Wolfgang Menzel (21 or 26 June 179823 April 1873),

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

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 ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...

, critic and literary historian, was born at Waldenburg (

Wałbrzych Wałbrzych (; german: Waldenburg; szl, Wałbrzich; sli, label= Lower Silesian, Walmbrig or ''Walmbrich''; cs, Valbřich or ) is a city located in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in southwestern Poland. From 1975–1998 it was the capital of Wa ...

) in

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...

Career overview

He studied at the Breslau,

Jena Jena () is a German city 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 inhabitants, while the city itself has a po ...

, and

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

, and after living for some time in Aarau and

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

finally settled in Stuttgart, 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 again changed, and he opposed the particularism of the

Prussian Junkers The Junkers ( ; ) were members of the landed nobility in Prussia. They owned great estates that were maintained and worked by peasants with few rights. These estates often lay in the countryside outside of major cities or towns. They were an impor ...

and the anti-unionism of south Germany. 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 (french: Université de Strasbourg, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers. The French university traces its history to the ea ...

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

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 Bibliophiles German literary critics German poets People from Wałbrzych People from the Province of Silesia University of Bonn alumni University of Jena alumni University of Breslau alumni Members of the Württembergian Chamber of Deputies German male poets 19th-century poets 19th-century German writers 19th-century German male writers German male non-fiction writers