German Romantic Movement

The German Romantic movement emerged in the late 18th and early 19th centuries as a response to the Enlightenment’s emphasis on reason, logic, and scientific inquiry. Philosophers such as Immanuel Kant and Johann Gottlieb Fichte laid its intellectual groundwork by exploring ideas of subjective experience and the limits of human reason, inspiring a focus on imagination, emotion, and individuality. Early Romantic thinkers like Friedrich Schlegel emphasized the importance of intuition, spirituality, and the connection between humans and nature, rejecting the mechanistic worldview of the Enlightenment. This movement also drew heavily on German folklore, medieval art, and Gothic traditions, blending them with philosophical ideas to create a distinctly Romantic character.