Wilhelm Nienstädt

Wilhelm Nienstädt ( born October 16, 1784 in Geitelde (now Brunswick), † April 28, 1862 in Wolfenbüttel ) was a Prussian prince educator and writer.

Life

The son of a pastor's family studied theology at Helmstedt and Göttingen. Already in 1806, published in Nienstädt edited by Heinrich von Kleist and Adam Heinrich Müller magazine Phoebus an essay entitled From the didactic poetry.

After graduation, he undertook first a two-year educational journey (probably Italy) and then worked as a private tutor in various noble families, including the Count Haeseler and the house of Count von Voss. On the recommendation of the Minister of Foreign Affairs later to become Prussian Ancillon Nienstädt in summer 1815 Educator of the Prussian Prince Albrecht, son of Frederick William III. appointed.

Thus begins for Nienstädt the most productive as a writer, which lasts about ten years. In 1816 the romantic comedy seems a Zaubertag, 1819 two-volume critical cultural-historical treatise attempt a representation of our time ( published anonymously ) and 1820, the poems mixed content, a work that also contains a dramatic fragment and the epic Olint and Elvire addition to numerous romanticized poems and ballads.

1822 Nienstädt is appointed to the Privy Councilor. A short time later, but he is - dismissed from service - honorably and with assurance of a pension. 1826 published Nienstädt the comprehensive seven dramas cycle the Hohenstaufen and the drama of Charles V. 1829 he moved his residence from Berlin in the location near Brunswick Village Hall and marries the pastor's daughter Johanna Henriette Augusta Pauli. Whether he again was active in the remaining thirty-three years of his life as a writer or a public office, is not known.

Importance

Nienstädts inspired by Fichte cultural pessimism makes a break in continuity at the beginning of the modern era, which was caused by the invention of the printing press, the Reformation, by the invention of gunpowder and by the discovery of America. Although he praises the Entdogmatisierung religion and a burgeoning democratic self-confidence, but condemns competition and profit-making, political power poker, alienation and individualism. The Enlightenment, the results of which he estimates in part, have contributed to the love and tradition were replaced by thinking in cold terms. Nienstädt was a supporter of the Prussian monarchy and rejected the French Revolution is fiercely.

Of his works have only inspired by Friedrich von Raumer Hohenstaufen dramas experienced some reverberation to the history of drama in the following years and decades.