Publication of Ode to Joy

Ode to Joy, in German An die Freude, is a poem by the German writer Friedrich Schiller, written in the mid-1780s and published in a literary magazine. It is a celebration of joy, brotherhood and the unity of humankind, expressing the ideals of the Enlightenment. Schiller revised the poem later in life, softening some of its more radical lines. It became widely known when Ludwig van Beethoven set parts of it to music in the choral finale of his Ninth Symphony, completed in 1824. The melody from that movement was adopted as the anthem of the Council of Europe and later of the European Union, in an arrangement by Herbert von Karajan, without the words.

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