Heidelberg Romantics

Heidelberg Romantics, poets of the second phase of Romanticism in Germany, who were centred in Heidelberg about 1806. Their leaders were Clemens Brentano, Achim von Arnim, and Joseph von Görres; their brief-lived organ was the Zeitung für Einsiedler (1808). The most characteristic production of this school was the collection of folk songs entitled Des Knaben Wunderhorn (1805–08; “The Boy’s Magic Horn”). Compared with the Jena Romantics, who represented the first school of Romanticism in Germany, the Heidelberg writers were more practical, and their immediate influence on German intellectual life was greater. They stimulated their compatriots’ interest in German history and founded the study of German philology and medieval literature. The group also strengthened the national and patriotic spirit and helped prepare the way for the rising against Napoleon.