While much that Herder produced after settling in Weimar has little value, he wrote also some of his best works, among others his collection of popular poetry on which he had been engaged for many years, Stimmen der Volker in Liedern (1778-1779); his translation of the Spanish romances of the Cid (1805); his celebrated work on Hebrew poetry, Vom Geist der hebrdischen Poesie (1782-1783); and his opus magnum, the Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit (1784-1791).
The stage of Geist reveals the consciousness no longer as critical and antagonistic but as the indwelling spirit of a community, as no longer isolated from its surroundings but the union of the single and real consciousness with the vital feeling that animates the community.
The library was first kept in the choir of the Heilige Geist Kirche, and then consisted of 3500 MSS.
Among other works may be mentioned Staudlin, Geschichte and Geist d.
It treats of the attitudes of consciousness towards reality under the six heads of consciousness, self-consciousness, reason (Vernunft), spirit (Geist), religion and absolute knowledge.