German scholar and poet, born at Bonn; studied at Bonn and Berlin, where he became imbued with a love for old German literature, in connection with which he did his best-known work; modernised the "Nibelungen Lied" (1827), and after his withdrawal from the Prussian service gave himself to his favourite study, becoming professor of Old German in 1850, and popularising and stimulating inquiry into the old national writings by volumes of translations, collections of folk-songs, stories, etc.; was also author of several volumes of original poetry (1802-1876).