Philosophical papers '' (1857),
Weimar|alt=Photograph of a large bronze statue of two men standing hand-in-hand, side by side and facing forward. The statue is on a stone pedestal, which has a plaque that reads "Dem Dichterpaar/Goethe und Schiller/das Vaterland".|308x308px Schiller wrote many philosophical papers on ethics and
aesthetics. He synthesized the thought of
Immanuel Kant with the thought of the
German idealist philosopher,
Karl Leonhard Reinhold. He elaborated upon
Christoph Martin Wieland's concept of '
(the beautiful soul), a human being whose emotions have been educated by reason, so that ' (duty and inclination) are no longer in conflict with one another; thus beauty, for Schiller, is not merely an aesthetic experience, but a moral one as well: the Good is the Beautiful. The link between morality and aesthetics also occurs in Schiller's controversial poem, "
Die Götter Griechenlandes" (The Gods of Greece). The "gods" in Schiller's poem are thought by modern scholars to represent moral and aesthetic values, which Schiller tied to
Paganism and an idea of
enchanted nature. In this respect, Schiller's aesthetic doctrine shows the influence of
Christian theosophy. There is general consensus among scholars that it makes sense to think of Schiller as a
liberal, and he is frequently cited as a
cosmopolitan thinker. Schiller's philosophical work was particularly concerned with the question of human freedom, a preoccupation which also guided his historical research, such as on the
Thirty Years' War and the
Dutch Revolt, and then found its way as well into his dramas: the
Wallenstein trilogy concerns the Thirty Years' War, while
Don Carlos addresses the revolt of the Netherlands against Spain. Schiller wrote two important essays on the question of the
sublime (''''), entitled "" and ""; these essays address one aspect of human freedom—the ability to defy one's animal instincts, such as the drive for self-preservation, when, for example, someone willingly sacrifices themselves for conceptual ideals.
Plays Schiller is considered to be one of Germany's most important classical playwrights. Critics like F. J. Lamport and
Erich Auerbach have noted his innovative use of dramatic structure and his creation of new forms, such as the melodrama and the bourgeois tragedy. What follows is a brief chronological description of the plays. •
The Robbers (
Die Räuber): The language of
The Robbers is highly emotional, and the depiction of physical violence in the play marks it as a quintessential work of Germany's
Romantic Sturm und Drang movement.
The Robbers is considered by critics like
Peter Brooks to be the first European
melodrama. The play pits two brothers against each other in alternating scenes, as one quests for money and power, while the other attempts to create revolutionary anarchy in the
Bohemian Forest. The play strongly criticises the hypocrisies of class and religion, and the economic inequities of German society; it also conducts a complicated inquiry into the nature of evil. Schiller was inspired by the play
Julius of Taranto by
Johann Anton Leisewitz. •
Fiesco (
Die Verschwörung des Fiesco zu Genua): •
Intrigue and Love (
Kabale und Liebe): The aristocratic Ferdinand von Walter wishes to marry Luise Miller, the bourgeois daughter of the city's music instructor. Court politics involving the duke's beautiful but conniving mistress Lady Milford and Ferdinand's ruthless father create a disastrous situation reminiscent of Shakespeare's
Romeo and Juliet. Schiller develops his criticisms of absolutism and bourgeois hypocrisy in this
bourgeois tragedy. Act 2, scene 2 is an anti-British
parody that depicts a firing-squad massacre. Young Germans who refused to join the
Hessians and British to quash the
American Revolutionary War are fired upon. •
Don Carlos: This play marks Schiller's entrée into historical drama. Very loosely based on the events surrounding the real
Don Carlos of Spain, Schiller's Don Carlos is another republican figure—he attempts to free Flanders from the despotic grip of his father, King
Phillip. The Marquis Posa's famous speech to the king proclaims Schiller's belief in personal freedom and democracy. • The
Wallenstein trilogy: Consisting of ''Wallenstein's Camp
, The Piccolomini
, and Wallenstein's Death'', these plays tell the story of the last days and assassination of the treasonous commander
Albrecht von Wallenstein during the
Thirty Years' War. •
Mary Stuart (
Maria Stuart): This history of the Scottish queen, who was Elizabeth I's rival, portrays Mary Stuart as a tragic heroine, misunderstood and used by ruthless politicians, including and especially, Elizabeth. •
The Maid of Orleans (
Die Jungfrau von Orleans): about
Joan of Arc •
The Bride of Messina (
Die Braut von Messina) •
William Tell (
Wilhelm Tell) •
Demetrius (unfinished)
Aesthetic Letters A pivotal work by Schiller was
On the Aesthetic Education of Man in a Series of Letters (
Über die ästhetische Erziehung des Menschen in einer Reihe von Briefen), first published 1794, which was inspired by the great disenchantment Schiller felt about the
French Revolution, its degeneration into violence and the failure of successive governments to put its ideals into practice. Schiller wrote that "a great moment has found a little people"; he wrote the
Letters as a philosophical inquiry into what had gone wrong, and how to prevent such tragedies in the future. In the
Letters he asserts that it is possible to elevate the moral character of a people, by first touching their souls with beauty, an idea that is also found in his poem
Die Künstler (
The Artists): "Only through Beauty's morning-gate, dost thou penetrate the land of knowledge." On the philosophical side,
Letters put forth the notion of
der sinnliche Trieb / Sinnestrieb ("the sensuous drive") and
Formtrieb ("the formal drive"). In a comment to
Immanuel Kant's philosophy, Schiller transcends the dualism between
Formtrieb and
Sinnestrieb with the notion of
Spieltrieb ("the
play drive"), derived from, as are a number of other terms, Kant's
Critique of the Faculty of Judgment. The conflict between man's material, sensuous nature and his capacity for reason (
Formtrieb being the drive to impose conceptual and moral order on the world), Schiller resolves with the happy union of
Formtrieb and
Sinnestrieb, the "play drive", which for him is synonymous with artistic beauty, or "living form". Modern interpretations consider Schiller to be one of the earliest known
pansexual figures due to these ideals. On the basis of
Spieltrieb, Schiller sketches in
Letters a future
ideal state (a
eutopia), where everyone will be content, and everything will be beautiful, thanks to the free play of
Spieltrieb. Schiller's focus on the dialectical interplay between
Formtrieb and
Sinnestrieb has inspired a wide range of succeeding aesthetic philosophical theory, including notably
Jacques Rancière's conception of the "aesthetic regime of art", as well as social philosophy in
Herbert Marcuse. In the second part of his important work
Eros and Civilization, Marcuse finds Schiller's notion of
Spieltrieb useful in thinking a social situation without the condition of modern
social alienation. He writes, "Schiller's
Letters ... aim at remaking of civilization by virtue of the liberating force of the aesthetic function: it is envisaged as containing the possibility of a new reality principle."
Freemasonry Some Freemasons speculate that Schiller was a
Freemason, but this has not been proven. In 1787, in his tenth letter about
Don Carlos, Schiller wrote: "I am neither
Illuminatus nor Mason, but if the fraternization has a moral purpose in common with one another, and if this purpose for human society is the most important, ..." In a letter from 1829, two Freemasons from
Rudolstadt complain about the dissolving of their Lodge
Günther zum stehenden Löwen that was honoured by the initiation of Schiller. According to Schiller's great-grandson
Alexander von Gleichen-Rußwurm, Schiller was brought to the lodge by Wilhelm Heinrich Karl von Gleichen-Rußwurm. No membership document has been found. (formerly
Königsberg), Russia|312x312px ==Musical settings==