Weimar Classicism is one of the more disputed periods of literary history. The distinction of also possessing a classical period was first arrogated for German literature in the nineteenth century under the pressure of strong national feeling. German classicism purportedly extended from Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781) to the death of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), including some seventy years of literary production. Of course, this was a stretch by any precise definition of classicism, and the assertion of a German Classicism of this kind won no international recognition. Matters were further complicated by the fact that the putative German Classicism coincided with a succession of acknowledged European and German literary

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Published 18 September 2004

Citation: Richter, Simon. "Weimar Classicism". The Literary Encyclopedia. 18 September 2004.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1476, accessed 20 November 2009.]