Theodor Woldsen Storm (September 14, 1817 in Husum, Germany - July 4, 1888 in Hademarschen , Germany) studied and practiced law in northern Germany. He also wrote a number of stories, poems and novellas. His two most well-known works are the novellas Immensee (1849) [1] and Der Schimmelreiter (1888). Other published works include a volume of his poems (1852), the novella Pole Poppenspäler (1874) and the novella Aquis submersus (1877).

Analysis

Theodor Storm, like Friedrich Hebbel , is a child of the North Sea Plain, but while in Hebbel's verse there is hardly any direct reference to his native landscape, Storm again and again sings its chaste beauty - and while Hebbel could find a home away from his native heath, Storm clung to it with a jealous love.

He was born in Husum ('die graue Stadt am grauen Meer': 'the grizzly town at the grizzly sea') on the west coast of Schleswig-Holstein of well-to-do parents. While still a student of law, he published a first volume of verse together with the brothers Tycho and Theodor Mommsen.

His favorite poets were Eichendorff and Mörike , and the influence of the former is plainly discernible even in Storm's later verse. Storm left his home in 1851 and did not return until 1864, after Schleswig-Holstein had become German.

Samples

(Analysis and original text of the poem from A Book of German Lyrics, ed. Friedrich Bruns, which is available in Project Gutenberg at http://ibiblio.unc.edu/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext05/8glyr10.txt.)

External links

• http://www.theodorstorm.co.uk