Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher: Kritische Gesamtausgabe, V, 12: Briefwechsel 1811–1813 (Briefe 3561–3930). Edited by Simon Gerber and Sarah Schmidt

Abstract

This further publication within the critical edition of Schleiermacher’s works offers us nearly 150 of his letters within a correspondence logging 370 letters sent and received in the two years from January 1811 through to June 1813, plus a few stray recent discoveries from 1808 to 1810 which top up material in earlier volumes (V, 10 and V, 11). This was an especially busy period in Schleiermacher’s life. His various responsibilities and roles alone take up half a page to list in the introduction (p. xxx-viii). These included being the first Professor of Theology in the University in Berlin, a year-long stint as Dean of the Theology Faculty, and member of the philosophy section of the Prussian Academy of Sciences from 1810, as well as having a role in the Education Department of the Prussian Government, not to mention his pastorate at Berlin’s Trinity Church, taken up in 1809. It is not surprising that he got by (or needed to get by) on four hours’ sleep a night and had regular periods of stomach cramp, including a seven-month bout during 1811, much commented on both by Schleiermacher himself and his correspondents.