Verhandlungen mit Schiller. Historische Reflexion und literarische Verarbeitung des Dreißigjährigen Kriegs im ausgehenden 18. Jahrhundert

The thesis presents an analysis of Friedrich Schiller’s works on the Thirty Years’ War: the historiographical treatise Geschichte des dreyßigjährigen Kriegs (1790-1792) and the dramatic trilogy Wallenstein (1800). The research has not only been conducted in relation to other significant works of the author, but also to other literary texts of the late 18th century which revolve around the same topic and which have mostly remained unexplored by critics. The corpus includes works by Benedikte Naubert, Gerhard Anton von Halem, A.G.F. Rebmann, Johann Nepomuk Komareck and Niklas Vogt. The selected texts differ consistently from one another in terms of genre, theme and literary quality. However, each of these documents has much to convey about aesthetical, historical, political and philosophical issues that are central to the culture of the late 18th century. The aim of this research is to contextualise these texts within their Entstehungshorizont, to analyse the discourses they engage in and to explain the reasons for the growing interest of the time for the Thirty Years’ War, thus shedding new light on Schiller’s works.