Misplaced Pages

#494505

29-645: The Weimarer Klassik movement began in 1771 when Duchess Anna Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel invited the Seyler Theatre Company led by Abel Seyler , pioneers of the Sturm und Drang movement, to her court in Weimar. The Seyler company was soon thereafter followed by Christoph Martin Wieland , then Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , Johann Gottfried Herder and finally Friedrich Schiller . The movement

58-424: A network of writers, philosophers, scholars, artists and even representatives of the natural sciences such as Alexander von Humboldt to their cause. This alliance later became known as 'Weimar Classicism', and it came to form a part of the foundation of 19th-century Germany's understanding of itself as a culture and the political unification of Germany . These are essentials used by Goethe and Schiller: Although

87-543: A new synthesis of art, philosophy, and science, by viewing the Middle Ages as a simpler period of integrated culture; however, the German Romantics became aware of the tenuousness of the cultural unity they sought. Late-stage German Romanticism emphasized the tension between the daily world and the irrational and supernatural projections of creative genius. In particular, the critic Heinrich Heine criticized

116-508: A poet and translator of William Shakespeare, to educate her son. [2] . On 3 September 1775, her son reached his majority , and she retired. As a patron of the arts, Anna Amalia drew many of the most eminent people in Germany to Weimar. She gathered a group of scholars, poets and musicians, professional and amateur, for lively discussion and music-making at the Wittum palace. In this ‘court of

145-472: A project to establish new standards for literature and the arts in Germany. By contrast, the contemporaneous and efflorescing literary movement of German Romanticism was in opposition to Weimar and German Classicism, especially to Schiller. It is in this way both may be best understood, even to the degree in which Goethe continuously and stringently criticized it through much of his essays, such as "On Dilettantism", on art and literature. After Schiller's death,

174-514: A way of knowledge. Baumgarten's emphasis on the need for such "sensuous" knowledge was a major abetment to the "pre-Romanticism" known as Sturm und Drang (1765), of which Goethe and Schiller were notable participants for a time. The starting point of Weimar Classicism, or the era of German classical literature, was in 1771 when the widowed Anna Amalia invited the Seyler Theatre Company led by Abel Seyler , including several prominent actors and playwrights such as Konrad Ekhof , to her court;

203-470: Is dedicated to the duchess), received its first performance in Weimar in 1770, and Weimar was also the scene of the notable première on 28 May 1773 of the ‘first German opera’, Wieland's Alceste in the setting by Anton Schweitzer. Anna Amalia continued the tradition of the Singspiel in later years with performances in the amateur court theatre of her own compositions to texts by Goethe. She also established

232-427: Is intrinsically un- Platonic . On this Goethe remarked: The idea of the distinction between classical and romantic poetry [ Dichtung ], which is now spread over the whole world, and occasions so many quarrels and divisions, came originally from Schiller and myself. I laid down the maxim of objective treatment of poetry, and would allow no other; but Schiller, who worked quite in the subjective way, deemed his own fashion

261-686: The Duchess Anna Amalia Library , which is now home to some 1,000,000 volumes. The duchess was honored in Goethe's work under the title Zum Andenken der Fürstin Anna-Amalia . Anna Amalia was a notable composer. The majority of her works belong stylistically to the Empfindsamkeit , in the manner of Hiller and Schweitzer, combining features of song and of arioso. In 2021-2023, further works of Anna Amalia were discovered by

290-782: The German Confederation of 1815 and the German Empire of 1871. German Romanticism was accordingly rooted in both the quest, epitomized by Baron Joseph von Laßberg , Johann Martin Lappenberg , and the Brothers Grimm , for decolonisation , a distinctly German culture , and national identity , and hostility to certain ideas of The Enlightenment , the French Revolution , the Reign of Terror , and

319-632: The "science" of the "lower faculties" (i.e., feeling, sensation, imagination, memory, et al.), which earlier figures of the Enlightenment had neglected. (The term, however, gave way to misunderstandings due to Baumgarten's use of the Latin in accordance with the German renditions, and consequently this has often led many to falsely undervalue his accomplishment.) It was no inquiry into taste—into positive or negative appeals—nor sensations as such but rather

SECTION 10

#1732775590495

348-628: The German variety developed relatively early, and, in the opening years, coincided with Weimar Classicism (1772–1805). The early period, roughly 1797 to 1802, is referred to as Frühromantik or Jena Romanticism . The philosophers and writers central to the movement were Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder (1773–1798), Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (1775–1854), Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834), Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel (1772–1829), August Wilhelm Schlegel (1767–1845), Ludwig Tieck (1773–1853), and Friedrich von Hardenberg (Novalis) (1772–1801). The early German Romantics strove to create

377-403: The academic Stephen Husarik in the collection of Archduke Rudolf of Austria . Her compositions include: German Romanticism German Romanticism (German: Deutsche Romantik ) was the dominant intellectual movement of German-speaking countries in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, influencing philosophy, aesthetics, literature, and criticism. Compared to English Romanticism ,

406-541: The affairs of the duchy with notable prudence, strengthening its resources and improving its position in spite of the troubles of the Seven Years' War . Despite her heavy official responsibilities, she cultivated intellectual interests, especially music. She continued to take lessons in composition and keyboard playing from the leading musician in Weimar. Amalia von Helvig, a German-Swedish artist and writer, later became part of her court. She hired Christoph Martin Wieland,

435-663: The content and form of classical antiquity. Pursuing this ideal geographically as well, Goethe traveled to Italy in 1786. In Italy, Goethe aimed to rediscover himself as a writer and to become an artist, through formal training in Rome, Europe's 'school of art'. While he failed as an artist, Italy appeared to have made him a better writer. Immediately after his return in the spring of 1788, he freed himself from his previous duties and met Schiller in Rudolstadt in September. This encounter

464-483: The continuity of these objections partly elucidates the nature of Goethe's ideas in art and how they intermingled with his scientific thinking as well, inasmuch as it gives coherence to Goethe's work. Weimar Classicism may be seen as an attempt to reconcile—in "binary synthesis"—the vivid feeling emphasized by the Sturm und Drang movement with the clear thought emphasized by the Enlightenment, thus implying Weimar Classicism

493-451: The muses’, as Wilhelm Bode called it, the members included Johann Gottfried Herder , Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , and Friedrich Schiller . She succeeded in engaging Abel Seyler 's theatrical company , considered the best theatre company in Germany at that time." Anna Amalia herself played a significant part in bringing together the poetry of 'Weimar Classicism'. Johann Adam Hiller's most successful Singspiel, Die Jagd (the score of which

522-413: The right one, and to defend himself against me, wrote the treatise upon 'Naïve and Sentimental Poetry.' He proved to me that I myself, against my will, was romantic, and that my 'Iphigenia,' through the predominance of sentiment, was by no means so classical and so much in the antique spirit as some people supposed. The Schlegels took up this idea, and carried it further, so that it has now been diffused over

551-517: The subsequent expansion of German -speaking and European culture . The inability of this common-sense outlook convincingly to bridge "feeling" and "thought", "body" and "mind", led to Immanuel Kant 's epochal "critical" philosophy. Another, though not as abstract, approach to this problem was a governing concern with the problems of aesthetics. In his Aesthetica of 1750 (vol. II; 1758) Alexander Baumgarten (1714–62) defined "aesthetics", which he coined earlier in 1735, with its current intention as

580-522: The tendency of the early German Romantics to look to the medieval Holy Roman Empire for a model of unity in the arts, religion, and society. A major product of the invasion and military occupation, beginning under the First French Republic and continuing under Napoleon , of the traditionally politically and religiously balkanized Germanosphere was the development of Pan-Germanism and romantic nationalism , which eventually created

609-639: The troupe stayed at Anna Amalia's court until 1774. The Seyler Theatre Company was considered "the best theatre company that existed in Germany during that time [1769–1779]" and pioneered the Sturm und Drang movement (itself named for a play written for the company) as well as serious German theatre and opera. The following year she invited Christoph Martin Wieland to Weimar to educate her two sons. Wieland had just published his modern and ironic mirror-for-princes work, Der goldne Spiegel oder die Könige von Scheschian . Wieland became an important friend and collaborator of both Seyler, and later Goethe . Before Goethe

SECTION 20

#1732775590495

638-431: The vociferously unrestricted, even "organic", works that were produced, such as Wilhelm Meister , Faust , and West-östlicher Divan , where playful and turbulent ironies abound, may perceivably lend Weimar Classicism the double, ironic title "Weimar Romanticism", it must nevertheless be understood that Goethe consistently demanded this distance via irony to be imbued within a work for precipitate aesthetic affect. Schiller

667-563: The whole world; and every one talks about classicism and romanticism—of which nobody thought fifty years ago. The Weimar movement was notable for its inclusion of female writers. Die Horen published works by several women, including a serially published novel, Agnes von Lilien , by Schiller's sister-in-law Caroline von Wolzogen . Other women published by Schiller included Sophie Mereau , Friederike Brun , Amalie von Imhoff , Elisa von der Recke , and Louise Brachmann . Between 1786 and Schiller's death in 1805, he and Goethe worked to recruit

696-508: Was a German princess and composer. She became the duchess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach by marriage, and was also regent of the states of Saxe-Weimar and Saxe-Eisenach from 1758 to 1775. She transformed her court and its surrounding into the most influential cultural center of Germany. Her invitation of Abel Seyler 's theatre company in 1771 marked the start of Weimar Classicism , that would include such figures such as Wieland , Goethe , Herder and Schiller working under her protection. She

725-796: Was born in Wolfenbüttel , the third child of Karl I, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and Princess Philippine Charlotte of Prussia . Her maternal grandparents were Frederick William I of Prussia and Sophia Dorothea of Hanover . Her niece was Queen Caroline , wife of King George IV. Anna Amalia was well-educated as befitted a princess. She studied music with Friedrich Gottlob Fleischer and Ernst Wilhelm Wolf. In Brunswick , on 16 March 1756, sixteen-year-old Anna Amalia married eighteen-year-old Ernst August II Konstantin, Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and they had two sons. Ernst August died in 1758 leaving her regent for their infant son, Karl August . During Karl August's minority she administered

754-442: Was called to Weimar in 1775 at the age of 26, also as a tutor for princes, he had become the leader of the Sturm und Drang movement – named for Friedrich Maximilian Klinger 's play of the same name , written for Abel Seyler 's theatrical company – primarily through his epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther . With Goethe's move to Weimar, his works steadily matured, aligning more with an aesthetic ideal that approached

783-432: Was eventually concentrated upon Goethe and Schiller, previously also exponents of the Sturm and Drang movement, during the period 1788–1805. The German Enlightenment , called " neo-classical ", burgeoned in the synthesis of Empiricism and Rationalism as developed by Christian Thomasius (1655–1728) and Christian Wolff (1679–1754). This philosophy, circulated widely in many magazines and journals, profoundly directed

812-427: Was rather disillusioning for both: Goethe considered Schiller a hothead of the Sturm und Drang , while Schiller saw Goethe's poetic approach in stark contrast to his own. Schiller's evolution as a writer was following a similar path to Goethe's. He had begun as a writer of wild, violent, emotion-driven plays. In the late 1780s he turned to a more classical style. In 1794, Schiller and Goethe became friends and allies in

841-419: Was very prolific during this period, writing his plays Wallenstein (1799), Mary Stuart (1800), The Maid of Orleans (1801), The Bride of Messina (1803) and William Tell (1804). See also : works by Herder , works by Goethe , and works by Schiller . Duchess Anna Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenb%C3%BCttel Anna Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (24 October 1739 – 10 April 1807),

#494505