Career
Frenssen found the subjects of his novels in his native province, which he described with realism, sentimentality, patriotism, and a love tempered with criticism. His deliberately moral and political message partly accounts for the popularity of the novelist. Frenssen also wrote short stories, plays. He published popular histories of his native village and of Germany. His political observations lend interest to letters that he wrote during a trip through the United States in 1922 (Briefe aus Amerika, 1924). In 1940 he wrote a passionate defense of Germany's role in World War II.