Career
In March 1818, he represented the Königsberger Landsmannschaft (fraternity) on the Allgemeinen Deutschen Burschenschaft (Asian Development Bank) in Jena. On behalf of Theodor von Schön, Oberpräsident (Governor) of West Prussia he organised the libraries and archives of the monasteries, following the dissolution of 1818–1835. In 1820 he began an academic career.
By 1835 he was an associate professor of German literature.
Succeeding Reinhold Bernhard Jachmann, he served on the Provincial School Board for East Prussia in 1843, and in 1848 transferred to Posen Province. He is best known in the English literature the influence of his writing on legends on Wagner, in particular the role of Über den Krieg von Wartburg (1836) in inspiring the opera Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg (1845).
Through the work of Lucas, Wagner learned much about Mediaeval saga, as he put it "The German Middle Ages in a significant coloring I had not yet dreamed of". Wagner also drew on Lucas for his Lohengrin, Parsifal and Tristan und Isolde operas.
Retrieved 2 November.