Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter

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Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter, engraving by Johann Wilhelm Meil

Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter (born September 3, 1746 in Gotha ; † March 18, 1797 ibid) was a German writer and poet .

family

Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter grew up in a respected family of civil servants in Gotha. His father was the Legation Councilor Heinrich Ernst Gotter (1703–1772), his grandfather the well-known hymn poet and lawyer Ludwig Andreas Gotter . Through his great-grandfather, the court preacher and general superintendent Johann Christian Gotter (1607–1677), he is also related to the diplomat Gustav Adolf von Gotter .

Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter married Luise Stieler (1760–1826) from Gotha in 1780. The marriage gave birth to three daughters, the most famous of whom is Angelica Pauline Amalie , who became Friedrich Wilhelm Schelling's second wife after Caroline Schelling .

Live and act

Gotter received sound academic and foreign language training in private lessons at an early stage, without attending high school. The first poetic attempts followed in early youth.

In 1763 he began studying law in Göttingen . During this time he began to be interested in the art of acting and founded an acting group himself. He also wrote and poetry for them. Together with Heinrich Christian Boie , Gotter founded the Göttingen Musenalmanach , which first appeared in 1770 by Johann Christian Dieterich .

In 1766, after completing his studies, Gotter returned to Gotha, where he initially held the position of a second secret archivist at the court of Duke Ernst II of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg . In 1767 he went to the Imperial Court of Justice in Wetzlar as legation secretary with Baron von Flemmingen , where he made the acquaintance of Goethe in 1769 . From here he went on an educational trip to Lyon and through Switzerland. From 1770 Gotter was co-editor of the "Göttinger Musenalmanach". In 1774, for health reasons, he again traveled to Lyon for a few months, where he attended every theater performance.

At the same time, Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter continued to be active as a writer and maintained close contacts with theater groups. He also maintained close relationships with theater directors and actors such as B. Friedrich Ludwig Schröder , August Wilhelm Iffland , Conrad Ekhof and Karl Theodor von Dalberg .

Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter's literary works are very extensive and varied. He wrote u. a. more than forty plays. These works made him one of the most played writers on German theaters during his lifetime. He continued to work as an actor and director in the performance of his works. In addition, he wrote numerous templates for Singspiele ( libretti ) as well as dramas and poems .

The best known is certainly his poem "Sleep, my prince, fall asleep!" from the play “Esther”, which was set to music by Johann Friedrich Anton Fleischmann and, based on his composition, also by Bernhard Flies . This composition was wrongly ascribed to Mozart for a long time (KV350).

Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter

The ironic poem " The Uninhibited Girl " (I am a girl, fine and young ... Let other angels be!) Is typical of Gotter's style. It was set to music by Corona Schröter (1751–1802), later also by Franz Biebl (1906–2001).

Works (selection)

Others

Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter found his final resting place in Gotha Cemetery I (also called Alter Gottesacker ) between Werderstrasse (today Bohnstedtstrasse) and Eisenacher Strasse. When the cemetery was cleared in 1904 for the construction of the Stadtbad and Arnoldischule , his gravestone disappeared.

literature

Web links

Commons : Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Poems by Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter. First volume. Gotha 1787. p. 150 f. books.google