Page:A biographical dictionary of modern rationalists.djvu/421

 STEUVE

a startling success with his novel, Rdda rummet. His next story, Det nya nket 2), was an even more caustic satire of conventional life and ideas, and the storm that broke drove him to live abroad. He was the leader of the young Swedish Rationalists who took their inspiration largely from Brandes, and one of the most brilliant writers of the north of Europe A volume of stories, Giftas (1884), was so lisdainfully anti-Christian in one passage that it was suppressed and a charge laid against Strindberg. He courageously re turned from Switzerland to meet the charge, and, to the general surprise, was acquitted. From 1895 to 1897 he had, unfortunately, a mental breakdown, and both his work and his creed were after wards lowered. He had been rather romantic until the middle of the eighties and had then for ten years followed the virile Eationalism of Brandes. He never returned to Christianity, but after his long mental illness he was mystic and rather Swedenborgian. D. May 14, 1912.

SUE

STRUYE, Gustay von, German re former. B. Oct. 11, 1805. Son of a Russian State-Councillor, Struve studied law in Germany, and was appointed secre tary of embassy at Frankfort. He deserted the Civil Service, and practised as a barrister at Mannheim, where he edited the Mannheimer Journal. He was several times imprisoned for the expression of his advanced views. In 1846 he established the Deutsche Zuschauer. Two years later he took an active part in the attempt to set up a republic in Baden, and when it failed he fled to Switzerland. Venturing back in 1849, he was condemned to five and a-half years in prison. The Repub licans released him, but they again failed and Struve migrated to America, where he wrote his most important work, Allgemeine Weltgeschichte (9 vols., 1853-60). His Rationalist views are given in this and in his Pflanzenkost (1869). He fought in the American Civil War, but returned to Ger many in 1868. D. Aug. 21, 1870. 769

STUCK, Professor Franz Ritter von,

German painter. B. Feb. 23, 1863. Ed. Munich Academy. Professor von Stuck he is professor at the Munich Academy of Plastic Arts is one of the best known painters of modern Germany, and is classed with Klinger and Lenbach. Besides a large number of medals, he has received the Bavarian Maximilian Order, the Order of the Bavarian Crown, and the title of nobility. He is a member of the SocietS Internationale de Peinture et de Sculpture, and the Berlin, Munich, Dresden, Milan, Antwerp, and other Academies. He is an outspoken supporter of Professor Haeckel, and one of the founders of the Monist League.

SUDERMANN, Hermann, German novelist and dramatist. B. Sep. 30, 1857. Ed. Elbing Gymnasium, and Konigsberg and Berlin Universities. Sudermann was engaged in his earlier years with teaching and journalism, but his drama, Die Ehe, was so successful in 1888 that he devoted himself entirely to fiction and the stage. His many plays and novels have put him with Hauptmann at the head of German letters, and he is known throughout the world by some of his stories. His Frau Sorcje (1888) ran to a hundred and twenty- five editions. Ho is a stern naturalist, with a deep social and ethical interest. His freedom offends many, but he is a serious artist. Much of the opposition to him is grounded upon the lack of any tinge of Christianity in his work. He is, in fact, an outspoken Monist, and one of the founders of the Monist League. At a great meeting of protest against clerical influence at Berlin in 1900 Sudermann made an eloquent speech, calling upon Germany to undertake a thorough struggle against ^ obscurantism,&quot; in the sense in which &quot; Lessing, Voltaire, and Ulrich Hutten had understood the struggle &quot; (Das Monistisclie Jahrhundert, February, 1913, p. 743).

SUE, Marie Joseph Eugene, French novelist. B. Jan. 20, 1804. Ed. Lycee

770

2D