It was also famed for its "shockingly brilliant covers and radical editorial tone" and for its avant-garde influence on German arts and culture for decades, ultimately launching the eponymous Jugendstil ('Youth Style') movement in Munich, Weimar, and Germany's Darmstadt Artists' Colony.

In its early years, Jungend provided a nostalgic counter to the rapid industrialization of Germany during the 1800s and, toward the end of the century, the shift in population from a romanticized, idyllic countryside to urban centers.

The journal also covered satirical and critical topics in culture, such as the increasing influence of the churches (especially Catholicism), and the political right in the Centre Party.

"[1] For all that, Jugend's contribution to the literature of the early modern period remained modest, especially compared to Albert Langen's competing journal Simplicissimus, which was also founded in 1896.

That changed in the mid-1920s, when it began catering to, and then entered into dialogue with groups of young artists breaking with traditional approaches to art in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the Jugendstil in multiple German cities, as well as a series of so-called secessions in Paris, Vienna, Munich, Berlin, Dresden, and elsewhere.