GERMAN CLUB

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 25, 29 July 1932, Page 3

GERMAN CLUB

An able and intevestiug. address in the German .language .was delivered recently before the German Club by Dr. I. A. Henning -on - the subject • of-Novalis. Although comparatively little known, he sa'id, in countries outside Germany, Friedriqh yon, Hardenberg, the German mystic and romantic poet, whose pseudonym, was Novalis, is one of the most important Srad characteristic figures o£ the German romantic school in the beginning of the nineteenth century. Born in 1772, Novalis came successively under tho influence .of Schiller,.Goethe, and Friedrich Sehlegel, and 'died at the age of 20. Almost .the whole of his literary work Was produced during'the last four years of his life. This work consists mainly of a small volume of poems, two essays, an unfinished novel, and a considerable number of "Fragmente" or aphorisms, which were intended for development in later works. Amongst the most important of his poems are • the "Gesang dot- Toton" and the "Hymhen an die Nacht," in which the woid night- represents tho wibconscious . lhind. The unfinished novel, "Heinrich yon Ofterdingen," which was intended to be a counterpart to Goethe's Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjabre," forms one of the most- typical extant examples of the German romantic conception of the novel ns an art-form. The "Fiagmente," hWover, form Novalis's 'greatest contribution to literature -and -exemplify clearly the ieaction of the eaily Romantic period to the European thought-currents immediately following on the time 'of the French Revolution. These fragments at their best illustrate the application of the conception or Romantic iiony, which is, the most Valuable contribution that German lomanticism has made to ait and which .solidified a tendency that is still visible to-day in a wide range of modern literature. Later in the evening a number of popular berman songs i\cre sung. During the eiening it was announced that members would, have, the-/pleasure of hearing the well-known .Wellington Trio, Symons-Ell-wpod-Short, .and vocal items by Mrs: Ginn during the course of the nest club meeting.