The German Romantic Movement

The German Romantic Movement, emerging in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, emphasized emotion, nature, and individualism in response to the rationalism of the Enlightenment. Artists, writers, and philosophers celebrated personal experience and the beauty of the natural world. Key figures included poets like Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Novalis, and composers such as Ludwig van Beethoven. This movement also valued folklore and the past, influencing literature, music, and the visual arts, and it played a crucial role in shaping modern ideas about identity, nationalism, and the human experience.