Friedrich Hebbel

Christian Friedrich Hebbel (18 March 1813 – 13 December 1863) was a German poet and dramatist.

Biography Hebbel was born at Wesselburen in Dithmarschen, Holstein, the son of a bricklayer . He was educated at the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums, a grammar school in Hamburg, Germany. Despite his humble origins, he showed a talent for poetry,

A year later he went to Heidelberg University to study law, but gave it up and went on to the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, where he devoted himself to philosophy, history and literature. In 1839, Hebbel left Munich and walked all the way back to Hamburg, where he resumed his friendship with Elise Lensing, whose self-sacrificing assistance had helped him over the darkest days in Munich. In the same year, he wrote his first tragedy, Judith (1840, published 1841), which was performed in Hamburg and Berlin the following year, making his name known throughout Germany. Herod and Mariamne (1850)

His collected works were first published by E. Kuh in 12 volumes at Hamburg, 1866–1868.

Music Some of Hebbel's works were set to music, such as his poem Requiem by Peter Cornelius and in Max Reger's Hebbel Requiem. Reger set his poem "Die Weihe der Nacht" for voice, choir and orchestra. Robert Schumann's opera Genoveva is based on a play of Hebbel.

In 1872 Samuel de Lange used Hebbel's poem "Ein frühes Liebesleben" in an unusual instrumentation for voice, string quartet and harp. An arrangement with piano instead of harp was made during a centennial revival of Samuel and 's music.

Eduard Lassen wrote incidental music to Die Nibelungen in 1873. In 1878/79 Franz Liszt combined music from the Die Nibelungen setting with excerpts from Lassen's incidental music to Goethe's Faust, in a single piano transcription, Aus der Musik zu Hebbels Nibelungen und Goethes Faust (S.496).

In 1922 Emil von Reznicek composed an opera Holofernes after Hebbel's Judith und Holofernes.

Anna Teichmüller used Hebbel's text for her composition Schlafen, Schlafen, opus 24.

The poem "Dem Schmerz sein Recht" was set to music by Alban Berg in 4 Gesänge, Op. 2, No 1.

Films Glutmensch (A man aglow, 1975), 90 minutes; writer and director: Jonatan Briel; production: SFB and Literarisches Berliner Kolloquium; plot: Hebbel is confined to his sickbed on his 50th birthday, and recalls his youth in his feverish dreams.