Goethe, Schiller and the first Romantics

Arts & Ideas

BBC

Society & Culture

4.2 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 2 November 2022

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Putting I at the centre, the Ich, was the creed of philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte whilst Friedrich Schelling, saw the self as at one with the rest of nature: naturphilosophie. These competing ideas were debated in literary salons in the German town of Jena in the 1790s and Andrea Wulf's new biography Magnificent Rebels: The First Romantics and the Invention of the Self tells this story. She joins Anne McElvoy alongside New Generation Thinker Dr Seán Williams and the musicologist and Classical music biographer, Stephen Walsh, author of The Beloved Vision: Music in the Romantic Age.

Producer: Ruth Watts

This edition features discussion of music inspired by the Jena writers and extracts of:

Franz Schubert, “Gretchen am Spinnrade” sung by Bernarda Fink (soprano) with Gerold Huber (piano), Harmonia Mundi, HMC901991

Weber, Der Freischütz, Rundfunkchor Leipzig, Staatskapelle Dresden, Carlos Kleiber Deutsche Grammophon, 4577362

You can find other programmes exploring German culture and thinking in the Free Thinking archives and available to download as Arts & Ideas podcasts including ETA Hoffmann https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00188r7 Rainer Maria Rilke https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0016k0v Wittgenstein's Tractatus https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000wcwk The 1920s Philosophy's Golden Age https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000q380 The Tin Drum https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05stw9v Thomas Mann https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001025h

Transcript

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0:00.0	Can I just say?
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0:05.6	So nice.
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0:08.8	Different paces, different heights.
0:10.6	The roof is buckling.
0:11.9	Where you can also listen to live sports commentary.
0:14.2	It's right foot goes for goal.
0:16.7	And then enjoy even more podcasts full of analysis and reaction to the big stories.
0:21.7	The stat that is astonishing is they ended with the lowest amount of possession.
0:25.2	And she's had to live with that.
0:26.8	So if you love sport, a passion, it's almost like a religion.
0:29.7	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:31.7	Sort of expecting that every week now.
0:35.8	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:39.3	Hello, I'm Anne McHellvoy and in this episode of the Arts and Ideas podcast, we're off to a quiet German university town on the cusp of the 19th century.
0:50.3	We'll be listening to music, hearing poetry and taking taking a few bracing walks, while discussing philosophy and sometimes love.
0:58.5	Join me to meet the Jena Set. That's after this.
1:06.0	Hello, I'm Neo, and I have a new series Your Love called The Music and Meditation podcast.
1:17.3	Each meditation is soundtracked by a beautiful piece of music that has been written especially for this podcast.
1:37.0	So if you're new to meditation or just curious like me, tune into my series, The Music and Meditation podcast on BBC's House. Hello, today we're putting eye at the centre. No big egos here, though. We're looking at how a group of German writers and thinkers wrestled with ideas of the self and the place they chose to do it, a quiet university town. As the 18th century gave way to
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