Friedrich Ludwig Zacharias Werner

Werner, Zacharias, in full Friedrich Ludwig Zacharias (Königsberg, 1768-1823, Vienna), the principal dramatist of the Romantic movement (see Romantik), was the son of a professor at Königsberg University; his mother had a history of mental illness. Werner worked in the Prussian civil service in Warsaw and in Berlin. At the age of 31 he made his third marriage, two earlier unions having been dissolved. In 1807 this marriage also ended in divorce, and at the same time Werner resigned from the civil service and devoted himself to writing.

As a young man Werner had published poems (Vermischte Gedichte, 1789), but the influence of the Romantics unexpectedly sent him to the drama, in which he developed a new form of broadly presented historical play tinged with mysticism; Die Söhne des Tals (2 vols., 1803) was followed by Das Kreuz an der Ostsee (1806) and by Martin Luther oder Die Weihe der Kraft (1807), which, when performed in 1806 in Berlin, had a succès de scandale. In the years 1807-10 Werner travelled in Europe, visiting Goethe in Weimar (1807-8) and Mme de Staël at Coppet. At this time he wrote his highly original and sensational long one-act fate tragedy (see Schicksalstragödie), Der vierundzwanzigste Februar (performed 1810 in Weimar, published 1815), which set a fashion in the theatre lasting for more than a decade. In 1810 Werner was converted in Rome to Roman Catholicism, and in 1813 he was ordained priest. Die Weihe der Unkraft (1814) is a recantation of the eulogy of Luther contained in the play of 1807.

Other early plays include the tragedies Attila (1808) and Wanda, Königin der Sarmaten (1810). The Napoleonic Wars and the Wars of Liberation inspired the poems ‘Klagen um seine Königin Luise von Preußen’ (1810), ‘Kriegslied für die zum heiligen Kriege verbündeten deutschen Heere’ (1813), and ‘Te Deum zur Einnahme von Paris’ (1813). Werner was appointed an honorary canon of St Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna, and was a fashionable preacher, but his later plays, Cunegunde, die Heilige (1815) and Die Mutter der Makkabäer (1820), are of little significance.

An unauthorized edition of his plays (Theater, 6 vols.) appeared in 1818. Ausgewählte Schriften (15 vols.) were published posthumously in 1840-1 (reprinted with additions in 1969).

1911 engraving of Werner

Friedrich Ludwig Zacharias Werner (November 18, 1768 – January 17, 1823) was a German poet, dramatist, and preacher.

Werner was born at Königsberg in East Prussia. His mother died a religious maniac, and Werner inherited her weak and unbalanced nature. At the University of Königsberg, he studied law; but Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Rousseau's German disciples were the influences that shaped his view of life. For years he oscillated violently between aspirations towards the state of nature, which betrayed him into a series of rash and unhappy marriages, and a sentimental admiration, common to so many of the Romanticists, for the Roman Catholic Church, which ended in 1811 in his conversion. Werner's talent was soon recognized and obtained for him, despite his personal character, a small government post at Warsaw, which he exchanged later for one at Berlin.

In the course of his travels, and by correspondence, Werner became acquainted with many eminent literary figures of the time; and succeeded in having his plays put on the stage, where they met with much success. His Attila is the source for Verdi's opera of the same name. In 1814 he was ordained a priest, and, exchanging the pen for the pulpit, became a popular preacher at Vienna, where, during the famous congress of 1814, his eloquent but fanatical sermons were listened to by crowded congregations. Werner died in Vienna.

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

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