Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué

Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué was a German Novelist and playwright. He was born on 12th February 1777 in Brandenburg an der Havel, Brandenburg, Prussia, Germany and died on 23rd January 1843 in Berlin, Prussia, Germany, aged 65.

“Der Held des Nordens” (Hero of the North) (1808-10)
“Undine” (1811)

1777: Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué was born on 12th February in Brandenburg an der Havel, Brandenburg, Prussia, Germany. His original family were originally French Huguenot aristocrats who had to leave the country because of their protestant religious beliefs. His grandfather Heinrich August de la Motte Fouque was one of King Frederick the Great’s generals and his father was also a Prussian officer in the army. In his youth Friedrich read a lot of English and Scandinavian literature.

1794: Although he originally didn’t intend to join the army, he gives up his studies at Halle University and takes part in the Rhine Campaign as part of the French Revolutionary Wars.

1803: His first marriage ended in divorce and he marries his second wife, the novelist Caroline Philippine von Briest. Together they go on to have one daughter, Marie Luise Caroline de la Motte Fouque.

1804: He retires from the army due to poor health and goes to live with his wife at her family estate in Nennhausen. He begins to write after meeting August Wilhelm Schlegel and publishes his first book. He is greatly influenced by the philosophy of Johann Gottlieb Fichte and his ideas on linguistic development. Most of his works from now on cover German chivalry as a response to the wars against Napoleon Bonaparte. 

1805: He publishes his second work, “Romanzen vom Tal Ronceval” (Romances from the Ronceval Valley).  

1806: He publishes “Historie vom Edlen Ritter Galmy” (History of the Noble knight Galmy) in verse.

1808: He begins writing “Der Held des Nordens” (Hero of the North). It is a dramatic treatment of the Nibelung story which Richard Wagner will go on to use in his “Ring Cycle” of operas. The first part is entitled “Sigurd der Schlangentödter, ein Heldenspiel in Sechs Abentheuren” (Sigurd the Serpent Slayer, a Heroic Game in Six Adventures) and combines Icelandic sagas such as “Volusunga” with the German “Nibelunglied”.

1809: He completes the second sequel “Sigurds Rache” (Sigurd’s Revenge).

1810: He completes “Der Held des Nordens” with the third part “Aslaugas Ritter” (Aslauga’s Knight) and the whole work is published. He has now become a writer noticed by the German public. 

1811: He writes his most famous work, the fairy tale “Undine” which is still read today. It concerns a water sprite who marries Huldbrand a knight to acquire a human soul but who subsequently loses her love due to the machinations of her uncle Kuhleborn and the lady Berthulda. 

1813: He fights with the Prussian army against the French troops currently occupying the country. He publishes the romance “Der Zauberring” (The Magic Ring).

1815: He is a prolific author and his popularity is now at its height. He publishes the romance “Die Fahrten Thiodolfs des Isländers” (The Journeys of Thiodolf the Icelander).

1820: His work is now beginning to go out of fashion and he becomes less prolific. His critics label him the “Don Quixote of Romanticism”.

1831: His wife Caroline dies and he remarries for a third time.

Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué died in poverty on 23rd January 1843 in Berlin, Prussia, Germany despite a pension given to him by King Frederick William the Fourth in his final few years.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was not impressed by his play “Der Sängerkrieg auf der Wartburg” (The Song Contest on the Wartburg) but it is thought to be one of the sources of reference for Richard Wagner’s opera “Tannhauser”.

Robert Louis Stevenson was impressed with his story “Galgenmännlein” (Gallowsman) and wrote a similar version himself called “The Bottle Imp” set in Hawaii.

Cardinal John Henry Newman and the English novelist Charlotte Mary Yonge both heaped praise on “Sintram and his Companions” and William Morris claimed it influenced his own fiction. Both “Sintram” and “Undine” are referenced in Louisa May Alcott’s “Little Women”.

“Undine” is one of the works on which Antonin Dvorak based his opera “Ruslaka” along with Hans Christian Anderson’s “Little Mermaid”.

Full list of works by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué here.