The New International Encyclopædia/Groth, Klaus

GROTH, grōt, Klaus (1819-99). A German poet, and the first writer of prominence to employ ‘Plattdeutsch,’ or Low German, as a literary medium, born at Heide, in Ditmarsh, the western part of Holstein, Prussia. He studied at the Teachers' School in Tondern, and then secured a position as a teacher of girls in his native place, devoting his spare time to the study of philosophy, mathematics, and the natural sciences. Finally, his health giving way, he retired to the island of Fehmarn, in the Baltic, where he remained five years, and where most of his poems were written. In 1853 he went to Kiel, then traveled through Germany and Switzerland, and after a two years' sojourn at Bonn, where he received the doctor's degree, took up his residence in Dresden. In 1857 he returned to Kiel, where he became a tutor in German language and literature, and in 1866 was made professor, which position he held until his death. His fame rests chiefly on his Quickborn (1853, 25th ed. 1900), a collection of poems in the Ditmarsh dialect. His works have been collected and published in four volumes (Kiel, 1893). For an estimate of his works, consult Eggers, Klaus Groth und die plattdeutsche Dichtung (Berlin, 1885).