HIPPEL, THEODOR GOTTLIEB VON German satirical and humorous writer, was born on Jan. 31, 1i41, at Gerdauen, East Prussia, the son of a schoolmaster. In 1770 he was appointed chief burgomaster in Konigsberg, and in 1786 president of the town. He died at Konigsberg on April 23, 1796. Lebensldu f e nach aufsteigender Linie (1778-81) is an autobi ography, in which persons well known to him are introduced, together with a mass of heterogeneous reflections on life and philosophy. Kreuz- and Querzuge des Ritters A bis Z is a satire levelled against the follies of the age—ancestral pride and the thirst for orders, decoration and the like. Hippel has some resemblance to Jean Paul Richter in his constant digressions and in the interweaving of scientific matter in his narrative. Like Richter he was strongly influenced by Laurence Sterne.
In 1827-38 a collected edition of Hippel's works in 14 vols., was issued at Berlin. Ober die Ehe has been edited by E. Brenning (Leip zig, 1872), and the Lebensldufe nach aufsteigender Linie has in a modernized edition by A. von Ottingen (1878) , gone through several editions. See J. Czerny, Sterne, Hippel and Jean Paul (Berlin, 1904).