158 



THE CENTURY BOOK OF FACTS. 



GERMAN LITERATURE. 



The first period of German literature com- 

 menced with the reign of Charlemagne in the 

 eighth century, arid extends to the time of the 

 Suabian emperors, at the close of the twelfth 

 century. The first learned society was in- 

 stituted by Alcuin, the greatest scholar of 

 Charlemagne's time. In the succeeding period, 

 Einhard, Rithard, and Lambert von Aschaf- 

 fenburg distinguished themselves as historical 

 and theological writers. About this time also 

 originated those epic ballads and fragments 

 which were afterwards collected under the 

 title of the Nibelun yen- Lied, or ' ' Lay of the 

 Nibelungen," and the " Song of Hildebrand." 

 The Nibelungen-Lied, which has been called 

 the German Iliad, received its present form 

 about the year 1210. Its subject is the history 

 of Siegfried, son of the King of the Nether- 

 lands, his marriage with Chriemhild, sister of 

 Giinther, King of the Burgundians, and the 

 revenge of Brunhild, Queen of'Ireland, who 

 married Gunther. 



The second period terminates with the close 

 of the fifteenth century. It includes the Min- 

 nesingers, or German Troubadours, who were 

 the result of the intercourse of Germany with 

 Italy and France, which made German schol- 

 ars acquainted with the amatory literature of 

 Provence. The most renowned Minnesingers 

 were Wolfram von Eschenbach, who wrote 

 Percival ; Walter von der Vogelweide, the 

 most graceful and popular of all, and Hein- 

 rich von Ofterdingen. Otto von Friesingen 

 achieved renown for his histories, which were 

 written in Latin. 



The third period, dating from the com- 

 mencement of the fifteenth century, at which 

 time the German language was fully developed 

 and subjected to rule, extends to the present 

 time. It has been sub-divided by German critics 

 into three parts, viz. : 1, to the commencement 

 of the Thirty Years' War ; 2, to Klopstock and 

 Lessing; 3, to our own day. The progress of 

 the Reformation in the fifteenth century 

 operated very favorably upon German litera- 

 ture. Melanchthon, Luther, Ulric von Hutten, 

 and the other leaders of the movement were 

 also distinguished scholars. The celebrated 

 Paracelsus ; the naturalist Gesner ; the painter 

 Albert Diirer, and the astronomers Kepler and 

 Copernicus, flourished also in the fifteenth 

 century. The most distinguished poet of this 

 period was Hans Sachs, the shoemaker poet of 

 Nuremberg. He was the master of a school 

 or guild of poetry, which was then considered 

 as an elegant profession. In the number of 

 his works he rivals Lope de Vega, as he is 

 said to have written 6048, 208 of which were 

 comedies and tragedies. He died in 1576. 



Martin Opitz, who marks the commencement 

 of a new era in German poetry, was born in 

 1597. He first established a true rhythm in 

 poetry, by measuring the length of the sylla- 

 bles, instead of merely counting them, as for- 

 merly. His principal poerns are I >*//,//, 

 Judith, and a number of lyrics. He was fol- 

 lowed by Paul Flemming and Simon Dach, 

 who wrote in the low German dialect. As 

 prose writers of the seventeenth century, Puf- 

 fendorf, a writer on jurisprudence and inter- 

 national law, Leibnitz, the distinguishr<l 

 philosopher, and the Brothers Baumgarten, 

 are most prominent. There is no great name 

 in German literature, however, from Opitz till 

 the middle of the last century, when Gellert, 

 Gessner, Klopstock, and Hagedorn were the 

 inauguration of a new life. Under these au- 

 thors, and others of less note, the language 

 attained a richness of expression, a flexibility 

 of style, and a harmony of modulation which 

 it never possessed before. Gellert, born in 

 1715, is distinguished for his " Spiritual Songs 

 and Odes," his letters, and his romance of 

 The Sicedish Count eta, which is the first domes- 

 tic novel written in the German language. 

 Gessner is best known through his idyls, in 

 which he followed the classic models. Hage- 

 dorn, who died in 1754, wrote many poems; 

 lie is supposed to have exercised considerable 

 influence on Klopstock in his earlier years. 

 As prose writers, Forster, Mendelssohn the 

 philosopher, and Musiius, who made a collec- 

 tion of German legends and traditions, are 

 worthy of note. 



With Klopstock commenced the golden age 

 of German literature, and the list of renowned 

 names continues unbroken until the present 

 time. Klopstock was born in 1724. In his 

 odes and lyrical poems he struck out a new 

 and bold path, casting aside the mechanical 

 rules of the older schools of German poetry. 

 His greatest work is the Jfessias, a sacred epic, 

 which was commenced in 1745 and finished in 

 1771. Lessing, born in 1729, stands by the 

 side of Klopstock as a poet, while he is also 

 distinguished as a prose writer. He maybe 

 considered as the first successful German 

 dramatist, his plays of Emilia Galotti, Minna 

 von Barnhelm, Nathan the Wise, still keeping 

 their place on the stage. As a critical writer 

 on all the branches of the Fine Arts, he is also 

 distinguished. Wieland follows next in the 

 list of German classics. Born in 1733, he is 

 the link between the age of Gellert and Klop- 

 stock, and that of Schiller and Goethe. He 

 died in 1813. His principal works are The 

 New Amatlis, which illustrates the triumph of 

 spiritual over physical beauty, the heroic epic 

 of Oberon^ a romance of the middle a^es, the 



