Wienbarg was born in
Altona, as the son of a blacksmith. In 1822 he started studying theology at the
Kiel University. In 1826, he had to drop his studies for financial reasons and worked as a private tutor for Count
Christian Günther von Bernstorff in
Lauenburg. In 1829, he was conferred a doctor's degree at
Marburg University for his thesis on the original meaning of
Platonic ideas. In 1833, he accepted a job as lecturer in Kiel. In 1834, he published a collection with 22 of his lectures under the title
"Ästhetische Feldzüge" ("Aesthetic Campaigns"). With the opening words
"To you, young Germany, I dedicate these speeches" he helped to create the expression
"Young Germany". In the same year, he met the writer
Karl Gutzkow in
Frankfurt am Main. They planned to publish a journal in summer 1835. However, it was seized and banned by the
German government even before the delivery of its first edition. In November 1835, Wienbarg's writings, together with those of
Heinrich Heine,
Ludwig Börne, Karl Gutzkow,
Heinrich Laube and
Theodor Mundt, were first banned in
Prussia and subsequently in all the member states of the
German confederation. Wienbarg was forced to leave Frankfurt and escaped to
Heligoland, then a British island popular with political refugees from Germany. In the autumn of 1836, he returned to Hamburg where he resumed his activities as a journalist and editor for different journals. At the end of the 1830s, he was supported by his siblings. On 12 May 1839 he married Elisabeth Wilhelmine Dorothea Marwedel, daughter of a middle-class family in Altona, but his marriage did not improve his financial situation. In 1846, his plans to emigrate to the United States were discussed in the press, but the national enthusiasm for the
Schleswig-Holstein Question made him rethink his decision. In 1848 and 1849, he volunteered in the
First Schleswig War. After 1850, Wienbarg lived in Hamburg and Altona, addicted to alcohol, destitute, and forgotten by the public. In 1869, he was committed to a psychiatric clinic in
Schleswig where he died on 2 January 1872. == Works (selection) ==