The Emergence of German Thinkers and Philosophies

Germany gave birth to influential thinkers such as Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Heidegger, Nietzsche, and Marx, which shaped modern ideas and problems. Germany's critical culture emerged as a reaction to dominant British and French cultures during the Enlightenment. German thinkers characterized the Enlightenment as overbearing and condescending, prompting a distinctive German response. German philosophers began focusing on the immediate and the self, exploring the everyday, emotions, sentiment, and spirituality. They looked to German language, landscape, and folklore, seeking to capture the vitality of ordinary life rather than the distant and abstract ideas of the Enlightenment.