"German Romanticism A sketch ‪"‬

The request to provide a concise account of German romanticism for the collection "From the world of nature and the mind", seeks the following attempt to do their utmost. Within the prescribed narrow limits, the whole richness of romantic thought and poetry could not be manifested. Research in this field is so zealously active at the moment that contrasts of scientific observation have been manifold. To substantiate the point of view which the author takes, much more detail had to be expounded than was good for the economy of the book. In the course of time, it is true that the image of Romanticism is executed here more in terms of the intellectual than the artistic-creative side, As much has been said of the theoretical views of early Romanticism as of the poetic achievements of the younger Romantics, so grateful would be the reverse procedure, especially in the case of a dispute that turns to wider circles. Yet, in the field of Romanticism, the problem of the moment may first lie in the task of drawing the lines of communication that extend from the very beginning to the last foothills. The in-depth consideration of early romanticism given to us in recent decades has given a new appreciation to the older Romantic generation, making it considerably more valuable than was previously thought. At the same time, the gap that exists between her and her younger comrades seemed to grow into something unmistakable. Today there is a danger that the concept of Romanticism will not fall into disrepair at all, and that in the future only disjointed representatives of German intellectual life and German art will speak in the age of 1795-1830. It is the author's conviction that a purposeless work of destruction would be accomplished in such division and separation. As he himself sees it, it seeks[S. vi]he at least hint at it here. The attempt to draw the main features of the early Romantic view of life and the arts occupies most of the explanations; but it is only intended to serve as a basis for the discussion of the problem of how the rich ideas of early Romanticism give rise to the artistic formations of the younger Romantic period. Hopefully, what romantic poetry has created on its own and without the help of theory will not be neglected. The idea on which the whole presentation rests is considered from another point of view in the essay "Goethe and the problem of Faustian nature" (International Weekly 1908, No. 35). To draw lines of development was quite attempted.