Ludwig Uhland

doctor of law (1810) · professor at the University of Tübingen · member of the Frankfurt Parliament (1848)

Ludwig Uhland (Tübingen, 1787-1862) is the central figure of the Swabian school of poetry, being at once a poet, jurist, Germanist and liberal politician. He earned his doctorate in law in 1810, practised as a lawyer in Stuttgart, and in 1815 published the Gedichte with Cotta, which went through dozens of editions. He was a deputy to the Diet of Wurtemberg (1819-1826, 1833-1838), professor of German language and literature at Tübingen (1829-1833), and sat in the Frankfurt Parliament in 1848. A pioneer in the study of medieval poetry and popular songs, he was among the poets received in the 1830s at the salon of Count Alexander of Wurtemberg, at Serach Castle near Esslingen.