Schlegel, August Wilhelm von [key], 1767–1845, German scholar and poet. With his brother, Friedrich von Schlegel, he founded the Athenaeum, which he edited (1798–1800). He served as secretary to Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte (later Charles XIV of Sweden) and became professor (1818–45) of art and literary history at Bonn. Schlegel was one of the first critics to see the importance of social evolution in the history of art, and he was a champion of the Nibelungenlied. He is most noted for his extraordinary translations of Shakespeare (1797–1810), later completed by Ludwig Tieck and others, which established Shakespeare's greatness in Germany.
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