German poet, born at Habelschwerdt, Prussia, on the 22nd of August 1813; received a French education from his father and graduated from the universities of Breslau and Berlin, taking the degree of doctor of philosophy in 1836. He had to pay his way by teaching, but his poetic genius manifested itself amid the direst privations. In 1845 he wrote an epic, The Song of Songs, and in 1848 a poem, entitled Victor, attacking the monarchy. He afterward devoted most of his time to the daily press, being one of the habitual contributors to the National Zeitung of Berlin.
