ABSTRACT
Schiller had come to Ludwigsburg with his father, a barber-surgeon in a hussar regiment, who had retired there in 1766. The luxury and dissipation of Ludwigsburg, then at their height, offended Schiller’s sensibilities, and far from arousing his admiration, merely shocked him. Schiller, as the son of an officer, was admitted into the circle of the noblemen’s sons, but this privilege gave him little protection from the ill-treatment meted out to the sons of commoners. Schiller’s happier moments at the Karlsschule were spent with his father, who retired to Solitude in 1770 with the title of Inspector of Gardens; or when he had a chance to display his histrionic talents in the small troupe recruited from his comrades. In 1780, the final draft of his play being complete, Schiller had it printed at his own expense, borrowing the 150 florins demanded by the printer from his schoolmates.
