Heinrich Laube

Writer and journalist, born in Sprottau, Silesia. A leading figure in the radical literary movement ‘Junges Deutschland7rsquo;, his socio-critical articles as editor (1832) of the Leipzig Zeitung für die elegante Welt earned him sanctions in the 1830s, ranging from detention of two-and-a-half years to a ban on his writings. Officially recognized once again, the 1840s saw him as a theatre critic in Leipzig and a member of the Frankfurt parliament. He became theatre-manager first of Vienna's Burgtheater (1849–67), where he championed the works of Hebbel, then of the municipal Stadttheater in Leipzig (1869) and in Vienna (1871–4), this theatre having been founded by him. His most popular works include Die Karlsschüler (1846) dealing with Schiller's ‘Sturm und Drang’ years, and Struensee (1847), concerned with political events of the time.

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

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.

In 1839 he again settled in Leipzig and began a literary activity as a playwright.

In 1848 Laube was elected to the national assembly at Frankfort-on-Main for the district of Elbogen, but resigned in the spring of 1849, when he was appointed artistic director of the Hofburg theatre in Vienna.

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; 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).

Laube's dramas are not remarkable for originality or for poetical beauty; An edition of Laube's Ausgewahlte Werke in 10 vols appeared in 1906 with an introduction by H.

See also J.

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