page_title: Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock
section_title: Denmark and Germany
hierarchical_section_title: Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock / Biography / Denmark and Germany
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (1724-1803), German poet
context_page_description: Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock was a German poet. His best known work is the epic poem Der Messias. One of his major contributions to German literature was to open it up to exploration outside of French models.
context_section_description: A new era in German literature had commenced, and the identity of the author soon became known. In Leipzig he also wrote a number of odes, the best known of which is An meine Freunde (1747), afterwards recast as Wingolf (1767). He left the university in 1748 and became a private tutor in the family of a relative at Langensalza, where unrequited love for a cousin (the "Fanny" of his odes) disturbed his peace of mind. For that reason he gladly accepted in 1750 an invitation from Bodmer, the translator of Paradise Lost, to visit him in Zürich, where Klopstock was initially treated with every kindness and respect and rapidly recovered his spirits. Bodmer, however, was disappointed to find in the young poet of the Messias a man of strong worldly interests, and a coolness sprang up between the two men.
  At this juncture Klopstock received from Frederick V of Denmark, on the recommendation of his minister Count von Bernstorff (1712–1772), an invitation to settle in Copenhagen with an annuity of 400 thalers, in the hope that he would complete Der Messias there. The offer was accepted.
  On his way to the Danish capital, Klopstock met in Hamburg the woman who later in 1754 became his wife, Margareta (Meta) Möller, the "Cidli" of his odes. She was the daughter of a Hamburg merchant and an enthusiastic admirer of his poetry. His happiness was short, as she died in 1758, leaving him broken-hearted. His grief at her loss finds pathetic expression in the fifteenth canto of the Messias.
  The poet subsequently published his wife's writings, Hinterlassene Werke von Margareta Klopstock (1759), which give evidence of a tender, sensitive and deeply religious spirit. See also Memoirs of Frederick and Margaret Klopstock (English translation by Elizabeth Smith, London, 1808) and her correspondence with Samuel Richardson, published 1818.
caption: Portrait of Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock circa 1779 by Jens Juel
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