Wolfgang Menzel (21 June 179823 April 1873) was a German

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as Art criticism, art, Literary criticism, literature, Music journalism, music, Film criticism, cinema, Theater criticism, theater, Fas ...

and literary historian, who was born in Waldenburg (

Wałbrzych Wałbrzych (; ; or ''Walmbrich''; or ) is a city located in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in southwestern Poland, seat of Wałbrzych County. Wałbrzych lies approximately southwest of the voivodeship capital Wrocław and about from the Czec ...

) in

Prussian Silesia The Province of Silesia (; ; ) was a provinces of Prussia, province of Kingdom of Prussia, Prussia from 1815 to 1919. The Silesia region was part of the Prussian realm since 1742 and established as an official province in 1815, then became part ...

Career overview

He studied at the Breslau,

Jena Jena (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 in ...

, and

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

, and after living for some time in

Aarau Aarau (, ) is a List of towns in Switzerland, town, a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality, and the capital of the northern Swiss Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Aargau. The List of towns in Switzerland, town is also the capital of the d ...

and

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

finally settled in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

, where, from 1830 to 1838, he had a seat in the Württemberg Diet. His first work, a clever and original volume of poems, entitled ''Streckverse'' (Heidelberg, 1823), was followed in 1824-1825 by a popular ''Geschichte der Deutschen'' in three volumes and in 1829 and 1830 by ''Rubezahl and Narcissus'', the dramatized fairy-stories upon which his reputation as a poet chiefly rests. In 1851 he published the romance of ''Furore'', a lively picture of the period of the Thirty Years' War; his other writings include ''Geschichte Europas'', 1789-1815 (2 vols. Stuttgart, 1853), and histories of the German War of 1866 and of the Franco-German War of 1870-71. From 1826 to 1848 Menzel edited a ''Literaturblatt'' in connection with the ''Morgenblatt''; in the latter year he transferred his allegiance from the Liberal to the Conservative party, and in 1852 his ''Literaturblatt'' was revived in that interest. In 1866, his political sympathies shifted once again, and he opposed the particularism of the Prussian Junkers and the anti-unionism of southern Germany. He passed away on 23 April 1873 in Stuttgart. He died on 23 April 1873 in Stuttgart. His library of 18,000 volumes was afterwards acquired for the

University of Strassburg The University of Strasbourg (, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers. Founded in the 16th century by Johannes Sturm, it was a center of intellectual life during ...

. Menzel was a strident opponent of innovation in poetry and in particular of

Heinrich Heine Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (; ; born Harry Heine; 13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856) was an outstanding poet, writer, and literary criticism, literary critic of 19th-century German Romanticism. He is best known outside Germany for his ...

Works

*
German Literature
'
Vol. 2Vol. 3
Boston: Hilliard, Gray and Company, 1840.
“Nationality and Cosmopolitsm,”
''The American Eclectic'', No. 3, Art. IV, January 1842. *
The History of Germany: From the Earliest Period to 1842
'
Vol. 2Vol. 3
London: Henry G. Bohn, 1852.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Menzel, Wolfgang 1798 births 1873 deaths 19th-century German male writers 19th-century German poets German bibliophiles German literary critics German male non-fiction writers German male poets Members of the Württembergian Chamber of Deputies Writers from the Province of Silesia People from Wałbrzych University of Bonn alumni University of Breslau alumni University of Jena alumni Poets from the Kingdom of Prussia Scholars from the Kingdom of Prussia