Friedrich Schiller
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (
November 10,
1759 –
May 9,
1805), usually known as
Friedrich Schiller, was a
German poet,
philosopher,
historian, and
dramatist. During the last several years of his life (1788â€"1805), Schiller struck a profound friendship with
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, with whom he discussed much on issues concerning aesthetics, encouraging Goethe to finish works he left merely as sketches; this thereby gave way a period now referred to as
Weimar Classicism. They also worked together on
Die Xenien (
The Xenies), a collection of short but harshly satiric poems in which both Schiller and Goethe verbally attacked those persons they perceived to be enemies of their aesthetic agenda.
He was born in
Marbach,
Württemberg (located at the river
Neckar in South West Germany, north of
Stuttgart, the former Region of
Swabia), as the only son, beside five sisters, of military doctor Johann Kaspar Schiller (1733-1796), and Elisabeth Dorothea Kodweiß (1732-1802). On 22 February of 1790, he married Charlotte von Lengefeld (1766-1826). Four children were born between 1793 and 1804, the sons Karl and Ernst, and the daughters Luise and Emilie. The grandchild of Emilie, Baron Alexander of Gleichen-Rußwurm, died in 1947 at Baden-Baden, Germany, as the last living descendant of Schiller.
His childhood and youth were spent in relative poverty, although he attended both village and Latin schools, and coming to the attention of
Karl Eugen, Duke of Württemberg, entered the Karlsschule Stuttgart (an elite military academy founded by Duke Karl Eugen), 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 arduous school, he read
Rousseau and
Goethe and discussed Classical ideals with his classmates. At school, he wrote his first play,
Die Räuber (
The Robbers), about a group of naïve revolutionaries and their tragic failure.
In
1780, he obtained a post as regimental doctor in
Stuttgart, a job he disliked.
Following the performance of
Die Räuber in
Mannheim, in
1781, he was arrested and forbidden to publish 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. He remained in
Weimar,
Saxe-Weimar until his death at 45 from
tuberculosis.
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 a sensual 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 Erhabene), entitled "Vom Erhabenen" and "Ãœber das Erhabene"; these essays address one aspect of human freedom as the ability to defy one's animal instincts, such as the drive for self-preservation, as in the case of someone who willingly dies for a beautiful idea.
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 disappointment Schiller felt about the
French Revolution. He had hoped that it would be an American-style revolution, leading to the formation of a constitutional republic. Instead, it became a bloodbath. 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
Stofftrieb ("the sensuous drive") and
Formtrieb ("the formal drive"). In a comment to
Immanuel Kant's philosophy, Schiller transcends the dualism between
Form and
Stoff, 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
Stoff, 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
Stoff has inspired a wide range of succeeding aesthetic philosophical theory.
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.
*"Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain." —
Maid of Orleans* "The voice of the majority is no proof of justice"
*"Deeper meaning resides in the fairy tales told 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".
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) in the final movement of the Ninth Symphony, and the choral setting of
Nänie by
Johannes Brahms.
Giuseppe Verdi admired him greatly and adapted several of Schiller's stage plays for his
operas.
At
Carleton College in
Minnesota a bust of Friedrich Schiller, known simply as "Schiller," appears frequently, though briefly, at large campus events. Once Schiller appears, students rush in to steal Schiller and become the new bust guardians.
Plays
Die Räuber (
The Robbers) (
1781)
Kabale und Liebe (
Intrigue and Love) (
1784)
Don Carlos, Infant von Spanien (
Don Carlos) (
1787)
Wallenstein (
1800) (translated from a manuscript copy into English as
The Piccolomini and
Death of Wallenstein by
Coleridge in
1800)
Die Jungfrau von Orleans (
The Maid of Orleans) (
1801)
Maria Stuart (
Mary Stuart) (
1801)
Turandot (
1802)
Die Braut von 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 NetherlandsGeschichte des dreissigjährigen Kriegs or
A History of the Thirty Years' WarÜber Völkerwanderung, Kreuzzüge und Mittelalter or
On the Barbarian Invasions, Crusaders and Middle AgesTranslations
*
Euripides,
Iphigenia in Aulis*
William Shakespeare,
Macbeth*
Jean Racine,
PhèdreProse
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
Poems
An die Freude or
Ode to Joy (1785) which became the basis for the fourth movement of
Beethoven's
ninth symphonyThe ArtistsThe Cranes of IbykusThe BellColumbusHopePegasus in HarnessThe GloveNänie which
Brahms set to music
*
Free ebook of Friedrich Schiller at
Project Gutenberg*
Friedrich Schiller Chronology*
"Say it loud â€" it's Schiller and it's proud" by George Steiner*
2005 is Schiller year: all dates*Letters upon the Education of Man at [
1]
*
Schiller Monument in Schiller Park, German Village, Columbus, Ohio, USA[
2]
*
Schiller multimedial combines a biographical observation by Norbert Oellers with classic recordings and video clips
*
Mobile Schiller Mobile Java application containing 20 poems of Schiller
*
Say it loud â€" it's Schiller and it's proud What relevance does Schiller have today? By George Steiner at signandsight.com
{{Persondata
NAME=Schiller, Friedrich | ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller | SHORT DESCRIPTION=German poet, philosopher, historian, and dramatist | DATE OF BIRTH=November 10, 1759 | PLACE OF BIRTH=Marbach, Württemberg | DATE OF DEATH=May 9, 1805 | PLACE OF DEATH=Weimar, Saxe-Weimar
|
