Johann Friedrich Rochlitz (12 February 1769 – 16 December 1842) was a German playwright, musicologist and art and music critic. His most notable work is his autobiographical account ''Tage der Gefahr'' (''Days of Danger'') about the

Battle of Leipzig The Battle of Leipzig (french: Bataille de Leipsick; german: Völkerschlacht bei Leipzig, ); sv, Slaget vid Leipzig), also known as the Battle of the Nations (french: Bataille des Nations; russian: Битва народов, translit=Bitva ...

in 1813 — in ''Kunst und Altertum'', Goethe called it "one of the most wondrous productions ever to have been written". A Friedrich-Rochlitz-Preis for art criticism is named after him — it is awarded by the Leipzig Gesellschaft für Kunst und Kritik and was presented for the fourth time in 2009.

Life

Friedrich Rochlitz was born in Leipzig, where he attended the

Thomasschule St. Thomas School, Leipzig (german: Thomasschule zu Leipzig; la, Schola Thomana Lipsiensis) is a co-educational and public boarding school in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany. It was founded by the Augustinians in 1212 and is one of the oldest scho ...

, and where, from 1789 to 1791, he studied theology, before working as a private tutor. In 1798 he founded the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, along with Gottfried Christoph Härtel, serving as its editor until 1818. He planned to marry the harpist Therese Emilie Henriette Winkel and so Duke Karl August made him a privy councillor of the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar on 14 September 1800, but the marriage did not materialise. Instead, on 23 February 1810 he married his childhood sweetheart Henriette Winkler née Hansen (1770–1834) on 23 February 1810. Her previous husband had been the Leipzig businessman Daniel Winkler and brought Winkler's precious art collection (including a

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally consid ...

painting) with her on her marriage to Rochlitz. Rochlitz was a friend of several cultural figures of his era, including Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,

Friedrich 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, friends ...

E. T. A. Hoffmann Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (born Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann; 24 January 1776 – 25 June 1822) was a German Romantic author of fantasy and Gothic horror, a jurist, composer, music critic and artist. Penrith Goff, "E.T.A. Hoffmann" in E ...

and the composers Louis Spohr and Carl Maria von Weber — Weber dedicated his Piano Sonata No 4 in E minor (J287, Op 70) to Rochlitz. During a stay in Vienna, Rochlitz also got to know Beethoven and Franz Schubert, with the latter setting three poems by Rochlitz to music in 1827. Rochlitz died in Leipzig, aged 73.

Works

* ''Charaktere interessanter Menschen'', 4 volumes, Züllichau 1799-1803 * ''Kleine Romane und Erzählungen'', 3 volumes, Frankfurt 1807 * ''Neue Erzählungen'', 2 volumes, Leipzig 1816 * ''Für ruhige Stunden'', 2 volumes, Leipzig 1828 * ''Für Freunde der Tonkunst'', 4 volumes, Leipzig 1824–1832; 3rd edition 1868 collection of music essays* ''Auswahl des Besten aus Rochlitz' sämtlichen Werken'', 6 Bände, Züllichau 1821-1822 collection of music essays

References

* ''Goethes Briefwechsel mit Friedrich Rochlitz'', edited by W. v. Biedermann, Leipzig 1887. * Woldemar von Biedermann
''Rochlitz, Johann Friedrich.''
In:

Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie ''Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie'' (ADB, german: Universal German Biography) is one of the most important and comprehensive biographical reference works in the German language. It was published by the Historical Commission of the Bavarian Aca ...

(ADB). Volume 30, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1890, S. 85–91.

External links

*
Johann Friedrich Rochlitz on German Wikisource
*
Archivdatenbank des Goethe- und Schiller-Archivs
*

in the Deutschen Nationalbibliothek catalogue {{DEFAULTSORT:Rochlitz 1769 births 1842 deaths German writers about music German autobiographers German military historians Writers from Leipzig German male dramatists and playwrights 18th-century German dramatists and playwrights 19th-century German dramatists and playwrights 19th-century German male writers German male non-fiction writers 18th-century German male writers