“Weltliteratur” – zuerst 1773 bei August Ludwig Schlözer

The term “Weltliteratur”, generally assumed to have been coined by Goethe in 1827, was actually used for the first time in 1773 by August Ludwig Schlözer. The German Enlightenment historian used the term in a dissertation on Icelandic literature and history, in an age when growing curiosity about the “margins” of Europe and beyond pointed towards a vision of “Weltgeschichte”, a history of universal human development. This early use of the term seems to have been forgotten, although the relevant passage was quoted already in 1920 by the Polish scholar Sigmund von Lempicki.