Friedrich Schiller

Friedrich Schiller was one of the most influential figures of German literature and philosophy. He was born in 1759 in Marbach am Neckar, a small town in the Duchy of Württemberg. His father was a military officer and his mother was a pious woman. He received a strict education at a military academy, where he developed an interest in poetry and drama. He wrote his first play, The Robbers, in 1781, which caused a sensation for its revolutionary themes and language. He fled from Württemberg to avoid arrest and settled in Mannheim, where he became a successful playwright and theatre director. He also wrote essays on aesthetics, history, and politics. In 1787, he moved to Weimar, where he befriended Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the leading figure of German literature. Together, they founded the movement of Weimar Classicism, which aimed to create a harmonious synthesis of art and reason. Schiller wrote some of his most famous works in Weimar, such as Don Carlos (1787), Wallenstein (1798–99), Mary Stuart (1800), The Maid of Orleans (1801), and William Tell (1804). He also collaborated with Goethe on several projects, such as the Xenien (1796), a collection of satirical epigrams, and the ballads that inspired the musical genre of Lieder. Schiller was also a prolific historian and philosopher. He wrote several historical works, such as The History of the Revolt of the Netherlands (1788), The History of the Thirty Years' War (1791–93), and The History of the United Netherlands (1801). He also wrote philosophical works, such as On the Aesthetic Education of Man (1795), which argued that beauty and art are essential for human freedom and morality. Schiller died in 1805 at the age of 45 from tuberculosis. He was buried in the Fürstengruft in Weimar, next to Goethe. His works have influenced many writers and thinkers, such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Marx, Leo Tolstoy, George Bernard Shaw, Bertolt Brecht, and Thomas Mann. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest poets and dramatists of all time.