German Romanticism Research Papers

Many eras are made more understandable by looking at the artistis that created during that time. The era of German Romanticism is no exception, as writers, musicians and painters all contributed to the understanding German Romanticism. Have the writers at Paper Masters explain the romantic era and explicate any works of art from this time-frame.

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the art, German Romanticism dominated philosophy of central Europe. Perhaps the most obvious example of this movement is the work of Ludwig van Beethoven. Beethoven was instrumental in moving music out of the classical age of Mozart and Haydn. With his third, fifth, and ninth symphonies, Beethoven left some of the most tangible and recognizable aspects of German Romanticism.

German Romanticism, however, did not originate with Beethoven. It was, instead, initiated by artists such as the following:

• Friedrich Schiller, whose plays sought to embody the German Volk, or national spirit. Schiller’s poem “Ode to Joy” was incorporated into Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.
• The greatest writer of German Romanticism was Goethe, whose Faust is considered to be the greatest of all works of German fiction.
• German philosophers, such as Hegeland Kant took the ideals of the French Revolution as they disseminated along with Napoleon’s armies and created a growing sense of nationalism in the often-fragmented German lands. These philosophers looked towards Nature for their inspiration.
• Johann Gottfried von Herder, collected ancient German folk tales and songs as an expression of the authentic German experience. Such nationalism spread throughout all of German culture in the early decades of the nineteenth century.

What is Romanticism?

The romantic conception of the world is one in which the representation of the dark and chaotic is often deemed preferable to the representations of the types of things which can be accomplished by means of the use of perfect, classical form. This preference for the things of emotion rather than the things of the mind and for modes of representation that conform to the shadowy and uncertain things being represented, modes of representation that involve the notion of following the transports of one’s personal inspiration, is something which, in the art of Weber, we see in nascent form. Weber, as we shall see, still has one foot in classicism. His methods and his mentality, relative to what came afterwards, both show a great deal of self-restraint.