Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 06.pdf/27

 8

member of the Stdndeversammlung and the Kammer, he was one of the staunchest " con stitutional opponents." In 1848 he came again into prominence as a member of the Deutsche Nationalversammlung. He died in 1862. A monument, designed by Kietz, was erected to him in 1873; but his mem ory is imperishably engraved in the hearts of the German people. As patriot he is among the best of his nation, as lyric poet he is almost without a peer. His ballads and romances are unequalled for a rare facility to sketch life-characters in a few wellrounded sentences. With all his predilec tions for the lost grandeur of the heroic German age, he was never found to belittle the achievements of his own time. Although partly belonging to the Romantic School, his lucid manner of presentation, substantial knowledge, arid patriotic candor favorably contrast with the false sentimentality and vagueness of expression of that school. What a world of hope lies in this prophecy : "Wo immer miide Fechter Sinken nach hartem Strauss : Es kommen neue Geschlechter Und fechtens ehrlich aus." Friedrich Riickert is best known as the interpreter of oriental legends and poetry, of which he presented a considerable number in the acceptable dress of German blank verse. He was born in 1788 in Schweinfurt and studied law at Wiirtzburg and Heidel berg. Later he confined himself almost entirely to oriental philology, of which science he subsequently became professor at Erlangen, and in 1841 at Berlin. In 1849 he retired from academic teaching and fol lowed exclusively literary pursuits. Of his Works there are many, the poetical works alone comprising twelve volumes. Although he only died in 1866, the prevailing modern

taste regards his poetry as somewhat anti quated. He is certainly not appreciated as his fine wit and faultless diction deserve. There was a time in Germany when it was thought unbecoming for a map of genius to lead an orderly domestic life. A sort of strolling aimlessness was the sign of the times at the close of the last and the begin ning of this century. This perverted senti ment, so masterly portrayed in Goethe's "Wilhelm Meister," affected the moral ver tebras of many men that were neither geniuses nor of an exceptionally bad dis position. The poet Carl von Holtei was one of the victims of those times. In 1797, in the stately city of Breslau, he first saw the light of the world. With youthful enthusiasm he en listed in the Prussian army in the year when the battle of Leipsic was fought. After Napoleon's banishment he went home to study law. His restless nature soon drove him to the stage, which later on he deserted as actor, occupying a post as secretary of the city theatre in Breslau. He married the actress Louise Rogee and went later to Berlin. His young wife dying shortly after marriage, he married again, when he lost his second wife in 1838. During several decades of his life he was travelling over Germany and a part of Russia as leader of an itinerant theatrical troupe, so common in those days. In 1870 he went back to Breslau, where he found an asylum in the cloister of the order Barmherzige Briider. He died in 1880. A ro mantic look-out in Breslau is named after him the " Holtei-Hohe," where a simple monument was erected to his memory in 1882. He published in 1826 his poems, and followed with a great number of pieces for the stage, among which the drama "Lorbeerbaum und Bettelstab " is still on the repertoire of the royal as well as the provincial stages.