Hölty, Ludwig Christoph Heinrich

POET (GERMANY)
BORN 21 Dec 1748, Mariensee, Niedersachsen (now part of Neustadt am Rübenberge) - DIED 1 Sep 1776, Hannover, Niedersachsen
GRAVE LOCATION Hannover, Niedersachsen: Alter St.-Nikolai-Friedhof, Klagesmarkt (location unknown but large monument erected in 1901)

Ludwig Hölty was the son of a pastor from Mariensee. He studied theology in Göttingen where he became friends with Johann Martin Miller, Johann Heinrich Voss and Heinrich Christian Boie. With some of them in 1772 he founded their nature loving literary group the Göttinger Hainbund, which is now regarded as part of the Sturm und Drang movement. The group was influenced by Klopstock and detested the work of Wieland.

In 1774 Hölty left university and by that time he no longer wanted to be a clergyman. He went to Hannover in 1775 to ask the physician Jhann Georg Zimmermann (1728-1995) for help with his lung problems, but in In 1776 he died of consumption, aged only 27.

He wrote ballads like "Wer wollte sich mit Grillen plagen" (1776) and his poem "Der alte Landmann an seinen Sohn" was set to music by Mozart. Friedrich Leopold zu Stolberg and Johann Heinrich Voss published his "Gedichte" ("Poems") in 1783 and a new edition enlarged edition including a biography was published by Voss in 1804. Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn and Brahms all set his poetry to music. A complete edition of his work was published by Karl Halm in 1870.

Related persons
• was influenced by Klopstock, Friedrich Gottlieb
• was a friend of Voss, Johann Heinrich

Images

The grave of Ludwig Heinrich Christoph Hölty at the St. Nikolaifriedhof, Hannover.
Picture by Androom (15 Dec 2012)

 

The grave of Ludwig Heinrich Christoph Hölty at the St. Nikolaifriedhof, Hannover.
Picture by Androom (15 Dec 2012)

 


Holyoake, George

Published: 07 Apr 2018
Last update: 15 Mar 2022