Heinrich Jung-Stilling
born Sept. 12, 1740, Grund,
Westphalia [Germany]
died April 2, 1817, Karlsruhe
German writer best known for his
autobiography, Heinrich Stillings Leben,
5 vol. (1806), the first two volumes of
which give a vividly realistic picture
of village life in an 18th-century
pietistic family.
Jung-Stilling worked as a
schoolteacher at age 15 and later was an
apprentice in various trades and a
private tutor, among other occupations.
He then studied medicine at Strasbourg,
where he met J.W. von Goethe.
Jung-Stilling impressed Goethe, who
arranged the publication of the first
(and best) two volumes of Heinrich
Stillings Jugend (1777; “Heinrich
Stilling’s Youth”). This work’s piety
and simplicity was influential in the
pietistic tide opposed to the
rationalism of the Enlightenment. In
1772 Jung-Stilling settled as a
physician at Elberfeld and made a name
for himself with his successful
operations for cataract. In 1778 he
became a lecturer in economics and other
related subjects at the Kameralschule in
Kaiserslautern and then in 1787 at
Marburg. In 1803 he received a pension
from the prince-elector of Baden. In
addition to his autobiography and
economic textbooks, he wrote
mystical-pietistic works and novels, the
best known of which is the allegorical
novel Das Heimweh (1794–97;
“Homesickness”).
