Franz Hedrich

The gravestone of Franz Hedrich in Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh.

Franz Hedrich (30 July 1823 – 31 October 1895) was a German-Bohemian writer, dramatist, and literary collaborator, best known for his involvement in one of the nineteenth century’s most notable authorship controversies. Although little remembered today, his long association with the novelist and poet Alfred Meissner placed him at the centre of a literary scandal that was reported across Europe and America. 

Hedrich was born in the hamlet of Podskalí near Písek, in what is now the Czech Republic and grew up in modest circumstances.

His father was a bassoonist who later found work in Prague’s theatres, allowing the family to move to the city. Although Czech was his first language, Hedrich eventually learned German and became attracted to literature and politics despite receiving only a limited formal education. His determination and literary ambition soon brought him into contact with Prague’s progressive intellectual circles. 

In the 1840s, he was introduced to the literary group known as the Young Bohemians by the poet Moritz Hartmann.

There he formed a close friendship with the rising writer Alfred Meissner, whose career was already flourishing. Hedrich became more than simply a friend: he acted as a trusted literary assistant, discussing plots, drafting passages and helping to shape manuscripts. Their collaboration continued for decades and became one of the defining relationships of Hedrich’s life. 

Like many liberal intellectuals of his generation, Hedrich was swept into the revolutionary movements of 1848.

Elected to the northern Bohemian district of Tannwald in the Frankfurt Parliament, he supported the parliament’s radical left faction.

Following the collapse of the revolutionary movement, he returned to Austria, where he was briefly interned before being expelled. He subsequently lived in Gotha and Coburg before settling in Munich in 1859, although he frequently travelled with Meissner through the Alps, Switzerland and Italy. 

From the mid-1850s, Alfred Meissner enjoyed enormous success with novels including Sansara (1858), Schwarzgelb (1862–64) and Babel (1867). Hedrich later claimed that he had been far more than an editor or adviser, arguing that he had played a substantial role in writing these celebrated works.

Franz Hedrich – Controversy

After Meissner died in 1885, Franz Hedrich published letters and his own account of their relationship, insisting that he deserved recognition as the true creative force behind many of the novels.

The letters convinced many that he had played a far greater role than previously realised, but they stopped short of proving that he alone had written the celebrated novels.

The allegations created a sensation throughout the German-speaking world and were widely reported in Britain and the United States. 

Most literary scholars stopped short of accepting Hedrich’s claims in full. The consensus was that he had exaggerated his importance, but that he had undeniably contributed ideas, drafts and editorial work to Meissner’s novels. The episode remains an early and fascinating example of the blurred boundaries between author, editor and what would now be called a ghostwriter. 

Hedrich married Janet Anne Barron of Edinburgh in 1871. The couple divided their time between Switzerland, France and Scotland before eventually settling in Edinburgh. Hedrich spent his final years in the city and died there on 31 October 1895.

He is buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard, where his grave offers an unexpected Edinburgh connection to one of the most intriguing literary controversies of nineteenth-century Europe.

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