Toward the middle of the nineteenth century Ferdinand Freiligrath was one of the most widely read poets in Germany. In his poetry one can trace the transition in German literature from exotic Romanticism to social commitment. His early lyrics tell of faraway places, foreign peoples, and strange customs; his later verse calls for resistance and revolution. He touched off the most significant literary controversy of his day, one concerning the role of the poet in society. He was a masterful translator, especially of English-language poets: he introduced the German reading public to the American writers Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Bret Harte. The commemoration organized in his honor in 1867 was the largest celebration of a living poet ever held in Germany.

Hermann Ferdinand Freiligrath was born on 17 June 1810 in Detmold at the northern edge of the Teutoburg Forest to Johann Wilhelm Freiligrath, a schoolteacher, and Luise Tops Freiligrath. His...