SCHROETER
SCHWANER
youth. Mrs. Cronwright-Schreiner s rejec
tion of all religion is partly based on an
intense human idealism. " I have seen
her," says Edward Carpenter, " shake her
little fist at the Lord in heaven, and curse
him down from his throne " (My Days and
Dreams, p. 229). She has taken a very
progressive and humane part in the difficult
questions of South African life.
SCHROETER, Eduard, German-Ameri can writer. B. June 4, 1810. Ed. Jena University. Schroeter was trained in theology, but he outgrew the Christian creed and joined one of the " Free Reli gious " communities of Germany. In 1850 he migrated to America, and he did a good deal of Rationalist lecturing there. He contributed regularly to the German- Ameri can Rationalist publication, Der Freidenker, and attended the International Congress of Freethinkers at Brussels in 1881. D. Apr. 2, 1888.
SCHUMANN, Robert, German com poser. B. June 8, 1810. Ed. Leipzig and Heidelberg Universities. Schumann showed a passion for music at an early age, but his father died, and he went to the univer sities to qualify for the more lucrative profession of law. It proved too uncon genial, and from 1830 onward he devoted himself entirely to music. He studied at Leipzig, under a famous pianist; but an accident to his finger compelled him to abandon playing and turn to composition. In 1834 he and others (the " David Leaguers ") banded themselves together in a campaign for the ejection of " Philis tines " from the musical world, and founded the Neue zeitschrift fur Musik, which Schumann edited. In 1843 he began to teach at the Leipzig Conservatory, and from 1844 to 1850 he was at Dresden. Later he was Musical Director of Diissel- dorf. During all these years he was composing the pieces which have put him in the front rank of German musicians. Schumann, as we learn from his letters, rejected the Christian creed during his 721
student years. His favourite authors,
constantly quoted in his letters, were
J. P. Richter and Goethe. He followed
Goethe s philosophy. Unfortunately, he
was subject to morbid fits of melancholia,
and he in the end became insane. D.
July 29, 1856.
SCHWALBE, Professor Gustav, M.D., D.Sc., German anthropologist. B. Aug. 9, 1844. Ed. Quedlinburg Gymnasium, and Zurich, Bonn, and Berlin Universities. He qualified as a doctor, and began to practise in 1867. Two years later he was appointed assistant physician at the Amsterdam Insti tute. He served as military surgeon in the Franco-German War, and was at the close invited to a chair at Leipzig University. From 1873 to 1881 he was professor at Jena ; from 1881 to 1883 at Konigsberg ; and since 1883 he has been professor of anatomy and Director of the Univer sity Anatomical Institute at Strassburg. Schwalbe s earlier works are physiological ; but in the nineties he travelled considerably, and won a high position as an anthropologist (Studien iiber den Pithecanthropus Erectus, 1899 ; Die Vorgeschichte des Menschen, 1904 ; etc.). His degree in science was awarded by Cambridge University ; and he is a member of the Berlin and Stockholm Academies of Science, and other learned bodies. He is an Agnostic.
SCHWANER, Wilhelm, German writer. B. Nov. 10, 1863. Ed. Carlsbach Gym nasium, Hamburg Seminary, and Berlin University. He was a teacher from 1885 to 1894, when he joined the staff of the Kieler Neueste Nachrichten. In 1896-97 he was editor of the Berliner Reform, and since 1897 he has edited and published the Volkserzieher and Upland. Schwaner is very zealous for popular enlightenment, and some of his Rationalistic works (Germanen- bibel, 2 vols., 1896 and 1910 ; Gottsuchen der Volker, 1908 ; etc.) have had a large circulation. He is a Pantheist of the Goethe school, with a sentimental regard for Christianity and a disdain of its doc- 722
