Schiller, Johann Christoph Friedrich von << SHIHL uhr, YOH hahn KRIHS tawf FREE drihkh fuhn >> (1759-1805), ranks second only to Goethe among the leading figures of German literature, and no German compares to him as a playwright. Schiller was a master of dramatic construction and character portrayal. His dramas are pleas for human freedom and dignity. They inspired German liberals in their fight for liberty during the early 1800’s and during the Revolution of 1848.
Friedrich Schiller was born on Nov. 10, 1759, in Marbach in the Duchy of Wurttemberg. The Duke of Wurttemberg made him attend a military academy where he studied medicine, but he left his post as an army surgeon in 1782 to devote himself to writing. Schiller’s early plays protested against the tyranny of the German aristocracy. His first drama, The Robbers (1781), enjoyed sensational success. His other early plays include the political-historical dramas Fiesco (1783) and Don Carlos (1787), and the middle-class tragedy Intrigue and Love (1784).
The period between 1787 and 1796 formed a separate part of Schiller’s career. Unsure of his abilities as a dramatist, he turned to historical writing with The Revolt of the Netherlands (1788), a work dealing with the Netherlands in the late 1500’s; and The History of the Thirty Years’ War (1791-1793). Schiller’s literary talents injected a vivid dramatic quality into these works. His writings on philosophy and aesthetic theory gave him an important place in the development of German idealism. His Aesthetic Education of Mankind (1793) established him as the most important theorist of German Classicism.
Schiller’s friendship with Goethe from 1794 reawakened his interest in drama. His greatest drama, Wallenstein (1798-1799), is a tragedy set during the Thirty Years’ War. It explores the relationship between a great individual and fate. The drama is a cycle of three parts, written in dignified blank verse. Three other historical plays followed. Mary Stuart (1800) deals with the life of the Scottish queen. The Maid of Orléans (1801) is the story of Joan of Arc. William Tell (1804) dramatizes Switzerland’s struggle for freedom. The Bride of Messina (1803) is modeled on classical Greek drama.
Between 1785 and 1800, Schiller edited three literary magazines, to which he contributed many essays, lyrics, and stories. He became known for such philosophical lyrics as “The Song of the Bell.” Two stories, “The Ghostseer” and “The Criminal from Lost Honor,” are early German short-story masterpieces. Schiller died on May 9, 1805.
