Halle, a former administrative division of East Germany ** Hal ...

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 ...

, and

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 constitu ...

. He spent five years in

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. Si ...

to further his studies, acting meanwhile as foreign correspondent to German papers. After his return to Germany in 1863 he was engaged in journalism in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in ...

and

Elberfeld Elberfeld is a municipal subdivision of the German city of Wuppertal; it was an independent town until 1929. History The first official mentioning of the geographic area on the banks of today's Wupper River as "''elverfelde''" was in a doc ...

. In 1870 he founded ''Das neue Blatt'' at Leipzig; from 1872 to 1881 he edited the Berlin weekly '; and in 1878 he founded the well-known monthly ''Nord und Süd'', which he continued to edit until 1904. Two books of travel, ''Aus Venetien'' (Düsseldorf, 1864) and ''Aus Paris'' (

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the Sw ...

, 1865), were followed by some volumes of critical studies, written in a light,

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or ...

vein, which at once made him famous. These were ''Harmlose Briefe eines deutschen Kleinstädters'' (Leipzig, 2 vols., 1870), ''Moderne Märchen fur grosse Kinder'' (Leipzig, 1870) and ''Literarische Rücksichtslosigkeiten'' (Leipzig, 1871). He was appointed intendant of the court theatre at

Meiningen Meiningen () is a town in the southern part of the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in the region of Franconia and has a population of around 25,000 (2021).

in 1895, but removed to Berlin in 1899, where he became manager of the Berliner Theater, and subsequently, until 1905, the Deutsches Theater. He began his dramatic career in 1868 with ''Marion'', the first of a long series of plays in which he displayed a remarkable talent for stage effect and a command of witty and lively dialogue. Among the more famous were ''Maria und Magdalena'' (1872), ''Tante Therese'' (1876), ''Gräfin Lea'' (1879), ''Die Erste'' (1895), ''Der Abend'' (1896), ''Der Herr im Hause'' (1899), and ''So ich dir'' (1903). He also adapted many plays by Dumas, Augier and Sardou for the German stage. Five volumes of his plays were published (Berlin, 1873–1888). Some of his volumes of short stories acquired great popularity, notably ''Herr und Frau Bewer'' ( Breslau, 1882) and ''Toggenburg und andere Geschichten'' (Breslau, 1883). A novel-sequence entitled ''Berlin'' included ''Der Zug nach dem Westen'' (Stuttgart, 1886, 10th ed. 1903), ''Arme Mädchen'' (1887, 9th ed. 1905) and ''Spitzen'' (1888, 8th ed. 1904). Later novels were ''Die Gehilfin'' (Breslau, 1894), ''Die Brüder'' (

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 ...

, 1895) and ''Der König von Sidon'' (Breslau, 1898). His earlier books on ''Molière'' (Leipzig, 1871) and ''Alfred de Musset'' (Berlin, 1877) were followed by some volumes of dramatic and literary criticism, ''Gesammelte Aufsätze'' (Berlin, 1875), ''Dramaturgische Blätter'' (Stuttgart, 2 vols., 1875; new series, Breslau, 1878, 2 vols.), and ''Vorspiele auf dem Theater'' (Breslau, 1895).

Brother

His brother, Rudolf Lindau (b. 1829), was a well-known diplomat and author.

Britannica References

* Hadlich, ''Paul Lindau als dramatischer Dichter'' (2nd ed., Berlin, 1876).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lindau, Paul 1839 births 1919 deaths Writers from Magdeburg People from the Province of Saxony Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg alumni Leipzig University alumni Humboldt University of Berlin alumni German male writers