1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Hackländer, Friedrich Wilhelm von

HACKLÄNDER, FRIEDRICH WILHELM VON (1816–1877), German novelist and dramatist, was born at Burtscheid near Aix-la-Chapelle on the 1st of November 1816. Having served an apprenticeship in a commercial house, he entered the Prussian artillery, but, disappointed at not finding advancement, returned to business. A soldier’s life had a fascination for him, and he made his début as an author with Bilder aus dem Soldatenleben im Frieden (1841). After a journey to the east, he was appointed secretary to the crown prince of Württemberg, whom he accompanied on his travels. Wachtstubenabenteuer, a continuation of his first work, appeared in 1845, and it was followed by Bilder aus dem Soldatenleben im Kriege (1849–1850). As a result of a tour in Spain in 1854, appeared Ein Winter in Spanien (1855). In 1857 he founded, in conjunction with Edmund von Zoller, the illustrated weekly, Über Land und Meer. In 1859 Hackländer was appointed director of royal parks and public gardens at Stuttgart, and in this post did much towards the embellishment of the city. In 1859 he was attached to the headquarters staff of the Austrian army during the Italian war; in 1861 he was raised to an hereditary knighthood in Austria; in 1864 he retired into private life, and died on the 6th of July 1877. Hackländer’s literary talent is confined within narrow limits. There is much in his works of lively, adventurous and even romantic description, but the character-drawing is feeble and superficial.

Hackländer was a voluminous writer; the most complete edition of his works is the third, published at Stuttgart in 1876, in 60 volumes. There is also a good selection in 20 volumes (1881). Among his novels, Namenlose Geschichten (1851); Eugen Stillfried (1852); Krieg und Frieden (1859), and the comedies Der geheime Agent (1850) and Magnetische Kuren (1851) may be specially mentioned. His autobiography appeared in 1878 under the title, Der Roman meines Lebens (2 vols.). See H. Morning, Erinnerungen an F. W. Hackländer (1878).