Johann Friedrich Heinrich Schlosser (detail)

Johann Friedrich Heinrich Schlosser (30 December 1780 in Frankfort-on-the-Main – 22 January 1851 in Frankfort-on-the-Main) was a German jurist, writer and translator.

Life

Schlosser studied

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning a ...

at various universities, among others at Jena, where he entered into familiar relations with

Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friendsh ...

and

Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treat ...

. After receiving the degree of Doctor of Jurisprudence (1803), he settled at Frankfort as an advocate, later being appointed, by Primate Karl Theodor Anton Maria von Dalberg, counsel of the municipal court (1806), counselor for the high schools and studies, and director of the grand-ducal lyceum (1812). On the dissolution of the

Grand Duchy of Frankfurt The Grand Duchy of Frankfurt was a German satellite state of Napoleonic creation. It came into existence in 1810 through the combination of the former territories of the Archbishopric of Mainz along with the Free City of Frankfurt itself. Histor ...

, Schlosser resigned his office, and in 1814 entered the Catholic Church with his wife Sophie (née Du Fay). He was one of the representatives of his native city at the

Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna (, ) of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon B ...

. He was later one of the most determined champions of the rights of the Catholic community in Frankfort, and successfully advocated the civil equality of every Christian denomination. Soon, however, he withdrew from public life, and after 1825 usually spent the winter in Frankfort, passing the summer at his country seat,

Neuburg Abbey Neuburg Abbey (German: Abtei Neuburg or Kloster Neuburg, but most commonly Stift Neuburg) near Heidelberg in Baden-Württemberg is a Benedictine monastery dedicated to Saint Bartholomew, and part of the Beuronese Congregation. History First found ...

near

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

. As he was charitable, hospitable, and free from all denominational narrowness, and devoted himself wholeheartedly to scientific undertakings (e.g. the '' Monumenta Germaniae'') besides possessing a fine artistic sense, his home soon became a centre for the leading spirits in literature, art, and science. With Goethe he remained ever on terms of familiarity, and was his zealous collaborator in the romance "Aus meinem Leben". On the death of the great writer, Schlosser began a "Goethe Collection", which later passed to the ecclesiastical seminary at Mainz.

Works

He wrote: "Die morgenlandische orthodoxe Kirche Russlands" (Heidelberg, 1845); "Die Kirche in ihren Liedern durch alle Jahrhunderte" (2 vols., Freiburg, 1851; 2nd ed., 1863). After his death his wife published from his papers four booklets (1856-9), and Frese published "Goethe-Briefe aus Schlossers Nachlass" (Stuttgart, 1877).

References

*Allgem. deutsche Biogr., xxxi (Leipzig, 1890), 541 sq.

External links

''Catholic Encyclopedia'' article
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Schlosser, Johann Friedrich 1780 births 1851 deaths Jurists from Hesse German male writers Writers from Frankfurt