Johann Martin Miller (3 December 1750 in

Ulm Ulm () is the sixth-largest city of the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with around 129,000 inhabitants, it is Germany's 60th-largest city. Ulm is located on the eastern edges of the Swabian Jura mountain range, on the up ...

– 21 June 1814 in

) was a German theologian and writer. He is best known for his novel '' Siegwart'', which became one of the most successful books at the time.

Life

Miller, the son of the Evangelical pastor Johann Michael Miller (1722–1774), was born in Jungingen, nowadays part of the city of Ulm. From 15 October 1770, he studied theology at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen (, commonly referred to as Georgia Augusta), is a Public university, public research university in the city of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1734 ...

, where he helped to establish the ''

Göttinger Hainbund The ''Göttinger Hainbund'' ("Grove League of Göttingen") was a German literary group in the late 18th century, nature-loving and classified as part of the ''Sturm und Drang'' movement. Origin and description It was by means of a midnight ritual ...

''. Through this literary group, founded in 1772, Miller became acquainted with

Matthias Claudius Matthias Claudius (15 August 1740 – 21 January 1815) was a German poet and journalist, otherwise known by the pen name of "Asmus". Life Claudius was born at Reinfeld, near Lübeck, and studied at Jena. He spent the greater part of his life i ...

Gottfried August Bürger Gottfried August Bürger (31 December 1747 – 8 June 1794) was a German poet. His ballads were very popular in Germany. His most noted ballad, ''Lenore (ballad), Lenore'', found an audience beyond readers of the German language in an English l ...

Ludwig Christoph Heinrich Hölty Ludwig Christoph Heinrich Hölty (21 December 1748 – 1 September 1776) was a German poet, known especially for his ballads. Hölty was born in the Electorate of Hanover in the village of Mariensee (today part of Neustadt am Rübenberge) where h ...

Johann Heinrich Voss Johann Heinrich Voss (German: Voß, ; 20 February 1751 – 29 March 1826) was a German classicist and poet, known mostly for his translation of Homer's ''Odyssey'' (1781) and ''Iliad'' (1793) into German. Life Voss was born at Sommersdorf in Mec ...

, and

Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (; 2 July 1724 – 14 March 1803) was a German poet. His best known works are the epic poem ''Der Messias'' ("The Messiah") and the poem ''Die Auferstehung'' ("The Resurrection"), with the latter set to text in the ...

. In 1774 he accompanied Klopstock from Göttingen to

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

. In 1774 and 1775 he studied in Leipzig. Grave Monument

During his years in Göttingen, Miller mainly wrote folk songs, many of which were set to music during his lifetime and are still found in different songbooks today. "Die Zufriedenheit" ("Contentedness"), his most popular poem, was set to music by

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...

Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire ...

, and

Christian Gottlob Neefe Christian Gottlob Neefe (; 5 February 1748 – 28 January 1798) was a German opera composer and Conducting, conductor. He was known as one of the first teachers of Ludwig van Beethoven. Life and career Neefe was born in Chemnitz, Electorate o ...

(''"Was frag ich viel nach Geld und Gut, / Wenn ich zufrieden bin"'' ("What need have I of funds and goods / While I am just content"). His particular tone as well as the sound of his plain verses were well known to contemporary writers, such as

Friedrich Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, philosopher and historian. Schiller is considered by most Germans to be Germany's most important classical playwright. He was born i ...

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...

and

Karl Philipp Moritz Karl Philipp Moritz (Hameln, 15 September 1756 – Berlin, 26 June 1793) was a German author, editor and essayist of the ''Sturm und Drang'', late Enlightenment, and classicist periods, influencing early German Romanticism as well. He led a life ...

, and authors of later generations, such as

Eduard Mörike Eduard Friedrich Mörike (; 8 September 18044 June 1875) was a German Lutheran pastor who was also a Romantic poet and writer of novellas and novels. Many of his poems were set to music and became established folk songs, while others were used b ...

and

Friedrich Rückert Johann Michael Friedrich Rückert (16 May 1788 – 31 January 1866) was a German poet, translation, translator, and professor of Oriental languages. Biography Johann Michael Friedrich Rückert was born 16 May 1788 in Schweinfurt and was the e ...

After he had returned to his hometown, he published in 1776 the

sentimental novel The sentimental novel or the novel of sensibility is an 18th- and 19th-century literary genre which presents and celebrates the concepts of sentiment, sentimentalism, and sensibility. Sentimentalism, which is to be distinguished from sensi ...

'' Siegwart. Eine Klostergeschichte'' ("Siegwart, a Monastic Tale"), which he had already begun to work on in Göttingen - a great success which, accordings to the number of reprints and similar to Goethe's ''

The Sorrows of Young Werther ''The Sorrows of Young Werther'' (; ), or simply ''Werther'', is a 1774 epistolary novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, which appeared as a revised edition in 1787. It was one of the main novels in the ''Sturm und Drang'' ...

'', became one of the best sold novels of the time. From 1776 to 1777 appeared his ''Briefwechsel dreyer Akademischer Freunde'' ("Correspondence of Three Friends at the Academy"), an

epistolary novel An epistolary novel () is a novel written as a series of letters between the fictional characters of a narrative. The term is often extended to cover novels that intersperse other kinds of fictional document with the letters, most commonly di ...

, once described as "an example of the diversity of intellectual currents ... in the Age of Enlightenment". Miller was connected to many contemporary intellectuals of the

Enlightenment Enlightenment or enlighten may refer to: Age of Enlightenment * Age of Enlightenment, period in Western intellectual history from the late 17th to late 18th century, centered in France but also encompassing (alphabetically by country or culture): ...

period, such as

Friedrich Nicolai Christoph Friedrich Nicolai (18 March 1733 – 11 January 1811) was a German writer, bookseller, critic, and regional historian, who authored satirical novels and travelogues. Life Nicolai was born in Berlin, where his father, (d. 175 ...

and

Friedrich Maximilian Klinger Friedrich Maximilian von Klinger (17 February 1752 – 9 March 1831) was a German dramatist and novelist. His play ''Sturm und Drang'' (1776) gave its name to the Sturm und Drang artistic epoch. He was a childhood friend of Johann Wolfgang vo ...

. Later on, Miller seemed to have failed in developing new topics and materials. His later novels could not repeat the surprising success of debut. It is certain that at the very latest in 1790 he ceased to work as an author. After his student years in Göttingen, Miller was active in Ulm and its surroundings: from 1780 onwards as a pastor, from 1781 as a teacher in the local high school, and from 1783 as a cathedral preacher in the Minster of Ulm. In 1804 he became a consistorial councillor, in 1809 a district deacon, and in 1810 a spiritual councillor and deacon for Ulm. Miller joined

Freemasonry Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

on 13 October 1774 at the ''Zum goldenen Zirkel'' lodge in Göttingen. On 11 December 1776 he was elected a fellow-craft. In 1775 he helped found the ''Zur goldenen Kugel'' lodge in Hamburg. For a long time he was speaker at the ''Asträa zu den 3 Ulmen'' lodge in Ulm (which was shut during the period 1795-1807).Matrikel der Loge Zum goldenen Zirkel im Geh. Staatsarchiv Berlin-Dahlem, Sign. 5.2 G 31 Nr. 19 On 21 June 1814, Johann Martin Miller died at the age of sixty-four in Ulm. A short autobiographical essay, written by Miller in 1793 and published in a widely read periodical, is one of the main sources of his life. His collected poems appeared in 2016 (the 200th anniversary of his death) wit
Elfenbein Verlag
in Berlin - for the first time in 1783.

Works

* ''Beytrag zur Geschichte der Zärtlichkeit. Aus den Briefen zweier Liebenden'' ("Towards a History of Tenderness. From the Letters of Two Lovers," 1776, reprinted with appendix in 1780) * ''Siegwart. Eine Klostergeschichte'' ("Siegwart, a Monastic Tale", 1776)
facsimile scan
at Deutsches Textarchiv) * ''Briefwechsel dreyer akademischer Freunde'' ("Correspondence of Three friends at the Academy", 1776) * ''Geschichte Karls von Burgheim und Emiliens von Rosenau'' ("Tale of Karl von Burgheim and Emilie von Rosenau", 1778) * ''Johann Martin Millers Gedichte'' ("Johann Martin Miller's Poems", 1783) * ''Karl und Karoline'' ("Carl and Caroline") (1783) * ''Briefwechsel zwischen einem Vater und seinem Sohn auf der Akademie'' ("Correspondence of a Father and a Son on the Academy", 1785) * ''Die Geschichte Gottfried Walthers, eines Tischlers, und des Städtleins Erlenburg'' ("The Story of Gottfried Walther, a

Joiner Joinery is a part of woodworking that involves joining pieces of wood, engineered lumber, or synthetic substitutes (such as laminate), to produce more complex items. Some woodworking joints employ mechanical fasteners, bindings, or adhesives, ...

, and the Little Town of Erlenburg", 1786)

Available Editions

* ''Liederton und Triller. Sämtliche Gedichte'', ed., commentary and postface by Michael Watzka. Berlin: Elfenbein Verlag, 2014, .

Sources

* Bernd Breitenbuch: ''Johann Martin Miller 1750-1814. Liederdichter des Göttinger Hain, Romancier, Prediger am Ulmer Münster. Ausstellung zum 250. Geburtstag. Stadtbibliothek Ulm, Schwörhaus, 3. Dezember 2000 bis 27. Januar 2001.'' Weißenhorn: Konrad 2000. (= Veröffentlichungen der Stadtbibliothek Ulm; 20) * Bernd Breitenbruch: "Johann Martin Millers Romane und ihre Nachdrucke. Mit Beiträgen zu den Reutlinger und Tübinger Nachdrucken", in: ''Jahrbuch des Freien Deutschen Hochstifts'' 2013. Göttingen/Tübingen, 2014, pp. 83–145. * * Alain Faure: ''Johann Martin Miller, romancier sentimental.'' Paris: Champion 1977. * Hans-Edwin Friedrich: "Autonomie der Liebe - Autonomie des Romans. Zur Funktion von Liebe im Roman der 1770er Jahre: Goethes ''Werther'' und Millers ''Siegwar''t" (30. Juli 2004), in: oethezeitportal.http://www.goethezeitportal.de/db/wiss/epoche/friedrich_liebe.pdf* Heinrich Kraeger: ''Johann Martin Miller. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Empfindsamkeit.'' Bremen: Heinsius 1893. * Erich Schmidt
Miller, Johann Martin
in:

Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB; ) 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 Academy of Sciences between 1875 and 1912 in 56 volumes, printed in Lei ...

(ADB). Band 21, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1885, pp. 750–755. * Frank Raberg: ''Biografisches Lexikon für Ulm und Neu-Ulm 1802–2009''. Süddeutsche Verlagsgesellschaft Ulm im Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Ostfildern 2010, , pp. 275 f. * Reinhart Schönsee: ''J. M. Millers Prosaschriften als Krisenphänomen ihrer Epoche.'' Hamburg: Univ. Diss. 1972. * Manfred von Stosch (Hg.): ''Der Briefwechsel zwischen Johann Martin Miller und Johann Heinrich Voss.'' Berlin: De Gruyter 2012. (correspondence with J. H. Voss) * Heinz Strauss: ''Der Klosterroman von Millers 'Siegwart' bis zu seiner künstlerischen Höhe bei E. T. A. Hoffmann. Ein Beitrag zur Literaturgeschichte des 12. Jahrhunderts.'' München: Univ. Diss. 1922. * Michael Watzka: "Ein One-Hit-Wonder? Die Lyrik Johann Martin Millers in den Kompositionen seiner Zeitgenossen", in: ''Lenz-Jahrbuch 21'', 2014, S. 111–146. / .

External links

* * * * *
Porträt in der Südwet Presse Ulm

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Johann Martin 1750 births 1814 deaths 18th-century German novelists University of Göttingen alumni German male novelists German-language poets German male poets 18th-century German male writers