Johann Herder

Theory of culture and advocacy of intuition over rationality of German philosopher and writer Johann Gottfried von Herder greatly influenced Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and formed the basis of German romanticism.

The periods of Enlightenment, Sturm und Drang, and Weimar classicism associate this theologian, poet, and literary critic.

In 1772, Herder published

Treatise on the Origin of Language

and went further in this promotion of language than his earlier injunction to "spew out the ugly slime of the Seine. Speak German, oh you German." Herder then established the foundations of comparative philology within the new currents of political outlook.