Adolph Wilhelm Schack von Staffeldt

The young Adolph Wilhelm Schack von Staffeldt

Adolph Wilhelm Schack von Staffeldt (born March 28, 1769 in Garz / Rügen ; † December 26, 1826 in Gottorp , Schleswig-Holstein) was the first romantic poet in Denmark .

Life

Schack von Staffeldt came from the old Pomeranian noble family Staffeldt , but decided to become a Dane. He is still considered the antipode of Adam Oehlenschläger . The young Schack von Staffeldt was torn inside; he suffered from the dichotomy between his being and existence. During this time he embodied rather the night side of romance . He was all the more interested in philosophy as the basis of poetry in general. The abstract language of philosophy often went directly into his poetry.

From 1778 to 1786 Schack von Staffeldt was a cadet at the Landkadettenakademie. From 1791 to 1793 he studied in Göttingen . Here he broke away from the spirit of the Danish Enlightenment , in which he had grown up and brought up. This change was primarily brought about by the encounter with the works of Herder and Schiller . Herder gave him a new, organic view of nature; the nature is the "mother of things." Schiller remained his role model throughout his life, through him he came to a new, classical conception of poets and poetry. The stay in Göttingen turned the unhappy and desperate into one who was enthusiastic about the future. He found in Schelling's philosophy the spiritual foundation on which his romanticism rests. Now he has succeeded in synthesizing the subjective and the objective.

For five years, from 1795 to 1800, he went on so-called educational trips . They took him through Germany, France, Italy, Austria and Switzerland. His letters and the poems he wrote while traveling, as well as his detailed Vienna diary , were read out regularly in the salons of the nobility in Denmark.

As a great Danish national poet, whom he saw in himself, he was not noticed during his lifetime. Instead, this honor was bestowed on his contemporary Adam Oehlenschläger . How much he was in competition with Oehlenschläger was shown in 1804 when he published his volume "Digte" ( poems ). A year earlier, Oehlenschläger had published his works under the same title and Schack von Staffeldt emphasized in the preface that his poems were written earlier than those of his comrade-in-arms. Nevertheless, Denmark celebrated Oehlenschläger, Schack von Staffeldt was overlooked. He never used this defeat and turned away from literature in disappointment.

At the age of 41, Schack von Staffeldt became district administrator in the Cismar office in 1810 , and three years later district administrator in Schleswig .

literature

• Samlede digte , Vol. 1–3, ed. by Henrik Blicher. Det Danske Sprog- og Litteraturselskab & CA Reitzel, Copenhagen 2001. Im Herbst , ed. Nensome Forlag ApS, Taastrup in German. The poem is u. a. Published in Schack Staffeldts Digte , Copenhagen 1882, PC Philipsens Forlag.

Web links

• Adolph Wilhelm Schack von Staffeldt in Arkiv for Dansk Litteratur (Danish)