Friedrich von Schiller

I

Introduction

Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805), German poet, dramatist, philosopher, and historian, who is regarded as the greatest dramatist in the history of the German theatre and one of the greatest in European literature.

Schiller was born November 10, 1759, in Marbach, Württemberg, the son of an army officer and estate manager for the Duke of Württemberg. He was educated at the duke's military school and then studied law and medicine. In 1780 he was appointed doctor to a military regiment stationed in Stuttgart. As a student, Schiller wrote poetry and finished his first play, Die Räuber (1781; trans. 1800), which was successfully presented in 1782 at the National Theatre in Mannheim. Arrested by the duke for leaving Württemberg without permission in order to witness the production, Schiller was forbidden to publish further dramatic works, but, in September 1782, he escaped from prison.

II

Early Dramas

During the next ten years, Schiller lived and wrote, often under assumed names to avoid discovery and possible extradition to Württemberg, in various parts of Germany, including Mannheim, Leipzig, Dresden, and Weimar. He completed the tragedy Kabale und Liebe (1783; trans. 1849) and began work on the drama Don Carlos (1787; trans. 1795) in 1783 at Mannheim, where for the next year he was official dramatist for the Mannheim theatre. These early plays had a great affinity with the Sturm und Drang movement with their stress on personal liberty and morality and their great dramatic power. The idealistic Don Carlos, the first of his plays to be written in blank verse, which also deals with the struggle against official oppression, marks the transition to a more classical style of writing.

III

Influence of Goethe

During the following years, Schiller devoted himself chiefly to historical and philosophical works. On the strength of his Geschichte des Abfalls der Vereinigten Niederlande von der Spanischen Regierung (The Defection of the Netherlands, 1788) and through the recommendation of the poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, he was appointed professor of history at the University of Jena in 1790. Schiller and Goethe first met in Jena two years later and subsequently formed a close friendship that proved intellectually stimulating to both men, then regarded as the two leading figures in contemporary German literature.

Through Goethe's influence Schiller turned from philosophical writing back to the writing of poetry and plays, and his last years proved to be the most productive of his life. In 1799 he completed his masterpiece, Wallenstein, a three-part work in verse that includes a narrative prologue, Wallensteins Lager (Wallenstein's Camp), and two full-length dramas, Die Piccolomini (trans. 1800) and Wallensteins Tod (The Death of Wallenstein, 1800). Based on events of the Thirty Years' War, the entire work is considered one of the greatest historical dramas in world literature.

IV

Weimar Period

Late in 1799 Schiller settled permanently in Weimar, where he subsequently completed the historical verse dramas Maria Stuart (1800; trans. 1833), Die Jungfrau von Orleans (1801; trans. 1835), Die Braut von Messina (The Bride of Messina, 1803), and Wilhelm Tell (1804; trans. 1825). At the time of his death on May 9, 1805, he was at work on the tragedy Demetrius.

As a whole, Schiller's plays are characterized by moral idealism, strong optimism, eloquent poetic diction, and a classic sense of form.