Kerner

Kerner, ANDREAS JUSTINUS, one of the leading members of the 'Swabian School' of poets, was born at Ludwigsburg, in Württemberg, 18th September 1786. He studied at Maulbronn, and afterwards medicine at Tübingen, and settled in 1818 as a physician at Wildbad, and finally at Weinsberg. Here he died, 21st February 1862. Along with his friends Uhland and G. Schwab he published Der poetischer Almanach (1812) and Der deutsche Dichterwald (1813). But his chief poetical works are Reiseschatten von dem Schattenspieler Lux (1811); Romantische Dichtungen (1817); and Der letzte Blütenstrauss (1852). His poetry approaches closely to the Volksslieder in freshness and simpli- city, and is lit up with gleams of humour; but it sometimes drops to the lower levels of romanticism. He took a keen interest in the phenomena of animal magnetism, and wrote several books on the subject, one of which, Die Scherin von Prevorst (1829; 6th ed. 1892), excited great attention. See Lives by Niethammer (1877) and Reinhard (1886), and Du Pre's Die Scherin von Prevorst (1886).