Christian Gottfried Körner
Encyclopedia
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
– 13 May 1831, Berlin) was a German jurist
Jurist
A jurist or jurisconsult is a professional who studies, develops, applies, or otherwise deals with the law. The term is widely used in American English, but in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth countries it has only historical and specialist usage...
. His home was a literary and musical salon, and he was a friend of Friedrich Schiller
Friedrich Schiller
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German poet, philosopher, historian, and playwright. During the last seventeen years of his life , Schiller struck up a productive, if complicated, friendship with already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang von Goethe...
.
Biography
He studied law at the University of Göttingen and at the University of LeipzigUniversity of Leipzig
The University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in the world and the second-oldest university in Germany...
. He got his degrees at Leipzig. In 1783, he became chief councilor of the consistory
Consistory
-Antiquity:Originally, the Latin word consistorium meant simply 'sitting together', just as the Greek synedrion ....
at Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
; he was appointed to the office of judge in the Court of Appeals in 1790; and, in 1811, he returned to the appellate court.
His home in Dresden was an important center for culture and the arts. Robert Riggs writes:
"The Körner household in Dresden … became a literary and musical salon. Plays and essays were read; SingspielSingspielA Singspiel is a form of German-language music drama, now regarded as a genre of opera...
e and chamber music were performed; and lectures on art were given. Guests and participants included Johann Gottfried von Herder, GoetheJohann Wolfgang von GoetheJohann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
, Wilhelm von HumboldtWilhelm von HumboldtFriedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand Freiherr von Humboldt was a German philosopher, government functionary, diplomat, and founder of Humboldt Universität. He is especially remembered as a linguist who made important contributions to the philosophy of language and to the theory and practice...
, the Schlegel brothers, Ludwig TieckLudwig TieckJohann Ludwig Tieck was a German poet, translator, editor, novelist, writer of Novellen, and critic, who was one of the founding fathers of the Romantic movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.-Early life:...
, NovalisNovalisNovalis was the pseudonym of Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg , an author and philosopher of early German Romanticism.-Biography:...
, and the musicians Johann NaumannJohann Gottlieb NaumannJohann Gottlieb Naumann was a German composer, conductor, and Kapellmeister.- Life :...
, Johann Hiller, Karl ZelterCarl Friedrich ZelterCarl Friedrich Zelter was a German composer, conductor and teacher of music.Zelter became friendly with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and his works include settings of Goethe's poems...
, MozartWolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
, and WeberCarl Maria von WeberCarl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber was a German composer, conductor, pianist, guitarist and critic, one of the first significant composers of the Romantic school....
."
Körner went so far as to have a small theater built in his home, at which his family and friends performed plays. A number of the plays of Friedrich Schiller, his close friend, received their private premieres in this theater. He corresponded with Goethe. Schiller lived with him much of the time between 1785 and 1787.
During the Russian occupation of Leipzig, he was Russian government counselor. In 1815 he was forced to leave his position in Dresden, having come into conflict with its ruler over the issue of collaboration with Napoleon. He found another position, however in the Prussian service 1815 at Berlin, where he was state councilor and later Privy Councilor
Privy council
A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a nation, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the monarch's closest advisors to give confidential advice on...
in the new Ministry of Education.
Works
Among his best-known works are the anonymous Aesthetische Ansichten (Leipzig, 1808), Versuche über Gegenstände der innern Stadtsverwaltung (Dresden, 1812), and Deutschlands Hoffnungen (Leipzig, 1813). Of greater importance is Schillers Briefwechsel mit Körner (edited by Karl GoedekeKarl Goedeke
Karl Friedrich Ludwig Goedeke was a German historian of literature, an author, and a professor. He was born at Celle and was educated at Göttingen, where he was professor from 1873 until his death...
, Leipzig, 1874; by Ludwig Geiger
Ludwig Geiger
Ludwig Geiger was a German author and historian, born at Breslau, a son of Abraham Geiger. After study at Heidelberg, Göttingen, and Bonn, he became docent in history at Berlin in 1873 and in 1880 was appointed to a chair of modern history there...
, Stuttgart, 1895–96). He also prepared the first collected edition of Schiller's works (1812–15) and his son's Poetischer Nachlass Theodor Körner
Theodor Körner (author)
Karl Theodor Körner was a German poet and soldier. After some time in Vienna, where he wrote some light comedies and other works, he became a soldier and joined the German uprising against Napoleon...
s (1815). His collected works are edited by Adolf Stern
Adolf Stern
Adolf Stern was a German literary historian and poet.He was born in Leipzig. He studied at the universities of Leipzig and Jena, and in 1868 was appointed professor of the history of literature in the Königlich-Sächsischen Polytechnikum of Dresden...
(Leipzig, 1881).
Family
Körner married Minna Stock, the daughter of an engraver, in 1785, following the death of his father, who had been implacably opposed to the marriage on grounds of social class. They lived, throughout their entire marriage, with the artist Dora StockDora Stock
Dora Stock was an artist of the 18th and 19th centuries who specialized in portraiture. She was at the center of a highly cultivated household in which a great number of artists, musicians, and writers were guests; and her friends and acquaintances included some of the most eminent figures of her...
, Minna's older sister, with whom they were both close.
The Körners had two children who survived past infancy. Both had short but high-achieving lives: Emma Körner
Emma Körner
Emma Sophie Körner was a German painter and a pupil of Anton Graff. She was the daughter of Christian Gottfried Körner and his wife Minna, who was the sister of the painter Dora Stock. Emma's brother was the poet and soldier Theodor Körner.-References:...
(1788–1815), who became a skilled painter, and Theodor Körner
Theodor Körner (author)
Karl Theodor Körner was a German poet and soldier. After some time in Vienna, where he wrote some light comedies and other works, he became a soldier and joined the German uprising against Napoleon...
(1791–1813), who became a renowned soldier-poet. Both died young: Theodor in 1813 as a casualty of war, and Emma of a sudden illness in 1815; the parents were devastated at their loss.
Further reading
- Jonas, Briefwechsel Wilhelms von HumboldtWilhelm von HumboldtFriedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand Freiherr von Humboldt was a German philosopher, government functionary, diplomat, and founder of Humboldt Universität. He is especially remembered as a linguist who made important contributions to the philosophy of language and to the theory and practice...
mit Körner (Berlin, 1880) - Jonas, Körner, biographische Nachrichten über ihn und sein Haus (Berlin, 1882)
- Weber, W., Briefe der Familie Körner (in Deutsche Rundschau, Vols. XV–XVI)