Auerbach, Berthold

Auerbach, Berthold (bĕrt`hōlt ou`ərbäkh'), 1812–82, German novelist. He fought in the Revolution of 1848 and in the Franco-Prussian War. As a result of his Schwarzwälder Dorfgeschichten (1843–53, tr. of Vol. I Village Tales from the Black Forest, 1846–47), somewhat stylized pictures of peasant life that were much imitated, he became the virtual founder of the peasant-story genre in German. Typical of his use of the novel are Die Frau Professorin (1846, tr. The Professor's Wife, 1850), Diethelm von Buchenberg (1852), and Barfüssele (1856, tr. The Barefooted Maiden, 1857). Of his longer works (some of them stories of Jewish life), the best known is Auf der Höhe (1865, tr. On the Heights, 1867).