Christoph Martin Wieland (/ˈviːlɑːnt/;[1]German:[ˈviːlant]; 5 September 1733 – 20 January 1813) was aGerman poet and writer, representative of literaryRococo. He is best-remembered for having written the firstBildungsroman (Geschichte des Agathon),[2] as well as the epicOberon, which formed the basis for bothFriederike Sophie Seyler'sopera of the same name andCarl Maria von Weber'sopera of the same name. His thought was representative of thecosmopolitanism of theGerman Enlightenment, exemplified in his remark: "Only a true cosmopolitan can be a good citizen."[3][4][5] He was a key figure ofWeimar Classicism and a collaborator ofAbel Seyler'stheatre company.
Christoph Martin Wieland was born inOberholzheim (now part ofAchstetten), half of which then belonged to theFree Imperial City ofBiberach an der Riss and the other half toGutenzell Abbey in the south-east of the modern-day state ofBaden-Württemberg.[6]
His father, who waspastor in Oberholzheim and subsequently in Biberach, took great pains with his son's education. From the town school of Biberach, he passed on at the age of twelve to theKloster Bergegymnasium, nearMagdeburg. He was a precocious child, and when he left school in 1749 was widely read in theLatin classics and the leading contemporary French writers; amongst German poets his favourites wereBrockes andKlopstock.[7]
During the summer of 1750, he fell in love with a cousin,Sophie Gutermann, and this love affair inspired him to plan his first ambitious work,Die Natur der Dinge (The Nature of Things, 1752), adidactic poem in six books. In 1750 he went to theUniversity of Tübingen as a student oflaw, but his time was mainly taken up with literary studies. The poems he wrote at the university—Hermann, an epic (published by F. Muncker, 1886),Zwölf moralische Briefe in Versen (Twelve Moral Letters in Verse, 1752),Anti-Ovid (1752)—arepietistic in tone and dominated by the influence of Klopstock.[7]
Wieland's poetry attracted the attention of the Swiss literary reformer,J. J. Bodmer, who invited Wieland to visit him inZürich in the summer of 1752. After a few months however, he felt little sympathy with Wieland as, two years earlier, he had felt himself with Klopstock, and the friends parted; but Wieland remained in Switzerland until 1760, spending the last year, atBern where he obtained a position as private tutor. Here he became intimate withJean-Jacques Rousseau's friendJulie de Bondeli.[7]
Wieland's tastes had changed; the writings of his early Swiss years—Der geprüfte Abraham (The Trial of Abraham's Faith, 1753),Sympathien (1756),Empfindungen eines Christen (1757)—were still in the manner of his earlier writings, but with the tragedies,Lady Johanna Gray (1758), andClementina von Porretta (1760)—the latter based onSamuel Richardson'sSir Charles Grandison—the epic fragmentCyrus (first five cantos, 1759), and the "moral story in dialogues",Araspes und Panthea (1760), Wieland, asGotthold Lessing said, "forsook the ethereal spheres to wander again among the sons of men."[7] InCyrus, he had been inspired by the deeds ofFrederick the Great to write a poem exhibiting the ideal of a hero.Araspes und Panthea is based on an episode from theCyropaedia ofXenophon.[citation needed]
Wieland's conversion was completed at Biberach, having returned in 1760 as director of the chancery. The monotony of his life here was relieved by the friendship of aCount Stadion, whose library in the castle of Warthausen, not far from Biberach, was well stocked with French and English literature. Wieland met again his early love Sophie Gutermann, who had become the wife of Hofrat La Roche, then manager of Count Stadion's estates.[7]
InDon Sylvio von Rosalva (1764), a romance in imitation ofDon Quixote, he held his earlier faith up to ridicule[8] and in theComische Erzählungen (1765) he gave his extravagant imagination only too free a rein.[7]
More important is the novelGeschichte des Agathon (1766–1767), in which, under the guise of a Greek fiction, Wieland described his own spiritual and intellectual growth. This work, which Lessing recommended as "a novel of classic taste", marks an epoch in the development of the modernpsychological novel. Of equal importance was Wieland's translation of twenty-two ofShakespeare's plays into prose (8 vols., 1762–1766); it was the first attempt to present the English poet to the German people in something approaching entirety.[9] With the poemsMusarion oder die Philosophie der Grazien (1768),Idris (1768),Combabus (1770),Der neue Amadis (1771), Wieland opened the series of light and graceful romances in verse which appealed so irresistibly to his contemporaries and acted as an antidote to the sentimental excesses of the subsequentSturm und Drang movement.[7]Musarion advocates a rational unity of the sensual and spiritual;Amadis celebrates the triumph of intellectual over physical beauty.[10]
Wieland married Anna Dorothea von Hillenbrand (July 8, 1746 – November 9, 1801) on October 21, 1765. They had 14 children. Wieland's daughter Sophia Catharina Susanna Wieland (October 19, 1768 – September 1, 1837) married philosopherKarl Leonhard Reinhold (1757–1823) on May 18, 1785.
Between 1769 and 1772, Wieland was a professor of philosophy at theUniversity of Erfurt.[7] In hisVerklagter Amor ("Cupid Accused") he defended amatory poetry; and in theDialogen des Diogenes von Sinope (1770) he gave a general vindication of his philosophical views.[citation needed]
In 1772 he publishedDer goldene Spiegel oder die Könige van Scheschian, a pedagogic work in the form of oriental stories; this attracted the attention ofDuchess Anna Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, and resulted in his appointment as tutor to her two sons, theDuke Karl August and his brotherPrince Constantin, atWeimar. With the exception of some years spent at Ossmannstedt, where in later life he bought an estate, Weimar remained Wieland's home until his death.[7] Turning his attention to dramatic poetry, he wrote operalibrettos such asWahl des Hercules ("Choice of Hercules") andAlceste byAnton Schweitzer.[11]
In 1773, he foundedDer teutsche Merkur, which under his editorship (1773–1789) became the most influential literary review in Germany.[7] His views, as exhibited therein, however, showed so much of the narrow conventional spirit of French criticism, that he was attacked byGoethe in the satireGötter, Helden und Wieland ("Gods, Heroes and Wieland"). This Wieland answered with great good nature, recommending it to all who were fond of wit and sarcasm. Goethe andJohann Gottfried Herder were soon drawn to Weimar, where the Duchess Anna Amalia formed a circle of talent and genius, later also joined byFriedrich Schiller.[citation needed]
Politically, Wieland was a moderateliberal who advocated a constitutional monarchy, a free press, and a middle path between extremes of left and right.[12] At least three of his works,Geschichte des Agathon,Der goldene Spiegel oder die Könige van Scheschian, andBeiträge zur geheimen Geschichte des menschlichen Verstandes und Herzens, found themselves on the officialBavarian Illuminati reading list.[13]Wieland also explored the role of secret societies in Enlightenment thought inDas Geheimnis des Kosmopoliten-Ordens (1788). This work examines the political and philosophical implications of clandestine organizations, particularly their potential to form a "state within a state".[14] A modern English edition,The Secret of the Order of Cosmopolitans, was published in 2025, making the text accessible to a wider audience.[15]
He was also a librettist for theSeyler theatrical company ofAbel Seyler. Of his later writings the most important are the admirable satire on German provinciality—the most attractive of all his prose writings—Die Abderiten, eine sehr wahrscheinliche Geschichte (A very probable history of the Abderites, 1774),[16] (translated into French byAntoine Gilbert Griffet de Labaume) and the charming poetic romances,Das Wintermärchen (1776),Das Sommermärchen (1777),Geron der Adelige (1777),Pervonte oder die Wünsche (1778), a series culminating with Wieland's poetic masterpiece, the romantic epic ofOberon (1780).[7] In 1780 he created the singspielRosamunde with the composerAnton Schweitzer.
In Wieland's later novels, such as theGeheime Geschichte des Philosophen Peregrinus Proteus (1791) andAristipp und einige seiner Zeitgenossen (1800–1802), a didactic and philosophic tendency obscures the small literary interest they possess. He also translatedHorace'sSatires (1786),Lucian'sWorks (1788–1789),Cicero'sLetters (1808 ff.), and from 1796 to 1803 he edited theAttisches Museum which did valuable service in popularizing Greek studies.[7] Wieland was also strongly influenced by the French fairy-tale vogue of the 18th century; he published a collection of tales entitledDschinnistan (1786–1789), which included three original tales, 'Der Stein der Weisen' ('The Philosopher's Stone'), 'Timander und Melissa', and 'Der Druide oder die Salamanderin und die Bildsäule' ('The Druid or the Salamander and the Painted Pillar').
Wieland died in Weimar. He had a strong influence on the German literature of his time.[17]
Wieland was a prolific writer, publishing novels, poetry, plays, and philosophical treatises. His works contributed significantly to the literary and intellectual movements of the Enlightenment and Weimar Classicism.
Wieland's complete works were widely republished in collected editions, some of which included critical annotations and commentary.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Robertson, John George (1911). "Wieland, Christoph Martin". InChisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 621–622.
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