ALBERTI, CONRAD (pseudonym for CONRAD SITTENFELD):

By: Moses Beer

German novelist, dramatist, critic, and actor; born at Breslau, July 9, 1862. Having finished his education in his native city, he went to Berlin, where he became an actor. After a few years he returned to his studies and devoted himself entirely to literary work. He was one of the pioneers of naturalism in Germany, which introduced realism into literature, sociological aspects into literary criticism, and which culminated in Sudermann and Hauptmann.

Among Alberti's many critical books and pamphlets may be mentioned: "Gustav Freytag" (1884; 2d ed., 1886), "Bettina von Arnim" (1885), "Ludwig Börne" (1886), "Ohne Schminke" (1887), "Der Moderne Realismus in der Deutschen Litteratur" (1889), "Natur und Kunst" (1891); among his novels: "Riesen und Zwerge" (1887; 2d ed., 1889), "Plebs" (1887), "Der Kampf ums Dasein" (a series of novels, 1888-94), "Fahrende Frau" (1895); among his dramas: "Brot!" (1888), "Ein Vorurteil" (1891), "Bluff" (1893), "Die Französin" (1894); and among his political writings: "Norddeutsche Reichspolitik" (1896), "Türkische Zustönde" (1896).

M. B.