Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-cjp7w Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-05T05:32:03.145Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Schiller the Historian

from Intellectual-Historical Settings

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2017

Otto Dann
Affiliation:
University of Cologne
Dieter Borchmeyer
Affiliation:
Professor of German at the University of Heidelberg
Otto Dann
Affiliation:
Professor of History at the University of Cologne, Germany
Karl S. Guthke
Affiliation:
Kuno Francke Professor of German Art and Culture in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures at Harvard University.
Walter Hinderer
Affiliation:
Professor of German at Princeton University, USA
Rolf-Peter Janz
Affiliation:
Professor of German, Free University of Berlin, Germany
Wulf Koepke
Affiliation:
Retired Distinguished Professor of German, Texas A and M University.
Norbert Oellers
Affiliation:
Professor of German, The University of Bonn, GermanyEditor of the Schiller Nationalausgabe
David V. Pugh
Affiliation:
Professor of German at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
Lesley Sharpe
Affiliation:
Professor of German, The University of Exeter, England
Werner von Stransky-Stranka-Greifenfels
Affiliation:
Associate Professor of German, Militarhogskolan Karlberg, Stockholm, Sweden
James M. van der Laan
Affiliation:
Professor of German at Illinois State University, USA
Steven D. Martinson
Affiliation:
Professor of German Studies and Associated Faculty in Religious Studies, University of Arizona.
Get access

Summary

Friedrich Schiller was Twenty-Eight years old when, after having enjoyed sensational success as a dramatist, he decided to set aside his creative poetic work to devote himself entirely to the writing of history. Resigning his post as a military doctor in Stuttgart in September 1782 left Schiller without a steady income and heavily in debt. As a historian he gained new intellectual perspectives, social connections, and sources of income. In 1785 Schiller moved from southwest to central Germany and soon became a noted partner in the flourishing book and newspaper industry. Already well known as a dramatist, as a writer he encountered personal engagement and intellectual interest within socially open-minded literary and artistic circles in Leipzig, Dresden, Jena, and Weimar. Supported by the young Leipzig-based publisher Georg Joachim Göschen, he was able to continue the journal Thalia, which he had begun in Weimar. In the second issue of the magazine, in February 1786, the second act of Don Carlos appeared. It was the last drama of Schiller's early phase, as well as his first historical prose text.

Schiller's decision to write history ripened while working on the project Geschichte der merkwürdigsten Rebellionen und Verschwörungen (History of the Most Remarkable Rebellions and Conspiracies, 1788) concerning the Dutch rebellion against Spain in the sixteenth century, which he had been carrying out with a close friend of his, Ludwig Ferdinand Huber, since 1786. The encouragement of the prominent Weimar writer Christoph Martin Wieland in the fall of 1787 was critical. Wieland suggested to Schiller that he expand his piece on the Dutch “rebellion” into a scientifically-based description. One year later the first volume of Schiller's history became available and secured for him a reputation as an excellent historian: Geschichte des Abfalls der Vereinigten Niederlande von der spanischen Regierung (History of the Revolt of the Spanish Netherlands, 1788/1801).

The young historical narrator became courageous. He threw himself immediately into a new project that was now also supported by his friend in Dresden, Gottfried Körner: the publication of an Allgemeine Sammlung historischer Memoirs vom zwölften Jahrhundert bis auf die neuesten Zeiten (General Collection of Historical Memoirs from the Twelfth Century to Today, 1791–1806). In this subsequent work, at least four volumes of personal memoirs from European history since the Middle Ages were to appear annually. Schiller accepted the task of writing an introductory historical overview for every volume.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Schiller the Historian
  • Edited by Steven D. Martinson, Professor of German Studies and Associated Faculty in Religious Studies, University of Arizona.
  • Book: A Companion to the Works of Friedrich Schiller
  • Online publication: 28 April 2017
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Schiller the Historian
  • Edited by Steven D. Martinson, Professor of German Studies and Associated Faculty in Religious Studies, University of Arizona.
  • Book: A Companion to the Works of Friedrich Schiller
  • Online publication: 28 April 2017
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Schiller the Historian
  • Edited by Steven D. Martinson, Professor of German Studies and Associated Faculty in Religious Studies, University of Arizona.
  • Book: A Companion to the Works of Friedrich Schiller
  • Online publication: 28 April 2017
Available formats
×