biography
pronunciation:
[friytahk]
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1816–95)
|
| biography:
| Writer and historian, born in Kreuzburg, Silesia. After teaching philology he devoted himself to literature in the broadest sense, and made his mark not just as a Realist writer but as a formative force in bourgeois culture. Besides significantly influencing dramatic theory through Die Technik des Dramas (1863), he also founded a new type of contemporary comedy with plays such as Die Journalisten (1854). He championed the thriving middle classes as a parliamentary deputy and above all in his novels, notably Soll und Haben (1854), and his fond, vivid, and humorous depiction of commercial daily life soon won him a large readership. Later fame came through the authoritative historical work Bilder aus der deutschen Vergangenheit (1859–67) and the academic novel Die Ahnen (1873–81). |
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