Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock
Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock. Painting by Johann Caspar Füssli (1750)
Born	July 2, 1724(1724-07-02) Quedlinburg, Germany
Died	March 14, 1803 (aged 78) Hamburg, Germany

Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (IPA: [ˈklɔpʃtɔk]; July 2, 1724 – March 14, 1803) was a German poet. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1332x1638, 137 KB) Summary Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock Painting by Johann Caspar Füssli (1750) Licensing File links The following pages link to this file: Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner... Johann Caspar Füssli (1743 - 1786) was a Swiss painter, entomologist and publisher. ... is the 183rd day of the year (184th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Events January 14 - King Philip V of Spain abdicates the throne February 20 - The premiere of Giulio Cesare, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel, takes place in London June 23 - Treaty of Constantinople signed. ... Quedlinburg is a town located near the Harz mountains, in the west of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. ... is the 73rd day of the year (74th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1803 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... This article is about the city in Germany. ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... is the 183rd day of the year (184th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Events January 14 - King Philip V of Spain abdicates the throne February 20 - The premiere of Giulio Cesare, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel, takes place in London June 23 - Treaty of Constantinople signed. ... is the 73rd day of the year (74th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1803 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... The poor poet A poet is a person who writes poetry. ...

Biography

Klopstock was born at Quedlinburg, the eldest son of a lawyer. Quedlinburg is a town located near the Harz mountains, in the west of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. ... For the fish called lawyer, see Burbot. ...

Both in his birthplace and on the estate of Friedeburg on the Saale, which his father later rented, young Klopstock passed a happy childhood; and more attention having been given to his physical than to his mental development he grew up a strong healthy boy and was an excellent horseman. In his thirteenth year Klopstock returned to Quedlinburg where he attended the gymnasium, and in 1739 proceeded to the famous classical school of Schulpforta. Here he soon became an adept in Greek and Latin versification, and wrote some meritorious idylls and odes in German. His original intention of making Henry the Fowler the hero of an epic, was, under the influence of Milton's Paradise Lost with which he became acquainted through Bodmer's translation, abandoned in favour of the religious epic. Friedeburg is a municipality in the district of Wittmund, in Lower Saxony, Germany. ... Length 413 km Elevation of the source 728  m Average discharge  ?  m³/s Area watershed  ?  km² Origin  Germany Mouth  Elbe Basin countries Germany Saale is the name of two rivers in Germany: the Saxonian Saale (German: Sächsische Saale) and the Franconian Saale (German: Fränkische Saale). ... a school that nietzsche went to ... Heinrich I depicted as The Bamberg Knight Henry I, the Fowler (German: Heinrich der Finkler or Heinrich der Vogler) (876 - July 2, 936), was Duke of Saxony from 912 and king of the Germans from 919 until his death in 936. ... For other persons named John Milton, see John Milton (disambiguation). ... Title page of the first edition (1667) Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. ... Johann Jakob Bodmer (July 19, 1698 - January 2, 1783) was a Swiss-German author and critic. ...

While yet at school, he had already drafted the plan of Der Messias, upon which his fame mainly rests. On September 21, 1745 he delivered on quitting school a remarkable "leaving oration" on epic poetry--Abschiedsrede über die epische Poesie, kultur- und literargeschichtlich erläutert--and next proceeded to Jena as a student of theology, where he elaborated the first three cantos of the Messias in prose. The life at this university being uncongenial to him, he removed in the spring of 1746 to Leipzig, and here joined the circle of young men of letters who contributed to the Bremer Beiträge. In this periodical the first three cantos of the Messias in hexameters were anonymously published in 1748. is the 264th day of the year (265th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... // Events May 11 - War of Austrian Succession: Battle of Fontenoy - At Fontenoy, French forces defeat an Anglo-Dutch-Hanoverian army including the Black Watch June 4 – Frederick the Great destroys Austrian army at Hohenfriedberg August 19 - Beginning of the 45 Jacobite Rising at Glenfinnan September 12 - Francis I is elected... The epic is a broadly defined genre of narrative poetry, characterized by great length, multiple settings, large numbers of characters, or long span of time involved. ... Friedrich Schiller University of Jena (FSU) is located in Jena, Thuringia in Germany and was named for the German writer Friedrich Schiller. ... Theology finds its scholars pursuing the understanding of and providing reasoned discourse of religion, spirituality and God or the gods. ... A canto is a significant section of a long poem or the highest part in a piece of choral music. ... The University of Leipzig (German Universität Leipzig), located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony (former Kingdom of Saxony), Germany, is one of the oldest universities in Europe. ... Hexameter is a literary and poetic form, consisting of six metrical feet per line as in the Iliad. ...

A new era in German literature had commenced, and the name of the author soon became known. In Leipzig he also wrote a number of odes, the best known of which is An meine Freunde (1747), afterwards recast as Wingolf (1767). He left the university in 1748 and became a private tutor in the family of a relative at Langensalza. Here unrequited love for a cousin (the "Fanny" of his odes) disturbed his peace of mind. Gladly therefore he accepted in 1750 an invitation from Bodmer, the translator of Paradise Lost, to visit him in Zürich. Here Klopstock was at first treated with every kindness and respect and rapidly recovered his spirits. Bodmer, however, was disappointed to find in the young poet of the Messias a man of strong worldly interests, and a coolness sprang up between the two friends. Langensalza is a town located in Thuringia, Germany, with a 1960 population of 16,000. ... For other uses of Zurich, see Zurich (disambiguation). ...

At this juncture Klopstock received from Frederick V of Denmark, on the recommendation of his minister Count von Bernstorff (1712-1772), an invitation to settle at Copenhagen, with an annuity of 400 thalers, with a view to the completion of the Messias. The offer was accepted; on his way to the Danish capital Klopstock met at Hamburg the lady who in 1754 became his wife, Margareta (Meta) Möller, (the "Cidli" of his odes), an enthusiastic admirer of his poetry. His happiness was short; she died in 1758, leaving him almost broken-hearted. His grief at her loss finds pathetic expression in the fifteenth canto of the Messias. Frederick V, painting by Carl Gustaf Pilo Statue of Frederick V in the center of Amalienborg by Jacques François Joseph Saly Frederick V (March 31, 1723 – January 13, 1766) was king of Denmark and Norway from 1746, son of Christian VI of Denmark and Sophia Magdalen of Brandenburg-Kulmbach. ... Johann Hartwig Ernst, Count von Bernstorff (13 May 1712 – 18 February 1772), Danish statesman, who came of a very ancient Mecklenburg family, was the son of Joachim Engelke, Freiherr von Bernstorff, chamberlain to the elector of Hanover, and was born on the 13 May 1712. ... For other uses, see Copenhagen (disambiguation). ... Examples of German and Austrian Thalers compared to a US quarter piece (bottom center) The Thaler (or Taler) was a silver coin used throughout Europe for almost four hundred years. ... This article is about the city in Germany. ...

The poet subsequently published his wife's writings, Hinterlassene Werke von Margareta Klopstock (1759), which give evidence of a tender, sensitive and deeply religious spirit. Klopstock now relapsed into melancholy; new ideas failed him, and his poetry became more and more vague and unintelligible. He still continued to live and work at Copenhagen, and next, following Heinrich Wilhelm von Gerstenberg, turned his attention to northern mythology, which he conceived should replace classical subjects in a new school of German poetry. In 1770, on the dismissal by King Christian VII of Count Bernstorff from office, he retired with the latter to Hamburg, but retained his pension together with the rank of councillor of legation. Melancholia (Greek μελαγχολια) was described as a distinct disease as early as the fifth and fourth centuries BC in the Hippocratic writings. ... Heinrich Wilhelm von Gerstenberg (1737-1823), German poet and critic, was born at Tondern in Schleswig on the 3rd of January 1737. ... King Christian VII Christian VII (January 29, 1749–March 13, 1808), King of Denmark and Norway, Duke of Schleswig and Holstein. ... This article is about the city in Germany. ...

Here, in 1773, he issued the last five cantos of the Messias. In the following year he published his strange scheme for the regeneration of German letters, Die Gelehrtenrepublik (1774). In 1775 he travelled south, and making the acquaintance of Goethe on the way, spent a year at the court of the margrave of Baden at Karlsruhe. Thence, in 1776, with the title of Hofrath and a pension from the margrave, which he retained together with that from the king of Denmark, he returned to Hamburg where he spent the remainder of his life. His latter years he passed, as had always been his inclination, in retirement, only occasionally relieved by association with his most intimate friends, busied with philological studies, and hardly interesting himself in the new developments of German literature. The American War of Independence and the Revolution in France aroused him, however, to enthusiasm. The French Republic sent him the diploma of honorary citizenship; but, horrified at the terrible scenes the Revolution had enacted in the place of liberty, he returned it. When sixty-seven years of age he contracted a second marriage with Johanna Elisabeth von Winthem, a widow and a niece of his late wife, who for many years had been one of his most intimate friends. He died at Hamburg on 14 March 1803, mourned by all Germany, and was buried with great pomp and ceremony by the side of his first wife in the churchyard of the village of Ottensen. “Goethe” redirects here. ... Margrave (Latin: marchio) is the English and French form (recorded since 1551) of the German title Markgraf (from Mark march and Graf count) and certain equivalent nobiliary (princely) titles in other languages. ... Baden is a historical state in the southwest of Germany, on the right bank of the Rhine. ... Karlsruhe (population 285,812 in 2006) is a city in the south west of Germany, in the Bundesland Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border. ... Philology, etymologically, is the love of words. ... The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), also known as the American War of Independence, was a war fought primarily between Great Britain and revolutionaries within thirteen of her North American colonies. ... The French Revolution (1789–1815) was a period of political and social upheaval in the political history of France and Europe as a whole, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy, underwent radical change to forms based on...

Klopstock's nature was best attuned to lyrical poetry, and in it his deep, noble character found its truest expression. He was less suited for epic and dramatic representation; for, wrapt up in himself, a stranger to the outer world, without historical culture, and without even any interest in the events of his time, he was lacking in the art of plastic representation such as a great epic requires. Thus the Messias, despite the magnificent passages which especially the earlier cantos contain, cannot satisfy the demands such a theme must necessarily make. The subject matter, the Redemption, presented serious difficulties to adequate epic treatment. The Gospel story was too scanty, and what might have been imported from without and interwoven with it was rejected by the author as profane. He had accordingly to resort to Christian mythology; and here again, circumscribed by the dogmas of the Church, he was in danger of trespassing on the fundamental truths of the Christian faith. The personality of Christ could scarcely be treated in an individual form, still less could angels and devils; and in the case of God Himself it was impossible. The result was that, despite the groundwork--the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the Revelation of St John, and the model ready to hand in Milton's Paradise Lost--material elements are largely wanting and the actors in the poem, divine and human, lack plastic form. That the poem took twenty-five years to complete could not but be detrimental to its unity of design; the original enthusiasm was not sustained until the end, and the earlier cantos are far superior to the latter. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... For other uses, see Salvation (disambiguation). ... Gospel, from the Old English good tidings is a calque of Greek () used in the New Testament (see Etymology below). ... For other uses, see Christian (disambiguation). ... For other senses of this word, see dogma (disambiguation). ... This page is about the title, office or what is known in Christian theology as the Divine Person. ... This article is about the supernatural being. ... The Devil is the name given to a supernatural entity who, in most Western religions, is the central embodiment of evil. ... The Acts of the Apostles is a book of the Bible, which now stands fifth in the New Testament. ... Visions of John of Patmos, as depicted in the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. ...

Thus the intense public interest the work aroused in its commencement had almost vanished before its completion. It was translated into seventeen languages and led to numerous imitations. In his odes Klopstock had more scope for his peculiar talent. Among the best are An Fanny; Der Zürchersee; Die tote Klarissa; An Cidli; Die beiden Musen; Der Rheinwein; Die frühen Gräber, Mein Vaterland. His religious odes mostly take the form of hymns, of which the most beautiful is Die Frühlingsfeier. His dramas, in some of which, notably Hermanns Schlacht (1769) and Hermann und die Fürsten (1784), he celebrated the deeds of the ancient German hero Arminius, and in others, Der Tod Adams (1757) and Salomo (1764), took his materials from the Old Testament; are essentially lyrical in character and deficient in action. In addition to Die Gelehrtenrepublik, he was also the author of Fragmente über Sprache und Dichtkunst (1779) and Grammatische Gespräche (1794), works in which he made important contributions to philology and to the history of German poetry. See also hymn - a program to decrypt iTunes music files. ... The Hermannsdenkmal Arminius (also Armin, 18 BC/17 BC - 21 AD) was a chieftain of the Cherusci who defeated a Roman army in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. ... Note: Judaism commonly uses the term Tanakh to refer to its canon, which corresponds to the Protestant Old Testament. ...

Bibliography

Klopstock's Werke first appeared in seven quarto volumes (1798-1809). At the same time a more complete edition in twelve octavo volumes was published (1798-1817), to which six additional volumes were added in 1830. Other nineteenth-century editions were published in 1844-1845, 1854-1855, 1879 (ed. by R Boxberger), 1884 (ed. by R Hamel) and 1893 (a selection edited by F Muncker). A critical edition of the Odes was published by F Muncker and J Pawel in 1889; a commentary on these by H Düntzer (1860; 2nd ed., 1878). Quarto has several meanings: In bookbinding and publishing, quarto indicates the book size which results when four leaves of the book are created from a standard size sheet of paper. ... Octavo has more than one meaning: Octavo is a bookbinding term for a sheet printed to form eight pages of a book when folded, and also a particular size of book. ... Johann Heinrich Joseph Düntzer (July 12, 1813 - December 16, 1901), German philologist and historian of literature, was born at Cologne. ...

For Klopstock's correspondence see:

• K Schmidt, Klopstock und seine Freunde (1810);
• CAH Clodius, Klopstocks Nachlass (1821);
• J.M. Lappenberg, Briefe von und an Klopstock (1867).

Cf. further Johann Martin Lappenberg (July 30, 1794 - November 28, 1865), was a German historian. ...

• KF Cramer, Klopstock, Er und über ihn (1780-1792);
• J.G. Gruber, Klopstocks Leben (1832);
• R Hamel, Klopstock-Studien (1879-1880);
• F Muncker, F. G. Klopstock, the most authoritative biography, (1888);
• E Bailly, Étude sur la vie et les oeuvres de Klopstock (Paris, 1888).

Johann Gottfried Gruber (November 29, 1774 - August 7, 1851), German critic and literary historian, was born at Naumburg on the Saale. ...

External link

• Works by Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock at Project Gutenberg
• Klopstock's poems

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.