Poet, playwright, one of the founders of German classical literature Johann Christoph Friedrich Schiller was born on November 10, 1759 in Marbach (Württemberg, Germany). A native of the lower classes of the German burghers: his mother is from the family of a provincial baker-tavernkeeper, his father is a regimental paramedic.
After graduating from the Latin school in Ludwigsburg in 1772, by order of Duke Karl Eugene in 1773, Schiller was enrolled in a military school, then renamed the academy, where he studied at the legal, then at the medical department.
After graduating from the academy in 1780, he received a position as a regimental doctor in Stuttgart.
Schiller began his poetic activity in the era of Storm and Onslaught (a literary movement in Germany in the 1770s, named after the drama of the same name by Friedrich Maximilian Klinger).
Schiller's first dramatic works belong to this period: "Robbers" (1781), the republican drama "The Fiesco Conspiracy in Genoa" (1783) and the petty-bourgeois drama "Cunning and Love" (1784). The historical drama "Don Carlos" (1783-1787) completes the first period of Schiller's dramatic work.
With his first dramatic and lyrical works, Schiller raised the Sturm und Drang movement to new heights, giving it a more purposeful and socially effective character.
At the beginning of 1782 the drama The Robbers was staged in Mannheim.
On September 22, 1782, Schiller fled the Duchy of Württemberg. The following summer, the intendant of the Mannheim theater Dahlberg appoints Schiller "theatrical poet", concluding a contract with him to write plays for staging on the Mannheim stage. In particular, The Fiesco Conspiracy in Genoa and Cunning and Love were staged at the Mannheim Theater, the latter being a great success.
After Dahlberg did not renew his contract with him, Schiller found himself in Mannheim in very tight financial circumstances. He accepted the invitation of one of his enthusiastic admirers, Privatdozent Gottfried Kerner, and from April 1785 to July 1787 he visited him in Leipzig and Dresden.
In July 1787, Schiller left Dresden and lived in and around Weimar until 1789. Reviewing past experiences and artistic principles"Sturm und Drang", Schiller began to study history, philosophy, aesthetics. In 1788, he began editing a series of books called "History of Remarkable Revolts and Conspiracies", wrote "History of the Fall of the Netherlands from Spanish Rule" (only the first volume was published).
In 1789, with the assistance of Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Schiller took up the post of extraordinary professor of history at the University of Jena, where he delivered an introductory lecture on "What is world history and for what purpose is it studied."
Together with Goethe, Schiller created a cycle of epigrams "Xenia" (Greek - "gifts to guests"), directed against flat rationalism, philistinism in literature and theater, against the early German romantics.
In 1793, Schiller published "History of the Thirty Years' War" and a number of articles on world history. By this time, he had become an adherent of the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, the influence of which is felt in his aesthetic works "On tragic art"(1792), "On Grace and Dignity" (1793), "Letters on aesthetic education Man" (1795), "On Naive and Sentimental Poetry" (1795-1796), etc.
The meager salary of the poet was not enough even to meet modest needs; help came from the crown prince von Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg and Count von Schimmelmann, who paid him a scholarship for three years (1791-1794), then Schiller was supported by the publisher Johann Friedrich Kotta, who invited him in 1794 to publish the monthly magazine "Ory ". The magazine "Thalia" - an earlier enterprise for publishing a literary magazine - was published in the years 1785-1791 very irregularly and under various titles. In 1796 Schiller founded another periodical- Yearbook "Almanac of Muses", where many of his works were published.
The beginning of the second period of Schiller's work, marked by the writing of the play "Wallenstein", also belongs to the same year. At the same time, Schiller adjoins the romantic trend, which replaced the rebellious spirit of "storm and stress" in German literature, with his lyrics and, mainly, with his ballads. In some of them, like "Glove" (1797), "Cup" (1797), "Count of Habsburg", "Knight of Toggenburg", he refers to the Middle Ages, beloved by romantics. Others - "Ivikov Cranes" (1797), "Polycrates' Ring" (1797), "Eleusinian Feast" (1798), "Complaint of Ceres" - were an expression of a deep interest in the ancient world, which characterizes the last period of Schiller's work. These ballads, as well as The Maid of Orleans (1801), the most romantic of dramas last period, were translated by Vasily Zhukovsky, one of the founders of Russian romanticism.
In addition to his own plays, Schiller created stage versions of Shakespeare's Macbeth and Turandot. Carlo Gozzi, and also translated "Phaedra" by Jean Racine.
In 1799, the duke doubled Schiller's maintenance, which, in fact, became a pension, since the poet was no longer engaged in teaching and moved from Jena to Weimar. In 1802, Holy Roman Emperor Francis II granted Schiller the nobility.
Schiller was never in good health, often ill, he developed tuberculosis. IN recent months During his lifetime, Schiller worked on the tragedy Dimitry from Russian history, but his sudden death on May 9, 1805 cut short his work.
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller. Born November 10, 1759 in Marbach am Neckar - died May 9, 1805 in Weimar. German poet, philosopher, art theorist and playwright, professor of history and military doctor, representative of Sturm und Drang and romanticism in literature, author of Ode to Joy, a modified version of which became the text of the anthem of the European Union. He entered the history of world literature as a defender of the human personality.
During the last seventeen years of his life (1788-1805) he was friends with Johann Goethe, whom he inspired to complete his works, which remained in draft form. This period of friendship between the two poets and their literary controversy entered German literature under the name "Weimar classicism".
The surname Schiller is found in Southwestern Germany with XVI century. The ancestors of Friedrich Schiller, who lived for two centuries in the Duchy of Württemberg, were winemakers, peasants and artisans.
His father - Johann Kaspar Schiller (1723-1796) - was a regimental paramedic, an officer in the service of the Duke of Württemberg, his mother - Elisabeth Dorothea Kodweis (1732-1802) - from the family of a provincial baker-tavern owner. The young Schiller was brought up in a religious-pietistic atmosphere, echoed in his early poems. His childhood and youth were spent in relative poverty.
In 1764, Schiller's father was appointed recruiter and moved with his family to the town of Lorch. In Lorch, the boy received his primary education from the local pastor, Moser. The training lasted three years and mainly included the study of reading and writing in their native language, as well as familiarity with Latin. The sincere and good-natured pastor was later immortalized in the writer's first drama. "Robbers".
When the Schiller family returned to Ludwigsburg in 1766, Friedrich was sent to the local Latin school. The curriculum at the school was not difficult: Latin was studied five days a week, on Fridays - native language, on Sundays - catechism. Schiller's interest in studies increased in high school, where he studied the Latin classics -, and. After graduating from the Latin school, having passed all four exams with excellent marks, in April 1772 Schiller was presented for confirmation.
In 1770, the Schiller family moved from Ludwigsburg to Solitude Castle, where the Duke of Württemberg, Karl-Eugene, established an orphanage for the education of soldiers' children. In 1771, this institution was reformed in military academy.
In 1772, looking through the list of graduates of the Latin school, the duke drew attention to the young Schiller, and soon, in January 1773, his family received a summons, according to which they were to send their son to the military academy "Higher School of Charles the Saint", where Friedrich began study law, although from childhood he dreamed of becoming a priest.
Upon admission to the academy, Schiller was enrolled in the burgher department Faculty of Law. Due to a hostile attitude towards jurisprudence at the end of 1774, the future writer turned out to be one of the last, and at the end of the 1775 academic year, the very last of the eighteen students of his department.
In 1775, the academy was transferred to Stuttgart and the course of study was extended.
In 1776, Schiller moved to the medical faculty. Here he attends lectures by talented teachers, in particular, a course of lectures on philosophy by Professor Abel, a favorite teacher of academic youth. During this period, Schiller finally decides to devote himself to poetic art.
Already from the first years of study at the Academy, Friedrich was carried away by the poetic works of Friedrich Klopstock and poets "Storm and Stress", began to write small poetic works. Several times he was even offered to write congratulatory odes in honor of the duke and his mistress, Countess Franziska von Hohengey.
In 1779, Schiller's dissertation "Philosophy of Physiology" was rejected by the leadership of the academy, and he was forced to stay for a second year. Duke Charles Eugene imposes his resolution: “I must agree that the dissertation of Schiller's pupil is not without merit, that there is a lot of fire in it. But it is precisely the latter circumstance that compels me not to publish his dissertation and to keep another year at the Academy so that the heat of it cools down. If he is as diligent, then by the end of this time a great man will probably come out of him..
While studying at the Academy, Schiller wrote his first works. Influenced by the drama "Julius of Tarentum" (1776) by Johann Anton Leisewitz, Friedrich writes "Cosmus von Medici"- a drama in which he tried to develop a favorite theme of the Sturm und Drang literary movement: the hatred between brothers and the love of a father. At the same time, his great interest in the work and writing style of Friedrich Klopstock prompted Schiller to write the ode "The Conqueror", published in March 1777 in the journal "German Chronicle" (Das schwebige Magazin) and which was an imitation of the idol.
Friedrich Schiller - The Triumph of a Genius
Finally, in 1780, he completed the course of the Academy and received the post of regimental doctor in Stuttgart, without assigning him officer rank and without the right to wear civilian clothes - evidence of ducal dislike.
In 1781 he completes the drama "Robbers"(Die Räuber), written by him during his stay at the Academy. After editing the Robbers' manuscript, it turned out that not a single Stuttgart publisher wanted to print it, and Schiller had to publish the drama at his own expense.
The bookseller Schwan in Mannheim, to whom Schiller also sent the manuscript, introduced him to the director of the Mannheim theater, Baron von Dahlberg. He was delighted with the drama and decided to stage it in his theater. But Dahlberg asks to make some adjustments - to remove some scenes and the most revolutionary phrases, the time of action is transferred from the present, from the era Seven Years' War in the 17th century.
Schiller opposed such changes, in a letter to Dahlberg dated December 12, 1781, he wrote: “Many tirades, features, both large and small, even characters are taken from our time; transferred to the age of Maximilian, they will cost absolutely nothing ... To correct a mistake against the era of Frederick II, I would have to commit a crime against the era of Maximilian ”, but nevertheless, he made concessions, and The Robbers were first staged in Mannheim January 13, 1782. This production was a huge success with the public.
After the premiere in Mannheim on January 13, 1782, it became clear that talented playwright. The central conflict of the "Robbers" is the conflict between two brothers: the elder, Karl Moor, who, at the head of a band of robbers, goes into the Bohemian forests to punish tyrants, and the younger, Franz Moor, who at this time seeks to take over his father's estate.
Karl Moor personifies the best, brave, free beginnings, while Franz Moor is an example of meanness, deceit and treachery. In The Robbers, as in no other work of the German Enlightenment, the ideal of republicanism and democracy sung by Rousseau is shown. It is no coincidence that it was for this drama that Schiller during the French Revolution was awarded honorary title citizen of the French Republic.
Simultaneously with the Robbers, Schiller prepared for publication a collection of poems, which was published in February 1782 under the title "Anthology for 1782"(Anthologie auf das Jahr 1782). The creation of this anthology is based on Schiller's conflict with the young Stuttgart poet Gotthald Steidlin, who, claiming to be the head of the Swabian school, published "Swabian Almanac of Muses for 1782".
Schiller sent several poems to Steidlin for this edition, but he agreed to print only one of them, and then in an abbreviated form. Then Schiller collected the poems rejected by Gotthald, wrote a number of new ones and, thus, created the "Anthology for 1782", contrasting it with the "almanac of the muses" of his literary opponent. For the sake of greater mystification and raising interest in the collection, the city of Tobolsk in Siberia was indicated as the place of publication of the anthology.
For an unauthorized absence from the regiment to Mannheim for the performance of The Robbers, Schiller was placed in a guardhouse for 14 days and was banned from writing anything other than medical writings, which forced him, along with his friend, the musician Streicher, to flee the duke's possessions on September 22, 1782 year to the Margraviate of the Palatinate.
Having crossed the border of Württemberg, Schiller went to the Mannheim theater with a prepared manuscript of his play. "The Fiesco Conspiracy in Genoa"(German: Die Verschwörung des Fiesco zu Genua), which he dedicated to his professor of philosophy at the Academy, Jacob Abel.
The theater management, fearing the discontent of the Duke of Württemberg, was in no hurry to start negotiations on staging the play. Schiller was advised not to stay in Mannheim, but to leave for the nearest village of Oggersheim. There, together with his friend Streicher, the playwright lived under the assumed name of Schmidt in the village tavern "Hunting Yard". It was here in the autumn of 1782 that Friedrich Schiller made the first draft of a version of the tragedy. "Cunning and Love"(German: Kabale und Liebe), which is still called "Louise Miller".
At this time, Schiller is typing "The Fiesco Conspiracy in Genoa" for a meager fee, which he instantly spent. Being in a hopeless situation, the playwright wrote a letter to his old acquaintance Henriette von Walzogen, who soon offered the writer her empty estate in Bauerbach.
In Bauerbach, under the surname "Doctor Ritter", he lived from December 8, 1782. Here Schiller began to finish the drama "Cunning and Love", which he completed in February 1783. Immediately he sketched a new historical drama "Don Carlos"(German: Don Karlos). He studied the history of the Spanish Infanta using books from the library of the Mannheim ducal court, which were supplied to him by a familiar librarian. Along with the history of Don Carlos, Schiller then began to study the history of the Scottish Queen Mary Stuart. For some time he hesitated on which of them he should choose, but the choice was made in favor of "Don Carlos".
January 1783 became a significant date in privacy Friedrich Schiller. In Bauerbach, the mistress of the estate came to visit the hermit with her sixteen-year-old daughter Charlotte. Friedrich fell in love with the girl at first sight and asked her mother for permission to marry, but she did not give consent, since the aspiring writer did not have a penny in his pocket.
At this time, his friend Andrei Shtreikher did everything possible to win the favor of the administration of the Mannheim Theater in favor of Schiller. The director of the theater, Baron von Dahlberg, knowing that Duke Karl Eugene had already abandoned the search for his missing regimental physician, writes a letter to Schiller in which he is interested in the literary activities of the playwright.
Schiller replied rather coldly and only briefly recounted the contents of the drama "Louise Miller". Dahlberg agreed to stage both dramas - The Fiesco Conspiracy in Genoa and Louise Miller - after which Friedrich returned to Mannheim in July 1783 to participate in the preparation of plays for production.
Despite the excellent performance of the actors, The Fiesco Conspiracy in Genoa was generally not a great success. The Mannheim theater audience found this play too abstruse. Schiller undertook a remake of his third drama, Louise Miller. During one rehearsal, theater actor August Iffland suggested changing the name of the drama to "Deceit and Love". Under this title, the play was staged on April 15, 1784 and was a huge success. "Cunning and Love", no less than "Robbers", glorified the name of the author as the first playwright in Germany.
In February 1784 he joined "Elector German Society", which was led by the director of the Mannheim theater Wolfgang von Dahlberg, which gave him the rights of a Palatinate citizen and legalized his stay in Mannheim. During the official acceptance of the poet into society on July 20, 1784, he read a report entitled "The Theater as a Moral Institution." The moral significance of the theater, designed to denounce vices and approve of virtue, Schiller diligently propagated in the magazine he founded "Rhine Thalia"(German Rheinische Thalia), the first issue of which was published in 1785.
In Mannheim, Friedrich Schiller met Charlotte von Kalb, a young woman with outstanding mental abilities, whose admiration brought the writer much suffering. She introduced Schiller to the Weimar Duke Karl August when he was visiting Darmstadt. The playwright read in a select circle, in the presence of the duke, the first act of his new drama Don Carlos. The drama made a big impression on those present.
Karl August granted the author the position of Weimar councilor, which, however, did not alleviate the plight in which Schiller was. The writer had to repay a debt of two hundred guilders, which he had borrowed from a friend for the publication of The Robbers, but he had no money. In addition, his relationship with the director of the Mannheim Theater deteriorated, as a result of which Schiller broke his contract with him.
At the same time, Schiller became interested in the 17-year-old daughter of the court bookseller Margarita Schwan, but the young coquette did not show unequivocal favor for the beginning poet, and her father hardly wanted to see his daughter married to a man without money and influence in society. In the autumn of 1784, the poet remembered a letter that he received six months earlier from the Leipzig community of admirers of his work, headed by Gottfried Koerner.
On February 22, 1785, Schiller sent them a letter in which he frankly described his plight and asked to be received in Leipzig. Already on March 30, a benevolent response came from Koerner. At the same time, he sent the poet a promissory note for a significant amount of money so that the playwright could pay off his debts. Thus began a close friendship between Gottfried Koerner and Friedrich Schiller, which lasted until the death of the poet.
When Schiller arrived in Leipzig on April 17, 1785, he was met by Ferdinand Huber and sisters Dora and Minna Stock. Koerner was at that time on official business in Dresden. From the first days in Leipzig, Schiller yearned for Margarita Schwan, who remained in Mannheim. He addressed her parents with a letter in which he asked for the hand of his daughter. The publisher Schwan gave Margarita the opportunity to resolve this issue herself, but she refused Schiller, who was very upset by this new loss. Soon Gottfried Körner arrived from Dresden and decided to celebrate his marriage to Minna Stock. Warmed by the friendship of Koerner, Huber and their girlfriends, Schiller recovered. It was at this time that he created his anthem "Ode to Joy".
On September 11, 1785, at the invitation of Gottfried Koerner, Schiller moved to the village of Loschwitz near Dresden. Here, Don Carlos was completely redesigned and completed, new drama"The Misanthrope", a plan was drawn up and the first chapters of the novel "The Spirit Seer" were written. It was also finished here "Philosophical Letters"(German Philosophische Briefe) is the most significant philosophical essay of the young Schiller, written in epistolary form.
In 1786-87, through Gottfried Körner, Friedrich Schiller was introduced into the Dresden secular society. At the same time, he received an offer from the famous German actor and theater director Friedrich Schroeder to stage Don Carlos at the Hamburg National Theatre.
Schroeder's offer was pretty good, but Schiller, remembering the past unsuccessful experience of cooperation with the Mannheim Theater, refuses the invitation and goes to Weimar - the center of German literature, where he is zealously invited by Christoph Martin Wieland to collaborate in his literary magazine "German Mercury" (German. Der Deutsche Merkur).
Schiller arrived in Weimar on August 21, 1787. The playwright's companion in a series of official visits was Charlotte von Kalb, with whose assistance Schiller quickly became acquainted with the greatest writers of the time - Martin Wieland and Johann Gottfried Herder. Wieland highly appreciated Schiller's talent and especially admired his latest drama, Don Carlos. Between the two poets, from the first meeting, close friendly relations were established, which have been preserved for long years. For several days, Friedrich Schiller went to the university town of Jena, where he was warmly received in local literary circles.
In 1787-88, Schiller published the journal Thalia (German: Thalia) and at the same time collaborated on Wieland's Deutsche Mercury. Some works of these years were begun in Leipzig and Dresden. In the fourth issue of Thalia, his novel was published chapter by chapter. "Ghost Seer".
With the move to Weimar and after meeting with major poets and scientists, Schiller became even more critical of his abilities. Realizing the lack of his knowledge, the playwright moved away from artistic creativity to thoroughly study history, philosophy and aesthetics.
Publication of the first volume of the work "History of the Fall of the Netherlands" in the summer of 1788 brought Schiller the fame of an outstanding researcher of history. The poet's friends in Jena and Weimar (including J. W. Goethe, whom Schiller met in 1788) used all their connections to help him get a position as an extraordinary professor of history and philosophy at the University of Jena, who during the poet's stay in this city experienced a period of prosperity.
Friedrich Schiller moved to Jena on 11 May 1789. When he began lecturing, the university had about 800 students. The introductory lecture entitled "What is world history and for what purpose is it studied" (German: Was heißt und zu welchem Ende studiert man Universalgeschichte?) was a great success. Schiller's listeners gave him an ovation.
Despite the fact that the work of a university teacher did not provide him with sufficient material resources, Schiller decided to end his single life. Upon learning of this, Duke Karl August appointed him in December 1789 a modest salary of two hundred thalers a year, after which Schiller made an official proposal to Charlotte von Lengefeld, and in February 1790 a marriage was concluded in a village church near Rudolstadt.
After the engagement, Schiller began work on his new book "History of the Thirty Years' War", began work on a number of articles on world history and again began to publish the journal Rhine Thalia, in which he published his translations of the third and fourth books of Virgil's Aeneid. Later, his articles on history and aesthetics were published in this journal.
In May 1790, Schiller continued his lectures at the university: in this academic year, he publicly lectured on tragic poetry, and privately on world history.
In early 1791, Schiller fell ill with pulmonary tuberculosis. Now he only occasionally had intervals of a few months or weeks when the poet would be able to work quietly. Especially strong were the first bouts of illness in the winter of 1792, because of which he was forced to suspend teaching at the university. This forced rest was used by Schiller for a deeper acquaintance with philosophical works.
Being unable to work, the playwright was in an extremely bad mood. financial situation- there was no money even for a cheap lunch and the necessary medicines. At this difficult moment, at the initiative of the Danish writer Jens Baggesen, Crown Prince Friedrich Christian of Schleswig-Holstein and Count Ernst von Schimmelmann appointed Schiller an annual subsidy of a thousand thalers so that the poet could restore his health. Danish subsidies continued in 1792-94. Then Schiller was supported by the publisher Johann Friedrich Kotta, who invited him in 1794 to publish the monthly magazine Ores.
In the summer of 1793, Schiller received a letter from his parents' home in Ludwigsburg informing him of his father's illness. Schiller decided to go home with his wife to see his father before his death, to visit his mother and three sisters, whom he had separated from eleven years ago.
With the tacit permission of the Duke of Württemberg, Karl Eugene, Schiller arrived in Ludwigsburg, where his parents lived not far from the ducal residence. Here, on September 14, 1793, the first son of the poet was born. In Ludwigsburg and Stuttgart, Schiller met with old teachers and former friends from the Academy. After the death of Duke Karl Eugen Schiller visited the military academy of the deceased, where he was enthusiastically received by the younger generation of students.
During his stay at home in 1793-94, Schiller completed his most significant philosophical and aesthetic work. "Letters on the aesthetic education of man"(German: Über die ästhetische Erziehung des Menschen).
Soon after returning to Jena, the poet set to work energetically and invited all the most prominent writers and thinkers of the then Germany to collaborate in the new journal Ores (German: Die Horen). Schiller planned to unite the best German writers to the literary community.
In 1795, Schiller wrote a cycle of poems on philosophical topics similar in meaning to his articles on aesthetics: “The Poetry of Life”, “Dance”, “The Division of the Earth”, “Genius”, “Hope”, etc. The idea of the death of everything beautiful and truthful in a dirty, prosaic world. According to the poet, the fulfillment of virtuous aspirations is possible only in an ideal world. The cycle of philosophical poems was Schiller's first poetic experience after almost a ten-year creative break.
The rapprochement of the two poets was facilitated by the unity of Schiller in his views on the French Revolution and the socio-political situation in Germany. When Schiller, after a trip to his homeland and returning to Jena in 1794, in the journal Ory, outlined his political program and invited Goethe to participate in a literary society, he agreed.
A closer acquaintance between the writers took place in July 1794 in Jena. At the end of the meeting of naturalists, going out into the street, the poets began to discuss the content of the report they heard, and talking, they reached Schiller's apartment. Goethe was invited to the house. There he began expounding his theory of plant metamorphosis with great enthusiasm. After this conversation, a friendly correspondence began between Schiller and Goethe, which was not interrupted until the death of Schiller and made up one of the best epistolary monuments of world literature.
joint creative activity Goethe and Schiller had, first of all, as its goal the theoretical understanding and practical solution of the problems that arose before literature in the new, post-revolutionary period. Looking for perfect shape poets turned to ancient art. In him they saw the highest example of human beauty.
When new works by Goethe and Schiller, which reflected their cult of antiquity, high civic and moral pathos, religious indifference, appeared in the "Orah" and "Almanac of the Muses", a campaign was launched against them by a number of newspapers and magazines. Critics condemned the interpretation of issues of religion, politics, philosophy, aesthetics.
Goethe and Schiller decided to give their opponents a sharp rebuff, mercilessly scourging all the vulgarity and mediocrity of contemporary German literature in the form suggested to Schiller by Goethe - in the form of couplets, like Martial's Xenius.
Starting in December 1795, for eight months, both poets competed in writing epigrams: each response from Jena and Weimar was accompanied by "Xenia" for review, review and addition. Thus, by joint efforts in the period from December 1795 to August 1796, about eight hundred epigrams were created, of which four hundred and fourteen were selected as the most successful and published in the Almanac of the Muses for 1797. The theme of "Kseny" was very versatile. It included questions of politics, philosophy, history, religion, literature and art.
They touched on over two hundred writers and literary works. "Xenia" is the most militant of the compositions created by both classics.
In 1799 he returned to Weimar, where he began to publish several literary magazines with the money of patrons. Becoming a close friend of Goethe, Schiller founded the Weimar Theater with him, which became the leading theater in Germany. The poet remained in Weimar until his death.
In 1799-1800. Schiller finally writes a play "Mary Stuart", the plot of which occupied him for almost two decades. He gave the brightest political tragedy, capturing the image of a distant era, torn apart by the strongest political contradictions. The play was a great success with contemporaries. Schiller finished it with the feeling that he now "mastered the craft of the playwright."
In 1802, Holy Roman Emperor Franz II granted Schiller the nobility. But he himself was skeptical about this, in his letter of February 17, 1803, writing to Humboldt: “You probably laughed when you heard about the elevation of us to a higher rank. That was our duke's idea, and since everything has already happened, I agree to accept this title because of Lolo and the children. Lolo is now in his element, as he twirls his train at court.
The last years of Schiller's life were overshadowed by severe protracted illnesses. After a severe cold, all the old ailments became aggravated. The poet suffered from chronic pneumonia. He died on May 9, 1805 at the age of 45 from tuberculosis.
Schiller's main works:
Schiller's plays:
1781 - "Robbers"
1783 - "The Fiesco Conspiracy in Genoa"
1784 - "Deceit and love"
1787 - "Don Carlos, Infante of Spain"
1799 - drama trilogy"Wallenstein"
1800 - "Mary Stuart"
1801 - "Maid of Orleans"
1803 - "Messinian bride"
1804 - "William Tell"
"Dimitri" (was not completed due to the death of the playwright)
Schiller's prose:
Article "Criminal for Lost Honor" (1786)
"Ghostseer" (unfinished novel)
Eine grossmütige Handlung
Philosophical works Schiller:
Philosophie der Physiologie (1779)
On the relationship between the animal nature of man and his spiritual nature / Über den Zusammenhang der tierischen Natur des Menschen mit seiner geistigen (1780)
Die Schaubühne als eine moralische Anstalt betrachtet (1784)
Über den Grund des Vergnügens an tragischen Gegenständen (1792)
Augustenburger Briefe (1793)
On Grace and Dignity / Über Anmut und Würde (1793)
Kallias Briefe (1793)
Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man / Über die ästhetische Erziehung des Menschen (1795)
On Naive and Sentimental Poetry / Über naive und sentimentalische Dichtung (1795)
On Dilettantism / Über den Dilettantismus (1799; co-authored with Goethe)
On the Sublime / Über das Erhabene (1801)
Historical writings Schiller's work:
History of the Fall of the United Netherlands from Spanish Rule (1788)
History of the Thirty Years' War (1791)
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller(11/10/1759 - 05/09/1805) - an outstanding German poet, playwright, historian, author of a number of theoretical works on art, one of the creators of modern literature in Germany. His pen belongs to such famous works as the tragedy "The Robbers" (1781-82), "Wallenstein" (1800), the dramas "Cunning and Love" (1784), "Don Carlos", "William Tell" (1804), the romantic tragedy "The Maid of Orleans" (1801) .
Schiller's life was closely connected with the army. Friedrich Christoph's father was Johann Kaspar Schiller, a paramedic, an officer in the service of the Duke of Württemberg; after graduating from the Latin school in Ludwigsburg in 1772, Schiller was enrolled in a military school (where the writer studied medicine and law), which later received the status of an academy; at the end of the latter in 1780, Schiller was appointed to Stuttgart as a regimental doctor.
Schiller was forbidden to write. Having left the regiment for Mannheim to present his first tragedy, The Robbers, Schiller was given a ban on writing anything other than essays on a medical topic. A similar attack against him literary creativity forced Schiller to prefer other German lands to the duke's possessions, in which he was at that time located.
Schiller wrote plays specifically for theaters. In the summer of 1783, the intendant of the Mannheim theater concluded a contract with Schiller, according to which the playwright should write plays specifically for staging on the Mannheim stage. The dramas "Deceit and Love" and "The Conspiracy of Fiesco in Genoa", begun before the conclusion of this theatrical contract, were just staged in Mannheim. After them, the contract with Schiller, despite the resounding success of Intrigue and Love, was not renewed.
Schiller studied history. In 1787, Schiller moved to Weimar, and in 1788 he began editing The History of Remarkable Revolts and Conspiracies, a series of books dealing with various historical upheavals in society. As part of his work, Schiller revealed the topic of self-determination of the Netherlands, which received freedom from Spanish rule. In 1793, the writer published The History of the Thirty Years' War. Besides, historical themes and all his diverse dramaturgy is full of it. Schiller writes about Joan of Arc and Mary Stuart, does not bypass the legendary Swiss hero William Tell and many, many others.
Schiller knew Goethe. The acquaintance of the two classics of German literature took place in 1788, and already in 1789, with the help of Goethe, Schiller received the post of professor of history at the University of Jena. Subsequently, the writers corresponded with each other of a literary and aesthetic nature, acted as co-authors in the cycle of epigrams "Xenia". Friendship with Goethe inspired Schiller to create such famous lyrical works like "Glove", "Polykratov's ring", "Ivikov's cranes".
Schiller enthusiastically met the Great French Revolution. Despite the writer's approval of the fall of the feudal system, Schiller reacted to what happened in France with some degree of apprehension: he did not like both the execution of Louis XVI and the raising head of the Jacobin dictatorship.
Schiller was helped with money by the Crown Prince. Despite a professorship at the University of Jena, Schiller's income was extremely small, there was not enough money even for the bare necessities. Crown Prince Fr.Kr. von Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg decided to help the poet and paid him a scholarship for three years (from 1791 to 1794). Since 1799, it has been doubled.
Schiller fell in love many times during his life. In his youth, the poet's ideals were Laura Petrarch and Franziska von Hohengei, the Maitress of the Duke of Wirtemberg, later the wife of Charles and the new duchess. Seventeen-year-old Schiller was completely delighted with the charming and noble Francis, in her he saw the concentration of all the virtues, and it was she who brought out in his famous drama "Cunning and Love" under the name of Lady Milford. Schiller later began to develop feelings for more real women with whom he could well have tied the knot, but for a number of reasons he did not. On the estate of Henrietta Wolzogen, where the poet was hiding from the persecution of the duke, he fell in love with the daughter of the woman who sheltered him - Charlotte, but neither the girl herself nor her mother showed sufficient ardor to Schiller: the girl loved another, and the mother did not like the poet's precarious position in society . One of the main roles in life and literary activity Schiller was destined to play another Charlotte - a married lady named Marshalk von Ostheim, Kalb's husband. However, love for Charlotte did not prevent Schiller from becoming interested in other women, such as actresses playing in performances staged based on his plays, or simply beautiful girls, lovers of literature and art. On one of the last - Margarita Schwann, Schiller almost got married. The poet was stopped by the fact that at the same time he would also like to marry Charlotte, and Margarita's father did not give his consent to the marriage. Relations with Charlotte ended quite prosaically - the poet lost interest in a woman who did not dare to divorce her husband for him. Schiller's wife was Charlotte von Lengfeld, whom the poet met in 1784 in Mannheim, but really paid attention to her only three years later. It is interesting that for some time love for Charlotte bordered in Schiller's soul along with love for her older sister Caroline, who, for the happiness of her sister and beloved Friedrich, married an unloved person and left their path. Schiller's wedding took place on February 20, 1790.
IN mature creativity Schiller reflected the conflict between the educational ideal and reality. The most indicative in this regard is the 1795 poem "Ideal and Life", as well as the later tragedies of the German playwright, in which the problem of a free world order is posed against the backdrop of social life, terrifying in its rigidity.
Schiller was a nobleman. Schiller was granted the nobility by the Holy Roman Emperor of the German Nation Francis II in 1802.
Schiller was in poor health. Throughout most of his life, the poet was often ill. Toward the end of his life, Schiller developed tuberculosis. The writer died on May 9, 1805 in Weimar.
Schiller's work was highly valued in Russia. Schiller's classic translations in Russian literature are Zhukovsky's translations. In addition, Schiller's works were translated by Derzhavin, Pushkin, Lermontov, Tyutchev and Fet. The work of the German playwright Turgenev, Leo Tolstoy, Dostoevsky was highly valued.
German literature
Johann Christoph Friedrich Schiller
Biography
Schiller (Schiller) Friedrich von ( full name Johann Christoph Friedrich) (November 10, 1759, Marbach am Neckar - May 9, 1805, Weimar) was a German poet, playwright and Enlightenment art theorist.
Childhood and years at the military academy
Born in the family of a regimental paramedic, who was in the service of the Duke of Württemberg, Karl Eugene.
In 1773, by the highest order, the 14-year-old Friedrich was sent to study at the military medical academy just created by the duke, and his father was forced to sign that Friedrich “completely devotes himself to the services of the ducal Württemberg house and has no right to leave it without receiving gracious permission for that." At the academy, Schiller studies law and medicine, which do not arouse his interest. In 1779, Schiller's dissertation was rejected by the leadership of the academy, and he was forced to stay for a second year. Finally, at the end of 1780, Schiller left the walls of the academy and received a position as a regimental paramedic in Stuttgart.
Early dramas
While still at the academy, Schiller became interested in literature and philosophy and, despite the prohibitions of teachers, studied F. G. Klopstock, Albrecht von Haller, J. W. Goethe, the writers of Sturm und Drang, J. J. Rousseau. Under the influence of one of his mentors, Schiller becomes a member secret society Illuminati, predecessors of the German Jacobins. In 1776-1777. several of Schiller's poems were published in the Swabian Journal. In the same magazine for 1775, Schiller also finds material for his first significant work: the novice playwright takes Daniel Schubart's novel To the History of the Human Heart as the basis for the play The Robbers (1781).
Schiller significantly enriched the schematic plot of the original source, based on the motive of enmity between two brothers, which was very common among the writers of "Storm and Onslaught": Karl, the protagonist of the drama, the eldest son of Count von Moor, emotional, "spontaneous, natural nature", cannot reconcile with a measured city life and participates with his friends in pranks, not always harmless. Soon, however, he repents and in a letter to his father promises to improve. The letter intercepts him younger brother, Franz, who is jealous of Karl, his father's favorite. Franz plots to deprive his brother of his inheritance and reads to his father another letter composed by himself, after which von Moor curses his eldest son, and Franz writes an answer to his brother on behalf of his father. Karl, shocked by his father's injustice, goes off to rob the Bohemian forests with his friends, and Franz deceives his father into a dungeon, dooming him to death. Charles enters the house under the guise of a foreign count, learns about the death of his father and wants to take revenge on his brother, but he, in fear of the robbers, has already committed suicide.
In Schiller's first drama, Shakespeare's power in depicting characters, believable pictures of German everyday life, elements of the biblical style were masterfully combined (it is characteristic that the author originally wanted to title the drama " Prodigal son”), personal experiences of the poet: his complicated relationship with Father. Schiller managed to capture the rebellious freedom-loving moods that reigned in society in the first years after the French Revolution and express them in the image of Karl Moor. The first production of The Robbers in Mannheim in January 1782 made a splash: "strangers threw themselves into each other's arms, women left the hall in a semi-conscious state." The author, who was immediately dubbed the "German Shakespeare", secretly attended the premiere.
However, upon his return to Stuttgart, Schiller was arrested and, by order of the Duke, placed in a guardhouse. In the summer of 1782, the playwright fled from the possessions of Charles Eugene, taking with him the manuscript of his second significant dramatic work, the drama The Fiesco Conspiracy in Genoa (staged in 1783). For several years, Schiller settled in Mannheim, where he received a position as head of the literary department at the National Theatre.
In April 1784, the premiere of Schiller's petty-bourgeois tragedy "Deceit and Love" took place on the stage of this theater. Unlike the first dramas, here the central character is a girl: Louise Miller (after her name Schiller originally intended to name the play), the daughter of a poor musician. She is in love with Ferdinand, the son of an aristocrat, but class prejudices prevent them from uniting. The petty-bourgeois pride of Louise's father and the careerist plans of the President, Ferdinand's father, the clash between the cruel laws of absolutist society and human feelings, lead to a tragic denouement: caught in a network of intrigues, Ferdinand kills Louise out of jealousy.
Before Schiller, no one dared to interpret the usual sentimental literature of that time, the theme of love of representatives of various classes with such social bias. Even G. E. Lessing in the burgher tragedy "Emilia Galotti", with which Schiller's play obviously echoes, preferred to transfer the action of his work to Italy in order to avoid conflict with the authorities. Thanks to its civic pathos, the play "Cunning and Love" was a huge success with the public.
"Don Carlos"
In 1785, due to financial difficulties, Schiller was forced to leave Mannheim. He moves to Dresden, where, having no permanent home, he lives with friends. Despite the difficult conditions, Schiller is actively working: he tries himself in prose genres (the short stories Crime for Lost Honor, 1786, The Game of Fate, 1789, a fragment of the novel Spiritualist, 1787), completes Philosophical Letters writes a "dramatic poem" "Don Carlos, Infante of Spain" (1787). In the works of the Dresden period, Schiller's departure from the former rebellious ideology is outlined. Now Schiller believes that in order to reconcile the ideal and life, poetic genius "must strive to break with the realm of the real world." A revolution in the poet's worldview occurs both as a result of disappointment in the ideals of Sturm und Drang, and as a result of studying Kant's philosophy and being fascinated by the ideas of Freemasonry. The drama "Don Carlos", written on the material of Spanish history, reflects this turning point well even formally: in contrast to the early plays, the characters of which spoke plain language, "Don Carlos" is written in the classic iambic pentameter, its main character is not a representative of the "philistine estate", as was customary among the representatives of "Storm and Onslaught", but a court person; one of the central ideas of the drama is the idea of reforming society by an enlightened ruler (Schiller puts it into the mouth of the Marquis Poza, a friend of the title character).
After Don Carlos, Schiller is increasingly immersed in the study of antiquity and Kantian philosophy. If earlier the value of antiquity for the poet consisted in certain civil ideals, now antiquity becomes important for him primarily as an aesthetic phenomenon. Like I. I. Winkelmann and Goethe, Schiller sees in antiquity "noble simplicity and peaceful grandeur", the curbing of "chaos". Reviving the form ancient art, you can get closer to the forever lost harmony of the serene "childhood of mankind." Schiller expresses his thoughts about the meaning of antiquity in two program poems: "Gods of Greece" and "Artists" (both - 1788).
Years in Weimar. Great historical dramas
In 1787, Schiller moved to Weimar, where he communicated with the philosopher J. G. Herder and the writer K. M. Wieland. He completes historical research on the theme "History of the fall of the Netherlands", which he began while working on "Don Carlos". Soon, at the request of Goethe, Schiller received the chair of professor of history at the University of Jena. Here he read a course of lectures on the history of the Thirty Years' War (published in 1793). In the first half of the 1790s. Schiller does not create large dramatic works, but a number of his philosophical writings: "On the tragic in art" (1792), "Letters on the aesthetic education of man", "On the sublime" (both - 1795), etc. Based on Kant's theory of art as a link between the realm of nature and the realm of freedom , Schiller creates his theory of the transition from the "natural absolutist state to the bourgeois realm of reason" with the help of aesthetic culture and moral re-education of humanity. These theoretical works closely adjoin a number of poems of 1795−1798. (“The Poetry of Life”, “The Power of Chant”, “Division of the Earth”, “Ideal and Life”) and ballads written in close collaboration with Goethe (especially in 1797, the so-called “ballad year”): “Glove”, “Ivikovs cranes”, “Polycrates ring”, “Hero and Leander”, etc.
In the last years of life
Historical and philosophical studies gave Schiller extensive material for further creativity: from 1794 to 1799 he worked on the Wallenstein trilogy (Wallenstein's Camp, 1798, Piccolomini, Wallenstein's Death, both - 1799), dedicated to one of the commanders of the Thirty Years' war (a grandiose production of the drama on the stage of the Weimar Court Theater was directed by Goethe). In "Wallenstein" the playwright turns to the critical, turning point history, because, as Schiller believed, only at such moments a person can freely manifest himself as a spiritual person, it is in times of crisis that a contradiction is most often created between freedom and necessity, between the individual and society, and the resolution of the conflict between sensual aspirations and moral duty is possible only in the death of a hero. All subsequent dramas by Schiller bear the imprint of a similar ideology (Mary Stuart, The Maid of Orleans, both - 1801, the tragedy of rock - The Bride of Messina, 1803).
In the drama "William Tell" (1804), in the creation of which the playwright used the Swiss legend of a skilled shooter, Schiller tried to show not only the development of one person (at the beginning, Tell is shown as an accommodating peasant, but at the end - a politically conscious rebel), but the evolution of an entire people from "naive" to "ideal"; the dramatic conflict lies in the fact that only through a crime can the Swiss get rid of Austrian domination, but, according to Schiller, they have no right to do this, since “the people can only engage in “self-defense”, and not “self-liberation”.
In 1805, Schiller began work on the drama "Dmitry", dedicated to the "Time of Troubles" in Russian history, but it remained unfinished.
Johann Christoph Friedrich Schiller, German poet and playwright, was born on November 10, 1759 in Marbach am Neckar in the family of a military physician. In 1773, Schiller, on the orders of the Duke of Württemberg, went to the military medical academy, where he studied law and medicine, and wrote his dissertation. In 1780 he moved to Stuttgart and worked as a regimental paramedic.
Schiller's creative debut took place in 1776 with the publication of several of his works in the Swabian Journal, thanks to which he finds material for his first play, The Robbers. The play is based on D. Schubart's short story "On the History of the Human Heart", which Schiller significantly reworks and enriches with details. After the successful premiere of the play, Schiller is called the "German Shakespeare".
However, the Duke of Württemberg condemns the play and orders the author to be placed in a guardhouse. In 1782, the playwright fled the duke's estate and settled in Mannheim, where he worked as head of the National Theatre. In 1784, on the stage of this theater, the premiere of Schiller's play "Cunning and Love" was held, which interprets the feelings of lovers from different classes with social bias.
IN dramatic poem"Don Carlos" Schiller departs from the rebellious ideology, the main idea of the poem is the reform of society. In 1804, Schiller published the drama "William Tell", in which he demonstrates the development of an entire nation. In 1805, the playwright began work on the unfinished work "Dmitry", which was based on the troubled times in the history of Russia.
The work of Friedrich Schiller fell on the so-called era of "Storm and Onslaught" - a trend in German literature, which was characterized by the rejection of classicism and the transition to romanticism. This time covers approximately two decades: 1760-1780. It was marked by the publication of works by such famous authors as Johann Goethe, Christian Schubart and others.
Brief biography of the writer
The Duchy of Württemberg, where the poet was located on the territory, was born in 1759 in a family of immigrants from the lower classes. His father was a regimental paramedic, and his mother was the daughter of a baker. However, the young man a good education: he studied at the military academy, where he studied law and jurisprudence, and then, after transferring the school to Stuttgart, he took up medicine.
After staging his first sensational play, The Robbers, the young writer was expelled from his native duchy and spent most of his life in Weimar. Friedrich Schiller was a friend of Goethe and even competed with him in writing ballads. The writer was fond of philosophy, history, poetry. He was a professor of world history at the University of Jena, under the influence of I. Kant he wrote philosophical works, was engaged in publishing activities, publishing the magazines "Ora", "Almanac of Muses". The playwright died in Weimar in 1805.
The play "Robbers" and the first success
In the era under consideration, romantic moods were very popular among young people, which Friedrich Schiller also became interested in. The main ideas that briefly characterize his work boil down to the following: the pathos of freedom, criticism of the tops of society, the aristocracy, the nobility and sympathy for those who, for whatever reason, were rejected by this society.
The writer gained fame after staging his drama The Robbers in 1781. This play is notable for its naive and somewhat pompous romantic pathos, but the viewer fell in love with the sharp, dynamic plot and intensity of passions. was the theme of the conflict between two brothers: Karl and Franz Moor. The insidious Franz seeks to take away his brother's estate, inheritance, as well as his beloved - cousin Amalia.
Such injustice prompts Charles to become a robber, but at the same time he manages to maintain his nobility and his noble honor. The work was a great success, but brought trouble to the author: due to unauthorized absence, he was punished, and subsequently expelled from his native duchy.
Dramas of the 1780s
The success of The Robbers prompted the young playwright to create a number of well-known works that became In 1783, he wrote the play Cunning and Love, The Fiesco Conspiracy in Genoa, and in 1785, Ode to Joy. In this series, the work “Deceit and Love”, which is called the first “petty-bourgeois tragedy”, should be singled out separately, since in it for the first time the writer made the object of the artistic depiction not the problems of noble nobles, but the suffering of a simple girl of humble origin. "Ode to Joy" is considered one of the the best works the author, who proved himself not only a great prose writer, but also a brilliant poet.
Plays from the 1790s
Friedrich Schiller was fond of history, on the plots of which he wrote a number of his dramas. In 1796, he created the play "Wallenstein", dedicated to the commander of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). In 1800, he wrote the drama "Mary Stuart", in which he significantly departed from historical realities, making the conflict between two female rivals the object of an artistic depiction. The latter circumstance, however, does not in the least detract from the literary merits of the drama.
In 1804, Friedrich Schiller wrote the play "William Tell", dedicated to the struggle of the Swiss people against Austrian domination. This work imbued with the pathos of freedom and independence, which was so characteristic of the work of the representatives of "Storm and Onslaught". In 1805, the writer began working on the drama Demetrius, dedicated to the events of Russian history, but this play remained unfinished.
The value of Schiller's work in art
The writer's plays had a great influence on world culture. What Friedrich Schiller wrote became a subject of interest for Russian poets V. Zhukovsky, M. Lermontov, who translated his ballads. The plays of the playwright served as the basis for the creation of wonderful operas by the hosts Italian composers XIX century. L. Beethoven put the final part of his famous ninth symphony on Schiller's "Ode to Joy". In 1829, D. Rossini created the opera "William Tell" based on his drama; this work is considered one of the best works of the composer.
In 1835, G. Donizetti wrote the opera "Mary Stuart", which was included in the cycle of his musical compositions dedicated to the history of England in the 16th century. In 1849, D. Verdi created the opera "Louise Miller" based on the drama "Cunning and Love". The opera did not receive great popularity, but it has undoubted musical merits. So, Schiller's influence on world culture is enormous, and this explains the interest in his work today.
