FOLLEN

follen, august (or, as he afterwards called himself, adolf) ludwig (1794-1855), german poet, was born at giessen on the 21st of january 1794, the son of a district judge. he studied theology at giessen and law at heidelberg, and after leaving the university edited the elberfeld _allgemeine zeitung_. suspected of being connected with some radical plots, he was imprisoned for two years in berlin. when released in 1821 he went to switzerland, where he taught in the canton school at aarau, farmed from 1847-1854 the estate of liebenfels in thurgau, and then retired to bern, where he lived till his death on the 26th of december 1855. besides a number of minor poems he wrote _harfengrusse aus deutschland und der schweiz_ (1823) and _malegys und vivian_ (1829), a knightly romance after the fashion of the romantic school. of his many translations, mention may be made of the homeric hymns in collaboration with r. schwenck (1814), tasso's _jerusalem delivered_ (1818) and _siegfrieds tod_ from the _nibelungenlied_ (1842); he also collected and translated latin hymns and sacred poetry (1819). in 1846 he published a brief collection of sonnets entitled _an die gottlosen nichtswuteriche_. this was aimed at the liberal philosopher arnold ruge, and was the occasion of a literary duel between the two authors. follen's posthumous poem _tristans eltern_ (1857) may also be mentioned, but his best-known work is a collection of german poetry entitled _bildersaal deutscher dichtung_ (1827).