CANITZ, FRIEDRICH RUDOLF, BARON (FREIHERR) VON

born Nov. 27, 1654, Berlin, Brandenburg died Aug. 11, 1699, Berlin one of a group of German court poets who prepared the way for the new ideas of the Enlightenment. His satires (Nebenstunden unterschiedener Gedichte; 1700) are dry and stilted imitations of French and Latin models but helped to introduce classical standards of taste and style into German literature. He was made a privy councillor by the Brandenburg elector Frederick III in 1697. The Holy Roman emperor Leopold I created him a baron.