author
Friedrich von Schlegel
1772–1829
A driving voice of early German Romanticism, he helped redefine literary criticism with sharp, fragmentary writing and big ideas about art, philosophy, and history. His work ranges from bold theory to studies of language, religion, and the classical world.
3 Audiobooks
The philosophy of life, and philosophy of language, in a course of lectures
by Friedrich von Schlegel
The Philosophy of History, Vol. 2 of 2
by Friedrich von Schlegel
The Philosophy of History, Vol. 1 of 2
by Friedrich von Schlegel
About the author
Born in Hanover on March 10, 1772, Friedrich von Schlegel became one of the key figures of Jena Romanticism. Alongside his brother August Wilhelm Schlegel, he helped shape a new literary culture that valued imagination, irony, and the unfinished, exploratory form of the fragment. He wrote criticism, philosophy, and fiction, and is especially remembered for the ideas gathered around the journal Athenäum.
His interests were remarkably wide. Schlegel wrote about Greek literature and modern poetry, and he also became an important early scholar of Sanskrit and Indian culture. Over time, his intellectual path shifted from the rebellious energy of early Romanticism toward political conservatism and Catholic thought, reflecting major changes in European intellectual life after the French Revolution.
He died in Dresden on January 12, 1829. Today he is remembered not just as a poet or critic, but as a restless thinker whose writing helped set the tone for Romantic theory and for later ways of reading literature comparatively and historically.