Brief biography of the poet, the main facts of life and work:

FRIEDRICH SCHILLER (1759-1805)

Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was born on November 10, 1759 (new style) in the small German town of Marbach on the banks of the Necker River.

The poet's ancestors were illiterate peasants and bakers. Schiller's father independently mastered the German literacy, and learned Latin from the monastery barber, whose pupil he was. This allowed him to get a job as a doctor in the army and even rise to the rank of officer. The poet's father was not only a regimental doctor, but also a recruiter of soldiers for Duke Karl-Eugene of Württemberg (1728-1793), in whose possessions the family lived. Schiller's father was later appointed steward of the duke's gardens, and towards the end of his life wrote a treatise on farming.

The poet's mother Elizabeth Dorothea was a kind, sociable and very pious woman. She wanted her only son to become a priest, and little Friedrich believed with delight what her mother was talking about.

In 1768, the Schillers moved to Ludwigsburg, where Friedrich was sent to a Latin school and became one of its best students. At the end of school, the boys took four exams, after which they chose their career. The young Schiller still hoped to become a theologian.

But fate decreed otherwise. Württemberg was a small principality, the duke knew almost every subject. Karl-Eugene took the most direct fatherly-despotic part in the fate of the Württemberg youths. When Friedrich had already passed three school exams and the last one remained for him, the duke, motivating this with his special favor for the parents of a teenager, assigned him to the newly created military school for gifted children.

In 1773, Schiller began to study law at the so-called Karpov School, later renamed the Academy. Mushtra, the barracks way of life did not suit the poetically minded young man at all. The only thing that the young man managed to achieve after numerous requests was the duke's permission to transfer him from the legal department to the medical one.

It is necessary to pay tribute to the Karpov school, humanitarian sciences here they taught fundamentally. Gradually, Schiller lost his craving for theology, he was imbued with the ideas of Lessing, Voltaire and Rousseau. At the academy, under the influence of one of his mentors, Schiller joined the secret society of the Illuminati, the forerunners of the German Jacobins.

The young man also had time for personal creativity. From school, Schiller was fond of poetry. At the academy, he composed amazing poems dedicated to Laura. Biographers of the poet believe that we are talking about Laura Petrarch. Another heroine early poetry Schiller became Minna. Initially, a certain Wilhemina Andrea was considered the prototype of Minna, but then the researchers abandoned this version. In 1776-1777, several of Schiller's poems were published in the Swabian Journal.

In his teenage years, Schiller was influenced to some extent by Countess Franziska von Hohenheim, the maitre of Duke Charles Eugene. She possessed enchanting beauty, was graceful, sweet and so charming that over time she managed to marry Charles Eugene and became the Duchess of Württemberg. Not surprisingly, the baroness turned out to be the platonic lover of a 17-year-old youth who endowed her with all the virtues that his imagination could come up with. The power of first love is great - Schiller until the end of his days retained tenderly enthusiastic feelings for Francis.

After successfully passing the exam in 1780, the young man was appointed regimental paramedic in Stuttgart. By then, Schiller had completed his first play. In the "Swabian Journal" for 1775, the poet found Daniel Schubart's short story "On the History of the Human Heart." On the basis of this work, he created the famous "Robbers". The play was published at the expense of the author in 1781. Immediately began to receive proposals for its production. Schiller agreed to give the play to the Mannheim Theater.

But before The Robbers appeared on the scene, Friedrich published his first book of poetry in Stuttgart under the modest title An Anthology for 1782. Most of the poems in the Anthology were composed by the publisher himself.

Duke Karl-Eugene strictly followed the life of his wards. Schiller did not escape this fate. On January 13, 1782, the triumphal premiere of The Robbers took place at the Mannheim Theater, an enthusiastic audience extolled the anonymous author. Schiller secretly went to see the performance. As soon as the duke became aware that the young man was leaving the regiment without permission, he, in a rage, put Friedrich in a guardhouse under a two-week arrest and henceforth forbade him to engage in literary work.

Overwhelmed by a passion for creativity, Schiller began to write articles for a local newspaper. Then the duke allowed him to write, but only on medical topics, and demanded that everything written by Friedrich first go through the personal censorship of Karl-Eugene. It was already very dangerous. Quite recently, before the eyes of Württemberg society, a drama took place with the same ward of the duke, whom the despot kept in prison without trial for more than ten years for poetry!

The poet planned an escape. He took advantage of the turmoil of magnificent celebrations that took place in the Duchy of Württemberg in connection with the arrival there of the Russian Tsarevich Pavel Petrovich, who was married to the duke's niece. On September 22, 1782, Schiller fled abroad and found refuge in Bauerbach, on the small estate of Henriette Wolzogen, the mother of the poet's three friends from the academy.

A search for the fugitive was immediately announced, and soon Schiller was found. However, Karl-Eugene could not self-govern on the territory of a foreign state. He only had to threaten Wolzogen with the persecution of her sons. As a sin, it was at this time that Schiller fell in love with Henrietta's sixteen-year-old daughter, Charlotte Wolzogen. And although the girl was completely indifferent to the young man, the alarmed mother invited Friedrich to leave her house ...

Schiller had nowhere to go. Fortunately, Henrietta soon repented of her cruel act and called Friedrich back. This time the poet behaved more cautiously and at his leisure took up writing the drama he had conceived in the guardhouse, which he originally called "Louise Miller", and later, on the advice of the famous Mannheim actor Iffland, renamed it "Deceit and Love".

In September 1783, the play was accepted for production by the Mannheim Theater and premiered in April of the following year. By that time, Schiller had already prepared a drama from the Italian history of the Renaissance, The Fiesco Conspiracy in Genoa.

Duke Karl-Eugene did not rage for long. In 1783, Dahlberg, the director of the Mannheim theater, appointed Schiller a "theatrical poet", concluding a contract with him to write plays for staging on the Mannheim stage. This could only mean that the Duke of Württemberg had given up on his unlucky subject.

In Mannheim, Schiller found himself in the company of ladies. He had several love affairs at once. Biographers especially note the poet's relationship with the actress who played the role of Amalia in The Robbers. A more serious relationship developed with a sweet, highly educated girl, Margarita Schwan, Friedrich even asked for her hand, but old Schwan considered the position of the poet too uncertain to agree to his daughter's marriage, and refused.

However, the most significant was the acquaintance with Charlotte Marshalk von Ostheim, Kalb's husband, with whom the poet had a mutual love. There was even talk of Charlotte's divorce from her husband. Schiller's unexpected chill prevented. The gap was not complete. For many years, the former lovers maintained a correspondence, exchanged assurances of eternal friendship.

Charlotte ended her life very sadly: she lost her entire fortune and, moreover, became blind. Nevertheless, even in extreme old age, a woman made an irresistible impression with her black eyes, majestic figure and prophetic speech. Marshalk von Ostheim died in 1843 at the age of eighty-two.

The Mannheim authorities were not going to open their wallets for the young playwright. In the end, Schiller found himself in very tight financial circumstances and in 1785 willingly accepted the invitation of Privatdozent G. Koerner, an enthusiastic admirer of the playwright's talent, and stayed with him for more than two years in Leipzig and Dresden. All these years the poet worked on the tragedy "Don Carlos".

In the winter of 1786, Schiller met Charlotte von Lengefeld, whom he had known since 1784, when she, along with her older sister, Caroline, and her mother, came to Mannheim. That meeting was short, a real acquaintance began only three years later, when the poet came to the Lengefeld family together with his friend Wolzogen, to whom Carolina was not indifferent. Schiller liked the Lengefeld family, and he immediately decided that Charlotte would be his wife. Lota's mother, that was the name of the bride at home, was against her daughter's marriage to Frederick, since the homeless poet did not have the means to support the family.

In 1789, with the assistance of J. W. Goethe, whom Schiller met and became friends with in the Lengefeld house, the poet took up the post of extraordinary professor of history at the University of Jena. The position gave him little money, and on February 20, 1790, the wedding of Schiller and Charlotte Lengefeld took place. From this marriage two sons and two daughters were born. Over time, the poet acquired his own house and made himself a small fortune. Of course, the professor's meager salary would never have been enough for such expenses. But since 1791, the Crown Prince of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg and Count von Schimmelmann together for three years (until 1794) paid a scholarship to the poet. Then Schiller was supported by the publisher I. Fr. Cotta, who invited him in 1794 to publish the monthly magazine Ory.

Schiller sympathetically received the news of the French Revolution, and in 1792 the Convention awarded him the title of "honorary citizen of the French Republic."

The year 1793 was marked by the death of the Duke of Württemberg, Karl-Eugene. After ten years of wandering, Friedrich Schiller, the famous poet and playwright, got the opportunity to visit his native places and see his loved ones.

Friendship with Goethe had a huge impact on Schiller the poet. In 1797, the “ballad” year, in competition with a friend, he wrote the outstanding ballads “Diver” (translated by V. A. Zhukovsky “The Cup”), “Glove”, “Polycrates Ring”, “Ivikov Cranes” and others.

The time has come for the great Schiller dramaturgy. Since 1791, the poet had nurtured the idea of ​​the tragedy Wallenstein, which in the process of creation grew into a trilogy - Wallenstein's Camp (1798), Piccolomini (1799) and Wallenstein's Death (1799).

While working on the trilogy, Schiller and his family moved to Weimar to constantly be close to Goethe. Although he left teaching, the content of the poet was doubled. It was already a pension.

At the beginning of the century, Schiller worked extraordinarily fruitfully. In 1800, the tragedy "Mary Stuart" appeared, in 1801 it was written " Maid of Orleans”, in 1803 - “The Messinian Bride”, in 1804 - “William Tell”. Then the poet began to work on the tragedy "Demetrius" from Russian history, but a sudden death interrupted his work.

The last years of Schiller's life were overshadowed by severe protracted illnesses. After a severe cold, all the old ailments became aggravated. The poet suffered from chronic pneumonia and very often found himself on the edge of the grave.

Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805)

“... Schiller, indeed, entered the flesh and blood of Russian society, especially in the past and in the past generation. We were brought up on it, it is dear to us and in many ways affected our development,” wrote F. M. Dostoevsky in the article “Book Reading and Literacy”.

Indeed, in the 19th century, the influence of Western thinkers and poets, not only on Russian writers, but on the whole of society, was enormous. Although quite significant was the resistance to this culture on the part of some Russian thinkers and writers.

The same Dostoevsky, speaking about the originality of Russian literature, argued: “... In European literatures there were artistic geniuses of enormous magnitude - Shakespeares, Cervantes, Schillers. But point to at least one of these great geniuses who would have such a capacity for universal responsiveness as our Pushkin.

The 18th century became a golden age for German culture: Germany gave mankind Goethe and Schiller, composers Mozart and Beethoven, thinkers Kant, Fichte, Hegel, Schelling.

By the middle of the century, Germany was divided into many small principalities. The princes imitated the luxurious life of the French Versailles, money was constantly lacking. The "sovereignty" of seemingly tiny states - which, by the way, is now threatening Russia - led to wars between the principalities.

It was in this situation that the German intelligentsia came out for a united Germany. “Let Germany be so united that German thalers and pennies have the same price throughout the state; so unified that I could carry my travel suitcase through all thirty-six states without ever opening it for inspection.

Johann Friedrich Schiller, poet, playwright and art theorist of the Enlightenment, will become one of the most striking debunkers of contemporary reality.

He was born in the possessions of Duke Karl-Eugene in the family of a regimental doctor (subsequently, this duke, known for his cruelty, became the prototype of the character in the drama "Cunning and Love")

At 23, Schiller fled the duchy with several thalers in his pocket and a manuscript in his trunk. Behind him were eight years of military school, the premiere of his first drama The Robbers (1781). “Schiller did not draw his hatred for the humiliated human dignity in contemporary society from books: he himself, as a child and youth, suffered from the diseases of society and suffered the heavy influence of its outdated forms ...” wrote V. G. Belinsky.

The hero of the play, the noble Karl Moor, distributes his booty to the poor, and if “there is an opportunity to bleed a landowner who is tearing the skin from his peasants, or to teach a lesson to a loafer in gold galloons who crookedly interprets the laws ... here, my brother, he is in his element. It's as if the devil is possessing him ... "

“Put me at the head of an army of fellows like me, and Germany will become a republic, in front of which both Rome and Sparta will seem like convents,” says Karl Moor. But having gone through a bloody experience in the finale, this robber is no longer the same, he leaves the gang and surrenders to the authorities: “Oh, I am a fool who dreamed of correcting the world with atrocities and observing the laws with lawlessness! Oh, pathetic childishness! Here I am standing at the edge of a terrible abyss and with a howl and gnashing of teeth I realize that two people like me could destroy the entire edifice of the moral world order!”

Critics and directors interpreted the drama's ending differently. Perhaps Dostoevsky's idea of ​​"a child's tear" stems from this ending.

The clash of enlightenment ideals with reality, an interest in strong characters and social upheavals of the past determined the intense drama of his plays: The Fiesco Conspiracy in Genoa (1783), Cunning and Love (1784), Don Carlos (1783-1787), Mary Stuart", "The Maid of Orleans" (both - 1801), "William Tell" (1804).

"Don Carlos" entered the history of the world drama as a symbol of the struggle against any manifestation of tyranny. It is no coincidence that in February 1918, at the initiative of Gorky and Blok, the Bolshoi Drama Theater opened with the play Don Carlos. The conflict of Philip II with his son Carlos is the conflict of the emerging liberation movement with the outgoing but cruel feudal world.

Schiller held a chair at the University of Jena, he wrote such works as "The History of the Fall of the United Netherlands", "The History of the Thirty Years' War", which draw the attention of the scientific world of Europe to him.

In 1794, Schiller conceived the idea of ​​publishing the Ory magazine, on this occasion he wrote a letter to Goethe with a request to take part in the magazine. This is how the two great poets met and became friends.

All his life Schiller wrote poetry - in the first period of creativity it was philosophical lyrics, and later these were ballads, including such masterpieces as "The Cup", "The Glove", "Ivikov Cranes", "Polycrates' Ring".

Glove

Before your menagerie

With the barons, with the crown prince,

King Francis was seated;

From a high balcony he looked

In the field, waiting for the battle;

Behind the king, bewitching

blooming beauty look,

The ladies of the court were in a magnificent row.

The king signaled with his hand

The door opened with a thud.

And a formidable beast

With a huge head

shaggy lion

It turns out

Around the eyes sullenly leads;

And so, looking at everything,

He wrinkled his forehead with a proud posture,

Moved his thick mane,

And stretched and yawned,

And lay down. The king waved his hand again -

The shutter of the iron door rattled,

And the bold tiger sprang from behind the bars;

But he sees a lion, he is shy and roars,

He beats himself with his tail on the ribs,

And sneaks, squinting eyes,

And licks the face with the tongue,

And, bypassing the lion around,

He growls and lays next to him.

And for the third time the king waved his hand -

Two leopards as a friendly couple

In one jump they found themselves over the tiger;

But he gave them a blow with a heavy paw,

And the lion stood up with a roar...

They reconciled

Bared their teeth, moved away,

And they growled and lay down.

And the guests are waiting for the battle to begin.

Suddenly the woman fell from the balcony

The glove...everyone is looking after it...

She fell among the animals.

Then on the knight Delorge with a hypocritical

And looks with a sharp smile

His beauty and says:

"When me, my faithful knight,

You love the way you say

You will return the glove to me."

Delorge, without answering a word,

Goes to the animals

He boldly takes the glove

And returns to the meeting again.

Knights and ladies, with such impudence,

My heart was troubled by fear;

A young knight

Like nothing happened to him

Calmly ascends to the balcony;

He was greeted with applause;

He is greeted by beautiful looks ...

But, coldly accepting the greeting of her eyes,

In her face a glove

He threw and said: "I do not require a reward."

(Translated by V. Zhukovsky)

Schiller, like Goethe, spent the last years of his life in Weimar. He received a small pension from eminent admirers of his work.

During the days of the French Revolution, Schiller experienced a deep spiritual crisis. At first he accepted the news of her with delight, but then, when it came to the execution of King Louis XVI, Schiller volunteered to be his "lawyer". He wrote the poem "Song of the Bell", in which he condemned the idea of ​​a revolutionary uprising, the violent overthrow of monarchs:

self-governing people

Great benefits will not be gained ...

Now the revolution seemed to him a meaningless element:

We are afraid of the lioness awakening,

Terrible tiger angry run.

But worse than all - in a frenzy,

Man in his madness.

The autumn cold of 1804 complicated the poet's illness. In these last months of his life, he studied Russian history, collected material on the topic of imposture - and now in the museum there is a sheet with Martha's unfinished monologue on the table, and next to it is the book "History of Muscovy".

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Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller is an outstanding German playwright, poet, a prominent representative of romanticism, one of the creators of the national literature of the New Age and the most significant people of the German Enlightenment, art theorist, philosopher, historian, military doctor. Schiller was popular all over the continent, many of his plays rightfully entered the golden fund of world drama.

Johann Christoph Friedrich was born in Marbach an der Neckar on November 10, 1759 in the family of an officer, regimental paramedic. The family did not live well; the boy was brought up in an atmosphere of religiosity. Elementary education he received thanks to the pastor of the town of Lorch, where their family moved in 1764, and later studied at the Latin school of Ludwigsburg. In 1772, Schiller was among the students of the military academy: he was assigned there by order of the Duke of Württemberg. And if from childhood he dreamed of serving as a priest, then here he began to study jurisprudence, and from 1776, after transferring to the appropriate faculty, medicine. Even in the first years of being in this educational institution Schiller was seriously carried away by the poets of "Storm and Onslaught" and began to write a little himself, deciding to devote himself to poetry. His first work - the ode "The Conqueror" - appeared in the magazine "German Chronicles" in the spring of 1777.

After receiving a diploma in 1780, he was appointed a military doctor and sent to Stuttgart. Here his first book was published - a collection of poems "Anthology for 1782". In 1781, he published the drama The Robbers for his own money. In order to get to the performance staged according to it, Schiller left for Mannheim in 1783, for which he was subsequently arrested and banned from writing literary works. First staged in January 1782, the drama The Robbers enjoyed great success and marked the arrival of a new talented author in dramaturgy. Subsequently, for this work in the revolutionary years, Schiller will be given the title of honorary citizen of the French Republic.

Severe punishment forced Schiller to leave Württemberg and settle in the small village of Oggerseim. From December 1782 to July 1783, Schiller lived in Bauerbach under a false name on the estate of an old acquaintance. In the summer of 1783, Friedrich returned to Mannheim to prepare the staging of his plays, and already on April 15, 1784, his "Deceit and Love" brought him fame as the first German playwright. Soon his stay in Mannheim was legalized, but in subsequent years Schiller lived in Leipzig, and then from the beginning of the autumn of 1785 to the summer of 1787 - in the village of Loschwitz, located near Dresden.

August 21, 1787 marked a new milestone in the biography of Schiller, associated with his move to the center of national literature - Weimar. He arrived there at the invitation of K. M. Vilond in order to collaborate with the literary magazine German Mercury. In parallel, in 1787-1788. Schiller was the publisher of the Thalia magazine.

Acquaintance with major figures from the world of literature and science made the playwright overestimate his abilities and achievements, look at them more critically, and feel a lack of knowledge. This led to the fact that for almost a decade he abandoned his own literary creativity in favor in-depth study philosophy, history, aesthetics. In the summer of 1788, the first volume of The History of the Fall of the Netherlands was published, thanks to which Schiller earned a reputation as a brilliant researcher.

Through the troubles of friends, he received the title of extraordinary professor of philosophy and history at the University of Jena, in connection with which, on May 11, 1789, he moved to Jena. In 1799, in February, Schiller married and in parallel worked on the "History Thirty Years' War”, published in 1793.

Tuberculosis discovered in 1791 prevented Schiller from working at full strength. In connection with his illness, he had to give up lecturing for some time - this greatly shook his financial situation, and if it were not for the timely efforts of his friends, he would have found himself in poverty. During this difficult period for himself, he was imbued with the philosophy of Kant and, under the influence of his ideas, wrote whole line aesthetic works.

Schiller welcomed the Great French Revolution, however, being an opponent of violence in all its manifestations, he reacted sharply to the execution of Louis XVI, did not accept revolutionary methods. Views on political events in France and the situation in their native country contributed to the emergence of friendship with Goethe. The acquaintance, which took place in Jena in July 1794, turned out to be fateful not only for its participants, but for all German literature. The fruit of their joint creative activity was the period of the so-called. Weimar classicism, the creation of the Weimar theater. Arriving in 1799 in Weimar, Schiller remained here until his death. In 1802, by the grace of Frans II, he became a nobleman, but he was rather indifferent to this.

The last years of his biography passed under the sign of suffering from chronic diseases. Tuberculosis claimed the life of Schiller on May 9, 1805. They buried him at the local cemetery, and in 1826, when the decision was made to reburial, they failed to reliably identify the remains, so they chose the most suitable ones, in the opinion of the organizers of the event. In 1911, another “applicant” appeared for the “title” of Schiller’s skull, which gave rise to many years of disputes about the authenticity of the remains of the great German writer. According to the results of the examination in 2008, his coffin was left empty, because. all found skulls and remains in the grave, as it turned out, have nothing to do with the poet.

The work of the romantic rebel, poet of the 18th century Friedrich Schiller did not leave anyone indifferent. Some considered the playwright the ruler of the thoughts of lyricists and a singer of freedom, while others called the philosopher a stronghold of bourgeois morality. Thanks to the works that evoke ambiguous emotions, the classic managed to write his name in the history of world literature.

Childhood and youth

Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was born November 10, 1759, Marbach am Neckar (Germany). The future writer was the second of six children in the family of officer Johann Kaspar, who was in the service of the Duke of Württemberg and housewife Elisabeth Dorothea Codweiss. The head of the family wanted his only son to be educated and raised worthy person.

That is why the father raised Friedrich in severity, punishing the boy for the slightest sins. In addition, Johann taught his heir to hardship from a young age. So during lunch or dinner, the head of the family deliberately did not give his son what he wanted to taste.

Schiller Sr. considered love of order, accuracy and strict obedience to be the highest human virtues. However, there was no need for paternal severity. Slender and sickly Friedrich was strikingly different from his peers, friends, thirsty for adventure and constantly getting into unpleasant situations.

The future playwright liked to study. The boy could pore over textbooks for days, studying certain disciplines. The teachers noted his diligence, craving for science and incredible capacity for work, which he retained until the end of his life.

It is worth noting that Elizabeth was the exact opposite of her husband's stingy emotional manifestations. A smart, kind, pious woman, she struggled to soften the puritanical severity of her husband and often read Christian verses to her children.

In 1764 the Schiller family moved to Lorch. In this old town, the father awakened in his son an interest in history. This passion eventually determined further fate poet. The first history lessons for the future playwright were taught by a local priest, who had such a strong influence on the student that Friedrich at one point even seriously thought about devoting his life to worship.

Besides, for a boy from a poor family, it was the only way to break out into people, so the parents encouraged the desire of their son. In 1766, the head of the family received a promotion and became the ducal gardener of the castle, located in the vicinity of Stuttgart.

The castle, and most importantly, the court theater, which was visited by the staff working in the castle free of charge, impressed Friedrich. The best actors from all over Europe performed in the abode of the goddess Melpomene. The play of the actors inspired the future poet, and together with his sisters in the evenings he often began to show his parents home performances in which the main role always got to him. True, neither the father nor the mother took the new hobby of the offspring seriously. They only saw their son in the pulpit with a bible in his hands.

When Friedrich was 14 years old, his father sent his beloved child to the military school of Duke Karl Eugene, in which the offspring of poor officers learned for free the intricacies of providing everything necessary for the ducal court and the army.

Staying at this educational institution became a nightmare for Schiller, the youngest. Barracks discipline reigned in the school, teaching was forbidden to meet with parents. In addition, there was a system of fines. So for an unplanned purchase of food, 12 blows with a stick were supposed, and for inattention and untidiness - a monetary penalty.

At that time, his new friends became a consolation for the author of the ballad "Glove". Friendship became Friedrich's kind of elixir of life, which gave the writer the strength to move on. It is noteworthy that the years spent in this institution did not make a slave out of Schiller, on the contrary, they turned the writer into a rebel, whose weapon - endurance and fortitude, no one could take away from him.

In October 1776, Schiller transferred to the medical department, his first poem "Evening" was published, and after that the philosophy teacher gave a talented student to read the works of William Shakespeare, there was, as Goethe later said, "the awakening of Schiller's genius."

Then, under the impression of the works of Shakespeare, Friedrich wrote his first tragedy, The Robbers, which became the starting point in his career as a playwright. At the same moment, the poet had a burning desire to write a book that would deserve the fate of being burned.

In 1780 Schiller graduated Faculty of Medicine and left the hated military academy. Then, on the orders of Karl Eugene, the poet went as a regimental doctor to Stuttgart. True, the long-awaited freedom did not please Friedrich. As a doctor, he was no good, because the practical side of the profession never interested him.

Bad wine, disgusting tobacco and bad women - that's what distracted the writer who failed to realize himself from bad thoughts.

Literature

In 1781 the drama The Robbers was completed. After editing the manuscript, it turned out that not a single Stuttgart publisher wanted to print it, and Schiller had to publish the work at his own expense. Simultaneously with the Robbers, Schiller prepared for publication a collection of poems, which was published in February 1782 under the title "Anthology for 1782"

In the autumn of 1782 of the same year, Friedrich made the first draft of a version of the tragedy "Deceit and Love", which in the draft version was called "Louise Miller". At this time, Schiller also published the drama The Fiesco Conspiracy in Genoa for a meager fee.

In the period from 1793 to 1794, the poet completed the philosophical and aesthetic work "Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man", and in 1797 he wrote the ballads "Polycrates' Ring", "Ivikov's Cranes" and "The Diver".

In 1799, Schiller completed the Wallenstein trilogy, which consisted of the plays Wallenstein's Camp, Piccolomini and Wallenstein's Death, and a year later published Mary Stuart and The Maid of Orleans. In 1804, the drama William Tell, based on the Swiss legend of a skilled shooter named William Tell, saw the light of day.

Personal life

Like any creatively gifted person, Schiller looked for inspiration in women. The writer needed a muse that would inspire him to write new masterpieces. It is known that during his life the writer intended to marry 4 times, but the chosen ones always rejected the playwright because of his financial insolvency.

The first lady who took possession of the poet's thoughts was a girl named Charlotte. The young lady was the daughter of his patroness Henrietta von Walzogen. Despite admiration for Schiller's talent, the chosen one's mother refused the playwright when he wooed her beloved child.

The second Charlotte in the fate of the writer was the widow von Kalb, who was madly in love with the poet. True, in this case, Schiller himself was not eager to start a family with an extremely annoying person. After her, Friedrich briefly courted the young daughter of a bookseller, Margarita.

While the philosopher was thinking about the wedding and children, his missus was having fun in the company of other men and did not even intend to connect her life with a writer with a hole in her pocket. When Schiller offered Margarita to become his wife, the young lady, barely holding back her laughter, admitted that she was just playing with him.

The third woman for whom the writer was ready to get a star from the sky was Charlotte von Lengefeld. This lady, considered the potential in the poet and responded to his feelings in return. After Schiller got a job as a teacher of philosophy at the University of Jena, the playwright managed to save money, which was enough for the wedding. In this marriage, the writer had a son, Ernest.

It is worth noting that despite the fact that Schiller praised his wife's mind, those around him noted that Charlotte was an economic and faithful lady, but very narrow-minded.

Death

Three years before his death, the writer was unexpectedly granted a title of nobility. Schiller himself was skeptical of this favor, but accepted it so that his wife and children would be provided for after his death. Every year, the playwright, suffering from tuberculosis, got worse and he literally died out in front of his family and friends. The writer died at the age of 45 on May 9, 1805, without finishing his last play, Demetrius.

For a short but productive life, the author of the work "Ode to Joy" created 10 plays, two historical monographs, as well as a couple of philosophical works and a number of poems. However, Schiller did not succeed in making money by literary work. That is why, after the death of the writer, he was buried in the crypt of Kassengevelbe, organized for the nobles who did not have their own family tomb.

After 20 years, it was decided to rebury the remains of the great writer. True, finding them proved problematic. Then archaeologists, pointing a finger at the sky, chose one of the skeletons they had unearthed, declaring to the public that the remains found belonged to Schiller. After that, they were again interred in the princely tomb in the new cemetery, next to the grave of a close friend of the philosopher, the poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Tomb with the empty coffin of Friedrich Schiller

A couple of years later, biographers and literary critics had doubts about the authenticity of the playwright's body, and in 2008 an exhumation was carried out, which revealed interesting fact: the remains of the poet belonged to three different people. Now it is impossible to find the body of Friedrich, so the philosopher's grave is empty.

Quotes

"Only the one who controls himself is free"

“Parents least of all forgive their children for the vices that they themselves instilled in them”

"Man grows as his goals grow"

"Better a terrible end than endless fear"

"Great souls endure suffering in silence"

"Man is reflected in his actions"

Bibliography

• 1781 - "Robbers"
• 1783 - "The Fiesco Conspiracy in Genoa"
• 1784 - "Deceit and love"
• 1787 - "Don Carlos, Infante of Spain"
• 1791 - "History of the Thirty Years' War"
• 1799 - "Wallenstein"
• 1793 - "On Grace and Dignity"
• 1795 - "Letters on the aesthetic education of man"
• 1800 - "Mary Stuart"
• 1801 - "On the Sublime"
• 1801 - "Maid of Orleans"
• 1803 - "Messinian bride"
• 1804 - "William Tell"

Schiller, Johann Christoph Friedrich - the most popular and most famous German poet, b. 11/10/1759, d. May 9, 1805. His father, a military doctor, was distinguished by deep honesty and strict devotion to Lutheranism. The boy received his first lessons from a local pastor, then attended a Latin school, until 1773 Duke Karl of Württemberg enrolled him as a pupil in the military school he founded, which was later transformed into a military academy (“Karlsschule”). Schiller owes his broad, comprehensive education to this institution. At first he thought to study theology, but then he became interested in legal sciences and medicine. Attraction to poetry awakened in him Klopstock his "Messiah", but the strongest influence on its development and direction came from Plutarch and J. J. Rousseau.

Beginning in 1776, the first samples of his lyrics began to appear in the Schwäbisches Magazin. Wanting to be free to engage in literature and the development of the planned tragedy The Robbers (Die Räuber), Schiller decided to leave the academy, but he succeeded only after he submitted two essays: on medical topics and on natural sciences. Released as a physician in a grenadier regiment, he lovingly took up his first truly brilliant work, and in 1782 The Robbers were staged on the stage of the court theater in Mannheim with great, hitherto unseen success. Then Schiller decided to devote himself to dramaturgy and began working on the tragedy The Fiesco Conspiracy in Genoa.

But while the talent of the young poet began to develop more and more widely, he suffered the misfortune in the form of a ban on writing "comedy" by the duke, who did not like his unauthorized absences in Mannheim. Not foreseeing the end of such a ban and unable to withstand this oppression, Schiller decided to flee to Mannheim. The escape was successful, but disappointment awaited in Mannheim. "Fiesco" was not accepted on stage and only a year later published by Schwan (Mannheim, 1783).

Friedrich Schiller. romantic rebel

In the same year, the tragedy "Cunning and Love" ("Kabale und Liebe") was completed and "Don Carlos" began. In July 1783, Schiller managed to settle down with Dahlberg, director of the Mannheim theater. The play "Cunning and Love" staged on his stage caused general delight and raised the writer's fallen spirit. This tragedy is the best youthful work of Schiller. The sad phenomena of modern life are outlined in it very vividly, with a truly poetic passion, combined with a strong characterization. However, material hardships continued to depress the poet, this was joined by an even stronger fever. As soon as he recovered, he began to publish the magazine "Rhine Thalia" (1785), where he placed the first act of "Don Carlos". This tragedy was completed by him far from as quickly as the first ones. Here he first began to use speech in verse, observing iambic pentameter everywhere.

By this time, Schiller's acquaintance and the beginning of friendship with Madame Charlotte von Kalb, which had a great influence on his entire future life, dates back. In 1789, his friends in Leipzig, Koerner and Huber, persuaded him to leave Mannheim and come to them in order to develop his talent in silence, among friends. Indeed, Schiller's life in Leipzig turned out so well and calmly that he vividly expressed his sense of satisfaction and happiness in the dithyramb "Ode to Joy." He graduated from Don Carlos, sketched out the story "Criminal for Lost Honor" and the novel "The Spiritualist" (published in 1789), continued to publish his journal "Thalia", where he placed all his writings. At the same time, a desire arose in him to study history. Already in Don Carlos one could see how far the poet had stepped forward in his development. The lofty main idea runs through everything, a work rich in maxims, beautiful in language, and its main protagonist, Marquis Pose, is, as it were, the personification of the noble nature of Schiller himself.

In 1787 he left his friends and went to Weimar, where Mrs. von Kalb had long called him. Here, in this city of muses, he met with the most cordial welcome from the great talents that surrounded Duke Charles August. Having settled in the countryside, he began to write "History of the Fall of the Netherlands", published in 1788. Unfortunately, material need forced him to work hastily, which could not but affect his work, although he studied all the sources very carefully. At the same time he wrote several poems, among others "Gods of Greece" and "Letters on Don Carlos". Some, albeit a slight, relief from material need was for him to receive a chair in history at Jena. The poet prepared for his professorship very diligently, and the first lecture - "What is world history and for what purpose is it studied" - was a resounding success. Since 1790, Schiller published a collection of historical memoirs and wrote the History of the Thirty Years' War for the Goshen calendar. In this work, the attention of the author himself was attracted by majestic figures Wallenstein and king Gustav Adolf, outlined by him therefore with special force.

Marriage to Charlotte Langenfeld gave the poet long-sought happiness and peace of mind. His life flowed briskly and happily among friends, but the disease that began in him (tuberculosis) immediately and forever destroyed his health. Having somehow recovered with good care and treatment, he was forced to work hard to improve his finances. flared French revolution found in him an ardent supporter and protector, until the execution of the king dealt a deep and sensitive blow to his sympathies for this popular movement. To improve his health and exhausted nerves, he went to his homeland in Swabia and in Tübingen entered into relations with the then well-known book publisher Kotta.

In subsequent years, after the illness, in the development of Schiller, new turn, - attraction to philosophy and aesthetics. Already in the summer of 1790, he lectured on tragedy, and a year later he delved into the study of Kant's newly published Critique of Pure Reason, being carried away by his theory of aesthetics. The influence of the great philosopher was not slow to affect the works The Pleasure of the Tragic and On the Tragic Art (1792). The culminating point in this direction is the essay "Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man", in which he indicates what a huge influence beauty (beautiful) has on the development and ennoblement of not only an individual, but the entire state and society. These letters were published in 1795 in the journal Ory. In a whole series of works by Schiller, published in 1800 under the title On Naive and Sentimental Poetry, the philosopher again comes into contact with the poet. Acquired theoretical knowledge provoke judgments about outstanding works poetry, and Schiller begins to group the poets according to their different moods and positions in the world. In this era of the development of an ideal view of the vocation of the poet, he writes many reviews, among other things, about Burger's poems, pointing out their aesthetic shortcomings.

Other important event in the life of the poet there was a close acquaintance and inseparable friendship with Goethe. Under her influence, Schiller again turned to pure poetry. Together with Goethe, Schiller published the Ory magazine, having managed to attract the best literary forces to this cause, prepared the publication of the Almanac of the Muses, wrote the poem Ideal and Life, The Power of Chanting, The Virtues of a Woman, the elegy Walk and etc. From the end of 1795, both great poets compiled the famous collection of epigrams "Xenia", which appeared in the "Almanac of the Muses" (1797) and directed against the literary philistines of that time. The success of the epigrams was extraordinary. They caused a lot of objections, but they only proved that the arrows fired by the poets hit the target. Now they only had to prove to the nation with their creations how seriously they understood true art. Having stopped reading university lectures, seized with the heat of creativity, Schiller devoted himself entirely to writing and created during this period his best ballads: "The Cup", "The Ring of Polycrates", "Ivikov Cranes", etc., as well as "Wallenstein", this great trilogy, undoubtedly the greatest and best work of the great poet (1799). The success of the trilogy reached the point of enthusiasm. Schiller finally decided to devote himself to dramaturgy alone, he even stopped publishing the Almanac of the Muses, publishing there in Last year"Song of the Bell". He began to write "Mary Stuart", which he completed in 1800. This play is the most scenic of all the tragedies of Schiller.

Settling again in Weimar, he, together with Goethe, set about creating a new exemplary repertoire for the German theater and in 1801 released the tragedy The Maid of Orleans, and specially processed Gozzi's fairy tale Turandot for the Weimar theater. In 1802, the Duke of Weimar granted the poet a nobility. A year later, he published the tragedy The Bride of Messina, where he made his first attempt to introduce the ancient choir into modern drama. Schiller's next major creation was William Tell, for which he zealously studied the history and geography of Switzerland (1804). It was already like swan song poet. His illness progressed rapidly. He still found the strength to write, at the request of Goethe, to greet the Weimar Crown Princess, the play "Glorification of the Arts", but this was already given to him with great difficulty. In the spring of 1805, the poet died quietly, surrounded by friends.

For a more complete characterization of the great Schiller, it should be noted that, along with a strong talent for realistic narration, he always coexisted with a feature of subjective reflection and abstract expression of ideas. The persistent idea that poetry should serve as a moral example was, in fact, alien to him, but with Schiller's characteristic pathos, ideal dreams of the welfare of mankind constantly prevailed in him, and therefore his works easily grew beyond the bounds of pure aesthetics, and the poet became a philosopher. . What others came out with only abstraction and pure didactics - under the pen of Schiller became poetry. The loftiness and nobility of the poet's nature were combined with that special charm that always distinguishes idealists. Schiller rightly remains the favorite poet of youth.

The work of Friedrich Schiller fell on the so-called era of "Storm and Onslaught" - a trend in German literature, which was characterized by the rejection of classicism and the transition to romanticism. This time covers approximately two decades: 1760-1780. It was marked by the publication of works by such famous authors as Johann Goethe, Christian Schubart and others.

Brief biography of the writer

The Duchy of Württemberg, where the poet was located on the territory, was born in 1759 in a family of immigrants from the lower classes. His father was a regimental paramedic, and his mother was the daughter of a baker. However, the young man 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 staging 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 a friend of Goethe and even competed with him in writing ballads. The writer was fond of philosophy, history, poetry. He was a professor world history at the University of Jena, under the influence of I. Kant, he wrote philosophical works, was engaged in publishing activities, publishing the magazines Ory, Almanac of Muses. The playwright died in Weimar in 1805.

The play "Robbers" and the first success

In the era under consideration, romantic moods were very popular among young people, which Friedrich Schiller also became interested in. The main ideas that briefly characterize his work boil down to the following: the pathos of freedom, criticism of the tops of society, the aristocracy, the nobility and sympathy for those who, for whatever reason, were rejected by this society.

The writer gained fame after staging his drama The Robbers in 1781. This play is notable for its naive and somewhat pompous romantic pathos, but the viewer fell in love with the sharp, dynamic plot and intensity of passions. was the theme of the conflict between two brothers: Karl and Franz Moor. The insidious Franz seeks to take away his brother's estate, inheritance, as well as his beloved - cousin Amalia.

Such injustice prompts Charles to become a robber, but at the same time he manages to maintain his nobility and his noble honor. The work was a great success, but brought trouble to the author: due to unauthorized absence, he was punished, and subsequently expelled from his native duchy.

Dramas of the 1780s

The success of The Robbers prompted the young playwright to create a series of famous works, which became In 1783, he wrote the play "Cunning and Love", "The Conspiracy of Fiesco in Genoa", in 1785 - "Ode to Joy". In this series, the work “Deceit and Love”, which is called the first “petty-bourgeois tragedy”, should be singled out separately, since in it for the first time the writer made the object of the 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 the best works the author, who proved himself not only a great prose writer, but also a brilliant poet.

Plays from the 1790s

Friedrich Schiller was fond of history, on the plots of which he wrote a number of his dramas. In 1796, he created the play "Wallenstein", dedicated to the commander of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). In 1800, he wrote the drama "Mary Stuart", in which he significantly departed from historical realities, making the conflict between two female rivals the object of an artistic depiction. The latter circumstance, however, in no way detracts from the literary merits of the drama.

In 1804, Friedrich Schiller wrote the play "William Tell", dedicated to the struggle of the Swiss people against Austrian domination. This work is imbued with the pathos of freedom and independence, which was so characteristic of the work of the representatives of "Storm and Onslaught". In 1805, the writer began working on the drama Demetrius, dedicated to the events of Russian history, but this play remained unfinished.

The value of Schiller's work in art

The writer's plays had a great influence on world culture. What Friedrich Schiller wrote became a subject of interest for Russian poets V. Zhukovsky, M. Lermontov, who translated his ballads. The plays of the playwright served as the basis for the creation of wonderful operas by the leading Italian composers of the 19th century. L. Beethoven put the final part of his famous ninth symphony on Schiller's "Ode to Joy". In 1829, D. Rossini created the opera "William Tell" based on his drama; this work is considered one of the best works of the composer.

In 1835, G. Donizetti wrote the opera "Mary Stuart", which was included in the cycle of his musical compositions dedicated to the history of England in the 16th century. In 1849, D. Verdi created the opera "Louise Miller" based on the drama "Cunning and Love". The opera did not receive great popularity, but it has undoubted musical merits. So, Schiller's influence on world culture is enormous, and this explains the interest in his work today.