German Literature - Periodization

Periodization

Periodization is not an exact science but the following list contains movements or time periods typically used in discussing German literature. It seems worth noting that the periods of medieval German literature span two or three centuries, those of early modern German literature span one century, and those of modern German literature each span one or two decades. The closer one nears the present, the more debated the periodizations become.

• Medieval German literature
  • Old High German literature (750-1050)
  • Middle High German literature (1050–1300)
  • Late medieval German literature/Renaissance (1300–1500)
• Early Modern German literature (see Early Modern literature)
  • Humanism and Protestant Reformation (1500–1650)
  • Baroque (1600–1720)
  • Enlightenment (1680–1789)
• Modern German literature
  • Eighteenth- and 19th-century German literature
    • Empfindsamkeit / Sensibility (1750s-1770s)
    • Sturm und Drang / Storm and Stress (1760s-1780s)
    • German Classicism (1729–1832)
      • Weimar Classicism (1788–1805) or (1788–1832), depending on Schiller's (1805) or Goethe's (1832) death
    • German Romanticism (1790s-1880s)
    • Biedermeier (1815–1848)
    • Young Germany (1830–1850)
    • Poetic Realism (1848–1890)
    • Naturalism (1880–1900)
  • 20th century German literature
    • 1900-1933
      • Fin de siècle (c. 1900)
      • Symbolism
      • Expressionism (1910–1920)
      • Dada (1914–1924)
      • New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit)
    • 1933-1945
      • National Socialist literature
      • Exile literature
    • 1945-1989
      • By country
        • Federal Republic of Germany
        • German Democratic Republic
        • Austria
        • Switzerland
        • Other
      • By thematic or group
        • Post-war literature (1945–1967)
        • Group 47
        • Holocaust literature
  • Contemporary German literature (1989-)