 He began his literary career as a dramatist with "Camoëns" and "Bretislav" (1843), which caught the attention of Ludwig I and led to a position at the court theatre.After the Revolution of 1848, his support for Johannes Ronge and the failure of his marriage caused him professional difficulties and he was obliged to retire from the service, moving into a two-storey house at the head of the Tegernseer Landstraße in the south-east of the city.He obtained great popularity in the 1860s as a prolific writer of historical novels based on events in Austrian and Bavarian history.