LITERATURE 



291 





About the year 1200, the order of knights 

 took the place of the clergy, leading in literature. 

 It was in poetry that Germany gained her high- 

 est distinction, and her most important poets 

 at this time were of the knightly class. The 

 crusades had much influence and led to the 

 I .. >et i< ul romances of the Twelfth and Thirteenth 

 Centuries. Among the poets the names of Wol- 

 fram von Eschenbach and Gottfried of Stras- 

 bourg stand first, with Walter von der Vogel- 

 weide perhaps the most popular of them all. 



A few poets of this age of chivalry took up 

 the legends of their own land, and the most 

 important of them was he who collected and 

 put into shape the ancient ballads which make 

 up the Nibelungen-lied. Gudrun is another 

 epic which puts into form a collection of legends. 

 Latin was the speech of scholars and poetry 

 the passion of writers, leaving small chance for 

 the growth of prose, but two great collections 

 of local laws had influence in gaining respect 

 of the Germans for their own language, and 

 this was the first serious attempt to secure for 

 German prose a place in literature. 



About the middle of the Thirteenth Century 

 preaching became an agency of great power. 

 The new preaching orders of the Franciscans 

 and the Dominicans were given special privilege 

 to speak on any day and in any place, tnus they 

 came in touch with the people and grew wider 

 in thought. Most popular among these preachers 

 was Brother Berthold, an orator and a writer 

 of high rank. The next early writer of religious 

 prose, Echart, became the founder of the Mystic 

 School. The most important writers of the 

 Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries are the monks 

 of this school, whose works form the link be- 

 tween the great age of the Crusades and the 

 greater age of the Reformation. The well- 

 known "Imitation of Christ," by Thomas a 

 Kempis (died 1471), belongs to this class. 

 With the Sixteenth Century begins the modern 

 v and modern literature of Germany. 

 Luther (1 483-1, >W) and the Reformers belonged 

 he people, and in literature, not less than in 

 religion, Luther was the commanding spirit of 

 his age. His greatest work was his translation 

 of the Bible, simple and strong, and in a lan- 

 guage that the nation could understand. Ger- 

 mans instantly felt its charm. Up to this date 

 each author had written in a dialect with which 

 .\as familiar. Luther's Bible, for the first 

 time, gave to the nation a literary language 

 and a common speech. The hymni of Luther 

 are noted for vigor of stylr and hi^li devotional 

 tig. Melanchthon. I'lric von Hutten. and 

 with other leaders of the movement. 

 were difltingllifhed scholars. Arnd and .1 

 Boehm. theologians. I! line; 



poet, Paracelsus and Cornelius A^rippa. n 

 philosopher-, belong to this century, \\ith Albert 

 Purer, scholar and painter, ai. the 



Soon after the elo-e of t ?h Century 



many was desolated by the Thir 



''18-1648). | ,<*d a 



whole ^ni-r:iti(in to grow up in ignorance, and 

 the n-li-i-'ii- l ,| the only class of litera- 



ture fitted to the condition^. llvmns to< 

 place of the old ballads. Paul < lerhart (1606- 



1675) was the greatest hymn writer with worthy 

 associates among the Protestants and some of 

 the wiser Jesuits. Prose writers of the Seven- 

 teenth Century were generally either artificial 

 or coarse. Among numberless romances, one, 

 Simplicissimus, by Grimmelhausen. has qualities 

 bordering on genius. In form of fiction it is a 

 story of the Thirty Years' War. 



Under the rule of Frederick the Great, be- 

 ginning in the year 1740, literature shared in 

 the general prosperity. Prose writers on the- 

 ology and philosophy grew more liberal, and 

 the poets, Klopstock and Lessing, changed the 

 tone of German writing. The influence of Kant 

 . 17LM-1804) brought a host of philosophical 

 writers and critics with new thoughts. Kant's 

 new ideas embodied in his work, "Critique of 

 Pure Reason," and the doctrines he there taught, 

 or explained, have since been known as the 

 Critical Philosophy. Lessing and Herder were 

 philosophers as well as poets, and Lessing's 

 book, " Education of the Human Race," enlarged 

 the field of historic inquiry in Germany. Herder 

 had a fine enthusiasm for human happiness which 

 lights up both his prose and poetry. Fichte 

 (1762-1814) carried the new doctrines to ex- 

 tremes, teaching that the life of the mind was 

 the only real life ; while Schelling, writing a few 

 years later, in his "Philosophy of Identity," 

 modifies this by supposing an intuition and 

 making it superior to reason. The most pro- 

 found philosophical study may be found in 

 Hazel's "Absolute Thought." This habit of 

 studying into the mysteries of being made the 

 noted German philosophy that has affected 

 literature in all countries. 



Herder roused and directed the young genius 

 of Goethe (1749-1832), thus helping to give to 

 Germany the writer who holds place equal to 

 Shakespere in England, and Dante in Italy: 

 Goethe belongs to the world rather than to one 

 country. Late in the Eighteenth Cent urv Goethe 

 Schiller, Herder, and Wieland settled at Weimar. 

 making it the center of intellectual life. ( loethe's 

 drama, "Gotz von Berlichinuen." had 

 him place as poet, and his sentimental tal> 

 Sorrows of Werther," made him known through- 

 out Europe. During his friendship with Schiller 

 they wrote many ballads and lyrics, but his 

 longer poem. "Herman and Dorothea.' 

 more successful. "Tasso" and "1 

 best known among his dramas, and "Wilhelm 

 Mei-ter" as his philosophical prose 

 Schiller's tragedy. "The Robbers." was received 

 with enthusiasm, but it- revolutionary ardor 

 brought eritiri-m. Among his poem-. 

 of Orleans," "William Tell." and the "Song 

 of the Bell," are UM best known, n 



-tein " is the greatest drama in the German 

 language. < <>f travel, his 



autobiography, and his scientit re alao 



much ivad. The principal prose works of Schiller 

 are "History of tlie Netherlands" ami "Hi-ton- 

 of the Thirfv Years' War." In this jx-r 

 long, alao, Voss, author of the joem " Ix>uise," 

 ana Burger, who wrote the well k; 

 nore" and "The Wild Huntsman." H.land. 

 whose first volume of |x>ems was published in 

 1815, was one of the l>est 



I ;dwig der Ilaier" ranks high. 



