Friedrich Schiller Critical Essay | Critical Essay by F. J. Lamport

Critical Essay by F. J. Lamport

SOURCE: “Schiller and the “European Community”: “Universal History” in Theory and Practice,” in The Modern Language Review Vol. 93, No 2, April 1998, pp. 428-40.

In the following essay, Lamport argues that Schiller's interest in history and his study of people in action on the historical stage contributed to his fuller treatment of the complex relationship of character and event in his dramatic works.

‘Die europäische Staatengesellschaft scheint in eine große Familie verwandelt. Die Hausgenossen können einander anfeinden, aber hoffentlich nicht mehr zerfleischer.’ So declared Schiller, Professor of Philosophy in the University of Jena, in his inaugural lecture, ‘Was heißt und zu welchem Ende studiert man Universal-geschichte?’,¹ delivered on 21 May 1789, eight weeks before the storming of the Bastille and six months before his thirtieth birthday. The young Schiller had already made the acquintance of Universal History as a student at the Karlsschule: his medical dissertation Über den Zusammenhang...
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