Hölderlin

Friedrich Hölderlin (1770–1843) was a German poet and translator whose work bridged late Enlightenment classicism and early German Romanticism. He is known for lyrical, highly elevated language and for a vision of poetry as a sacred, transformative force that links humans, nature, and the divine.

Born in Lauffen am Neckar, Hölderlin studied theology at the University of Tübingen's Stift, where he formed lasting friendships with the philosophers Friedrich Schelling and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. The circle around him helped shape a generation of writers and thinkers. Hölderlin's early poems drew on Greek tragedy, myth, and classical forms, often addressing political and religious themes with a sober, austere style.

Among his major works are the novel Hyperion (1797–1800) and a celebrated body of lyric poetry, including Hymnen an die Nacht (Hymns to the Night) and the poetry sequence Patmos. His later poems lean toward a vision of unity among gods, humans, and nature, expressed in a diction that alternates between classical restraint and ecstatic surge. He also translated Greek authors and wrote treatises on aesthetics and religion.

From 1802 Hölderlin suffered a mental illness and spent the remainder of his life in various care settings, ultimately living in the Hölderlin Tower in Tübingen, where he died in 1843. Although little of his work was published or widely read during his lifetime, his writings were revived in the 20th century and are now seen as a cornerstone of modern German poetry.

His influence extends beyond literature to philosophy and criticism, shaping later poets and European modernists through his fusion of classical poetics with Romantic spirituality.