The panel discussion in form of a transatlantic dialogue between four experts on Friedrich Schiller will focus on the poet’s theater. Friedrich Schiller — sometimes called the German Shakespeare — was not only one of the most versatile playwrights, but also an early representative of the modern intellectual. 200 years after the poet’s death the panelists will discuss different aspects of his stagecraft and the various existing perceptions of Schiller himself. Jeffrey L. Sammons will address “Schiller — the Realist” while Liliane Weissberg will talk about concepts of realism in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Walter Hinderer will present Schiller’s female characters and Ernst Osterkamp will focus on Wilhelm von Humboldt’s gender theories with regard to Schiller’s heroines.