Born July 2, 1724, in Quedlinburg; died Mar. 14, 1803, in Hamburg. German poet; author of The Messiah (vols. 1–4, 1751–73), a religious epic in hexameters.

A forerunner of the Sturm und Drang movement, Klopstock attempted to make his lyric works express freedom of emotion and poetic imagination. His dramas include Adam’s Death (1757), Solomon (1764), and David (1772), tragedies based on biblical subjects and emphasizing the necessity for humility. His dramatic trilogy, consisting of Hermann’s Battle (1769), Hermann and the Princes (1784), and Hermann’s Death (1787), deals with Germany’s heroic past.

Klopstock hailed the Great French Revolution, and he was made an honorary citizen of the French Republic. However, his abstractly ethical point of view prevented him from properly appreciating the Jacobin phase of the revolution.