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RUDOLF VON GOTTSCHALL (1823-1909)

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 279 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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RUDOLF VON GOTTSCHALL (1823-1909)  , German man of letters, was born at Breslau on the 3oth of September 1823, the son of a Prussian artillery officer . He received his early
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education at the gymnasia in Mainz and
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Coburg, and subsequently at
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Rastenburg in East Prussia . In 1841 he entered the university of Konigsberg as a student of law, but, in consequence of his pronounced liberal opinions, was expelled . The
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academic authorities at Breslau and
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Leipzig were not more tolerant towards the young fire-eater, and it was only in Berlin that he eventually found himself
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free to prosecute his studies . During this period of unrest he issued Lieder der Gegenwart (1842) and Zensurfliichtlinge (1843)—the poetical fruits of his
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political
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enthusiasm . He completed his studies in Berlin, took the degree of doctor
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juris in Konigsberg, and endeavoured to obtain there the venia legendi . His political views again stood in the way, and forsaking the legal career, Gottschall now devoted himself entirely to literature . He met with immediate success, and beginning as dramaturge in Konigsberg with Der Blinde von Alcala (1846) and Lord Byron in Italien (1847) proceeded to
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Hamburg where he occupied a similar position . In 1852 he married
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Marie, baroness von Seherr-Thoss, and for the next few years lived in
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Silesia . In 1862 he took over the editorship of a Posen newspaper, but in 1864 removed"to Leipzig . Gottschall was raised, in 1877, by the king of Prussia to the hereditary
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nobility with the prefix " von," having been previously made a Geheimer Hofrat by the
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grand duke of
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Weimar . Down to 1887 Gottschall edited the Brockhaus'sche Blatter fur litterarische Uxterhaltung and the monthly periodical Unsere Zeit .

He died at Leipzig on the 21st of

March 1909 . Gottschall's prolific
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literary productions cover the fields of
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poetry, novel-writing and literary criticism . Among his volumes of lyric poetry are Sebastopol (1856),
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Janus (1873), Bunte Bliiten (1891) . Among his epics, Carlo
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Zeno (1854), Maja (1864), dealing with an
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episode in the
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Indian Mutiny, and Merlins Wanderungen (1887) . The
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comedy Pitt and Fox (1854), first produced on the stage in Breslau, was never surpassed by the other lighter pieces of the author, among which may be mentioned Die Welt
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des Schwindels and Der Spion von Rheinsberg . The tragedies, Mazeppa, Catharine Howard, Amy
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Robsart and Der Gotze von Venedig, were very successful; and the
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historical novels, lm Banne des schwarzen Adlers (1875; 4th ed., 1884), Die Erbschaft des Blutes (1881), Die rocker Riibezahls (1889), and Verkummerte Existenzen (1892), enjoyed a high degree of popularity . As a critic and historian of literature Gottschall has also done excellent
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work . His Die deutsche Nationalliteratur des zg . Jahrhunderts (1855; 7th ed., 1901-1902), and Poetik (1858; 6th ed., 1903) command the respect of all students of literature . Gottschall's collected Dramatische Werke appeared in 12 vols. in 188o (2nd ed., 1884); he has also, in
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recent years, published many volumes of collected essays and criticisms . See his autobiography, Aus meiner Jugend (1898) .

End of Article: RUDOLF VON GOTTSCHALL (1823-1909)
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GOTTESCALE] GOTTSCHALK [GODESCALUS (c. 808-867?)
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JOHANN CHRISTOPH GOTTSCHED (1700-1766)

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