300 years of Klopstock

300 years ago, Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, the first true poet god of the German language, was born, and practically nothing is happening. What is going on?

It is a sad truth that all that remains of some of the gods’ favourites are street names, even though these men (and very few women) once drove an entire era – in Klopstock’s case, one could even say: completely crazy. Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock was the greatest German poet before Goethe. And this greatness was paid off to him in hedonistic coin: educated women were addicted to his odes and undoubtedly also to his sex appeal; his name sounded to his contemporaries like that of an entertainer sent by God; and anyone who could not immediately follow up the line “Welcome, o silver moon” with the next line “Beautiful, silent companion of the night!” was at best useful as a candleholder at the court of the muses. Tempi passati, as I said.