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Kafka, Franz

(Encyclopedia)Kafka, Franz fränts käfˈkä [key], 1883–1924, German-language novelist, b. Prague. Along with Joyce, Kafka is perhaps the most influential of 20th-century writers. From a middle-class Jewish fami...

Witz, Conrad

(Encyclopedia)Witz, Conrad kônˈrät vĭts [key], fl. c.1434–c.1447, German painter, active at Basel and Geneva. Many of the works attributed to him, such as The Synagogue and the Meeting of Joachim and Anna, ca...

Steen, Jan

(Encyclopedia)Steen, Jan yän stān [key], 1626–79, Dutch genre painter, b. Leiden. He studied in Utrecht and in Haarlem under Van Ostade and Van Goyen, whose daughter he married. His huge production of paintings...

Walker, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Walker, Robert, d. 1658?, English painter, a follower of Van Dyck and favorite portraitist of Oliver Cromwell. His portraits of Cromwell and his family and followers are convincing studies of Puritan ...

Droysen, Johann Gustav

(Encyclopedia)Droysen, Johann Gustav yōhänˈ go͝osˈtäf droiˈzən [key], 1808–84, German historian. A member of the Frankfurt Parliament, he was a leading proponent of German unification under the leadership...

Dahlmann, Friedrich Christoph

(Encyclopedia)Dahlmann, Friedrich Christoph frēˈdrĭkh krĭsˈtôf dälˈmän [key], 1785–1860, German historian. He was dismissed from his professorship at Göttingen for protesting (1837) the abrogation of th...

Graun, Carl Heinrich

(Encyclopedia)Graun, Carl Heinrich kärl hīnˈrĭkh groun [key], 1704–59, German composer, best known for his oratorio Der Tod Jesu (1755), for many years performed annually in Germany. As musical director to Fr...

Graham, Susan

(Encyclopedia)Graham, Susan, 1960–, American mezzo-soprano, b. Roswell, N. Mex. Known for her vibrant, expressive voice and her superb acting ability, she won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in ...

Lortzing, Gustav Albert

(Encyclopedia)Lortzing, Gustav Albert go͝osˈtäf älˈbĕrt lôrˈtsĭng [key], 1801–51, German opera composer. Lortzing's first opera was written in 1824. Among his best-known works are the comic operas Zar un...

Wickram, Jörg

(Encyclopedia)Wickram, Jörg yörk vĭkˈräm [key], c.1505–62, German writer. Wickram wrote Meisterlieder, farces such as Der treue Eckart [faithful Eckart] (1538), biblical drama such as Tobias (1550), and the ...