GUTZKOW, KARL FERDINAND Ger man novelist and dramatist, was born on March 17, 1811 at Berlin. In 1832 he published anonymously at Hamburg his Brie f e eines Narren an eine Narrin, and in 1833 appeared at Stuttgart Maha Guru, Geschichte eines Gottes, a fantastic and satirical romance. In 1835 he went to Frankfort, where he founded the Deutsche Revue. In the same year appeared Wally, die Zweiflerin, an attack on marriage which marks the beginning of the revolt of "Young Germany" against romanticism. He was violently attacked by Wolfgang Menzel (q.v.), and the Federal Diet condemned Gutzkow to three months' imprisonment and decreed the suppression of all he had written or might yet write. During his term of imprisonment at Mannheim, Gutzkow wrote his treatise Zur Philosophie der Geschichte (1836). On his release he produced Richard Savage (1839), a play which immediately made the round of all the German theatres. Of his numerous other plays a few have kept a place in the German repertory. In 1847 Gutzkow went to Dresden, where he succeeded Tieck as literary adviser to the court theatre. Meanwhile he had written the novels Seraphine (1838) and Blasedow and seine Sane (1838), a satire on the educational theories of the time. Between 185o and 1852 appeared Die Ritter vom Geiste, which may be regarded as the starting-point for the modern German social novel. Der Zauberer von Roan is a powerful study of Roman Catholic life in southern Germany. Gutzkow then established a journal on the model of Dickens' Household Words, entitled Unterhaltungen am haus lichen Herd (1852-62). He died on Dec. 16, 1878. Gutzkow exerted a powerful influence on the opinions of modern Germany; and his works reflect the intellectual and social struggles of his time.
An edition of Gutzkow's collected works appeared at Jena (1873-76, new ed., 1879) . E. Wolff has published critical editions of Gutzkow's Meisterdramen (1892) and Wally die Zwei fierin (1905). His more important novels have been frequently reprinted. For Gutzkow's life see his various autobiographical writings such as Aus der Knabenzeit (1852), Riickblicke auf mein Lcben (1876), etc. For an estimate of his life and work see J. Proelss, Das junge Deutschland (1892) ; H. H. Houben, Studien iiber die Dramen Gutzkows (1898) ; Gutzkow-Funde (19o1) , and other monographs on various aspects of Gutzkow ; E. Metis, Karl Gutzkow als Dramatiker (1915) .