Christoph Martin Wieland(1733-1813)

Christoph Martin Wieland, a famous German author of the literary enlightenment, was born in Oberholzheim, now Biberach, in South Germany. After education in several schools, mainly religious, he moved to Switzerland as the assistant of Bodmer, another famous author. After short stays again in Biberach and as a professor on the university of Erfurt he went to Weimar, where the duchess, Anna Amalia, assembled many of the greatest thinkers of her time, beside Wieland for example Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich von Schiller. Wieland died 1813 in Weimar. Wieland is best known for his novels, which established the genre in German literature. Beside these he wrote many epic poems, translated a lot of foreign literature into German and was the editor of the "Merkur", the leading magazine of his time.