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August von Kotzebue (1761–1819)
Kotzebue, August Friedrich Ferdinand von (kot’ze-bö). A celebrated German dramatist; born at Weimar, May 3, 1761; died at Mannheim, March 23, 1819. Of about 200 tragedies, comedies, dramas, and farces, many of them very popular at the time of their production, the best known now are: ‘Misanthropy and Repentance’ (1789), known in the United States and England in Sheridan’s adaptation entitled ‘The Stranger’; and ‘The Spaniards in Peru’ (1796), adapted by Sheridan as ‘Pizarro.’ ‘The Indians in England’ (1790) won great applause. ‘German Provincials’ was one of his best comedies. His most celebrated novel was ‘Sorrows of the Ortenberg Family’ (1785). ‘Doctor Bahrdt with the Iron Brow’ (1790), published under another’s name, contained an attack on Goethe, Schiller, etc., who declined to admit him to their society. During much of his life he was in Russian service; he was assassinated in Germany as a Russian spy, by a student.