Friedrich Schiller

Ode to Joy is Schiller's 1785 poem celebrating human fellowship and joy. Ludwig van Beethoven later used a version of it in the choral finale of his Ninth Symphony.

Major plays include The Robbers, Don Carlos, Wallenstein, Mary Stuart, and William Tell. The Robbers, first performed in 1782, made Schiller famous as a dramatist of rebellion and moral conflict.

Schiller and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe formed a major literary friendship in Weimar in the 1790s. Their collaboration is central to what is often called Weimar Classicism.

Schiller's play William Tell dramatizes the Swiss legend of resistance to Habsburg rule. It premiered in 1804 and remains one of his most widely recognized dramas.