Phöbus
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Phöbus — Ein Journal für die Kunst was a literary journal published by Heinrich von Kleist and Adam Heinrich Müller in Dresden between January 1808 and December 1808, in twelve issues grouped into nine instalments. Many of Kleist's most famous works appeared in print for the first time within its covers.
The journal's name is that of the sun-god Phoebus, generally associated with the Greek Apollo. The frontispiece of the first issue, designed by Ferdinand Hartmann, shows Phoebus in a chariot, drawn by sun-horses over the town of Dresden. Kleist wrote: "Thunder on, O thou, with thy flaming steeds, / Phoebus, bringer of day, into infinite space!"
The periodical was modelled on Friedrich Schiller's journal Die Horen. The original plan of including the work of Schiller and Goethe came unravelled early on, especially when Goethe distanced himself from the project. Müller and Kleist having neither well-developed plans nor good contacts with book-sellers, the journal quickly failed and lost them money. The exact circulation is not known, but the biographer Klaus Günzel estimates that hardly more than 150 copies were printed of each issue.
