ALEXIS, WILLIBALD, the pseudonym of GEORG WIL HELM HEINRICH HARING (1798-1871), German historical novel ist. He was born June 29, 1798 at Breslau, where his father, who came of a French refugee family, named Hareng, was an official. He attended the Werdersche Gymnasium in Berlin, and served as a volunteer in the campaign of 1815. On his return he studied law at the universities of Berlin and Breslau. Settling in Berlin, he edited, 1827-35, the Berliner Konversationsblatt, in which for the first two years he was assisted by Friedrich Christoph Forster (1791-1868). In 1852 he retired to Arnstadt in Thuringia, where after many years of broken health he died Dec. 16, 1871.
Alexis made his name as a writer by an idyll in hexameters, Die Treibjagd (182o), and several short stories in which the influence of Tieck is observable; but his reputation was first established by two historical romances, Walladmor (1823), and Schloss Avalon (1827), which, published as being "freely translated from the English of Sir Walter Scott, with a preface by Willibald Alexis," so closely imitated the style of the famous Scotsman as really to deceive even Scott's admirers. Alexis published a number of successful short stories (Gesammelte Novellen, 183o-31), some books of travel, and the novels Das Haus Dusterweg (1835) and Zwolf Ndchte (1838).
In Cabanis (1832), a story of the time of Frederick the Great, he entered the field of patriotic-historical romance, in which he earned the name of "der Maerkische Walter Scott" (Walter Scott of the Mark). Cabanis is written in the first person, is rather clumsy in construction, and has the faults of excessive roman ticism. From 1840 onwards he published at short intervals a series of romances, each dealing with some epoch in the history of Bran denburg. Among them may be noted Der Roland von Berlin (184o) ; Der f alsche Woldemar (1842) ; Die Hosen des Herrn von Bred ow (1846-48) , in which room is found for many delightful folk and ghost stories ; and Ruhe ist die erste Biirgerp flicht (1852). In 1842, in conjunction with the publicist Julius Eduard Hitzig (1780--1849), he began the publication of Der neue Pitaval (continued by A. Vollert, Leipzig, 184 2-65 ; new edition Leipzig, 1866-91), a collection of criminal anecdotes culled from all nations and all times. This publication attained great popularity, and is to-day of psychological interest and value.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.—His Gesammelte Werke were published in Berlin Bibliography.—His Gesammelte Werke were published in Berlin (1874) ; the Vaterlclndische Romane in eight volumes (1881, 1884), and, since the expiration of the copyright in 1901, in many cheap reprints. Cf. W. Alexis' Erinnerungen, edited by M. Ewert (190o) ; and essays by Julian Schmidt, Neue Bilder aus dem geistigen Leben unserer Zeit (1873) ; G. Freytag, Werke, vol. xvi. and xxiii. ; A. Stern, Zur Literatur der Gegenwart (188o) ; and T. Fontane, Bayreuther Bldtter, vi. (1883).