Herzog von Braunschweig Anton Ulrich

Anton Ulrich, Herzog von Braunschweig (Hitzacker, 1633-1714, Salzdahlum nr. Wolfenbüttel), second son of the bibliophile and scholar Duke August, was educated by J. G. Schottelius who was aided for a short time by S. von Birken, a contact which led to a lasting literary relationship between Birken and Anton Ulrich. He travelled extensively, and assisted his brother in government, being admitted in 1685 to equal powers with him and succeeding him on his death in 1704. His pro-French and anti-Hanoverian policy in the period leading up to the War of the Spanish Succession culminated in his eviction from Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel in 1702. In 1710 he converted to Roman Catholicism, while safeguarding the rights of his Protestant subjects.

Anton Ulrich, who as der Siegprangende became a member of the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft in 1659, began by writing religious poetry. In 1665 his Himmlische Lieder were published, an extended edition of which, Christ-Fürstliches Davids-Harpfen-Spiel, appeared in 1667 (with introduction by B. L. Spahr 1969). Between 1656 and 1663, stimulated by his experience of the Paris stage, he wrote the libretti for fifteen ballets and operas (Bühnendichtungen, 4 vols., ed. B. L. Spahr, 1982-5). In the former he regularly assumed the role of the sun or the bringer of light. He later built an opera house in Wolfenbüttel, where French and Italian operas were performed, and in Braunschweig, which became a centre for German opera.

His two many-volumed novels reflect the ideals of absolutist society. Set in patriarchal times Die Durchleuchtige Syrerinn Aramena (1669-73, ed B. L. Spahr, Pt. I-IV, 1975, Pt. V, 1983) deals with twenty-seven pairs of lovers. Its often complex story-line serves ultimately to reveal the existence of a divine plan. The contribution made by the Duke's sister, Sibylle Ursula, to the novel has been the subject of much research. The work was edited by Birken who also collaborated on Octavia, Römische Geschichte (1677-1707, 1712). This novel, never finally completed, depicts the era of Nero and the early Christians, into which Anton Ulrich introduced, as he did in Aramena, events and personages from his own time in the manner of the roman à clef.