VOLK, WILHELM GUSTAV (pseudonym: Ludwig Clarus). — A prolific writer and convert, born on 25 January 1804 at Halberstadt, died at Erfurt on 17 March 1869.
The son of a Protestant jurist, he studied (1823–26) legal sciences at Göttingen and Berlin, together with literature and philosophy (he attended lectures by Hegel and Schleiermacher). During a further period of study in Berlin (1832–1835), he entered into relations with the jurist Prof. George Phillips, his contemporary, who had converted (1828) to Catholicism. He married (1836) the daughter of a parish priest and became a government councillor (1838) at Erfurt. During a journey in southern Germany, he was introduced by Prof. Phillips, who had moved to Munich, to the leading figures of the so-called Görresian circle, which exercised a lasting influence on V., bringing him ever closer to the Catholic faith. The decisive step, however, came only after, on the advice of the bishop of Mainz, Em. V. Ketteler, he had completed the spiritual exercises. V. and his wife abjured together on 18 October 1855 at Aigen near Salzburg. Retired on a pension in 1858, he lived until his death at Erfurt as an exemplary Catholic.
He published his autobiography under the title: Simeon.
Wanderungen und Heimkehr eines christ. Forschers, von Ludw. Clarus (3 vols., Schaffhausen 1862–63). A list of V.’s writings comprises 71 entries in J. Kehrein, Biograph. literar. Lex. der kath. deutschen Dichter... (II, Würzburg 1871, pp. 223–28). Important are his works on Italian literature (2 vols., 1832–34) and Spanish literature (2 vols., 1846), his translations of the works of St. Teresa (5 vols., 1851–55), St. Brigida (4 vols., 1856, 2nd ed. 1888), St. Hildegarda (1854), St. Matilde (1867), etc.