Friedrich
Hölderlin, as he is commonly known, was born Johann Christian Freidrich Hölderlin
on the 20th of March 1770. He was born in Lauffen-on-the-Neckar in Swabia, but
after left there his father's death in 1772. He spent most of his childhood in
the neighbouring village of Nürtigen. Hölderlin's education began at the local
'Lateinschule', but it was his mother's intention that he should follow in the
footsteps of his father and enter the service of the church, so he was sent in
1784 to the Monastery School of Denkdorf. After two years he progressed to the
Seminary at Maulbronn and from 1788 until 1793 he studied at the celebrated Theological
Seminary of Tübingen. Before joining the Tübingen Seminary, he made the acquaintance
of Luise Nast, with whom he fell in love, and eventually became engaged. Hölderlin
however broke off the engagement in 1789.Despite his mother's wishes, Hölderlin
had no desire to enter the church, and during his time at Tübingen he became friends
with many well known poets of the era, amongst them Hegel, Schelling, and Matthisson,
and spent time with them discussing the works of Plato, Kant, Jacobi and Schiller,
as well as forming a poetry club with Neuffer and Magenau. After finishing at
Tübingen he became tutor to the son of Charlotte von Kalb in Waltershausen near
Jena, obtaining the post on the recommendation of Stäudlin. However Hölderlin's
relationship with his pupil was stormy, and he quit his position with the von
Kalb family in 1795. During this time he had become acquainted with both Fichte
and Goethe, and returned to Jena after quitting his post in order to continue
this acquaintance. However after a disagreement with Schiller, Hölderlin returned
to his mother's house, until offered another tutoring post, this time with the
Gontard family in Frankfurt. In the summer of 1796, Hölderlin accompanied Susette
Gontard and the children to Kassel to escape the siege of Frankfurt. The increasing
intimacy between Hölderlin and Susette Gontard meant Hölderlin was forced to leave
his post in 1798, but he continued to meet and correspond with Susette secretly.
Having declared to his mother his desire to be a poet, he refused her advice in
1800 to seek a public post, but returned in bad health to stay with her. Once
he recovered his health 1800 became a year of astounding creativity for the poet.
In 1801 he took up another tutoring post, this time is Switzerland, but it lasted
only a short time after which he returned home, hoping to establish himself in
Jena as a teacher of Greek Literature. As this venture failed, he accepted a tutoring
post in Bordeaux, and made the journey there during the winter of 1801, mostly
by foot. The job was again short lived, as Hölderlin left in May, returning to
Germany via Angoulême, Poitiers, Tours and Orléans. When he finally returned to
his family in June he appeared to be suffering a mental disorder, which was greatly
worsened by the news of Susette Gontard's death. Hölderlin never truly recovered,
but he left home again in 1804 in order to take up a post as Court Librarian,
which his good friend Sinclair procured for him. However his mental and physical
health continued to deteriorate, and he had only short periods of lucidity. Eventually,
in 1806 he had to be moved to a private Clinic in Tübingen, and then in 1807 in
to the care of the prosperous and intellectual cabinet-maker Ernst Zimmer. He
remained there for a further 36 years, writing little and mainly absorbed by playing
the piano until his death on June the 7th 1843.