Franz Michael Leuchsenring

Leuchsenring, Franz Michael (Langenkandel, Alsace, 1746-1827, Paris), was for a time in the employment of the court of Hesse-Darmstadt as a tutor, and was later in a similar capacity in the service of Friedrich II of Prussia. In 1792 the French Revolution attracted him to Paris, where he spent the remainder of his life in obscurity.

Leuchsenring was a sentimentalist and an ingratiating ladies' man. His conduct and character led Goethe, who met him in Darmstadt, to lampoon him in Ein Fastnachtspiel vom Pater Brey, Der Triumph der Empfindsamkeit, and Das Jahrmarktsfest zu Plundersweilen. Leuchsenring is also the original of Prediger Frank, an episodic character in L. J. von Arnim's Armut, Reichtum, Schuld und Buße der Gräfin Dolores.