FRENSSEN, GUSTAV (1863— ), German author, was born at Barlt on Oct. 19, 1863, and educated at the universities of Tubingen, Berlin and Kiel. He took orders, and from 1892 to 1902 was pastor at Hemme; but he had already for some years been known as a writer of novels, and in 1902, a year of ter his unexampled success with Jorn Uhl (19o1), he gave up his pas torate and devoted all his time to literature. His work in fiction includes Die Sandgrh fin (1896, 3rd ed., 1902) ; Die drei Getreuen (1898) ; Hilligenlei 09°5); Peter Moor's Fahrt each Sud-West (1906) ; Klaus Hinrich Baas (19o9), and Die Bruder (1918). He also published sermons (Dorfpredigten, 1899-1902), and two plays, Das Heimats f est (19o3) and Sonke Erichsen (1912) .
Frenssen gives a realistic and vivid description of the peasantry and the countryside in north Germany, and is perhaps the most powerful of the school of writers of the Heimatkunst, i.e., litera ture of special regions. Jorn Uhl showed an exact and detailed local knowledge, though the dialogue is more literary than pure realism demands. Its great popularity was due partly to this and to the power of the story, and partly to the many subsidiary and propagandist elements introduced into it.
See H. M. Elster, Gustav Frenssen, sein Leben and sein Schaffen (1912) ; also studies by E. Muesebeck (1908) and T. Rehtwisch (1902) ; and Gustav Frenssen; Hilligenlei als Kunstwerk and als T endenzschri f t (1906) .