author
Friedrich Theodor Vischer
1807–1887
Remembered for blending big ideas with sharp humor, this German writer and aesthetician explored how art works while also creating a famously whimsical novel. He is especially associated with Auch Einer and with influential writing on beauty, literature, and realism.
1 Audiobook
Deutsche Humoristen, 1. Band (von 8)
by Peter Rosegger, Wilhelm Raabe, Fritz Reuter, Albert Roderich, Friedrich Theodor Vischer
About the author
Born in Ludwigsburg on June 30, 1807, Friedrich Theodor Vischer became a major German literary critic, philosopher of art, and writer. He studied at the University of Tübingen and went on to teach aesthetics and German literature there, developing ideas shaped in part by Hegelian philosophy.
Vischer is best known for his large-scale work on aesthetics and for trying to give literary realism a solid theoretical foundation. Alongside his scholarly writing, he also wrote poetry, drama, and fiction, and many readers still remember him for the comic novel Auch Einer, noted for its playful treatment of the way everyday objects seem to turn against us.
His career also reached into public life: during the revolutionary period of 1848 he was involved in politics, and later he taught in Stuttgart. He died in Gmunden, Austria, on September 14, 1887, leaving behind a body of work that moves between serious philosophy and lively literary invention.