Moritz Hartmann (15 October 1821 – 13 May 1872) was a Bohemian-Austrian poet, politician and author.
Biography
Hartmann was born of Jewish parentage at Duschnik (now Trhové Dušníky) in Bohemia. His maternal grandfather, Isaac Spitz, served as av beit din in Bunzlau. As a young man, Hartmann abandoned Judaism although he never formally converted to Christianity.
Having studied philosophy at Prague and Vienna, he travelled in south Germany, Switzerland and Italy, and became tutor in a family at Vienna.
In 1845, he proceeded to Leipzig and there published a volume of patriotic poems, Kelch und Schwert (1845).
Fearing in consequence prosecution at the hands of the authorities, he abided events in France and Belgium, and after issuing in Leipzig Neuere Gedichte (1846) returned home, where he suffered a short term of imprisonment.
In 1848, he was elected member for Leitmeritz district in the short-lived German parliament at Frankfurt-am-Main, in which he sided with the extreme radical party.
He took part with Robert Blum in the revolution of that year in Vienna. On its collapse, he joined the "rump parliament" (a remnant of the Frankfurt parliament) in Stuttgart, and finally escaped to London and Paris.