German Poetic Realists drew on the Romantic motif of the Double
in a manner consistent with the central dictum of Poetic Realism
as articulated by its chief theorists, Julian Schmidt and Otto
Ludwig. Schmidt and Ludwig argued that contemporary authors
should, above all, strive for psychological and aesthetic
totality in their narrative representations, turning away from
the Romantic fantastic but also avoiding the fragmentary approach
to the portrayal of everyday life that Ludwig found in early
Naturalism. The 'poetic' presentation of reality adheres to
quotidian life but strives to show it in all its many dimensions.
While Romantic Doppelganger are often preternatural figures, the Poetic
Realists configure egos and their narrative Others ('alter egos, '
who are also sometimes physical Doubles) to portray characters in
their psychological comprehensiveness.

After offering an overview of the Romantic Double motif and its connections to the theory of Poetic Realism, John Pizer analyzes the work of Annette von Droste-Hulshoff, Otto Ludwig, Conrad Ferdinand Meyer, Gottfried Keller, Theodor Storm, and Wilhelm Raabe.