Paul Johann Ludwig von Heyse (March 15, 1830 - April 2, 1914) was a distinguished German author. Paul von Heyse was born in
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
,
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
, the son of
Karl Wilhelm Ludwig HeyseKarl Wilhelm Ludwig Heyse was a German philologist, son of Johann Christian August Heyse, father of the novelist Paul Johann Ludwig von Heyse, born at Oldenburg. He studied Greek and Latin and became assistant professor of philosophy in Berlin in 1829...
, a notable philologist, and Julie Saaling. Saaling, his mother, was the daughter of a prominent Jewish family, a well-to-do court jeweler related to
Felix MendelssohnJakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, born, and generally known in English-speaking countries, as Felix Mendelssohn was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period....
. He was educated in Berlin and at
BonnBonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 20 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990...
, where he studied classical languages. Afterwards, he translated many Italian poets.
Paul Johann Ludwig von Heyse (March 15, 1830 - April 2, 1914) was a distinguished German author. Paul von Heyse was born in
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
,
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
, the son of
Karl Wilhelm Ludwig HeyseKarl Wilhelm Ludwig Heyse was a German philologist, son of Johann Christian August Heyse, father of the novelist Paul Johann Ludwig von Heyse, born at Oldenburg. He studied Greek and Latin and became assistant professor of philosophy in Berlin in 1829...
, a notable philologist, and Julie Saaling. Saaling, his mother, was the daughter of a prominent Jewish family, a well-to-do court jeweler related to
Felix MendelssohnJakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, born, and generally known in English-speaking countries, as Felix Mendelssohn was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period....
. He was educated in Berlin and at
BonnBonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 20 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990...
, where he studied classical languages. Afterwards, he translated many Italian poets. He also wrote short stories and published several novels, the most famous being
Kinder der Welt ("Children of the World", 1873). In Berlin he was member of the poets' society "
Tunnel über der SpreeThe Tunnel über der Spree was a German, Berlin-based literary society. Members included Theodor Fontane, Paul Heyse, Theodor Storm, the writer and engineer Heinrich Seidel among others. Theodor Fontane has documented the society's activities in his memoir Von Zwanzig bis Dreißig....
", in Munich together with
Emanuel GeibelEmanuel von Geibel , German poet and playwright, was born at Lübeck, the son of a pastor in the city.He was originally intended for his father's profession and studied at Bonn and Berlin, but his real interests lay not in theology but in classical and romance philology. In 1838 he accepted a...
and others in the poets' society "Krokodil" (Crocodile).
He wrote books, poems, and about 60 dramas. The sum of Heyse's many and varied productions has made him a dominant figure among German men of letters. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1910 "as a tribute to the consummate artistry, permeated with idealism, which he has demonstrated during his long productive career as a lyric poet, dramatist, novelist and writer of world-renowned short stories". Wirsen, one of the Nobel judges, said 'Germany has not had a greater literary genius since Goethe'. Heyse is the third oldest laureate in literature, after Doris Lessing and Theodor Mommsen.
External links