The social and cultural Research on German Enlightenment

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This research aimed the social and cultural analysis of the development of German Enlightenment in the eighteen century. In Germany, the Enlightenment developed under the condictions of a society with a predominantly feudal structure. The aristocracy remained the most privileged estate with a monopoly on the exercise of power and government. The middle class monopolized the trade and commerce, and the peasantry continued to produce sufficient food for the population in a state of political nonage. The appearance of numerous organizations, learned academies, public-spirited societies and especially Freemasonry from the early eighteenh century onwards, which continued until the present day, provided an important focal point of, and forum for, progressive and reformist discourse and activity and the emergence of a new middle class. A new social class, the educated middle class were long to remain socially entrenched in feudal society, but their desire for reform spawned a new consciousnes … More s based on the concepts of purpose-fullness, morality and reason in place of feudal honor and tradition. It was now no longer possible to categorize the objectives of these organizations simply in learande and academic terms. They also contained some elements of middle class reformism. Two groups achieved prominence : the secret society of Freemasons and the the so-called patriotic and public-spirited societies. These societies represented the two main strands of the Enlightenment. Freemasonry aimed to create a private moral world independent of the state and the Church in which to further the development of men who, in accordance with the laws of enlightend reason, chose to deport themselves in a moral and reasonable manner. The patriatic societies aimed to function openly on behalf of the state and society in the interests of the common good, that is, to strengthen patriatic consciousness and achiee the goals of the Enlightenment by means of practical proposals and reformist endeavours. Less