Paul Lindau

Paul Lindau (3 June 1839 – 31 January 1919) was a German dramatist and novelist.

Life and works

Lindau was born in Magdeburg as the son of Carl Lindau, a lawyer (Justizkommissar) whose parents Hertz Levin (a physician) and Henriette Cohen had converted from Judaism to Protestantism. Hertz Levin changed his name to Hermann Lindau after conversion.¹ Paul was educated at Halle, Leipzig, and Berlin. He spent five years in Paris to further his studies, acting meanwhile as foreign correspondent to German papers. After his return to Germany in 1863 he was engaged in journalism in Düsseldorf and Elberfeld. In 1870 he founded Das neue Blatt at Leipzig; from 1872 to 1881 he edited the Berlin weekly Die Gegenwart; and in 1878 he founded the well-known monthly Nord und Süd, which he continued to edit until 1904.²

Two books of travel, Aus Venetien (Düsseldorf, 1864) and Aus Paris (Stuttgart, 1865), were followed by some volumes of critical studies, written in a light, satirical vein, which at once made him famous. These were Harmlose Briefe eines deutschen Kleinstädters (Leipzig, 2 vols., 1870), Moderne Märchen fur grosse Kinder (Leipzig, 1870) and Literarische Rücksichtslosigkeiten (Leipzig, 1871). He was appointed intendant of the court theatre at Meiningen in 1895, but removed to Berlin in 1899, where he became manager of the Berliner Theater, and subsequently, until 1905, the Deutsches Theater.²

He began his dramatic career in 1868 with Marion, the first of a long series of plays in which he displayed a remarkable talent for stage effect and a command of witty and lively dialogue. Among the more famous were (1872), (1876), (1879), (1895), (1896), (1899), and (1903). He also adapted many plays by , and for the German stage. Five volumes of his plays were published (Berlin, 1873–1888). Some of his volumes of short stories acquired great popularity, notably (, 1882) and (Breslau, 1883). A novel-sequence entitled included (Stuttgart, 1886, 10th ed. 1903), (1887, 9th ed. 1905) and (1888, 8th ed. 1904). Later novels were (Breslau, 1894), (, 1895) and (Breslau, 1898). His earlier books on (Leipzig, 1871) and (Berlin, 1877) were followed by some volumes of dramatic and literary criticism, (Berlin, 1875), (Stuttgart, 2 vols., 1875; new series, Breslau, 1878, 2 vols.), and (Breslau, 1895).