Safranski on the Romantic Movement

Yesterday I finished chapter eight of Safransi’s Romantik. Eine deutsche Affäre. I supidly bought a Dutch translation instead of the German original. I think the German version would have been way more fun to read. Nevertheless, it is a very interesting text.

The Romantic Movement has been of enormous importance for the development of Western culture. Therefore, I always wanted to get a better understanding of it. This book provides a gentle introduction. The good thing is that it reads like a novel. I can’t get enough of it…

The first chapters are about the origins of Romanticism in the late 18th century. Safranski introduces the protagonists Herder, Schiller, Schlegel, Fichte, Tieck, Novalis and Schleiermacher. They all wanted a central place for the irrational, the emotional and the individual in their world views. For them, reason is not the only human faculty that establishes a reliable relationship between man and nature. The Enlightenment with its rationalism was too limited for these thinkers.

I’m really looking forward to the rest of the book. Especially the chapters in which Safranski describes the influence of romantic thinking on Nietzsche, but also on the student protests of the late sixties. Although the age of Romanticism in literature ended in the 1830s, the movement has a long-lasting and profound influence. Maybe it will even be more important in the future than it has been hitherto.