Erich Brautlacht

Brautlacht, Erich (Rheinberg nr. Xanten/Lower Rhine, 1902-57, Kleve), a stipendiary magistrate and later judiciary civil servant (1953), wrote stories and novels in which feeling and humour are often combined. They frequently have the lawcourt background with which he was familiar, and are to some extent local in appeal. An imaginary small Rhenish town ‘Pöppelswyck’ provides the milieu for several of his books. His principal works are the novels Einsaat (1933), Das Testament einer Liebe (1936, republished in 1940 with the title Das Vermächtnis einer Liebe), Magda und Michael (1937), Meister Schure (1939), Der Sohn (1949), and Das Beichtgeheimnis (1956). His collections of stories are Die Poppelswycker (1928), Spiegel der Gerechtigkeit (1942), and Ignoto (1947). In his last novel, Versuchung in Indien. Warren Hastings, published posthumously in 1958, he turned from his customary provincial settings to British colonial history.