Die Romantik

Romantik, Die (The Romantic movement), the German phase of a general trend in Europe, which was, however, not synchronized in all countries. Though a cognate movement had existed in Germany in the 1770s (see Sturm und Drang), the Romanticism beginning in the second half of the 1790s did not directly link up with it. German Romanticism is commonly classified into phases, both geographical and temporal, but the movement as a whole is fluid, even kaleidoscopic; prominent writers of classicism (see Klassizismus), such as Goethe and Schiller, are briefly associated with the Romantic movement. Biedermeier and Poetic Realism (see Poetischer Realismus) are also indebted to Romanticism.

Early Romanticism (the Jenaer, Ältere Romantik, or Frühromantik) was until c.1802 centred on Jena and Berlin; the main period of Romanticism (Jüngere Romantik or Hochromantik) falls into the years of the Napoleonic Wars and overlaps with the beginning of the Biedermeier period in 1815. It was centred on Heidelberg (Heidelberger Romantik) and Berlin, and later spread to the provinces, notably Württemberg (see Schwäbischer Dichterkreis).

Romanticism originated with a group of intellectuals of austerely classical education: in 1796. A. W. and F. von Schlegel, accompanied by the wife of the former (see Schelling, Caroline), arrived in Jena and found a congenial associate in J. G. Fichte, since 1794 professor of philosophy at Jena University. Goethe's Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre (1795) was in many respects a seminal work in this stage of Romanticism. In 1799 L. Tieck arrived, and through him contacts with his close friend Wackenroder (who never visited Jena) were established. Of particular importance was the association of Novalis with Jena. Both he and F. Schlegel made important contributions to Athenäum, founded in 1798 by the Schlegel brothers as the organ for their reassessment of literature and aesthetics. Another contributor, forming one of the links of the Jena group with Berlin, was the Protestant theologian F. D. E. Schleiermacher; his Christology was as influential as Fichte's subjective Idealism and the less systematized Nature philosophy of F. W. J. von Schelling, Fichte's successor at Jena University from 1798.

In the first decade of the 19th c. L. J. von Arnim and C. Brentano settled in Heidelberg. They were well acquainted with the works of the early Romantics, which tended to be exemplifications of theory. The fruit of the collaboration of Arnim and Brentano was the collection of German folk-songs, Des Knaben Wunderhorn (1805-8), one of the landmarks of the German Romantic movement, and a collection which differs in its nationalistic stance from the cosmopolitan approach of Herder. J. J. Görres, from 1806 in Heidelberg, published Die teutschen Volksbücher (1806-8) based on the chap-books (see Volksbuch) of earlier centuries, especially the 16th c. The interest in the folk-song and ballad, folk-tale and folk-lore was accompanied by a devotion to the fairy-tale (see Märchen). While in Kassel the brothers J. and W. Grimm compiled Kinder- und Hausmärchen (2 vols., 1812-14), testifying to the timeless components of national consciousness. Fairy motifs stirred the imagination and provided an outlet for introspection. The fairy-tale (Kunstmärchen), frequently employing oriental motifs, became a favourite vehicle for allegory. The exploitation of the irrational, of the occult, and of animal magnetism (see Mesmer, F. A.), accentuating the sinister and inexplicable, and culminating in the use of the grotesque (notably in E. T. A. Hoffmann) accorded with the Romantic conception of irony (see Romantische Ironie), which found its last theorist in F. Solger. The subconscious was further explored by Romantic preoccupation with dreams, influenced by G. H. Schubert (especially Die Nachtseite der Naturwissenschaften, 1808, and Die Symbolik des Traumes, 1814).

In 1807 J. von Eichendorff came to Heidelberg as a student; he became one of the greatest of German lyric poets, responsive to folk-songs and original in his use of their tradition. In him the Romantic passion for Nature is most fully developed. He later moved to Berlin with which, in addition to Fichte, were associated Arnim (a Berliner by birth), Brentano, A. W. Schlegel, Z. Werner, E. T. A. Hoffmann, F. de la Motte Fouqué, and A. von Chamisso. The writers of provincial Romanticism are mainly Swabians and include L. Uhland, G. Schwab, J. Kerner, W. Hauff, and, more remotely, E. Mörike.

Two great names connected with Romanticism but not associated with any school of Romanticism are H. von Kleist and H. Heine. Hölderlin, in spite of his classical preoccupations and aspirations, exhibits some Romantic features. An expression of a late Romantic attitude is also to be found in the Weltschmerz of N. Lenau.

The Romantic movement gave a primacy to the artist; Tieck and Wackenroder collaborated in the perceptive essays of the Herzensergießungen eines kunstliebenden Klosterbruders (1797), which demonstrate intuitive understanding of the creative process. Novalis invented the symbol of the blue flower (see Blaue Blume), expressing Romantic love and longing (Sehnsucht). Romanticism also had appreciable impacts upon painting (see Füssli, J. H., Runge, P. O., Friedrich, C. D., Kersting, F. G., Nazarener, Richter, L., Schwind, M., and Spitzweg, C., ) and music (see Beethoven, Weber, C. M. von, Schubert, F., Loewe, C., Lortzing, A., and Schumann, R.).