FRIEDRICH SCHILLER
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(Redirected from Schiller)
'Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller' (Marbach am Neckar, November 10, 1759 – May 9, 1805 in Weimar) was a German poet, philosopher, historian, and dramatist. During the last several years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller struck a productive, if complicated, friendship with already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang Goethe, with whom he discussed much on issues concerning aesthetics, encouraging Goethe to finish works he left merely as sketches; this thereby gave way to 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.
Schiller was born in Marbach, Württemberg (located at the river Neckar in southwest Germany, north of Stuttgart, the former Region of Swabia), as the only son, besides ten sisters, of military doctor Johann Kaspar Schiller (1733-1796), and Elisabeth Dorothea Kodweiß (1732-1802). On 22 February 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 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, Prussia, but he was called ''Fritz'' by nearly everyone.[1] Caspar Schiller was rarely home at the time, which was hard on the mother, but he did manage to visit the family once in a while and the mother and the children also visited him where he happened to be stationed at the time occasionally.[2] In 1763, the war ended. Schiller's father became a recruiting officer and was 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 expensive, the family moved to nearby Lorch, which was at the time still a fairly small village.[3]
Although the family was happy in Lorch, the father found his work unsatisfying. He did, however, take Friedrich Schiller with him occasionally.[4] In Lorch Schiller received his primary education, but the schoolmaster was lazy, so the quality of the lessons was fairly bad; therefore, 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 clericalist and often put on black robes and pretended to preach.[6]
In 1766, the family left Lorch for the Duke's residence town, 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 relocated to the garrison in Ludwigsburg. The move was not easy for Friedrich, since Lorch had been a warm and comforting home for the child.[7]
He came to the attention of Karl Eugen, Duke of Württemberg. He entered the Karlsschule Stuttgart (an elite, extremely strict, 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 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 the 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. He remained in Weimar, Saxe-Weimar until his death at 45 from tuberculosis.
Some Freemasons speculate that Schiller was Freemason, but this has not been established.[8]
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, ...â€[9]
In 1829 in a letter from 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 ought to be brought to the Lodge by ''Wilhelm Heinrich Karl von Gleichen-Rußwurm'', but no membership document exists.
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 "Über 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.
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 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 critiques the hypocrisy of class and religion, the economic inequities of German society, and conducts a complicated inquiry into the nature of evil. 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 Storm and Stress movement (Sturm und Drang).
★ ''Fiesco'' (''Die Verschwörung des Fiesco zu Genua):
★ ''Intrigue and Love'': The aristocratic Ferdinand von Walter wishes to marry Luisa 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 continues his critique of absolutism and bourgeois hypocrisy in this bourgeois tragedy. Giuseppe Verdi's opera ''Luisa Miller'' is based on this play.
★ ''Don Carlos'': This play marks Schiller's entree into historical creation. Very loosely based on the events surrounding the real Don Carlos of Spain, Schiller's Don Carlos is yet another republican figure attempting to free Flanders from the despotic grip of his father, King Phillip. The Marquis Posa's famous speech to the king proclaims Schiller's continuing belief in personal freedom and democracy.
★ The ''Wallenstein'' Trilogy: These plays follow the fortunes of the treachorus commander Albrecht von Wallenstein during the Thirty Years' War.
★ ''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''):
★ ''Wilhelm Tell'':
★ ''Demetrius'' (unfinished):
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. [10] Instead, it had become 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 ''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.
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 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."
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. Also, Giuseppe Verdi admired Schiller greatly and adapted several of his stage plays for his operas.
★ ''Die Räuber'' (''The Robbers'') (1781)
★ ''Kabale und Liebe'' (''Intrigue and Love'') (1784)
★ ''Don Carlos, Infant von Spanien'' (''Don Carlos'') (1787) (2004 translation by Mike Poulton)
★ ''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) (2005 translation by Mike Poulton)
★ ''Turandot'' (1802)
★ ''Die Braut von Messina'' (1803)
★ ''Wilhelm Tell'' (''William Tell'') (1804)
★ ''Demetrius'' (unfinished at his death)
★ ''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''
★ ''Ãœber Völkerwanderung, Kreuzzüge und Mittelalter'' or ''On the Barbarian Invasions, Crusaders and Middle Ages''
★ Euripides, ''Iphigenia in Aulis''
★ William Shakespeare, ''Macbeth''
★ Jean Racine, ''Phèdre''
★ ''Der Geisterseher'' or ''The Ghost-Seer'' (unfinished novel) (started in 1786 and published periodically. Published as book in 1789)
★ ''Ãœber die ästhetische Erziehung des Menschen in einer Reihe von Briefen'' (''On the Aesthetic Education of Man in a series of Letters''), 1794
★ ''An die Freude'' or ''Ode to Joy'' (1785) which 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
1. Lahnstein 1981, pg. 18
2. Lahnstein 1981, pg. 20
3. Lahnstein 1981, pg. 20-21
4. Lahnstein 1981, pg. 23
5. Lahnstein 1981, pg. 24
6. Lahnstein 1981, pg. 25
7. Lahnstein 1981, pg. 27
8. http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/schiller_f/schiller_f.html
9. Eugen Lennhoff, Oskar Posner, Dieter A. Binder: ''Internationales Freimaurer Lexikon''. Herbig publishing, 2006, ISBN 978-3-7766-2478-6
10. Shiller, On the Aesthetic Education of Man, Ed. Wilinson and Willoughby, 1967 (OED)
★ Schillers Leben, , Peter, Lahnstein, Fischer, 1984, 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 in Weimar.[1]
★ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
★ Weimar Classicism
★
★ Friedrich Schiller Chronology
★ 2005 is Schiller year: all dates
★ Letters upon the Education of Man at [2]
★ Letters Upon The Aesthetic Education of Man in PDF Format at filepedia.org
★ Schiller Monument in Schiller Park, German Village, Columbus, Ohio, USA
★ 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 – it's Schiller and it's proud'' What relevance does Schiller have today? By George Steiner at signandsight.com
Friedrich Schiller
'Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller' (Marbach am Neckar, November 10, 1759 – May 9, 1805 in Weimar) was a German poet, philosopher, historian, and dramatist. During the last several years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller struck a productive, if complicated, friendship with already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang Goethe, with whom he discussed much on issues concerning aesthetics, encouraging Goethe to finish works he left merely as sketches; this thereby gave way to 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.
Biography
Walk of Ideas (Germany) - built in 2006 to commemorate Johannes Gutenberg's invention, c. 1445, of movable printing type.
Schiller was born in Marbach, Württemberg (located at the river Neckar in southwest Germany, north of Stuttgart, the former Region of Swabia), as the only son, besides ten sisters, of military doctor Johann Kaspar Schiller (1733-1796), and Elisabeth Dorothea Kodweiß (1732-1802). On 22 February 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 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, Prussia, but he was called ''Fritz'' by nearly everyone.[1] Caspar Schiller was rarely home at the time, which was hard on the mother, but he did manage to visit the family once in a while and the mother and the children also visited him where he happened to be stationed at the time occasionally.[2] In 1763, the war ended. Schiller's father became a recruiting officer and was 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 expensive, the family moved to nearby Lorch, which was at the time still a fairly small village.[3]
Although the family was happy in Lorch, the father found his work unsatisfying. He did, however, take Friedrich Schiller with him occasionally.[4] In Lorch Schiller received his primary education, but the schoolmaster was lazy, so the quality of the lessons was fairly bad; therefore, 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 clericalist and often put on black robes and pretended to preach.[6]
In 1766, the family left Lorch for the Duke's residence town, 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 relocated to the garrison in Ludwigsburg. The move was not easy for Friedrich, since Lorch had been a warm and comforting home for the child.[7]
He came to the attention of Karl Eugen, Duke of Württemberg. He entered the Karlsschule Stuttgart (an elite, extremely strict, 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.
Schiller commemoration in Lincoln Park, Chicago
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 the 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. He remained in Weimar, Saxe-Weimar until his death at 45 from tuberculosis.
Freemasonry
Some Freemasons speculate that Schiller was Freemason, but this has not been established.[8]
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, ...â€[9]
In 1829 in a letter from 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 ought to be brought to the Lodge by ''Wilhelm Heinrich Karl von Gleichen-Rußwurm'', but no membership document exists.
Writing
Philosophical papers
Goethe and Schiller in Weimar
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 "Über 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 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 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 critiques the hypocrisy of class and religion, the economic inequities of German society, and conducts a complicated inquiry into the nature of evil. 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 Storm and Stress movement (Sturm und Drang).
★ ''Fiesco'' (''Die Verschwörung des Fiesco zu Genua):
★ ''Intrigue and Love'': The aristocratic Ferdinand von Walter wishes to marry Luisa 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 continues his critique of absolutism and bourgeois hypocrisy in this bourgeois tragedy. Giuseppe Verdi's opera ''Luisa Miller'' is based on this play.
★ ''Don Carlos'': This play marks Schiller's entree into historical creation. Very loosely based on the events surrounding the real Don Carlos of Spain, Schiller's Don Carlos is yet another republican figure attempting to free Flanders from the despotic grip of his father, King Phillip. The Marquis Posa's famous speech to the king proclaims Schiller's continuing belief in personal freedom and democracy.
★ The ''Wallenstein'' Trilogy: These plays follow the fortunes of the treachorus commander Albrecht von Wallenstein during the Thirty Years' War.
★ ''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''):
★ ''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. [10] Instead, it had become 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 ''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.
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." — ''Maid of Orleans''
★ "The voice of the majority is no proof of justice."
★ "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."
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'') in the final movement of the Ninth Symphony, and the choral setting of ''Nänie'' by Johannes Brahms. Also, Giuseppe Verdi admired Schiller greatly and adapted several of his stage plays for his operas.
Works
Plays
★ ''Die Räuber'' (''The Robbers'') (1781)
★ ''Kabale und Liebe'' (''Intrigue and Love'') (1784)
★ ''Don Carlos, Infant von Spanien'' (''Don Carlos'') (1787) (2004 translation by Mike Poulton)
★ ''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) (2005 translation by Mike Poulton)
★ ''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 Netherlands''
★ ''Geschichte des dreissigjährigen Kriegs'' or ''A History of the Thirty Years' War''
★ ''Ãœber 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)
★ ''Ãœber 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 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
References
postage stamp depicting Schiller
1. Lahnstein 1981, pg. 18
2. Lahnstein 1981, pg. 20
3. Lahnstein 1981, pg. 20-21
4. Lahnstein 1981, pg. 23
5. Lahnstein 1981, pg. 24
6. Lahnstein 1981, pg. 25
7. Lahnstein 1981, pg. 27
8. http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/schiller_f/schiller_f.html
9. Eugen Lennhoff, Oskar Posner, Dieter A. Binder: ''Internationales Freimaurer Lexikon''. Herbig publishing, 2006, ISBN 978-3-7766-2478-6
10. Shiller, On the Aesthetic Education of Man, Ed. Wilinson and Willoughby, 1967 (OED)
Bibliography
★ Schillers Leben, , Peter, Lahnstein, Fischer, 1984, 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 in Weimar.[1]
See also
★ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
★ Weimar Classicism
External links
★
★ Friedrich Schiller Chronology
★ 2005 is Schiller year: all dates
★ Letters upon the Education of Man at [2]
★ Letters Upon The Aesthetic Education of Man in PDF Format at filepedia.org
★ Schiller Monument in Schiller Park, German Village, Columbus, Ohio, USA
★ 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 – it's Schiller and it's proud'' What relevance does Schiller have today? By George Steiner at signandsight.com
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