Young Germany

For the political organization founded in Berne in 1834 by German exiles, see Young Germany (political organization).

Young Germany (Junges Deutschland) was a free group of German writers that existed from about 1830 to 1850. Essentially it was a young movement (similar to those in France and Ireland, originated in Italy). Its main proponents were Karl Gutzkow, Heinrich Laube, Theodor Mundt and Ludolf Wienbarg; Heinrich Heine, Ludwig Böme and Georg Büchner were also considered part of the movement. The larger circle included Willibald Alexis, Adolf Glassbrenner and Gustav Kühne.

During a time of political unrest and discontent in Europe, the Young Germany was considered dangerous by many politicians because of its progressive vision. In December 1835, the Frankfurt Bundestag banned the publication in Germany of many writers associated with the movement, notably Heinrich Heine. In their reasoning they explained that the Young Germans attempted to attack the Christian religion in the most reckless way, to degrade existing conditions and to destroy all discipline and morality in their writings, accessible to all kinds of readers.

The movement produced poets, thinkers and journalists; all against the introspection and particularism of Romanticism. Romanticism was seen as apolitical, lacking the activism that the burgeoning German intelligence required. As a consequence of decades of compulsory school attendance in the German states, public literacy meant an excess of educated men whom the empire could not subsume; then in the 1830s, with the advantage of low-cost printing, there was a riot of educated men in so-called free professions. Bibliography used

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