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

In Short

Georg Brandes charts the rise, inner logic, and eventual dissolution of the German Romantic movement. He traces how a generation of thinkers and poets—including Schlegel, Tieck, Novalis, and Hoffmann—elevated subjective emotion, irony, and mystical longing above Enlightenment reason. By placing individual consciousness at the center of the universe, these writers created a literature of absolute poetic freedom that ultimately reshaped European culture. The book endures because it offers an incisive psychological and historical portrait of how an aesthetic movement turns into a total worldview.

The Story

Brandes opens his critique by examining the intellectual foundations of German Romanticism. The movement rejects the rigid rationalism of Lessing and the Enlightenment, drawing instead upon Herder’s exaltation of intuition, national folklore, and organic growth. Central to this new ethos is Fichte’s philosophy of the all-powerful Ego. From this premise, the early Romanticists argue that the human mind owes no allegiance to external reality; the artist can tune his consciousness like an instrument and treat all creation with sovereign, ironical playfulness.

This extreme subjectivism transforms literary style and everyday life. Writers blend poetry with philosophy, creating works characterized by deliberate vagueness, emotional suggestions, and a blurring of the senses. In Ludwig Tieck’s early novel William Lovell, Brandes identifies how French materialism paradoxically feeds a gloomy, fatalistic egotism. The Romantic doctrine demands absolute personal freedom, leading to experiments in living that challenge traditional morality, marriage, and social conventions.

As the movement matures, it seeks to merge art with religious and mystical experience. Writers substitute the clear light of day for twilight, dreams, and the pursuit of an unattainable ideal—symbolized by Novalis’s "blue flower." In Novalis, the grief over a lost love turns into a mystical longing for death and a desire to merge with the infinite universe. E. T. A. Hoffmann takes this inner turned gaze toward the uncanny, translating musical structures directly into prose and populating his tales with weird, grotesque visions born of acute self-observation and mental strain.

In its final phase, Romanticism expands into drama, folk poetry, and political thought. Playwrights like Heinrich von Kleist and Zacharias Werner push emotional expression to extremes of passion, fanaticism, and bodily suffering. Editors like Brentano and Arnim collect and reshape traditional folk songs, attempting to ground their boundless longing in medieval national myths. Ultimately, this intense focus on individual subjectivity spreads across borders, leaving a permanent mark on the literatures of Scandinavia and broader Europe.

How It Unfolds

The rejection of Enlightenment reason The Romanticists break away from the rationalist traditions of Lessing, choosing instead to embrace Herder’s emphasis on intuition, feeling, and the organic growth of human culture. They seek an original, emotional connection to the world rather than systematic logic.

The elevation of the artistic Ego Drawing on philosophical theories of absolute self-dependence, writers claim complete freedom for the poet's imagination. This generates a pervasive irony that treats serious art as a play with illusions, constantly creating and destroying its own creations.

The blurring of sensory boundaries Poets mix physical impressions, writing of musical colors and sounding scents to convey delicate, twilight moods. Art ceases to portray concrete reality directly, aiming instead to evoke subtle suggestions and ethereal feelings.

The pursuit of infinite longing Through figures like Novalis, the movement turns toward mystical night, equating human desire with a longing for the infinite. The pursuit of the iconic "blue flower" reflects a belief in the cosmic significance of individual emotion.

The shift into grotesque fantasy and national myth Hoffmann transforms emotional interiority into macabre, dark humor and musical visions, while other writers turn to medieval sagas and folk songs. This final phase broadcasts German Romantic concepts into political life and neighboring European literatures.

The People

Friedrich Schlegel The movement's chief theorist, Schlegel seeks absolute freedom for the creative mind. He advocates for an artistic irony that allows a thinker to adopt any mood or intellectual stance at will, placing the poet's authority above all traditional laws.

Ludwig Tieck A versatile author who explores the psychological depths of egotism and nature. He uses self-examination to construct literary worlds filled with vague emotional landscapes, musical prose, and stage-like dramatic scenes.

Novalis (Friedrich von Hardenberg) A deeply sensitive poet driven by profound grief and mystical devotion. He seeks to transcend physical existence through a longing for death and the infinite, viewing human love and divine eternity as a single unified force.

E. T. A. Hoffmann A gifted composer and author whose acute sensitivity to sound shapes his wildly imaginative prose. He converts inner psychological strain, musical theory, and uncanny visions into grotesque, dark fantasies.

Heinrich von Kleist A tragic dramatist who pours his intense, unyielding personal struggles directly into his characters. His figures fight passionately for impossible goals, driven by consuming emotions that bring both glory and destruction.

In Its Own Voice

"Philosophiren ist dephlegmatisiren, ist vivissciren."

Novalis summarizes the radical Romantic drive to awaken the spirit and enliven thought through philosophical reflection.

"Die Farbe klingt; die Form ertönt, jedwede / Hat nach der Form und Farbe Zung' und Rede."

Tieck illustrates the Romantic merging of the senses in his play Zerbino, giving physical shapes and colors their own audible voices.

"The world becomes a dream, our dream the world; and what we believed to have happened long ago, we now see only coming, as yet far off."

Novalis describes how the Romantic imagination dissolves everyday reality into a realm of magic and infinite possibility.

What It's Really About

Underneath its survey of authors and plots, the book investigates the power and danger of total subjectivism. Brandes explores what happens when a generation turns away from empirical reality, social duty, and rational critique to make the individual soul the sole measure of existence. The core argument reveals that while this absolute inwardness produces extraordinary poetic beauty, deep psychological insights, and artistic freedom, it also breeds aimlessness, fatalism, and a detachment from real life. By mistaking personal longing for universal truth, Romanticism continuously dances on the edge between creative brilliance and self-destruction.

Why Read It Today

This volume remains a compelling study for anyone interested in the history of ideas, literary theory, or the origins of modern artistic rebellion. Brandes writes with clear analytical precision, cutting through academic jargon to evaluate how art shapes human consciousness. Readers will appreciate his ability to connect philosophical concepts directly to the lives, psychological quirks, and personal struggles of individual authors.

The text does present challenges characteristic of nineteenth-century scholarship. It assumes familiarity with classical European literature, moves fluidly between complex philosophical terms, and incorporates untranslated German poetry and historical references. Furthermore, the prose reflects the expansive, highly detailed style of classic literary histories. Yet, for readers willing to navigate its dense texture, the book provides a vivid, nuanced understanding of how an energetic intellectual revolution reshaped the Western imagination.

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