Heinrich Wilhelm von Gerstenberg (3 January 1737 – 1 November 1823) was a German poet and critic. Gerstenberg was born in

Tønder Tønder (; german: Tondern ) is a town in the Region of Southern Denmark. With a population of 7,505 (as of 1 January 2022), it is the main town and the administrative seat of the Tønder Municipality. History The first mention of Tønder might ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

. After attending school in

Husum Husum (, frr, Hüsem) is the capital of the ''Kreis'' (district) Nordfriesland in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. The town was the birthplace of the novelist Theodor Storm, who coined the epithet "the grey town by the sea". It is also the home o ...

and at the

Christianeum Hamburg The Gymnasium Christianeum is a famous former Latin school (German: ''Lateinschule'') in Hamburg, northern Germany. Founded in 1738 by King Christian VI of Denmark, it is now housed in a building planned by Danish designer Arne Jacobsen. His ...

, and studying law at the

University of Jena The University of Jena, officially the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (german: Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, abbreviated FSU, shortened form ''Uni Jena''), is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany. The un ...

(1757-1759), he entered 1760 the

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

military service and took later part in the Russian campaign of 1762. He spent the next twelve years in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

, where he was a close friend of

Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (; 2 July 1724 – 14 March 1803) was a German poet. His best known work is the epic poem ''Der Messias'' ("The Messiah"). One of his major contributions to German literature was to open it up to exploration outside ...

. His military period ends in the year 1771. Von Gerstenberg was a Danish deputy in a ''German Chamber'' and was an assessor in the ''Commercial Deputation'' up to 1775. From 1775 to 1783 he represented Denmark's interests as Danish Resident at

Lübeck Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the state ...

, and in 1786 received a judicial appointment at Altona, where he died in November 1823. In the course of his long life, Gerstenberg passed through many phases of his nation's literature. He began as an imitator of the

Anacreontic Anacreontics are verses in a metre used by the Greek poet Anacreon in his poems dealing with love and wine. His later Greek imitators (whose surviving poems are known as the ''Anacreontea'') took up the same themes and used the Anacreontic meter. ...

school (Tändeleyen, 1759); then wrote, in imitation of Gleim, ''Kriegslieder eines dänischen Grenadiers'' (1762); with his ''Gedicht eines Skalden'' (1766) he joined the group of bards led by Klopstock. He translated

Beaumont Beaumont may refer to: Places Canada * Beaumont, Alberta * Beaumont, Quebec England * Beaumont, Cumbria * Beaumont, Essex ** Beaumont Cut, a canal closed in the 1930s * Beaumont Street, Oxford France (communes) * Beaumont, Ardèche * ...

and

Fletcher Fletcher may refer to: People * Fletcher (occupation), a person who fletches arrows, the origin of the surname * Fletcher (singer) (born 1994), American actress and singer-songwriter * Fletcher (surname) * Fletcher (given name) Places United ...

's '' Maid's Tragedy'' (1767), and helped to usher in the

Sturm und Drang ''Sturm und Drang'' (, ; usually translated as "storm and stress") was a proto- Romantic movement in German literature and music that occurred between the late 1760s and early 1780s. Within the movement, individual subjectivity and, in particul ...

period with a gruesome but powerful

tragedy Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a main character. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy ...

, ''Ugolino'' (1768). But he did perhaps even better service to the new literary movement with his ''Briefe über Merkwürdigkeiten der Litteratur'' (1766-1770), in which the critical principles of the Sturm und Drang, and especially its enthusiasm for

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

, were first definitely formulated. In later life Gerstenberg lost touch with literature, and occupied himself mainly with

Kant Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and aest ...

's philosophy. His ''Vermischte Schriften'' appeared in 3 vols. (1815). The ''Briefe über Merkwürdigkeiten der Litteratur'' were republished with an introduction by Alexander von Weilen (1888).

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gerstenberg, Heinrich Wilhelm von 1737 births 1823 deaths People from Tønder Municipality People from the Duchy of Schleswig 18th-century German poets University of Jena alumni German people of Danish descent German male poets German-language poets 19th-century German poets 19th-century German male writers 18th-century German male writers