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In the Eighteenth Century, German literature grew and developed in the light of Enlightenment thought and flowered in a beautiful and didactic


manner. From the beginning of the Age of Enlightenment, Gottsched was under the influence of Liebniz and Wolffs rationalistic thought. Following these two philosophers, Gottsched considered literary activity's sole purpose to help the growth of human reason in the direction of morality. Gottsched's disciples accorded feeling and imagination a place next to reason and so the literature of the Age of Enlightenment entered a new stage. Men of letters who believed in Pietism started to purify their souls in order to be more moral and attain happiness. Writers who created works of sentiment believed
finesse and elegance of feeling and affection to be necessary for moral happiness. Lessing, who was both a writer and a philosopher, put literature
to the service of spreading religious tolerance and social criticism. Some of
the men of letters of the Enlightenment started to write fables because they found this genre an appropriate manner to educate man and also a tool for social criticism. In conclusion we must mention that man's moral and social education was the common purpose of all the men of letters of the Enlightenment.