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German Literature |
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Multimedia |
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Introduction |
German Literature, literature written in the German
language from the 8th century to the present, and including the works of
German, Austrian, and Swiss authors. It may be divided into periods
corresponding generally to successive phases in the development of the German
language and to the growth and unification of Germany as a nation. See also Austrian
Literature; Switzerland:
Literature.
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Old High German Period (800-1100) |
The oldest known literary work in German is
the epic Hildebrandslied (Lay of Hildebrand), which survives in a fragment
dating from about ad 800
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. This work describes, in mixed Low and High
German alliterative verse, the confrontation and the beginning of a battle
between the legendary hero Hildebrand and his son. Other legends deal with such
heroic personalities as Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths; Attila, king of the
Huns; and Siegfried, identified by some authorities as the German chief
Arminius, who defeated the Romans in the Teutoburger Wald, a forest in Lower
Saxony (Niedersachsen) in ad 9.
This pagan tradition was disowned by the
Roman Catholic church, which remained the dominant force in German literature
from the 4th to the 12th century. As early as 381 Ulfilas, bishop of the Goths,
translated the Bible into the vernacular, and an anonymous priest wrote Muspilli
(900; translated 1885), an alliterative poem in Bavarian dialect depicting the
destruction of the world by fire on Judgment Day. Another important work,
written in the old Low German dialect, is the epic Heliand (9th century;
translated 1830), in which Christ is represented as a German prince with feudal
retainers as his disciples.
Under the Frankish ruler Charles Martel and
his successors, many abbeys were founded, among them the famous Saint Gall (now
in Switzerland) and Fulda in Germany. In these abbeys the monks preserved
ancient literature as well as the history of their own time. During this
period, however, the major literary works were written in Latin, with German
used primarily in translations from the older language. An example of an epic
written in Latin is the Walthariuslied (930?; Lay of Walter,
1858) by Ekkehard I the Elder of Sankt Gallen, which tells of the escape of the
hero Walter and his bride from the court of Attila. In addition to such epics,
written for the royal courts, a popular oral literature developed during the
9th and 10th centuries. It consisted largely of tales and ballads, which were
not written down until about the 14th century.
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III |
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Middle High German Period (1100-1370) |
Although prose writing and drama were found
primarily in the form of didactic religious works throughout the Middle High
German period, poetry developed as a mode of secular expression, and epic,
lyric, and satiric forms appeared, giving voice to the virtues of chivalry and
courtly love. The Spielleute, or wandering minstrels, entertained their
listeners with stories of adventure sometimes based on the experiences of
warriors returning from the Crusades. Among the epic poems of the period, K�nig
Rother (King Rother, 1150?) had the greatest success. Another important
style was the court epic, which reached its highest form in the works of Hartmann
von Aue, Gottfried
von Strassburg, Wolfram
von Eschenbach, and Heinrich
von Veldeke. Although the works of such French writers as Chr�tien
de Troyes and others served as models for the German epics, the German
writers expressed their own ideals, found their own form and style, and very
often added depth to the stories. A variation of the court epic was the epic in
which an animal was the central figure. Reinecke Fuchs (1180?; Reynard
the Fox, 1840) by Heinrich der Gl�chezaere is the best example. The
greatest of the German epics is the Nibelungenlied,
set down in the early 13th century by an unknown author.
Lyric poetry during the Middle High German
period developed in the form of the Minnesang, or courtly lyric, composed by
the lyric poets known as minnesingers.
The great master of this type of poetry is Walther
von der Vogelweide. His works, which include love songs, religious lyrics,
and epigrams, express personal and political idealism and assert his
independence of papal authority.
In the second half of the 13th century the
nature of the epic began to change as characters from the middle class and the
peasantry were introduced. The peasantry, once an object of derision, became
increasingly important in literature, figuring prominently in such works as Meier
Helmbrecht, a 13th-century tale of peasant life.
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The Reformation (1500-1700) |
The rise of the middle class in the 14th and
15th centuries and the struggles of the peasants against the nobility
culminated in the great 16th-century religious revolution known as the Reformation.
This movement was reflected in literature, especially by Martin
Luther, whose translation of the Bible established New High German as the literary
language of Germany. In secular literature the aristocratic Minnesang was
discarded in favor of the Meistergesang (?master song?), written by
guilds of artisans known as Meistersinger.
Also popular were the simple lyric poems later collectively titled Volkslied
(?folk songs?). The Schwank, a farcical form of comic anecdote, gave
popular expression to the stories of sly rogues such as Till
Eulenspiegel. In the famous Das Narrenschiff (1494; The Ship of
Fools, 1509) the humanist poet Sebastian
Brant satirized more than 100 contemporary forms of foolishness and
immorality. Another successful author was Johann
Fischart, a satiric poet and polemical writer for the Protestant cause, who
based his material on the adventures of Gargantua and Pantagruel, characters
created by the French satirist Fran�ois
Rabelais. This period marked the first appearance in literature of the
legendary scholar Johann
Faust in the anonymous prose fiction Historia von Dr. Johann Fausten,
published in 1587.
Late in the 15th century German drama,
hitherto restricted to passion plays and other religious spectacles, began to
take on secular form in the Fastnachtsspiele (?Shrovetide plays?),
allegorical comic dramas performed during the carnival season. Worldly elements
gradually penetrated even the religious Christmas and Easter plays. Among the
important dramatists of the Reformation period were Burkard Waldis, who also
wrote satiric fables, Nikodemus Frischlin, and Hans Sachs, a poet and dramatist
who was noted for his Fastnachtsspiele.
An attempt to bring French influences into
German literature was made during the early 17th century by the critic Martin
Opitz. In his principal work, Das Buch von der deutschen Poeterey (Book
of German Poetry, 1624), Opitz demanded that German writers imitate
contemporary French models in style, meter, and pattern. Although some of the
literary academies carried his rules to extremes of complicated formality,
several poets, influenced by Opitz, achieved an increased individuality of
expression. Among them were Simon Dach; Paul Flemming; Johann Scheffler,
commonly called Angelus Silesius; and Baron Friedrich von Logau. Protestant
poetry of the 17th century reached its height in the hymns of Paul Gerhardt.
The development of German literature was
halted for more than a generation by the Thirty Years? War (1618-1648). The
effects of the conflict can be seen in the work of the novelist Hans
Jakob Christoph von Grimmelshausen. His tale of a disillusioned farmer?s
son, Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus (1669; The Adventurous
Simplicissimus, 1912), is the first great novel in the German language.
Such comedies as Peter Squenz (1663) by the satirist Andreas
Gryphius also describe the disillusionment and disenchantment that
inevitably followed the war.
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18th Century |
By the beginning of the 18th century German
cultural life had become increasingly receptive to new literary models and
ideas. Such novels as Robinson Crusoe by the English novelist Daniel
Defoe were widely read in Germany, leading to the decline of the heroic
narrative and to greater realism in German fiction. A notable critic of the
period was Johann
Christoph Gottsched, whose Versuch einer critischen Dichtkunst vor die
Deutschen (Attempt at a Critical Theory of Poetry for the Germans,
1730) established standards derived from the logic and precision of French
literature. Gottsched also attempted to reform the drama, both as a literary
arbiter and as a translator of French, Greek, and Latin plays. His literary
influence, however, was challenged by a group of young writers who wished to
liberate German literature from the restrictive influence of foreign models.
Stimulated by the nationalism of Frederick the Great, but influenced also by
his extensive cultural interests, these writers led one of the greatest periods
in German literature. Among the successive phases of this era were the
preclassical period (1748-88), the Sturm
und Drang (?storm and stress?) movement (beginning about 1765), and the
classical (1788-1798) and romantic (1798-1832) periods.
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Preclassical Period |
Christian F�rchtegott Gellert, an early
writer of the preclassical period, enjoyed great popularity with his didactic
fables, poems, novels, and comedies. Of greater importance, however, was the
poet and dramatist Friedrich
Gottlieb Klopstock. In his religious epic Messias (4 volumes,
1751-1773; The Messiah, 1810) and in his collection of odes he
introduced strong personal emotion into German poetry. Even more important,
Klopstock?s conception of the holy mission of the poet profoundly influenced
subsequent writers. Christoph
Martin Wieland, author of the epic Oberon (1780; translated 1798),
also affected the course of German literature by translating plays by English
dramatist William
Shakespeare into German. Wieland?s Agathon (1766-1767; The
History of Agathon, 1773) is considered the earliest psychological novel in
German literature.
The dramas of Gotthold
Ephraim Lessing, notable for their characters and passion, formed the
foundation of modern German drama. He gave the German stage its first tragedy
of everyday life in Miss Sara Sampson (1755; translated 1789), and in
his dramatic poem Nathan der Weise (1779; Nathan the Wise, 1781)
he made an ardent appeal for religious tolerance. Minna von Barnhelm
(1767; The Disbanded Officer, 1786) is a skillful comedy. In his
influential critical treatise Laokoon (1766; translated 1930), Lessing
brought the spirit of the Age
of Enlightenment to Germany.
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Sturm und Drang |
The philosopher Johann
Gottfried von Herder was the dominant figure of this new movement, which
took its name from the play Sturm und Drang (1776) by Friedrich
Maximilian von Klinger, one of a group of young writers who were delighted
by Herder?s rejection of traditional authorities. The members of this group
abandoned rationalism and the concern with form and structure that had
characterized classical and French drama. Influenced by Herder?s study of
primitive peoples and folk culture, they emphasized the use of national or folk
elements, and sought inspiration in the Volkslied and other aspects of German
culture. Their longing for emancipation was symbolized in poems and dramas
centering on heroic individualists possessed by uncontrolled emotions and
engaged in immense conflicts.
Many elements of Sturm und Drang can be found
in the early dramas of two of the greatest German authors, Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich
von Schiller. Goethe?s early play G�tz von Berlichingen (1773;
translated 1799), greatly influenced by Shakespeare?s dramas, concerns a
16th-century knight, opposed to aristocracy and the church, who leads a revolt
of the peasants. Introspective melancholy, another feature of Sturm und Drang,
is clearly shown in Goethe?s novel Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (1774;
The Sorrows of Young Werther, 1779). The sentimental hero, disappointed
in love, kills himself; hundreds of young male readers are said to have
followed Werther?s example. Goethe?s most important work of this period is the
so-called Urfaust, the oldest preserved version of his long poetic drama
Faust (2 volumes, 1808-1832; translated 1834), completed in the last
years of the poet?s life. Schiller, in his Die R�uber (1781; The
Robbers, 1800) and Kabale und Liebe (1783; Intrigue and Love,
1849), emphasized the political aspects of Sturm und Drang, attacking political
tyranny and social corruption.
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Classical Period |
The development of Goethe and Schiller, after
the period of their early dramas, represents one of the major achievements of
the classical period in German literature?an era notable for its emotional restraint,
temperance of thought, and lucidity of expression. Both writers were influenced
by the extensive philosophical activity of the period, which culminated in the
idealism of the philosopher Immanuel
Kant and his disciple Johann
Gottlieb Fichte. During the classical period, moreover, Goethe and Schiller
became close friends despite differences in their philosophical attitudes.
Schiller believed in absolute ethical ideals, which provide the motive force of
his greatest dramatic works: the Wallenstein trilogy (1798-1799;
translated 1839), Maria Stuart (1800; translated 1833), Die Jungfrau
von Orleans (1801; The Maid of Orleans, 1835), and Wilhelm Tell
(1804; William Tell, 1825). Goethe derived his philosophy from his
experiences as lyric poet, balladeer, dramatist, novelist, essayist, scientist,
and political figure. He lived according to the ideal expressed in his Faust:
never to be satisfied with what one is, but to strive incessantly to learn, to
improve, to accomplish. His writings clearly show his development from youthful
rebellion to the search for emotional restraint, objectivity, beauty, and the
ideal human personality. The two parts of Faust, moreover, have often been
considered representative of the prevailing tendencies of German literature;
the first part contains many elements of the literary movement known as
romanticism, and the second represents the classicism most admired by Goethe.
These elements may also be found in the work
of the poet Friedrich
H�lderlin, whose admiration for the harmony of the classical world was
vitiated, as Goethe and his contemporaries saw it, by his visionary religious
attitude. H�lderlin himself explored the conflict between absolute Ideals and
the problems of existence in his epistolary novel Hyperion (2 volumes,
1797-1799; translated 1927) and in his poetry. Another highly individualistic
writer of the late classical period, the dramatist and short-story writer Heinrich
von Kleist, portrayed heroic characters in conflict with their destiny. His
comedies Der zerbrochene Krug (1806, published about 1811; The Broken
Pitcher, 1961) and Amphitryon (1807; translated 1962) depict human
conflict in an almost tragic manner. The tales of the humorist Johann
Friedrich Richter (usually known by the pseudonym Jean Paul), with their
fantasy and their sense of the grotesque, bring him close to the romantic
movement, which dominated German literature at the beginning of the 19th
century.
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Romantic Period |
The increasing romantic tendency of German
literature, as expressed, for example, in some of the later writings of Goethe,
became dominant in 1798, with the first issue of the journal Athen�um,
edited by the critics August
Wilhelm von Schlegel and Friedrich
von Schlegel. Romanticism
in the literature of Germany, as in that of other countries, resulted from a
fusion of political, philosophical, and artistic elements. The Napoleonic Wars
(1799-1815) awakened a new sense of national identity in German writers, while
increasing their admiration for such heroic individuals as French emperor Napoleon
and German composer Ludwig
van Beethoven. The nationalistic elements of romanticism were furthered in
Germany by the philosopher and theologian Friedrich
Ernst Daniel Schleiermacher, who stressed the virtues of national
independence and influenced such poets as Ernst
Moritz Arndt and Karl
Theodor K�rner. The work of the philosopher Friedrich
Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling gave the movement a philosophical base for its
mysticism and belief in the ultimate oneness of the natural and spiritual
world. Folktales and mythology, another concern of German romanticism, received
attention in the collections made by two scholars, the Grimm
brothers, Jacob Ludwig Karl and Wilhelm Karl. A notable collection of
German folk songs was formed by the poet and dramatist Clemens
Maria Brentano and his brother-in-law Achim
von Arnim, Des Knaben Wunderhorn (3 volumes, 1805-1808; The Boy?s
Magic Horn, 1841).
Romantic themes characterize the work of the
poet Baron Friedrich von Hardenberg, known as Novalis,
author of the mysterious and deeply religious Hymnen an die Nacht (1800;
Hymns to the Night, 1889) and of the novel Heinrich von Ofterdingen
(1802; translated 1842). Ludwig Tieck, poet, dramatist, and novelist, lacked
the depth and religious feeling of Novalis, but he was extremely facile, gifted
in the expression of poetic, fantastic, and satiric elements. Joseph
von Eichendorff praised the beauty of nature in his poems and the virtues
of idleness in his prose work Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts (1826; The
Love Frolics of a Young Scamp, 1864). The genuine tenderness of folk songs
can be found in the poems of Adelbert
von Chamisso, but many have tragic elements, as does his prose work, Peter
Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte (1814; Peter Schlemihl?s Remarkable
Story, 1927). The great balladeer of this generation was Ludwig
Uhland. One of the masters of poetry and prose was Eduard
Friedrich M�rike; the calm composure in his writing contrasted with the
melancholy of the poetry of Nikolaus
Lenau. Most of the romantic poets were also gifted storytellers, but the
most original prose writer of this period was E.
T. A. Hoffmann, the master of tales dealing with the supernatural.