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HOLDERLIN, JOHANN CHRISTIAN FRIEDRICH...

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 583 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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See also:

HOLDERLIN, JOHANN See also:CHRISTIAN See also:FRIEDRICH (1770-1843) , See also:German poet, was See also:born on the loth of See also:March 1770, at Lauffen on the See also:Neckar. His See also:mother removing, after a second See also:marriage, to Nurtingen, he began his See also:education at the classical school there. He was destined by his relations for the See also:church, and with this view was later admitted to the seminaries at Denkendorf and Maulbronn. At the See also:age of eighteen he entered as a student of See also:theology the university of See also:Tubingen, where he remained till 1793. He was already the writer of occasional verses, and had begun to See also:sketch his novel See also:Hyperion, when he was introduced in this See also:year to See also:Schiller, and obtained through him the See also:post of See also:tutor to the See also:young son of See also:Charlotte von See also:Kalb. A year later he See also:left this situation to attend See also:Fichte's lectures, and to be near Schiller in See also:Jena. The latter recognized in the young poet something of his own See also:genius, and encouraged him by See also:publishing some of his See also:early writings in his See also:periodicals See also:Die neue Thalia and Die Horen. In 1796 Holderlin obtained the post of tutor in the See also:family of the banker J. F. Gontard in See also:Frankfort-on-See also:Main. For Gontard's beautiful and gifted wife, Susette, the " Diotima " of his Hyperion, he conceived a violent See also:passion; and she became at once his See also:inspiration and his ruin. At the end of two years, during which See also:time the first See also:volume of Hyperion was published (1797), a crisis appears to have occurred in their relations, for the young poet suddenly left Frankfort.

In spite of See also:

ill-See also:health, he now completed Hyperion, the second volume of which appeared in 1799, and began a tragedy, Der See also:Tod See also:des Empedokles, a fragment of which is published among his See also:works. His See also:friends became alarmed at the alternate depression and See also:nervous irritability from which he suffered, and he was induced to go to See also:Switzerland, as tutor in a family at Hauptwill. There his health improved; and several of his poems, among which are Der blinde See also:Sanger, An die Hoffnung and Dichtermut, were written at this time. In 18oi he returned See also:home to arrange for the publication of a volume of his poems; but, on the failure of this enterprise, he was obliged to accept a tutorship at See also:Bordeaux. " Diotima " died a year later, in See also:June 1802, and the See also:news is supposed to have reached Holderlin shortly afterwards, for in the following See also:month he suddenly left Bordeaux, and travelled homewards on See also:foot through See also:France, arriving at Nurtingen destitute and insane. See also:Kind treatment gradually alleviated his See also:condition, and in lucid intervals he occupied himself by See also:writing verses and translating See also:Greek plays. Two of these See also:translations—the See also:Antigone and See also:Oedipus rex of Sophoclesappeared in 1804, and several of his See also:short poems were published by See also:Franz K. L. von Seckendorff in his Musenalmanach, 1807 and 18o8. In 1804 Holderlin obtained the See also:sinecure post of librarian to the See also:landgrave See also:Frederick V. of See also:Hesse-Homburg, and went to live in Homburg under the supervision of friends; but two years later becoming irremediably but harmlessly insane, he was taken in the summer of 1807 to Tubingen, where he remained till his See also:death on the 7th of June 1843. Holderlin's writings are the See also:production of a beautiful and sensitive mind; but they are intensely, almost morbidly, subjective, and they lack real human strength. Perhaps his strongest characteristic was his passion for See also:Greece, the result of which was that he almost entirely discarded See also:rhyme in favour of the See also:ancient See also:verse See also:measures. His poems are all short pieces; of his tragedy only a fragment was written.

Hyperion, See also:

oder der Eremit in Griechenland (1797–1799), is a See also:romance in letters, in which the stormy fervour of the " See also:Sturm and Drang " is combined with a romantic See also:enthusiasm for Greek antiquity. The See also:interest centres not in the See also:story, for the novel has little or none—Hyperion is a young Greek who takes See also:part in the rising of his See also:people against the See also:Turks in 1770—but in its lyric subjectivity and the dithyrambic beauty of its See also:language. Holderlin's lyrics, Lyrische Gedichte, were edited by L. See also:Uhland and G. Schwab in 1826. A See also:complete edition of his works, Samtliche Werke, with a See also:biography by C. T. Schwab, appeared in 1846; also Dichtungen by K. KOstlin (Tubingen, 1884), and (the best edition) Gesammelte Dichtungen by B. Litzmann (2 vols., See also:Stuttgart, 1897). For biography and See also:criticism, see C. C.

T. Litzmann, F. Holderlin Leben (See also:

Berlin, 1890), A. See also:Wilbrandt, Holderlin (2nd ed., Berlin, 1891), and C. See also:Muller, Friedrich Holderlin, sein Leben and sein Dichten (See also:Bremen, 1894).

End of Article: HOLDERLIN, JOHANN CHRISTIAN FRIEDRICH (1770-1843)

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