German literature, the greatest works - why is it worth reading them

Many of the greatest works in German literature are not the greatest popularity among today's readers. They often enjoy the most popular popularity, especially among readers who have to read or have to read these works.

And quite often, these people are not even clear why for God's sake they should only waste the greatest works of German literature for a second of their time ...

Admittedly, the friends of the exciting crime literature are absolutely right if you branded a work like the "Bergkristall" by Adalbert Stifter as real bang of boring brands. It is really difficult for readers to endure with a modern sense of time if the writer explains to us in 735 words (for non-readers: depending on the printing set two to several book pages) and explains to this text why we like Christmas.

Untracled crime readers also describe this great work of German literature as boring, they would never have read such a long text like Christmas in 735 words if they had put them away after 20 words, they "are not stupid" (of course they never read).

Others are not stupid either, and that's why they not only never read this text, but not all other great works in German literature either.

Excursus: Overview of the German literature epochs

Middle Ages, Enlightenment, Classic, Expressionism, Biedermeier - Each literature era has its own historical background and its own characteristics. In the subsequent video, YouTuber Lisa briefly summarized all literature epochs so that you can keep an overview of German literary history.

Middle Ages start with the tradition of old German texts. The literature era of the Middle Ages is determined by religion, heroic tags and knight stories. Minnesang, a sung form of love poetry, is often about unfulfilled love.

Renaissance is followed by the literature era of the Middle Ages . Ancient culture is rediscovered in the Renaissance. During the time of the Renaissance, the Reformation and Martin Luther's translation of the Bible into German.

The Renaissance literature era is replaced by the Baroque . The literature of the baroque deals with the beauty of the moment, transience and death. The following literature era of the Enlightenment is a time of reason and criticism of religion, society and state. In parallel to the literature era of the Enlightenment, the currents of sensitivity and storm and urge .

One of the most important representatives of the storm and urge is Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who together with Friedrich Schiller shapes the subsequent literature era of the Weimar classic . romance is followed by the classical . The romantics criticize the consequences of the beginning of industrialization. The central theme of romance is flight from reality.

The following literature era of the Biedermeier , on the other hand, primarily addresses calm, order and modesty. A counter -draft to the Biedermeier is the currents in front of the march and young Germany . The writers of these literature pokes are committed to social justice and draw attention to grievances.

In the literature era realism , the problems of the bourgeoisie and the lower social classes are taken up by industrialization and problems realistically mapped. Naturalism is more radical than realism . In the literature era naturalism, authors write about socially critical issues such as alcohol addiction and poverty, they do not mut the negative or ugly sides of life. In contrast to realism, they describe the circumstances soberly.

The literature era of modernity summarizes various currents. Modernity writers react to realism and instead concentrate on their own subjective experiences. The authors of Expressionism clearly oppose naturalism. In this literature era, artists return their interior, so to speak, they write about negative topics.

The avant -gardists, on the other hand, limit themselves from all previously existent currents and literature pokes. They ignore rules and create their own forms. In the literature of the Weimar Republic and the new objectivity, it becomes more sober again. The writers represent the world in simple words as it is.

The literature on the time of National Socialism is characterized by the persecution and the ban, censorship, literature.

After the end of the Second World War, the literature era of post -war literature/rubble literature . A realistic picture of the destroyed post -war Germany is drawn in this literature. With the foundation of the two German states, the literature epochs of the literature of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) begin. In this video, you can find out everything you should know about literature epochs, your background and relationships with each other:

The most important works of German literature

The most important works of our literature piling up to be forced to do in terms of education (prototype: pupils) really like the mountain in the "Bergkristall, an unexplained mountain, covered with mud and snow and stones, of which they do not have the slightest idea of ​​how they should successfully cope with it (and why they should do so).

Some people who are forced to do with educational people quickly avoid this challenge - not reading (and not thinking) is much more convenient, and you usually have something better to do in general.

Whether pupils or adults, many of these people who are forced to do, most of our works were able to successfully keep the works of our most important literature from their lives during school, and many of these people later notice a need to catch up.

Either on the German note or during a conversation in the following life, these people notice that they lack something that they cannot have a say in many ways. Perhaps you even have to endure slightly contemptuous looks if you have never heard of a certain writer or a specific work ...

For these people who are more likely to be more educated, this article could be inspiring in this respect that they then decide to give German literature a little chance.

In the worst case, the following happens to you: You talk in a lively round, with a person who really impresses you. And when the language comes to a great work of German literature, and the successful non -reader proudly explains why this is boring and why he didn't read it and at all, "he is not stupid" - to his astonishment that, in the opinion of his cool role model, he is stupid, already gathering, already hinging quantity.

As an encore, he then explains exactly how stupid it is to go to a large corporation to the glue who manages to bring his moderately suitable cheap goods to the man with a brisk saying ...

Now there are sometimes thoughts whether you should have read certain works, why you should have read these works, and if it is the way to "pull in" the uninteresting stuff.

The most important works of our literature can be quite boring - but only if the conveying person does not manage to make a reference to our presence.

It is best to let such a piece of literature say by an untrained reading that has no desire to present yourself and his reading in public, that is, an unprepared student, then a work like Adalbert Stifter's "Bergkristall" even becomes one of the boring books in the world.

It would also be different: if someone speaks who loves German language, but still not frightened. And so (too) long sentences mockingly transformed into a kind of acoustic word worm or another time in such a way that the countless articles of association merge into a sound carpet with meditative rhythm, which shows sentence parts such as "where the sun is on the crooked against our realms" with swing and a dash of irony, which emphasizes miraculous expressions such as the "Zaubrian gifts" . The student could also learn that if he could approach the matter with a little fun and preparation, this is called language power.

Overall, there are good reasons why the most important works of our literature used to read at school - and the reason is not that the content should be conveyed and learned by heart.

The reason is that our life consists of communication with other people, and people who have learned communication are much more likely to get what they want and that communication has to do with reading, reading as different as possible, from all epochs and all divisions, including classics.

Of course, you can often take a lot from the content, if you never read in the "big pellaprat" , you will also have pudding in the restaurant as "mousse au chocolat", whoever has never read at least a few of the classics will never be able to express yourself exceptionally well in the German language, who has never studied Kamasutra

In a very short way, this has something to do with the saying: "If you can read, you have a clear advantage."

And these classics do not have to be boring, as is so often the case, a little background knowledge can create real interest, and with this, both long -died writers also make their works quite exciting - this is one of the reasons why literature is always read for very long times.

You could try to try one of the "boring works" in the world, Adalbert Stifter's "Bergkristall" in the article "German Literature, the greatest works: the mountain crystal by Adalbert Stifter" , which is complemented by the article "German literature, the greatest works: a critical view of the language in Adalbert Stifter Bergkristal" .

More desire to read usually looks at the life of the author of this work, reading in the article "German literature, the greatest works: after a look at the life of the author, they are more fun" .