KURZ, HERMANN

born Nov. 30, 1813, Reutlingen, kingdom of Wrttemberg died Oct. 10, 1873, Tbingen, Ger. German writer chiefly known for two powerful historical novels, Schillers Heimatjahre (1843; Schiller's Homeland Years) and Der Sonnenwirt (1855; The Proprietor of the Sun Inn), both critical of the existing social order, and for his satirically humorous tales of Swabian life in Erzhlungen (185863; Tales). Because the quality of his work went unrecognized, Kurz was forced to make his living by translating. He produced excellent translations of Ludovico Ariosto's epic Orlando furioso (184041) and, from the Middle High German, of Gottfried von Strassburg's Tristan und Isolde (1844). Kurz was also active between 1843 and 1854 as a political and literary journalist and as editor of the democratic newspaper Der Beobachter in Stuttgart. Later he became the university librarian at Tbingen.