Weimar Classicism

The term Weimar Classicism designated in the understanding of the 19th century, the time in which appeared the "four star " Wieland, Goethe, Herder and Schiller in Weimar. In a narrower sense, the epoch after Johann Wolfgang Goethe's first trip to Italy in 1786 is referred to it. The Weimar Classicism took about until Schiller's death, 1805. Often with Weimar Classicism even the common creative period of friendly poets Goethe and Schiller called, which went from 1794 to 1805 and began with the exchange of letters between the two.

Definition of

The term was coined in the 19th century, none of the four poets who described himself as a classic. Today there are two different definitions of Weimar Classicism:

The first broad definition refers to the time and place for the action by Wieland, Herder, Goethe and Schiller. This simplistic definition suggests far-reaching similarities in the literary works of the four, but these similarities existed mainly between Goethe and Schiller in the period 1794-1805. Too, never existed at the same time extraordinary personal relationships of all four with each other. Thus, this definition of the term summarizes especially the four most prominent literary figures of the then existing cultural area (Weimar and Jena ), which did not belong to the early romantic flow.

The second, much narrower definition refers to the about 11 -year-old joint creative period of Goethe and Schiller. With this restriction of the definition to the intense personal friendship and the " Aesthetic Alliance" in poetry it is possible to exact from the complex cultural contexts in Weimar and Jena, clearly define the concept of Weimar Classics around the year 1800. It is worth adding that after the death of Goethe Schiller (1805 ) further led this alliance content. The coinage of the 19th century on the place was simplistic, as Schiller lived and worked the first half of the classical period in Jena (until December 1799), so that accounted for the major part of the communication through letters and mutual visits. The poet friendship between Goethe and Schiller, and whose works from this period thus form, from literary studies as well as historical perspective, a better operational definition of the term.

Conditions for the Weimar Classics

The French Classic was regarded worldwide as the culmination of efforts since the Renaissance to revive the seal of antiquity. After the death of the Sun King in 1715 showed tendencies to break away from these models. The antique fabrics were from realistic to date and then supplanted increasingly by medieval, exotic, fairy-tale. Therefore, efforts put an to rescue the study of the ancient world and to take her from aristocratic coat, was welcomed by the Civil rejection. This was accompanied by a return to the sources, as they demonstrated the travel literature of ancient sites and the beginnings of archeology.

When Johann Joachim Winckelmann 1755, his thoughts on the " Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and Sculpture " and 1764/67 his "History of Ancient Art " wrote that he had no idea what effect these works until the 19th century to the should have predominantly at the ancient Roman -influenced art and culture. His aesthetic consideration of Greek art ( noble simplicity, quiet grandeur ) was a basis for the period of "German" classical. The Magnificent French Classic was made so that the bourgeois finishing. This corresponded to the tendency in the German language area to mediate between nobility and bourgeoisie, rather than creating boundaries. The literary classic, later known as Weimar Classicism remained true to these principles.

Timing

Your starting point, they took 1772, when the widowed Duchess Anna Amalia of Saxe- Weimar -Eisenach for the education of her two sons Christoph Martin Wieland convened in Weimar, who had just published his modern - ironic mirror of princes The golden mirror or the kings of Scheschian.

Before then Goethe in 1775 with 26 years - also as a royal tutor - was called to Weimar, he was - became the leader of the Sturm und Drang - "The Sorrows of Young Werther " especially through the epistolary novel. With Goethe's relocation to Weimar, his works were continuously mature in terms of their form and content of classical antiquity approaching aesthetic ideal. This ideal also spatially nachstrebend Goethe traveled to Italy in 1786. Immediately after his return in the spring of 1788 he had to free himself from his previous offices and learned in September Schiller Rudolstadt know. This encounter was rather sobering for both: Goethe Schiller held for a hot spur of the Sturm und Drang, and Schiller saw Goethe's poetic approach in stark contrast to his own.

1776, Goethe also, whom he admired Johann Gottfried Herder Biickeburg as General Superintendent to Weimar - not without their relationship, both immediately cooled.

When Schiller and Goethe came closer to each other in 1794 at a lecture in Jena, the judgments already saw on each other a little different (see Schiller's essay On Naive and Sentimental Poetry of 1795). The main reason for these findings are two letters to Goethe, Schiller, one of 23 August and the other of 31 August 1794 which he successfully courted his friendship. The mutual influence of Schiller and Goethe is reflected in their jointly authored Reminders of 1796, but especially in their subsequent correspondence to the published 1835 critical comments of the dramatist Christian Dietrich Grabbe.

Characteristics and features

Had the experience of difficult enforceability of the ideals of the French Revolution ( liberty, equality and fraternity ) and their perversion during the reign of terror of the Jacobins (1793 /94) a general effect on the entire German cultural scene, such as the authors of the Weimar Classics but also on the work of Ludwig van Beethoven in contemporary music. Another reference point is the literature of the Sturm und Drang: even here was a resultant of the Enlightenment values conflict here between reason and feeling, are not satisfactorily resolved and led to numerous disasters in the texts (see Werther's suicide in Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther ). In response to these experiences is at the heart of classical art concept, the pursuit of a harmonious balance of opposites - because that this compensation was indeed failed in the reality of the French Revolution and the Literature of the Sturm und Drang, and led to their increasing escalation. Based on the ancient ideal of art is sought after perfection, harmony, humanity and compliance of the content and form in classical music now. Where Goethe in nature sought a model for the universal connection of all appearances, the story was for Schiller the main reference point. Other features are:

Confrontation with the French Revolution
Not by a violent revolution (the French Revolution), but through an evolutionary development (slow upward development ) of the company is possible to reach to the goal of the Enlightenment ideals corresponding state.
Centralization at Weimar and Jena, in part
If the unrest of the time, the program of aesthetic education compared to men should be educated through art and literature to humanity and thus ripe for social change.
Educational ideal is the " beautiful soul ", that is the man whose actions, duty and inclination are in agreement ( ideal of a peaceful, serene, resting in yourself people ).
Timelessness of the era, by selected objects to the consideration that " beyond all influence of the times" are, more human and ethical values
Pursuit of harmony in society instead of selfishness of the Sturm und Drang
Humanity
Insight that personal destruction is the just punishment for crimes committed moral and moral transgressions

Among the main motives of Weimar Classicism include humanity and tolerance. The most important species is the drama, with poetry and epic remain secondary. Typically, a high level language and a regimented language was ( cf. blank verse of Iphigenia in Tauris ). This regimented language makes clear in comparison to natural speech ideal of the Sturm und Drang, with all its crudities precisely the balance between reason and emotion and can therefore also as a mediator of the values of classical music and as a means of aesthetic education purposes only (see Schiller's On the Aesthetic Education of man and the power of the Word in Goethe's Iphigenie auf Tauris ). In the same context, the return and approach of Goethe and Schiller to the classical conception dramas are ( pyramidal structure, adherence to the Aristotelian three units, etc. ) to see.

The Weimar Classicism got its name not only by the orientation towards the ancient world, the strong set in with Wieland's think -driven and material reception of antiquity and - reflected in the form of many works - especially with Goethe. It was also considered a "classic" era of German poetry.

In the opposite movement of the " romance " then, the term "Classic" concentrated on formal acquisitions and dexterous as absprechender term of struggle especially against Schiller. From this point so it designated no model epoch, but a school that took the Greek classical role model.

Selected works from this period

Christoph Martin Wieland

Alceste, German Singspiel (1773, world premiere: Weimar, May 25, 1773)
The history of Abderites Roman ( Leipzig 1774-1780 )
Hann and Gulpenheh, narrative poem (Weimar 1778)
Chess Lolo, narrative poem (Weimar 1778)
Oberon, narrative poem (Weimar 1780; abridged version: Leipzig 1784)
Dschinnistan (3 volumes, 1786-1789 Winterthur )
Secret History of the philosopher Peregrinus Proteus, Roman ( preprint: Weimar 1788/89, Leipzig 1791)
Agathodaemon, Roman ( Leipzig 1796-1797 )
Aristippus and some of his contemporaries, the epistolary novel ( 4 volumes, Leipzig: Goschen 1800-1802 )

Johann Wolfgang (from) Goethe

Egmont ( tragedy, begun in 1775, in press 1788)
Wilhelm Meister's Theatrical Mission ( " Urmeister " novel, from 1776, in press 1911)
Stella. A spectacle for lovers (1776 )
Iphigenie auf Tauris ( Drama, in press 1787)
Torquato Tasso ( Drama, 1780, in press 1790)
Roman Elegies (formed 1788-90 )
Venetian Epigrams (1790)
Fist. A fragment (1790)
The civil General ( comedy, 1793)
Reineke Fuchs ( epic in hexameters, 1794)
Conversations of German Emigrants (1795 )
Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship (1795 /96)
Xenia (poetry, along with Schiller, 1796)
Short story (from 1797)
Hermann and Dorothea ( idyll in hexameters, 1798)
The natural daughter ( Tragedy, 1804)

Johann Gottfried Herder

Folk songs together with other pieces under mixed (1778-1779, only in the second edition in 1807 under the title Voices of Peoples in Songs )
Philosophy of the History of Mankind ( 4 parts 1784-1791 )
Letters for the Advancement of Humanity; ten collections (1791-1797)
Terpsichore, Lübeck 1795
Christian writings, Riga 1796-1799, 5 collections
Metacritique to the Critique of Pure Reason, Leipzig 1799, 2 parts
Kalligone, Leipzig 1800

Friedrich (from) Schiller

Don Carlos (1787 )
About the reason of pleasure at tragic objects ( 1792)
Augustenburger Letters (1793)
On Grace and Dignity (1793)
Callias - Letters (1793)
On the Aesthetic Education of Man (1795 )
On Naive and Sentimental Poetry (1795 )
The Diver (1797 )
The Cranes of Ibycus (1797 )
Ritter Toggenburg ( 1797)
The Ring of Polycrates (1797 )
The Pledge (1798 )
Wallenstein trilogy (1799 )
The Song of the Bell (1799 )
Mary Stuart (1800)
The Maid of Orléans ( 1801)
The Bride of Messina (1803 )
The victory celebration (1803 )
William Tell (1803 /04)
The Homage to the Arts (1804 )
Demetrius (unfinished, 1805)

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