Friodrich Heinrich Karl De La Motte Fouque, baron, a German novelist and poet, born in the town of Brandenburg, Feb. 12, 1777, died in Berlin, Jan. 23, 1843. The grandson of a distinguished general of Frederick the Great, he served in defence of his country in early youth, and again in 1813 in the war against Napoleon, was wounded at Kulm, and present at Leipsic. Devoting himself henceforward to literature, he became one of the most original and fertile writers of the romantic school. An enthusiastic love for the ideal Christian chivalry of the middle ages, and for the ancient national poetry of Scandinavia and Germany, pervades most of his works, which embrace novels, epics, dramas, etc. He is best known by his Undine, which has been translated into nearly every European language. Of this Coleridge said that there was something in it even beyond Scott: for it was one and single in projection, and presented, what Scott had never done, an absolutely new idea. Of his other tales, all of which have been translated into English."Sintram" and "Thiodolf" are the most remarkable.

A corrected edition of his select works was prepared by Fouque before his death (12 vols., Halle, 1841).