Robert Eduard Prutz (30 May 1816 – 21 June 1872) was a German

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

and prose writer. He was born at

Stettin Szczecin ( , , ; ; ; or ) is the capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the German border, it is a major seaport, the largest city of northwestern Poland, and se ...

, modern day Szczecin. He studied

philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, Breslau, and Halle, and in the last-named became associated, after taking his degree, with

Arnold Ruge Arnold Ruge (; 13 September 1802 – 31 December 1880) was a German philosopher and political writer. He was the older brother of Ludwig Ruge. Studies in university and prison Born in Bergen auf Rügen, he studied at Halle, Jena and Heidelberg. ...

in the publication of the '' Hallesche Jahrbücher''. Subjected on account of his advanced political views to police surveillance, he removed to

Jena Jena (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany 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 in ...

, where, on the strength of an excellent monograph, ''Der Göttinger Dichterbund'' (1841), he hoped to obtain an academic appointment. He was, however, expelled from the town for offending against the press laws, and it was not until 1846 that he received permission to lecture in Berlin. From 1849 to 1859 he was extraordinary professor of literature at Halle, but retired in 1859 to Stettin, where he died in 1872. Prutz belonged to the group of political poets who dominated

German literature German literature () comprises those literature, literary texts written in the German language. This includes literature written in Germany, Austria, the German parts of Switzerland and Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, South Tyrol in Italy ...

between 1841 and 1848; his poems are more conspicuous for their liberal tendency than their poetry. Among them may be mentioned ''Ein Märchen'' (1841); ''Gedichte'' (1841); ''Aus der Heimat'' (1858); ''Neue Gedichte'' (1860); ''Herbstrosen'' (i865); ''Buch der Liebe'' (1869). Among his novels are noteworthy, ''Das Engelchen'' (1851) and ''Der Musikantenturm'' (1855). Much more important are his contributions to literary history and criticism: ''Vorlesungen über die Geschichte des deutschen Theaters'' (1847); ''Ludwig Holberg'' (1857); ''Die deutsche Literatur der Gegenwart'' (1859), and ''Menschen und Bücher'' (1862). Prutz also wrote some dramas of little merit. His son Hans Prutz was a notable historian.

References

* R. von Gottschall, in ''Unsere Zeit'' (1872) *''

Allgemeine deutsche Biographie (ADB; ) is one of the most important and comprehensive biographical reference works in the German language. It was published by the Historical Commission of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences between 1875 and 1912 in 56 volumes, printed in Lei ...

'', Vol. 26, p. 678-68

{{DEFAULTSORT:Prutz, Robert 1816 births 1872 deaths Writers from Szczecin Writers from the Province of Pomerania Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Academic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin University of Breslau alumni Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg alumni Academic staff of the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg German male writers Poets from the Kingdom of Prussia