Wilhelm Heinse (February 16, 1749, Langewiesen

Langewiesen

Langewiesen is a town in the Ilm-Kreis district, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated on the river Ilm, 4 km southeast of Ilmenau....

, Schwarzburg-Sondershausen

Schwarzburg-Sondershausen

Schwarzburg-Sondershausen was a small principality in Germany, in the present day state of Thuringia, with capital at Sondershausen.-History:...

 – June 22, 1803), German author, was born at Langewiesen

Langewiesen

Langewiesen is a town in the Ilm-Kreis district, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated on the river Ilm, 4 km southeast of Ilmenau....

 in Schwarzburg-Sondershausen

Schwarzburg-Sondershausen

Schwarzburg-Sondershausen was a small principality in Germany, in the present day state of Thuringia, with capital at Sondershausen.-History:...

 (now in Thuringia

Thuringia

The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....

).

After attending the gymnasium at Schleusingen he studied law at Jena and Erfurt

University of Erfurt

The University of Erfurt is a public university located in Erfurt, Germany. Originally founded in 1379, the university was closed in 1816 for the next 177 years...

. In Erfurt he became acquainted with Wieland

Christoph Martin Wieland

Christoph Martin Wieland was a German poet and writer.- Biography :He was born at Oberholzheim , which then belonged to the Free Imperial City of Biberach an der Riss in the south-east of the modern-day state of Baden-Württemberg...

 and through him with "Father" Gleim who in 1772 procured him the post of tutor in a family at Quedlinburg

Quedlinburg

Quedlinburg is a town located north of the Harz mountains, in the district of Harz in the west of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. In 1994 the medieval court and the old town was set on the UNESCO world heritage list....

.

In 1774 he went to Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...

, where he assisted the poet JG Jacobi

Johann Georg Jacobi

Johann Georg Jacobi was a German poet.The elder brother of the philosopher Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, Johann Georg was born at Pempelfort near Düsseldorf. He studied theology at Göttingen and jurisprudence at Helmstedt, and was appointed, in 1766, professor of philosophy in Halle. In this year he...

 to edit the periodical Iris. Here the famous picture gallery inspired him with a passion for art, to the study of which he devoted himself with so much zeal and insight that Jacobi furnished him with funds for a stay in Italy, where he remained for three years (1780-1783).

He returned to Düsseldorf in 1784, and in 1786 was appointed reader to the elector Frederick Charles Joseph, archbishop of Mainz, who subsequently made him his librarian

Librarian

A librarian is an information professional trained in library and information science, which is the organization and management of information services or materials for those with information needs...

 at Aschaffenburg, where he died.

The work upon which Heinse's fame mainly rests is Ardinghello and die glückseligen Inseln (1787), a novel which forms the framework for the exposition of his views on art and life, the plot being laid in the Italy of the 16th century. This and his other novels Laidion, oder die eleusinischen Geheimnisse (1774) and Hildegard von Hohenthal (1796) combine the frank voluptuousness of Wieland with the enthusiasm of the "Sturm und Drang

Sturm und Drang

Sturm und Drang is a proto-Romantic movement in German literature and music taking place from the late 1760s through the early 1780s, in which individual subjectivity and, in particular, extremes of emotion were given free expression in reaction to the perceived constraints of rationalism...

." Both as novelist and art critic, Heinse had considerable influence on the romantic school.

Works

• Sinngedichte (1771)
• Die Kirschen (1773)
• Laidion, oder die eleusinischen Geheimnisse (1774)
• Ardinghello and die glückseligen Inseln (1787)
• Hildegard von Hohenthal (1796)
• Anastasia und das Schachspiel (1803)

Translations

• Begebenheiten des Enkolp, aus dem Satirikon
  Satyricon
  Satyricon is a Latin work of fiction in a mixture of prose and poetry. It is believed to have been written by Gaius Petronius, though the manuscript tradition identifies the author as a certain Titus Petronius...
  
   des Petronius
  Petronius
  Gaius Petronius Arbiter was a Roman courtier during the reign of Nero. He is generally believed to be the author of the Satyricon, a satirical novel believed to have been written during the Neronian age.-Life:...
  
  (1773)
• Das befreite Jerusalem
  Jerusalem Delivered
  Jerusalem Delivered is an epic poem by the Italian poet Torquato Tasso first published in 1581, which tells a largely mythified version of the First Crusade in which Catholic knights, led by Godfrey of Bouillon, battle Muslims in order to take Jerusalem...
  
   von Torquato Tasso
  Torquato Tasso
  Torquato Tasso was an Italian poet of the 16th century, best known for his poem La Gerusalemme liberata , in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between Christians and Muslims at the end of the First Crusade, during the siege of Jerusalem...
  
  (in prose, 1781)
• Roland der Wüthende
  Orlando Furioso
  Orlando Furioso is an Italian epic poem by Ludovico Ariosto which has exerted a wide influence on later culture. The earliest version appeared in 1516, although the poem was not published in its complete form until 1532...
  
  , ein Heldengedicht von Ludwig Ariost
  Ludovico Ariosto
  Ludovico Ariosto was an Italian poet. He is best known as the author of the romance epic Orlando Furioso . The poem, a continuation of Matteo Maria Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato, describes the adventures of Charlemagne, Orlando, and the Franks as they battle against the Saracens with diversions...
  
   dem Göttlichen (in prose, 1782)

Editions

Heinse's complete works (Sämtliche Schriften) were published by Heinrich Laube

Heinrich Laube

Heinrich Laube , German dramatist, novelist and theatre-director, was born at Sprottau in Prussian Silesia.-Life:He studied theology at Halle and Breslau , and settled in Leipzig in 1832...

 in 10 vols (Leipzig, 1838). A newer version edited by Carl Schüddekopf is in 13 vols (Leipzig, 1903-1925).

Literature

• Heinrich Pröhle
  Heinrich Pröhle
  Prof. Dr. Christoph Ferdinand Heinrich Pröhle was a German literary historian, teacher , writer, and folk tale—fairy tale collector .-Disambiguation of Heinrich:The given name »Heinrich« occures in several cases among the...
  
  , Lessing, Wieland, Heinse (Berlin, 1877)
• J Schober, Johann Jacob Wilhelm Heinse, sein Leben and seine Werk (Leipzig, 1882)
• KD Jessen, Heinses Stellung zur bildenden Kunst (Berlin, 1903).
• Manfred Dick, Der junge Heinse in seiner Zeit (Wilhelm Fink Verlag, München, 1980)

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