Gustav Freytag (Freytag Gustav)

(1816-1895)
Born July 13, 1816 in Kreuzberg (Silesia). He studied philology at Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland) and Berlin, in 1839-1844 he lectured at the University of Breslau.
In the first novel, Income & expenditure (Soll und Haben, 1855), Freytag praised German middle class, denouncing the aristocracy, because he believed that it was the liberal burghers of the town is the bearer of progress. The novel is very curious for its time - the more so because the historical background it serves the Polish uprising 1846-1848. Largest plan Freytag - a series of six historical novels, Ancestors (Die Ahnen, 1873-1881), tells the story of the German people from the era of ancient migrations of Germans and 19 in. Works of the cycle are related to each other rather weakly, through the relationship of characters, scenes of the past are written with great skill. Freitag has achieved substantial progress, and as playwright. His comedy Journalists (Die Journalisten, 1853) enjoyed enormous popularity in the German scene.

Freytag died in Wiesbaden, April 30, 1895.