Germany

The period which succeeded the decline of chivalry was marked by a thorough neglect, among the higher classes, of national literature, which thus fell into the hands of the people, to the thorough disorganization of all principles of grammar. To this age belongs, however, the great mass of the Vvikslieder, or national ballads, in which Germany is specially. rich; the fables and satires of Brand and of Sachs, and the romances of the satirist Johann Fisch&•t. The mySteries and passion-plays, which. were at their height in the 15th c., and still linger in the village of Oberanntergau, in Upper Bavaria, may be said to have given origin to the German drama, which numbered amono. its earliest cultivators, Sachs, Rebhultn, and Ayrer. The close of the 15th c. was prolific in rhyming historical chronicles, in satires on the clergy, and in theological writings for and against the tottering power of the Romish church, The writings of Luther, his translation of the Bible, and the works of Ulrich von Hutten, Zuinglius, and of many of the other reformers, were, however, the most important events in the history of German literature from the close of the 15th to the middle of the 16th c.; and it must be remem bered that Luther addressed himself to the minds of his countrymen not merely through his polemical writings, but also by those noble hymns, which, since his day, haVe con stituted one of the greatest literary treasures of the kind. Some of the best of these or church songs, were composed by Luther himself; while next to him those of Speratus,'Decius, Nicolai, and Herberger have, perhaps, found most favor both among Germans and foreigners. These fervent effusions of the devout and eloquent reformers were followed by a period Of literary degeneration and stagnation, which is in a great measure to be ascribed to the demoralizing effects of the thirty years' war, when Germany was a prey to all the evils inseparable from civil war fostered by foreign interference. The iintliket of this period of anarchy was to quench the national spirit, and vitiate the popular taste; for, while the petty courts aped the habits, language, and literature of Versailles, the lower' orders foiT-' their own literature, with its rich treasures of legends, tales, and ballads, and acquired a taste for the coarse camp-sours, imported by foreign mercenaries and the immoral romances borrowed from impure French and Italian sources. German poetry in the 17th c. was framed after the model of the later classics, and their modern imitators. The study of the genuine national literature was neglected, and although a host of learned societies were formed, whose professed object was to purify and elevate the public taste, the results were lamentably unsatisfactory; and it was not till J. C. Gottsched (1700-66) succeeded in his Critical Art of Poetry in drawing attention to the turgid pedantry and artificial stiffness of the classi cist school, that a better taste wasawakeued. His own pretentious bigotry gave origin, however, to a counter-party, from which emanated, at a somewhat later period, the German esthetic school, under the guidance of A. Baumgarten and G. Meier. A favorable reaction now took place, and with the names of Klopstock, Lensing, and Wieland began the brilliant epoch of modern German literature. Their influence was alike great and varied; for while Klopstock's poem of the Messiah, and his odes, in which he had taken Milton as his model, re-echoed the tender piety of the old reformers, and were so thoroughly German in their spirit, that they at once met with an enthusiastic response in the-hearts of the people, Lessing's tragedy of Minna v. Barnhelm, and his drama of Nathan der Weise, may be said to have created anew the dramatic art in Germany. Wie land, on the other hand, who was the complete antithesis of Klopstock, although, like his two great contemporaries, he was the founder of a new style, and gave a graceful flexibility to German diction, which it had never before been made to assume, had imparted to his numerous tales and romances an undisguised sensuous materialism, which, like his style, bad been borrowed from the French philosophers of his day, and thus introduced into the language and literature of Germany the germs of many defects, as well as graces, to which they had hitherto remained strangers. The influence exerted on German literature by these three writers, who may he regarded as its regenerators, was soon appreciable in every branch of knowledge; and among the galaxy of great names which have imparted renown to the literary and scientific annals of Germany during the last 100 years, we can only instance a few of the principal writers who have more especially enriched the several departments of learning with which they have been associated.

Philosophy, which in Germany originated with Leibnitz, who, however, wrote in Latin and French, assumed a degree of individuality and completeness through the intel lectual acumen and subtle analysis of Kant, Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel, which have no parallel in any other country. Other names worthy of mention in this department are Herbart, Schopenhaucr, and Baader. In theology, Reinhard, Paulus, Schleier maqher, Neander, Muller, Lilcke, Baur, Strauss, Mulder, Hollinger, and a host of others, have infused new life into biblical inquiry; while invaluable aid has been afforded in the same direction by the profound philological and critical researches of Wolf, Hermann, Muller,- the erudite brothers J. and W. Grimm, Bopp. Benecke, Ade lung, Lassen, Rosen, Schlegel, W. Humboldt, Lepsius, Bunsen, etc. I,n archeology, history, and jurisprudence, all nations owe a debt of gratitude to Winckelmann, Hee MD, Von Raumer, Schlosser, Von Hammer, Gervinus, Dahlmann, Ranke, Niebuhr, and Mommsen. In poetry and belles-lettres, the name of Goethe (who lived from 1749 to 1832) is a host in itself. He had been preceded in the school to which be attached himself, which was known as that of the period, by Herder, its orig inator, whose philosophical critiques of foreign and German literature contributed materially to the complete literary revolution which ushered in the modern period of German poetry. In his ,Leiden des Jungen TVerther (The Sorrows of Werther), Goethe carried the sentimental tendencies of the school to their culminating point; but his own later and very numerous works became in time more and more free from the blemishes into which he had led others. The period closed with Schiller (1759— 1805), whose early works, The Robbers, Fiesco, and Don Carlos, threw the whole German people into a frenzy of excitement. His later dramatic works, if less exciting than these, gave evidence of more matured taste, while some of his ballads and lyrics may be said to be unrivaled. In the present century, poetry has found noble representatives in the so-called Vaterlandsdichter (Poets of the Fatherland), among whom we may instance Theodor Korner, and Arndt, whose spirited patriotic songs are intimately associated with the war of 1813 against Napoleon, in which the former fell fighting gloriously. F. Ruckert and L. Uhland belong to the same school; but the former is more especially known for his admirable adaptations and translations from the oriental languages, and the latter for his exquisite romances and ballads. A still greater name is that of Heine, who may rank almost with Goethe and Schiller in poetic power. We may also mentior the names of MUller, Hoffmann von Fallersleben, Platen, Freiligrath, Geibel, who, amidst a crowd of others, are highly esteemed in their native country. The influence of Goethe and Schiller extended in a marked degree to the drama and to novel-writing. In the former department, Iffland acquired great reputation as a writer of sensation dramas, A. von Kotzebue as an inexhaustible composer of light effective comedies, A. Milliner von Honwald. F. Grillparzer, and E. Raupach for their historical and social tragedies, while C.Imblerthann (who is better known a's' the author of the novel Munch kausen), Mosen, Laube, and C. Freytag, have all produced good dramatic pieces. Among the host of novelists who have endeavored to follow iu the steps of the great leaders of the period, the majority do not require notice. J. P. Richter, the satirist and humorist, stands forth, however, apart from and far above his compeers; and few novelists ever exerted so lasting an influence on the literature and mode of feeling of their compatriots as that which Richter exercised over the minds of the mid dle classes of Germany, during the close of the last and the early part of the present century. Among other writers of note, we may instance De la Motte Fouque, A. Hoff mann, and A. Chamisso, whose tendencies were to dwell on the mysterious agencies of nature, which they attempted to individualize, and bring into association with material forms, as in the Undine of the first, the fantastic tales of the second, and the Peter Se/dental of the last-named. C. Pichler, Spindler, H. Steffens; C. Gutzkow, Sternberg, W. Haring (the imitator of Sir W. Scott), Hauff, Zschokke, an admirable writer of novel ettes, Hacklander, Ida von Hahn-Hahn, Auerbach, Freytag, Gerstileker, Gottschall, Spielhagen, and Paul Heyse have all in turn enjoyed wide popularity, and some of them not as novelists only..