Werner, FRIEDRICH LUDWIG ZACHARIAS

Werner, FRIEDRICH LUDWIG ZACHARIAS, dramatist, was born at Königsberg, 18th November 1768, studied at the university there, and in 1793-1805 was in the Prussian civil service. As author of a series of dramas he became founder of a side branch of the Romantic school, that of the mysterious and extravagant 'fate-tragedies.' He was thrice married and thrice separated by divorce, entered the Catholic Church at Rome in 1811, and died a priest at Vienna, 17th January 1823. His chief works are Die Söhne der Thals (1803), Das Kreuz an der Ostsee (1804), and Martin Luther (1806). See the long essay in Carlyle's Miscellanies. There are biographies by Hitzig (1823), Schülz (1841), and Düntzer (1873).