Empfindsamkeit

A German movement influenced by the English cult of sensibility, including Sterne's Sentimental Journey. It lasted from 1740 to 1780 and emphasized a form of emotionalism that was often spiritual in nature, having its roots in Pietism and rejecting what it viewed as the excessive rationalism of the Enlightenment. Unlike ‘Sturm und Drang’, it generally avoided violent expressions of feeling and the irrational. A sometimes lachrymose enthusiasm for nature and friendship was cultivated, as was exploration of one's internal self. Seminal works included Klopstock's Messias and Goethe's Due Leiden des jungen Werthers (Goethe later rejected and satirized Empfindsamkeit's excesses). Claudius, Gellert, Geßner, Gleim, Lessing, and Voß were associated at various times with this movement.