The first English-language biography of the man behind the scenes who made the German Shakespeare possible and brought Molière's plays to life for the German stage.Baudissin's life sets a mirror to his age: born with the French Revolution, spanning from feudal nobility to the age of industry, from Napoleon's Empire to the Germany of Bismarck, in youth revering Goethe, upholding the German Romantics yet at ease with Realists and championed in old age by Freytag; devoted to Bach and the piano, friend of the Schumanns, Chopin, Mendelssohn, his family bridging to Brahms.From diplomat to dedicated translator, committed to his family, to Holstein, and to Dresden high culture, his is a legacy of sheer human goodness.