Klopstock, Friedrich Gottlieb

Klopstock, Friedrich Gottlieb (1724-1803), German poet and dramatist, who was one of the most significant writers of the early German classical period. He was born in Quedlinburg, educated at the universities of Jena and Leipzig, and played an important part in freeing German literature from French and other foreign influences. His principal poetic work was Der Messias, a religious epic written in classical hexameter which he began writing while at school and completed in four volumes between 1751 and 1773. Der Messias established Klopstock's reputation as a poetic genius and has been widely translated and imitated. His best lyrics are contained in the volume Oden (1747-1780), a collection of poems on religion, friendship, and nature which includes “Der Zürcher See” and “Die Frühlingsfeier”. Klopstock also wrote religious dramas in verse with themes taken from the Old Testament. His interest in the German past found expression in a trilogy of prose dramas, Hermanns Schlacht (Hermann's Battle, 1769), Hermann und die Fürsten (Hermann and the Princes, 1784), and Hermanns Tod (Hermann's Death, 1787), which glorified Arminius, or Hermann, a 1st-century German national hero. His poetry influenced a whole generation of young poets, including Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe.