Daniel Casper (25 January 1635 in Nimptsch, Niederschlesien – 28 April 1683 in Breslau, Niederschlesien), also spelled Daniel Caspar, and referred to from 1670 as Daniel Casper von Lohenstein, was a Baroque

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...

n playwright, lawyer, diplomat, poet, and chief representative of the .

Family

The Casper and/or Caspar ( la, Caspari) family came from the Brieg principality, first well known as poet and diplomats. Daniel Casper was the son of the imperial customs-officer, Akzisefälle-Einnehmers and Biergefälle-Einnehmers named Johann (Hans) Casper (c.1600-after 1670), alderman and city constable of Nimptsch, and Susanna Schedel of Greiffenstein (1612–1652). His father Hans in 1642 received a Wappenbrief and was raised on 17 July 1670 to a hereditary imperial peerage, with the name of "von Lohenstein".

Life

Youth

Daniel Casper was born 1635 in the princely Schloss Nimptsch, to which his parents had withdrawn during the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of battle ...

. After initial private instruction in Nimptsch, his father sent him to Breslau where Caspar from 1642 to 1651 attended the Magdalenen-School, that had been upgraded in 1643 into a secondary school (Maria-Magdalenen-Gymnasium). In the midpoint of his philological and rhetorical education there, he already as eleven-year-old student carried out disputations with antique examples over what qualified one to be a peer. At 15 he composed his first tragedy, "Ibrahim". Lohenstein was friendly with Heinrich Mühlpfort. After finishing secondary school, Casper had to leave Breslau because there was as yet no university in the town. At the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...

he studied under Benedikt Carpzov (1595–1666), the founder of the German criminal justice system, and at the

University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (german: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen; la, Universitas Eberhardina Carolina), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-W� ...

with Wolfgang Adam Lauterbach (1618–1678), where on 6 June 1655 he produced his Disputation ("Disputation Jurudica de Voluntate"). After finishing his studies, the (at that time usual)

Grand Tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tut ...

which he joined led him first of all to the sovereign courts of Germany, then to Switzerland,

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wi ...

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Net ...

and

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

(but not Italy, due to the plague then raging there). With Italy ruled out, he spent some time in Hungary, coming into contact with the Turkish-Oriental cultural circles there. Recalled by his father, he came home by ship, through a strong thunderstorm he remembered his whole life, in which he saw the sinking of 13 ships. After his homecoming, he established himself as a lawyer in Breslau and on 30 October 1657, at 22, in Breslau, he married Elisabeth Herrmann (died 1708 in Zettritz, Landkreis Landsberg (Warthe) ), Mark Brandenburg), the daughter of Caspar Herrmann, ''

Amtmann __NOTOC__ The ''Amtmann'' or ''Ammann'' (in Switzerland) was an official in German-speaking countries of Europe and in some of the Nordic countries from the time of the Middle Ages whose office was akin to that of a bailiff. He was the most seni ...

'' for Breslau's state property (Landgüter des Rats).

Patronage

He had in 1665 produced his second poetic work, the tragedy "Aggrippina", dedicated to duchess Louise von Liegnitz-Brieg-Wohlau (born princess of Anhalt-Dessau). Louise's queen-regent Elisabeth Marie in 1668 founded a Regierungsrat at Oels. Caspar was, as a scholar, advising Louise and also helped in the design and construction of the Piasten-Gruft (tomb) in Liegnitz. Duke Christian strove to attract him to his court as a secret advisor, but Caspar declined before returning 1670 to Breslau, where a successful and promising career beckoned. Already as student, he had moved among the patrician circles of the Breslau city-state and beyond. Now the eldest advisor there, Christian Hoffmann von Hoffmannswaldau (1616–1679) advocated Caspar as a poet and other works of his - like his famous funeral oration of 1679 addressed to Christian - were very admired. He came, on the abdication of the Obersyndikus Peter Muck von Muckendorff 1670, to receive the presidency of the Herzogtums Lauenburg, with the second Syndikus, Andreas von Assig, taking his place as Obersyndikus. Thus Caspar von Lohenstein became a Syndikus at Assig.

Syndic and diplomat in Breslau

Thus he arrived in one of the most important offices of the city. The elevation of his family into the peerage a few weeks later might have been meant more for him than for his father. In the year 1675, Assig had to abandon his office due to illness and Caspar took his place as Obersyndikus, holding that office for the eight years until his death. The governing of Schlesien after the Thirty Years' War was strongly marked by anti-reforming efforts. When an imperial edict commanded the dismissal of all Protestant schoolteachers, the danger of an occupation of Breslau by imperial troops under the leadership of the general Kop was so great that Caspar was dispatched to Vienna for negotiations. With the diplomatic skill of an educated man, he succeeded, moving the emperor so much that he gave up his demand. The city took advantage of his high diplomatic capabilities even more often, sending him as an ambassador, though he still achieved much as a lawyer as well as proving himself as a diplomat and politician. Daniel Casper von Lohenstein was the owner of several towns. He acquired in 1673 the Kittelau from duchess (Herzogin) Louise von Brieg and in the same year inherited Reisau and Roschkowitz from Tobias von Kleindienst. As an acknowledged poet, an ennobled Obersyndikus and landowner, Caspar was at his peak of life in the 1670s. Turning always more strongly towards the Habsburg position, he was appointed an imperial advisor in 1675. He died at the family Schloss at Breslau, Niederschlesien, of a stroke in 1683.

Works

Casper's production as a poet, especially when considered together with his contemporaneous work as lawyer and diplomat, is astonishing. Extremely productive, he was above all known as an author of theatrical pieces marked by the well known French Classicism in drama and as - next to

Andreas Gryphius Andreas Gryphius (german: Andreas Greif; 2 October 161616 July 1664) was a German poet and playwright. With his eloquent sonnets, which contains "The Suffering, Frailty of Life and the World", he is considered one of the most important Baroque ...

- one of the most important dramatists of the baroque. In addition to this he was known as a poet and as a translator. His novel "Großmütiger Feldherr Arminius", comprising around 3000 pages, appeared between 1689–90 and was a highpoint of baroque romantic art, despite concerns over the often obscure and overwrought language. In it he put up for discussion the situation of the German empire after the Thirty Years' War and tries to take stock of contemporary knowledge. His lyric poetry was published in periodic periodicals. He used exaggeration and overdramatisation in his works to work out the contrast to the "better" reality, and they thus stand in the tradition of Senecan

tragedy Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a main character. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy ...

. Daniel Caspar von Lohenstein in many of his writings showed his views on statesmanship and the art of ruling, similar to "Christian Hoffmann von Hoffmannswaldau" views.

List of works

*''„Ibrahim'', 1649/50 (first printed after his death in 1685) *''Cypress-Tafel'', (tragic poem or lyric), 1652 *''Denk- und Dankaltar'', 1652 *''Ibrahim'', Trauerspiel (

Tragedy Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a main character. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy ...

), 1653 *''Rechtsstreit der Schönheit und Freundlichkeit'', 1657 *''Trauer- und Trostgedanken'', 1658 *''Schuldiges Ehren-Gedächtnis'', 1660 *''Cleopatra'',

Drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...

, 1661 *''Redender Totenkopf'', 1662 *''Erlangte Ewigkeit'', 1664 *''Agrippina'', Trauerspiel, 1665 *''Epicharis'', Trauerspiel, 1665 *''Ibrahim Sultan'', Schauspiel (tragedy that ends happily), 1673 *''Blumen'', poem, 1680 *''Geistliche Gedanken'', poem, 1680 *''Trauer- und Lustgedichte'', 1680 *''Sophonisbe'', Drama, 1680 *''Großmütiger Feldherr Arminius'', Roman ( novel), 1689-90

References

External links

Online catalogue
of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin
Casper von Lohenstein: ''Cleopatra'', Trauerspiel of 1661

Von Lohenstein in the eLibrary Austria Projekt

Wikisource (de)
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lohenstein, Daniel Caspar von 1635 births 1683 deaths People from Niemcza 17th-century German lawyers German diplomats German poets German translators Baroque writers People from Austrian Silesia German male poets German male dramatists and playwrights 17th-century German dramatists and playwrights 17th-century translators