German literature

Information about German literature

German literature comprises those literary texts written in the German language.

Periodization is not an exact science, but the following list contains movements or time periods typically used in discussing German literature. It seems worth noting that the periods of medieval German literature span two or three centuries, those of early modern German literature span one century, and those of modern German literature each span one or two decades. The closer one nears the present, the more debated the periodizations become. For well-known authors who wrote or write literature in the German language see list of German-language authors, list of German-language playwrights and list of German-language poets. See also list of German-language philosophers.

Enlarge picture
graph of works listed in Frenzel, Daten deutscher Dichtung (1952). Visible is medieval literature overlapping with Renaissance up to the 1540s, modern literature beginning 1720, and the baroque period separating the two, from 1550 to 1700.


An online collection of German language literary texts is Projekt Gutenberg-DE.
Literature literally "acquaintance with letters" (from Latin littera letter) as in the first sense given in the Oxford English Dictionary, or works of art, which in Western culture are mainly prose, both fiction and non-fiction, drama and poetry.
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German language (Deutsch, ] (help info ) ) is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages.
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Periodization is the attempt to categorize or divide time into discrete named blocks. The result is a descriptive abstraction that provides a useful handle on periods of time with relatively stable characteristics.
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Medieval German literature refers to literature written in Germany, stretching from the Carolingian dynasty; various dates have been given for the end of the German literary Middle Ages, the Reformation (1517) being the last possible cut-off point.
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Old High German}}}
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: goh
ISO 639-3: goh The term Old High German (OHG, German: Althochdeutsch, german abbr. Ahd.
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Middle High German}}}
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: gmh
ISO 639-3: gmh

Middle High German (MHG, German Mittelhochdeutsch
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Late Middle Ages is a term used by historians to describe European history in the period of the 14th to 16th centuries (AD 1300–1500). The Late Middle Ages were preceded by the High Middle Ages, and followed by the Early Modern era (Renaissance).
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The early modern period is a term used by historians to refer to the period in Western Europe and its first colonies which spans the two centuries between the Middle Ages and the Industrial Revolution.
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This article has been tagged since October 2007.
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Christianity

Foundations
Jesus Christ
Church Theology
New Covenant Supersessionism
Dispensationalism
Apostles Kingdom Gospel
History of Christianity Timeline
Bible
Old Testament New Testament
Books Canon Apocrypha
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The Baroque period (1600 to 1720) was one of the most fertile times in German literature. Many writers reflected the horrible experiences of the Thirty Years' War, in poetry and prose.
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The Enlightenment (French: Siècle des Lumières; German: Aufklärung; Italian: Illuminismo; Portuguese:
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Sensibility refers to an acute perception of or responsiveness toward something, such as the emotions of another. This concept emerged in eighteenth-century Britain, and was closely associated with studies of sense perception as the means through which knowledge is gathered.
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Sturm und Drang (the conventional translation is "Storm and Stress"; a more literal translation, however, might be storm and urge, storm and longing, or storm and impulse
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Weimar Classicism (German “Weimarer Klassik” and “Weimarer Klassizismus”) is a cultural and literary movement of Europe, and its central ideas were originally propounded by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Johann Christoph Friedrich von
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German Romanticism was the dominant movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. German Romanticism developed relatively late compared to its English counterpart, coinciding in its early years with the movement known as German Classicism or Weimar Classicism, which it
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In Central Europe, Biedermeier refers to work in the fields of literature, music, the visual arts and interior design in the period between the years 1815 (Vienna Congress), the end of the Napoleonic Wars, and 1848, the year of the European revolutions and contrasts with the
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Young Germany (Junges Deutschland) was a loose group of German writers which existed from about 1830 to 1850. It was essentially a youth movement (similar to those that had swept France, Ireland and originated in Italy).
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Realism in the visual arts and literature is the depiction of subjects as they appear in everyday life, without embellishment or interpretation. The term is also used to describe works of art which, in revealing a truth, may emphasize the ugly or sordid.
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Naturalism is a movement in theater, film, and literature that seeks to replicate a believable everyday reality, as opposed to such movements as Romanticism or Surrealism, in which subjects may receive highly symbolic, idealistic, or even supernatural treatment.
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Fin de siècle is French for "end of the century," also implying the end of an era.

The English term "turn-of-the-century" is sometimes used as a synonym, but applies to the beginning of the next century, so the nineteenth century fin de siècle is called
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Symbolism was a late nineteenth century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts.

Precursors and origins

Symbolism was largely a reaction against Naturalism and Realism, anti-idealistic movements which attempted to capture reality in its gritty
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Expressionism is the tendency of an artist to distort reality for an emotional effect; it is a subjective art form. Expressionism is exhibited in many art forms, including painting, literature, theatre, film, architecture and music.
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DaDa
(1983) Constrictor
(1986) |

DaDa is a concept album by Alice Cooper, released in 1983. DaDa would be Cooper's last album until his sober re-emergence in 1986 with the album Constrictor.
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For the architectural aspects of this movement, see .


The New Objectivity, or Neue Sachlichkeit (new dispassion), was an art movement which arose in Germany in the early 1920s as an outgrowth of, and in opposition to, expressionism.
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The Gruppe 47 (Group 47) was a literary association in Germany after WW II.

Early history

The beginnings reach back to 1946 when Alfred Andersch and Walter Kolbenhoff founded the literary magazine Der Ruf (The Call) in Munich.
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Holocaust has had a profound impact on art and literature over the past 60 years.

Literature

Some of the more famous works are by Holocaust survivors or victims, such as Elie Wiesel, Primo Levi, Imre Kertész, Jean Améry, and Anne Frank, but there is a substantial
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“Authorship” redirects here.

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Literature literally "acquaintance with letters" (from Latin littera letter) as in the first sense given in the Oxford English Dictionary, or works of art, which in Western culture are mainly prose, both fiction and non-fiction, drama and poetry.
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German language (Deutsch, ] (help info ) ) is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages.
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