Otto Riese

author

Otto Riese

1697–1779

An 18th-century Danish clergyman and writer, remembered today for preserving the remarkable life story of Hark Olufs. His surviving work opens a vivid window onto captivity, travel, and survival in North Africa.

1 Audiobook

Harck Olufs aus der Insul Amron im Stifte Ripen in Jütland, gebürtig, sonderbare Avanturen, so sich mit ihm insonderheit zu Constantine und an andern Orten in Africa zugetragen.

Harck Olufs aus der Insul Amron im Stifte Ripen in Jütland, gebürtig, sonderbare Avanturen, so sich mit ihm insonderheit zu Constantine und an andern Orten in Africa zugetragen.

by Otto Riese, Hark Oluf

About the author

Born in 1697 in Agerskov, Otto Riese was the son of a provost and parish priest, according to the Dansk biografisk Lexikon. He studied in Kiel after attending school in Sommersted, and he later served as a Lutheran pastor in Denmark.

Riese is chiefly known in modern catalogs for his connection to Harck Olufs aus der Insul Amron..., the German account of Hark Olufs's extraordinary experiences after being taken to North Africa. Because of that book, Riese remains linked with one of the more unusual firsthand adventure narratives associated with the 18th century.

He died in 1779. Although not a widely known literary figure today, his name still appears in library and Project Gutenberg records thanks to that enduring historical text.