The New International Encyclopædia/Auersperg, Anton Alexander

AUERSPERG, Anton Alexander, Count von (known to literature as Anastasius Grün) (1806-76). An Austrian statesman and poet. He was born at Laibach (Carniola), studied at Gratz and Vienna; through his verse became distinguished as a Liberal; was elected to the German preliminary Parliament in 1848, and subsequently to the National Assembly. Under the Constitution of 1861 he was appointed by the Emperor a life member of the House of Lords, where he continued prominent in opposition to the Feudal-Clerical and Slovenian parties. He was similarly active in 1861-67 in the diets of Carniola and Styria. His first noteworthy publication was Der letzte Ritter (1830; new ed., 1885), a celebration of Maximilian I., in the metre of the Nibelungen-Lied. With Spaziergänge eines Wiener Poeten (1831; new ed., 1835), an attack upon the Metternich regime, he attracted great attention. Chief among his further publications are the Volkslieder aus Krain (1850), and Robin Hood (1864), an adaptation of the English ballad material. His poetry is eminently contemplative, and at times overburdened with the author's reflections. In its assertion of freedom it was intluential during the political controversy of the time, and it still may be read for a number of genuine lyrics. His Gesammelte Werke were edited by L. A. Frankl (Berlin, 5 vols., 1877). Consult: Schatzmayer, Anton, Graf von Auersperg (2d ed., Frankfort, 1872), and Radics, Anastasius Grün (Leipzig, 1878).