Droste-Hülshoff, Annette Elisabeth, Freiin von

Droste-Hülshoff, Annette Elisabeth, Freiin von

Droste-Hülshoff, Annette Elisabeth, Freiin or Baroness von (änĕt`ə ālē`zäbĕt frī`ĭn fən drôs`tə-hüls`hôf), 1797–1848, German poet. Often called the greatest German woman poet, she has been especially praised for her religious Das geistliche Jahr (1850). Also noted are the ballad "Die Schlacht im Loener Bruch" and the fine short novel Die Judenbuche (1842, tr. The Jew's Beech Tree, in Kuno Francke and W. G. Howard, The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, 1913–15). Her masterful verse, romantic in spirit, is free of traditional influence.