Several new German universities are founded, some soon considered among Europe's best.

An increasingly literate public makes possible a jump in the number of journals and newspapers.

At the end of the seventeenth century, most books printed in Germany were in Latin; by the end of the next century, all but five percent are in German.

The eighteenth century also sees a refinement of the German language and a flowering of German literature with the appearance of such figures as Gotthold Lessing, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and Friedrich Schiller.

German music also reaches great heights with the Bach family, George Frederick Handel, Joseph Haydn, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.