Editing German literature (section)

==Periodization==

[[Periodization]] is not an [[exact science]] but the following list contains movements or time periods typically used in discussing German literature. It seems worth noting that the periods of [[medieval]] German literature span two or three centuries, those of early modern German literature span one century, and those of modern German literature each span one or two decades. The closer one nears the present, the more debated the periodizations become.

[[Image:Frenzel.gif|thumb|400px|Graph of works listed in Frenzel, ''Daten deutscher Dichtung'' (1953). Visible is medieval literature overlapping with Renaissance up to the 1540s, modern literature beginning 1720, and baroque-era works (1570 to 1730) in between; there is a 20-year gap, 1545–1565, separating the Renaissance from the Baroque era.<br/>The Diagram was first published in Olaf Simons, ''Marteaus Europa, oder Der Roman, bevor er Literatur wurde'' (Amsterdam/ Atlanta: Rodopi, 2001), p.&nbsp;12. 
It does not give a picture of the actual production of German literature, but the selection and classification of literary works by Herbert Alfred and Elizabeth Frenzel.<ref>Frenzels' book is a standard work in so far as defining a modern [[Literary canon|canon]] of German literature; however, the selection of authors especially for the [[Nazi era]] has been criticized as "grotesque"  or as exhibiting "bizarre gaps" (viz. omitting Jewish authors); see Volker Weidermann, [https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/buecher/2.1719/standardwerk-mit-luecken-ein-grotesker-kanon-1799167.html Ein grotesker Kanon], [[Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung]], 11 May 2009. ''Daten deutscher Dichtung'' was reprinted in 35 editions, but was discontinued in 2009.</ref>]]

* Medieval German literature
** [[Old High German literature]] (750–1050)
** [[Middle High German literature]] (1050–1350)
** Late medieval / Renaissance (1350–1500)
* Early Modern German literature (see [[Early Modern literature]])
** [[Humanism in Germany|Humanism]] and [[Protestant Reformation]] (1500–1650)
** [[German literature of the Baroque period|Baroque]] (1600–1720)
** [[The Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] (1680–1789)
* Modern German literature
** 18th- and 19th-century German literature
*** [[Sensibility|''Empfindsamkeit'' / Sensibility]] (1750s–1770s)
*** [[Sturm und Drang|''Sturm und Drang'' / Storm and Stress]] (1760s–1780s)
*** German Classicism (1729–1832)
**** [[Weimar Classicism]] (1788–1805) or (1788–1832), depending on Schiller's (1805) or Goethe's (1832) death
*** [[German Romanticism]] (1790s–1880s)
*** [[Biedermeier]] (1815–1848)
*** [[Young Germany]] (1830–1850)
*** Poetic [[Realism (arts)|Realism]] (1848–1890)
*** [[Naturalism (literature)|Naturalism]] (1880–1900)
** 20th-century German literature
*** 1900–1933
**** [[Fin de siècle]] (c. 1900)
**** [[Symbolism (arts)|Symbolism]]
**** [[Expressionism]] (1910–1920)
**** [[Dada]] (1914–1924)
**** [[New Objectivity]] (''Neue Sachlichkeit'')
*** Well Known Writers of the 20th Century
*** 1933–1945
**** National Socialist literature
**** Exile literature
*** 1945–1989
**** By country
***** Federal Republic of Germany
***** German Democratic Republic
***** Austria
***** Switzerland
***** Other
**** By thematic or group
***** Post-war literature (1945–1967)
***** [[Group 47]]
***** [[Holocaust literature]]
** Contemporary German literature (1989–)