By the end of the 1770s the Sturm und Drang had nearly run its course. Goethe had moved to Weimar in 1775 and had put his wild youth behind him, while in 1780 Lenz and Klinger left Germany for Russia, the former drifting in and out of madness and searching for employment, the latter to begin what would be an illustrious military career. But in January 1782 a drama appeared on the Mannheim stage that brought the spirit back to life. Its author was Friedrich Schiller, and his play, Die Räuber (published 1781), added a new dimension to the Sturm und Drang by not only depicting the turbulence of an eighteenth-century Germany out of order but also allowing audiences to luxuriate in the feeling that they could rise above the turbulence and even turn it to their own advantage. There followed three more plays in which he extended the tradition into the mid-1780s: the middle-class tragedy Kabale und Liebe (1784) and two historical dramas, Die Verschwörung des Fiesco zu Genua (1782) and finally Don Carlos (1787), during whose composition Schiller gradually moved away from the Sturm und Drang.

Friedrich Schiller was born on November 10, 1759, in Marbach in Württemberg. Although he had aspired to the clergy, at thirteen he was ordered to enroll in Duke Karl Eugen's new military academy in Stuttgart, where he studied medicine. He graduated in 1780 and was assigned to a regiment. But Schiller was more interested in a literary career, and when Die Räuber, his first play, was performed, he went absent without leave to attend the premiere.