The epochs of Enlightenment and Weimar Classicism as constructs of literary studies have become problematic. The literary discourse itself reveals phenomena of simultaneity which questions the typical ideal configuration of heterogeneous epochal structures. Using texts by Lessing, Wieland, Herder, Schiller, Goethe, and Moritz, the authors analyze how Enlightenment patterns of thought are developed both in literature and theoretical discourse (aesthetics).