Ludwig von Alvensleben (writer)
Karl Ludwig Friedrich Wilhelm Gustav von Alvensleben (born May 3, 1800 in Berlin , † August 3, 1868 in Vienna ) was a German writer .
Life
Ludwig von Alvensleben came from the Low German noble family von Alvensleben . At the age of thirteen he took part in the Wars of Liberation and initially embarked on a career as an officer. In 1821 he was punished for two years in the fortress because of a threatening letter written to Prince August of Prussia. From 1825 to 1828 he completed a law degree in Leipzig , but was unable to take the final examination due to a lack of knowledge of Latin. However, he was able to earn his living as a freelance writer , translator and journalist. In 1830 he was imprisoned for a short time because of a text printed in Halle and directed against the Leipzig police, "Shadows and No Light" (Goedecke, 1913, p. 419). In 1836 he temporarily headed the court theater in Meiningen . In 1841 he moved to Vienna. There he took an active part in the revolutionary uprisings in October 1848 and was initially sentenced to death after they had been suppressed, but then pardoned to one year imprisonment and expelled from Vienna after serving. Frequent illnesses affected his literary work, so that he was in need and had to be supported by his family.
plant
Alvensleben was a versatile entertainment writer. He wrote a number of his own short stories and novels under his pseudonyms Gustav Sellen and Chlodwig , worked successfully as a translator from English and French and was the editor of various magazines. The magazine “Allgemeine Theater-Chronik”, which he founded in 1832, which appeared until 1873 and which he edited until 1837, is still significant in terms of theater history. He also edited the magazine for the German nobility together with Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué from 1840 to 1844 . His translations included Napoleon's works (6 volumes, Chemnitz 1840), Eugène Sue's Complete Works (Leipzig 1838–46) in 24 volumes, as well as works by Balzac , Molières , Dumas ', Swifts ( Gulliver's Travels ), Defoes ( Robinson Crusoe ), and Casanovas ( Memoirs in 13 books). In total, he translated over 140 novels and plays and, along with Georg Nikolaus Bärmann (1785–1850), was the most important German translator of his time (Bachleitner, 1989).
Among his own works is Der Lügenkaiser - Schicksale des Herr von Münchhausen jun . (Meissen and Pesth 1833) - a time-critical satire that was reissued in 1966 and 1968 (as a paperback) - together with the original Münchhausen from 1768 - and characterized as follows: "Alvensleben was a revolutionary spirit that had the courage to to show the fractures he recognized in the state and social order as well as in the coexistence and work of people. This attitude, remarkable for his time, which did not stop at his own, still privileged social class, makes him particularly sympathetic. " (Wackermann, 1966).
Other works of his own were among others: Stories (Halberstadt 1830), The punishing Burggeist (Historischer Roman, Meißen 1830), Novellas and Stories (Nuremberg 1831), The Unmasked Jesuit (Meißen 1831 - several editions), life and travel pictures and short stories ( Leipzig 1841), encyclopedia of parlor games (Leipzig 1853, nine editions up to 1893), hen party jokes (Quedlinburg 1858, nine editions up to 1888), Garibaldi (biography, Weimar 1859), Prince Lobkowitz or: Revenge beyond the grave . (Historical novel, 3 volumes, Vienna 1862/63), General world history for the people (3 volumes, Vienna 1865–1872).
family
He was the son of the Prussian hussar major August von Alvensleben (1775-1819) from the Redekin house and Countess Charlotte von Schlippenbach adH Schönermark (1777-1831). In 1828 he married Florentine Herzog (1807-1833); 1834 Elvire Böhn (1818-1853) and in third marriage in 1853 Emma Greiffeld (1831-1909). Nine children were born from these marriages, five of whom died in childhood. His grandmother was the actress Friederike von Alvensleben , b. von Klinglin (1749-1799). This line became extinct with Bodo von Alvensleben (1903–1954) in the male line.
literature
- Meyers Konversationslexikon , 1841, p. 424
- Constantin von Wurzbach : Alvensleben, Louis von . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 22nd part. Imperial-Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1870, p. 462 ( digital copy ).
- Karl Goedeke , Edmund Goetze: Outline of the history of German poetry from the sources. 2nd Edition. Ehlermann, Leipzig 1913, vol. 10. p 416 -425.
- Udo von Alvensleben: Alvensleben, Ludwig Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Gustav. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1953, ISBN 3-428-00182-6 , p. 234 ( digitized version ).
- Wilhelm Kosch: German Literature Lexicon . Bern and Munich 1968, p. 89 f.
- Erwin Wackermann (ed.): Münchhausen's wonderful travels . Second increased edition. Hamburg 1966.
- Walter Killy (Ed.): Literaturlexikon , Volume 1. Bertelsmann Lexikon Verlag (1988), p. 118.
- Norbert Bachleitner: "Translation factories ". The German translation system in the first half of the 19th century . International Archive for the Social History of German Literature (IASL) 14 (1989) No. 1, pp. 1-49 (contains a list of the translations by Ludwig von Alvensleben in the appendix).
Web links
- familie-von-alvensleben.de
- Literature by and about Ludwig von Alvensleben in the catalog of the German National Library
- Works by and about Ludwig von Alvensleben in the German Digital Library
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Alvensleben, Ludwig von |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Alvensleben, Karl Ludwig Friedrich Wilhelm Gustav von (full name); Sellen, Gustav (pseudonym); Clovis (pseudonym) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German writer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 3, 1800 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Berlin |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 3, 1868 |
| Place of death | Vienna |