Ernst Willkomm
Ernst Adolf Willkomm was a German author born on February 10, 1810, in Herwisgsdorf, near Zittau. He initially studied law at the University of Leipzig but shifted his focus to philology and aesthetics, becoming a member of the literary group Junges Deutschland, which sought to challenge the romantic ideals of the time and promote socially engaged literature. This movement included notable figures such as Heinrich Heine and Theodor Mundt and faced governmental repression for its progressive views. Willkomm produced a significant body of work that often critiqued social injustices, most notably in novels like *Das Europamüden* and *Weisse Sclaven*, which highlighted the stark contrasts between the lives of the working class and the wealthy during the Industrial Revolution. After traveling to Italy, he worked as a war correspondent and later edited a magazine in Hamburg. His later works reflected a shift away from the fervent social criticism of his youth. Willkomm passed away on May 24, 1886, in Zittau, with his memoirs published posthumously in 1887. His contributions to literature provide insight into the societal challenges of 19th-century Europe.
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Ernst Willkomm
Writer
- Born: February 10, 1810
- Birthplace: Herwigsdorf, Germany
- Died: May 24, 1886
- Place of death: Zittau, Germany
Biography
Ernst Adolf Willkomm was born on February 10, 1810, in Herwisgsdorf, near Zittau, Germany, the son of a minister. He attended the local gymnasium (high school) before entering the University of Leipzig in 1830, where he initially studied law and later concentrated on philology and aesthetics. While at the university, Willkomm became part of a group of writers known as Junges Deutschland, or Young Germany. The Junges Deutschland writers reacted against the romanticism of the late eighteenth century and sought to create a more socially engaged literature. Headed by some of the leading literary lights of the day, Junges Deutschland included poet Heinrich Heine, novelist and critic Theodor Mundt, and dramatist and novelist Heinrich Laube. In a time of social upheaval and political unrest in Europe, local governments regarded the movement’s progressive viewpoint as dangerous to religion, discipline, and morality, and consequently subjected members of the group to surveillance, confiscation of their works, and occasional imprisonment.
Willkomm eagerly embraced the ideals of Junges Deutschland and, thanks to the inexpensive methods of printing then available, he produced a steady flow of novels, novellas, and collections of shorter works that examined social concerns by illustrating how they applied to fictional characters. Willkomm hit his stride with Das Europamüden: Modernes Lebensbild, a two-volume novel published in 1838, in which he gave free rein to his disgust and disillusionment with Europe and his longing for the New World. Though he occasionally wrote historical fiction, such as a biographical novel about Lord Byron, Willkomm primarily concentrated on writing books that attacked the existing social order, as demonstrated by two of his best-known novels, Eisen, Gold, und Geist: Ein tragikomischer Roman and Weisse Sclaven: Oder, Die Leiden des Volkes, ein Roman, in which he contrasted the deplorable working conditions of Industrial Revolution laborers with the luxurious lives of the upper class.
In 1845, Willkomm took an extended journey to Italy. Upon his return to Germany, he became a war correspondent for a newspaper in Lübeck, where he worked from 1849 until 1852. He edited Seasons, a magazine based in Hamburg, from 1852 through 1857. Mellowed in middle age, his later fiction was less strident and socially conscious than that of his youth; representative works from this period include Blitze: Novellen, Schilderungen, und Skizzen, Ein Brautkuss: Irische Novelle, Banco: Ein Roman aus dem Hamburger Leben, and Verirrte Seelen: Ein Roman.
In 1859, Willkomm opened a boardinghouse in Hamburg. He continued to write until he was in his mid-sixties. In his final years, Willkomm returned to Zittau, where he died on May 24, 1886. His memoirs, Jugenderinnerungen, were published posthumously in 1887.