Renowned as a pillar of German Romanticism, Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805) started out wanting to be a priest before writing the first of his successful plays, Die Räuber, while still in school. As a poet, philosopher, and public intellectual, he frequently took up liberalizing causes for republican governments and against the monarchies of his time. While he remains revered among German speakers for his espousal of high ideals of conduct and beauty, outside of the German-speaking world he is best known for [Beethoven’s setting] of his “Ode to Joy.”