November 10 1759-May 9 1805
(http://www.providencesingers.org/Concerts06/Season02-03/May03Concert.html)
German Philosopher, Playwright, Poet, Dramatist and Historian Schiller born Johann Christoph Friedrich Schiller in Marbach, Wurttemberg. Schiller's father, a military officer, ordered him to attend military academy against his sons wishes of studying theology. After 7 years of attending the academy he was dismissed because of his submission of a controversial essay on religion. After Schiller left the academy he was then forced to join his father's military regiment. Against his father's wishes he continued to write. Schiller worked very closely with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and were very influential towards eachother. He wrote 10 dramatical playwrights and is considered to be Germany's most important classical playwright. His most famous playwright is the Wallenstein, which was based on the Thirty Years War. Schiller only wrote 8 poems and very few of these were set to music, including one to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Giuseppe Verdi, an Italian composer, based many of his operas on Schiller's playwrights, some of them even having the same name.
