150th anniversary of death of Friedrich Hölderlin - Germany / Federal Republic of Germany 1993 - 100 Pfennig

Friedrich Hölderlin was born on March 20, 1770 in Lauffen am Neckar, the son of Klosterhof master Heinrich Friedrich Hölderlin. The father died early, and after the death of stepfather Joh. Chr. Gock, the education of the now nine-year-old was in the hands of the mother. For generations rooted in Swabian Pietism, this pushed for a theological career. After attending the lower monastery school Denkendorf and the higher monastery school to Maulbronn Hölderlin took in 1788 at the same time with Hegel his studies in philosophy and theology in the Tübingen pin. The job of the pastor intended by the mother was out of the question for Hölderlin: literary productivity and bourgeois adaptation are incompatible with high aspirations. On the recommendation of Schiller Hölderlin joined end of 1793 a Hofmeisterstelle in the family of Kalb; However, the employment relationship ended after a year in a pedagogical crisis. In the following years he sought closer contact with Schiller in Jena; other great names of the time - Fichte, Goethe, Herder and Novalis - soon became his companions. Schiller first promoted him and his poetic work by publishing a number of poems in Musenalmanach and Hyperion in Neue Thalia. However, when Hölderlin attempted to attempt an independent literary existence in 1799 with the founding of the literary journal »Iduna«, Schiller (as well as Goethe and other prominent contributors) denied his support. Attempts to achieve material independence as a writer failed. In 1802, the first signs of physical and mental disorder appeared; The carpenter Ernst Zimmer took him in 1807 after a forced stay in Tübingen Clinicum in care. Here he lived as an "insane" poet until his death on 7 June 1843 in the famous Hölderlin Tower. Hölderlin's lyric work is today regarded as the pinnacle of German poetry. Barely noticed during the author's lifetime, the great anthems and elegies from 1800 to 1806 provided the impetus for the rediscovery of his oeuvre in the 20th century. The basic motive of his poetry is the juxtaposition of an everyday reality regarded as completely deficient with a higher, perfect unity of all beings. Terms such as 'love', 'freedom', 'harmony' and 'beauty' characterize the nature of this unity, of 'divine nature', in the sense of which everyday reality is to be revolutionized. Behind the seemingly innocuous concepts is Hölderlin an aesthetic program that is probably unique in its consequence and its claim to effect in German literature. The work on it establishes the connection between the lyric work, the author of which is essentially to be seen as a "philosophical" poet: P. Szondi described Hölderlin as one of the most important and original thinkers of German idealism. Influenced by the philosophy of Fichte and Spinoza, Holderlin finally developed the philosophy of history against the backdrop of which his Odenwerk (Love, Farewell, Poetry, Chiron, Ganymede) is to be seen as well as his elegies, which began in 1800 (Menon's complaints about Diotima; The passage into the country, Stuttgart, bread and wine, homecoming) and the late hymns. In human history Hölderlin sees an "eccentric" process, at the beginning and end of which stands the reconciled, the rule-free world. While the originally harmonious life was lost with antiquity, Hölderlin hopefully evaluates the French Revolution as the prelude to a comprehensive spiritual transformation, which will again lead to a world of perfect unity and harmony. The rule of Napoleon soon put an end to this hope; Nevertheless, the poet, against any disappointment, clings to his certainty of salvation: "Where there is danger, the saving one grows" (Patmos). In the interweaving of poetry and philosophical reflection, Hölderlin's poetry occupies a unique position in German literature: like no other epoch of his time, Friedrich Hölderlin marks the beginning of modernity. (Text: Dag-Stefan Rittmeister, German Department of the University of Bonn)