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| German Literature | Friedrich von Schiller
German poet, playwright,
philosopher and historian. Schiller was born on November 10,
1759 in Marbach (Württemberg) and died on May 9, 1805. He
was the most important playwright in the history of German
theatre and one of the most distinguished figures of European
literature. Son of an officer in the Prussian Army, he received
his education at the military academy of the Duke of Württemberg.
As a doctor in a military regiment, he was
arrested in 1781 and banned from all literary activities as
punishment form abandoning his post in order to go to the
opening of his play The Robbers at the Mannheim National
Theatre. A year later he escaped prison, embarking on a long
10-year journey during which he published his work under various
different pseudonyms so as to avoid being found out, while
he shifted his place of residence between several different
German cities: Mannheim,
Leipzig, Dresde and Weimar,
among others.
During this period, Schiller finished the tragedy
Intrigue and Love (1783) and Don Carlos
(1787). He then turned to writing historical and philosophical
texts. In 1790 Goethe
helps him to find a position as a history professor at Jena
University. Two years later, when he meets with Goethe again
in Jena, their friendship blossoms until Schiller's death
in 1805. Goethe convinces him to return to literature; in
1799 he finished what is considered to be his master piece,
a trilogy in verse, based on events that took place in the
Thirty Years' War, called Wallenstein.
In 1979 Schiller moved to Weimar, where he
remained until the end of his days. It was here that he completed
the historic dramas Mary Stuart (1800), The Maid
of Orleans (1801), The Bride of Messina (1803)
and William Tell (1804), besides translating the
works of Shakespeare and Racine into German.
