The Young Hegelians (German: Junghegelianer), or Left Hegelians (Linkshegelianer), or the Hegelian Left (die Hegelsche Linke), are a group of German intellectuals who, in the decade or so after the death of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel in 1831, react to and write about his ambiguous legacy.
The Young Hegelians draw on his idea that the purpose and promise of history is the total negation of everything conducive to restricting freedom and reason; and they proceed to mount radical critiques, first of religion and then of the Prussian political system.
They reject anti-utopian aspects of his thought that "Old Hegelians" have interpreted to mean that the world has already essentially reached perfection.
