Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder, the son of a Prussian civil servant, was born 13 July 1773 in Berlin and, after studying at Erlangen in Southern Germany and a close friendship and collaboration with Ludwig Tieck, he died of typhoid on 13 February 1798 in Berlin at the age of twenty-four. This is his life story in a nutshell, but each word above is significant: although this young genius had devoted only the last two years of his life (1796-98) to publications, both his career and writings have become important proof and documentation of the changes taking place within the intellectual and artistic scene of the Age of Goethe.

Berlin was the center of late Enlightenment, where Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and Moses Mendelssohn were friends with Friedrich Nicolai (1733-1811), a staunch and rigid

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Citation: Hoffmeister, Gerhart. "Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 January 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5561, accessed 19 March 2024.]

5561 Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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