Jena Romanticism (German:Jenaer Romantik), also theJena Romantics orEarly Romanticism (Frühromantik), is the first phase ofRomanticism inGerman literature represented by the work of a group centred inJena from about 1798 to 1804. The movement is considered to have contributed to the development ofGerman idealism inlate modern philosophy.[1]
The group of Jena Romantics was led byCaroline Schlegel, who hosted their meetings.[2] Two members of the group, brothersAugust Wilhelm andFriedrich von Schlegel, who laid down the theoretical basis for Romanticism in the circle’s organ, theAthenaeum, maintained that the first duty of criticism was to understand and appreciate the right of genius to follow its natural bent.
The greatest imaginative achievement of this circle is to be found in the lyrics and two fragmentary novels by Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg, better known by his pseudonym "Novalis".[3] The works ofJohann Gottlieb Fichte andFriedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling expounded the Romantic doctrine in philosophy, whereas the theologianFriedrich Schleiermacher demonstrated the necessity ofindividualism in religious thought.[4] Other notable representatives of the movement includeAugust Ludwig Hülsen[5] andFriedrich Hölderlin.[6]
By 1804, the circle in Jena had dispersed. A second phase of Romanticism was initiated two years later inHeidelberg withHeidelberg Romanticism and inBerlin withBerlin Romanticism.
