Heinrich Leopold Wagner
Heinrich Leopold Wagner (1747-1779) was a prominent German writer associated with the Sturm und Drang literary movement. Born in Strasbourg, his upbringing in a multicultural environment deeply influenced his work, which often featured local dialects, bourgeois themes, and sharp satire. Wagner initially garnered attention for his translation of Montesquieu's "Le Temple de Gnide" and continued to write poetry and plays, although he faced personal and professional challenges, including a public feud with the renowned writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. This feud negatively impacted his reputation during his lifetime, leading to his isolation and unpopularity due to his perceived lack of tact. Despite these challenges, contemporary scholars recognize Wagner as a significant figure within Sturm und Drang, alongside his friend J. M. R. Lenz. His notable works include the drama "Der wohlthätige Unbekannte" and a satirical piece critiquing Voltaire. Wagner's life was tragically cut short, likely due to tuberculosis, but his contributions to German literature continue to be studied and appreciated today.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Heinrich Leopold Wagner
Writer
- Born: February 19, 1747
- Birthplace: Strasbourg, France
- Died: March 4, 1779
Biography
Prolific eighteenth century German writer Heinrich Leopold Wagner is associated with the Sturm und Drang writers. However, his reputation was hindered during his lifetime by a public feud with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and he was personally unpopular because of his remarkable lack of tact and personal affectations. Contemporary scholars, viewing him with greater objectivity and temporal distance, consider him one of the quintessential Sturm und Drang authors, alongside his friend J. M. R. Lenz, due to his use of local dialect and accurate depiction of place, his bourgeois themes, and the bite of his satire.
Born in 1747, Wagner grew up and was educated in the bilingual and multicultural city of Strasbourg. The combination of French and German cultures, as well as the vibrant literary and artistic community at the University of Strasbourg, greatly influenced Wagner. In 1770, the year he matriculated at the university, he produced a critically respected translation of Charles de Montesquieu’s Le Temple de Gnide. By 1772, the year he dropped out of school to become a tutor due to financial difficulties, he had written his first satirical erotic poetry, although this work did not find an audience in the puritanical Alsace.
During the next two years, Wagner worked in Strasbourg and Saarbrücken as a tutor, continuing his writing. He published sporadically in newspapers but his first significant publication was a collection of verse included in the 1774 Leipzig Almanach der deutschen Musen. Later that year, he published a volume of eleven poems called Confiskable-Erzählungen: Wien, bey der Bücher-Censur. He lost his tutoring position that same year when he dedicated a poem to the local regent, with whom his employer was quarreling, unbeknownst to Wagner.
Wagner moved to Frankfurt in the fall of 1774, around the same time as the publication of Goethe’s Die Lieden des jungen Werther (1771-1775; The Sorrows of Werther, 1779). In 1775, Wagner published a scathing satire of the literati who criticized Goethe’s novel and resented his popularity. The work, Prometheus, Deukalion und seine Recensenten: Voran ein Prologus und zuletzt ein Epilogus, was published anonymously and originally attributed to Goethe himself. In the public storm that followed its publication, Goethe deduced the authorship and publicly outed Wagner, causing him to be ostracized by many of his former friends.
Later in 1775, Wagner published his first drama, Der wohlthätige Unbekannte. The play was successful, and Wagner wrote additional plays and translations before returning to Strasbourg in 1776 to resume the legal studies he had abandoned in 1772. He completed his training later that year and shortly thereafter married Theodora Magdalena Friess Müller, an older widow who died in 1778. Wagner continued to write for the theater, associating himself with the Seyler Theater Troop, where his friend Friedrich Maximilian Klinger was poet in residence. In 1776, he also published his only novel, Leben und Tod Sebastian Silligs, but abandoned the genre to avoid being considered a mere imitator of novelist Lawrence Sterne. In 1778, he published his last noteworthy work, a satirical indictment of Voltaire. He died in 1779, probably of tuberculosis.