PLATEN-HALLERMUND, AUGUST, GRAF vox German poet and dramatist, was born on Oct. 24, 1796, at Ansbach, and entered the Bavarian life guards in He took part in the short campaign in France of 1815; he then obtained a long leave of absence, and after a tour in Switzerland and the Bavarian Alps, entered the University of Wiirzburg in 1818 as a student of philosophy and philology. In 1819 he re moved to Erlangen, where he sat at the feet of F. W. J. von Schelling. As a result of his Oriental studies he published a little volume of poems—Ghaselen (1821), each consisting of from ten to twenty verses, in which he imitates the style of Riickert; Lyrische Blotter (1821) ; Spiegel der Hafis (1822) ; V ermischte Schriften (1822); and Neue Ghaselen (1823).
Though Platen was at first influenced by the school of Ro manticism, and particularly by Spanish models, yet the plays writ ten during his university life at Erlangen, Der gldserne Pantoffel, Der Schatz des Rhampsinit, Berengar, Treue um Treue, Der Turm mit sieben Pforten, show a clearness of plot and expression foreign to the Romantic style. His antagonism to Romanticism became more and more pronounced, and he attacked its extravagances in the witty "Aristophanic" comedies Die verhdngnisvolle Gabel (1826) and Der romantische Oedipus (1828). In 1826 he visited Italy, which he henceforth made his home, living at Florence, Rome and Naples. Der romantische Oedipus earned for him the
bitter enmity of Karl Immermann and Heinrich Heine, but he retained many staunch admirers, who delighted in the purity of the subject matter of his productions and their beauty of form and diction. In Naples were written his last drama Die Liga von Cambrat (1833) and the delightful epic fairy-tale Die Abbassiden (1830; besides numerous lyrical poems, odes and ballads. He died at Syracuse on Dec. 5, 1835. Platen's odes and sonnets, to which must be added his Polenlieder (1831), expressing his sympathy for the Poles in their rising against the rule of the Tsar, rank among the best classical poems of modern times. Platen's Gesammelte Werke were first published in one volume in 5839, and have been frequently reprinted; a convenient edition is that edited by K. Goedeke in Cotta's Bibliothek der Weltiteratur (4. vols., 1882). His Tagebuch (1796-1825), was published in its entirety by G. von Laubmann and L. von Schaller (2 vols., 1896-1900). See P. Besson, Platen, etude biographique et litteraire (1894) ; A. Fries, Platen-Forschungen (1903) ; E. Petzet, Platens V erhiiltnis zur Roman tik in sein italien Zeit (191I) ; R. Schlosser, August Graf von Platen. Ein Bild seines geistigen Entwicktungsganges and seines dichterischen Schaffens (Munich, 1910-13).