SCHLEGEL, FRIEDRICH von. - Philosopher, b. in Hanover on 10 March 1772, d. in Dresden on 12 Jan. 1829. He studied philosophy at the Universities of Leipzig and Göttingen; he was a student of ancient languages (Sanskrit, Persian), an avid reader of the Greek classics and of the works of Winckelmann. After spending some years in Dresden (1794), Jena (1796) and Berlin (1797), from 1800-1806 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 1808, in Vienna, secretary at the Imperial Chancellery.
In the first writing with which he began his scholarly activity, Über das Studium der griechischen Poesie (1796), he sets ancient poetry against modern; later, under the influence of Fichte's Doctrine of Science, he discovers the essence of modern philosophy in spiritual becoming, and looks forward to the advent of Romantic poetry, which must be a universal progressive poetry. Later still, thanks to Schleiermacher, he turned all his interest to the religious problem (his conversion to Catholicism dates from 1808, through the work of St. Clement Hofbauer). A fertile but disorganized mind, a tormented soul, highly sensitive to changes in his environment, S. expressed with great effectiveness the three moments of the Romantic evolution — the aesthetic, the philosophical and the religious — and in the individual fields he made contributions that were of benefit above all to the clarification and deepening of the spirit of Romanticism.
BIBL. editions: Sämtliche Werke, 10 vols., Vienna 1822-25; 2nd ed., 15 vols., ibid. 1846. Excluded from this collection are, among numerous other writings: Prosaische Jugendschriften, edited by J. Minor, 2 vols., Vienna 1822; reprint, 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, trans. by V. Santoli, Florence 1936; Storia della letteratura antica e moderna, trans. by F. Ambrosoli, Milan 1928; Filosofia dell'istoria, Italian trans. 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