Johann Elias Schlegel facts for kids
Johann Elias Schlegel was a smart German writer who lived from 1719 to 1749. He was known as a critic and a dramatic poet. This means he wrote plays and also wrote reviews about books and plays.
About His Life
Johann Elias Schlegel was born in a town called Meissen in Germany on January 17, 1719. He went to school at Schulpforta and then studied law at the University of Leipzig.
In 1743, he started working as a private secretary for his relative, von Spener. Von Spener was an ambassador from Saxony (a part of Germany) to the Danish court. This means Schlegel helped him with important papers and messages.
Later, in 1748, Schlegel became a special professor at the Sorø Academy in Denmark. He passed away there on August 13, 1749, when he was only 30 years old.
What He Wrote
Schlegel was a very active writer. He wrote for a magazine called Bremer Beiträge. For a while, when he lived in Denmark, he also ran his own weekly magazine called Der Fremde.
He wrote many plays and critical essays. His work helped prepare the way for another famous German writer named Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. Lessing really admired Schlegel's talent.
Schlegel wrote two funny and well-made comedies:
- Der Triumph der guten Frauen (The Triumph of Good Women) – This play was written in regular prose.
- Die stumme Schönheit (The Silent Beauty) – This play was written using a special type of poetry called alexandrines.
He also wrote two tragedies, which are serious plays with sad endings:
- Hermann
- Canut
Both of these tragedies were also written in alexandrines and are often thought to be his best works.
After he died, his brother, J. H. Schlegel, collected and published all of Johann Elias's works. His other brother, Johann Adolf Schlegel, was also a writer and a preacher. Johann Adolf was the father of two other very famous German writers, August Wilhelm von Schlegel and Karl Wilhelm Friedrich von Schlegel.
