The greatest period of German literature lasted from about 1750 to 1830. During these years, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Friedrich Schiller, Friedrich Holderlin, Heinrich von Kleist, and many other German novelists, poets, and dramatists produced works of lasting importance. The most important German philosopher during this period was Immanuel Kant, who wrote three influential works in the 1780's.

During the early 1800's, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel produced a philosophy of history that would have a lasting impact on Western thought. Hegel's work greatly influenced Karl Marx, the philosopher, social scientist, and professional revolutionary who was the chief founder of the two powerful movements of democratic socialism and revolutionary communism. Marx used Hegelian ideas as the basis for his theories.

From the mid-1800's on, German writers and philosophers often focused on the political and cultural situations in their own land. Poet Heinrich Heine produced works that were critical of the German political establishment. Theodor Fontane wrote gently ironic novels about Prussian society in the late 1800's. Friedrich Nietzsche wrote a series of poetic philosophical works on the nature of language and culture. Between 1890 and 1920, Max Weber created a series of studies about modern society. During the 1900's, novelist Thomas Mann and dramatist Bertolt Brecht wrote about the problems of German politics and culture.

After World War II and the collapse of Nazi Germany, Gunter Grass, Heinrich Boll, Paul Celan, and many other writers tried to come to terms with the burden of the Nazi past. In East Germany, a number of novelists explored the problems of a socialist society, sometimes with a muted criticism of government policies.

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The great tradition of German music was established during the early 1700's by Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel. Later in the 1700's, one of the greatest musical geniuses of all time, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, carried on this tradition in Austria, which was historically connected to the other German states.

In the early 1800's, Ludwig van Beethoven invented new and powerful forms of symphonic expression and then reached new heights of creative power with his last quartets. Felix Mendelssohn became the most famous composer of his time, with his own classical works and by reviving interest in the works of Bach. Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann achieved greatness by composing the romantic German art songs called lieder.

In the mid-1800's, Richard Wagner established a new style in opera with his music dramas, which sought to combine music, poetry, and theatrical design. In the late 1800's and early 1900's, Richard Strauss and Arnold Schoenberg wrote important music in different styles. During the 1920's, Kurt Weill broke new musical ground with his innovative music for the stage.

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German artists created some outstanding works during the Renaissance. Albrecht Durer and Hans Holbein the Younger produced great paintings and engravings. They are especially famous for their portraits. Matthias Grunewald painted masterpieces of religious art, and sculptor Tilman Riemenschneider made beautiful woodcarvings.

In the early 1800's, Caspar David Friedrich was an important romantic painter. In the late 1800's and early 1900's, Max Beckmann and other German painters developed the Expressionist style. They sought to express unconscious emotions and dreamlike states. In the late 1900's, Anselm Kiefer and other painters created monumental works that tried to capture the painful memories of the Nazi past. Their paintings came to be referred to as Neoexpressionism.

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During the Middle Ages, magnificent cathedrals in the Romanesque and Gothic styles were built in such cities as Bamberg, Cologne, Regensberg, Ulm, and Worms. In the 1700's, German princes built palaces modeled on the magnificent French palace at Versailles. At the same time, Germans built great Baroque and Rococo churches, especially in the predominantly Roman Catholic southern German states. During the 1800's, such German architects as Friedrich Schinkel built museums and other public buildings in the neoclassical style. In the early 1900's, Walter Gropius and his famous Bauhaus group developed a basic style of modern architecture.

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The German film industry achieved its first period of success from the end of World War I in 1981 to the rise of the Nazi dictatorship in 1933. During the 1920's and early 1930's, German filmmakers stressed fantasy and legend, and also an intense psychological realism. The Germans often treated themes in a style called Expressionism.

Expressionist films used nonrealistic sets and unusual camera angles to represent a character's inner feelings. One artistic approach stressed lighting and camera movement. German filmmakers created a threatening visual mood to accompany their tales of the supernatural. The leading German directors of the time included Fritz Lang, F. W. Murnau, G. W. Pabst, and Robert Wiene.

German cinema produced chiefly propaganda films during the Nazi years. The major movies included the documentaries Triumph of the Will (1935) and Olympia (1938), directed by Leni Riefenstahl. Many German film artists fled the country with the rise of the Nazis and moved to the united States. There they had a major influence on American movies.

The German film industry did not gain international recognition again until the 1960's and 1970's, primarily through the work of directors Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Werner Herzog, Wolfgang Petersen, Volker Schlondorff, and Wim Wenders. By the end of the 1900's, German filmmakers were struggling to gain a larger share in an industry heavily dominated by American motion pictures.

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