When Germaine de Staël-Holstein travelled to Germany in 1803/04 and 1807/08, she met almost all the most important authors and familiarized herself with German cultural history and the philosophy of idealism. These travels provided the material for her comprehensive work De l’Allemagne. In her survey of contemporary German literature, she accorded Goethe a prominent position – “because he alone unites everything that distinguishes the German spirit from all others”. One chapter is devoted to Germany’s “most famous art critics, Aug. Wilh. and Friedrich Schlegel”. Here the author gives special attention to A.W. Schlegel’s Vienna lectures, which influenced her book in a multitude of ways.