German Enlightenment And National Ideology Germination

The Enlightenment was another ideological liberation movement after the Renaissance in the history of world culture. It marked by rationality and pursued the principle of freedom, equality, democracy and tolerance. As having had criticized the feudalism system and the Catholic Church, the Enlightenment also had predicted and described the blueprint of the future capitalist society. This vocal ideological cultural movement was originated in England, flourished in France, formed comprehensive thoughts and mature theory in Germany.Compared with Britain, France and other countries, the German Enlightenment started late, but it's ideological and theoretical achievements no less than others, especially in philosophy and literature, etc. As an important part of the European Enlightenment, based on its special historical background and social conditions, the German Enlightenment showed a range of unique thinking of Germans, such as romanticism, nationalism, etc. These features not only had a tremendous impact on the traditional European Enlightenment rationalism, but also had a profound effect on the development of German history.The German Enlightenment mainly included half a century which from 1720's to 1770's. If we added to the early Enlightenment thinkers such as Thomasius and Leibniz and the Romantic Movement, the German Enlightenment can be traced back to the late 17th century and extended to the early 19th century. As a result, the German Enlightenment can be divided into three development stages: the late 17th century to the early 18th century was the early stage of Enlightenment which had focused on the construction of German cultural self-confidence; after the mid-18th century, the German Enlightenment stepped into the prosperous period of development, the Enlightenment ideologists made self-reflection and criticism about traditional Rationalism from different perspective and put forward a appropriate enlightenment theory of their own nation, a unique cultural nationalism of Germany was sprouted out; the 18th century to the early 19th century, the Enlightenment was promoted into the Romantic phase by the Sturm und Drang, the Enlightenment and German nationalism became more close, and eventually accelerated the formation of the German Cultural Nationalism and laid the ideological foundation for German political unity later. In short, the German Enlightenment went toward to maturity step by step in this series of developing and changing: based on its own reality, on one hand, the Enlightenment ideologists made a wide spread and deep reflection about the European Traditional Rationalism, on the other hand, they had never stopped to explore the construction of German nation-state, finally, they completed the dual tasks which of enlightenment thoughts spreading and the nation-state-building.Because of long-term political separate regime of Germany, the capitalist economy grew slowly and the capitalist class was weak. So the German Enlightenment ideologists could not widely discuss issues widely of the political, legal and other social problems like British and French ideologists, but had a series of reform movements in philosophy, literature, music, education and other culture fields. On the basis of rationalism reflection, German Enlightenment formed the Romanticism and the attendant national ideology germination. It promoted the development of German nationalism and the establishment of the nation-state, which reflected the unique road of modern society transformation of Germany.