Sturm und Drang

noun

ˌshtu̇rm-u̇nt-ˈdräŋ 

ˌstu̇rm-,

-ənt-

1

: a late 18th century German literary movement characterized by works containing rousing action and high emotionalism that often deal with the individual's revolt against society

2

: turmoil

Did you know?

Sturm und Drang comes from German, where it literally means "storm and stress." Although it’s now a generic synonym of "turmoil," the term was originally used in English to identify a late 18th-century German literary movement whose works were filled with rousing action and high emotionalism, and often dealt with an individual rebelling against the injustices of society. The movement took its name from the 1776 play Sturm und Drang, a work by one of its proponents, dramatist and novelist Friedrich von Klinger. Although the literary movement was well known in Germany in the late 1700s, the term "Sturm und Drang" didn’t appear in English prose until the mid-1800s.

Synonyms

• disquiet
• ferment
• fermentation
• restiveness
• restlessness
• turmoil
• uneasiness
• unquietness
• unrest

Examples of Sturm und Drang in a Sentence

in a year filled with corporate Sturm und Drang, the company was headed by no fewer than three different CEOs

Recent Examples on the Web

Still, after all the Sturm und Drang surrounding Starbucks in the last few years, the best favor a CEO could do for the company and its troops is to be clear and articulate the way forward. —Phil Wahba, Fortune, 31 Oct. 2024

The effect is meditative and moving, an urgent quietude not always found in the Sturm und Drang that attends both our contemporary poetry and our politics. —Tomas Tranströmer, The New Yorker, 7 Oct. 2024

Kate has long been a reliable pillar of the British family, showing up and smiling at every public event at which she was asked to appear, reacting to the Sturm und Drang of royal drama with an air of determined normalcy. —Constance Grady, Vox, 6 June 2024

And Dastmalchian’s performance is ultimately too interesting and layered to deserve a finale that, for all its pyrotechnic Sturm und Drang, feels so shallow. —Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 19 Apr. 2024

Engulfed in the Sturm und Drang of the rest of Dark Matter, this slightly ungainly quasi-lullaby could potentially come off as corny and off-script. —Morgan Enos, SPIN, 19 Apr. 2024

Months removed from the Sturm und Drang, Gelfond’s detractors have come around. —Rebecca Rubin, Variety, 4 Apr. 2024

There was none of the Sturm und Drang of last year, at least, when the White House went back and forth with Fox Corp. over whether Biden would sit for an interview. —Bill Goodykoontz, The Arizona Republic, 9 Feb. 2024

The play seems to speak directly to our current culture wars concerning race and history, in schools and beyond, from the Sturm und Drang over the New York Times’s 1619 Project to Rufo’s farcical witch-hunting with respect to critical race theory. —Vinson Cunningham, The New Yorker, 16 May 2022

Word History

Etymology

German, literally, storm and stress, from Sturm und Drang (1776), drama by Friedrich von Klinger †1831 German novelist and dramatist

First Known Use

1845, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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