Friedrich Spielhagen

Biography

Friedrich Spielhagen (1829–1911) was a German novelist who was one of the most widely read German writers of the second half of the nineteenth century. His novels combined social criticism with romantic narrative, addressing the political and social upheavals of Bismarck-era Germany. Spielhagen was a committed liberal and democrat whose fiction explored class conflict, political corruption, and the tensions between aristocracy and the rising bourgeoisie. While hugely popular in his lifetime, Spielhagen's reputation declined in the twentieth century, overshadowed by Fontane and the naturalist writers.