Opening the text

Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature - 2. The Romantic School in GermanyBrandes, Georg

History

Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature - 2. The Romantic School in Germany

Name: Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature - 2. The Romantic School in Germany
Author: Brandes, Georg

Brandes, Georg

Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- History and criticism; Naturalism in literature; Romanticism

One of the most famous of the patriotic poets was Ernst Moritz Arndt.
With Arndt hatred of everything French became a fixed idea. His _Geist
der Zeit_ ("Spirit of the Times"), the first part of which appeared in
1806, had a very powerful influence on the minds of his countrymen. And
while he was writing his manly, vigorous songs in praise of freedom, he
was also occupied in attacking the French language and French fashions;
he even went the length of attempting to introduce a German national
dress. At this same moment, Jahn, the famous introducer of gymnastics,
the "Turnvater," as he is called, was earnestly engrossed with the idea
of making the whole youth of Germany fit for war by means of physical
exercises. In 1811, at Hasenhaide, near Berlin, he started his school
of gymnastics; but previous to this, following Arndt's example, he
had published writings, in which, in affectedly violent language, he
tried to inflame the spirit of patriotism. The old German mythology and
heroic sagas, Hermann and the Teutoburgerwald, Wodan and the Druids,
the sacred oaks, the divine primitive German warrior in his boldness
and uncouthness, his unkempt hair flowing over his shoulders and a
club grasped in his gigantic fists, were anew elevated to the place of
honour. German uncouthness was supposed to testify to German morality.

It was not long till all these patriotic ideas and enterprises were
pressed into the service of reaction. The object of worship became,
not the freedom that was to be won, but Germany's vanished past. Men
began to study the history of their country with an ardour with which
it had never been studied before, and a keen eye for all peculiarly
German traits. With the brothers Grimm at their head, they turned their
attention to the history and grammar of their own language, and in this
domain, as in every other, fell foolishly in love with the past and its
childish naïveté. Important as the results of these investigations have
been to science, it is certain that in Germany they produced some of
the worst enemies of liberty, men who sided with the past against the
present.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature - 2. The Romantic School in GermanyBrandes, Georg

History

Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature - 2. The Romantic School in Germany

Brandes, Georg

Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- History and criticism; Naturalism in literature; Romanticism

One of the most famous of the patriotic poets was Ernst Moritz Arndt.
With Arndt hatred of everything French became a fixed idea. His _Geist
der Zeit_ ("Spirit of the Times"), the first part of which appeared in
1806, had a very powerful influence on the minds of his countrymen. And
while he was writing his manly, vigorous songs in praise of freedom, he
was also occupied in attacking the French language and French fashions;
he even went the length of attempting to introduce a German national
dress. At this same moment, Jahn, the famous introducer of gymnastics,
the "Turnvater," as he is called, was earnestly engrossed with the idea
of making the whole youth of Germany fit for war by means of physical
exercises. In 1811, at Hasenhaide, near Berlin, he started his school
of gymnastics; but previous to this, following Arndt's example, he
had published writings, in which, in affectedly violent language, he
tried to inflame the spirit of patriotism. The old German mythology and
heroic sagas, Hermann and the Teutoburgerwald, Wodan and the Druids,
the sacred oaks, the divine primitive German warrior in his boldness
and uncouthness, his unkempt hair flowing over his shoulders and a
club grasped in his gigantic fists, were anew elevated to the place of
honour. German uncouthness was supposed to testify to German morality.

It was not long till all these patriotic ideas and enterprises were
pressed into the service of reaction. The object of worship became,
not the freedom that was to be won, but Germany's vanished past. Men
began to study the history of their country with an ardour with which
it had never been studied before, and a keen eye for all peculiarly
German traits. With the brothers Grimm at their head, they turned their
attention to the history and grammar of their own language, and in this
domain, as in every other, fell foolishly in love with the past and its
childish naïveté. Important as the results of these investigations have
been to science, it is certain that in Germany they produced some of
the worst enemies of liberty, men who sided with the past against the
present.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature - 2. The Romantic School in Germany

Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature - 2. The Romantic School in Germany

No reviews yet