German words expats should know: Weltschmerz

There are many reasons to feel Weltschmerz in this day and age. We take a closer look at the origin and meaning of the German word for “world weariness”.

What does Weltschmerz mean?

Weltschmerz literally means “world pain”, “world grief”, or “world anguish” and describes the feeling of being fed up, sad or depressed about the unjust state of the world and yearning for an alternative world which is more aligned with the Weltschmerz victim’s moral or aesthetic values.

Recent and current events, pandemics, war, genocide, climate breakdown, economic insecurity and inequality, political instability and fragmented social relationships mean many of us are experiencing a feeling of Weltschmerz.

Weltschmerz: Where does the idea come from?

Sturm und Drang, the Bildungsroman and Weltschmerz; the German Romantics loved to coin terms and create literary genres which focused on the friction between individual emotions and the outside world.

The term Weltschmerz first appears in the 1827 novel Selina, by Romantic author Jean Paul and was added to the German Dictionary (Deutsches Wörterbuch), published by the Brothers Grimm, in 1854.

International authors, including Lord Byron, Charles Baudelaire, William Blake and Oscar Wilde, would also go on to use or draw inspiration from the term. With every generation having its own reasons for Weltschmerz, the word caught on in everyday conversation and stuck. Today, you can use it in both English and German.