ABSTRACT
It was in living and in working that Goethe’s friendship with Schiller made its great contribution. Goethe described these years as a renewal of youth. The ‘Xenien’ conflict and its fair-ground atmosphere, provided we adopt a benevolent attitude, can be regarded as a belated outburst of youthful high spirits, comparable to Goethe’s earlier satire Der Jahrmarkt von Plundersweilern. But now these two men have to meet the challenge of justifying by their work their claims to leadership, and it is a challenge met triumphantly by each of them.
