Schack, Adolf Friedrich, Graf von (Brüsewitz nr. Schwerin, 1815-94, Rome), the son of a wealthy country gentleman, studied law at Bonn, Heidelberg, and Berlin universities and entered the Prussian civil service in 1838. In 1839 he was granted leave and made a tour of Italy and the Near East, afterwards spending some time in Spain on literary studies. His Geschichte der dramatischen Literatur und Kunst in Spanien appeared in three volumes, 1845-6, and was followed by translations of Spanish drama (Spanisches Theater, 2 vols., 1845). He translated Spanish and Portuguese poetry (jointly with E. Geibel, Romanzero der Spanier und Portugiesen, 1860), and oriental literature (Epische Dichtungen des Firdusi, 2 vols., 1853). A learned work on Arabic literature, Poesie und Kunst der Araber in Spanien und Sicilien (2 vols.), appeared in 1865. He transferred in 1840 from Prussian to Mecklenburg-Schwerin service and was until 1852 a representative of his state in Frankfurt. In 1855 he settled in Munich at the invitation of King Maximilian II. He devoted much of his wealth to encouraging German painters and acquiring a collection of contemporary German works, which he left at his death to the German Emperor, who agreed to its being retained in Munich.

Towards the end of his life Schack published a historical work, Geschichte der Normannen in Sicilien (2 vols., 1889). He was one of the Munich school of poets (see Münchner Dichterkreis), and his poems, published in Gedichte (1867), are elegant and fluent. He also wrote three tragedies (Pisaner, 1872; Timandra, 1879; and Atlantis, 1880) and two epics, Lothar (1872) and Die Plejaden (1881). He published his recollections in Ein halbes Jahrhundert (3 vols., 1888). He was made Graf von Schack in 1876. Gesammelte Werke (10 vols.) appeared 1897-9.

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