Theodor Storm

Theodor Storm was born in 1817 in Husum, in what is now the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, which was then under Danish rule. He studied law and practiced as a lawyer, and after 1864, he also served as a magistrate in his hometown, where he spent most of his life. He began writing and publishing his first poems during his teenage years, influenced by the Romantic movement. He formed a friendship with Ivan Turgenev, with whom he exchanged letters for a long time. His work includes numerous poems, novellas, and even fairy tales. His concise writing style and subtle approach to emotion place him—alongside Thomas Mann, Theodor Fontane, and Gottfried Keller—among the foremost representatives of what is known as bourgeois (or poetic) realism. His most famous work, "Der Schimmelreiter" (The Rider on the White Horse), was also his last, published in 1888. Many of his books have served as the basis for successful film and television productions in Germany up to the present day.