The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Follen, August

FOLLEN, August, afterward Adolf Ludwig, a German poet, born in Giessen, Hesse-Darmstadt, Jan. 21, 1794, died in Bern, Switzerland, Dec. 26, 1855. After studying philology and theology in his native town, he served in the campaign of 1814 against France. On his return he studied law for two years at Heidelberg, in 1817 began to edit the Allgemeine Zeitung at Elberfeld, in 1819 was involved in political agitations for which he was imprisoned two years in Berlin, went thence to Switzerland, and subsequently became a citizen of Zürich. In 1847 he purchased the castle of Liebenfels in Thurgau, whence in 1854 he removed to Bern. He translated the Homeric hymns (1814), and a volume of old Latin ecclesiastical hymns (Elberfeld, 1819), and published other works.