Heinrich Laube

Laube, Heinrich (Sprottau, Silesia, 1806-84, Vienna), in full Heinrich Rudolf Constanz, grew up in straitened circumstances in a remote country town and was sent to grammar school at Glogau and Schweidnitz, and in 1826 to Halle University, where he was supposed to study theology (the poor man's faculty); in fact he spent most of his time away from lectures, becoming an expert student duellist. In 1827 he migrated to Breslau, and inclined more and more towards literary studies. In 1829 Laube rashly founded a literary journal (Aurora), which ceased publication after a few months, leaving him with substantial debts that took years to pay off. In order to earn his living he became in 1830 private tutor in the house of Dr Rupricht at Kottwitz, and in 1831 moved to a similar post with a family named Nimptsch at Jäschkowitz near Breslau.

While in this employment Laube wrote his first book, the political essays Das neue Jahrhundert (2 vols., 1833). He left Jäschkowitz in 1832 and moved to Leipzig to seek employment with the publishers Brockhaus; from 1833 to 1834 he was editor of the Zeitung für die elegante Welt, a journal which, despite its title, was now radical in tendency. At this time he began a political and social novel, Das junge Europa, which appeared in 3 vols. entitled Die Poeten (1833), Die Krieger (1837), and Die Bürger (1837). In the same year (1833) he undertook with a new acquaintance, K. Gutzkow, a journey to Italy which provided the stimulus for his 6 vols. of Reisenovellen (1834-7). Laube's journalism now took a more radical turn, becoming one of the conspicuous manifestations of the Young German movement (see Junges Deutschland). In the repressive climate of those days it was not surprising that he was expelled from Leipzig. Ignoring advice to go abroad, Laube visited Berlin, was arrested in July 1834, and detained in prison for nine months while his alleged subversive activities were investigated. After his release he lived in Naumburg, writing Moderne Charakteristiken (1835), which reveal a more cautious and restrained trend. The persecution of writers associated with Junges Deutschland at the end of 1835 led to Laube receiving in December 1836, a month after his marriage, a sentence of seven years' detention (Festungshaft), six of which related to his membership of the Burschenschaft in university days. An appeal to the king for mercy resulted in the reduction of the term to one and a half years, which he was allowed to serve, together with his wife, in comfortable circumstances on the estate of Prince Pückler-Muskau. During this ‘imprisonment’ he wrote a history of German literature (Geschichte der deutschen Literatur, 4 vols., 1839-40). The shooting expeditions which he secretly made at Muskau had a literary result in Jagdbrevier (1841), a collection of poems with an afterword entitled Die Gemse, to which a glossary of hunting jargon (Jagdsprache) is appended.

Laube was released in January 1839, and from May until February 1840 the couple travelled abroad, visiting Holland, Belgium, Paris, and Algiers. In 1840 Laube published Französische Lustschlösser (3 vols.), further evidence of his swing away from the dangerous theme of politics. In the following years he was active as a journalist and dramatic critic, first in Leipzig, then (1845) in Vienna. He wrote stories and a novel (Gräfin Chateaubriant, 3 vols., 1843), but devoted himself especially to drama. His first play was Monaldeschi (performed 1841, published 1845); this historical tragedy was followed by the historical comedy Rokoko (performed 1842, published 1846). Other plays include the tragedy Die Bernsteinhexe (performed 1844, published 1846), the Danish tragedy Struensee (performed 1845, published 1847), the comedy Gottsched und Gellert (performed 1845, published 1847), Die Karlsschüler (performed 1846, published 1847), dealing with Schiller, and a play about the young Friedrich of Prussia (see Friedrich II, der Grosse), Prinz Friedrich (performed 1848, published 1854).

In less than a decade Laube became one of the best-known playwrights in Germany. In 1848 he was elected to the Frankfurt Parliament (see Frankfurter Nationalversammlung), but resigned early in the following year. His appointment in 1849 as Director of the Burgtheater in Vienna came as a surprise in view of his political past. He held this post until 1867, when he resigned on the appointment of Friedrich Halm as his superior.

After a brief period as theatre director in Leipzig (1869-71), Laube returned to Vienna to found the Stadttheater, which he directed, with one short interruption, until 1880. During his theatrical years Laube wrote further plays, achieving his greatest success with Graf Essex (1856). It was followed by Montrose (1859), Der Statthalter von Bengalen (1866), Böse Zungen (1868), and a completion of Schiller's Demetrius (1869). At the same time he resumed his novel-writing, publishing notably a fictional evocation of the Thirty Years War (see Dreissigjähriger Krieg), Der deutsche Krieg (9 vols., 1865-6), and Die Böhminger (1880).

Laube published three important works of theatrical recollections, Das Burgtheater (1868), Das Norddeutsche Theater (1872), and Das Wiener Stadttheater (1875). As a theatre director in Vienna he set and maintained high standards, and from 1849 to 1880 was the dominant figure in the theatrical life of the city. In his early years as director he suppressed, however, the work of Hebbel, while the revival of that of Grillparzer is entirely due to his initiative. He is the author of a biography of the latter, Franz Grillparzers Lebensgeschichte (1884). He has the credit of having introduced Ibsen to German audiences (Pillars of Society, in German Stützen der Gesellschaft, 1878).

An energetic and rapid writer, Laube was appreciated most in his own day. His earlier political work now appears hasty, and in his later creative work he has little to say. His documentary writings provide a fund of valuable information. Gesammelte Schriften (16 vols.) appeared 1875-82, and Gesammelte Werke (50 vols. in 20), ed. H. H. Houben, 1908-9.

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Heinrich Laube

Heinrich Laube (September 18, 1806 - August 1, 1884), German dramatist, novelist and theatre-director, was born at Sprottau in Prussian Silesia.

Life

He studied theology at Halle and Breslau (1826-1829), and settled in Leipzig in 1832. Here he at once came into prominence with his political essays, collected under the title Das neue Jahrhundert, in two parts--Polen (1833) and Politische Briefe (1833)--and with the novel Das junge Europa, in three parts--Die Poeten, Die Krieger, Die Bürger--(1833-1837).

These writings, in which, after the fashion of Heinrich Heine and Ludwig Börne, he severely criticized the political regime in Germany, together with the part he played in the literary movement known as "Das junge Deutschland," led to his being subjected to police surveillance and his works confiscated. On his return, in 1834, from a journey to Italy, undertaken in the company of Karl Gutzkow, Laube was expelled from Saxony and imprisoned for nine months in Berlin. In 1836 he married the widow of Professor Hanel of Leipzig; almost immediately afterwards he suffered a year's imprisonment for his revolutionary sympathies.

In 1839 he again settled in Leipzig and began a literary activity as a playwright. Chief among his earlier productions are the tragedies Monaldeschi (1845) and Struensee (1847); the comedies Rokoko, oder die alien Herren (1846); Gottsched and Gellert (1847); and Die Karlsschuler (1847), of which the youthful Schiller is the hero.

In 1848 Laube was elected to the Frankfurt Parliament for the district of Elbogen, but resigned in the spring of 1849, when he was appointed artistic director of the Hofburg theatre in Vienna. This office he held until 1867, and in this period fall his finest dramatic productions, notably the tragedies Graf Essex (1856) and Montrose (1859), and his historical romance Der deutsche Krieg (1865-1866, 9 vols), which graphically pictures a period in the Thirty Years' War.

In 1869 he became director of the Leipzig Stadttheater, but returned to Vienna in 1870, where in 1872 he was placed at the head of the new Stadttheater; with the exception of a short interval he managed this theatre with brilliant success until his retirement from public life in 1880. He has left a valuable record of his work in Vienna and Leipzig in the three volumes Das Burgtheater (1868), Das norddeutsche Theater (1872) and Das Wiener Stadttheater (1875).

His pen was still active after his retirement, and in the five years preceding his death, which took place at Vienna on the 1st of August 1884, he wrote the romances and novels Die Bohminger (1880), Louison (1881), Der Schatten-Wilhelm (1883), and published an interesting volume of reminiscences, Erinnerungen, 1841-1881 (1882).

Assessment

Laube's dramas are not remarkable for originality or for poetical beauty; their real and great merit lies in their stage-craft. As a theatre-manager he has had no equal in Germany, and his services in this capacity have assured him a more lasting name in German literary history than his writings. His Gesammelte Schriften (excluding his dramas) were published in 16 vols (1875-1882); his Dramatische Werke, in 13 vols (1845-1875); a popular edition of the latter in 12 vols (1880-1892). An edition of Laube's Ausgewahlte Werke in 10 vols appeared in 1906 with an introduction by H. H. Houben.

See also Johannes Proelß, Das junge Deutschland (1892); and Heinrich Bulthaupt, Dramaturgie des Schauspiels (vol. iii., 6th ed., 1901).

References

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Laube, Heinrich.

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

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