Ludwig Uhland

Ludwig Uhland
Painting by G. W. Morff, 1818

Johann Ludwig Uhland (26 April 1787 – 13 November 1862), was a German poet, philologist and literary historian.

He was born in Tübingen, Württemberg, and studied jurisprudence at the university there, but also took an interest in medieval literature, especially old German and French poetry. Having graduated as a doctor of laws in 1810, he went to Paris for eight months to continue his studies of poetry; and from 1812 to 1814 he worked as a lawyer in Stuttgart, in the bureau of the minister of justice.

He had begun his career as a poet in 1807 and 1808 by contributing ballads and lyrics to Seckendorff's Musenalmanach; and in 1812 and 1813 he wrote poems for Kerner's Poetischer Almanach and Deutscher Dichterwald. In 1815 he collected his poems in a volume entitled Vaterländische Gedichte, which almost immediately secured a wide circle of readers. To almost every new edition he added some fresh poems. His two dramatic works Ernst, Herzog von Schwaben (1818) and Ludwig der Baier (1819) are unimportant in comparison with his Gedichte.

As a lyric poet, Uhland must be classed with the writers of the romantic school. Like them, he found in the Middle Ages the subjects which appealed most strongly to his imagination. Yet his style has a precision, suppleness and grace which distinguish his most characteristic writings from those of the romantics. Uhland wrote poems in defense of freedom, and in the states assembly of Württemberg he played a distinguished part as one of the most vigorous and consistent of the liberal members.

In 1815, Württemberg was to be granted a new constitution, replacing the old constitution of the Estates of Württemberg (Landstände) which had been abolished in 1806. Uhland became a prominent proponent of the old rights of the estates during the controversy of the following years, which ended in a compromise in 1819 under William I of Württemberg. Uhland went on to serve in the newly created parliament (Landtag) from 1819 until 1826.