MEYR, MELCHOIR (1810–1871), German poet, novelist and philosopher, was born at Ehringen on the 28th of June 1810, and died at Munich on the 22nd of April 1871. He read law and philosophy at Heidelberg and Munich. His greatest success was the Erzählungen aus dem Ries (4th ed. Leipzig, 1892), remarkable as an accurate and sympathetic picture of rural life and character. He wrote also tragedies (Herzog Albrecht, 1851; Karl der Kühne, 1862), novels (Vier Deutsche, 1861; Ewige Liebe, 1864), and, in later life, philosophical works with a strong religious tendency. Among these were Emilie (philosophical dialogues, 1863), Die Religion des Geistes (1871), Die Fortdauer nach dem Tode (1869), Die Religion und ihre jetzt gebotene Fortbildung (1871), and Gedanken über Kunst, Religion und Philosophie (1874). In these works he, attempted to develop a Deistic system of philosophy. He was the author of an anonymous work entitled Gespräche mit einem Grobian (1866).
See Melchior Meyr. Biographisches, Briefe und Gedichte, edited by Graf Bothmer and M. Carrière (Leipzig, 1874).