Anonymity and ideology : When defenders of church and state opt for anonymity

Simple reasons of self-protection and self-preservation have often compelled authors to conceal their authorship in the case of texts that subject religious or civil authorities to criticism and ridicule. A more perplexing form of literary anonymity arose, however, among many late eighteenth-century German writers who were committed to a defence of these authorities. This article considers the motives that induced such proto-conservative writers to publish anonymously by examining their tendency to conceive of public opinion as a force that in its own way came to seem anonymous and even decidedly sinister.