Culture | Intellectual history

The “Jena Set” was the heart of German Romanticism

Andrea Wulf brings them back to life in “Magnificent Rebels”

(Eingeschränkte Rechte für bestimmte redaktionelle Kunden in Deutschland. Limited rights for specific editorial clients in Germany.) 'German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - Meeting in Weimar 1803. From left: Friedrich von Schiller, Gleim, Iffland, von Schlegel, Gauss, Schleiermacher, Herder, Niebuhr, Wieland, Alexander von Humboldt, Wilhelm von Humboldt, Goethe, Tieck, Jean Paul, Pestalozzi (with folded legs), Fichte (standing), Kleist, Voss (Hand on his back), Schlosser, Oken, Cornelius (Photo by ullstein bild via Getty Images)

Magnificent Rebels. By Andrea Wulf. Knopf; 512 pages; $35. John Murray; £25

This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Brothers in art”

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