Christian Gottfried Körner

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Christian Gottfried Körner (Portrait of Anton Graff )
Minna Körner (drawing by Dora Stock )
Honor roll for Christian Gottfried Körner in the St. Augustin Grimma high school (in the passage of the main portal)
Memorial plaque on the house at Brüderstraße 13, in Berlin-Mitte
Memorial sculpture on the site of the former home of Koerner in Dresden, 1989

Christian Gottfried Körner (born July 2, 1756 in Leipzig , † May 13, 1831 in Berlin ) was a German writer and lawyer. Körner is the editor of the first complete edition of the works of his friend Friedrich Schiller and the editor of the poetic estate of his son Theodor Körner .

Life

Körner was the son of theology professor, pastor and Leipzig superintendent Johann Gottfried Körner (1726–1785). He learned from 1769 to 1772 at the Prince's School Grimma , graduated from the University of Göttingen and at the University of Leipzig law and habilitated in Leipzig. There he joined the Freemason Lodge Minerva to the three palms in 1777 . At that time he was on various trips. In 1778 he became a private lecturer in Leipzig. In 1783 he was then senior consistorial advisor in Dresden , 1790 senior appellate judge , 1798–1811 secret trainee lawyer in the secret Saxon consilium, but in 1811 he was transferred back to the appellate court. In 1813 he became a member of the Lodge to the three swords in Dresden and was master of the chair until 1815. In his time in Berlin after 1815 he also sang under the direction of Carl Friedrich Zelter in the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin and composed occasionally.

Körner was one of Schiller's most trusted and influential friends and supporters. The friendship came about through an unsigned letter that Körner wrote in June 1784 together with his friend Ludwig Ferdinand Huber and the sisters Anna Maria Wilhelmine Jakobine (Minna) (born March 11, 1762 - August 20, 1843) and Johanna Dorothea (Dora) Stock (1760 (1759) –1832) sent the young Schiller to Mannheim , in which they expressed their unreserved admiration for Schiller's dramas. The senders were two bridal couples whose intention to marry had encountered resistance from the upper-class authoritarian fathers, which is why they could identify with the depiction of the inappropriate relationship in Schiller's drama Kabale und Liebe . The sisters Minna and Dora Stock were daughters of the Leipzig copperplate engraver Johann Michael Stock (1737–1773) and thus children of craftsmen. Half a year later Schiller replied to this letter: "Your letters ... met me in one of the saddest moods of my heart" (December 7, 1784). On August 7, 1785 Christian Gottfried married the younger daughter Minna.

In a letter to Körner, Schiller wrote that Johann Christoph Bode wanted to induce him to join Freemasonry. However, Körner advised him against it, since Bode only wanted to win him over to the Order of Illuminati .

In the meantime Schiller's financial situation had become so hopeless that he saw no other way out than to flee to his unknown friends in Leipzig. After a nine-day journey, he arrived in Leipzig in April 1785 and was hospitably received by the circle of friends - in Körner's absence. From then on he lived temporarily on Körner's vineyard in Loschwitz near Dresden until 1787 , and temporarily in Dresden itself. How important the intellectual exchange with Körner was for Schiller is evident from their correspondence, but also from the fact that in Schiller's philosophical letters that he published from 1786 in the Thalia , the letters of the skeptical-materialistic Raphael are largely literal copies of the letters of Körner. At Körner's suggestion, Schiller wrote the poem To Joy for the Masonic Lodge of which Körner was a member. On the occasion of the wedding, Schiller dedicated the ode to joy to his friend Körner and his wife.

Schiller then established relationships between his first great partner, the aesthetician and political science writer Körner, and his later exchange partners Goethe , Johann Gottfried Herder , Wilhelm von Humboldt and August Wilhelm Schlegel .

Körner's son Theodor died in the Wars of Liberation in 1813 . His daughter Emma Körner died in 1815 after a sudden illness. In the same year Christian Gottfried entered Prussian service as a State Councilor in Berlin , later became a Privy Councilor and died in Berlin in 1831. He was buried next to his children under the oak from Wöbbelin in Mecklenburg .

In Dresden his former town house (Körnerstraße 7) as the Körner Museum reminded of him until 1945 . Today, parts of the exhibitions in the Schillerhäuschen in Loschwitz, which stands on the property of his former summer residence, and in the Kügelgenhaus - Museum of Dresden Romanticism , which is somewhat in the tradition of the former Körner Museum, are dedicated to him.

Fonts

  • About the freedom of the poet when choosing his subject matter, 1789 (text in Schiller's Thalia 2nd volume, issue 6)
  • Raphael to Julius , 1789 (text in Schiller's Thalia 2nd volume, issue 7)
  • About character representation in music. In 'Die Horen', 1795, 5th piece
  • Schiller's correspondence with Körner.
  • Aesthetic views, Leipzig 1808
  • Experiments on objects of internal state administration, Dresden 1812
  • Germany's hopes, Leipzig 1813
  • Speech: Ideas about Freemasonry. (to be found in the Berlin State Library)
  • As editor, Körner was responsible for the first edition of Schiller's works with a biographical sketch (Stuttgart 1812–15, 12 volumes) and wrote Schiller's biography with Caroline von Woliehen . He also published the poetic estate of his son Theodor Körner .

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Christian Gottfried Körner  - Sources and full texts
Commons : Christian Gottfried Körner  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Footnotes and individual references

  1. ↑ Lenning: General Manual of Freemasonry. Second volume. Max Hesse's publishing house. 1901.
  2. ↑ On July 1, 1785, the Kahnsdorf manor owner Johann Christian Ernesti, professor of theology at Leipzig University, invited Christian Gottfried Körner and Friedrich Schiller to Kahnsdorf. Since that meeting, Schiller and Körner have been close friends, which is said to have moved the poet Schiller to write his poem An die Freude . A plaque on the old Kahnsdorf manor still reminds of this meeting today.
  3. ^ "Schiller's correspondence with Körner was already in Berlin in 1847 with Veit a. Comp. appeared ", but defused with regard to the statements about A. v. Humboldt, see: Ingo Schwarz: A limited intellectual without imagination. Notes on Friedrich Schiller's judgment on Alexander von Humboldt. ; Schiller's correspondence with Körner. From 1784 until Schiller's death. Leipzig 1874, @ kuehnle-online.de (accessed February 23, 2014)
personal data
SURNAME Körner, Christian Gottfried
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer and lawyer as well as Schiller's friend
DATE OF BIRTH July 2, 1756
PLACE OF BIRTH Leipzig
DATE OF DEATH May 13, 1831
Place of death Berlin