The New International Encyclopædia/Young Germany

YOUNG GERMANY. The name given to a group of German writers, of whom Heine (q.v.) was the most famous, which in the third decade of the nineteenth century initiated a revolt against the prevailing spirit of romanticism in the national literature, which had resulted in a total separation of literature from the actualities of life. Against the dominant spirit of absolutism in politics and obscurantism in religion the writers of this school maintained the principles of democracy, socialism, and rationalism. Among many things they advocated the separation of Church and State, the emancipation of the Jews, and the raising of the political and social position of women. In 1835 the Federal Diet issued a decree forbidding the publication of the works of Heine, Gutzkow, Laube, Mundt, and Wienbarg (qq.v.).