1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Liliencron, Detlev von

LILIENCRON, DETLEV VON (1844–1909), German poet and novelist, was born at Kiel on the 3rd of June 1844. He entered the army and took part in the campaigns of 1866 and 1870–71, in both of which he was wounded. He retired with the rank of captain and spent some time in America, afterwards settling at Kellinghusen in Holstein, where he remained till 1887. After some time at Munich, he settled in Altona and then at Altrahistedt, near Hamburg. He died in July 1909. He first attracted attention by the volume of poems, Adjutantenritte und andere Gedichte (1883), which was followed by several unsuccessful dramas, a volume of short stories, Eine Sommerschlacht (1886), and a novel Breide Hummelsbüttel (1887). Other collections of short stories appeared under the titles Unter flatternden Fahnen (1888). Der Mäcen (1889), Krieg und Frieden (1891); of lyric poetry in 1889, 1890 (Der Heidegänger und andere Gedichte), 1893, and 1903 (Bunte Beute). Interesting, too, is the humorous epic Poggfred (1896; 2nd ed. 1904). Liliencron is one of the most eminent of recent German lyric poets; his Adjutantenritte, with its fresh original note, broke with the well-worn literary conventions which had been handed down from the middle of the century. Liliencron’s work is, however, somewhat unequal, and he lacks the sustained power which makes the successful prose writer.

Liliencron’s Sämtliche Werke have been published in 14 vols. (1904–1905); his Gedichte having been previously collected in four volumes under the titles Kampf und Spiele, Kämpfe und Ziele, Nebel und Sonne and Bunte Beute (1897–1903). See O. J. Bierbaum, D. von Liliencron (1892); H. Greinz, Liliencron, eine literarhistorische Würdigung (1896); F. Oppenheimer, D. von Liliencron (1898).