Detlev von Liliencron

Detlev von Liliencron (Kiel, 1844 - Alt-Rahlstedt, Hamburg, 1909) was a German poet and novelist from the Kingdom of Prussia. His lyric poetry is regarded as one of the important starting points of late nineteenth-century literary Naturalism in German. He mattered mainly because he broke with the stiff, ornamental literary style that had dominated German writing since the middle of the century.

The son of a Danish customs official, Liliencron trained at Erfurt and then joined the Prussian cavalry. He fought in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, and was wounded in both. He left the army as a captain in 1875. He spent a period in the United States, earning a living as a piano and German teacher, and then settled in Kellinghusen in Holstein until 1887. He later lived in Munich and Altona before finally moving to Alt-Rahlstedt, now part of Hamburg. His personal life was turbulent: he married Hélène von Bodenhausen in 1878, separated from her in 1885, and married the farm woman Anna Micheel in 1899.

His first verse collection, Adjutantenritte und andere Gedichte (1883), drew the attention of the Naturalists. His plays were not successful, and he turned to prose, producing stories and novels on military and everyday themes, though his real achievement lay in poetry. His style is direct, lively and deliberately unpolished, with a fresh tone that avoided rhetorical flourish. Critics generally find his output uneven, sitting somewhere between Naturalism and Impressionism. From 1901 Emperor Wilhelm II granted him an annual pension, which eased his financial troubles. He died of pneumonia in 1909, shortly after receiving an honorary doctorate from the University of Kiel.

His legacy lies in renewing the language of German poetry. Rainer Maria Rilke was among those who acknowledged his influence, and his verse is still read as an example of the move toward a plainer German poetic idiom.