The Romantic Movement and its Impact on the Emergence of German Nationalism

Abstract

By the end of the eighteenth century, German thought gradually moved away from the Enlightenment and had instead invested in the national sentiment regarding the notion of the superiority of the German culture and its didactic message to human race. On this ground, German Romanticism was grounded in nationalism.

The emergence of Romanticism resulted in a new wave which constituted a series of cognitive conflicts.  The Enlightenment, which has attempted for so long to dismantle all modes of ambiguous, emotional and irrational thinking, was caught up by a new doctrine, Romanticism. This later exposed the limit of the mind which could not keep up with the demands of life for it was imprisoned by notions of fake axiomatization and clarity. Romanticism has thus become a philosophy of a new life.