Zeydel: Storm and Stress 
11 
Evidently the phrase has made a deep impression on Klin- 
ger; it has become part of his vocabulary. Indeed, Hilde- 
brand might well have quoted the following somewhat sim- 
ilar expression from Klinger’s correspondence, too. On 
March 17, 1777, even earlier than the previously quoted letter, 
he writes also to Schleiermacher : 22 
Meine Situation ist drang und leidensvoll. 
Hildebrand now turns to Maler Muller, who in his Faust 
(1778) has the devil Atoti say of the “Genies:” 23 
. . . immer schreiend von Kraft und Starke, Sturm und Drang. 
Then Hildebrand quotes the expressions “Sturm und 
Drang” and “Drang und Sturm” from the Geschichte eines 
Genies (1780), both used in a purely personal connection, 
and the following lines from Burger’s sonnet An das Herz 
(1792) : 24 
Lange schon in manchem Sturm und Drange 
Wandeln meine Fiisse durch die Welt. 
In all these passages, except perhaps that from Maler Muller, 
it will be noted, the term is used merely in a personal sense 
with reference to the feelings of an individual. The same is 
true of the following passage which Hildebrand quotes from 
a letter by Goethe to Schiller of May 22, 1808. Goethe, re- 
ferring to his impressions on looking over an old manuscript 
of the Farbenlehre, says: 25 
die Millie, der Fleiss, das Schleppen und Schleifen und dann wieder der 
Sturm und Drang, das alles macht in den Papieren und Akten eine 
recht interessante Ansicht. 
The next quotation, from Kastner (1798), on the other 
hand, clearly reveals a turn of phrase quite similar to the 
modern usage. Kastner is speaking of certain political writ- 
ers of the day, who, he says, remind him of: 26 
. . . die Genie-, Kraft-, Drang-, und Sturmmanner, die Deutschland 
vor einigen Jahren aus dem Reiche der Asthetik weggelacht hat. 
Finally, with references to the word “Geniedrang” used by 
Friedrich Schulz in 1782, to the Goethean expression 
22 Ibid. 
23 Literaturdenkmale, III, 19-20. 
24 D.N.L., Burger, p. 361. 
25 Weimar ed., IV. Abteilung, 16. Band, p. 232. 
26 Kastner, Werke, III, Berlin, 1841, p. 176. 
