a first phase of Romanticism in German literature, centred in Jena from about 1798 to 1804. The group was led by the versatile writer Ludwig Tieck (Tieck, Ludwig). Two members of the group, the brothers August Wilhelm (Schlegel, August Wilhelm von) and Friedrich von Schlegel (Schlegel, Friedrich von), who laid down the theoretical basis for Romanticism in the circle's organ, the Athenäum, maintained that the first duty of criticism was to understand and appreciate the right of genius to follow its natural bent.

The greatest imaginative achievement of this circle is to be found in the lyrics and fragmentary novels of Friedrich Leopold von Hardenberg (Novalis). The works of Johann Gottlieb Fichte (Fichte, Johann Gottlieb) and Friedrich von Schelling (Schelling, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von) expounded the Romantic doctrine in philosophy, whereas the theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher (Schleiermacher, Friedrich) demonstrated the necessity of individualism in religious thought. By 1804 the circle at Jena had dispersed. A second phase of Romanticism was initiated two years later in Heidelberg.