Written in Our Stars: Schiller's Wallenstein and the Napoleonic Wars

• In Event: The History of Fiction and the Fiction of History

Abstract

Friedrich Schiller remained fascinated by the Thirty Years War throughout his short life and literary career. The German poet even wrote a history of the Conflict in his early years. Yet, most famously, Schiller wrote a trilogy of plays centered around the leader of the Holy Roman Empire's troops, Albrecht von Wallenstein. In these plays, Schiller depicts Wallenstein as paranoid, mystical, obsessed with horoscopes and other omens while ironically losing concern with his immediate political situation. This willful ignorance of reality ultimately leads to his death at the hands of Emperor Ferdinand II's mercenaries, effectively disrupting his massive and expensive army.

This paper traces how Schiller's use of the personages and events of the Thirty Years War, especially Wallenstein's death, serve to criticize Napoleonic conquest in the nineteenth century German Reich. He also depicts the dismal economic conditions that led soldiers to join up with General Wallenstein's army.

This paper also posits that for Schiller, Wallenstein represents both a source of German identity as well as a symbol for the possibility of defeat if Germans leaders refuse to acknowledge the threat Napoleon posed to Europe.

Author

• Alex Donovan Cole, Northeastern State University