"Freiheit! Freiheit! Freiheit!" (Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!) chants the crowd to a newly elected pope. This last line from Karl Gutzkow's novel Der Zauberer von Rom (The Magician of Rome, 1858-1861) epitomizes his ideal over almost a half century of activity extending to every realm of literary culture. Called to action by the news of the overthrow of Charles X in Paris in 1830, Gutzkow took up his pen to bring freedom to an enchained German society. From the founding during his student days of his first literary periodical he withstood clashes with German censors, the most sensational of which involved a prison sentence and the condemnation of his works along with those of other members of the Junges Deutschland (Young Germany) movement. Despite such struggles Gutzkow established himself as a prolific literary journalist and preeminent dramatist before achieving his greatest renown with the novel Die Ritter vom Geiste (Knights...