GERMAN LITERATURE

History of German literature is usually treated under three main heads, in reality, periods of time in which linguistic, cultural, and literary conditions of one | period are differentiated from those of another with sufficient sharpne to give to each period its own characteristic qualities. These periods are char- | ’ acterized as (1) Old High German, from the first beginnings of literary: culture till the time of the first crusader, roughiy speaking, till the year 1100 A.D. (2) Middle High German, from 1100 to 1348, the year in which the first German university was founded. (3) New High German, from 1517, the year in which Martin Luther placarded the church doors of Wittenberg with his ninety-five theses in protest against the sale of indulgences by the church, to the present time. In this division of literary periods a break appears from the year 1348 to 1517. It is a time of changing social and cultural conditions; the language is undergoing a slow change; literature is at a low ebb. Christianity, and with it literary culture, came to Germany through the Roman churen. It was but natural, therefore, that the early literature should reflect its source. The greatest monuments of this period, the Old High ied, an er Helian ihe: karioue): at Old Saxon epic by | an unknown author. More important | than these monkish works, however, as| an indication of the type of poetry that was really indigenous are the fragmen-|a tary Song of Hild brand and the Song of| Waltharius, the former written in the|of original Germanic alliterative verse, the latter preserved to us in Latin| hexameters by the hand of a monk. The Middle High German period shows marked cultural advancement. Christianity has become, formally at least, the prevailing religion; the feudal system is well developed. As a result we find a fairly homogeneous culture, more settled social conditions and, on the surface at least, more refinement of manners and customs. The period may be defined as one of idealism, notwithstanding the hardne and gro ne of life that were certainly prevalent. The greatest popular epic poems of this period are the Nibelungenlied (Song of the Nibelungs) and Gudrun, poems whose authors are not known. They had their origins in both myth and history, and pa ed for centuries from singer to singer before receiving written form. The Nibelungenlied is by far the most powerful piece of literature produced in the Middle Ages; it is justly compared with Homer’s Illiad. In contrast to these popular epics are the court epics, which had their origin in the Arthrian cycle of legends which had come originally from southwest, that is, Celtic, Britain, reaching Germany by way of Britt any through the French literature. The greatest of these court epics is Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival; second to this is Gottfried von Stra burg’s Tristan und Isolde, after which are to be cla ed the epics of Hartmann von Aue, Hrek and Iwein, and Der Arme He in rich (Poor Henry) and Greg or i us (St. Gregory), the last two taken from legendary sources. In this same period, about the year 1200, German lyric poetry rose to rare excellence. It is commonly known as the Minnesang (ove song), though by no means limited to love themes. This poetry, like the epic of the same period, had its source in part in the popular song, the Volksiied, and in part in the idealism of chivalry. In the multitude of thése poets, of whom something like 150 are known to us, the name of Walter von der Vogelweide stands out preeminent. He is perhaps the greatest lyric poet of the Middle Ages, a master jn musical verse, spontaneous and true in his response to life. From the middie of the thirteenth century onward German literature went backward. Humanitarianism began to displace y chivalry. 1 The city with its more collective interest, began to supplant the feudal lord as a center of power, but it was not able to bring forth or find a new ideal which might serve as source of literary inspiration. The year 1517 brought the beginning the Reformation. From the stand- | point of literature the result of central importance was Luther's translation of Bible into German (1521-34), a| pene that has been of the same fund a-|1804) mental importance for the development of the Gorm an language and literature that the King James version has been| or our own. A second great contribu-| tion that grew to literature out of the Reformation was, and is still, found in| the hymnal of the Luther an church, whence many hymns have found their| way to our own Protestant hymnals. The seventeenth century brought the Thirty Years War (1618-48). Germany was the battle-ground of Europe and the le , poetry received some impetus] from the writings of Martin (1597-1639). The philosopher Leibnitz exerted a considerable influence the thought of his time. The gives a vivid picture of the horrors| wrought by the war. Fried rich Logau is of interest to us because of Long fellow’s translations of some of] his epigrams, for example, The mills of the gods grind slowly. + When Germany was to a certain] extent recovered from the desolation of the Thirty Years War it found the| two new great national literatures existence, the English and the French. For a time German writers turned to these literatures for their models, first to the French, then to the English. In the end came the cla ical period of German literature (1748-1832), when the great German writers gave expre ion|of to their own personalities and ideals} in works characterized by great per-| fection of form and deep ethical import.|in The most important works of this period|main can be found in English translation the Bohn Library. } The leading names of the cla ical period are Klopstock (1724-| 1803), Le ing (1729-81), Wiel and (1733-| 1813) and Herder (1744-1803). Klopstock wrote the Me ias (The Me iah), a religious epic poem, and many odes| Characterized by a spontaneity and| freshne before lacking in the rather pedantic poetry of the time. Le ing] exercised & far-reaching influence as| scholar, critic, and poet. In his Laokoon| (1766) he defined the sphere and nature of literary art as distinguished from the| pictorial and plastic arts. He wrote| the first modern German dramas,| Minna von Barnhelm, a comedy, Emilia| Galotti, a tragedy, and Nathan der Weise (Nathan the Wise), the first German drama in blank verse. Wiel and’s many novels and poems showed the| French-loving aristocracy that the Ger-| “peat aaah pee itself ae as ee x © very readable works of literature, At this time, too, the great was writing the works which | exercised a profound influence on his | and succeeding generations of ail Hurope. The ground was now broken for the great works of Goethe and Schiller. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is the preeminent figure in German literature, | and the outstanding literary personality of Europe since Shakespeare. His first important work, Goetz von Berlichingen, | 1773; a drama, is a glorification of virile | simplicity of character combined with | nobility of spirit. In form it is free to exce . His first novel, Die Leiden des jungen Werther (The Sorrows of WertOpitz|/ther), is surcharged with emotion | running into hysterical sentimentality. upon|They show the typical exce es of the novel|so-called Storm and Stre movement, | of which Goetz is regarded as the first work. Goethe soon outgrew the tendvon|encies expre ed in these works. His | later ideal was the attainment of poise and inner dignity through self-culture.; Goethe’s greatest dramas are Faust, Iphigenie, and Torguato Ta o. The first part of Faust is a tragedy of love | combined with that of a man groping blindly after the ideal values of life. in|In the second part of Faust the hero | strives to realize these ideal values | through self-culture—Goethe’s own ideal at|—and finally finds them in service for | others, self-renouncing, though tinged | with selfishne . Through the entire | two-fold drama runs the minor theme the sanctifying influence of pure womanhood. Faust was the work of a life-time. Begun in 1773, it was finished 1831. Iphigenie, 1787, has as its theme the divinely beneficent Ta o, 1790, is a poetic and dramatic early|symbol of Goethe’s own struggles to attain the inner poise which he considers the e ential element of personal culture. Hermann und Dorothea, 1797, | an idyl of middle-cla life exercises a perennial charm. Goethe’s songs and ballads are char- | acterized by that simplicity of form and spontaneity of feeling which make them almost incapable of strict analysis, and which represent the highest excel- | lence of lyric poetry. In his very important prose works, Wilhelm M. etsters Lehrjahre, 1796, begun in 1776, and Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre, 1821, final form 1829; Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship and his Years as a Traveling Journeyman, Goethe portrays | the development of a life from the first vague gropings of childhood, through the errors of youth, into a manhood of eee for and with others. nseparable from the life and works of | Goethe are the life and works of Fried- - rich von Schiller (1759-1805). A close _ relationship of friendship and literary _ intimacy existed between the two great _ poets from 1794 till the time of Schiller’s death. Schiller’s first dramas, Die Rauber (The Robbers), 1781, Fiesco, 1783; Kabale und Liebe (Love and _ Intrigue), 1784, belong e entially to _ the Storm and Stre movement. They _ are more remarkable for their vigor _ and verse than for their excellency of _ form and thought-content. In his next _ drama, Don Carlos, 1787, Schiller began his transition to mastership. From now _ on his dramas are written in verse; they _ are Wal lens tein, in three parts, Maria Stuart, Die Jungfrau von Orleans (The _ Maid of Orleans), Die Braué von Me ina _ (The Bride of Me ina), and Wilhelm: Tell. Schiller’s dramas have been a _ cherished po e ion of the German stage for well over a century. An equally cherished heritage from _ Schiller is contained in his many poems and balads. If we reduce the thought- ' content of the poet’s dramas and poems to their simplest form we may say that _ they emphasize the positive worth of _ ideal values in life. Schiller produced - also important historical and philo_ A new tendency, the Romantic _ Movement, had begun to make itself _ felt in German literature even during _ the active literary period of Goethe and Schiller. The prose writers of this school left nothing of enduring import- ' ance. Workers in the field of scholarship, t B - however, accomplished results of last- ' ing value. The brothers Grimm estab_ lished the modern science of linguistics _ ona firm basis; to them we are indebted _ also for the collected folk-tales which ’ bear their name. Clemens Brent a no and Achim von Arnim performed a: similar service for poetry and music by collecting folk-songs. A. W. von ' Schlegel gave Germany a masterful translation of Shakespeare’s works. - The very justifiable patriotic stimulus brought about by the. Napoleonic oppre ion called forth many deeply ' eonceived patriotic songs; the best of ' these came from Arndt, Schenkendorf, - and The odor Korner. _ <A type of drama known as the Fate | Tragedy was much in vogue at the beginning of the nineteenth century. It was founded on false esthetic and _ ethical conceptions and soon pa ed away. ~ considered from iiater works will be _ the standpoint of type rather than of schools. The most enduring work in drama was done by Fried rich von js et Reena and the Austrian | Franz work Prinz Fried rich von Hambur will probably hold a place permanently on the German stage. Hebbel is a forerunner of Ibsen as a writer of problem plays. Grillparzer stands in many respects nearer Goethe and Schiller than any dramatist of the nineteenth century. Hauptmann and Sudermann are too near us for a proper perspective; they will undoubtedly appear le important in the future than they do at present. Prose writers most worthy of note are He in rich Heine, The odor Storm, Wilhelm Raabe, Paul Heyse and Peter Rosegger, writers of short stories. Gustav Freytag and Felix Dahn are appreciated for their historical novels. The most popular German humorist was Fritz Reuter, who wrote in the low German dialect. The two Swi novelists, Gottfried Keller and Konrad Ferdinand Meyer, wrote German novels that will be read for many years to come. In lyric poetry the name of He in rich Heine is second only to that of Goethe; in ballad poetry this honor falls to Ludwig Uhland. Heine’s Buch der Lieder (Book of Songs), 1827, has given to the German people their most deeply cherished songs. Joseph Freiherr von Hichendorff’s poems have also many of them been composed and remain very popular. The poems of Fried rich Rickert are widely read. Joseph Victor von Scheffel wrote many popular student songs as well as a charming idyl, Der Trompeter von Sackingen. Since Kant the most influential of the German philosophers have been and Nietzsche. The works and enduring worth of the latter have probably been considerably overestimated. Richard Wagner is the creator of the modern ‘music-drama.’ Till Germany has recovered from its present distraught state, with unsettled political, economic, and social conditions, it is not probable that its writers will produce works of great permanent value.