Herbert Eulenberg

Eulenberg, Herbert (Cologne, 1876-1949, Düsseldorf-Kaiserswerth), abandoned a civil service career to become a theatrical producer in Düsseldorf (1906-9), and thereafter was a prolific, skilful writer of plays with sensational action directed against conventional society which achieved considerable stage success. His best-known plays are Anna Walewska (1899), Leidenschaft (1910, a military tragedy akin to Hartleben's Rosenmontag), Ein halber Held (1903), Der natürliche Vater (1909), Alles um Geld (1911), Belinde (1911), Ernste Schwänke (1913), Zeitwende (1914), Der Übergang (1922), Thomas Münzer (1932), and Tilman Riemenschneider (1934). He is also the author of novels, stories, and internationally successful biographical sketches, Schattenbilder (1910-11), Neue Bilder (1912), and Letzte Bilder (1915), as well as full biographies of Heine (1947) and Freiligrath (1948). An edition of Ausgewählte Werke (5 vols.) appeared in 1925. In 1936 he was banned from publishing. He became an honorary citizen of Düsseldorf in 1946, and in 1949 received the Nationalpreis of the DDR.