German literature: The Nineteenth Century: Realism and Naturalism

The revolutionary literary movement known as Young Germany, which strove to arouse German political opinion, turned from romanticism to the more sober realism; its great leaders were Karl Börne and Heinrich Heine. Realism was consolidated in the influential social novels of Theodor Fontane, whereas Eduard Mörike and Adalbert Stifter adhered to a form of classicism. The theory of realism was further developed by the school of naturalism, represented by the young Gerhart Hauptmann.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• Postwar Literature
• Symbolism, Impressionism, and Expressionism
• The Nineteenth Century: Realism and Naturalism
• Romanticism
• Sturm und Drang and Classicism
• The Protestant Reformation, High German, and Literary Academies: The Fifteenth to Seventeenth Centuries
• Old and Middle High German: From Early to Medieval Literature
• Bibliography

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