JUNG-DEUTSCHLAND, more properly DAS JUNGE DEUTSCHLAND, a literary and political movement in Germany culminating in 1835, and not related with the simultaneous and more important movements known as Young Italy and Young Europe. There never was much organization or consultation between the writers composing it (Heine, Laube, Gutz kow, Mundt, Wienbarg), but they were con nected by the similarity of their aims and methods, and by the fact that the Bundestag at Frankfort in 1835 (having read a denuncia tion of these men, written by Wolfgang Men zel), issued a decree forbidding the circulation of all past and future writings of the five men concerned, and characterized their movement as "Jung-Deutsehland," a term first used by Wien barg in his Feldzfige.' Basing their principles on stimulus received from re cent emancipated French writers, these Young Germans opposed, in a literary way, the political reaction in Germany, the predominant tend encies in literature, and the sectarian Chris tianity of their day. Both Jesuitism and Prot estant orthodoxy were then very strong in Ger many, and to these influences the Young Ger mans opposed the socialistic tendencies ema nating from the French July Revolution (1830).
Their chief object was to reinvigorate both State and Church by the injection of an esthe tic culture, thus making both institutions more accessible to larger outlook& Soon, however, the free of the individual character became their principal goal. State and Church came to be regarded as mere hindrances, and national affiliation was considered to be a base ideal, in no way comparable with Goethe's great conception of a world literature (Wettlitter atur). The immediate demands of the Young Germans included an emancipation of the Jews and complete freedom for women. Consult Houben, H. H., Sturm and Drang> (Leipzig 1911) ; Bloesch, H., 'Das junge Deutschland in seiner Beziehung zu Frankreich' (Bern 1903) ; Proelss, Johann, 'Das junge Deutschland> (Stuttgart 1892); Brandes, Georg, junge Deutschland' (Leipzig 1891).