Herder 1777: The Origin

“Great empire! Empire of ten peoples, Germany! You have no Shakespeare. Have you also no songs of your forebears of which you can boast? Swiss, Swabians, Franks, Bavarians, Westphalians, Saxons, Wends, Prussians — have all of you together nothing? The voice of your fathers has faded and lies silent in the dust…”

Source: Ways of Seeing Disinfolklore II

Johann Gottfried Herder’s 1777 Stimmen der Volker in Liedern (Voices of the Peoples in Song) launched the European folklore collection movement. His plea to the ten German tribes to rediscover their folk heritage set in motion a cultural revolution whose consequences are still unfolding.

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