The Term “Modern” was in a state of evolution in nineteenth-century Germany, having been introduced into aesthetic terminology in the eighteenth as a “Fremdwort” in an oppositional sense to “classical.” Goethe employs it thus, and from his high-classical perspective, imbues it with a heavily pejorative overlay. It would carry this stigma, as we shall see with Wagner, through to the later reaches of the nineteenth century. Goethe’s verdict on Kleist’s contribution to German drama, delivered in 1808, was still couched in similar terms to the great debates that had raged in France since the late seventeenth century in the “querelle des anciens et des modernes” but along with the contributions of the Schlegel brothers can be regarded as an attempt to broaden and contextualize the seismic changes in outlook and perception that were taking place in the arts during his lifetime. The famous diagram in which Goethe attempts to define Kleist’s Amphitryon as a drama in which “Antikes, Naives, Plastisches” confront “Modernes, Sentimentales, Lyrisches” is intended to illustrate the incongruity of such a mixture. This formulation would later metamorphose into Goethe’s equally stark antithesis between “das Klassische” and “das Romantische.” For “Romantic” here one can read “modern” and associate it with “die neuern Künstler” alluded to in his remark (quoted above) to Eckermann of 1823.

Because of Goethe’s highly influential position in German letters, his negative perception of “Modernität” (with Kleist as a major exemplar) proved to be tremendously damaging to Kleist. But for present purposes, his clear identification of Kleist’s “position” as an (albeit disturbing) groundbreaking innovator is illuminating, and enables us to see such “modernity” standing out in sharp relief when juxtaposed with views that, however staunchly defended, are increasingly becoming passé and under threat. This is as clear a flash point as one could hope to find to define one of those generational clashes between the up-and-coming and the established artists, which is a feature of most definitions and debates about “die Moderne.”