Putting I at the centre, the Ich, was the creed of philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte whilst Friedrich Schelling, saw the self as at one with the rest of nature: naturphilosophie. These competing ideas were debated in literary salons in the German town of Jena in the 1790s and Andrea Wulf's new biography Magnificent Rebels: The First Romantics and the Invention of the Self tells this story. She joins Anne McElvoy alongside New Generation Thinker Dr Seán Williams and the musicologist and Classical music biographer, Stephen Walsh, author of The Beloved Vision: Music in the Romantic Age.

Producer: Ruth Watts

This edition features discussion of music inspired by the Jena writers and extracts of:

Franz Schubert, “Gretchen am Spinnrade” sung by Bernarda Fink (soprano) with Gerold Huber (piano), Harmonia Mundi, HMC901991

Weber, Der Freischütz, Rundfunkchor Leipzig, Staatskapelle Dresden, Carlos Kleiber
Deutsche Grammophon, 4577362

You can find other programmes exploring German culture and thinking in the Free Thinking archives and available to download as Arts & Ideas podcasts including
ETA Hoffmann https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00188r7
Rainer Maria Rilke https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0016k0v
Wittgenstein's Tractatus https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000wcwk
The 1920s Philosophy's Golden Age https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000q380
The Tin Drum https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05stw9v
Thomas Mann https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001025h