Solitude in Early Nineteenth-Century German-Speaking Europe

Abstract

<p> This chapter investigates cultural meanings related to solitude (Einsamkeit) in German-language press before 1850. The Romantic era in German-speaking Europe was paradoxically characterized by a cult of solitude and a cult of sociability. The press, the major public forum of the time, adopted by the mid-1800s had adopted an important role in shaping subjectivity and emotions. It became an important cultural forum for fierce debates on the right kind of means of cultivating and educating citizens for the needs of modernizing and secularizing society. By looking into the understandings of solitude and loneliness in German-language press, this chapter sheds light on the performative aspects of loneliness and how it is culturally and historically constructed in various points in time. <br></p>