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Theodor Mundt

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THEODOR MUNDT (1808-1861), German author, was born at Potsdam on the 19th of September 1808. Having studied philology and philosophy at Berlin, he settled in 1832 at Leipzig, as a journalist, and was subjected to a rigorous police supervision. In 1839 he married Klara Muller (1814-1873), who under the name of Luise Muhlbach became a popular novelist, and he removed in the same year to Berlin. Here his intention of entering upon an academical career was for a time thwarted by his collision with the Prussian press laws. In 1842, however, he was permitted to establish himself as privatdocent. In 1848 he was appointed professor of literature and history in Breslau, and in 1850 ordinary professor and librarian in Berlin; there he died on the 30th of November 1861. Mundt wrote extensively on aesthetic subjects, and as a critic he had considerable influence in his time. Prominent among his works are Die Kunst der deutschen Prosa (1837); Geschichte der Literatur der Gegenwart (1840); Aesthetik; die Idee der Schonheit and des Kunstwerks int Lichte unserer Zeit (1845, new ed. 1868); Die Gotterwelt der alten Volker (1846, new ed. 1854). He also wrote several historical novels; Thomas Miinzer (1841); Mendoza, der Vater der Schelmen (1847) and Die Matadore (1850). But perhaps Mundt's chief title to fame was his part in the emancipation of women, a theme which he elaborated in his Madonna, Unterhaltungen mit einer Heiligen (1835).