Johann Christian Friedrich Holderlin (German: ['jo:han 'kRIsti.a:n 'fRi:

Holderlin began his education in 1776, and his mother planned for him to join the Lutheran church. In preparation for entrance exams into a monastery, he received additional instruction in Greek, Hebrew, Latin and rhetoric, starting in 1782. During this time, he struck a friendship with Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, who was five years Holderlin's junior. On account of the age difference, Schelling was "subjected to universal teasing" and Holderlin protected him from abuse by older students. Also during this time, Holderlin began playing the piano and developed an interest in travel literature through exposure to Georg Forster's A Voyage Round the World.  In 1784, Holderlin entered the Lower Monastery in Denkendorf and started his formal training for entry into the Lutheran ministry. At Denkendotf, he discovered the poetry of Friedrich Schiller and Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, and took tentative steps in composing his own verses. The earliest known letter of Holderlin's is dated 1784 and addressed to his former tutor Nathanael Kostlin. In the letter, Holderlin hinted at his wavering faith in Christianity and anxiety about his mental state.  Holderlin progressed to the Higher Monastery at Maulbronn in 1786. There he fell in love with Luise Nast, the daughter of the monastery's administrator, and began to doubt his desire to join the ministry; he composed Mein Vorsatz in 1787, in which he states his intention to attain "Pindar's light" and reach "Klopstock-heights". In 1788, he read Schiller's Don Carlos on Luise Nast's recommendation. Holderlin later wrote a letter to Schiller regarding Don Carlos, stating: "It won't be easy to study Carlos in a rational way, since he was for so many years the magic cloud in which the good god of my youth enveloped me so that I would not see too soon the pettiness and barbarity of the world."  In October 1788, Holderlin began his theological studies at the Tubinger Stift, where his fellow students included Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Isaac von Sinclair and Schelling. It has been speculated that it was Holderlin who, during their time in Tubingen, brought to Hegel's attention the ideas of Heraclitus regarding the unity of opposites, which Hegel would later develop into his concept of dialectics. In 1789, Holderlin broke off his engagement with Luise Nast, writing to her: "I wish you happiness if you choose one more worthy than me, and then surely you will understand that you could never have been happy with your morose, ill-humoured, and sickly friend," and expressed his desire to transfer out and study law but succumbed to pressure from his mother to remain in the Stift.  During his time in the Stift, Holderlin was an enthusiastic supporter of the French Revolution; he and some colleagues from a "republican club" planted a "Tree of Freedom" in the Tubingen market square, prompting Charles Eugene, the Duke of Wurttemberg himself, to admonish the students at the seminary.

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