Kotzebue

Kotzebue, AUGUST FRIEDRICH FERDINAND VON, a German dramatist, was born at Weimar on 3d May 1761, filled various offices in the public service of Russia, and from an early age was a facile writer of plays, tales, satires, historical works, &c.; he was stabbed to death at Mannheim, 23d March 1819, by Sand, a Jena student, because he had ridiculed the Burschenschaft movement. Besides quarrelling with Goethe, Kotzebue satirised the leaders of the Romantic school. Among his dramatic performances, the chief merit of which consists in their knowledge of stage-effect, their lively dialogue, and clever but superficial character drawing, may be mentioned Menschenhass und Reue (known on the English stage as The Stranger), Die Hussiten vor Naumburg, Die beiden Klingsberge, Der arme Poet, Armut und Edelsinn, Die Kreuzfahrer, Oktavia, &c. Kotzebue wrote no fewer than two hundred dramatic pieces, which have been collected in editions of 28 (1797-1823) and of 44 vols. (1827-29).—His son, OTTO VON KOTZEBUE, born on 30th December 1787 at Revel, accompanied Krusenstern round the world in 1803-6, and afterwards made two long voyages of exploration in the Pacific, discovering amongst others the Krusenstern Islands, Kotzebue Sound, and the Suwaroff Islands during his first voyage (1815-17); during the second expedition (1823-26) he visited the Samoa group, the Philippines, the Sandwich Islands, &c. He died at Revel on 15th February 1846. His two books, descriptive of his voyages, were both translated into English (1821 and 1830).