Christoph Martin Wieland

* 05.09.1733 in Biberach an der Riss; ✝ 20.01.1813 in Weimar

Poet, Translator, Polemicist

Biography

Wieland was still a boy when he first became a literary enthusiast, reading the Latin classics and the literature of the Enlightenment – Voltaire, de Fontenelle and Bayle. His first work, the epic fragment ‘Herman’, which he sent to Bodmer, the Zurich literary luminary, was received positively and two years later Wieland accepted Bodmer’s invitation to settle in Zurich. In 1760 he moved back to Biberach where he was at first appointed Senator and later administrator of the Protestant chancellery.  Later on he became director of the Biberacher evangelische Komödiantengesellschaft (Biberach Protestant Theatrical Society) for which he directed William Shakespeare’s The Tempest in his own translation entitled Der erstaunliche Schiffbruch (‘The astonishing shipwreck’). The text is now sadly lost.

From 1761 on Wieland worked on his Shakespeare translations, which were published under the title Theatralische Werke between 1762 and 1766.  This eight volume collection included 22 dramas, many of them translated into German for the very first time. As Wieland had only poor texts to work from, lacked linguistic finesse, and could not access adequate dictionaries, the quality and faithfulness of his translations have always been a matter of debate. Yet the influence of Wieland’s translation on Sturm-und-Drang drama is undeniable.

After 1762 Wieland mostly resided in Weimar, where he had been given a position as educator of the sons of the Duchess Anna Amalia. Wieland developed into one of the leading Enlightenment writers in Germany. Later he became part of the ‘quadrumvirate’ of Weimar Classicism, the other members being Herder, Schiller, and Goethe. Between 1773 and 1789 Wieland edited the journal Der Teutsche Merkur. From 1796 to 1801 he published the journal Attisches Museum, and from 1802 to 1810 acted as co-publisher of its successor, Das neue attische Museum. Today, the Christoph Wieland Prize for outstanding translation is awarded on a biannual basis in his home town of Biberach.

Übersetzungen

• Ein St. Johannis Nachts-Traum (1762)
• Das Leben und der Tod des Königs Lear (1762)
• Wie es euch gefällt; oder, die Freundinnen (1763)
• Maaß für Maaß; oder: Wie einer mißt, so wird ihm wieder gemessen (1763)
• Der Sturm; oder: Die bezauberte Insel (1763)
• Der Kauffmann von Venedig (1763)
• Timon von Athen (1763)
• Leben und Tod des Königs Johann (1763)
• Julius Cäsar (1764)
• Antonius und Cleopatra (1764)
• Die Irrungen, oder: die doppelten Zwillinge (1764)
• Leben und Tod Königs Richard, des zweyten (1764)
• Der Erste Theil, von König Heinreich dem vierten (1764)
• Der Zweyte Theil, von König Heinrich dem vierten (1764)
• Viel Lermens um Nichts (1765)
• Das Trauerspiel, vom Macbeth (1765)
• Die zween edle Veroneser (1765)
• Romeo und Juliette (1766)
• Othello, der Mohr von Venedig (1766)
• Was ihr wollt (1766)
• Hamlet, Prinz von Dänemark (1766)
• Das Winter-Mährchen (1766)

Literature

Primary Literature

• Cyprus. Zurich, 1759.
• Shakespear. Theatralische Werke. 8 vols. Zurich, 1762-66.
• Die Geschichte des Agathon. Original version. 2 vols. Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1766-1767.
• Oberon. Weimar, 1780.
• Menander und Glycerion. Ein Liebesroman in Briefen. Leipzig, 1804. 

Secondary Literature

• Heinz, Jutta (ed.): Wieland-Handbuch. Leben, Werk, Wirkung. Stuttgart and Weimar, 2008.
• Kob, Sabine: Wielands Shakespeare-Übersetzungen. Ihre Entstehung und ihre Rezeption im Sturm und Drang. Frankfurt a. M., 2000.
• McCarthy, John A.: ‘The Making of a German Cult. Wieland and Shakespeare Reception around 1770.’ In: Norbert Bachleitner und Murray G. Hall (eds.): Die Bienen fremder Literaturen. Der literarische Transfer zwischen Großbritannien und Frankreich und dem deutschsprachigen Raum im Zeitalter der Weltliteratur (1770-1820). Wiesbaden, 2012. Pp. 59-79.
• Menke, Bettina und Wolfgang Struck (eds.): Wieland/Übersetzen. Sprachen, Gattungen, Räume. Berlin/ New York, 2010.
• Zaremba, Michael: Christoph Martin Wieland – Aufklärer und Poet. Eine Biografie. Cologne, 2007.

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