''Phöbus — Ein Journal für die Kunst'' was a literary journal 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 ''The Prince of Homburg'', '' Das Käthchen von Heilbronn'' ...

and Adam Heinrich Müller in

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

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 is one of the Olympian deities in ancient Greek and Roman religion and Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, music and dance, truth and prophecy, healing and diseases, the Sun and light, poetry, ...

, generally associated with the Greek

Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...

. The frontispiece of the first issue, designed by Ferdinand Hartmann, 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, philosopher and historian. Schiller is considered by most Germans to be Germany's most important classical playwright. He was born i ...

'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 polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...

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 () 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 killed by Achilles or Neoptolemus. The ...

'', 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 (Germany), German state of Thuringia, in Central Germany (cultural area), Central Germany between Erfurt to the west and Jena to the east, southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together w ...

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 of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

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 nobility, German aristocrat and polymath, who was a poet, novelist, philosopher and Mysticism, mystic. He is regarded as an inf ...

) *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 ''Corinne, or Italy'' (, also known as ''Corinne'', is a novel by the Genevan and French writer Germaine de Staël, published in 1807. It relates a love story between an Italian poet, Corinne, and Lord Oswald Nelvil, an English nobleman. The ...

'', 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 h ...

)

Issues 4 and 5 (April and May)

*Fragment from the tragedy '' Robert Guiskard'' (Kleist) *The ancient and his translator (

Karl Friedrich Gottlob Wetzel Karl Friedrich Gottlob Wetzel (14 September 1779, in Bautzen – 29 July 1819, in Bamberg) was a German writer. He studied medicine in Leipzig and Jena, then philosophy. From 1805 he lived in Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Sa ...

) *The adventures of the fiddler at

Shiraz Shiraz (; ) is the List of largest cities of Iran, fifth-most-populous city of Iran and the capital of Fars province, which has been historically known as Pars (Sasanian province), Pars () and Persis. As of the 2016 national census, the popu ...

(

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, Natural philosophy, naturalist and Romantic psychology, psychologist. Biography He began his ...

) *M. and S. (

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

Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger Adam is the name given in Genesis 1–5 to the first human. Adam is the first human-being aware of God, and features as such in various belief systems (including Judaism, Christianity, Gnosticism and Islam). According to Christianity, Adam si ...

) *Irony, comedy,

Aristophanes Aristophanes (; ; ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek Ancient Greek comedy, comic playwright from Classical Athens, Athens. He wrote in total forty plays, of which eleven survive virtually complete today. The majority of his surviving play ...

(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. Per ...

'' (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 name Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie and Ana. Anne is sometimes used as a male name in ...

) *The tale of the long nose (Wetzel) *Great Christoph (Wetzel) *'' Michael Kohlhaas'' (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 (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

(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 applied 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 poems ( ...

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

Kleobis and Biton Kleobis (Cleobis) and Biton (Ancient Greek: , gen.: ; , gen.: ) are two Archaic Greek Kouros brothers from Argos, whose stories date back to about 580 BCE. Two statues, discovered in Delphi, represent them. The first known version of the st ...

(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 ( 23 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 {{Short pages monitor