MUNCH-BELLINGHAUSEN, ling-how'zen, Eligius Franz Joseph, FREIHERR vox, also known under the pseudonym FRIED um Haim, Austrian dramatist and short-story writer: b. Krakau (Cracow), 2 April 1806; d. Vienna, 22 May 1871. He came to Vienna in 1811 and began studying law there in 1822, making the acquaintance while a young student of such prominent literary men as Bauernfeld, Lenau, Seidl, etc. In 1826 he entered the em ploy of the Austrian government as a lower official and remained in the bureaucracy from that time until his death, his chief positionsle ing custodian (later director) of the court li brary and general superintendent of the Vienna Hofburgtheatre. As a dramatist, Halm's posi tion in German literature is that of a con structor of correct dramatic outlines, often banal in their conventionality, which are always surrounded with resounding rhetoric and a peculiar union of romanticism and pessimism, together with occasional real feeling. His first
play, (Griseldis) (1835) had a great stage suc cess and passed over most of the stages of Ger many. There followed a number of less suc cessful productions:
(1837);
tragedy (1838);
Lamber tazzi,) tragedy (1842). His greatest success and his best-known play is
Sohn der Wildnis' (1842; known on the English stage as
although (Der Fechter von Ra venna) (1857) also was very popular. Of his short stories the best are