Friedrich Schiller
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Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller
[johan/joːhan krɪstɔf friːtʁɪç fɔn ʃɪləʁ/ʃɪlɐ] (10
November 1759 – 9 May 1805) was a German poet,
philosopher, historian, and playwright. During the
last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller
struck up a productive, if complicated, friendship
with already famous and influential Johann
Wolfgang Goethe, with whom he frequently
discussed issues concerning aesthetics and
encouraged Goethe to finish works he left merely as
sketches; this relationship and these discussions led
to a period now referred to as Weimar Classicism.
They also worked together on Die Xenien (The
Xenies), a collection of short but harshly satirical
poems in which both Schiller and Goethe verbally
attacked those persons they perceived to be enemies
of their aesthetic agenda.
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller
Born
Died
Contents
1 Biography
2 Freemasonry
3 Writing
3.1 Philosophical papers
3.2 The dramas
3.3 The Aesthetic Letters
4 Ennoblement
5 Quotations
6 Musical settings of Schiller's poems and
stage plays
7 Works
7.1 Plays
7.2 Histories
7.3 Translations
7.4 Prose
7.5 Poems
Occupation
Nationality
Literary
movement
10 November 1759
Marbach am Neckar, Germany
9 May 1805 (aged 45)
Weimar, Germany
poet, dramatist
German
Sturm und Drang, Weimar
Classicism
Influences
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,
Immanuel Kant
Influenced
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe
8 Notes and citations
9 Bibliography
10 See also
11 External links
Biography
Schiller was born on November 10, 1759 in Marbach, Württemberg as
the only son, besides five sisters, of military doctor Johann Kaspar
Schiller (1733–96), and Elisabeth Dorothea Kodweiß (1732–1802). On
22 February 1790, he married Charlotte von Lengefeld (1766–1826).
Two sons (Karl and Ernst) and two daughters (Luise and Emilie) were
born between 1793 and 1804. The last living descendent of Schiller
was a grandchild of Emilie, Baron Alexander von Gleichen-Rußwurm,
who died at Baden-Baden, Germany in 1947.(citation needed)
His father was away in the Seven Years' War when Friedrich was born.
He was named after Frederick II of Prussia (Friedrich is German for
Frederick), the king of the country his father was fighting for, Prussia,
but he was called Fritz by nearly everyone.[1] Kaspar Schiller was
rarely home at the time, which was hard on his wife, but he did manage
Walk of Ideas (Germany) –
to visit the family once in a while and his wife and children also visited
built in 2006 to commemorate
Johannes Gutenberg's
him occasionally wherever he happened to be stationed. [2] When the
invention, c. 1445, of movable
war ended in 1763, Schiller's father became a recruiting officer and was
printing type.
stationed in Schwäbisch Gmünd. The family moved with him, of
course, but since the cost of living-- especially the rent--soon turned
out to be too high, the family moved to nearby Lorch.[3]
Although the family was happy in Lorch, Schiller's father
found his work unsatisfying. He did, however, take young
Friedrich with him occasionally.[4] In Lorch Schiller received
his primary education, but because the schoolmaster was
lazy, the quality of the lessons was fairly bad and Friedrich
regularly cut class with his older sister.[5] Because his parents
wanted Schiller to become a pastor himself, they had the
pastor of the village instruct the boy in Latin and Greek. The
man was a good teacher, which led Schiller to name the
cleric in Die Räuber after Pastor Moser. Schiller was excited
by the idea of becoming a cleric and often put on black robes
and pretended to preach.[6]
In 1766, the family left Lorch for the Duke of
Wuerttemberg's principal residence, Ludwigsburg. Schiller's
father had not been paid for three years and the family had
been living on their savings, but could no longer afford to do
so. So Kaspar Schiller had himself assigned to the garrison in
Ludwigsburg. The move was not easy for Friedrich, since
Lorch had been a warm and comforting home throughout his
childhood.[7]
Schiller commemoration in Lincoln Park,
Chicago
He came to the attention of Karl Eugen, Duke of
Württemberg. He entered the Karlsschule Stuttgart (an elite military academy founded by the Duke), in
1773, where he eventually studied medicine. During most of his short life, he suffered from illnesses
that he tried to cure himself.
While at the Karlsschule, Schiller read Rousseau and Goethe and discussed Classical ideals with his
classmates. At school, he wrote his first play, Die Räuber (The Robbers), which dramatizes the conflict
between two aristocratic brothers: the elder, Karl Moor, leads a group of rebellious students into the
Bohemian forest where they become Robin Hood-like bandits, while Franz Moor, the younger brother,
schemes to inherit his father's considerable estate. The play's critique of social corruption and its
affirmation of proto-revolutionary republican ideals astounded its original audience, and made Schiller
an overnight sensation. Later, Schiller would be made an honorary member of the French Republic
because of this play.
In 1780, he obtained a post as regimental doctor in Stuttgart, a job he disliked.
Following the remarkable performance of Die Räuber in Mannheim, in
1781, he was arrested and forbidden by Karl Eugen himself from
publishing any further works. He fled Stuttgart in 1783, coming via
Leipzig and Dresden to Weimar, in 1787. In 1789, he was appointed
professor of History and Philosophy in Jena, where he wrote only
historical works. He returned to Weimar in 1799, where Goethe
convinced him to return to playwriting. He and Goethe founded the
Weimar Theater which became the leading theater in Germany, leading
to a dramatic renaissance in Germany. He remained in Weimar,
Saxe-Weimar until his death at 45 from tuberculosis.
The coffin containing Schiller's skeleton is in the Weimarer
Schiller on his deathbed — a
Fürstengruft[8] (Weimar's Ducal Vault), the burial place of Houses of
drawing by the portraitist
Grand Dukes (großherzoglichen Hauses) of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach in
Ferdinand Jagemann, 1805
the Historical Cemetery of Weimar.[9] On 3 May 2008 it was
announced that the DNA tests have shown that the skull of this
[10]
skeleton is not Schiller's.
The similarity between this skull and the extant death-mask[11] as well as
portraits of Schiller had led many experts to believe that the skull was Schiller's.
In September 2008, Schiller was voted by the audience of the TV channel Arte as the second most
important playwright in Europe after William Shakespeare.
Freemasonry
Some Freemasons speculate that Schiller was a Freemason, but this has not been proven.[12]
In 1787, in his tenth letter about Don Carlos Schiller wrote:
“I am neither Illuminati nor Mason, but if the fraternization has a moral purpose in common with
one another, and if this purpose for the human society is the most important, ...”[13]
In a letter from 1829, two Freemasons from Rudolstadt complain about the dissolving of their Lodge
Günther zum stehenden Löwen that was honoured by the initiation of Schiller. According to Schiller's
great-grandson Alexander von Gleichen-Rußwurm, Schiller was brought to the Lodge by Wilhelm
Heinrich Karl von Gleichen-Rußwurm, but no membership document exists.[13]
Writing
Philosophical papers
Schiller wrote many philosophical papers on ethics and
aesthetics. He synthesized the thought of Immanuel Kant with
the thought of Karl Leonhard Reinhold. He developed the
concept of the Schöne Seele (beautiful soul), a human being
whose emotions have been educated by his reason, so that
Pflicht und Neigung (duty and inclination) are no longer in
conflict with one another; thus "beauty," for Schiller, is not
merely an aesthetic experience, but a moral one as well: the
Good is the Beautiful. His philosophical work was also
particularly concerned with the question of human freedom, a
preoccupation which also guided his historical researches, such
as the Thirty Years War and The Revolt of the Netherlands, and
then found its way as well into his dramas (the "Wallenstein"
trilogy concerns the Thirty Years War, while "Don Carlos"
addresses the revolt of the Netherlands against Spain.) Schiller
wrote two important essays on the question of the Sublime (das
Goethe and Schiller monument in
Weimar
Erhabene), entitled "Vom Erhabenen" and "Über das Erhabene";
these essays address one aspect of human freedom--the ability
to defy one's animal instincts, such as the drive for self-preservation, when, for example, someone
willingly dies for a beautiful id
The dramas
Schiller is considered by most Germans to be Germany's most important classical playwright. Critics
like F.J. Lamport and Eric Auerbach have noted his innovative use of dramatic structure and his creation
of new forms, such as the melodrama and the bourgeois tragedy. What follows is a brief, chronological
description of the plays.
The Robbers (Die Räuber): The language of The Robbers is highly emotional, and the depiction
of physical violence in the play marks it as a quintessential work of Germany's Romantic 'Storm
and Stress' movement. The Robbers is considered by critics like Peter Brooks to be the first
European melodrama. The play pits two brothers against each other in alternating scenes, as one
quests for money and power, while the other attempts to create a revolutionary anarchy in the
Bohemian Forest. The play strongly criticises the hypocrisies of class and religion and the
economic inequities of German society; it also conducts a complicated inquiry into the nature of
evil.
Fiesco (Die Verschwörung des Fiesco zu Genua):
Intrigue and Love (Kabale und Liebe): The aristocratic Ferdinand von Walter wishes to marry
Luise Miller, the bourgeois daughter of the city's music instructor. Court politics involving the
duke's beautiful but conniving mistress, Lady Milford and Ferdinand's ruthless father create a
disastrous situation reminiscent of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Schiller develops his
criticisms of absolutism and bourgeois hypocrisy in this bourgeois tragedy. Act 2, Scene 2 is an
anti-British parody that depicts a bloody firing-squad massacre, in which young Germans who
refused to join the Hessian Army to quash the American Revolutionary Army are fired upon.[14]
Giuseppe Verdi's opera Luisa Miller is based on this play.
Don Carlos: This play marks Schiller's entrée into historical drama. Very loosely based on the
events surrounding the real Don Carlos of Spain, Schiller's Don Carlos is another republican
figure--he attempts to free Flanders from the despotic grip of his father, King Phillip. The Marquis
Posa's famous speech to the king proclaims Schiller's belief in personal freedom and democracy.
The Wallenstein Trilogy: These plays follow the fortunes of the treacherous commander Albrecht
von Wallenstein during the Thirty Years' War.
Mary Stuart (Maria Stuart): This "revisionist" history of the Scottish queen who was Elizabeth I's
rival makes of Mary Stuart a tragic heroine, misunderstood, and used by ruthless politicians,
including and especially, Elizabeth herself.
The Maid of Orleans (Die Jungfrau von Orleans):
The Bride of Messina (Die Braut von Messina):
William Tell (Wilhelm Tell):
Demetrius (unfinished):
The Aesthetic Letters
Portrait of Friedrich von
Schiller by Gerhard von
Kügelgen.
A pivotal work by Schiller was On the Aesthetic Education of Man in a
series of Letters, (Über die ästhetische Erziehung des Menschen in
einer Reihe von Briefen) which was inspired by the great
disenchantment Schiller felt about the French Revolution, its
degeneration into violence and the failure of successive governments to
put its ideals into practice.[15] Schiller wrote that "a great moment has
found a little people," and wrote the Letters as a philosophical inquiry
into what had gone wrong, and how to prevent such tragedies in the
future. In the Letters he asserts that it is possible to elevate the moral
character of a people, by first touching their souls with beauty, an idea
that is also found in his poem Die Künstler (The Artists): "Only
through Beauty's morning-gate, dost thou penetrate the land of
knowledge."
On the philosophical side, Letters put forth the notion of der sinnliche
Trieb / Sinnestrieb ("the sensuous drive") and Formtrieb ("the formal
drive"). In a comment to Immanuel Kant's philosophy, Schiller transcends the dualism between Form
and Sinn, with the notion of Spieltrieb ("the play drive") derived from, as are a number of other terms,
Kant's The Critique of the Faculty of Judgment. The conflict between man's material, sensuous nature,
and his capacity for reason (Formtrieb being the drive to impose conceptual and moral order on the
world), Schiller resolves with the happy union of Form and Sinn, the "play drive," which for him is
synonymous with artistic beauty, or "living form." On the basis of Spieltrieb, Schiller sketches in Letters
a future ideal state (an eutopia), where everyone will be content, and everything will be beautiful, thanks
to the free play of Spieltrieb. Schiller's focus on the dialectical interplay between Form and Sinn has
inspired a wide range of succeeding aesthetic philosophical theory, including notably Jacques Rancière's
conception of the "aesthetic regime of art."
Ennoblement
For his achievements, Schiller was ennobled, in 1802, by the Duke of Weimar. His name changed from
Johann Christoph Friedrich Schiller to Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller.
Quotations
"Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain." – (Talbot in Maid of Orleans)
"The voice of the majority is no proof of justice." (Sapieha, in: Demetrius)
"Deeper meaning resides in the fairy tales told to me in my childhood than in any truth that is
taught in life."
"Eine Grenze hat die Tyrannenmacht", which literally means "A tyrant's power has a limit" - –
Wilhelm Tell
"It is not flesh and blood but the heart which makes us fathers and sons."
"Live with your century but do not be its creature." (From On the Aesthetic Education of Man.)
"Stay true to the dreams of thy youth."
Musical settings of Schiller's poems and stage plays
Ludwig van Beethoven said that a great poem is more difficult to set to music than a merely good one
because the composer must improve upon the poem. In that regard, he said that Schiller's poems were
greater than those of Goethe, and perhaps that is why there are relatively few famous musical settings of
Schiller's poems. Two notable exceptions are Beethoven's setting of An die Freude (Ode to Joy)[14] in
the final movement of the Ninth Symphony, and the choral setting of Nänie by Johannes Brahms. In
addition, several poems were set by Franz Schubert in lieder, like Die Bürgschaft, mostly for voice and
piano.
Also, Giuseppe Verdi admired Schiller greatly and adapted several of his stage plays for his operas: I
masnadieri is based on Die Räuber; Giovanna d'Arco, on Die Jungfrau von Orleans; Luisa Miller, on
Kabale und Liebe; Don Carlos on the play of the same title. Donizetti's Maria Stuarda is based on Maria
Stuart, and Rossini's Guillaume Tell is an adaptation of Wilhelm Tell.
Works
Plays
Die Räuber (The Robbers), 1781
Fiesco (Die Verschwörung des Fiesco zu Genua), 1783
Kabale und Liebe (Intrigue and Love),[14] 1784
Don Karlos, Infant von Spanien (Don Carlos),[16] 1787
Wallenstein,[17] 1800
Die Jungfrau von Orleans (The Maid of Orleans), 1801
Maria Stuart (Mary Stuart),[18] 1801
Turandot, 1802
Die Braut von Messina (The Bride of Messina), 1803
Wilhelm Tell (William Tell), 1804
Demetrius (unfinished at his death)
Histories
Geschichte des Abfalls der vereinigten Niederlande von der spanischen Regierung or The Revolt
of the Netherlands
Geschichte des dreissigjährigen Kriegs or A History of the Thirty Years' War
(http://www.electricscotland.com/history/30ndx.htm)
Über Völkerwanderung, Kreuzzüge und Mittelalter or On the Barbarian Invasions, Crusaders and
Middle Ages
Translations
Euripides, Iphigenia in Aulis
William Shakespeare, Macbeth
Jean Racine, Phèdre
Prose
Der Geisterseher or The Ghost-Seer (unfinished novel) (started in 1786 and published
periodically. Published as book in 1789)
Über die ästhetische Erziehung des Menschen in einer Reihe von Briefen (On the Aesthetic
Education of Man in a series of Letters), 1794
Der Verbrecher aus verlorener Ehre (Dishonoured Irreclaimable), 1786
Poems
An die Freude or Ode to Joy[14] (1785) became the basis for the fourth movement of Beethoven's
ninth symphony
The Artists
The Hostage which Schubert set to music
The Cranes of Ibykus
Song of the Bell
Columbus
Hope
Pegasus in Harness
The Glove
Nänie which Brahms set to music
Notes and citations
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
^ Lahnstein 1981, p. 18.
^ Lahnstein 1981, p. 20.
^ Lahnstein 1981, p. 20–1.
^ Lahnstein 1981, p. 23
^ Lahnstein 1981, p. 24.
^ Lahnstein 1981, p. 25.
^ Lahnstein 1981, p. 27.
GDR postage stamp depicting
^ Weimarer Fürstengruft, German Wikipedia
Schiller
(http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weimarer_F%C3%BCrstengruft) .
^ Historischer Friedhof Weimar, German Wikipedia
(http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historischer_Friedhof_Weimar) .
^ Schädel in Schillers Sarg wurde ausgetauscht (Skull in Schiller's coffin is exchanged), Spiegel
Online, Saturday 3 May 2008 (http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/literatur/0,1518,551284,00.html) .
Schädel in Weimar gehört nicht Schiller (Skull in Weimar does not belong to Schiller), Welt
Online, Saturday 3 May 2008, [1] (http://www.welt.de/kultur/article1962670
/Schaedel_in_Weimar_gehoert_nicht_Schiller.html) .
^ Death Mask (http://www.sammlungen.hu-berlin.de/dokumente/7882/)
^ Friedrich Von Schiller (http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/schiller_f/schiller_f.html)
^ a b Eugen Lennhoff, Oskar Posner, Dieter A. Binder: Internationales Freimaurer Lexikon.
Herbig publishing, 2006, ISBN 978-3-7766-2478-6
^ a b c d Schiller was an icon of the Revolution of 1848 to Europeans as he had been earlier during
the American Revolution (7000 Hessians defected permanently to the US during that war and
many thousands of Germans followed later when the Revolutions of 1848 were quashed and one
despot after another ruled in Europe) with his numerous anti-Hessian/British plays and poems,
including The Robbers (1781) and Intrigue and Love (1784) (See Act 2, Scene 2, which presents
the massacre of young German-Hessians for refusing to fight the Americans) and, just months
after that, a later revolutionary play. Schiller's heavily censored 'Declaration of Independence'
poem, “To the Happiness” (The correct translation is "Happiness", not "Joy", since it refers
to the concept expressed in “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”), poetry that Beethoven
later set to the last, choral movement of his 9th Symphony.
Schiller also had a copy of an engraving of the "Battle of Bunker Hill", from an original 1786 oil,
by John Trumbull, which he hung in his living room in Weimar and which may still be there. (See
The Autobiography of Col. John Trumbull, Sizer 1953 ed., pg.184,n.13)
^ Shiller, On the Aesthetic Education of Man, Ed. Wilinson and Willoughby, 1967 (OED)
^ Mike Poulton translated this play in 2004.
^ Wallenstein was translated from a manuscript copy into English as The Piccolomini and Death
of Wallenstein by Coleridge in 1800.
^ Mike Poulton translated this play in 2054.
Bibliography
Lahnstein, Peter (January 1984) [1981]. Schillers Leben. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer. ISBN
3-596-25621-6.
Schiller's complete works are published in the following excellent editions:
Historical-critical edition by K. Goedeke (17 volumes, Stuttgart, 1867–76); Säkular-Ausgabe
edition by Von der Hellen (16 volumes, Stuttgart, 1904–05); historical-critical edition by Günther
and Witkowski (20 volumes, Leipzig, 1909–10). Other valuable editions are: the Hempel edition
(1868–74); the Boxberger edition, in Kürschners National-Literatur (12 volumes, Berlin,
1882–91); the edition by Kutscher and Zisseler (15 parts, Berlin, 1908); the Horenausgabe (16
volumes, Munich, 1910, et. seq.); the edition of the Tempel Klassiker (13 volumes, Leipzig,
1910–11); and that in the Helios Klassiker (6 volumes, Leipzig, 1911). Documents and other
memorials of Schiller are in the Schiller Archiv, united in 1889 with the Goethe Archiv
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_International_Encyclopedia) in Weimar.
See also
Physician writer
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Weimar Classicism
Carleton College
External links
Works by Friedrich Schiller (http://www.gutenberg.org/author/Friedrich_Schiller) at Project
Gutenberg
Friedrich Schiller Chronology (http://www.kabale-und-liebe.de)
2005 is Schiller year: all dates (http://www.schillerjahr2005.de)
Letters upon the Education of Man (http://www.bartleby.com/32/501.html) .
Letters Upon The Aesthetic Education of Man (http://www.filepedia.org/files
/Letters%20Upon%20The%20Aesthetic%20Education%20of%20Man.pdf) in PDF Format at
filepedia.org
Schiller Monument (http://www.mckaylodge.com/tylerdavidson/artists/schiller.html) in Schiller
Park, German Village, Columbus, Ohio, USA
Schiller multimedial (http://www.schiller-multimedial.de) combines a biographical observation by
Norbert Œllers with classic recordings and video clips
Mobile Schiller (http://www.haaseundmartin.de/mobilfunkanwendungen.html) Mobile Java
application containing 20 poems of Schiller
Say it loud – it's Schiller and it's proud (http://www.signandsight.com/features/152.html) What
relevance does Schiller have today? By George Steiner at signandsight.com
A small crater on the surface of the moon, named after Schiller (http://www.stargazerobservatory.com/schiller.html)
Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena (http://www.uni-jena.de/Homepage-lang-en.html)
mp3 recording of Franz Schubert's song (http://klavierlied.de/index.php?option=com_content&
view=article&id=85%3Abuergschaft-d-246&catid=34%3Afranz-schubert-1797-1828&
Itemid=28&lang=de) Die Bürgschaft, legal and free download
"Schiller, Johann Christoph Friedrich von". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Schiller"
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