Johann Friedrich Rochlitz (12 February 1769 – 16 December 1842) was a German playwright, musicologist and art and music critic. His most notable work is his autobiographical account ''Tage der Gefahr'' (''Days of Danger'') about the

Battle of Leipzig The Battle of Leipzig (french: Bataille de Leipsick; german: Völkerschlacht bei Leipzig, ); sv, Slaget vid Leipzig), also known as the Battle of the Nations (french: Bataille des Nations; russian: Битва народов, translit=Bitva ...

in 1813 — in ''Kunst und Altertum'',

Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as tre ...

called it "one of the most wondrous productions ever to have been written". A Friedrich-Rochlitz-Preis for art criticism is named after him — it is awarded by the Leipzig Gesellschaft für Kunst und Kritik and was presented for the fourth time in 2009.

Life

Friedrich Rochlitz was born in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

, where he attended the

Thomasschule St. Thomas School, Leipzig (german: Thomasschule zu Leipzig; la, Schola Thomana Lipsiensis) is a co-educational and public boarding school in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany. It was founded by the Augustinians in 1212 and is one of the oldest schools i ...

, and where, from 1789 to 1791, he studied theology, before working as a private tutor. In 1798 he founded the

Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung The ''Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung'' (''General music newspaper'') was a German-language periodical published in the 19th century. Comini (2008) has called it "the foremost German-language musical periodical of its time". It reviewed musical e ...

, along with

Gottfried Christoph Härtel Gottfried Christoph Härtel (January 27, 1763July 25, 1827) was a music publisher in Leipzig, companion to Bernhard Christoph Breitkopf. He took over their company, Breitkopf & Härtel, in 1796 from Breitkopf, who was having financial difficultie ...

, serving as its editor until 1818. He planned to marry the harpist

Therese Emilie Henriette Winkel Therese Emilie Henriette Winkel (20 December 1784 – 7 March 1867) was a German artist, author, composer, and harpist. She also published under the pseudonyms Comala and Theorosa. Winkel was born in Weissenfels, but moved to Dresden in 1788 when ...

and so Duke Karl August made him a privy councillor of the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar on 14 September 1800, but the marriage did not materialise. Instead, on 23 February 1810 he married his childhood sweetheart Henriette Winkler née Hansen (1770–1834) on 23 February 1810. Her previous husband had been the Leipzig businessman Daniel Winkler and brought Winkler's precious art collection (including a

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally consi ...

painting) with her on her marriage to Rochlitz. Rochlitz was a friend of several cultural figures of his era, including

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as tre ...

Friedrich Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friendsh ...

, E. T. A. Hoffmann and the composers

Louis Spohr Louis Spohr (, 5 April 178422 October 1859), baptized Ludewig Spohr, later often in the modern German form of the name Ludwig, was a German composer, violinist and conductor. Highly regarded during his lifetime, Spohr composed ten symphonies, ...

and

Carl Maria von Weber Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber (18 or 19 November 17865 June 1826) was a German composer, conductor, virtuoso pianist, guitarist, and critic who was one of the first significant composers of the Romantic era. Best known for his operas, ...

— Weber dedicated his Piano Sonata No 4 in E minor (J287, Op 70) to Rochlitz. During a stay in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, Rochlitz also got to know

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...

and

Franz Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wor ...

, with the latter setting three poems by Rochlitz to music in 1827. Rochlitz died in Leipzig, aged 73.

Works

* ''Charaktere interessanter Menschen'', 4 volumes, Züllichau 1799-1803 * ''Kleine Romane und Erzählungen'', 3 volumes, Frankfurt 1807 * ''Neue Erzählungen'', 2 volumes, Leipzig 1816 * ''Für ruhige Stunden'', 2 volumes, Leipzig 1828 * ''Für Freunde der Tonkunst'', 4 volumes, Leipzig 1824–1832; 3rd edition 1868 collection of music essays* ''Auswahl des Besten aus Rochlitz' sämtlichen Werken'', 6 Bände, Züllichau 1821-1822 collection of music essays

References

* ''Goethes Briefwechsel mit Friedrich Rochlitz'', edited by W. v. Biedermann, Leipzig 1887. * Woldemar von Biedermann
''Rochlitz, Johann Friedrich.''
In:

Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie ''Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie'' (ADB, german: Universal German Biography) is one of the most important and comprehensive biographical reference works in the German language. It was published by the Historical Commission of the Bavarian Ac ...

(ADB). Volume 30, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1890, S. 85–91.

External links

*
Johann Friedrich Rochlitz on German Wikisource
*
Archivdatenbank des Goethe- und Schiller-Archivs
*

in the Deutschen Nationalbibliothek catalogue {{DEFAULTSORT:Rochlitz 1769 births 1842 deaths German writers about music German autobiographers German military historians Writers from Leipzig German male dramatists and playwrights 18th-century German dramatists and playwrights 19th-century German dramatists and playwrights 19th-century German male writers German male non-fiction writers 18th-century German male writers