Author Description

Following a basic introduction and historical overview of the secularization of German thought from the Middle Ages to the 18th century, the first volume discusses Lessing, Herder, Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Novalis, Hölderlin, Schiller, Goethe, Jean Paul, and Hegel, concluding with the the "Gotterdammerung" ending the Romantic era: Hebbel, Wagner, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche. The first volume was later republished (1947) under the title "Prometheus". A short preface to the second edition is appended to the first volume.