Background
He was born at Gießen, the son of Joseph Hillebrand, a literary historian and writer on philosophic subjects.
historian writer Revolutionary
He was born at Gießen, the son of Joseph Hillebrand, a literary historian and writer on philosophic subjects.
Karl Hillebrand attended the University of Paris.
Karl Hillebrand became involved, as a student in Heidelberg, in the Baden revolutionary movement, and was imprisoned in Rastatt in 1849. He succeeded in escaping and lived for a time in Strassburg, Paris where for several months he was Heinrich Heine's secretary and Bordeaux. He continued his studies, and after obtaining the doctor"s degree at the Sorbonne, he was appointed teacher of German in the Ecole militaire at Street Cyr, and shortly afterwards, professor of foreign literatures at Douai.
On the outbreak of the Franco-German War, he resigned his professorship and acted for a time as correspondent to The Times in Italy.
Karl Hillebrand then settled in Florence, where he died on the 19th of October 1884.