Friedrich Heinrich Karl Fouqué

Fouqué, Friedrich Freiherr de la Motte (1777–1843), writer of fiction romanticizing and sentimentalizing the Germanic past. As a youth he was a lieutenant in the Prussian army and later served as an officer in a volunteer corps during the Wars of Liberation from French rule. Ideals of knighthood, chivalry, and noble virtue are a chief object of depiction in his novels, which were much esteemed and highly popular during the Napoleonic period, not least because of their patriotic sentiment. His novels, the most prominent of which were Der Held des Nordens (The Hero of the North, 1810) and Der Zauberring (The Magical Ring, 1813), were subsequently eclipsed by the Waverley novels of Walter Scott and their immense international popularity. In contrast to Scott's historical fiction, Fouqué's narratives incorporated a great deal of popular legend, folk superstition, and faith in miracles. A chief and most successful example of this practice of Fouqué's is his Undine (1811), a mermaid tale that became a minor world classic. Taking its idea from a treatise by Paracelsus (c.1494–1541) on elemental spirits (Elementargeister), the story is about a mermaid's receipt of a soul through marriage to a knight, her loss of him then to a haughty mortal woman, and her sorrow over his death in her embrace as, in the end, she wins him back at the moment he is about to join the new wife in the bridal chamber on their wedding night.

Bibliography

• Lillyman, William J., ‘Fouqué's Undine’, Studies in Romanticism, 10 (1971).
• Mornin, Edward, ‘Some Patriotic Novels and Tales by La Motte Fouqué’, Seminar, 11 (1975).

— James M. McGlathery

Fouqué, Friedrich Heinrich Karl, Freiherr de la Motte (Brandenburg, 1777-1843, Berlin), a grandson of a well-known general serving under Friedrich II, entered the army in 1794 as a cornet in the Kürassier-Regiment Herzog von Weimar. At this time he saw active service. In 1803 he married Karoline von Briest (see Fouqué, Karoline de la Motte) and resigned his commission, living on his wife's estate at Nennhausen, west of Berlin. In the same year three dramatic sketches by Fouqué, including Der gehörnte Siegfried in der Schmiede, were published by F. Schlegel in Europa; and A. W. Schlegel published Fouqué's Dramatische Spiele in the following year. Both these publications appeared under the pseudonym Pellegrin.

Fouqué's production of romantic novels, tales, and plays grew rapidly, and he became probably the most widely read of all Romantic authors. Such prolific writing resulted in loss of quality, and most of his works proved ephemeral. Fouqué himself collected what he believed to be his best works into twelve slim volumes, which he published as Ausgewählte Werke. Ausgabe letzter Hand in 1841, at a time when his rather obvious brand of Romanticism had lost its magic. The works which he singled out in this way are: the mythological trilogy Der Held des Nordens (1810), consisting of Sigurd der Schlangentöter, Sigurds Rache, and Aslauga, the play Eginhard und Emma (1811), the Novelle Undine (1811), which is indisputably his best work, the long novel Der Zauberring (1812), the shorter work Sintram und seine Gefährten (1815), the stories Die beiden Hauptleute and Der Geheimrath, a few lesser narrative works, and a collection of poems. An edition of the poems had been published earlier in five volumes (Gedichte, 1816-27).

In 1813 Fouqué enlisted in the forces mobilized against Napoleon, and was soon a captain of horse in a regiment of volunteers. He served with distinction, participating in many engagements, and returned to civilian life in 1815. After his wife's death in 1831, he gave lectures in Halle, and was later invited to Berlin and granted a pension by King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. Fouqué's combination of historical, mythological, and idyllic elements is usually only partially successful, but in Undine he created a work which has become a symbol for Romanticism. A select edition of Werke (3 Teile), ed. W. Ziesemer, appeared in 1908 (repr. 1973); Werke I, Sämtliche Romane und Novellenbücher (18 vols.), ed. W. Möhrig with introd. by Ch. Lorenz, 1989-90.