Friedrich Schlegel and the Gothic Revival in Germany

1997 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 08610514
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: 独語・独文学
• Research Institution: CHUO UNIVERSITY
• Principal Investigator: DETHELEFS H.J. Chuo University, Faculty of Literature, Professor, 文学部, 教授 (60256005)
• Project Period (FY): 1996 – 1997
• Keywords: revaluations / taste of Sublime / liberal Gothic amateurs / style of provacy / Gothic in Worlitz / Schlegel in Koln / Tradition Gotic and class / transcendental gothic art

Research Abstract

The subject of my research is the GOthic Revival in Germany during the period which in german literary criticism is called "Goethe-Zeit". Gothic revival playd an important part during the period of "Sturm und Drang", influenced mainly by Goethe's panegyric about the Strassburg cathedral. My research is divided in two parts, the first of which wants to take a closer look upon the english forerunners, i.e.those liberal and some=times excentric Whig-aristocrats whose interest in Gothic architecture was for away from german romantic mediaevalism and spiritualism. Originator of Gothic Revival in England was the new idea of picturesque landscape gardening. The first example of landscape gardening and neogothic garden-archtecture in Germany has been created by the liberal Prince of Dessau in Worlitz, a rural place not far away from Weimar. Goethe loved this idylic place. Another famous admirer was Georg Forster who is linked to the whole Worlits reform program. Forster later also wrote an eulogy about the cathedral of Koln, which influenced much Friedrich Schlegel. In the second part of my research I want to demonstrate how Schlegel develloped his own esthetic values of gothic architecture as compared with the classical tradition, regardful however of the Gothic's own symbolism and significance.