German comparative studies: theory and practice

Abstract

The article is about the German efforts to compare supranational literature. In this context the pioneering signifi cance of the romantic idea of universal poetry is underlined, i.e. the lectures of the Schlegel brothers and Goethe’s concept of Weltliteratur, as well as the discovery of still little- -known comparativists like Hugo Meltzl by Hugo Dyserinck.