Freytag, Gustav (1816–1895)

German novelist and dramatist. He wrote several successful plays, notably Die Journalisten/The Journalists 1854, one of the finest German comedies of the 19th century. His masterpiece is Soll und Haben/Debit and Credit 1855, a novel about the commercial world which favourably portrayed the German middle class. Other works include Die verlorene Handschrift/The Lost Manuscript 1864 and the series Die Ahnen 1872–81.

Freytag was born in Kreuzburg, Silesia. He studied philology at Breslau and Berlin universities and in 1839 settled at Breslau as Privatdozent in German language and literature. He devoted himself principally to writing for the stage and achieved success 1844 with his comedy Die Brautfahrt, oder Kunz von der Rosen, which he followed with several other successful plays. In 1847 he moved to Berlin, and the next year became editor, with Julian Schmidt, of Die Grenzboten, a weekly journal which became the leading organ of German and Austrian liberalism.

He also produced Bilder aus der deutschen Vergangenheit 1859–62, a series of six historical romances, which unfolds the story of a German family from the earliest times to the middle of the 19th century, and wrote Die Technik des Dramas 1863.