It is widely argued today that the early German romantic movement anticipates postmodernism; the early romantics were postmoderns before their time.

Frederick Beiser differs, and notes three critical differences between German romanticism and the mainstream of postmodern philosophy. First, the early romantics were Platonists “in their belief in a single universal reason, in the archetypes, ideas, or forms that manifest themselves in nature and history.” Second, they strove “for unity and wholeness” and wanted to “overcome the fundamental divisions of modern life.” Romantics admitted and celebrated difference, but “they also believed that we should strive to reintegrate it within the wider wholes of state, society, and nature.” Finally, “the romantics remained religious, and indeed even mystical.” They sought a place for “the absolute” that is absent from most postmodern thought.