Friedrich Schiller

1759–1805 · German (Marbach/Weimar) · German Romanticism / Weimar Classicism

Known for: Germany's greatest dramatist—The Robbers, William Tell, and the 'Ode to Joy' set by Beethoven

Friedrich Schiller was passionate, idealistic, and perpetually ill—he suffered from tuberculosis for most of his adult life and died at 45. He trained as a military doctor under the tyrannical Duke of Württemberg but fled to become a playwright after The Robbers caused a sensation. His 'Ode to Joy' was set to music by Beethoven in the Ninth Symphony and became the anthem of European unity.

His friendship with Goethe was one of literary history's most productive partnerships. He was a professor of history, a philosopher of aesthetics, and a poet of enormous emotional power. His plays—Don Carlos, William Tell, Mary Stuart—combine political idealism with theatrical brilliance.

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