German poet, born at Baja, Hungary, in 1817, the son of an Israelite merchant of Budapest; studied medicine at Vienna and philosophy at Leipsic, but his heart was absorbed in poetry. Although he wrote in German, his native land of Hungary was ever present in his mind, and he participated in the uprising of 1848. His poems are remarkable for vigor, grace and originality, but have a certain touch of exaggeration and excess of emphasis. Among them are The Nights (1838); The Wandering Poet (1838); Songs of Peace (1839); Songs of a Poor Man (1846); Saul, a tragedy; and Mater Dolorosa, a romance (1854).
