Miller, Johann Martin

▪ German poet, novelist, and preacher

born Dec. 3, 1750, Imperial City of Ulm [Germany]

died June 21, 1814, Ulm, Württemberg

      German poet, novelist, and preacher known for moralizing, sentimental novels and folk song-like poems.

      Miller studied theology at Göttingen where, in 1772, he and other students established the Göttinger Hainbund (Göttinger Hain), a group that met to discuss their poems and to further the ideals of friendship, virtue, freedom, love of fatherland, and an interest in Germanic history. The group espoused many of the tenets of the Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress) movement centred on J.W. von Goethe. Of the three novels Miller published in 1776—Beytrag zur Geschichte der Zärtlichkeit (“Contribution to the History of Tenderness”); Siegwart. Eine Klostergeschichte, 2 parts (Siegwart, A Tale); and Briefwechsel dreyer akademischer Freunde (“Correspondence of Three Academic Friends”)—the first two are considered imitative successors to Goethe's 1774 novel Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (“The Sorrows of Young Werther”). Miller returned to Ulm, teaching at the gymnasium there, serving as a minister, and eventually becoming dean of Ulm in 1810. Continuing to write, he published a moral weekly from 1779 to 1781 and produced two more novels, a book of poems, and two collections of sermons.

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