Heinrich Seidel

Seidel, Heinrich (1842–1906), much loved German writer of children's stories and songs. He is best known for his novels on the Biedermeier idyll of the eponymous Leberecht Hühnchen (1882–90). Influenced by Robert Reinick and Hans Christian Andersen, he wrote his first fairy tale ‘Schmetterlingskönigin Wieglinde’ (‘Wieglinde, Queen of the Butterflies’) in 1864. Although didactic‐moral tales, the exquisite stories in his two‐volume collection Wintermärchen (Winter Tales, 1885) are also entertaining and have been published in various collections since 1945: Zitrinchen und andere Märchen (Citronella and Other Fairy Tales, 1958, 1969) and Das Zauberklavier (The Magic Piano, 1959).

— Karen Seago

Seidel, Heinrich (Perlin, Mecklenburg, 1842-1906, Berlin-Lichterfelde), a pastor's son, who trained as a civil engineer. In his 30s he began to write poetry and stories, and in 1880 soon after completing the iron-and-glass roof of the Anhalter Bahnhof, Berlin, his best-known engineering assignment, he retired to devote himself entirely to writing. His best work is found in his humorous Novellen Vorstadtgeschichten (1880) and especially the three series dealing with the amiable and contented eccentric, Leberecht Hühnchen (Leberecht Hühnchen, 1882; Neues von Leberecht Hühnchen, 1888; Leberecht Hühnchen als Großvater, 1890). All these were incorporated in Leberecht Hühnchen (1900). The setting of these stories is the Berlin Vorstadt, the drabness of which cannot dim Hühnchen's optimistic good humour. Seidel also wrote for children (Kinderlieder und Geschichten, 1903). H. W. Seidel (1876-1945) was his son and Ina Seidel his niece and daughter-in-law. Von Perlin nach Berlin (1894) is autobiographical. Gesammelte Schriften (20 vols.) appeared 1888-1907.