Abstract

High’s concise biography focuses on the interplay of Schiller’s personal life and his development as an author and philosopher. After an introduction to Schiller’s early years, family, and university studies, the essay portrays the later stations of his relatively short life with a focus on the enduring presence of his education at the Karlsschule during the final two decades of historical change, artistic experimentation, and philosophical growth reflected in his most resonant literary, philosophical, and journalistic creations.Throughout, the essay likewise traces Schiller’s relationships with those few friends, artists, and thinkers who contributed to his rise from impoverished feudal subject in Württemberg to internationally renowned author and ambivalent nobleman in Weimar. The essay concludes with a summary of Schiller’s lifelong hope for a human and humane republic, and his egalitarian war on tyranny, nationalism, and religion.