The critic and author Friedrich von Schlegel (1772-1829) was one of the main founders of the German Romantic movement. He is best known for his writings on literary theory and cultural history.
Friedrich von Schlegel He was born in Hanover on March 10, 1772. He studied philosophy and literature at the University of Göttingen and later at Leipzig. Between 1794 and 1796 he lived in Dresden, then moved to Jena, becoming known in the literary circles of both cities. In Jena, Schlegel he was especially influenced by the philosophy of Johann Gottlieb Fichte, whose teachings he later applied to literary theory.
In 1797 he moved to Berlin, where he associated with romantic writers such as Ludwig Tieck. In 1798 he published two essays, Vom Studium der griechischen Poesie (On the study of Greek poetry) and Geschichte der Poesie der Griechen und Römer (History of the poetry of the Greeks and the Romans), in which he put forward the thesis that the Greeks had achieved perfect harmony in their civilization and art.
With other members of the romantic movement he edited the Quarterly literary athenaeum (1798-1800). In its pages he developed his literary theories: he considered that romantic poetry was a “progressively universal poetry“and broadened its subject to include all aspects of life. An example of such” poetry “was Schlegel’s experimental novel, Lucinde (1799), in which he analyzed the psychological details of his relationship with Dorothea Veit, the daughter of the Jewish intellectual Moses Mendelssohn. Friedrich and Dorothea were married in 1804.
After briefly teaching at the University of Jena, Schlegel he moved to Paris in 1802, where he studied oriental literature and culture. In 1808 he went to Cologne, converted to Roman Catholicism and published a study of Indian culture, Über die Sprache und Weisheit der Indier (On the language and wisdom of the Indians).
Even if Schlegel he had previously taught absolute freedom in thought and action, preaching free love in his novel, in later years he tended to increase intellectual and political conservatism. He joined the Austrian government, at the time a reactionary force in European politics. In 1809 he became secretary of the court in Vienna, although he continued his literary activities. Between 1810 and 1812 he lectured in Vienna on medieval poets as precursors to romanticism, and perfected his philosophy of history, which viewed national cultures as organic developments. Among his translated lectures are The Philosophy of History, The Philosophy of Life and the Philosophy of Language, and The History of Literature.
In 1815, Schlegel assisted the Austrian delegation in the Congress of Vienna. In his later years he served as editor of the conservative magazine Concordia. He died in Dresden on January 12, 1829.