Friedrich Leopold zu Stolberg-Stolberg
Friedrich Leopold Graf zu Stolberg-Stolberg (7 November 1750 – 5 December 1819), was a German lawyer, and translator born at Bramstedt in Holstein (then a part of Denmark). He was also a poet of the Sturm und Drang and early Romantic periods.
Life
Friedrich Leopold belonged to a cadet branch of the Stolberg family. He was born the son of a Danish magistrate and owner of a manorial estate, Count Christian zu Stolberg. A few years after his birth the family moved to Copenhagen and soon formed friendships with distinguished literary men, especially Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, who became a mentor to the brothers after the death of their father in 1765.[1]
Together with his elder brother
In 1777 Friedrich Leopold was appointed envoy of the prince bishop of Lübeck at the Court of Copenhagen, but often stayed at Eutin to spend time with his college friend and member of the Dichterbund, Johann Heinrich Voss.[3] In 1781, he was chief administrator at Eutin.[2]
In 1782 Stolberg married Agnes von Witzleben, whom he celebrated in his poems. After six years of happy married life, leaving two sons and two daughters (one of them, Marie Agnes, married Ferdinand, son of Christian Frederick of Stolberg-Wernigerode), Agnes died an early death in 1788.
Friedrich Leopold then became Danish envoy to the Court of Prussia, and contracted a second marriage with the Countess Sophie von Redern in 1789.[3] After their wedding he and his wife took a grand tour through Germany, Switzerland, and Italy; he documented this trip in a series of letters, Travels through Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Sicily.[4][5]
This tour was of great importance for his religious development, as he then made the acquaintance of the devout Catholic
By his second marriage Stolberg had a large family, of which all, with the exception of the oldest daughter, followed their father's example and joined the
For his conversion to
Works
In his student days, Stolberg was a member of the Göttinger Hainbund, part of the Sturm und Drang movement. "Friedrich’s verse also has a pastoral, idyllic quality that ties his work to the Romantics."[6]
Friedrich Leopold wrote many odes, ballads, satires and dramas; among them the tragedy Timoleon (1784). He produced translations of the Iliad (1778), of Plato (1796-1797), Aeschylus (1802), and Ossian (1806); he published in 1815 a Leben Alfreds des Grossen, and a voluminous Geschichte der Religion Jesu Christi (17 vols., 1806–1818).[3] Other works include poetry, as Ballads (1779) and Iambics (1784), and other works, such as Plays (1787) and Travels (1791); and novels, such as The Island (1788). He also wrote a history of Alfred the Great (1816); a life of St. Vincent de Paul; translated passages from the works of St. Augustine, and also wrote meditations on the Holy Scriptures, which, however, together with the Büchlein der Liebe, and the polemical pamphlet Kurze Abfertigung des langen Schmähschrifts des Hofrats Voss, did not appear until after his death.
Several of his poems were set to music by the Austrian composer Franz Schubert.[7]
Bibliography
The Collected Works of Christian and Friedrich Leopold zu Stolberg were published in twenty volumes in 1820–1825; 2nd ed. 1827. Friedrich's correspondence with FH Jacobi will be found in Jacobi's Briefwechsel (1825-1827); that with Voss was edited by Otto Hellinghaus (1891).[3]
Selections from the poetry of the two brothers will be found in August Sauer's Der Göttinger Dichterbund, iii. (Kürschner's Deutsche Nationalliteratur, vol. 50, 1896). See also:
- Theodor Menge, Der Graf F. L. Stolberg and seine Zeitgenossen (2 vols, 1862)
- JH Hennes, Aus F. L. von Stolbergs Jugendjahren (1876)
- the same, Stolberg in den zwei letzten Jahrzehnten seines Lebens (1875)
- Johannes Janssen, F. L. Graf zu Stolberg (2 vols, 1877), 2nd ed. 1882
- Wilhelm Keiper, F. L. Stolbergs Jugendpoesie (1893).
Notes
Regarding personal names: Until 1919, Graf was a title, translated as Count, not a first or middle name. The female form is Gräfin. In Germany, it has formed part of family names since 1919.
References
- ISBN 9783039102570
- ^ a b c Wittman, Pius, and Klemens Löffler. "Stolberg." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 9 September 2021 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ a b c d e f Chisholm 1911.
- ^ Friedrich Leopold, Graf zu Stolberg, Translated from the German into English, Thomas Holcroft. London, G.G. & J Robinson, 1797.
- – via Hathi Trust.
- ^ a b Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Friedrich Leopold, Graf zu Stolberg-Stolberg". Encyclopedia Britannica
- ^ "Graf Friedrich Leopold zu Stolberg-Stolberg", Oxford Lieder
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Stolberg, Friedrich Leopold, Graf zu". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 953. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Stolberg". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Further reading
- Frederic Leopold Stolberg (1796–1797), Travels through Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Sicily, translated by Thomas Holcroft, London: G.G. and J. Robinson v.2 + Index