gegenwärtige

Gegenwärtige is a German term that functions both as an adjective and as a nominalized noun. The base adjective gegenwärtig means “present” or “current.” When capitalized as Gegenwärtige, it usually appears as a substantive form, such as das Gegenwärtige (the present) or die Gegenwärtigen (the contemporaries or the current ones), depending on context.

As a concept, Gegenwärtige can refer to the present moment or to things and people that belong to the current time. In philosophical and cultural discourse, the term is employed to discuss temporality, immediacy, and contemporaneity. It is often contrasted with Vergangenheit (the past) and Zukunft (the future), and with terms like Gegenwartssinn or Gegenwärtigkeit in more specialized discussions about how experience partitions time.

In practice, Gegenwärtige appears in German-language discussions of art, literature, and society to denote work or phenomena that are produced in the present era. For example, Gegenwärtige Kunst is used to describe contemporary art, while Gegenwärtige Literatur refers to current or recent literature. The phrasing can also indicate a focus on the experiences and conditions of people living now, rather than on historical or classical periods.

See also:

- Gegenwart

- Gegenwärtigkeit

- Zeitgenössisch

- Gegenwartskunst

- Gegenwartsliteratur

Overall, Gegenwärtige functions as a flexible term in German that marks the boundary between the immediate present and broader categories of contemporaneity, with applications in linguistics, philosophy, and the arts.