HOLTEI, KARL EDUARD VON German poet and actor, was born at Breslau on Jan. 24, 1798, the son of an officer of Hussars. After serving in the Prussian army as a volunteer in 1815, he began to study law at Breslau, but abandoned his studies for the stage. In 1821 he married the actress Luise Rogge (1800-I825), and was appointed theatre-poet to the Bres lau stage. He next removed to Berlin, where he produced the popu lar vaudevilles Die Wiener in Berlin (1824), and Die Berliner in Wien (1825). After his wife's death he wrote a number of plays for the Konigsstgdter theatre in Berlin, notably Lenore (1829) and Der alte Feldherr (1829). In 183o he married Julie Holz becher (18o9-1839), an actress engaged at the same theatre, and with her played in Darmstadt. Returning to Berlin in 1831 he wrote for the composer Franz Glaser (1798-1861) the text of the opera Des Adlers Horst (1835), and for Ludwig Devrient (q.v.) the drama, Der dumme Peter (1837). In 1833 Holtei toured with his wife in Hamburg, Leipzig, Dresden, Munich and Vienna. At Vienna the poet-actor created a sensation by his brilliant recitations, especially of Shakespeare, and was appointed manager of the Josef stadter theatre. Holtei left Vienna in 1836, and from 1837 to 1839 conducted the theatre in Riga. Here his second wife died, and he wandered from place to place, eventually settling in 1847 at Graz, where he wrote the novels Die Vaga bunden (1851), Christian Lamm f ell (1853) and Der letzte Komodiant (1863). The last years of his life were spent at Bres lau, where he found a home in the Kloster der barmherzigen Briider, and here he died on Feb. 12, 1880.
As a dramatist Holtei may be said to have introduced the "vaudeville" into Germany; as a reciter, especially of Shakespeare, he knew no rival.