The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1905-05-09
HONOR IS PAID TO
SCH!LLER'S MEMORY
ONE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY
OF DEATH OF GREAT
GERMAN.
Grand Musical Production Is Given
by Local Talent at the Audi
torium Before a Large
Audience.


torium Sunday afternoon when an au.
dience of 1900 was present.
The occasion was the Tooth anniver-
sary of his death and a chorus of 100
voices sang his praises under the direc-
ton of Prof. E. Schelling assisted by
Prof. Reinkendorff's full orchestra
The musical production, "The Song of
the Bell" was rendered in very ca
pable manner.
The orchestra opened with the Pill
grim chorus from Tannhauser and the
overture, Wilhelm Tell"
The prologue was specially written
for the occasion and delivered by Ern-
est Hartman. A very pretty and i'm
pressive ceremony was the crowning
Of the image of Schiller with wreath
of laurels. The Arion Gesang-Verein
and orchestra gave Am Aetar. der
Wahrheit" in an exceptional manner
and was followed by appropriate re-
marks by Pastor C. f. Nau. The me-
mortal address was given by. Hon.
Charles Krichbaum, as follows in part:
THE celebration of the centenary of
Frederick Schiller is as fitting and
commendable, as il is universal and
sincere, Schiller is prominently the
National German poet, the favorite
poet of German youth, beloved by all
the German women, the poet of the
common people, the people who toll,
the poet Of the teacher, the preacher,
the painter, the singer, the player, the
lover of home. of children, of the
fatherland, of the whole human race
Wherever the German language is
spoken. or studied, thither goes the
love of Schiller with his extraordinary
wealth of imagery, with his quench-
less enthusiasm, his noble pathos, his
love of liberty, his contempt of cast
and rank distinctions, his purity of
thought, his glorification of love, his
idealization of women, his sweet dom
esticity, his scorn of wealth for mere
wealth's sake. These most beautiful,
as well as ruggid attributes of charac-
ter constitute, such claim to affection
and popularity as no other German
writer has ever enjoyed, living or dead.
"In making an estimate of Schiller's
place in literature and as benefactor
of the human race, we must remem-
ber that he composed, as Carlyle says,
in language then scarcely settled into
form or admitted to a rank among the
cultivated languages Of Europe, yet
his writings are remarkable for their
extent and variety, as well as their in
trinsic excellence. 1t must be remem-
bered that the German language which
is today one of the most perfect Ian
guages in the civilized world, which
has more resemblance to the Greek in
its Attic purity than any other Ian
guage, full of i1eXibility and "herlich"
music, was at the time of Schiller
much like the English language. O.
$50 Schiller has been the teacher,
has been the inspiration of the great
teachers and scholars of Germany.
This same author says that all through
teenth century Schiller stamped his i'm
press upon the national mind and
heart; that Germany was known
through those three generations as
the country of high thinking and low
living" which was plainly due to
Schiller. His idealism and cosmopoli-
tanism prevails among high and low.
Rarely has poet exercised for so
long, such an overpower and general
sway over the sentiment and intellect
of his race" If every poet could be
termed national in the broadest sense
of that word, it is Schiller. This tre-
mendous influence and power, this alb
sorption as it were, of the works of
German character as apparent to one
living in America, when one contem-
plates the fact as stated by his bio
grapher, that millions more of his
works have been sold in Germany than
those of any other German writer; that
his poems are found IN nearly every
German home, however humble, and
this is true whether the German re-
sides on the Rhine, on the Danube, on
the Hudson or the Mississippi.
"Mr. Wolf Schierbrand in his article
in the North American Review says
that quotations from Schiller are more
often used and more generally under
stood by Germans than are those from
Shakespeare in the English speaking
world; that about the last thing ma
tive German will forget abroad are the
ballads of Schiller he learned by heart
when a small boy. am now prepared
to claim and make the statement that
Friedrich Schiller is the true father of
German Unity; that he did more for
united Germany that Bismarck him