''Phöbus — Ein Journal für die Kunst'' was a

literary journal A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry, and essays, along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letters ...

published by

Heinrich von Kleist Bernd Heinrich Wilhelm von Kleist (18 October 177721 November 1811) was a German poet, dramatist, novelist, short story writer and journalist. His best known works are the theatre plays ''Das Käthchen von Heilbronn'', ''The Broken Jug'', ''Amphit ...

and

Adam Heinrich Müller Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Book of Genesis, Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a coll ...

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 ...

between January 1808 and December 1808, in twelve issues grouped into nine instalments. Many of Kleist's most famous works appeared in print for the first time within its covers.

Original plans

The journal's name is that of the sun-god

Phoebus Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...

, generally associated with the Greek

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...

. The frontispiece of the first issue, designed by

Ferdinand Hartmann Christian Ferdinand Hartmann (14 July 1774, Stuttgart – 6 January or June 1842, Dresden) was a German portrait and Classical history painter. Biography He was the youngest son of the Ducal finance councilor, and his wife Juliane Friederik ...

, shows Phoebus in a chariot, drawn by sun-horses over the town of Dresden. Kleist wrote: "Thunder on, O thou, with thy flaming steeds, / Phoebus, bringer of day, into infinite space!" The periodical was modelled on

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 ...

's journal ''Die Horen''. The original plan of including the work of Schiller 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 ...

came unravelled early on, especially when Goethe distanced himself from the project. Müller and Kleist having neither well-developed plans nor good contacts with book-sellers, the journal quickly failed and lost them money. The exact circulation is not known, but the biographer Klaus Günzel estimates that hardly more than 150 copies were printed of each issue.

Content and development

The first issue contained a fragment of Kleist's drama ''

Penthesilea Penthesilea ( el, Πενθεσίλεια, Penthesíleia) was an Amazonian queen in Greek mythology, the daughter of Ares and Otrera and the sister of Hippolyta, Antiope and Melanippe. She assisted Troy in the Trojan War, during which she was ...

'', which, like the journal itself, was poorly received by critics. Goethe was unimpressed, although Kleist had submitted the first issue with a humble dedication "on the knees of his heart". Contributions to the journal from Goethe were not forthcoming and its fate was thus sealed from the very beginning. Nevertheless, Kleist and Müller pressed on. The complete failure of Goethe's bungled production of '' Der zerbrochene Krug'' at

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...

goaded Kleist to include extracts from the comedy in the third issue, which only exacerbated public indignation over its "indecency" and cemented the failure. Accumulating debts led quickly to tensions between the two men, who wrote the bulk of the magazine's content; after Müller finally sold the magazine behind Kleist's back to a Dresden book-seller, in exchange for the remission of debts, relations between the two men cooled markedly, and in 1809 Müller returned to

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

Contents in detail

Issue 1 (January)

*Prologue (Kleist) *Organic fragment from the tragedy ''

'' (Kleist) *On the meaning of dance (

Christian Gottfried Körner Christian Gottfried Körner (2 July 1756 – 13 May 1831) was a German jurist. His home was a literary and musical salon, and he was a friend of Friedrich Schiller. Biography Born in Leipzig, he studied law at the University of Göttingen and at ...

) *The angel at the tomb of Our Lord (Kleist) *To Dorothee (

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 ...

) *Notes on dramatic poesy and art (Müller) *Popularity and mysticism (Müller) *On the literary character of Frau von Stael-Holstein (Müller) *Epilogue (Kleist)

Issue 2 (February)

*'' Die Marquise von O.'' (Kleist) * The pair of doves, a fable of

La Fontaine Jean de La Fontaine (, , ; 8 July 162113 April 1695) was a French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his ''Fables'', which provided a model for subsequent fabulists across Euro ...

(Kleist) *Lectures on beauty (Müller) *On Corinne, or Italy, by Mme de Stael-Holstein (Müller)

Issue 3 (March)

*Lectures on beauty, cont'd (Müller) *Fragments from the comedy '' Der zerbrochene Krug'' (Kleist) *Fables (Kleist) *Pelegrin (extracts) (

Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué Friedrich Heinrich Karl de la Motte, Baron Fouqué (); (12 February 1777 – 23 January 1843) was a German writer of the Romantic style. Biography He was born at Brandenburg an der Havel, of a family of French Huguenot origin, as evidenced in ...

)

Issues 4 and 5 (April and May)

*Fragment from the tragedy '' Robert Guiskard'' (Kleist) *The ancient and his translator ( Karl Friedrich Gottlob Wetzel) *The adventures of the fiddler at

Shiraz Shiraz (; fa, شیراز, Širâz ) is the List of largest cities of Iran, fifth-most-populous city of Iran and the capital of Fars province, Fars Province, which has been historically known as Pars (Sasanian province), Pars () and Persis. As o ...

(

Gotthilf Heinrich von Schubert Gotthilf Heinrich von Schubert (26 April 1780, in Hohenstein-Ernstthal – 30 June 1860, in Laufzorn, a village in Oberhaching) was a German physician and naturalist. Biography He began his studies with theology, but turned to medicine and esta ...

) *M. and S. (

) *Lectures on beauty, cont'd (Müller) *''Faareveile'' (

Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...

) *Irony, comedy,

Aristophanes Aristophanes (; grc, Ἀριστοφάνης, ; c. 446 – c. 386 BC), son of Philippus, of the deme In Ancient Greece, a deme or ( grc, δῆμος, plural: demoi, δημοι) was a suburb or a subdivision of Athens and other city-states ...

(Müller) *Fragments from a lecture (Schubert) *Twentyfour epigrams (Kleist) *On landscape painting (Müller) *Variation on the Muses and Graces in the Mark (Wetzel) *Fragment from the play ''

Das Käthchen von Heilbronn ' (''Katie of Heilbronn or The Trial by Fire'') (1807–1808) is a "great historical knightly play" (German: ') in five acts by the German playwright Heinrich von Kleist. The action of the drama takes place in Swabia during the Middle Ages. Perf ...

'' (Kleist) *Saul and David (Wetzel)

Issue 6 (June)

*The victory feast on the return of the Greeks (

Anne Louise Germaine de Staël Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie. Anne is sometimes used as a male name in the ...

) *The tale of the long nose (Wetzel) *Great Christoph (Wetzel) *''

Michael Kohlhaas ''Michael Kohlhaas'' is a novella by the German author Heinrich von Kleist, based on a 16th-century story of Hans Kohlhase. Kleist published fragments of the work in volume 6 of his literary journal ''Phöbus'' in June 1808. The complete work wa ...

'' (Kleist) *Apologia for French dramatic literature (Müller) *Art criticism (Müller) *Twenty epigrams (Kleist)

Issue 7 (July)

*On the character of Spanish poetry (Müller) *On didactic poetry ( Wilhelm Nienstädt) *Iduna, Goddess of Immortality (Wetzel) *God's river, from the

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cente ...

(Wetzel) *The neglected church (Wetzel) *Philosophical and critical miscellany (Müller and Wetzel)

Issue 8 (August)

*The seeress's grave—the northern requiem, from the

Edda "Edda" (; Old Norse ''Edda'', plural ''Eddur'') is an Old Norse term that has been attributed by modern scholars to the collective of two Medieval Icelandic literary works: what is now known as the ''Prose Edda'' and an older collection of poem ...

(Wetzel) *Introduction to the study of Greek drama (Müller) *

Kleobis and Biton Kleobis (Cleobis) and Biton (Ancient Greek: Κλέοβις, gen.: Κλεόβιδος; Βίτων, gen.: Βίτωνος) are two Archaic Greek Kouros brothers from Argos, whose stories date back to about 580 BC. Two statues, discovered in Delphi, r ...

(Wetzel) *On didactic poetry, cont'd (Nienstädt) *Philosophical and critical miscellany (Müller) *The school of Johann von Müller (Müller) *Further thoughts on the difference between the Ancient Theatre and the Modern (Müller)

Issues 9 and 10 (September and October)

*On the religious character of Greek drama (Müller) *The grape harvest (Novalis) *Second fragment from the play (Kleist) *Notes on

William 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 ...

(Müller) *Short

occasional poems Occasional poetry is poetry composed for a particular occasion. In the history of literature, it is often studied in connection with orality, performance, and patronage. Term As a term of literary criticism, "occasional poetry" describes the work ...

(Kleist)

Issues 11 and 12 (November and December)

*Prolegomena to a philosophy of art (Müller) *Song of youth (Wetzel) *Death (Wetzel) *The curse of time (Wetzel) *The treasure (Wetzel) *A fright while bathing: an idyll (Kleist) *Kunz von Kauffungen ( Otto Heinrich von Löben) *The dying Mary (von Löben) *The Assumption of Mary (von Löben) *The soul's burden (Müller) *Italian theatre, masks, extemporisations (Müller) *The presence of spirit (Wetzel) *On German family-portraiture (Müller) *To J. (Müller) *Invisible writing (Wetzel) *A wanderer's sojourn (Wetzel) *A wanderer's evening (Wetzel) *A wanderer's encampment (Wetzel) *On art criticism (

) *Need-and-assistance book for artists and art enthusiasts in Mildheim ( Basilius von Ramdohr)

External links

Complete text (German)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Phobus 1808 establishments in Germany 1808 disestablishments in Germany Defunct literary magazines published in Germany German-language magazines Heinrich von Kleist Magazines established in 1808 Magazines disestablished in 1808 Mass media in Dresden