Karl Wilhelm Friedrich (after 1814: von) Schlegel (;
;
10 March 1772 – 12 January 1829) was a German
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...
,
literary critic
Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...
,
philosopher
A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
,
philologist
Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...
, and
Indologist
Indology, also known as South Asian studies, is the academic study of the history and cultures, languages, and literature of the Indian subcontinent, and as such is a subset of Asian studies.
The term ''Indology'' (in German, ''Indologie'') is o ...
. With his older brother,
August Wilhelm Schlegel
August Wilhelm (after 1812: von) Schlegel (; 8 September 176712 May 1845), usually cited as August Schlegel, was a German poet, translator and critic, and with his brother Friedrich Schlegel the leading influence within Jena Romanticism. His trans ...
, he was one of the main figures of
Jena Romanticism
Jena Romanticism (german: Jenaer Romantik; also the Jena Romantics or Early Romanticism (''Frühromantik'')) is the first phase of Romanticism in German literature represented by the work of a group centred in Jena from about 1798 to 1804. The move ...
.
Born into a fervently
Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
family, Schlegel rejected religion as a young man in favor of
atheism
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no d ...
and
individualism
Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology and social outlook that emphasizes the intrinsic worth of the individual. Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and to value independence and self-reli ...
. He entered university to study
law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
but instead focused on
classical literature
Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...
. He began a career as a writer and lecturer, and founded journals such as ''
Athenaeum
Athenaeum may refer to:
Books and periodicals
* ''Athenaeum'' (German magazine), a journal of German Romanticism, established 1798
* ''Athenaeum'' (British magazine), a weekly London literary magazine 1828–1921
* ''The Athenaeum'' (Acadia U ...
''. In 1808, Schlegel returned to
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
as a married man with both him and his wife being baptized into the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
. This conversion ultimately led to his estrangement from family and old friends. He moved to
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
in 1809, where he became a
diplomat
A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or internati ...
and
journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...
in service of
Klemens von Metternich
Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar, Prince of Metternich-Winneburg zu Beilstein ; german: Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar Fürst von Metternich-Winneburg zu Beilstein (15 May 1773 – 11 June 1859), known as Klemens von Metternich or Prince Metternic ...
, the Foreign Minister of the Austrian Empire. Schlegel died in 1829, at the age of 56.
[.]
Schlegel was a promoter of the
Romantic movement
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
and inspired
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poe ...
,
Adam Mickiewicz
Adam Bernard Mickiewicz (; 24 December 179826 November 1855) was a Polish poet, dramatist, essayist, publicist, translator and political activist. He is regarded as national poet in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. A principal figure in Polish Ro ...
and
Kazimierz Brodziński
Kazimierz Brodziński (8 March 1791 in Królówka – 10 October 1835 in Dresden) was an important Polish Romantic poet.
Life
He was born in Królówka near Bochnia. He came from the low nobility. He was a student at schools in Tarnów, wh ...
. The first to notice what became known as
Grimm's law
Grimm's law (also known as the First Germanic Sound Shift) is a set of sound laws describing the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) stop consonants as they developed in Proto-Germanic in the 1st millennium BC. First systematically put forward by Jacob Gr ...
, Schlegel was a pioneer in
Indo-European studies
Indo-European studies is a field of linguistics and an interdisciplinary field of study dealing with Indo-European languages, both current and extinct. The goal of those engaged in these studies is to amass information about the hypothetical pro ...
,
comparative linguistics
Comparative linguistics, or comparative-historical linguistics (formerly comparative philology) is a branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages to establish their historical relatedness.
Genetic relatedness ...
, and
morphological typology
Morphological typology is a way of classifying the languages of the world (see linguistic typology) that groups languages according to their common morphological structures. The field organizes languages on the basis of how those languages for ...
, publishing in 1819 the first theory linking the
Indo-Iranian and
German languages
The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania and Southern Africa. The most widely spoken Germanic language, Engli ...
under the
Aryan
Aryan or Arya (, Indo-Iranian *''arya'') is a term originally used as an ethnocultural self-designation by Indo-Iranians in ancient times, in contrast to the nearby outsiders known as 'non-Aryan' (*''an-arya''). In Ancient India, the term ' ...
group.
Life and work
![Domenico Quaglio Marktkirche Hannover](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Domenico_Quaglio_Marktkirche_Hannover.jpg)
Karl Friedrich von Schlegel was born on 10 March 1772 at
Hanover
Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...
, where his father,
Johann Adolf Schlegel
Johann Adolf Schlegel (17 September 1721 – 16 September 1793) was a German poet and clergyman.
Biography
Schlegel was born in Meißen, Saxony, and was the brother of Johann Elias Schlegel. After finishing his studies in Leipzig, he be ...
, was the pastor at the Lutheran
Market Church. For two years he studied
law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
at
Göttingen
Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...
and
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
, and he met with
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 ...
. In 1793 he devoted himself entirely to literary work. In 1796 he moved to
Jena
Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a popu ...
, where his brother August Wilhelm lived, and here he collaborated with
Novalis
Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg (2 May 1772 – 25 March 1801), pen name Novalis (), was a German polymath who was a writer, philosopher, poet, aristocrat and mystic. He is regarded as an idiosyncratic and influential figure of ...
,
Ludwig Tieck
Johann Ludwig Tieck (; ; 31 May 177328 April 1853) was a German poet, fiction writer, translator, and critic. He was one of the founding fathers of the Romantic movement in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Early life
Tieck was born in Be ...
,
Fichte
Johann Gottlieb Fichte (; ; 19 May 1762 – 29 January 1814) was a German philosopher who became a founding figure of the philosophical movement known as German idealism, which developed from the theoretical and ethical writings of Immanuel Ka ...
, and
Caroline Schelling
Caroline Schelling, née Michaelis, widowed Böhmer, divorced Schlegel (2 September 1763 – 7 September 1809), was a noted German intellectual. She was one of the so-called '' Universitätsmamsellen'', a group of five academically active women d ...
, who married August Wilhelm. Novalis and Schlegel had a famous conversation about
German idealism
German idealism was a philosophical movement that emerged in Germany in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It developed out of the work of Immanuel Kant in the 1780s and 1790s, and was closely linked both with Romanticism and the revolutionary ...
. In 1797 he quarreled with Schiller, who did not like his polemic work.
Schlegel published ''Die Griechen und Römer'' (The Greeks and Romans), which was followed by ''Geschichte der Poesie der Griechen und Römer'' (History of the Poesy of the Greeks and Romans) (1798). Then he turned to
Dante
Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...
,
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 ...
, and
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
. In Jena he and his brother founded the journal ''
Athenaeum
Athenaeum may refer to:
Books and periodicals
* ''Athenaeum'' (German magazine), a journal of German Romanticism, established 1798
* ''Athenaeum'' (British magazine), a weekly London literary magazine 1828–1921
* ''The Athenaeum'' (Acadia U ...
'', contributing fragments,
aphorisms
An aphorism (from Ancient Greek, Greek ἀφορισμός: ''aphorismos'', denoting 'delimitation', 'distinction', and 'definition') is a concise, terse, laconic, or memorable expression of a general truth or principle. Aphorisms are often hand ...
, and
essays
An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal ...
in which the principles of the
Romantic school are most definitely stated. They are now generally recognized as the deepest and most significant expressions of the subjective idealism of the early Romanticists.
After a controversy, Friedrich decided to move to Berlin. There he lived with
Friedrich Schleiermacher
Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher (; 21 November 1768 – 12 February 1834) was a German Reformed theologian, philosopher, and biblical scholar known for his attempt to reconcile the criticisms of the Enlightenment with traditional P ...
and met
Henriette Herz
Henriette Julie Herz (née de Lemos) (September 5, 1764 – October 22, 1847) is best known for the "salonnieres" or literary salons that she started with a group of emancipated Jews in Prussia.
Biography
She was the daughter of a physician, B ...
,
Rahel Varnhagen
Rahel Antonie Friederike Varnhagen () (née Levin, later Robert; 19 May 1771 – 7 March 1833) was a German writer who hosted one of the most prominent salons in Europe during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. She is the subject of a celeb ...
, and his future wife,
Dorothea Veit, a daughter of
Moses Mendelssohn
Moses Mendelssohn (6 September 1729 – 4 January 1786) was a German-Jewish philosopher and theologian. His writings and ideas on Jews and the Jewish religion and identity were a central element in the development of the ''Haskalah'', or 'Je ...
.
In 1799 he published ''Lucinde'', which was seen as an account of his affair with Dorothea, causing a scandal in German literary circles. The unfinished novel attempted to apply the Romantic demand for complete
individual freedom
Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology and social outlook that emphasizes the intrinsic worth of the individual. Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and to value independence and self-reli ...
to
practical ethics
''Practical Ethics'', a 1979 book by the moral philosopher Peter Singer, is an introduction to applied ethics. The book has been translated into a number of languages.
Summary
Singer analyzes, in detail, why and how beings' interests should be ...
.
''Lucinde,'' which extolled the union of sensual and spiritual
love
Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest Interpersonal relationship, interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of ...
as an
allegory
As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory th ...
of the divine cosmic
Eros
In Greek mythology, Eros (, ; grc, Ἔρως, Érōs, Love, Desire) is the Greek god of love and sex. His Roman counterpart was Cupid ("desire").''Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia'', The Book People, Haydock, 1995, p. 215. In the earli ...
, contributed to the failure of his academic career in Jena
where he completed his studies in 1801 and lectured as a
Privatdozent
''Privatdozent'' (for men) or ''Privatdozentin'' (for women), abbreviated PD, P.D. or Priv.-Doz., is an academic title conferred at some European universities, especially in German-speaking countries, to someone who holds certain formal qualific ...
on
transcendental philosophy. In September 1800, he met four times with Goethe, who would later stage his tragedy ''Alarcos'' (1802) in Weimar, albeit with a notable lack of success.
In June 1802 he arrived in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, where he lived in the house formerly owned by
Baron d'Holbach
Paul-Henri Thiry, Baron d'Holbach (; 8 December 1723 – 21 January 1789), was a French-German philosopher, encyclopedist, writer, and prominent figure in the French Enlightenment. He was born Paul Heinrich Dietrich in Edesheim, near Land ...
and joined a circle including
Heinrich Christoph Kolbe Heinrich may refer to:
People
* Heinrich (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name)
* Heinrich (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name)
*Hetty (given name), a given name (including a list of peo ...
. He lectured on philosophy in private courses for
Sulpiz Boisserée
Sulpiz Boiserée (2 August 1783 - 2 May 1854) was a German art collector and art historian. With his brother Melchior he formed a collection that ultimately formed the basis of that of the Alte Pinakothek. He played a key role in the completion of ...
, and under the tutelage of
Antoine-Léonard de Chézy and linguist
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first United States secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795.
Born out of wedlock in Charlest ...
he continued to study
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
and the
Persian language
Persian (), also known by its endonym Farsi (, ', ), is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages. Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken and ...
. He edited the journal ''Europa'' (1803), where he published essays about
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture (or pointed architecture) is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It e ...
and the
. In April 1804 he married Dorothea Veit in the Swedish embassy in Paris, after she had undergone the requisite conversion from
Judaism
Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...
to Protestantism. In 1806 he and his wife went to visit
Aubergenville
Aubergenville () is a commune in the Yvelines department in north-central France. It is located between Mantes-la-Jolie and Saint-Germain-en-Laye, in the valley of the Seine. This city is located near the Côteau de Montgardé on the road to Norm ...
, where his brother lived with
Madame de Staël Madame may refer to:
* Madam, civility title or form of address for women, derived from the French
* Madam (prostitution), a term for a woman who is engaged in the business of procuring prostitutes, usually the manager of a brothel
* ''Madame'' ...
.
In 1808, he published an
epoch
In chronology and periodization, an epoch or reference epoch is an instant in time chosen as the origin of a particular calendar era. The "epoch" serves as a reference point from which time is measured.
The moment of epoch is usually decided by ...
-making book, ''Über die Sprache und Weisheit der Indier'' (On the Language and Wisdom of India). Here he advanced his ideas about religion and importantly argued that
a people originating from India were the founders of the first European civilizations. Schlegel compared
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
with
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
,
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
,
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
and
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 ...
, noting many similarities in
vocabulary
A vocabulary is a set of familiar words within a person's language. A vocabulary, usually developed with age, serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge. Acquiring an extensive vocabulary is one of the la ...
and
grammar
In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...
. The assertion of the common features of these languages is now generally accepted, albeit with significant revisions. There is less agreement about the geographic region where these precursors settled, although the Out-of-India model has generally become discredited.
![Rheinpanorama 1856 detail Dom](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Rheinpanorama_1856_detail_Dom.jpg)
In 1808, he and his wife joined the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
in the
Cologne Cathedral
Cologne Cathedral (german: Kölner Dom, officially ', English: Cathedral Church of Saint Peter) is a Catholic cathedral in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Cologne and of the administration of the Archdiocese of ...
. From this time on, he became more and more opposed to the principles of political and religious liberalism. He went to Vienna and in 1809 was appointed imperial court secretary at the military headquarters, editing the army newspaper and issuing fiery proclamations against Napoleon. He accompanied
archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen
Archduke Charles Louis John Joseph Laurentius of Austria, Duke of Teschen (german: link=no, Erzherzog Karl Ludwig Johann Josef Lorenz von Österreich, Herzog von Teschen; 5 September 177130 April 1847) was an Austrian field-marshal, the third s ...
to war and was stationed in
Pest during the
War of the Fifth Coalition
The War of the Fifth Coalition was a European conflict in 1809 that was part of the Napoleonic Wars and the Coalition Wars. The main conflict took place in central Europe between the Austrian Empire of Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, Francis ...
. Here he studied the
Hungarian language
Hungarian () is an Uralic language spoken in Hungary and parts of several neighbouring countries. It is the official language of Hungary and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union. Outside Hungary, it is also spoken by Hungarian ...
. Meanwhile, he had published his collected ''Geschichte'' (Histories) (1809) and two series of lectures, ''Über die neuere Geschichte'' (On Recent History) (1811) and ''Geschichte der alten und neuen Literatur'' (On Old and New Literature) (1815). In 1814 he was knighted in the
Supreme Order of Christ
The Supreme Order of Christ ( it, Ordine Supremo del Cristo) was the highest order of chivalry awarded by the pope. According to some scholars, it owes its origin to the same Order of Christ of the Knights Templar, from which came the Order of ...
.
![Dresden Alter Kath Friedhof CWFriedvSchlegel](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Dresden_Alter_Kath_Friedhof_CWFriedvSchlegel.JPG)
Following 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 ...
(1815), he was councilor of legation in the Austrian embassy at the
Frankfurt Diet
The Frankfurt Parliament (german: Frankfurter Nationalversammlung, literally ''Frankfurt National Assembly'') was the first freely elected parliament for all German states, including the German-populated areas of Austria-Hungary, elected on 1 Ma ...
, but in 1818 he returned to Vienna. In 1819 he and
Clemens Brentano
Clemens Wenzeslaus Brentano (also Klemens; pseudonym: Clemens Maria Brentano ; ; 9 September 1778 – 28 July 1842) was a German poet and novelist, and a major figure of German Romanticism. He was the uncle, via his brother Christian, of Franz a ...
made a trip to Rome, in the company of
Metternich
Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar, Prince of Metternich-Winneburg zu Beilstein ; german: Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar Fürst von Metternich-Winneburg zu Beilstein (15 May 1773 – 11 June 1859), known as Klemens von Metternich or Prince Metternic ...
and
Gentz. There he met with his wife and her sons. In 1820 he started a
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
Catholic magazine, ''Concordia'' (1820–1823), but was criticized by Metternich and by his brother August Wilhelm, then professor of Indology in Bonn and busy publishing the
Bhagavad Gita
The Bhagavad Gita (; sa, श्रीमद्भगवद्गीता, lit=The Song by God, translit=śrīmadbhagavadgītā;), often referred to as the Gita (), is a 700- verse Hindu scripture that is part of the epic ''Mahabharata'' (c ...
. Schlegel began the issue of his ''Sämtliche Werke'' (Collected Works). He also delivered lectures, which were republished in his ''Philosophie des Lebens'' (Philosophy of Life) (1828) and in his ''Philosophie der Geschichte'' (Philosophy of History) (1829). He died on 12 January 1829 at
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...
, while preparing a series of lectures.
Dorothea Schlegel
Friedrich Schlegel's wife,
Dorothea von Schlegel
Dorothea Friederike von Schlegel (; 24 October 1764 – 3 August 1839) was a German novelist and translator.
Life
She was born as Brendel Mendelssohn in 1764 in Berlin.In older literature and on her gravestone one finds the date 1763, but this is ...
, authored an unfinished romance, ''Florentin'' (1802), a ''Sammlung romantischer Dichtungen des Mittelalters'' (Collection of Romantic Poems of the Middle Ages) (2 vols., 1804), a version of ''Lother und Maller'' (1805), and a translation of Madame de Staël's ''Corinne'' (1807–1808) — all of which were issued under her husband's name. By her first marriage she had two sons,
Johannes
Johannes is a Medieval Latin form of the personal name that usually appears as "John" in English language contexts. It is a variant of the Greek and Classical Latin variants (Ιωάννης, ''Ioannes''), itself derived from the Hebrew name '' Yeh ...
and
Philipp Veit
Philipp Veit (13 February 179318 December 1877) was a German Romantic painter and one of the main exponents of the Nazarene movement. It is to Veit that the credit of having been the first to revive the nearly forgotten technique of fresco ...
, who became eminent Catholic painters.
Selected works
* ''Vom ästhetischen Werte der griechischen Komödie'' (1794)
* ''Über die Diotima'' (1795)
* ''Versuch über den Begriff des Republikanismus'' (1796)
* ''Georg Forster'' (1797)
* ''Über das Studium der griechischen Poesie'' (1797)
* ''Über Lessing'' (1797)
* ''Kritische Fragmente'' („Lyceums“-Fragmente) (1797)
* ''Fragmente'' („Athenaeums“-Fragmente) (1797–1798)
* ''Lucinde'' (1799)
* ''Über die Philosophie. An Dorothea'' (1799)
* ''Gespräch über die Poesie'' (1800)
* ''Über die Unverständlichkeit'' (1800)
* ''Ideen'' (1800)
* ''Charakteristiken und Kritiken'' (1801)
* ''Transcendentalphilosophie'' (1801)
* ''Alarkos'' (1802)
* ''Reise nach Frankreich'' (1803
* ''Geschichte der europäischen Literatur'' (1803/1804
* ''Grundzüge der gotischen Baukunst'' (1804/1805)
* ''Über die Sprache und Weisheit der Indier'' (1808)
* ''Deutsches Museum'' (as ed.), 4 Vols. Vienna (1812–1813)
* ''Geschichte der alten und neueren Literatur'' (lectures) (1815)
Letters
* ''Ludwig Tieck und die Brüder Schlegel. Briefe'' ed. by Edgar Lohner (München 1972)
Friedrich Schlegel's ''Sämtliche Werke'' appeared in 10 vols. (1822–1825); a second edition (1846) in 55 vols. His ''Prosaische Jugendschriften'' (1794–1802) have been edited by J. Minor (1882, 2nd ed. 1906); there are also reprints of ''Lucinde'', and F. Schleiermacher's ''Vertraute Briefe über Lucinde'', 1800 (1907). See R. Haym, ''Die romantische Schule'' (1870); I. Rouge, ''F. Schlegel et la genie du romantisme allemand'' (1904); by the same, ''Erläuterungen zu F. Schlegels „Lucinde“'' (1905); M. Joachimi, ''Die
Weltanschauung
A worldview or world-view or ''Weltanschauung'' is the fundamental cognitive orientation of an individual or society encompassing the whole of the individual's or society's knowledge, culture, and point of view. A worldview can include natural p ...
der Romantik'' (1905); W. Glawe, ''Die Religion F. Schlegels'' (1906); E. Kircher, ''Philosophie der Romantik'' (1906); M. Frank ''"Unendliche Annäherung". Die Anfänge der philosophischen Frühromantik'' (1997);
Andrew Bowie, ''From Romanticism to Critical Theory: The Philosophy of German Literary Theory'' (1997).
Notes
Further reading
* Crowe, Benjamin D. "Friedrich Schlegel and the character of romantic ethics." ''Journal of ethics'' 14.1 (2010): 53-79
online
* Forster, Michael N. and Kristin Gjesdal (eds.) ''The Oxford Handbook of German Philosophy in the Nineteenth Century'' (Oxford UP, 2015)
* Forster, Michael N. ''After Herder: Philosophy of Language in the German Tradition''(Oxford UP, 2010).
* Germana, Nicholas A. "Self-othering in German orientalism: The case of Friedrich Schlegel." ''Comparatist'' 34 (2010): 80-94
online*
Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe
Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe ( , ; 6 March 1940 – 28 January 2007) was a French philosopher. He was also a literary critic and translator. Lacoue-Labarthe published several influential works with his friend Jean-Luc Nancy.
Lacoue-Labarthe wa ...
and
Jean-Luc Nancy
Jean-Luc Nancy ( , ; 26 July 1940 – 23 August 2021) was a French philosopher. Nancy's first book, published in 1973, was ''Le titre de la lettre'' (''The Title of the Letter'', 1992), a reading of the work of French psychoanalyst Jacques Laca ...
, ''The Literary Absolute: The Theory of Literature in German Romanticism'', Albany: State University Press of New York, 1988.
philosophical exegesis of early romantic theory focused on F. Schlegel, Novalis, and the Athenaeum.* Lejeune, Guillaume. "Towards a pragmatic semantics: Dialogue and representation in Friedrich Schlegel and Schleiermacher." ''Language and dialogue'' 2.1 (2012): 156-173
online* Millán, Elizabeth. ''Friedrich Schlegel and the emergence of romantic philosophy'' (SUNY Press, 2012)
link* Newmark, Kevin. ''Irony on Occasion: From Schlegel and Kierkegaard to Derrida and de Man'' (Fordham UP, 2012).
* Paulin, Roger. ''The Life of August Wilhelm Schlegel, Cosmopolitan of Art and Poetry'' (Open Book Publishers, 2016)
online*
Berman, Antoine. ''
L'épreuve de l'étranger. Culture et traduction dans l'Allemagne romantique: Herder, Goethe, Schlegel, Novalis, Humboldt, Schleiermacher, Hölderlin.'', Paris, Gallimard, Essais, 1984.
External links
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Dictionary of Art
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*Schlegel, Friedrich von, 1841
*Schlegel, Friedrich von, 1772–1829; Robertson, James Burton, 1800–1877, 1846
*
Schiller, Friedrich, 1759–1805; Körner, Christian Gottfried, 1756–1831; Simpson, Leonard Francis, translated 1849
*Schlegel, Friedrich von, 1855
*Friedrich von Schlegel, Ellen J . Millington, 1860
*Samuel Paul Capen, 1903
*Wilson, Augusta Manie, 1908
*Calvin, Thomas, 1913
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schlegel, Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Von
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