Short answers, pulled from the story.
Wieland is best known for writing Geschichte des Agathon (1766-1767), recognized as the first Bildungsroman, and for the romantic epic Oberon (1780), which became the basis for two operas. He also produced the first substantial German prose translation of Shakespeare's plays, covering twenty-two works in eight volumes.
Wieland was born on the 5th of September 1733 in Oberholzheim, a village that was then split between the Free Imperial City of Biberach an der Riss and Gutenzell Abbey, in what is now Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
A Bildungsroman is a novel that traces the moral and intellectual formation of its central character. Geschichte des Agathon, published in 1766-1767, is recognized as the first example of the form. Gotthold Lessing called it "a novel of classic taste" and identified it as marking an epoch in the development of the psychological novel.
Two separate operas were based on Wieland's Oberon (1780): one by Friederike Sophie Seyler and one by Carl Maria von Weber, both sharing the same title as the source epic.
Wieland founded Der teutsche Merkur in 1773, and under his editorship until 1789 it became the most influential literary review in Germany. The journal attracted controversy, including a satire by Goethe, but also helped draw Goethe, Herder, and Schiller to Weimar.
At least three of Wieland's works appeared on the official Bavarian Illuminati reading list: Geschichte des Agathon, Der goldene Spiegel, and Beiträge zur geheimen Geschichte des menschlichen Verstandes und Herzens. He also wrote Das Geheimnis des Kosmopoliten-Ordens (1788), which examined the political implications of secret societies.