Venning analyzes the role of the nineteenth-century German Romantic Ludwig Tieck in mythologizing Shakespeare in Germany. Examining Tieck’s work as a playwright, translator, critic, dramaturg, and director, Venning argues that through his literary and theatrical efforts, Tieck contributed to the transformation of Germans into readers and spectators who claimed Shakespeare as their own national playwright. 

The chapter situates Tieck’s bardolatrous criticism as a direct precursor to the affective, humanistic, and character-driven Shakespearean criticism popular in the early twentieth century and focuses on Tieck’s theatrical efforts in Dresden and Potsdam to recover original Shakespearean practices as a way of highlighting Shakespeare’s genius. The chapter concludes with analysis of the lasting social and cultural effects of Tieck’s work in Germany.