ABSTRACT
Son of a farmer, Schäfer worked as a teacher for seven years near Düsseldorf, where he edited the conservative journal Die Rheinlande. He moved to Berlin where he was befriended by Richard Dehmel. His first attempts at writing were plays greatly influenced by naturalism (Ein Totschläger (1894)), but he was more successful in the writing of anecdotes dealing with peasant life (his model was Johann Peter Hebel). These include Mannsleut. Westerwälder Bauerngeschichten (1895), Anekdoten (1907) and Rheinsagen (1908). His writing became increasingly patriotic (Die dreizehn Bücher der deutschen Seele (1922); Deutsche Reden (1933); Auf den Spuren der alten Reichsherrlichkeit (1933)) and his concept of the ‘deutsche Sendung’ was greeted by the Nazis. His autobiography Mein Leben was published in 1934; a Rechenschaft followed in 1948. Four volumes of Erzählende Schriften appeared in 1919; the Gesamtausgabe der Anekdoten in 1943.
