15 Facts About Paul Heyse

Paul Heyse's father, the distinguished philologist Karl Wilhelm Ludwig Heyse, was a professor at the University of Berlin who had been the tutor of both Wilhelm von Humboldt's youngest son and Felix Mendelssohn.

Paul Heyse met Jacob Burckhardt, Adolph Menzel, Theodor Fontane and Theodor Storm, and in 1849 joined the Tunnel uber der Spree literary group.

About the same time, Paul Heyse received from the publisher Alexander Duncker a manuscript by the then-unknown Theodor Storm.

In 1851, Paul Heyse won a contest held by the members of the "Tunnel" for the ballad Das Tal von Espigno, and his first short story, "Marion", was similarly honoured.

In May 1852, Paul Heyse was awarded a doctorate for his work on the troubadours, and a Prussian scholarship allowed him to depart for Italy to look for old Provencal manuscripts.

Paul Heyse made friends with Arnold Bocklin and Joseph Victor von Scheffel but was banned from the Vatican library after being discovered copying passages from unpublished manuscripts.

Paul Heyse returned to Germany in 1853, where, with the Italian landscape still fresh in his mind, he wrote the works which first made him famous: his most famous short story, "L'Arrabbiata" ; and the Lieder aus Sorrent.

Paul Heyse was thus appointed professor of Romance philology, although he never taught at that city's university.

At his first audience with the King, Paul Heyse presented his verse tales, Hermen, and began a productive life as one of the Nordlichtern and establishing another literary society, Die Krokodile, which included Felix Dahn, Wilhelm Hertz, Hermann Lingg, Franz von Kobell, the cultural historian Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl, Friedrich Bodenstedt, and the travel writer and art patron Adolf Friedrich von Schack.

Paul Heyse had four children by his first marriage: Franz, Julie or Lulu, Ernst and Clara.

In 1859, obligations to the Kugler family led Paul Heyse to take up a position as editor of the Literaturblatt zum deutschen Kunstblatt, and he declined a tempting offer from the Grand Duke Carl Alexander von Weimar which would have involved moving to Thuringia.

Nevertheless, Paul Heyse worked throughout the 1860s on new plays, eventually achieving his greatest success with Kolberg.

Paul Heyse was a very early opponent of naturalism, making critical references to it in print long before its influence could be felt in Germany.

Paul Heyse was dubbed Dichterfurst, prince of poetry, and he worked tirelessly to promote international understanding within Europe.

Paul Heyse was elected an International Member of the American Philosophical Society in 1895.