Immermann

Immermann, KARL LEBERECHT, dramatist and humorist, was born at Magdeburg on 24th April 1796, and educated at his native town and at Halle, where he opposed the duelling Burschenschaften (q.v.). In 1817 he entered the public service of Prussia, and, after serving at Münster, Magdeburg, and Düsseldorf, died at the last-named town on 25th August 1840. For twenty years of his life (1819–39) he was greatly influenced by the Countess von Ahlefeldt, an intellectual lady of literary tastes. Immermann began his literary career as an adherent of the Romantic school, and in the spirit of that school wrote the comedies Die Prinzen von Syrakus (1821) and Das Auge der Liebe (1824), and the tragedies Das Thal von Roneeval (1822), König Periander (1823), and others. His later dramatic works, as the trilogy Alexis (1832) and the mythical piece Mertin (1831), show more originality and fewer traces of Romantic influence. He failed in an endeavour to make the theatre at Düsseldorf, of which he became director in 1835, a model of classic elegance and healthy influence. His fame rests more enduringly upon his tales (Miscellen, 1830) and the humorous, satirical novels Die Epigonen (1836) and Münchhausen (1839), this last the best known of his works and one of the best of German novels. The idyllic portion of Münchhausen has often been printed separately under the title Der Oberhof. Besides these he wrote a mock-heroic poem Tulifantchen (1827), the epic Tristan und Isolde (1842), and Memorabilien (1840-43), the last two left incomplete. Collected editions of his works were published in 14 vols. (1840-43), and in 20 vols. by Boxberger (1883). See Life by his widow, edited by G. von Putlitz (2 vols. 1870).