„Så poetisk smukt, så naivt, så simpelt“

Abstract

Abstract This article examines Heinrich Wilhelm von Gerstenberg’s depiction of contemporary eighteenth-century Danish literature based on his writings on the notion of genius and on medieval poetry. Gerstenberg fuses his antiquarian interest in older Scandinavian literature with his critical writings on the new and modern poetry that he came across in Copenhagen in the middle of the eighteenth century. Thereby, he identified a specific Danish style of simpleness. Gerstenberg’s concept of ‘Danish simplicity’ was a central part of the Sturm und Drang and the Romantic movement, and it might even to this day affect the Germans’ ideas about the culture of their northern neighbor country.