Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805) was one of the founders of German Romanticism and one of the greatest playwrights, poets, and theorists writing in German. Some of the most productive years of his short life were spent in Weimar, where his creative friendship with Goethe has taken on a mythic status. His poem "Ode to Joy" became the basis for the finale of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and is now the European Union's anthem. Alexander Schmidt (introducer) teaches at the Friedrich Schiller University, Iena, Germany, and is currently the Feodor Lynen Fellow at the University of Chicago. Keith Tribe (translator) has studied and taught at universities in Germany and the UK and is a distinguished author and translator.
