Johann Heinrich Merck (April 11, 1741 - June 27, 1791), German author and critic, was born at Darmstadt, a few days after the death of his father, a chemist. April 11 is the 101st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (102nd in leap years). ... // Events April 10 – Austrian army attack troops of Frederick the Great at Mollwitz December 19 – Vitus Bering dies in his expedition east of Siberia December 25 – Anders Celsius develops his own thermometer scale Celsius William Browning invents mineral water Elizabeth of Russia became czarina. ... June 27 is the 178th day of the year (179th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 187 days remaining. ... 1791 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... A critic (derived from the ancient Greek word krites meaning a judge) is a person who offers a value judgement or an interpretation. ... Map of Germany showing Darmstadt Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland (federal state) of Hesse in Germany. ...

He studied law at Giessen, and in 1767 was given an appointment in the paymaster's department at Darmstadt, and a year later himself became paymaster. For a number of years he exercised considerable influence upon the literary movement in Germany; he helped to found the Frankfurter gelehrte Anzeigen in 1772, and was one of the chief contributors to Nicolai's Allgemeine Bibliothek. Gießen (Giessen pronunciation) is a city in the federal state (Bundesland) of Hesse in Germany, capital of the Gießen district. ... 1767 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Christoph Friedrich Nicolai (18 March 1733 - 11 January 1811) was a German writer and bookseller. ...

In 1782 he accompanied the Landgravine Karoline of Hesse-Darmstadt to St Petersburg, and on his return was a guest of the duke Charles Augustus of Weimar in the Wartburg. Unfortunate speculations brought him into pecuniary embarrassment in 1788, and although friends, notably Goethe; were ready to come to his assistance, his losses--combined with the death of five of his children--so preyed upon his mind that he committed suicide on the 27th of June 1791. 1782 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Saint Petersburg (Russian: Санкт-Петербу́рг, English transliteration: Sankt-Peterburg), colloquially known as Питер (transliterated Piter), formerly known as Leningrad (Ленингра́д, 1924–1991) and Petrograd (Петрогра́д, 1914–1924), is a city located in Northwestern Russia on the delta of the river Neva at the east end of the Gulf of Finland... Carl August (3 September 1757 - 14 June 1828) was the duke of Saxe-Weimar from 1758, duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach from its creation in 1809, and grand-duke from 1815 until his death. ... Wartburg in Eisenach Wartburg Castle is situated on a 1230-foot (410 m) precipitous hill to the southwest of and overlooking the town of Eisenach in Thuringia. ... Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (pronounced [gø tə]) (August 28, 1749–March 22, 1832) was a German writer, politician, humanist, scientist, and philosopher. ...

Merck distinguished himself mainly as a critic; his keen perception, critical perspicacity and refined taste made him a valuable guide to the young writers of the Sturm und Drang. He also wrote a number of small treatises, dealing mostly with literature and art, especially painting, and a few poems, stories, narratives and the like; but they have not much intrinsic importance. Merck's letters are particularly interesting and instructive, and throw much light upon the literary conditions of his time. Sturm und Drang (literally: storm and stress) was a Germany literary movement that developed during the latter half of the 18th century. ...

Merck's Ausgewahlte Schriften zur schönen Literatur and Kunst were published by A Stahr in 1840, with a biography.

See Briefe an JH Merck von Goethe, Herder, Wieland und andern bedeutenden Zeitgenossen (1835), Briefe an und von JH Merck (1838) and Briefe aus dem Freundeskreise von Goethe, Herder, Hopfner and Merck (1847), all edited by K Wagner. Cf. G Zimmermann, JH Merck, seine Umgebung and seine Zeit (1871).

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... The Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1911) in many ways represents the sum of knowledge at the beginning of the 20th century. ...