Karl Immermann

In 1813 he went to study law at Halle, where he remained, after the suppression of the university by Napoleon in the same year, until Frederick William III of Prussia's "Summons to my people" on 17 March.

Immermann responded quickly, but was prevented by illness from taking part in the earlier campaign; he fought, however, in 1815 at Ligny and Waterloo, and marched into Paris with Blücher.

In 1826, however, appeared Cardenio und Celinde, a love tragedy of more promise; this, as well as the earlier productions, awakened the ill-will of Count Platen, who made Immermann the subject of his wittiest satire, Der romantische Oedipus.

His masterpiece is the poetic mystery, Merlin (1831), a noble poem, which, like its model, Faust, deals with the deeper problems of modern spiritual life.

[3] As a prose-writer Immermann is perhaps best remembered to-day by his story of village life, Der Oberhof, which is embedded in the formless mass of Münchhausen.