Klinger's Wieland

Abstract

The personal and literary relationship between Wieland and Friedrich Maximilian Klinger offers a paradigm for the interaction of Wieland and the Storm and Stress in its early as well as later manifestations.1 As a Goetheaner Klinger joined in the ad hominem attacks on the established writer, was then swayed by Goethe's conversion to Wieland and was later himself converted by the older man's personal charm. He soon had reason to suspect Wieland's professed approbation for him while at the same time learning to appreciate and evaluate Wieland's work which was then to affect his own. On the other side, Wieland viewed the young L6wenblutsauffer with bemused tolerance and came to respect his later work, although without overt enthusiasm. It is our aim to depict here some of the stages of this complex relationship and to show in detail the nature of Klinger's reading of Wieland. In the Storm and Stress period Wieland was perceived as a frivolous and gallicized author whose work undermined the roots of morality. This was the point of attack for the Hainbiindler who celebrated Klopstock's birthday in 1773 by dancing around an oak tree and burning Wieland's Idris. It was also the salient point in Klinger's defamation of Wieland in his youthful drama Das leidende Weib.2 Early in that play the chambermaid Louisa reads to her