HILLE, PETER. - Poet, b. in Westphalia, near Höxter, 11 Sept. 1854, d. 7 May 1904 at Berlin-Lichterfelde. One of the most eminent and original German poetic temperaments of the late nineteenth century, obscured or distorted by the almost unreal life he led, partly that of a bohémien and partly that of a gypsy. His refined sensibility inspired a lyric poetry containing the lightest and most delicate verses of those years, and representing the most vital part of his production.
In the novel Die Sozialisten (1887) there is a keen critical and sceptical analysis of socialism. A true novel is Die Hassenburg (1905), in which he also discusses the problems of the nobility and education. Of the two short historical novels Semiramis and Kleopatra (published together in 1896), the second is noteworthy; even more so is Des Platonikers
Sohn, or the “tragedy of education” (same year), though it deals above all with the problems of social life, from which he was excluded. There is also an aphoristic H., quite popular but weak. His friends edited the collection of his posthumous works.