Gutzkow

Gutzkow, KARL FERDINAND, German writer, born at Berlin, 17th March 1811. Whilst preparing for the calling of gymnasium teacher he became profoundly influenced by the French Revolution of 1830, and in 1831 he joined the critic Menzel in Stuttgart, and helped him to edit the Litteraturblatt. This his introduction to serious literary work led to the publication in 1832 of the satirical romance Maha-Guru, and in 1835 of Wally, die Zweiflerin. For this last Gutzkow was imprisoned for three months, his book being confiscated and himself forbidden to publish any work within the states of the Confederation—the author having revealed himself in his book as an ardent champion of the 'Young Germany' movement, the object of which was to oppose romanticism and advocate in place of it all those revolutionary ideas which are in their character essentially and peculiarly modern. As soon as he obtained his release he entered upon a period of restless and migratory activity as a journalist, until in 1847 he became director of the Court Theatre at Dresden. In the meantime he had written some successful dramas, Richard Savage (1839), Zopf und Schwert (1844), Das Urbild des Tartüffe (1847), Uriel Acosta (1847), besides Werner, Ottfried, Der Königsleutnant, and many others which won only dubious recognition. He also wrote some romances of considerable merit, as Die Ritter vom Geiste (9 vols. 1850-52), Der Zauberer von Rom (9 vols. 1858-61), Hohen-schwangan (5 vols. 1867-68), and Kleine Narrenwelt (1856), a collection of short stories. In 1864 Gutzkow, whilst suffering from a nervous mental disorder, made an unsuccessful attempt upon his own life. This malady returned in 1873, and after a visit to Italy he settled at Sachsenhausen, near Frankfort-on-Main, where he died, 16th December 1878. Gutzkow possessed a keen instinct for the spiritual fermentations and conflicts and the intellectual problems of his time, and in his literary productions could not sufficiently subordinate his interests to the proper canons of art. These didactic and critical phases of his temperament spoil most of his best books, except perhaps Uriel Acosta. Apart from this failing, and the great length of some of them, those same books exhibit much excellent character drawing, much keen analysis of motives, a penetrating insight into the tendencies of current thought, clever dialogues, and skilful and dramatic arrangement of situations and scenes. His Gesammelte Werke have been issued in 32 vols. (Jena, 1873 sq.).