Johann Friedrich von Schiller ☑️ brief biography of the German poet, basic ideas briefly, list of works, plays and books, interesting facts about the writer’s work

Childhood and adolescence

On November 10, 1759, Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was born in Marbach am Neckar. His father worked as a military paramedic, and in 1763 became a recruiter in the city of Schwäbisch Gmünd. Because of this, the whole family had to move to Germany.

Schiller attended Lorch Primary School. But he did not like the quality of education, so he did not attend all classes. Although the family lived poorly, the mother and father tried to raise their son to be literate and well-rounded. The parents wanted their son to become a priest, so they hired a teacher for him in Greek and Latin. Friedrich studied them almost perfectly, but he had difficulty understanding mathematical tables and exact sciences.

In 1766, the family had to move to Ludwigsburg, where the father got a new job. Here Frederick became interested in Charles Eugene of Württemberg. Within a few years, he graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at the Academy, which was established by his patron. During his student years, Schiller wrote his first drama in verse called “The Robbers.” And already in 1782 a play was staged based on it in Germany. The plot of the work was the story of the conflict between two brothers.

Brief biography of the writer

The Duchy of Württemberg, where Friedrich Schiller was born, was located in the territory of the Holy Roman Empire. The poet was born in 1759 into a family of people from the lower classes. His father was a regimental paramedic, and his mother was the daughter of a baker. However, the young man received 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 the production of 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 Goethe's friend and even competed with him in writing ballads. The writer was interested in philosophy, history, and poetry. He was a professor of world history at the University of Jena, under the influence of Immanuel Kant, he wrote philosophical works and was engaged in publishing, publishing the magazines Ory and Almanac of the Muses. The playwright died in Weimar in 1805.

Schiller's career

During his short biography, Friedrich Schiller managed to change several types of activities. The most significant events in his life :

1780 - appointment to the post of regimental doctor;
1783−1787 - production of new plays;
1789 - began working as a teacher of philosophy and history;
1797 - creation of the ballad “Polycrates’ Ring”;
1800−1804 - release of dramatic performances based on his works.

Friedrich did not want to work as a doctor, so one day he ran away from service to attend a production of The Robbers. Because of this, he was arrested and imprisoned for 14 days, and was also prohibited from publishing other works. In 1782, Schiller fled to Weimar, making his way on foot through Dresden, Frankfurt, Leipzig and Mannheim. A year later, a second performance was organized in Germany - “The Fiesco Conspiracy in Genoa.”

List of the following productions based on his works:

"Cunning and Love";
"Ode to Joy";
"Crime of Lost Honor";
"Don Carlos".

In 1784, a play based on “Cunning and Love” was staged at the theater, and soon the text was translated into English and French. Two years later, Friedrich wrote "Crime of Lost Honor", which looked like a crime report. “Don Carlos” describes the conflict between the protagonist and his own father, King Philip II of Spain.

When Schiller began working as a teacher, he began creating historical and philosophical works: “The History of the Fall of the Netherlands”, “Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man”. The latest work is based on the events of the French Revolution. The young author begins to write ballads: “Ivikov Cranes”, “Diver”.

In 1799, he completed work on the Wallenstein trilogy, and a year later presented to the public new works - The Maid of Orleans and Mary Stuart. He later translated the plays "Turandot, Princess of China" and "Carlo Gotzi, Turandot". A performance based on the drama “The Bride of Messina” by Schiller was shown in Weimar. And in 1804 the work “William Tell” was presented. The writer created it based on an old Swiss legend about an experienced marksman.

Friedrich Schiller biography briefly

Friedrich Schiller (Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller) is an outstanding German poet and thinker, a representative of romanticism in literature. A brief biography of Schiller is given in this article.

Friedrich Schiller biography briefly

The writer was born on November 10, 1759 in Germany in the city of Marbach am Neckar. Schiller's father was a regimental paramedic, and his mother came from a baker's family. His childhood and youth were spent in relative poverty, although he was able to study at a rural school and under Pastor Moser.

In 1773, he entered the military academy, where he first studied law and then medicine. His first works were written during his studies. Thus, under the influence of Leisewitz’s drama, he wrote the drama “Cosmus von Medici”. The writing of the ode “Conqueror” dates back to the same period.

In 1780, he received the post of regimental doctor in Stuttgart, after graduating from the academy.

In 1781, he completed the drama “The Robbers,” which no publishing house accepted. As a result, he published it with his own money. Subsequently, the drama was appreciated by the director of the Mannheim Theater and, after some adjustments, was staged.

The premiere of "The Robbers" took place in January 1782 and was a great success with the public. After this, people started talking about Schiller as a talented playwright. For this drama, the writer was even awarded the title of honorary citizen of France. However, in his homeland he had to serve 14 days in the guardhouse for unauthorized absence from the regiment for the performance of “The Robbers”. Moreover, from now on he was forbidden to write anything other than medical essays. This situation forced Schiller to leave Stuttgart in 1783. This is how he managed to finish two plays that he had begun before his escape: “Cunning and Love” and “The Fiesco Conspiracy in Genoa.” These plays were subsequently staged at the same Mannheim theater.

From 1787 to 1789 he lived in Weimar, where he met Johann Goethe. It is believed that it was Schiller who inspired his friend to complete many of his works.

In 1790 he married Charlotte von Lengefeld, with whom he subsequently had two sons and two daughters. He returned to Weimar in 1799 and there, with money from patrons, he published literary magazines. At the same time, together with Goethe, he founded the Weimar Theater, which became one of the best in the country. Until the end of his days the writer lived in this city.

In 1802, Holy Roman Emperor Francis II granted Schiller nobility.

He died on May 9, 1805 from tuberculosis.

Collaboration with Goethe

Thanks to the same views on the French Revolution, Schiller became close to John Goethe. In 1794, Frederick invited a friend to take part in a literary society and received consent. In Jena the thinkers became more closely acquainted. They walked through the streets of the city after a meeting of naturalists and reached Schiller’s apartment. Here Goethe shared his theory about plant metamorphosis. After this conversation, the friendship strengthened and frequent and lengthy correspondence began. Quite interesting letters have become an epistolary monument of world literature.

Joint creative activity was aimed at understanding post-revolutionary poetry. In their letters, both enlighteners often touched on the theme of antiquity, where they found for themselves an image of perfect human beauty. The publications “Almanac of the Muses” and “Orach” published works by Schiller and Goethe, which reflected moral and civic pathos and the cult of antiquity.

Critics then began to prevent further publications, as they condemned their views on politics, religion, aesthetics and philosophy. The comrades rebuffed their ill-wishers; they condemned the mediocrity and vulgarity of German literature of that time. To do this, they wrote couplets following the example of “Xenia” Martial.

Goethe and Schiller worked in this genre for almost eight months; they sent each other new poems to Jena and Weimar. In just one year from 1795 to 1796, they created more than 800 epigrams, 414 of which were published in the Almanac of the Muses. The topics of the couplets varied: from politics to art. This is the most militant work of all the collaborations.

In 1799 Schiller returned to Weimar and began publishing literary magazines. Together with Goethe, he became the founder of the Weimar theater. The poet lived in this city until the very end. And in 1802, Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, granted him the title of nobility. This circumstance seemed funny to Frederick, but he accepted mercy for the sake of his wife and children, for whom he felt strong love.

Main works

Friedrich Schiller's famous works include plays, prose, philosophies, and history books. Over the course of his life, the great writer created more than thirty great works. The most famous plays : “The Robbers”, “Cunning and Love”, “The Fiesco Conspiracy in Genoa”, “Wallenstein”, “Don Carlos, Infante of Spain”, “The Maid of Orleans”, “Mary Stuart”, “The Bride of Messina”, “William Tell" and the verse "Dimitri" unfinished due to Schiller's death.

In the first European melodrama, “The Robbers,” Frederick examined the problems of dividing society into classes and outlined his view of the economic and political structure of countries. Among the prose works, the correspondence with Goethe, the article “Crime due to Lost Honor” and the novel “The Spiritual Seer”, which Hans Evers had to finish, stand out.

Schiller also has philosophical works:

"On Grace and Dignity";
“On the relationship between the animal nature of man and his spiritual nature”;
"On the Sublime";
“Letters on the aesthetic education of man”;
“About amateurism”;
"On naive and sentimental poetry."

They briefly outline the main ideas of Friedrich Schiller regarding the character and behavior of a person, his attitude to art. Some critics note that sometimes there are contradictions in the philosopher's texts. Frederick wrote several historical works: “The History of the Thirty Years' War” and “The History of the Fall of the United Netherlands from Spanish Rule.”

Some of his works were adapted into music by famous composers. Schubert created such works as “The Diver”, “Ode to Joy”, “Knight of Togenburg”, “Hector’s Farewell”. Verdi also wrote operas based on his poems: "The Robbers", "Joan of Arc", "Louise Miller", "Don Carlos". Tchaikovsky created the compositions “Ode to Joy” and “Maid of Orleans”. And “Nenias and Dithyrambs” and “Elegiac Hymns” were set to music by Orff.

There have been several productions of Schiller's works in Russia. In 1919, spectators of the Bolshoi Drama Theater saw the play “Don Carlos”. The Gorky Moscow Art Theater reproduced “Mary Stuart” in 1976. Four years later, the public came to the Maly Theater to see “The Fiesco Conspiracy in Genoa,” and “Don Carlos” was staged in the Mossovet building. The same play was performed by actors of the Bolshoi Drama Theater. Tovstonogov in 2009, and at the Maly Drama Theater the audience got acquainted with the play “Cunning and Love” in 2013. Zhukovsky translated the German work into Russian.

Dramas of the 1780s

The success of The Robbers prompted the young playwright to create a number of famous works that have become classics of world literature. In 1783 he wrote the play “Cunning and Love”, “The Fiesco Conspiracy in Genoa”, in 1785 - “Ode to Joy”. In this series, we should separately highlight the work “Cunning and Love”, which is called the first “philistine tragedy”, since in it for the first time the writer made the object of 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 best works of the author, who showed himself not only to be a magnificent prose writer, but also a brilliant poet.

Personal life

Women were always present in Schiller's life. He looked for inspiration in beauties and made them his muses. Friedrich was going to marry four times in his life, but brides refused him due to their unstable financial situation. Interestingly, his three chosen ones were named Charlotte.

The first was the daughter of Henriette von Walzogen. The woman admired his talent and patronized the writer. But she refused his offer. The second Charlotte was the widow von Kalb. She herself fell very much in love with the philosopher, but he did not like the woman’s persistence and even importunity. Friedrich gently refused to cohabit with her and began to court the daughter of a bookseller, Margarita.

But the girl only played with the poet’s feelings. He dreamed of marriage and children, and Margot had fun with other men. The frivolous person did not even think about marriage, much less about living with a poor writer. The fourth attempt at marriage proposal was successful. Charlotte von Lengefeld became his wife, saw great potential in him and reciprocated his feelings. Thanks to his work as a teacher, Friedrich saved a small amount for his wedding and life together. The marriage produced four children (according to some sources, only son Ernest).

Schiller affectionately called his wife Lolo and praised her intelligence in every possible way among his friends. But his contemporaries argued that Charlotte was a business woman, but very narrow-minded. When the writer was granted the title of nobility, she immediately appeared at court.

Death of a Writer

Schiller had chronic pneumonia, and in the last years of his life he suffered from tuberculosis. The disease became the cause of death. On May 9, 1805, the writer died without having had time to finish writing the play “Dimitri.” He was only 45 years old.

Although Frederick created many scientific and literary works throughout his life, he was never able to make money from them. Due to his poverty, the body was buried in the Kassengevelbe crypt. It is designed for nobles who do not have a family tomb.

And only 20 years later the remains were reburied in the princely tomb. But there is one interesting fact associated with this event. At that time, it was difficult to determine who exactly the bones belonged to. Archaeologists unearthed the skeleton and simply declared it to be Schiller. He was buried next to Goethe's grave. And in 2008, the coffin was opened and the remains were examined. It turned out that the bones belonged to three different individuals. Today, the philosopher’s grave remains empty, since it is almost impossible to find the skeleton.

Friedrich Schiller left behind many literary works that are included in the list of the best plays and philosophical works. But he earned such recognition only after death, and during his lifetime he suffered from a lack of money and misunderstanding from his colleagues.