Pagine1759–1805 · Marbach am Neckar, Germany · also known as Schiller, Friedrich von Schiller
Friedrich Schiller was Goethe’s friend and rival and the great dramatist of freedom. His first play, The Robbers (1781), caused a sensation; Don Carlos, the Wallenstein trilogy, Mary Stuart (1800) and William Tell (1804) followed. His poem “Ode to Joy” (1785) became the text of the final movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony — today the anthem of the European Union.
Begin with William Tell.
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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe · Brothers Grimm · E. T. A. Hoffmann · Theodor Fontane · Thomas Mann · Franz Kafka · Hermann Hesse · Erich Maria Remarque
Friedrich Schiller was Goethe’s friend and rival and the great dramatist of freedom. His first play, The Robbers (1781), caused a sensation; Don Carlos, the Wallenstein trilogy, Mary Stuart (1800) and William Tell (1804) followed.
William Tell is usually considered Friedrich Schiller’s best-known work, followed by Mary Stuart, The Robbers, Don Carlos.
Most readers start with William Tell.
Both refer to the same writer. Other spellings and names include Schiller, Friedrich von Schiller.
Many of Friedrich Schiller’s works are in the public domain; we link to free editions below.