German literature in the context of "Heliand"

Faust (/faʊst/ FOWST, German: [faʊst] ) is a tragic play in two parts by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, usually known in English as Faust, Part One and Faust, Part Two. Nearly all of Part One and the majority of Part Two are written in rhymed verse. Although rarely staged in its entirety, it is the play with the largest audience numbers on German-language stages. Faust is considered by many to be Goethe's magnum opus and the greatest work of German literature.

The earliest forms of the work, known as the Urfaust [de], were developed between 1772 and 1775; however, the details of that development are not entirely clear. Urfaust has twenty-two scenes, one in prose, two largely prose and the remaining 1,441 lines in rhymed verse. The manuscript is lost, but a copy was discovered in 1886.

The Sorrows of Young Werther ([ˈveːɐ̯tɐ]; German: Die Leiden des jungen Werthers), or simply Werther, is a 1774 epistolary novel by Johann Wolfgang Goethe, which appeared as a revised edition in 1787. It was one of the main novels in the Sturm und Drang period in German literature, and influenced the later Romantic movement. Goethe, aged 24 at the time, finished Werther in five and a half weeks of intensive writing in January to March 1774. It instantly placed him among the foremost international literary celebrities and was among the best known of his works.

The novel was inspired by Goethe's personal life, and involving triangular relationships of real people. One triangular relationship involved Goethe, Christian Kestner, and Charlotte Buff (who married Kestner); and the other involved Goethe, Peter Anton Brentano, Maximiliane von La Roche (who married Brentano), and Karl Wilhelm Jerusalem. Jerusalem committed suicide on the night of Oct 29 or 30, 1772. He shot himself in the head with a pistol borrowed from Kestner. These events are fictionalized to describe the emotional tumult of the titular character Werther, who kills himself in despair after he falls in love with a woman engaged to another man.

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.

Jena Romanticism (German: Jenaer Romantik), also the Jena Romantics or Early Romanticism (Frühromantik), is the first phase of Romanticism in German literature represented by the work of a group centred in Jena from about 1798 to 1804. The movement is considered to have contributed to the development of German idealism in late modern philosophy.

Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder (13 July 1773 – 13 February 1798) was a German jurist and writer. With Ludwig Tieck and the Schlegel brothers, he co-founded German Romanticism.

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (/ˈlɛsɪŋ/; German: [ˈɡɔthɔlt ˈʔeːfʁa.ɪm ˈlɛsɪŋ] ; 22 January 1729 – 15 February 1781) was a German philosopher, dramatist, publicist and art critic, and a representative of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the development of German literature. He is widely considered by theatre historians to be the first dramaturg in his role at Abel Seyler's Hamburg National Theatre.

The word Dramaturgy first appears in his work Hamburg Dramaturgy.

The George-Kreis (German pronunciation: [ɡeːˈɔʁ.gə kʁaɪ̯s] ; George Circle) was an influential German literary group centred on the charismatic author Stefan George. Formed in the late 19th century, when George published a new literary magazine called Blätter für die Kunst (de) ("Journal for the Arts"), the group featured many highly regarded writers and academics. In addition to sharing cultural interests, the circle reflected mystical and political themes within the sphere of the Conservative Revolutionary movement. The group disbanded when George died in December 1933.