New essays examining Goethe's relationship to the Jews, and the contribution of Jewish scholars to the fame of the greatest German writer. The success of Daniel Goldhagen's Hitler's Willing Executioners(1997) and the heated debates that followed its publication exposed once again Germany's long tradition of anti-Semitism as a major cause of the Holocaust. Goldhagen, like many before him, drew a direct and irresistible line from Luther's pamphlets against the Jews to Hitler's attempted annihilation of European Jewry. This collection of new essays examines the thesis of a universal anti-Semitism in Germany by focussing on its greatest author, Goethe, and seeing to what extent some scholars are justified in accusing him of anti-Semitism. It places the reception of Goethe's works in a broader historical context: his relationship to Judaism and the Jews; the reception of his works by the Jewish elite in Germany, the reception of the 'Goethe cult' by Jewish scholars; and the Jewish contribution to Goethe scholarship. The last section of the volume treats the Jewish contribution to Goethe's fame and to Goethe philology since the 19th century, and the exodus of many Jewish authors and scholars after 1933, when they took their beloved Goethe into exile. When a few of them returned to Germany after 1945, it was to a country that had lost Goethe's most devoted audience, the German Jews. KLAUS L. BERGHAHN and JOST HERMAND are professors of German at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

As the most prominent German-Jewish Romantic writer, Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) became a focal point for much of the tension generated by the Jewish assimilation to German culture in a time marked by a growing emphasis on the shared ancestry of the German Volk. As both an ingenious composer of Romantic verse and the originator of modernist German prose, he defied nationalist-Romantic concepts of creative genius that grounded German greatness in an idealist tradition of Dichter und Denker. And as a brash, often reckless champion of freedom and social justice, he challenged not only the reactionary ruling powers of Restoration Germany but also the incipient nationalist ideology that would have fateful consequences for the new Germany--consequences he often portended with a prophetic vision born of his own experience. Reaching to the heart of the `German question,' the controversies surrounding Heine have been as intense since his death as they were in his own lifetime, often serving as an acid test for important questions of national and social consciousness. This new volume of essays by scholars from Germany, Britain, Canada, and the United States offers new critical insights on key recurring issues in his work: the symbiosis of German and Jewish culture; emerging nationalism among the European peoples; critical views of Romanticism and modern philosophy; European culture on the threshold to modernity; irony, wit, and self-critique as requisite elements of a modern aesthetic; changing views on teleology and the dialectics of history; and final thoughts and reconsiderations from his last, prolonged years in a sickbed. Contributors: Michael Perraudin, Paul Peters, Roger F. Cook, Willi Goetschel, Gerhard Höhn, Paul Reitter, Robert C. Holub, Jeffrey Grossman, Anthony Phelan, Joseph A. Kruse, and George F. Peters. Roger F. Cook is professor of German at the University of Missouri, Columbia.

The prominent scholar-contributors to this volume share their experiences developing the field of US German Studies and their thoughts on literature and interdisciplinarity, pluralism and diversity, and transatlantic dialogue.

Analyzes the heated critical debate on Heine from his own lifetime to the present. Heinrich Heine (1797-1856), one of the best known and most controversial German writers of the nineteenth century, has been the subject of intense critical debate. Heine's lyric poetry ranks second only to Goethe's in popularity and is known world wide in musical settings. He is also known for his stories and travel sketches, his writings on political, social, and cultural developments in Europe, and for essays on literature, religion, and philosophy. Peters's study records the stormy development of Heine's critical reception from his own time down to the present. As a Jew living in Paris, an outspoken critic of both repressive political policies in Germany and the stifling influence of the Catholic church, and the author of the most famous satirical poem in the German language, Deuschland. Ein Wintermärchen, Heine engendered the wrath of the conservative critics of his day, while progressive critics, particularly those supportive of his emancipatory ideals, came to his defense. Since his death, Heine criticism has continued to be partisan in tone. Twentieth-century Heine criticism has mirrored Germany's historical development, from the nationalistic fervor of the Wilhelminian era, through the tolerance of Weimar, the anti-Semitic frenzy of the Third Reich, the postwar period of competing critical views in East and West, to the final decade of the century and a period of renewed and intense critical interest. George F. Peters is professor of German and Chair of the Department of Languages and Linguistics at Michigan State University.

Embodying Ambiguity traces the shifts in the representation of the androgyny myth in the literature and aesthetics of the late eighteenth century and nineteenth century. Catriona MacLeod examines important pedagogic implications of the androgyny ideal for Classical, Romantic, and Realist texts, beginning with Aristophane's narrative of the origin of human sexuality in Plato's Symposium and including the hermaphroditic androgyny proposed by Winckelmann and the heterosexual complementary model found in Schiller and Schlegel.

The German fascination with Italy, as seen in Goethe's Italian Journey and in a number of literary reactions to it. Italy has long exerted a particular fascination on the Germans, and this has been reflected in German literature, most prominently in Goethe's Italienische Reise but also by numerous other writers who have returned to the topic. This book is concerned with two inextricably linked images - those of the German traveler in Italy and of Italy in German literature in the first third of the 19th century. Goethe's publication of his account nearly three decades after his actual journey was in some measure a vehicle to resist the challenge of a new generation of writers, who in turn would confront what they found to be a questionable, if not altogether false, representation. Hachmeister emphasizes the consequences of the disparity between the reality of Goethe's journey and his depiction of it, taking into consideration also his occasional discomfort with Italy's classical past. She shows how the German predilection for Italy is unique in the larger European cultural context of the Grand Tour, before moving on to chapters that contain readings of Italienische Reise and Goethe's Römische Elegien. Individual chapters follow on Eichendorff's Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts, Platen's Sonette aus Venedig, and Heine's three Italian Reisebilder, each of which is to some degree a reaction to Goethe's work. These chapters investigatehow the individual's reaction to Italy reflects his view of Germany and the author's role in early 19th-century German society. The conclusion offers a short glance at the continued evolution of the German fascination with Italyin the mid- and late nineteenth century. Gretchen Hachmeister received her Ph.D. in German literature from Yale University.

Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) is one of Germany's greatest writers. His agile mind and brilliant wit expressed themselves in lyrical and satirical poetry, travel writing, fiction, and essays on literature, art, politics, philosophy and history. He was a biting satirist, and a perceptive commentator on the world around him. One of his admirers, Friedrich Nietzsche, said of him: 'he possessed that divine malice without which perfection, for me, is unimaginable.' Heine was conscious of living after two revolutions. The French Revolution had changed the world forever. Heine experienced its effects when growing up in a Düsseldorf that formed part of the Napoleonic Empire, and when spending the latter half of his life in France. The other revolution was the transformation of German philosophy in the wake of Kant: Heine explained this revolution wittily and accessibly to the general public, emphasizing its hidden political significance. One of the great ambivalences of Heine's life was his attitude to being a German Jew in the age of partial emancipation. He converted to Protestantism, but bitterly regretted this decision. In compensation, he explored the Jewish past and present in an unfinished historical novel and in many of his poems.