FRENSSEN, GUSTAV (1863- ), German author, was born at Barlt Oct. 19 1863, and was educated at the universities of Tübingen, Berlin and Kiel. He took orders and from 1892 to 1902 was pastor at Hemme, taking his degree as doctor of theology at Heidelberg in 1903. But he had already for some years been known as a writer of novels, and in 1902, a year after his great success with Jörn Uhl (1901), he gave up his pastorate and devoted all his time to literature. His work in fiction includes Die Sandgräfin (1895, 3rd ed. 1902); Die drei Getreuen (1898); Hilligenlei (1905); Peter Moor's Fahrt nach Süd-West (1906); Klaus Henrich Baas (1909) and Die Brüder (1918). He also published sermons (Dorfpredigten, 1899-1902), and two plays, Das Heimatsfest (1903) and Sönke Erichsen (1912).
See H. M. Elster, Gustav Frenssen, sein Leben und sein Schaffen (1912); also studies by E. Muesebeck (1908) and T. Rehtwisch (1902); and Gustav Frenssen: Hilligenlei als Kunstwerk und als Tendenzschrift (1906).