Weimar Classicism  

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Weimar Classicism (German “Weimarer Klassik” and “Weimarer Klassizismus”) is a cultural and literary movement of Europe, and its central ideas were originally propounded by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller during the period 1788–1832.

Although Weimar Classicism's status as a "movement" and "classical" has been questioned by some scholars and historians, notably those outside Germany, its growing, immediate importance has precipitated greater awareness of it within academia and within German scholarship. Since contemporaries seldom adopted Goethe and Schiller's particular views on the “classical” it has been remarked these were possibly "premature" in development; it is, notwithstanding, plain that their efforts made profound and lasting contributions in such areas as philosophy, science, psychology, art, literature, and aesthetics.

Primary works of the period

Christoph Martin Wieland

• Alceste, (stage play, 1773, first on stage: Weimar, May 25, 1773)
• Die Geschichte der Abderiten, (novel on ancient Abdera, Leipzig 1774-1780)
• Hann und Gulpenheh, (rhymed novel, Weimar 1778)
• Schach Lolo, (rhymed novel, Weimar 1778)
• Oberon, (rhymed novel, Weimar 1780)
• Dschinnistan, (tom. I-III, Winterthur 1786-1789)
• Geheime Geschichte des Philosophen Peregrinus Proteus, (novel, Weimar 1788/89; Leipzig 1791)
• Agathodämon, (novel, Leipzig 1796-1797)
• Aristipp und einige seiner Zeitgenossen, (novel on Aristippus, tom. I-IV, Leipzig: Göschen 1800-1802)

Johann Gottfried Herder

• Volkslieder nebst untermischten anderen Stücken (1778–1779, ²1807: Stimmen der Völker in Liedern)
• Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit (essays, tom. I-IV, 1784–1791)
• Briefe zur Beförderung der Humanität, (colleced essays, 1791–1797)
• Terpsichore, (Lübeck 1795)
• Christliche Schriften, (5 collections, Riga 1796–1799)
• Metakritik zur Kritik der reinen Vernunft, (essay, Part I+II, Leipzig 1799)
• Kalligone, (Leipzig 1800)

Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe

• Egmont (“Trauerspiel”, begonnen 1775, im Druck 1788)
• Wilhelm Meisters theatralische Sendung (nvel, ab 1776, im Druck 1911)
• Stella. Ein Schauspiel für Liebende (stag play, 1776)
• Iphigenie auf Tauris (“Iphigenia in Tauris”, stage play, printed 1787)
• Torquato Tasso (stage play, 1780-, printed 1790)
• Römische Elegien (written 1788–90)
• Venezianische Epigramme (1790)
• Faust. Ein Fragment (1790)
• Beiträge zur Optik (“Theory of Colours”, 1791/92)
• Der Bürgergeneral (stage play, 1793)
• Reineke Fuchs (“Reineke Fox”, hexametric epos, 1794)
• Unterhaltungen deutscher Ausgewanderten (“Conversations of German Refugees”, 1795)
• Das Märchen, (“The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily”, fairy tale, 1795)
• Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre (“Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship”, novel, 1795/96)
• Faust. Eine Tragödie (“Faust” I, 1797-, first print 1808)
• Novelle (1797- )
• Hermann und Dorothea (“Hermann and Dorothea”, hexametric epos, 1798)
• Die natürliche Tochter (stage play, 1804)
• Die Wahlverwandtschaften (“Elective Affinities”, novel, 1809)

Friedrich (von) Schiller

• Don Karlos, (stage play, 1787)
• Über den Grund des Vergnügens an tragischen Gegenständen, (essay, 1792)
• Augustenburger Briefe, (essays, 1793)
• Über Anmut und Würde, (essay, 1793)
• Kallias-Briefe, (essays, 1793)
• Über die ästhetische Erziehung des Menschen, (“On the Aesthetic Education of Man”, essays, 1795)
• Über naive und sentimentalische Dichtung, (essay, 1795)
• Der Taucher, (poem, 1797)
• Die Kraniche des Ibykus, (poem, 1797)
• Ritter Toggenburg, (poem, 1797)
• Der Ring des Polykrates, (poem, 7987)
• Der Geisterseher, (“The Ghost-seer”, (1789)
• Die Bürgschaft, (poem, 1798)
• Wallenstein (trilogy of stage plays, 1799)
• Das Lied von der Glocke (poem, 1799)
• Maria Stuart (“Mary Stuart”, stage play, 1800)
• Die Jungfrau von Orleans (“The Maid of Orleans”, stage play, 1801)
• Die Braut von Messina (“The Bride of Messina”, stage play, 1803)
• Das Siegesfest (poem, 1803)
• Wilhelm Tell “(William Tell”, stage play, 1803/04)
• Die Huldigung der Künste (poem, 1804)
• Demetrius (stage play, incomplete, 1805)

By Goethe and Schiller both in collaboration

• Die Horen (edited by Schiller, periodical, 1795–96)
• Musenalmanach (editorship, many contributions, 1796–97)
• Xenien (poems, 1796)
• Almanach (editorship, mane contributions, 1798–00)
• Propyläen (periodical, 1798–01)

See also: works by Herder, works by Goethe, and works by Schiller.