Friedrich Schiller

Friedrich Schiller was born on 10 November 1759. He was a qualified medical doctor, a published academic historian and a philosopher who especially considered the relationship between aesthetics, spirituality and morality. His plays include Don Carlos, the Wallenstein trilogy, Mary Stuart, and William Tell, though he also published poetry and prose. Rossini and Verdi wrote operas based on his work, though his ‘Ode to Joy’ (at least, as set by Beethoven) remains perhaps his most popular monument worldwide. He is one of the central figures in the period referred to as Weimar Classicism, along with his great mentor and close friend, Johann Wolfgang Goethe. Schiller died in 1805, and is now usually considered to be Germany’s most important playwright.