Ludwig Bechstein (24 November 1801 – 14 May 1860) was a German writer and collector of folk fairy tales.

He was born in Weimar, the illegitimate child of Johanna Carolina Dorothea Bechstein and Hubert Dupontreau, a French emigrant who disappeared before the birth of the child; Ludwig thus grew up very poor in his first nine years. His situation improved only when his uncle Johann Matthäus Bechstein, a renowned naturalist and forester living in Meiningen in the country of Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen, adopted him in 1810. He was sent to school in Meiningen, and in 1818, started an apprenticeship as a pharmacist.

From 1828 to 1831 he studied philosophy and literature in Leipzig and Munich thanks to a stipend granted by Duke Bernhard II of Sachsen-Meiningen, who hired him subsequently as a librarian. This lifetime post provided Bechstein with a continuous income, while leaving him a lot of freedom to pursue his own interests and writing. He lived from 1831 until his death in Meiningen. In his honor, a fountain was built in the English Garden.

Bechstein published many works and was a successful author of his time. His German Fairy Tale Book was even more popular than the Brothers Grimm's collection when it was first published in 1845.^[1] He published several collections of folk tales, and also published romances and poems

• Thüringische Volksmärchen (1823)
• Sonettenkränze (1826, through which Duke Bernhard became interested in him)
• The Children of Haymon (1830, epic poem)
• Der Totentanz (The Dance of Death, 1831, epic poem)
• Grimmenthal (1833, novel)
• Luther (1834)
• Der Sagenschatz und die Sagenkreise des Thüringerlandes (A treasury of the tales of Thuringian legends and legend cycles)(1835–38)
• Fahrten eines Musikanten (Journeys of a Musician, 1836–37, novel)
• Deutsches Märchenbuch (German Fairy-Tale Book, 1845; 41st ed., 1893); French translation with introduction and comments: Corinne and Claude Lecouteux, Paris, José Corti, 2010 (collection Merveilleux); English (complete) translation: Michael Haldane (see External Links)
• New Natural History of Pet Birds (1846, humorous didactic poem)
• Berthold der Student (1850, novel)
• Deutsches Sagenbuch (1853)Volksmärchen (1823)
• Neues Deutsches Märchenbuch (New German Fairy-Tale Book, 1856; 105th ed., 1922); English (complete) translation: Michael Haldane (see External Links)
• Thüringer Sagenbuch (1858)
• Thuringia's Royal House (1865)

• Staatliche Grundschule 6, Erfurt: Bechsteinschule (public elementary school)
• Ludwig-Bechstein-Grundschule, Meiningen: (public elementary school)

• Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). "Bechstein, Ludwig" . New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
• Rines, George Edwin, ed. (1920). "Bechstein, Ludwig" . Encyclopedia Americana.

• Haldane, Michael. "A modern translation - the only complete English versions of the "Deutsches Märchenbuch" and "Neues Deutsches Märchenbuch"". Retrieved 21 July 2022.
• Works by Ludwig Bechstein at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Ludwig Bechstein at the Internet Archive
• Works by Ludwig Bechstein at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)