Schack von Staffeldt

Schack von Staffeldt (28 March 1769 – 28 December 1826) or Adolph Wilhelm Schack von Staffeldt was a Danish author of two collections of poetry. He is famous for "being late", publishing his collection of poetry intended to introduce Romanticism in Denmark a year after his younger rival, Adam Oehlenschläger did it. Staffeldt was not held in high regard in his own time but is acknowledged as one of the most important Romantic Danish poets by later generations.

Life and career Staffeldt was born in Gartz on Rügen in 1769. The son of an immigrant German, he had hoped to be the first to introduce the dawning German Romanticism in Danish literature. Staffeldt underwent a military education at the cadet academy but one of his teachers, W. H. F. Abrahamson stirred the young man's interest in literature. As a lieutenant he studied at the Georg-August Universität in Göttingen in 1791–1793.