Etudes Germaniques - N1/2014: Les Classicismes, R. Wagner, S. George, F. Kafka, W. Herzog

In order to for us to understand the motivation behind classical phenomena, three concepts of classicism are analyzed. Frederick II of Prussia proposes the vision of a German classicism in response to the absence of a German language and literature adequate to fulfill the needs of society. Karl August Bottiger invents Weimar classicism to offer a place of commemoration that offers the prospect of unification to a quarrelling Germany. In search of a unifying figure, he attributes the role of the great classic successively to Wieland, Schiller and Goethe. Deploring the cultural decline of the province, Carl Gustav Schleich establishes an analogy between Weimar classicism and the culture of Stettin during the period 1840-1860. From his point of view, Stettin classicism is characterized by an urban culture in harmony with the surrounding nature. The memory of the halcyon cultural past of the city as well as the admiration for the perfect - and threatened - harmony between Stettin and its paradisiac surroundings can be found with different emphases in the works of Ackerknecht, E. M. Forster and Elizabeth von Arnim. Confronted with the problems of a post-industrial and post-socialist city, today’s Szczecin renews the memory of the classic Stettin to nourish the vision of a European floating garden. Each concept of classicism is a vision that proposes a resolution of a current crisis.