Reuter was born at
Stavenhagen in
Mecklenburg-Schwerin, a small country town where his father was mayor and sheriff (
Stadtrichter), and in addition to his official duties carried on the work of a farmer. He was educated at home by private tutors and subsequently at the gymnasiums of Friedland in Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and of Parchim.
In
1831, Reuter began to attend lectures on
jurisprudence at the
University of Rostock, and in the following year went to the
University of Jena. Here he was a member of the political students' club, or German Burschenschaft, and in 1833 was arrested in Berlin by the
Prussian government. Although the only charge which could be proved against him was that he had been seen wearing the club's colours, he was condemned to death for
high treason. This monstrous sentence was commuted by
King Frederick William III of Prussia to imprisonment for thirty years in a Prussian fortress. In 1838, through the personal intervention of the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg, he was delivered over to the authorities of his native state, and he spent the next two years in the fortress of
Dömitz, but was set free in 1840, when an
amnesty was proclaimed after the accession of
Frederick William IV to the Prussian throne.
Although Reuter was now thirty years of age, he went to
Heidelberg to resume his legal studies, but he soon found it necessary to return to Stavenhagen, where he helped to run his father's farm. When his father died, he abandoned farming, and in 1850 settled as a private tutor at the little town of
Treptow in
Pomerania. Here he married Luise Kunze, the daughter of a Mecklenburg pastor.
Reuter's first publication was a collection of miscellanies, written in
Low German, and entitled
Läuschen un Riemels (anecdotes and rhymes, 1853; a second collection followed in 1858). The book, which was received with encouraging favour, was followed by
Polterabendgedichte (1855), and
De Reis nach Belligen (1855), the latter a humorous poem describing the adventures of some Mecklenburg peasants who resolve to go to
Belgium (which they never reach) to learn the secrets of an advanced civilization.
In
1856 Reuter left Treptow and established himself at
Neubrandenburg, resolving to devote his whole time to literary work. His next book (published in 1858) was
Kein Hüsung, an epic in which he presents with great force and vividness some of the least attractive aspects of village life in Mecklenburg. This was followed, in 1860, by
Hanne Nüte un de lütte Pudel, the best of the works written by Reuter in verse.
In
1861 Reuter's popularity was largely increased by
Schurr-Murr, a collection of tales, some of which are in
standard German, but this work is of slight importance in comparison with the series of stories, entitled
Olle Kamellen ("old stories of bygone days"). The first volume, published in 1860, contained
Woans ick tau 'ne Fru kam and
Ut de Franzosentid. Ut mine Festungstid (1861) formed the second volume;
Ut mine Stromtid (1864) the third, fourth and fifth volumes; and
Dörchläuchting (1866) the sixth volume – all written in the Plattdeutsch dialect of the author's home.
Woans ick tau 'ne Fru kamm is a bright little tale, in which Reuter tells, in a half serious half bantering tone, how he wooed the lady who became his wife.
In
Ut de Franzosentid the scene is laid in and near Stavenhagen in the year 1813, and the characters of the story are associated with the great events which then stirred the heart of Germany to its depths.
Ut mine Festungstid is of less general interest than
Ut de Franzosentid, a narrative of Reuter's hardships during the term of his imprisonment, but it is not less vigorous either in conception or in style.
Ut mine Stromtid is by far the greatest of Reuter's writings. The men and women he describes are the men and women he knew in the villages and farmhouses of Mecklenburg, and the circumstances in which he places them are the circumstances by which they were surrounded in actual life. As in
Ut de Franzosentid he describes the deep national impulse in obedience to which Germany rose against Napoleon, so in
Ut mine Stromtid he presents many aspects of the revolutionary movement of 1848. M. W. MacDowell translated this book from German into the English edition "From my framing days" in 1878.
In
1863 Reuter transferred his residence from Neubrandenburg to
Eisenach and here he died on
12 July 1874. In the works produced at Eisenach he did not maintain the high level of his earlier writings.
Reuter's
Sämtliche Werke, in 13 volumes, were first published in 1863-1868. To these were added in 1875 two volumes of
Nachgelassene Schriften, with a biography by Adolf von Wilbrandt, and in 1878 two supplementary volumes to the works appeared. A popular edition in 7 vols was published in 1877-1878 (last edition, 1902); there are also editions by KF Müller (18 vols, 905), and Wilhelm Seelmann (7 vols, 1905-1906). Interest in Reuter was revived in the postwar period, in part through the efforts of
Friedrich Griese.
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