Jean Paul

Jean Paul, actually Johann Paul Friedrich Richter, is one of the great classics of German literature. He was born on March 21, 1763 in Wunsiedel in the Fichtelgebirge and died on November 14, 1825 in Bayreuth.

The contemporary of Goethe and Schillers wrote novels such as “Hesperus oder 45 Hundposttage. Die unsichtbare Loge. Eine Biographie” (1793), “Siebenkäs. Blumen-, Frucht- und Dornenstücke oder Ehestand, Tod und Hochzeit des Armenadvokaten F. St. Siebenkäs im Reichsmarktflecken Kuhschnappel” (1796 – 1797) and “Titan” (1800 – 1803), stories like the “Leben des vergnügten Schulmeisterlein Maria Wutz in Auenthal. Eine Art Idylle” (1793) and theoretical writings like the “Vorschule der Ästhetik, nebst einigen Vorlesungen in Leipzig über die Parteien der Zeit” (1804).

Jean Paul's youth was characterized by poverty, and even later the author lived a much more modest life than other authors of the time like the privileged Goethe. Books replaced life opportunities that his external circumstances did not allow. In this way, he built a world of himself with writing: tirelessly reading the texts of others and writing his own comprehensive oeuvre.

As of May 2020