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Christian of Stolberg-Stolberg

German poet

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 20, 2026
Entity authorityQ215663 ↗
Source-derived summary

Christian, Count of Stolberg-Stolberg (15 October 1748, Hamburg – 18 January 1821, Windeby) was a poet, and brother of Frederick Leopold and Catharine Stolberg.

He received an honorary doctorate from the Kiel University in 1815, was appointed a chamberlain in 1774, and made a Geheimrat in 1808.

Career

In 1770, Stolberg began to study law at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg along with his younger brother Frederick Leopold. Both brothers then continued their studies in Göttingen in 1772. They returned to Copenhagen with their mother in 1773. In 1775, they traveled through Germany and Switzerland together with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe before again returning to Copenhagen. He became a magistrate at Tremsbüttel in Holstein in 1777.

He and his brother Frederick Leopold we frequent collaborators as poets. Of the two brothers, Frederick was undoubtedly the more talented, and though Christian was not a highly original poet, he excelled in expressing gentle sentiments. In 1779, they published a volume of poems together, Gedichte, which was edited by H. C. Boie.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Christian of Stolberg-Stolberg” is german poet. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Christian, Stolberg-Stolberg and German, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1748, 1821, 1815, 1774—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1748-10-15. For this dossier, Christian, Stolberg-Stolberg and German is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “german poet” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q215663. VIAF identifies the subject as 59243435. The Library of Congress control number is no98130435. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1748, 1821, 1815 and 1774.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Christian of Stolberg-Stolberg”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Christian of Stolberg-Stolberg primary sources, Christian of Stolberg-Stolberg archive and Christian research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Christian of Stolberg-Stolberg”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Christian of Stolberg-Stolberg” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.