Literature

German Classicism

While German literature goes back to the Middle Ages and even beyond, the international perception of German literature usually starts with Goethe and Schiller. The two friends Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) and Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805) are associated with the “classical” period of German history around 1800. Among other things, they founded the Weimar Theatre in 1799, which led to a renaissance in German drama.

German Romanticism

Romanticism was one of the greatest German literary movements. Its beginning coincided roughly with the classical period around 1800. The romanticists were dedicated to creating an art form that represented a synthesis of nature, science and art. Their preference for feeling over form was an attempt to free society from the cold grip of reason propagated by the Enlightenment. Leaders of the movement which continued to influence Western thought far into the 20th century included the brothers August Wilhelm and Friedrich Schlegel, Joseph von Eichendorff and Ludwick Tieck. E.T.A. Hoffmann was a late romanticist who dealt with the presence of the irrational in our everyday lives. The distorted reality depicted in his works influenced Edgar Allan Poe and Franz Kafka, among many others.

20th Century

Günter Grass was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1999, making him the eighth German to receive the award in the 20th century. While a few of the prize winners have since been forgotten, many others, including Thomas Mann (1929), Hermann Hesse (1946) and Heinrich Böll (1972) have had a profound impact on 20th century thought and literature. Böll and Grass were both members of the Group 47, an influential post-war literary association that successfully encouraged young German authors to find a new voice after World War II. Since German reunification in 1990, Berlin has emerged as the centre of the modern pop literature movement.