Andreas Achenbach in the context of Düsseldorf School

Sturm und Drang (/ˌʃtʊərm ʊnt ˈdræŋ, - ˈdrɑːŋ/, German: [ˈʃtʊʁm ʔʊnt ˈdʁaŋ]; usually translated as "storm and stress") was a proto-Romantic movement in German literature and music that occurred between the late 1760s and early 1780s. Within the movement, individual subjectivity and, in particular, extremes of emotion were given free expression in reaction to the perceived constraints of rationalism imposed by the Enlightenment and associated aesthetic movements. The period is named after Friedrich Maximilian Klinger's play of the same name, which was first performed by Abel Seyler's famed theatrical company in 1777. Seyler's son-in-law Johann Anton Leisewitz wrote the early and quintessential Sturm und Drang play, Julius of Taranto, with its theme of the conflict between two brothers and the woman loved by both.

Significant figures were Johann Anton Leisewitz, Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz, H. L. Wagner, Friedrich Maximilian Klinger, and Johann Georg Hamann. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller were notable proponents of the movement early in their lives, although they ended their period of association with it by initiating what would become Weimar Classicism.

Oswald Achenbach (German: [ˈɔsvalt ˈʔaxn̩bax]; 2 February 1827 – 1 February 1905) was a German painter associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting. During his lifetime, he was counted among the most important landscape painters of Europe. Through his teaching activities, he influenced the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. His brother, Andreas Achenbach, who was twelve years older, was also among the most important German landscape painters of the 19th century. The two brothers were humorously called "the A and O of Landscapes" (a reference to their initials matching a common German reference to the Alpha and Omega).