German Romanticism in Vienna

The focal point of the research project is the historical categorisation of Romantic literature and Romantic thought in the Austrian social and cultural context for the period between the belated josephin Enlightenment and the return to traditionalism. In particular, consideration will be given to the question as to what extent genuine modern Austrian literature, and the theoretic and political discourse associated with it, may be said to have arisen in a climate of sceptical distancing from German Protestant Romanticism (together with its projection of Catholicism); also to what extent such distancing informs the literature itself. This particular configuration of Romanticism can only be understood with reference to the historical and political peculiarities of the form of governance that emerged in Austria in the wake of the Napoleonic wars. Of decisive importance in the formulation of the aims of the present project is the controversial question, much discussed in Austria and of course in the German speaking world generally, as to whether an Austrian national literature can be said to exist at all; and if so, what was its genesis? The project will concentrate on the period of Historical Romanticism in the Austrian metropolis of Vienna. In this way, it is hoped to make a useful contribution to Romanticism studies in a supra- and international context. In the last two decades, which have seen enduring changes in the evaluation and categorisation of Romanticism, academic research has concentrated almost exclusively on Romanticism`s early period, while the so- called "Romantic movements" that followed have to a large extent been ignored. By comparison with the cultural developments of the turn of the century, which have been exhaustively researched and illuminated in numerous monographs, study volumes, and exhibitions, both the political and the cultural aspects of the important period of Romantic and anti-Romantic currents in Vienna between 1808 and 1815, and after 1815, have been accorded remarkably little attention.

Leading representatives of the German Romanticism failed at least partially with their efforts to establish themselves for a longer period in a country which was at the same time a projection surface of Romanticism: the Catholic Austria. Both in view of literature as well as in view of sociopolitical concepts of order Romanticism remained the "impossible" third party between Enlightenment and conservative "roll back" in the age of Restoration - conservative with regard to the content, modern with regard to the aesthetic and medial form of expression. This research project asked for the first time extensively and in a methodological innovative way (consistent trans- and multidisciplinarity) for the reasons for the failure of this romantic Austrian-project and moreover also investigated the powerful countercurrent that gave rise to it. From this point of view "Romanticism in Vienna" means first of all the conflict between the Romanticists in Vienna and the Austrian intellectuals: The main media of the discussion between Postjosephinic Enlightenment and the Romanticists who arrived in Vienna is to an increasing extent the public, i.e. the printed word. The bitter "war of word" did not even exclude the substance of writing - the letters. Therefore Romanticism in Vienna can not only be regarded as cultural historical phenomenon but also as a unique "romantic language". However, this language was used by both genuine Romantic speakers and their opponents (mostly in hyperbolic rhetoric) - an important aspect of a first negative reception of Romanticism in Vienna. But Romanticism in Vienna also means simply the appearance or even the conscious takeover or adaption of romantic concepts concerning life and art: This positive structure of reception is also used by declared opponents of Romanticists as the example Franz Grillparzer has shown. Also the broad area of the adoption of antique topoi shows this positive structure of reception. Next to literature, music (Paganini, Schubert) and the fine arts (Nazarener) have left clear romantic traces in artistic Vienna. Finally there is the texture of Vienna which retroacts to the arriving Romanticists and influences their aesthetic and ethic concepts substantially. So the entry and admission in or to the Catholic capital corresponds to the conversion to Catholicism at the level of the subject. Politically Vienna can be seen as "rückwärtsgewandter" but at the same time also as revolutionary U- topos for Friedrich Schlegel`s conservative revolution, which could be shown in a closereading of his programmatic essays. But also from the point of view of literature Vienna was attractive for the German Romanticists. However, not the "hohe Literatur" was their main interest but the Popular Theatre of Vienna which meets the concepts of a universal "Lustspiel".