Ludwig Thoma (21 January 1867 in Oberammergau – 26 August 1921 in Tegernsee) was a German author, publisher and editor, who gained popularity through his partially exaggerated description of everyday Bavarian life.
After graduation from the Imperial Latin School in Landstuhl (today: Sickingen- Gymnasium Landstuhl), he first studied Forestry in Aschaffenburg, then Law until 1893 in Munich and Erlangen. Subsequently, he settled down as a lawyer, at first in Dachau, later in Munich.
After 1899, he worked for the magazine Simplicissimus and published humorous narrations, comedies, novels and stories. Thoma satirized Bavarian rural and small-town life. His serious peasant novels Andreas Vöst (1905), Der Wittiber (1911), and Der Ruepp (1922), as well as his humorous collections Assessor Karlchen (1900), Lausbubengeschichten (Scoundrel Stories, 1904), and Tante Frieda (Aunt Frieda, 1906), are characterized by authenticity of regional language and life. Thoma's dramas, including Die Medaille (The Medal, 1901), Das Säuglingsheim (The Orphanage, 1913), and especially Moral (1908), reflect elements of folk theater.
In 1907 he married 25-year-old Marietta di Rigardo, who was born in the Philippines. The marriage, however, did not last; Marietta was soon bored and by 1911 Thoma and Marietta were divorced. In the later years of his life, he wrote nationalistic propaganda agitating against left-wing politicians (e.g. for the newspaper Miesbacher Anzeiger).
His best-known works are Ein Münchner im Himmel (A Municher in Heaven), the Lausbubengeschichten (Scoundrel Stories) and Jozef Filsers Briefwexel (Jozef Filser's Correspondence). Lausbubengeschichten was made into a movie in 1964, also released in English under the title Tales of a Young Scamp.
- Die Lokalbahn (1901)
- Lausbubengeschichten (1905)
- Tante Frieda (1907)
- Moral (1909)
- Ein Münchner im Himmel (1911)
- Jozef Filsers Briefwexel (1912)
- Altaich (1918)
- Münchnerinnen (1919)
- Der Jagerloisl (1921)
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|Wikisource has the text of a 1920 Encyclopedia Americana article about Ludwig Thoma.|
- Works by Ludwig Thoma at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Ludwig Thoma at Internet Archive
- Works by Ludwig Thoma at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Ludwig Thoma on IMDb
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