In this book, T. J. Reed clears the dust away from eighteenth-century Germany, bringing the likes of Kant, Goethe, Friedrich Schiller, and Gotthold Lessing into a coherent and focused beam that shines within European intellectual history and reasserts the important role of Germany's Enlightenment.--Provided by publisher.

During the first half of the nineteenth century, Danish and German artists studying in Paris and Rome brought back the concept of "plein air" painting and began to paint out-of-doors on their native soil. They introduced a whole new aesthetic that was sensitive to the light and atmospheric conditions peculiar to the north, especially during the long summer days. This beautiful book focuses on the painters and paintings of this period, particularly Caspar David Friedrich, who produced many fine works before he developed the romantic style for which he is better known. The book presents topographical landscapes, panoramas, and some group and individual portraits that often include a window from which light emanates. Essays by eminent authorities discuss various aspects of the Danish and North German open air movement. They note, for example, that the paintings reflect a direct view of nature devoid of the intellectual and moral overtones of the neoclassical paintings that preceded them. They also discuss the fact that Schleswig Holstein was closely allied with Denmark until 1848, and this favored many Hamburg and north German artists studying at the Academy in Copenhagen where painting out of doors was encouraged. In addition to the essays, the book presents 108 works by twenty-three artists, catalogue entries for each work, and a biography of each artist.

An enthrallingly expansive family saga set against the backdrop of the collapse of East German communism, from a major new international voice * Over 450,000 copies sold in Germany alone * Rights sold in 20 countries * Winner of the German Book Prize * A PW "First Fiction" pick * In Times of Fading Light begins in September 2001 as Alexander Umnitzer, who has just been diagnosed with terminal cancer, leaves behind his ailing father to fly to Mexico, where his grandparents lived as exiles in the 1940s. The novel then takes us both forward and back in time, creating a panoramic view of the family's history: from Alexander's grandparents' return to the GDR to build the socialist state, to his father's decade spent in a gulag for criticizing the Soviet regime, to his son's desire to leave the political struggles of the twentieth century in the past. With wisdom, humor, and great empathy, Eugen Ruge draws on his own family history as he masterfully brings to life the tragic intertwining of politics, love, and family under the East German regime.