The memorials of 2005 and 2009 to Friedrich Schiller invited broader assessments of his achievements and historical legacy, reminding us of his significance in modern cultural history. Celebrated in Germany as a poet, dramatist, and philosopher, whose voice, surprisingly, once again resonated with the spiritual needs of the times, Schiller is today recognized in an international academic context primarily for his theoretical work. Here his aesthetic theories are regarded as the “fountainhead of all later German critical theory” and as an inspiration for the “whole radical aesthetic tradition from Coleridge to Herbert Marcuse.” As such, Schiller's aesthetics has played a significant role in recent Anglo-American confrontations between “humanists and theorists” as well as in ongoing debates over “aesthetics and politics.” Yet despite such continued visibility and attention, Leslie Sharpe's observations certainly hold true that “on many major issues in Schiller's aesthetics, opinion is as divided as ever.” Notwithstanding its “enormous impact and continuing resonance in cultural debates,… many bones of critical contention remain.” This is nowhere more apparent than when larger ideological, or political, implications of Schiller's theoretical work are at issue. In spite of a thriving industry of Schiller exegesis, which ever since its “Postwar Boom” has shown no signs of exhaustion, one still observes widespread disagreement over the actual nature of his political ideals and legacy.