Hermann Theodor von Schmid (also Hermann Schmid; 30 March 1815 – 19 October 1880) was an Austrian-German novelist, dramatist, and theatre director.
Life Schmid was born in Waizenkirchen (now in Austria, but at that time still in Bavaria) and studied law at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU), where he obtained his doctorate and entered the judiciary.
He began his literary career as a dramatist with Camoëns and Bretislav (1843), which caught the attention of the Bavarian king Ludwig I and led to a position at the court theatre. After the Revolution of 1848, his support for Johannes Ronge and the failure of his marriage caused him professional difficulties, and he was obliged to retire from the service, moving into a two-storey house at the head of the Tegernseer Landstraße in the south-east of the city.
Schmid obtained great popularity in the 1860s as a prolific writer of historical novels based on events in Austrian and Bavarian history. He was granted the Order of St Michael in 1869, the next year was appointed director of the Volkstheater on Gärtnerplatz, resigning the position after a few years. He was ennobled in 1876.
He died in Munich, where today a street bears his name.
Work His plays, collected in 1853, include several historical dramas, such as Karl Stuart and Columbus, but his greater success was in portraying peasant life, as in Die Z'widerwurz'n (1878) and Der Tatzelwurm (1880). In his novels, too, such as Almenrausch und Edelweiss, Der Habermeister, he was at his best when describing Bavarian customs. His most ambitious work was his lyric epic Winland oder die Fahrt um's Glück (1877).
His collected works appeared in 50 volumes (Leipzig, 1873–1884).
List of works Camoens, drama, 1843 Bretislav, drama, 1843 Karl Stuart I., tragedy, 1845 Herzog Christoph der Kämpfer, drama, 1847 Straßburg (or Eine deutsche Stadt) 1849 Liebesring, libretto, 1847 Columbus, 1857 Fürst und Stadt (1858, later under the title Münchener Kindeln) Huberbäuerin, 1860 Das Schwalberl, peasant novel, 1860 Theuerdank, comedy, 1861 Alte und Neue Geschichten aus Bayern, stories, 1861 Mein Eden, novel, 1862 Die Türken in München, novel, 1862 Der Kanzler von Tirol, novel in three volumes, 1863 Im Morgenroth, novel, 1864 Der Jägerwirth von München, novel, 1864 Almenrausch und Edelweiß, novel, 1864 Im Morgenrot. Eine Münchener Geschichte aus der Zeit Max Joseph's III, 1864 Baierischen Geschichten aus Dorf und Stadt, stories in two volumes, 1864 Der bayrische Hiesel. Volks-Erzählung, 1865 Friedel und Oswald, novel in three volumes, 1866 Der Tatzelwurm, folk play, 1866 Almenrausch und Edelweiß, folk play, 1867 Sankt Barthelmä, novel, 1868 Mütze und Krone, novel in five volumes, 1869 Das Münchener Kindel. Erzählung aus der Zeit des Kurfürsten Ferdinand Maria, 1874 Concordia, novel in five volumes, 1875 Der Bauernrebell. Roman aus der Tirolergeschichte, 1876 Winland oder die Fahrt um's Glück, lyric epic, 1876 Zum grünen Baum, novel, unfinished
Further reading
Ingrun Klagges, Die geschichtlichen Romane Hermann v. Schmids, Würzburg (diss.), 1943.
Bibliography
Notes