MASONIC BIOGRAPHIES FAMOUS FREEMASONS "The idea of freedom assumed a different form as Schiller advanced in his own development and became a different man. In his youth it was physical freedom that preoccupied him and found its way into his works; in later life it was spiritual freedom." Goethe

Friedrich von Schiller November 10, 1759 - May 9, 1805 Johann Christopher Friedrich von Schiller’s major poetic and dramatic works — Die Räuber (1782), Don Carlos (1787), Wallenstein Stuart (1800) and Wilhelm Tell (1804) — all express a yearning for escape from tyranny. The first of his histories, The History of the Revolt of the Netherlands against the Spanish Government (1788), and a recommendation from Goethe, secured him a professorship at the University of Jena in 1789. Schiller followed his appointment with A History of the Thirty Years War (1791-3) and The Aesthetic Education of Man in a series of letters. Beethoven used Schiller’s poem "Ode to Joy," in his fourth movement of the Ninth Symphony. Tchaikovsky received a Silver Medal for his graduation cantata on Johann Schiller’s An die Freude in December 1865. "His Masonic membership has not been definitely established, but German brethren believe he was a member of Rudolstadt Lodge of Berlin." Freemason Source: Denslow. Image: Duyckinick, Evert A. Portrait Gallery of Eminent Men and Women in Europe and America. New York: Johnson, Wilson & Company, 1873.

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