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The German Enlightenment, or Aufklarung, lasted from 1650 to 1800 and led to cultural and national unity, freedom of the press, and a strengthened judicial system. German philosophy differed from French philosophy by rejecting empiricism and embracing mysticism. Important figures include Leibniz, who developed metaphysical ideas; Kant, who emphasized skepticism and morality; and Goethe, whose works influenced emotional anarchism.
The German Enlightenment, or Aufklarung in German, began around 1650 and ended around 1800. It differed from Enlightenment movements in other parts of Europe. Germany had no friction between the nobility and the middle class nor was it characterized by religious strife. Nonetheless the movement developed, leading to cultural and later national unity as well as greater freedom of the press and a strengthened judicial system. Overall, the German Enlightenment helped develop German philosophy, which mainly differed from French philosophy in that Germans rejected empiricism and embraced mysticism. There are three important figures associated with the German Enlightenment: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Immanuel Kant and Johannes Wolfgang von Goethe.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was a mathematician credited with co-inventing calculus with Newton. He is also said to have created the idea that the universe was a manifestation of a perfect God. Leibniz also argued that the entire universe consisted of spirit atoms, or monads, which influenced how people viewed the world. His ideas, centered on metaphysics, helped develop the mysticism associated with the German Enlightenment. Leibniz’s work formed the basis for the philosophies later developed by Kant.
Immanuel Kant was an 18th century philosopher who explained in his book Critique of Pure Reason, that every person is born with raw experiences, or transcendental experiences, that help them perceive the world. Countering the popular theory that the laws of nature govern the mind, Kant believed that it was the mind that gave the laws to nature. During the German Enlightenment, he helped emphasize skepticism and reject the empirical evidence touted in the French Enlightenment.
Kant continued to address morality in the Metaphysics of Morality. He believed that reason governs all action and that if a person’s reason justified a certain course of action, then that course of action could be considered moral. Kant’s philosophies developed during the German Enlightenment served as the foundation for some of the theories of Hegel, Nietzsche and Marx.
Johannes Wolfgang von Goethe was an 18th-century German writer whose most famous work, The Sorrows of Young Werther, made him a major figure in the social movement known as Sturm and Drang. This social movement lasted from the 18th to 1760 and incited young Germans to shun optimism and reason for emotional anarchism inspired by the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The novel was so influential that it is said to have led many young people to imitate the protagonist by committing suicide. Another famous work by Goethe, Faust continued the literary tradition of basing novels on emotion. This tradition helped facilitate the German Enlightenment into the European Enlightenment.
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