SCHLEGEL, FRIEDRICH von. — Philosopher, born in Hanover on 10 March 1772, died in Dresden on 12 January 1829. He studied philosophy at the Universities of Leipzig and Göttingen; he was a student of ancient languages (Sanskrit, Persian), and an enthusiastic reader of the Greek classics and of Winckelmann’s works. After spending several years in Dresden (1794), Jena (1796), and Berlin (1797), from 1800 to 1806 he taught philosophy at Jena, where he became the herald of the new Romantic movement. In 1803 he went to Paris; then, having returned to Germany, he was in Vienna in 1808, serving as secretary at the Imperial Chancellery.
In his first writing, with which he began his scholarly activity, Über das Studium der griechischen Poesie (1796), he contrasted ancient poetry with modern poetry; subsequently, under the influence of Fichte’s Doctrine of Science, he discovered the essence of modern philosophy in spiritual becoming, and hoped for the advent of Romantic poetry, which was to be a progressive universal poetry. Later, through the influence of Schleiermacher, he directed all his interest toward the religious problem (his conversion to Catholicism took place in 1808 through the work of S. Clemente Hofbauer). A fertile but disorganized intellect, a tormented soul, highly sensitive to changes in his surroundings, S. expressed with great effectiveness the three moments of Romantic evolution—the aesthetic, the philosophical, and the religious—and in each field he made contributions that were of particular value in clarifying and deepening the spirit of Romanticism.
BIBL. Editions: Sämtliche Werke, 10 vols., Vienna 1822–25; 2nd ed., 15 vols., ibid. 1846. This collection excludes, among numerous other writings: Prosaische Jugendschriften, edited by J. Minor, 2 vols., Vienna 1822; reprinted, ibid. 1906; A. Wilhelm u. F. Sch., in Auswahl, edited by O. Walzel in W. Kürschner’s Deutsche National Literatur, CXLIII, Stuttgart 1891–94; Neue philol. Schriften, edited by J. Körner, Frankfurt 1935; Philosophische Vorlesungen, edited by C. H. Windischmann, Bonn 1836–37. Translations: Frammenti critici e scritti di estetica, translated by V. Santoli, Florence 1936; Storia della letteratura antica e moderna, translated by F. Ambrosoli, Milan 1928; Filosofia dell'istoria, Italian translation, 2nd ed., Naples 1858. Studies: J. Rouge, F. S. (1797–97), Bordeaux 1904; C. Enders, F. S., Leipzig 1913; R. Haym, Die romantische Schule, 3rd ed., Berlin 1914; J. Körner, Romantiker und Klassiker, ibid. 1924; B. Magnino, Il pensiero di F. S., Turin 1929; H. Kalthoff, Glauben u. Wissen bei F. S., Bonn 1939; J.-J. Anstett, La pensée religieuse de F. S., Paris 1942. Further references in G. A. De Brix, Bibl. philos., 1934–45. I. Utrecht–Brussels 1950, pp. 445–46. Bianca Magnino