The german Shakespeare Society is one of the oldest literary societies worldwide that was active uninterruptedly. However, it is not the oldest. We know of at least one literary society that is even older. The  Herrigsche Gesellschaft, which is still active in Berlin, was founded in 1857 by Friedrich Christian Ludwig Herrig (1816–1889) and so predates the Shakespeare Society by seven years. The Herrigsche Gesellschaft established modern philology as a discipline.

Even older is the “Archiv”, established by Heinrich Viehoff in 1846. It counts as the oldest new philological journal. Our Shakespeare-Jahrbuch is 18 years younger.

It is not unlikely that there are other societies worldwide that have existed for longer than the Shakespeare Society. Should you know of such an association, please let us know via:

office(at)shakespeare-gesellschaft.de

See also this Article in the FAZ from 26.04.2006.