Ludwig Tieck

born May 31, 1773, Berlin, Prussia
[Germany]
died April 28, 1853, Berlin
versatile and prolific writer and critic
of the early Romantic movement in
Germany. He was a born storyteller, and
his best work has the quality of a
Märchen (fairy tale) that appeals to the
emotions rather than the intellect.
The son of a craftsman, Tieck was
educated at the Berlin gymnasium
(1782–92) and at the universities of
Halle, Göttingen, and Erlangen
(1792–94). Through friendship with W.H.
Wackenroder, he began to realize his
talent; together, they studied William
Shakespeare, Elizabethan drama, Middle
High German literature, and medieval
town architecture.
Characteristic of early German
Romanticism are Tieck’s Die Geschichte
des Herrn William Lovell, 3 vol.
(1795–96; “The Story of Mr. William
Lovell”), a novel in letter form that
describes the moral self-destruction of
a sensitive young intellectual; Karl von
Berneck (1797), a five-act tragedy set
in the Middle Ages; and Franz Sternbalds
Wanderungen, 2 vol. (1798), a novel of
artistic life in the late Middle Ages. A
series of plays based on fairy
tales—including Ritter Blaubart
(“Bluebeard”) and Der gestiefelte Kater
(“Puss in Boots”)—that parodied the
rationalism of the 18th-century
Enlightenment were published in
Volksmärchen (1797), under the pseudonym
Peter Leberecht (“live right”). This
collection includes one of Tieck’s best
short novels, Der blonde Eckbert (“Fair
Eckbert”), the fantastic story of an
obsessive fear; this work won the praise
of August and Friedrich von Schlegel,
the leading critics of the Jena
Romantics.
In 1799 Tieck published a translation
of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and he
started a translation of Don Quixote
(published 1799–1801). His early work
culminated in the grotesque, lyrical
plays Leben und Tod der heiligen
Genoveva (1800; “The Life and Death of
the Holy Genevieve”) and Kaiser
Octavianus (1804). Phantasus, 3 vol.
(1812–16), a heterogeneous collection of
works in a narrative framework,
indicated a movement toward realism.
After 1802 Tieck’s creative powers
apparently became dormant. He studied
Middle High German, collected and
translated Elizabethan plays, published
new editions of 16th- and 17th-century
German plays, and acted as adviser to
the Shakespeare translation begun by
August von Schlegel. He also published
works by such contemporary German
writers as Novalis and Heinrich von
Kleist.
From 1825 to 1842 Tieck served as
adviser and critic at the theatre in
Dresden. During those years he became
the greatest living literary authority
in Germany after J.W. von Goethe. His
creative energies were renewed; he
turned away from the fantasy of his
earlier work and found his material in
contemporary middle-class society or
history. The 40 short novels of this
period contain polemics against both the
younger Romantics and the contemporary
“Young Germany” movement, which was
attempting to establish a national
German theatre based on democratic
ideals. Dichterleben (“A Poet’s Life”;
part 1, 1826; part 2, 1831) concerned
the early life of Shakespeare. Vittoria
Accorombona (1840; The Roman Matron) was
a historical novel. In 1842 he accepted
the invitation of Frederick William IV
of Prussia to go to Berlin, where he
remained the rest of his years, and
where, as in Dresden, he became the
centre of literary society.