Karl August Varnhagen von Ense
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Karl August Varnhagen von Ense (February 21, 1785 - 1858), German biographer.
He was born at Düsseldorf. He studied medicine in Berlin, but spent more time on philosophy and literature, which he later studied more thoroughly at Halle and Tübingen. He began his literary career in 1804 as joint editor with Adelbert von Chamisso. In 1814, he married the saloniste Rahel Levin after she converted from Judaism to Christianity.
Although he developed a reputation as an imaginative and critical writer, he is famous chiefly as a biographer. He possessed a remarkable power of grouping facts so as to bring out their essential significance, and his style is distinguished for its strength, grace and purity. Among his principal works are:
- Goethe in den Zeugnissen der Mitlebenden (1824)
- Biographische Denkmale (5 vols., 1824-30; 3rd ed., 1872)
- biographies of General von Seydlitz (1834), Sophia Charlotte, queen ot Prussia (1837), Field-Marshal Schwerin (1841), Field-Marshal Keith (1844), and General Billow von Dennewitz (1853).
His Denkwürdigkeiten und vermischte Schriften appeared in 9 volumes in 1843-59, the two last volumes appearing after his death. His niece, Ludmilla Assing, between 1860 and 1867, edited several volumes of his correspondence with eminent men, and his Tagebücher (14 vols., 1861-70). Blätter aus der preussischen Geschichte appeared in 5 vols. (1868-69); his correspondence with Rahel in 6 vols. (1874-75); and with Carlyle (1892).
His selected writings appeared in 19 volumes in 1871-76.