German art criticism began to develop in the second half of the 18th century in periodicals of the Enlightenment and was modeled after French art theory and salon criticism. However, while Academy exhibitions in the Louvre attracted crowds of visitors and established French salon criticism, it was not before the 1760s that the founding of many new museums was accompanied by a “discourse about art” in Germany. Although museum and exhibition activities and the German art market only developed rudimentarily until the end of the 18th century, the German region - split geographically and politically - was connected medially through periodicals. In this way the capability to conduct art criticism developed through the medium of periodicals.