Hermann Lingg

Who was Hermann Lingg?

Hermann Lingg was a German poet who also wrote plays and short stories. His cousin, Maximilian von Lingg, was Bishop of Augsburg.

He was born in Lindau. Lingg studied medicine at the universities of Munich, Freiburg, Berlin, and Prague, and became a doctor in the Bavarian Army. From 1839, he was a member of the Corps Suevia München. His battalion was used to quell revolutionary uprisings in Baden; forced to act against his convictions, he fell into severe depression, entered a mental hospital in 1851 and soon submitted his resignation. From that point on, he lived in Munich and devoted himself to historical and poetic studies, financially supported by King Maximilian II. His marriage to a forester's daughter in 1854 improved his mental stability, and a pension improved their living standards.

Lingg first gained attention with a collection of poems introduced by Emanuel Geibel. His most famous work is Die Völkerwanderung. He was ennobled in 1890.