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Abstract: The main problem of the paper is to consider E.T.A. Hoffmann’s fairy tale «The Nutcracker and the Mouse King» in the context of early German romanticism. The author makes a retrospective comparative analysis of the worldview expressed in Hoffmann’s fairy tale and the worldview of early romantic writers (first of all Novalis and L. Tieck). Particular attention is paid to such aspects of the problem as temporal and space organization, choice of the character, opposition natural vs. human-made, irony. Hoffmann on the one hand is considered to continue the traditions of early romantic writers what can be seen in his fairy tales but not in his novels and stories. On the other hand he is proved to be in controversy with early German romantic culture; it has been expressed in his «The Nutcracker and the Mouse King». The paper can be used in such general and special courses as history of German literature and of romanticism.