Johann Heinrich Merck (11 April 1741 – 27 June 1791),

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

author and

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governmen ...

, was born at

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...

, a few days after the death of his father, a chemist. He studied law at

Gießen Giessen, spelled Gießen in German (), is a town in the German state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of both the district of Giessen and the administrative region of Giessen. The population is approximately 90,000, with roughly 37,000 univers ...

, and in 1767 was given an appointment in the paymaster's department at Darmstadt, and a year later himself became paymaster. For a number of years he exercised considerable influence upon the literary movement in Germany; he helped to found the ''Frankfurter gelehrte Anzeigen'' in 1772, and was one of the chief contributors to Nicolai's ''Allgemeine Bibliothek''. In 1773 he accompanied the Landgravine Karoline of Hesse-Darmstadt to

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, and on his return was a guest of the duke Charles Augustus of Weimar in the Wartburg. Unfortunate speculations brought him into pecuniary embarrassment in 1788, and although friends, notably

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 ...

, were ready to come to his assistance, his losses — combined with the death of five of his children — so preyed upon his mind that he committed suicide on 27 June 1791. Merck distinguished himself mainly as a critic; his keen perception, critical perspicacity and refined taste made him a valuable guide to the young writers of the

Sturm und Drang ''Sturm und Drang'' (, ; usually translated as "storm and stress") was a proto- Romantic movement in German literature and music that occurred between the late 1760s and early 1780s. Within the movement, individual subjectivity and, in particul ...

. He also wrote a number of small treatises, dealing mostly with literature and art, especially painting, and a few poems, stories, narratives and the like; but they have not much intrinsic importance. Merck's letters are particularly interesting and instructive, and throw much light upon the literary conditions of his time. Merck's ''Ausgewählte Schriften zur schönen Literatur und Kunst'' were published by A Stahr in 1840, with a biography.

References

*''Briefe an JH Merck von Goethe, Herder, Wieland und andern bedeutenden Zeitgenossen'' (1835) *''Briefe an und von JH Merck'' (1838), edited by K Wagner *''Briefe aus dem Freundeskreise von Goethe, Herder, Hopfner und Merck'' (1847), edited by K Wagner *G. Zimmermann, ''JH Merck, seine Umgebung and seine Zeit'' (1871) 1741 births 1791 deaths German literary critics German male non-fiction writers 18th-century suicides {{germany-writer-stub

See also

References