Karoline von Günderrode (1780-1806)

Abstract

This chapter considers philosophical contributions by Karoline von Günderrode (1780-1806) to German Idealist and Romantic traditions. Günderrode's work adds to debates regarding free will, the nature of the self and consciousness, what happens to us after we die, the human vocation, the relationship between the self and nature and between these and the Absolute or divine, gender roles, politics, and the pursuit of virtue and beauty. Her writings provide a rich and relatively unexplored perspective on these topics. After a biography and overview of Günderrode's work, the chapter summarizes key areas of Günderrode's thought. These include Günderrode's metaphysics, accounts of love, death, consciousness and identity, political theory (especially regarding revolution), thought on gender, and nascent ethics and aesthetics. The last section considers how Günderrode might have influenced nineteenth-century thinkers including Clemens Brentano, Georg Friedrich Creuzer, and Bettina Brentano von Arnim-and, through the latter, the Young Hegelians and American transcendentalism.