Alfred Meissner was an Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

.

Biography

He is a grandson of the voluminous miscellaneous author August Gottlieb Meissner (1753-1807). He studied medicine

Medicine

Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

, taking his degree at Prague

University of Prague

Prague UniversitiesSocial Science:*Charles University in PragueEconomic University:*University of Economics, Prague*The University of Finance and AdministrationTechnical University:*Czech Technical University in Prague...

 in 1846. To elude the Austrian censorship, he published in the same year at Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

 his epic poem Ziska (10th ed., 1867). He long resided chiefly in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, and returned to Prague

Prague

Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...

 in 1850, where he and Moritz Hartmann

Moritz Hartmann

Moritz Hartmann was a German poet and author.- Biography :Hartmann was born of Jewish parentage at Duschnik in Bohemia....

 were the principal representatives of the liberal school of German poetry in Bohemia

Bohemia

Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...

, a 10th edition of his Gedichte appearing in 1867.

Works

Some of his works, especially Der Sohn des Atta Troll (1850), abound with the peculiar sarcasm and pathos in which Heine

Heinrich Heine

Christian Johann Heinrich Heine was one of the most significant German poets of the 19th century. He was also a journalist, essayist, and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of Lieder by composers such as Robert Schumann...

 excelled, and he published Erinnerungen an Heine (1854). Among his novels are Zwischen Fürst und Volk (Between prince and people, 3 vols., 2d ed., 1861), illustrating the revolutions of 1848

Revolutions of 1848

The European Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Spring of Nations, Springtime of the Peoples or the Year of Revolution, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe in 1848. It was the first Europe-wide collapse of traditional authority, but within a year reactionary...

; Zur Ehre Gottes (To the honor of God, 2 vols., 1861); and Schwarzgelb (8 vols., Berlin, 1864; popular edition, 1 vol., 1866). His other writings include Charaktermasken (3 vols., Leipzig, 1861-63); Novellen (2 vols., Leipzig, 1864); Die Kinder Rom's (Children of Rome, 4 vols., Berlin, 1870); and Rococo-Bilder (Gumbinnen, 1871).