homework 7 for wednesday 2/5 (links and readings)moderngermanculture.yolasite.com/resources/hwa7...
TRANSCRIPT
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Homework 7 for Wednesday 2/5 (links and readings)
I. Bring one important observation about the economy to class II. Review “Culture and Media” and “Society” on the Facts about Germany website:
http://www.tatsachen-ueber-deutschland.de/en/culture-and-media.html
with emphasis on:
The German cultural world
Literature
Theater
Music
Cinema
Fine Arts
III. Read through the additional information below in black; the grayed-out parts are optional. I recommend watching a few videos.
IV. Review current events (link on our website:
http://moderngermanculture.yolasite.com now also accessible from: http://homepages.utoledo.edu/bsulzer
V. Write your summary (100 words): focus on a few interesting „observations‘ you make and a few questions you want to ask in class.
You may focus on the following points:
German Expressionism
20th century art
Art during the Nazi regime
20th/21st century film
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20th/21st century literature
Art before WW II
Art after WW II
Anselm Kiefer
Christian Petzold
Nina Hoss
Herta Müller
…
Additional information: >>>>
You are not expected to know every single detail. These links are here to help you get a better idea.
The “Facts of Germany” website above always contains the most important information in relatively
short form. You can base your observations and questions on that. You can amend this for yourself by
choosing a topic you are interested in. Whatever you contribute in class from other information such
as below or from anywhere else will be discussed when mentioned or I might contribute some of that
information. Anything we talk about in class will be important for the quiz.
Additional information: >>>>
Art:
From:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_art
The beginnings:
The area of modern Germany is rich in finds of prehistoric art, including the Venus of Hohle Fels. This
appears to be the oldest undisputed example of Upper Paleolithic art and figurative sculpture of the
human form in general, from over 35,000 years BP, which was only discovered in 2008;[1] the better-
known Venus of Willendorf (24–22,000 BP) comes from a little way over the Austrian border.
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Venus of Hohle Fels, 35,000 to 40,000 BP, the oldest known figurative work of art (true height 6 cm
(2.4 in)).
Middle Ages
The Bamberg Apocalypse, from the Ottonian Reichenau School, achieves monumentality in a small scale.
1000–1020.
German medieval art really begins with the Frankish Empire of Charlemagne (d. 814), the first
state to rule the great majority of the modern territory of Germany, as well as France and much
of Italy. Carolingian art was restricted to a relatively small number of objects produced for a
circle around the court and a number of Imperial abbeys they sponsored, but had a huge
influence on later Medieval art across Europe. The most common type of object to survive is the
illuminated manuscript; wall paintings were evidently common but, like the buildings that
housed them, have nearly all vanished. The earlier centres of illumination were located in
modern France, but later Metz in Lorraine and the Abbey of Saint Gall in modern Switzerland
came to rival them. The Drogo Sacramentary and Folchard Psalter are among the manuscripts
they produced.[3]
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No Carolingian monumental sculpture survives, although perhaps the most important patronage of
Charlemagne was his commissioning of a life-size gold figure of Christ on a crucifix for his Palatine
Chapel in Aachen; this is only known from literary references and was probably gold foil around a
wooden base, probably modelled with a gesso layer, like the later and rather crumpled Golden
Madonna of Essen. Early Christian art had not featured monumental sculptures of religious figures as
opposed to rulers, as these were strongly associated by the Church Fathers with the cult idols of Ancient
Roman religion.
20th
century:
Video: The mad square: modernity in German art 1910-37
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hmPHwlc7BQ
Rehe im Walde ("Roe deer in the forest") by Franz Marc
Even more than in other countries, German art in the early 20th century developed through a
number of loose groups and movements, many covering other artistic media as well, and often
with a specific political element, as with the Arbeitsrat für Kunst and November Group, both
formed in 1918. By the 1920s a "Cartel of advanced artistic groups in Germany" (Kartell
fortschrittlicher Künstlergruppen in Deutschland) was found necessary.
Die Brücke ("The Bridge") was one of two groups of German painters fundamental to
expressionism, the other being Der Blaue Reiter group. Die Brücke was a group of German
expressionist artists formed in Dresden in 1905 by architecture students who wanted to be
painters: Fritz Bleyl (1880–1966), Erich Heckel (1883–1970), Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880–
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1938) and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (1884–1976), with Max Pechstein and others later joining.[37]
The notoriously individualistic Emil Nolde (1867–1956) was briefly a member of Die Brücke,
but was at odds with the younger members of the group. Die Brücke moved to Berlin in 1911,
where it eventually dissolved in 1913. Perhaps their most important contribution had been the
rediscovery of the woodcut as a valid medium for original artistic expression.
Der Blaue Reiter ("The Blue Rider") formed in Munich, Germany in 1911. Wassily
Kandinsky, Franz Marc, August Macke, Alexej von Jawlensky, Marianne von Werefkin and
others founded the group in response to the rejection of Kandinsky's painting Last Judgment
from an exhibition by Neue Künstlervereinigung—another artists' group of which Kandinsky had
been a member. The name Der Blaue Reiter derived from Marc's enthusiasm for horses, and
from Kandinsky's love of the colour blue. For Kandinsky, blue is the colour of spirituality—the
darker the blue, the more it awakens human desire for the eternal (see his 1911 book On the
Spiritual in Art). Kandinsky had also titled a painting Der Blaue Reiter (see illustration) in
1903.[38]
The intense sculpture and printmaking of Käthe Kollwitz was strongly influenced by
Expressionism, which also formed the starting point for the young artists who went on to join
other tendencies within the movements of the early 20th century.[39]
Video: German Expressionism:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgTqTRrDrvg
Otto Dix, Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia von Harden, 1926
Die Brücke and Der Blaue Reiter were both examples of tendency of early 20th century German
art to be "honest, direct, and spiritually engaged"[40]
The difference in how the two groups
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attempted this were telling, however. The artists of Der Blaue Reiter were less oriented towards
intense expression of emotion and more towards theory- a tendency which would lead
Kandinsky to pure abstraction. Still, it was the spiritual and symbolic properties of abstract form
that were important. There were therefore Utopian tones to Kandinsky's abstractions: "We have
before us an age of conscious creation, and this new spirit in painting is going hand in hand with
thoughts toward an epoch of greater spirituality."[41]
Die Brücke also had Utopian tendencies, but
took the medieval craft guild as a model of cooperative work that could better society-
"Everyone who with directness and authenticity conveys that which drives him to creation
belongs to us".[42]
The Bauhaus also shared these Utopian leanings, seeking to combine fine and
applied arts (Gesamtkunstwerk) with a view towards creating a better society.
[edit] Weimar period
A major feature of German art in the early 20th century until 1933 was a boom in the production
of works of art of a grotesque style.[43][44]
Artists using the Satirical-Grotesque genre included
George Grosz, Otto Dix and Max Beckmann, at least in their works of the 1920s. Dada in
Germany, the leading practitioners of which were Kurt Schwitters and Hannah Höch, was
centered in Berlin, where it tended to be more politically oriented than Dada groups
elsewhere.[45]
They made important contributions to the development of collage as a medium for
political commentary- Schwitters later developed his Merzbau, a forerunner of installation art.[45]
Dix and Grosz were also associated with the Berlin Dada group. Max Ernst led a Dada group in
Cologne, where he also practiced collage, but with a greater interest in Gothic fantasy than in
overt political content- this hastened his transition into surrealism, of which he became the
leading German practitioner.[46]
The Swiss-born Paul Klee, Lyonel Feininger and others
experimented with cubism.
The New Objectivity, or Neue Sachlichkeit (new matter-of-factness), was an art movement
which arose in Germany during the 1920s as an outgrowth of, and in opposition to,
expressionism. It is thus post-expressionist and applied to works of visual art as well as
literature, music, and architecture. It describes the stripped-down, simplified building style of the
Bauhaus and the Weissenhof Settlement, the urban planning and public housing projects of
Bruno Taut and Ernst May, and the industrialization of the household typified by the Frankfurt
kitchen. Grosz and Dix were leading figures, forming the "Verist" side of the movement with
Beckmann and Christian Schad, Rudolf Schlichter, Georg Scholz (in his early work), Elfriede
Lohse-Wächtler, and Karl Hubbuch. The other tendency is sometimes called Magic Realism, and
included Anton Räderscheidt, Georg Schrimpf, Alexander Kanoldt, and Carl Grossberg. Unlike
some of the other groupings, the Neue Sachlichkeit was never a formal group, and its artists were
associated with other groups; the term was invented by a sympathetic curator, and "Magic
Realism" by an art critic.[47]
Plakatstil, "poster style" in German, was an early style of poster design that began in the early
20th century, using bold, straight fonts with very simple designs, in contrast to Art Nouveau
posters. Lucian Bernhard was a leading figure.
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Art during the Third Reich
The Nazi regime banned modern art, which they condemned as degenerate art (from the German:
entartete Kunst). According to Nazi ideology, modern art deviated from the prescribed norm of
classical beauty. While the 1920s to 1940s are considered the heyday of modern art movements,
there were conflicting nationalistic movements that resented abstract art, and Germany was no
exception. Avant-garde German artists were now branded both enemies of the state and a threat
to the German nation. Many went into exile, with relatively few returning after World War II.
Dix was one who remained, being conscripted into the Volkssturm Home Guard militia;
Pechstein kept his head down in rural Pomerania. Nolde also stayed, creating his "unpainted
pictures" in secret after being forbidden to paint. Beckmann, Ernst, Grosz, Feininger and others
went to America, Klee to Switzerland, where he died. Kirchner committed suicide.
In July 1937, the Nazis mounted a polemical exhibition entitled Entartete Kunst (Degenerate
Art), in Munich; it subsequently travelled to eleven other cities in Germany and Austria. The
show was intended as an official condemnation of modern art, and included over 650 paintings,
sculptures, prints, and books from the collections of thirty two German museums.
Expressionism, which had its origins in Germany, had the largest proportion of paintings
represented. Simultaneously, and with much pageantry, the Nazis presented the Grosse deutsche
Kunstausstellung (Great German art exhibition) at the palatial Haus der deutschen Kunst (House
of German Art). This exhibition displayed the work of officially approved artists such as Arno
Breker and Adolf Wissel. At the end of four months Entartete Kunst had attracted over two
million visitors, nearly three and a half times the number that visited the nearby Grosse deutsche
Kunstausstellung.[48]
Video: Degenerate Art - 1993, The Nazis vs. Expressionism
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QE4Ld1mkoM
Post WWII art
Joseph Beuys, wearing his ubiquitous fedora, delivers a lecture on his theory of social sculpture, 1978
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Post-war art trends in Germany can broadly be divided into Neo-expressionism and
Conceptualism.
Especially notable neo-expressionists include or included Georg Baselitz, Anselm Kiefer, Jörg
Immendorff, A. R. Penck, Markus Lüpertz, and Rainer Fetting. Other notable artists who work
with traditional media or figurative imagery include Martin Kippenberger, Gerhard Richter,
Sigmar Polke, and Neo Rauch.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anselm_Kiefer
Anselm Kiefer today:
http://hyperallergic.com/71315/flowers-of-retrenchment-anselm-kiefers-alternate-history/
Anselm Kiefer at 65:
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miYRiGf899s
Kiefer on art and various topics:
http://hyperallergic.com/11870/anselm-kiefer-92y/
Video: Anselm Kiefer discusses his work:
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLtgYg2iA0A&list=PL35B22D8F09B8A5E9
Interview with Anselm Kiefer:
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-SKMour6bw&list=PL35B22D8F09B8A5E9
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkUQdiC-oMY (Anselm Kiefer, German)
The Painter Jörg Immendorff:
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEGw3R72ogg
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Leading German conceptual artists include or included Bernd and Hilla Becher, Hanne
Darboven, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Hans Haacke, and Charlotte Posenenske.[49]
The Performance artist, sculptor, and theorist Joseph Beuys was perhaps the most influential
German artist of the late 20th century.[50]
His main contribution to theory was the expansion of
the Gesamtkunstwerk to include the whole of society, as expressed by his famous expression
"Everyone is an artist". This expanded concept of art, known as social sculpture, defines
everything that contributes creatively to society as artistic in nature. The form this took in his
oeuvre varied from richly metaphoric, almost shamanistic performances based on his personal
mythology (How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare, I Like America and America Likes Me) to
more direct and utilitarian expressions, such as 7000 Oaks and his activities in the Green party.
Famous for their happenings are HA Schult and Wolf Vostell. Wolf Vostell is also known for his
early installations with television. His first installations with television the Cycle Black Room
from 1958 was shown in Wuppertal at the Galerie Parnass in 1963 and his installation 6 TV Dé-
coll/age was shown at the Smolin Gallery [51]
in New York also in 1963.[52]
[53]
HA Schult, Trash People, shown in Cologne
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbAMooM685E
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HA_Schult
The art group Gruppe SPUR included: Lothar Fischer (1933–2004), Heimrad Prem (1934–1978),
Hans-Peter Zimmer (1936–1992) and Helmut Sturm (1932). The SPUR-artists met first at the
Academy of Fine Arts, Munich and, before falling out with them, were associated with the
Situationist International. Other groups include the Junge Wilde of the late 1970s to early 1980s.
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documenta (sic) is a major exhibition of contemporary art held in Kassel every five years (2007,
2012...), Art Cologne is an annual art fair, again mostly for contemporary art, and Transmediale
is an annual festival for art and digital culture, held in Berlin.
Other contemporary German artists include Jonathan Meese, Daniel Richter, Albert Oehlen,
Markus Oehlen, Rosemarie Trockel, Andreas Gursky, Thomas Ruff, Blinky Palermo, Hans-
Jürgen Schlieker, Günther Uecker, Aris Kalaizis, Katharina Fritsch, Fritz Schwegler and Thomas
Schütte.
German Cinema:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_film
German Expressionism in film:
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJR9dRgJe3k
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The Berlin Wintergarten theatre was the site of the first cinema ever, with a short movie presented by
the Skladanowsky brothers on 1 November 1895
Video: The Legacy of German Expressionism
Interview with Marlene Dietrich: 1971:
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdYHZ4ALrSY
Der Blaue Engel (the Blue Angel): one of the most famous German films of the 1930s,
starring Marlene Dietrich:
Video (entire film) with English subtitles:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXGMQWdXdyU
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_cinema Der blaue Engel (1930) by the Austrian director
Josef von Sternberg was Germany's first talkie (shot simultaneously in German and English) and
made an international star of Marlene Dietrich.
New German Cinema:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_cinema
1960–1980 New German Cinema
Further information: New German Cinema
As a reaction to the artistic and economic stagnation of German cinema, a group of young film-
makers issued the Oberhausen Manifesto on February 28, 1962. This call to arms, which
included Alexander Kluge, Edgar Reitz, Peter Schamoni and Franz Josef Spieker among its
signatories, provocatively declared "Der alte Film ist tot. Wir glauben an den neuen" ("The old
cinema is dead. We believe in the new cinema"). Other up-and-coming filmmakers allied
themselves to this Oberhausen group, among them Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Volker
Schlöndorff, Werner Herzog, Jean-Marie Straub, Wim Wenders, Werner Schroeter and Hans-
Jürgen Syberberg in their rejection of the existing German film industry and their determination
to build a new industry founded on artistic excellence rather than commercial dictates. Most of
these directors organized themselves in, or partially co-operated with, the film production and
distribution company Filmverlag der Autoren established in 1971, which throughout the 1970s
brought forth a number of critically and internationally acclaimed films (see below).
Despite the foundation of the Kuratorium Junger Deutscher Film (Young German Film
Committee) in 1965, set up under the auspices of the Federal Ministry of the Interior to support
new German films financially, the directors of this New German Cinema, who rejected co-
operation with the existing film industry, were consequently often dependent on money from
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television. Young filmmakers had the opportunity to test their mettle in such programmes as the
stand-alone drama and documentary series Das kleine Fernsehspiel (The Little TV Play) or the
television films of the crime series Tatort. However, the broadcasters sought TV premieres for
the films which they had supported financially, with theatrical showings only occurring later. As
a consequence, such films tended to be unsuccessful at the box office.
This situation changed after 1974 when the Film-Fernseh-Abkommen (Film and Television
Accord) was agreed between the Federal Republic's main broadcasters, ARD and ZDF, and the
German Federal Film Board (a government body created in 1968 to support film-making in
Germany).[24]
This accord, which has been repeatedly extended up to the present day, provides
for the television companies to make available an annual sum to support the production of films
which are suitable for both theatrical distribution and television presentation. (The amount of
money provided by the public broadcasters has varied between 4.5 and 12.94 million euros per
year). Under the terms of the accord, films produced using these funds can only be screened on
television 24 months after their theatrical release. They may appear on video or DVD no sooner
than six months after cinema release. As a result of the funds provided by the Film-Fernseh-
Abkommen, German films, particularly those of the New German Cinema, gained a much greater
opportunity to enjoy box-office success before they played on television (Blaney 1992:204).
Despite the difficulty in finding a large domestic audience, the films of these directors also began
gaining critical acclaim and their foreign audiences grew throughout the 1970s.[25]
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuxobmWUJi0
Director Volker Schlöndorff:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volker_Schl%C3%B6ndorff
He won an Oscar as well as the Palme d'or at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival for The Tin Drum
(1979), the film version of the novel by Nobel Prize-winning author Günter Grass.[1]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHGla_N7LDE
Spying in East Germany: from the film “The Others”:
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9J4v_El90U&list=PL3275EE8CDDBA2651
1990–2013 Federal Republic of Germany:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_cinema
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A modern cinema in Dortmund
John Rabe (2009), directed by Florian Gallenberger, filming on location in Shanghai harbour.
Today's biggest producers include Bavaria Film, Constantin Film, Studio Hamburg, and UFA.
Recent film releases such as Run Lola Run by Tom Tykwer, Good Bye Lenin! by Wolfgang
Becker, Head-On by Fatih Akin, and Downfall by Oliver Hirschbiegel have arguably managed to
recapture the provocative and innovative nature of 1970s New German cinema. A number of
modern German films such as Downfall, Sophie Scholl – The Final Days, The Lives of Others,
and The Counterfeiters address the nature of totalitarianism in 20th-century Germany.
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Nina Hoss
In: “Barbara” by director Christian Petzold
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_%282012_film%29
Trailer: Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxmgAhDKoQY
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_Hoss
Video: Trailer for Nija Hoss in “Yella”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7iZUwm7tVQ
Video: Interview with Nina Hoss
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7t-7OXVEic
Other notable directors working in German currently include Sönke Wortmann, Caroline Link
(winner of an Academy Award), Romuald Karmakar, Harun Farocki, Hans-Christian Schmid,
Andreas Dresen, Dennis Gansel, Ulrich Köhler and Ulrich Seidl, as well as comedy directors
Michael Herbig and Sven Unterwaldt.
Germany has recently experienced an influx of independent and underground films (mostly
pertaining to the horror genre). Directors in this popular circle include Andreas Schnaas, Olaf
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Ittenbach, Jorg Buttgereit, Timo Rose and Daryush Shokof with some highly original works
beginning with his Seven Servants.
The new decade has also seen a resurgence of the German film industry, with bigger-budget
films and good returns at the German box office.
German production companies have been quite commonly involved in expensive French and
Italian productions from Spaghetti Westerns to French comic book adaptations. In recent years,
German production interests have also become very involved with American television and film
production to help offset the costs of such productions, as evidenced by the company credits in
certain films and TV shows.
Germany have a long cooperation with the Swedish film industry, which started as early as
during the 1960s. German film industry has primarily been economically involved in Swedish
films, but does not put itself in the artistic product. However, some German actors have had
small parts in Swedish films and some Swedish actors have had small parts in German films. The
co-operation became stronger during the end of the 1990s.
German Film Academy
The Deutsche Filmakademie was founded in 2003 in Berlin and aims to provide native
filmmakers a forum for discussion and a way to promote the reputation of German cinema
through publications, presentations, discussions and regular promotion of the subject in the
schools.
NEW: One of the most famous German films with great international success:
Volker Schlöndorrff’s “The Tin Drum” and Wolfgang Peterson”s “Das Boot”
Info for “The Tin Drum:”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tin_Drum_%28film%29
The Tin Drum (German: Die Blechtrommel) is a 1979 film adaptation of the novel of the same
name by Günter Grass. It was directed and co-written by Volker Schlöndorff. Stylistically, it is a
surrealistic black comedy.
The film won the Palme d'Or at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival[2]
and the Academy Award for
Best Foreign Language Film at the 52nd Academy Awards.[3]
Info for “Das Boot:”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_Boot_%28film%29
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Produced with a budget of 32 million DM (about $18.5 million), the film was released on September 17, 1981, and was later released in 1997 in a director's cut version supervised by Petersen. It grossed over $80 million ($205 million in 2013 prices) worldwide between its theatrical releases and received critical acclaim. Its high production cost ranks it among the most expensive films in the history of German cinema.
Video: Das Boot (film): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iMWb8nEOG4
German Literature:
Beyond the Classics: What German Literature interests Foreigners:
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YB5wCZkd2YM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herta_M%C3%BCller
Herta Müller (born 17 August 1953) is a German-Romanian novelist, poet, essayist and
recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Nițchidorf, Timiș County in Romania,
her native language is German. Since the early 1990s she has been internationally established,
and her works have been translated into more than twenty languages.[1][2]
Video: Nobel Prize in Literature 2009 documentary, Herta Müller
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25DPgHKVpuU
Video: Herta Müller about herself and her writing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlgMZVZeU1I
History of German Literature:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_literature
German literature comprises those literary texts written in the German language. This includes
literature written in Germany, Austria, the German part of Switzerland, and to a lesser extent
works of the German diaspora. German literature of the modern period is mostly in Standard
German, but there are some currents of literature influenced to a greater or lesser degree by
dialects (e.g. Alemannic).
An early flowering of German literature is the Middle High German period of the High Middle
Ages. Modern literature in German begins with the authors of the Enlightenment (such as
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Herder) and reaches its classical form at the turn of the 18th century with Weimar Classicism
(Goethe and Schiller).
Sturm und Drang
Main article: Sturm und Drang
Sturm und Drang (the conventional translation is "Storm and Stress"; a more literal translation,
however, might be storm and urge, storm and longing, or storm and impulse) is the name of a
movement in German literature and music taking place from the late 1760s through the early
1780s in which individual subjectivity and, in particular, extremes of emotion were given free
expression in response to the confines of rationalism imposed by the Enlightenment and
associated aesthetic movements. The philosopher Johann Georg Hamann is considered to be the
ideologue of Sturm und Drang, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a notable proponent of the
movement, though he and Friedrich Schiller ended their period of association with it, initiating
what would become Weimar Classicism.
19th century
German Classicism
Main article: Weimar Classicism
Weimar Classicism (German “Weimarer Klassik” and “Weimarer Klassizismus”) is a cultural
and literary movement of Europe, and its central ideas were originally propounded by Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe and Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller during the period 1788–
1832.
Romanticism
German Romanticism was the dominant movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
German Romanticism developed relatively late compared to its English counterpart, coinciding
in its early years with the movement known as German Classicism or Weimar Classicism, which
it opposed. In contrast to the seriousness of English Romanticism, the German variety is notable
for valuing humor and wit as well as beauty. The early German romantics tried to create a new
synthesis of art, philosophy, and science, looking to the Middle Ages as a simpler, more
integrated period. As time went on, however, they became increasingly aware of the tenuousness
of the unity they were seeking. Later German Romanticism emphasized the tension between the
everyday world and the seemingly irrational and supernatural projections of creative genius.
Heinrich Heine in particular criticized the tendency of the early romantics to look to the
medieval past for a model of unity in art and society.
G.W.F. Hegel E.T.A. Hoffmann Friedrich Hölderlin Heinrich von Kleist
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Novalis (Friedrich von Hardenberg) Friedrich Schlegel August Wilhelm Schlegel Friedrich Schleiermacher Ludwig Tieck Ludwig Uhland Joseph von Eichendorff Theodor Storm
Biedermeier and Vormärz
Biedermeier refers to work in the fields of literature, music, the visual arts and interior design in
the period between the years 1815 (Vienna Congress), the end of the Napoleonic Wars, and
1848, the year of the European revolutions and contrasts with the Romantic era which preceded
it. Typical Biedermeier poets are Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, Adelbert von Chamisso, Eduard
Mörike, and Wilhelm Müller, the last three named having well-known musical settings by
Robert Schumann, Hugo Wolf and Franz Schubert respectively.
Young Germany (Junges Deutschland) was a loose group of Vormärz writers which existed
from about 1830 to 1850. It was essentially a youth movement (similar to those that had swept
France and Ireland and originated in Italy). Its main proponents were Karl Gutzkow, Heinrich
Laube, Theodor Mundt and Ludolf Wienbarg; Heinrich Heine, Ludwig Börne and Georg
Büchner were also considered part of the movement. The wider circle included Willibald Alexis,
Adolf Glassbrenner and Gustav Kühne.
Realism and Naturalism
Poetic Realism (1848–1890): Theodor Fontane, Gustav Freitag, Gottfried Keller, Wilhelm
Raabe, Adalbert Stifter, Theodor Storm
Naturalism (1880–1900): Gerhart Hauptmann
20th century
1900 to 1933
Fin de siècle (c. 1900) Weimar literature (1919-1933) Symbolism Expressionism (1910–1920) Dada (1914–1924) New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit)
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Nazi Germany
National Socialist literature: see Blut und Boden, Nazi propaganda
Under the Nazi regime, some authors went into exile (Exilliteratur) and others submitted to
censorship ("internal emigration", Innere Emigration)
Inner Emigration: Gottfried Benn, Werner Bergengruen, Hans Blüher, Hans Heinrich Ehrler, Hans Fallada, Werner Finck, Gertrud Fussenegger, Ricarda Huch, Ernst Jünger, Erich Kästner, Volker Lachmann, Oskar Loerke, Erika Mitterer, Walter von Molo, Friedrich Reck-Malleczewen, Richard Riemerschmid, Reinhold Schneider, Frank Thiess, Carl von Ossietzky, Ernst Wiechert
in exile: Ernst Bloch, Bertolt Brecht, Hermann Broch, Alfred Döblin, Lion Feuchtwanger, Bruno Frank, A. M. Frey, Anna Gmeyner, Oskar Maria Graf, Heinrich Eduard Jacob, Hermann Kesten, Annette Kolb, Siegfried Kracauer, Emil Ludwig, Heinrich Mann, Klaus Mann, Thomas Mann, Balder Olden, Rudolf Olden, Robert Neumann, Erich Maria Remarque, Ludwig Renn, Alice Rühle-Gerstel, Otto Rühle, Alice Schwarz-Gardos, Anna Seghers, B. Traven, Bodo Uhse, Franz Werfel, Arnold Zweig, Stefan Zweig.
Book burning remembered:
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_hDvDSarXo
History:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_burning
1945 to 1989
Post-war literature of West Germany (1945–1967): Heinrich Böll, Günter Grass, Group 47; Holocaust literature (Paul Celan, Edgar Hilsenrath)
GDR Literature in East Germany: Johannes R. Becher, Wolf Biermann, Bertolt Brecht, Sarah Kirsch, Günter Kunert, Reiner Kunze, Heiner Müller, Anna Seghers, Christa Wolf
Further information: Heinrich Mann Prize
Postwar literature of Switzerland and Austria: Ingeborg Bachmann, Thomas Bernhard, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Max Frisch, Elfriede Jelinek
Postmodern literature: Oswald Wiener, Christian Kracht, Hans Wollschläger, Christoph Ransmayr, Marlene Streeruwitz, Rainald Goetz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_German_Novels_of_the_Twentieth_Century
1. Robert Musil: The Man Without Qualities
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2. Franz Kafka: The Trial 3. Thomas Mann: The Magic Mountain 4. Alfred Döblin: Berlin Alexanderplatz 5. Günter Grass: The Tin Drum 6. Uwe Johnson: Anniversaries. From the Life of Gesine Cresspahl 7. Thomas Mann: Buddenbrooks 8. Joseph Roth: Radetzky March 9. Franz Kafka: The Castle 10. Thomas Mann: Doctor Faustus
21st century
German being a relatively small language in comparison to English, much of contemporary
poetry in the German language is published in literary magazines. DAS GEDICHT, for instance,
has featured German poetry from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Luxemburg for the last
twenty years. Since 2013, it also has an English-language version.
Science-Fiction, Fantasy: Andreas Eschbach, Frank Schätzing, Wolfgang Hohlbein, Bernhard Hennen, Walter Moers
Pop Literature: Dietmar Dath, Christian Kracht, Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre, Rainald Goetz.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/230881/German-literature/232434/The-turn-of-the-21st-
century
The turn of the 21st century
In the mid-1990s a new generation of writers emerged who finally provided the “reunification”
novels that critics had expected immediately after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Thomas Brussig’s
grotesquely comic novel Helden wie wir (1995; Heroes Like Us) was a satiric reworking of the
debate about the East German secret police. Thomas Hettche’s Nox (1995; “Night”) has a
strangely omniscient narrator in the form of a young man whose throat has been slit in a
sadomasochistic sexual act during the night the Wall came down. Nox draws a rather too obvious
equivalence between its narrator’s wound, from which he is dying, and the “wound” of the
divided Germany, which, on the face of things, is about to be healed. Nonetheless, Hettche
succeeds in transforming this central metaphor into a multilayered analysis of postunification
psychology. The cityscape of Berlin comes to stand for national and individual memory,
conserved, as it were, beneath the surface of streets and canals and the no-man’s-land of the
former border.
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In these and other novels of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the Nazi past continues to
haunt German writing. Marcel Beyer’s novel Flughunde (1995; “Flying Foxes,” Eng. trans.
Flughunde) recounts the deaths of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels’s children through
the eyes of two narrators: the eldest daughter, Helga, and a sound technician who had worked for
Goebbels. Long after the children’s deaths, the technician begins to recognize his own role in
their murders at the hands of their mother. Thomas Lehr’s experimental novella Frühling (2001;
“Spring”) employs drastically ruptured syntax to reproduce, in the form of a hesitating interior
monologue, the final 39 seconds of its protagonist’s life. Only toward the end of the story does
the narrator, who has just completed a suicide pact with his female lover, come to understand his
father’s guilt as a former concentration-camp doctor. This guilt, which has already caused the
narrator’s young brother to commit suicide, is revealed as the solution to a childhood scene that
the narrator has never fully understood. In contrast to German novels of the 1960s, which
attempted to “master” the Nazi past through narration, these more recent novels belong to what
has come to be called “memory culture.”
Linked with debates about the problem of memorializing the victims of Nazism in the form of
public monuments, German-language novels of the 1990s explicitly probe questions about how
memories of the Nazi period can best be represented. The Austrian writer Christoph Ransmayr’s
powerful Morbus Kitahara (1995; The Dog King) is set in a dystopian landscape that resembles
Mauthausen concentration camp and in an imagined alternative history in which Germany has
not been permitted to redevelop its industrial capabilities following World War II. W.G. Sebald’s
haunting novel Austerlitz (2001; Eng. trans. Austerlitz)—the story of a man who had been saved
from Nazi Germany and adopted by an English couple but who has been traveling in search of
the places he believes to have been way stations in his early life—has had international success
as a moving, though puzzling, exploration of memory, real and imagined.
https://sites.google.com/site/germanliterature/21st-century
Since the year 2000, German-language literature has been enriched by writers who have
distinguished themselves for their engagement with the present day and with recent history.
We can divide literary production into three genres (poetry, prose fiction, drama), although in
practice many writers work across genres:
Year in review (2012):
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1888117/Literature-Year-In-Review-
2012/308747/German?anchor=ref1164358
Best German/Austrian Literature of the 21st Century:
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http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/13141.Best_German_Austrian_Literature_of_the_21st_Centur
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