together and exhibited by their most representative works; here for
the first time an opportunity will be offered to form a just
conception of the truly remarkable literary achievements of Germany
during the last hundred years.

For it is a grave mistake to assume, as has been assumed only too
often, that, after the great epoch of Classicism and Romanticism in
the early decades of the nineteenth century, Germany produced but
little of universal significance, or that, after Goethe and Heine,
there were but few Germans worthy to be mentioned side by side with
the great writers of other European countries. True, there is no
German Tolstoy, no German Ibsen, no German Zola--but then, is there a
Russian Nietzsche, or a Norwegian Wagner, or a French Bismarck? Men
like these, men of revolutionary genius, men who start new movements
and mark new epochs, are necessarily rare and stand isolated in any
people and at all times. The three names mentioned indicate that
Germany, during the last fifty years, has contributed a goodly share
even of such men. Quite apart, however, from such men of overshadowing
genius and all-controlling power, can it be truly said that Germany,
since Goethe's time, has been lacking in writers of high aim and
notable attainment?

It can be stated without reservation that, taken as a whole, the
German drama of the nineteenth century has maintained a level of
excellence superior to that reached by the drama of almost any other
nation during the same period. Schiller's _Wallenstein_ and _Tell_,
Goethe's _Iphigenie_ and _Faust_, Kleist's _Prinz Friedrich von
Homburg_, Grillparzer's _Medea_, Hebbel's _Maria Magdalene_ and _Die
Nibelungen_, Otto Ludwig's _Der Erbförster_, Freytag's _Die
Journalisten_, Anzengruber's _Der Meineidbauer_, Wilbrandt's _Der