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Uhland was born in Tübingen to an educated family with a background in religion, history and
law. In 1795 he attended High School from which he progressed to the university where from
1801 until 1811 he studied law and literature. He also published a Sunday newspaper for
those with little education, and with close friends wrote poetry which tended to be more
prosaic than the romanticism of the time. He received his doctorate in 1810 and, shortly
thereafter, for eight months ostensibly studied the Code Napoleon in the National
Bibliothek in Paris.
From 1812 he lived in Stuttgart where in 1820 he met and married his wife Emilie Auguste
Vischer and became secretary in the Württemberg justice ministry before becoming active as
a lawyer. They returned to Tübingen in 1830 where the childless couple took their nephew
and the son of a deceased friend into their own care.
Uhland became a liberal member of the local parliament 1819 - 1827 representing Tübingen and
Stuttgart. As the leading speaker, he campaigned unsuccessfully in favour of reinstating the
pre Napoleonic legal constitution, despite its being outdated, rather than the proposed
1818 constitution. His opposition led to his resignation but he was reappointed
1833 - 1838 to the Württemberg parliament.
With the advent of the revolution, he became a member of the Frankfurt national assembly from
1848 -1849. As an independent democrat he took only a minor role in the procedures but spoke
passionately for the creation of a greater Germany with the inclusion of Austria but most
representatives favoured exclusion. His proposal that a head of state should be placed
above royalty was also defeated.
Uhland then returned to teaching and to editing poetry from the Middle Ages. He was somewhat
self-critical of his own creations until encouraged by others to publish upon which numerous
composers chose to set many of his works to music.
He died of a chill contracted at the funeral of his great friend Justinus Kerner.
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