Biography

After completing his basic studies, beginning in 1829 Gutzkow studied theology and philosophy at the University of Berlin where his teachers included Hegel and Schleiermacher.

While still a student, he began his literary career by the publication in 1831 of a periodical entitled Forum der Journalliteratur. This brought him to the notice of Wolfgang Menzel, who invited him to Stuttgart to assist in the editorship of the Literaturblatt.

Between 1850 and 1852 appeared Die Ritter vom Geiste, which may be regarded as the starting point for the modern German social novel.

Karl Gutzkow was a German writer notable in the Young Germany movement of the mid-19th century.

His strong controversial purpose obscured his artistic genius, but his work profoundly influenced the popular thought of c. 1910 Germany, and gives one of the best pictures we have of the intellectual life and the social struggle of his generation and nation.