Aspects of German Culture in the Age of Enlightenment

1. Aspects of German Culture in the Age of Enlightenment Lecture 3: Young Goethe and the Sturm und Drang Movement of the 1770’s

2. Sturm und Drang: Key Concepts What is Sturm und Drang? = Poetic rebellion Social background: Middle Class Frustration Intellectual Background: Genius (Geniezeit) Nature (J.G Herder, Jean-Jacques Rousseau) Shakespeare (Goethe and Herder) Primitivism (Non-European, pagan and Celtic myth) (European) Folksong (Volkslied)

3. Who’s Who of Sturm und Drang? (1770’s in Germany) • J.G Herder • J.W Goethe • J.M.R Lenz • F.M Klinger

4. Johann Gottfried Herder (b. 1744) • Intellectual leader of Sturm and Drang • based in Strasbourg, met Goethe there in 1770. Collaboration leads to: • Von deutscher Art und Kunst, 1774 – an aesthetic manifesto • Enthusiasm for Shakespeare, ‘primitivism’, folk poetry and Celtic myth

5. Johann Wolfgang Goethe (b.1749) • Born Frankfurt am Main, studied law in Leipzig and then Strasbourg (March 1770 – Autumn 1771). • ‘Sesenheimer Lieder’: Friederike Brion • Worked in his father’s law practise in Frankfurt 1771-1775. Frankfurt becomes a centre for the inner circle of Sturm und Drang from 1771 onwards • A six month stay in Wetzlar in 1772, he also fell in love with Charlotte Buff, arguable model for Charlotte in the novel Die Leiden des jungen Werther

6. Goethe and Friederike Brion: ‘Sesenheimer Lieder’, incl. ‘Willkommen und Abschied’. “Im Oktober 1770 lernte Goethe in Sesenheim die Pfarrerstochter Friederike Brion kennen. Sesenheim liegt im Elsaß  in der Nähe von Straßburg, wo Goethe damals Jura studierte. Zwischen Goethe und Friederike entflammte sofort eine heftige Liebe. Diese Beziehung endet ein knappes Jahr später. Die Liebe, war schon vorher aus seiner Sicht problematisch und im August 1771 nahm er Abschied von Friederike.”

7. Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz (b.1751) • Born 1751, son of a pastor, study of Theology in Königsberg • Job of house tutor in Strassburg – meets Goethe, 1771 • Author of some important formally experimental plays, Der Hofmeister (1774), Die Soldaten (1776).

8. F.M Klinger (b.1752) • Born Frankfurt am Main 1752 in poverty • Studied Law with Goethe’s help in Giessen 1774-6 • Author of several plays including Sturm und Drang, 1776.

9. Sturm und Drang: two models of genius • Mythological: • Prometheus, a man who stole fire from the God’s • Although punished, he made himself and mankind independent of the gods. Historical: • William Shakespeare • Great individualist, ‘instinctive’ rather than cultivated poet/ playwright • Rejects ‘three unities’ of (neo) classical drama • ‘Dollmetscher dur Natur in all’ ihren Zungen’ (Herder on W.S), translator of natural world

10. Sturm und Drang in Goethe’s lyrical poems • This expresses itself in the presentation of heightened emotional and subjective experience: see ‘Willkommen und Abschied’, imagery of ‘fire’, the ‘heart’. • Also expressed as a strong sense of individualism: the self vs. aspects of nature/ fear in ‘Willkommen und Abschied’ • The ‘Grosse Hymnen’: explicit thematisation of individualism vs. celestial and temporal authority in ‘Prometheus’ • Note changing presentation of nature: malevolent or benevolent, life giving and inspirational or destructive? • Note the ‘free verse form’ of some (though not all) of these poems