Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder

Gerhart Hoffmeister (University of California, Santa Barbara)

Ed. by Gerhard P. Knapp, University of Utah
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.4.1: German-language Writing and Culture: Germany, 500-present.
Vol. editors: Gerhard P. Knapp (University of Utah), Jennifer Marston William (Purdue University), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jill E. Twark (East Carolina University)

Dates

Born 13 Jul 1773
Died 13 Feb 1798
Activity 1793-1798

Places

Born in Germany
Active in Germany

Activities

Primary

Essayist
Poet

Resources

Wackenroder's Works

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Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder, the son of a Prussian civil servant, was born 13 July 1773 in Berlin and, after studying at Erlangen in Southern Germany and a close friendship and collaboration with Ludwig Tieck, he died of typhoid on 13 February 1798 in Berlin at the age of twenty-four. This is his life story in a nutshell, but each word above is significant: although this young genius had devoted only the last two years of his life (1796-98) to publications, both his career and writings have become important proof and documentation of the changes taking place within the intellectual and artistic scene of the Age of Goethe.

Berlin was the center of late Enlightenment, where Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and Moses Mendelssohn were friends with Friedrich Nicolai (1733-1811), a staunch and rigid

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946 words

Citation: Hoffmeister, Gerhart. "Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 January 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5561, accessed 21 November 2024.]