Most literary works of German Romantics reflect a fascination with warfare, military and political crises, and conflict as well as an interest in the development of modern thought about war. This analysis explores for the first time the representations of war as debated in literary, military, and political texts of the educated German aristocracy and bourgeoisie around 1800.



Selected writings by Romantic writers Friedrich von Hardenberg/Novalis, Heinrich von Kleist, Ernst Moritz Arndt, Theodor Körner, Max von Schenkendorf and Joseph von Eichendorff as well as works on military theory by authors such as Carl von Clausewitz, Gerhard Johann David von Scharnhorst, Hermann von Boyen, August Wilhelm Anton Graf Neidhardt von Gneisenau, Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Immanuel Kant provide insight into the impact of war on cultural perception and production around 1800. The study thus contributes essentially to the fields of literature, history, social and military science.