Original: German philosophy , here taken to mean either ( 1 ) philosophy in the German language or ( 2 ) philosophy by Germans , has been extremely diverse , and central to both the analytic and continental traditions in philosophy for centuries , from Leibniz through Kant , Hegel , Schopenhauer , Marx , Nietzsche , Heidegger and Wittgenstein to contemporary philosophers .
Simplified: German philosophy refers to philosophy written in German or by German philosophers . It started in the 17th century during the Age of Enlightenment , from Leibniz and Wolff through Kant , Schelling , Fichte , Hegel , Schopenhauer , Marx , Engels , and into the times of Nietzsche and Wittgenstein .