who — thanks to the influence of Schiller — was able to subordinate his exuberant imagination to the practical needs of the stage. His first tragedy, Die Söhne des Tals (1803-1804), is in two parts, and it was followed by Das Kreuz an der Ostsee (1806). More important is the Reformation drama Martin Luther, oder die Weihe der Kraft (1807), which, after his conversion to Catholicism, Werner recanted in a poem Weihe der Unkraft (1813). His powerful one-act tragedy, Der vierundzwanzigste Februar (1815, but performed 1810), was the first of the so-called “fate tragedies.” Attila (1808), Wanda (1810) and Die Mutter der Makkabäer (1820) show a falling-off in Werner's powers.
Z. Werner's Theater was first collected (without the author's consent) in 6 vols. (1816-1818); Ausgewählte Schriften (15 vols., 1840-1841), with a biography by K. J. Schütz. See also J. E. Hitzig, Lebensabriss F. L. Z. Werners (1823); H. Düntzer, Zwei Bekehrte (1873); J. Minor, Die Schicksalstragödie in ihren Hauptvertretern (1883) and the same author's volume, Das Schicksalsdrama (in Kürschner's Deutsche Nationalliteratur, vol. 151, 1884); F. Poppenberg, Zacharias Werner (1893).
WERNIGERODE, a town of Germany, in the province of Prussian Saxony, 13 m. by rail S.W. of Halberstadt, picturesquely situated on the Holzemme, on the north slopes of the Harz Mountains. Pop. (1905) 13,137. It contains several interesting Gothic buildings, including a fine town hall with a timber façade of 1498. Some of the quaint old houses which have escaped the numerous fires that have visited the town are elaborately adorned with wood-carving. The gymnasium, occupying a modern Gothic building, is the successor of an ancient grammar-school, which existed until 1825. Brandy, cigars and dye-stuffs are among the manufactures of the place. Above the town rises the chateau of the prince of Stolberg-Wernigerode. A pavilion in the park contains the library of 117,000 volumes, the chief feature in which is the collection of over 3000 Bibles and over 5000 volumes of hymnology. Wernigerode is the chief town of the county (Grafschaft) of Stolberg-Wernigerode, which has an extent of 107 sq. m., and includes the Brocken within its limits.
The counts of Wernigerode, who can be traced back to the early 12th century, were successively vassals of the margraves of Brandenburg (1268), and the archbishops of Magdeburg (1381). On the extinction of the family in 1429 the county fell to the counts of Stolberg, who founded the Stolberg-Wernigerode branch in 1645. The latter surrendered its military and fiscal independence to Prussia in 1714, but retained some of its sovereign rights till 1876. The counts were raised to princely rank in 1890.
See Förstemann, Die Gräflich-Stolbergische Bibliothek in Wernigerode (Nordhausen, 1866), and G. Sommer, Die Grafschaft Wernigerode (Halle, 1883).
WERTH [Weert], JOHANN, Count von (c. 1595-1652),
German general of cavalry in the Thirty Years' War, was born
between 1590 and 1600 at Büttgen in the duchy of Jülich. His
parents belonged to the numerous class of the lesser nobility,
and at an early age he left home to follow the career of a soldier
of fortune in the Walloon cavalry of the Spanish service. In
1622, at the taking of Jülich, he won promotion to the rank
of lieutenant. He served as a colonel of cavalry in the Bavarian
army in 1630. He obtained the command of a regiment, both
titular and effective, in 1632, and in 1633 and 1634 laid the
foundations of his reputation as a swift and terrible leader of
cavalry forays. His services were even more conspicuous in the
great pitched battle of Nordlingen (1634), after which the emperor
made him a Freiherr of the Empire, and the elector of Bavaria
gave him the rank of lieutenant field-marshal. About this time he
armed his regiment with the musket as well as the sword. In
1635 and 1636 his forays extended into Lorraine and Luxemburg,
after which he projected an expedition into the heart of France.
Starting in July 1636, from the country of the lower Meuse, he
raided far and wide, and even urged the cardinal infante, who
commanded in chief, to “plant the double eagle on the Louvre.”
Though this was not attempted, Werth's horsemen appeared
at St Denis before the uprising of the French national spirit in
the shape of an army of fifty thousand men at Compiègne forced
the invaders to retire whence they had come. The memory
of this raid lasted long, and the name of “Jean de Wert” figures
in folk-songs and serves as a bogey to quiet unruly children. In
1637 Werth was once more in the Rhine valley, destroying
convoys, relieving besieged towns and surprising the enemy's
camps. In February 1638 he defeated the Weimar troops in
an engagement at Rheinfelden, but shortly afterwards was made
prisoner by Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar. His hopes of being
exchanged for the Swedish marshal Horn were disappointed,
for Bernhard had to deliver up his captive to the French. The
terrible Jean de Wert was brought to Paris, amidst great rejoicings
from the country people. He was lionized by the society
of the capital, visited in prison by high ladies, who marvelled
at his powers of drinking and his devotion to tobacco. So light
was his captivity that he said that nothing bound him but his
word of honour. However, he looked forward with anxiety
for his release, which was delayed until March 1642 because the
imperial government feared to see Horn at the head of the
Swedish army and would not allow an exchange.
When at last he reappeared in the field it was as general of cavalry in the imperial and Bavarian and Cologne services. His first campaign against the French marshal Guebriant was uneventful, but his second (1643) in which Count Mercy was his commander-in-chief, ended with the victory of Tüttlingen, a surprise on a large scale, in which Werth naturally played the leading part. In 1644 he was in the lower Rhine country, but he returned to Mercy's headquarters in time to take a brilliant share in the battle of Freiburg. In the following year his resolution and bravery, and also his uncontrolled rashness, played the most conspicuous part in deciding the day at the second battle of Nordlingen. Mercy was killed in this action, and Werth succeeded to the command of the defeated army, but he was soon superseded by Field-marshal Geleen. Johann von Werth was disappointed, but remained thoroughly loyal to his soldierly code of honour, and found an outlet for his anger in renewed military activity. In 1647 differences arose between the elector and the emperor as to the allegiance due from the Bavarian troops, in which, after long hesitation, Werth, fearing that the cause of the Empire and of the Catholic religion would be ruined if the elector resumed control of the troops, attempted to take his men over the Austrian border. But they refused to follow, and escaping with great difficulty from the elector's vengeance Werth found a refuge in Austria. The emperor was grateful for his conduct in this affair, ordered the elector to rescind his ban, and made Werth a count. The last campaign of the war (1648) was uneventful, and shortly after its close he retired to live on the estates which he had bought in the course of his career, and on one of these, Benatek near Königgrätz, he died on the 16th of January 1652.
See Lives by F. W. Barthold (Berlin, 1826), W. von Janko (Vienna, 1874), F. Teicher (Augsburg, 1877).
WERWOLF (from A.S. wer; cf. Lat. vir, man; and wolf; or, according to a later suggestion, from O.H.G. weri, wear, i.e. wearer of the wolf-skin), a man transformed temporarily or permanently into a wolf. The belief in the possibility of such a change is a special phase of the general doctrine of lycanthropy (q.v.). In the European history of this singular belief, wolf transformations appear as by far the most prominent and most frequently recurring instances of alleged metamorphosis, and consequently in most European languages the terms expressive of the belief have a special reference to the wolf. Examples of this are found in the Gr. λυκάγθρωπσς, Russian volkodlάk, Eng. “werwolf,” Ger. währwolf, Fr. loup-garou. More general terms (e.g. Lat., versipellis; Russ., όboroten; O. Norse, hamrammr; Eng. “turnskin,” “turncoat”) are sufficiently numerous to furnish some evidence that the class of animals into which metamorphosis was possible was not viewed as a restricted one. But throughout the greater part of Europe the werwolf is preferred; there are old traditions of his existence in England, in Wales and in Ireland; in southern France, Germany, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Servia, Bohemia, Poland and Russia he can hardly be pronounced extinct now; in Denmark, Sweden,
