Canon of German literature
The canon of German literature is the complex of works - the composition of which is controversial - to which greater rank is assigned in German literary history. It exists in various forms, including formulated in
- the state curriculum for school instruction,
- the examination requirements of the German studies course,
- the expectations regarding works to be read in educated circles,
- the canon debates in the media and
- important classic editions that bring the "greatest" works of German literature to the market and thus create awareness of their prominent position.
history
The canon of German literature did not develop on the book market - for example as the complex of works that have occupied the readership over the years. The demand for the historical titles of the canon did not actually begin until the 1770s, when discussions of this canon began that made it a national desideratum. Almost all of his titles had to be made accessible at this point in time. It was only under pressure from the national school and university education system, which stood behind the canon in the 19th century, that the canon of German literature that exists today gained greater importance and greater demand from the readership.
The connection between the German epochs is established, 1730–1780
The earliest steps towards a German canon can be found in the 1680s. Daniel Georg Morhof's teaching of the German language and poetry (Kiel, 1682) offered a broad overview of the field of poetry . Morhof collected titles by genre. However, he did not present a continuous history of literature in the current sense. Twelve years earlier, Pierre Daniel Huet, with his treatise on the origin of novels, wrote the text that, from today's point of view, most closely resembles a literary history: an interpretive progressive world history of fictions. Morhof's poetry history, on the other hand, remained - according to the model of current works of the Historia Literaria sorted by genre - the bibliographical attempt to prove that Germany did not have to hide behind other nations in any area of poetry. Morhof was interested in the respectful inventory, while Huet asked about the cultural background of the fictions he was addressing. Huet sparked international demand for the novel's classics, while Morhof's teaching remained a work for scholars and libraries.
The formulation of today's canon of German literature began in 1731 with the preface that Johann Christoph Gottsched put in front of his dying Cato . In a sideline, he noted that the last time there were dramas more than thirty years ago that could still be attributed to art. The names Lohenstein and Gryphius were used in this context. This should not provoke demand for both works - both dramas, according to the view of the 1720s and 1730s, were inferior to opera in their time and were school-readings from the outset (to be performed at high schools as an accompaniment to rhetoric lessons). In the middle of the 18th century, when Gotthold Ephraim Lessing separated the bourgeois dramas of his own generation from the classicist French style that Gottsched wanted to inspire, he took over the history offer from 1731: From then on there was a forgotten 17th century in which Lohenstein and Gryphius were famous. Martin Opitz was to be added as a poetologist and poet. After this high phase of the 17th century (the word baroque was still missing ) there was a gap of half a century from 1680 to 1730, which the Enlightenment needed to gain a foothold. Then came Gottsched and after this Lessing - that was the story that was to apply from 1600. The story from the Middle Ages through the Renaissance and Reformation was already established at this point as general world history in scholarship; it was transferred to poetry. There were no editions of the past texts. In the middle of the 18th century, poetry and the novel were still largely subject to topicality.
Shakespeare and greatness of antiquity versus prevailing taste, 1750–1800
In the 1730s a new discovery of Shakespeare began in Great Britain - his tragedies and comedies had been performed in adapted versions in the previous decades, which defused the "raw" language and dispensed with unbearable twists and turns such as the unfortunate end in Romeo and Juliet . In the middle of the 18th century there was growing interest in Shakespeare as England's great author, and this went hand in hand with the development of a fascination for his stylistic daring. In the 1760s this movement gained the power of a counterculture . The new Shakespeare lovers broke with the sensitive and refined eighteenth century. They described Shakespeare as "real" and "unaffected", according to the attack on the prevailing culture. A search for the original began. Homer was first read in unaffected prose in the early 18th century and was amazed at its archaic style (see the parallel article Canon (literature) for more details ). New translations of Homer came out in verse in the second half of the 18th century and preserved Homer's own, archaic style, which the translations of the early 18th century had made public. In the 1760s, the Ossian fragments , which were assumed to be based on old Scottish poetry, were celebrated euphorically - before it turned out that the supposed translation was a cheap copy of the longed-for old original poetry. Goethe's hero Werther read the current Klopstock , Ossian and Homer . The discovery of the Middle Ages started at the same time: In 1772 Goethe had revolutionarily re-evaluated the Gothic cathedral in Strasbourg in his essay “ Von Deutscher Baukunst ” : If the Gothic was previously considered the art of the barbarian tribes, the Goths who overran Rome, Goethe made it out of it the original style of German art. The connection with the forest is evident in the Gothic cathedral - Tacitus had described Germania as a wooded area. Goethe compared the Gothic pointed arch with "a lofty, widespread tree of God". According to Goethe's demand, you have to develop your own taste in order to feel the beauty of Gothic and German forgotten culture.
The discovery of the Middle Ages and the Germanic era remained a thorny undertaking. The basis of the text was not known, nor was it a subject that could be sold on the book market. What was more serious, there was no possibility of a university study of medieval studies or even national poetry. With the debates of the late 18th century, however, there was at least a demand for a culturally disconcerting past. The first classic series appeared with German poetry from the past. Grimmelshausen's Simplicissimus, first published in 1668/69 and last on the market in its untreated text form in 1713, could be presented in a new selection in the 1770s in order to address a completely new interest in the forgotten poetry of the nation.
The German canon as a national counter-model to the canon of world literature, 1800–1870
A national German canon was created at the beginning of the 19th century. The first stories of German literature , which appeared in the 1830s, offered the full spectrum of political arguments for the new subject "literature" and for its canon. The history of the poetic national literature of the Germans (Leipzig: W. Engelmann, 1835 ff.), Which Georg Gottfried Gervinus presented in the first volume in 1835, was shaped by a fundamental political argument: the epochs of German literary history reflected the time and type of influences across the nation. It reached its height in the Middle Ages; In order to find world fame, however, she had to open herself to the world and become capable of criticism. Some of the small German states promoted the new subject of education on which so many political doctrines were attached. Science was needed to lay the foundations. August Schleicher and Franz Bopp founded Indo-European Studies , which tried to reconstruct an Indo-European original language and incorporated the Indo-European languages into a system of sound shifts. Text editions by the great authors of the German Middle Ages appeared in the 19th century with variant machines and completely new editing technology.
Not least for selfish reasons, Germany's reigns took on literature and national euphoria. Bavaria expropriated its monasteries during the secularisation of the early 19th century. It didn't fit into the concept if the whole culture continued to focus on religion. The canon of German literature created a replacement for the canon of religious texts in school lessons - and the state aggressively introduced the new literature into public cultural life. This is particularly evident in Munich, where the reign created new spaces in the Residenz in which German literature became a program. In the upper rooms of the new front of the residence, people adorned themselves with the current classics Bürger , Goethe , Schiller and Wieland , which were associated with antiquity. The lower floor provided the foundation: Here the Nibelungen fights ruled in the wall frescoes in bloody scenes in which primitive warriors slaughtered each other. A loss of civilization and European modernity went hand in hand with the new canon. Germany found itself with him on a special national path , which consciously took into account the break with European civilization and Christian morality.
Perception of oneself and others of the German canon
The German canon developed differently from the canon of world literature , which originated in Paris and London. The canon of world literature was largely inspired by Huet, but it was still the customers who helped him into the world. They asked (as can be seen from the preambles that have been handed down to the classic editions) in London and Paris about the best works from the entire history of fiction, as discussed by Huet; and the book trade met the demand. The editions that were offered here sold as elegant reading pleasure. Having loved the belles lettres of the present, they were now looking for Rome and Arabia as well.
Instead, the German canon developed with institutional support as a scientific project of political importance. School lessons and university seminars became his medium. Taken seriously, it requires at least a basic knowledge of Middle High German, which predestines it as a school subject. National literature requires an interest in medieval studies ; it demands a willingness to learn a foreign language and grammar. The more modern works of the canon of German literature are more easily accessible, but they still require a great deal of study of German history and its epochs.
That makes it understandable why the German canon hardly touches that of world literature. Since the 19th century Germany has perceived itself as the “nation of poets and thinkers ” - instead of the nation of great composers. The canon of German literature, however, has just posted four titles in the canon of world literature : Goethe's Werther (1774) was the first German novel to be read abroad and is recognized worldwide as one of the first romantic texts , Goethe's natural poetry excites in translations, especially in Asia interest to this day. The other two titles come from Thomas Mann's death in Venice and Franz Kafka's stories from the 20th century. Until a few years ago, Hermann Hesse's novels still enjoyed their own international cult status in youth culture , more than literary rank. Günter Grass Die Blechtrommel is an insider tip among connoisseurs of German literature abroad . Connoisseurs of European baroque literature know that Grimmelshausen's Simplicissimus is a masterpiece of the “ picaresque novel ”, but this text is reserved for experts. In adaptations, Grimm's fairy tales became an international classic of children's book literature without paying any tribute to a work of German literary history.
If you want to check the plausibility of the larger German canon abroad, you have to refer to the history of the epoch . These titles tell the connoisseur a lot about the course of German culture as it is reflected in the national history of the epoch. Behind the necessity of always having to refer to the history of the epochs is that the epoch sequence was first built up in order to assert certain national developments. The search for the texts of this specifically German cultural history began in each case according to the epoch thesis. It is unclear what our canon would look like if it were not sold with the additional stories of German cultural development offered in school lessons.
Sketch from: Dr. E. Brenner, Deutsche Literaturgeschichte , 13th edition, 122–131. Thousand. With a colored supplement (Wunsiedel / Wels / Zurich, 1952).
The German canon is needed to illustrate the history of the German epoch. At the end of the day, this is hardest shown when looking at the 20th century, as soon as one asks about reformulations of the canon. The high school graduates born in 1914 went to the First World War - with a canon and a story belonging to it, both of which no longer exist today. The National Socialist school system created its own canon of German literature. The GDR had a different canon than the FRG when it came to the post-war period; and she encountered the historiography of the FRG wherever she shared the canon with her, but presented a completely different story to accompany it.
From a historical perspective, every existing canon is a current offer to deal with history - an offer that above all relativizes previously existing canon offers.
Statistical analysis of Frenzel's data on German poetry - probably the most popular German literary history of the 20th century - in the 1980 edition. Y-axis = works reviewed per year.
A detailed canon of German literature is provided by Marcel Reich-Ranicki's reading recommendations in the article Der Kanon . The time before 1750 is as good as ignored in this canon. The article German literature offers a short history of German literature with the relevant titles.