Börne, Karl Ludwig

Related Category: German Literature: Biographies

(lt´vĭkh bör´nə), 1786–1837, German journalist, of Jewish origin. His original name was Löb Baruch. He studied medicine and political science and held office in Frankfurt until, after the fall of Napoleon, a policy of racial discrimination was restored. His lucid and incisive writings, notably his Briefe aus Paris [letters from Paris] (1830–33), bitterly attacked German despotism and upheld the rights of the individual. With Heine, Börne was an initiator and leader of the revolutionary Young Germany movement in German literature.