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Karl Ludwig Sand and the Murder of August Von Kotzebue: Radical

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Karl Ludwig Sand and the Murder of August Von Kotzebue: Radical Karl Ludwig Sand and The Murder of August von Kotzebue: Radical Redemption in an Early Nineteenth Century Assassination Lennard Pater 4160959 Course Terrorism as Radical Redemption (GKMV18004) Prof. dr. B. de Graaf 20 – 1 – 2019 2298 Words 1 1.1: Introduction On the 22th of March 1819 the German theology student Karl Ludwig Sand travelled to Mannheim in order to assassinate the conservative writer August von Kotzebue, who was staying in that city at the time.1 This assassination, described by the historian Golo Mann as ‘einen politischen Mord’2, is most commonly known for its far-reaching political consequences, i.e. because it gave rise to Metternich’s decision of implementing the Carlsbad Decrees, which severely limited the freedom of speech and academic liberty in Germany.3 The murder was for Metternich a pretext, according to Rüdiger Safranski, ‘um mit den Karlsbader Beschlüssen gegen die sogenannten demagogischen Umtriebe einzuschreiten’4, which implied considerably curtailing the freedom of the press and academic freedom. However, Karl Ludwig Sand’s deed has, as we shall see, many features of a terrorist attack and is therefore not only interesting for its political ramifications. Especially because Sand has left us diaries and letters which shed light on the motives behind the assassination and these documents – already used in abundance by the French writer Alexandre Dumas père in his description of Sand’s life and Kotzebue’s murder5 – provide an interesting insight into the mind of someone who committed a terrorist act. That insight has its bearing upon the radical redemption approach to terrorist actions. This essay consequently aims at understanding whether Sand’s action can be explained by means of a radical redemption narrative. The research question it tries to answer is accordingly: to what extent can the notion of redemption shed light on Karl Ludwig Sand’s murdering August von Kotzebue in 1819? In order to answer this question, we will look into the available documents on Karl Ludwig Sand and into secondary literature with regard to his deed. Moreover, we will use Dan McAdams’ book The Redemptive Self6 so as to grasp the notion of redemption. Of particular importance here is McAdams’ distinction between six languages of redemption.7 The essay applies the distinction between these six languages to the story of Karl Ludwig Sand, as we can reconstruct it from the sources, and tries to demonstrate that the violent act committed by Sand was indeed an act of redemption, showing the explanatory power of a radical redemption narrative in trying to understand acts of terrorism. 1 Adam Zamoyski, Phantom Terror: The Threat of Revolution and the Repression of Liberty 1789 – 1848 (London: William Collins, 2015), 208 – 209. 2 Golo Mann, Deutsche Geschichte des 19. Und 20. Jahrhunderts (Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer Verlag, 1958), 126. 3 Zamoyski, Phantom Terror, 223. 4 Rüdiger Safranski, Goethe: Kunstwerk des Lebens (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch, 2015), 590. 5 Alexandre Dumas, “Karl-Ludwig Sand,” in Celebrated Crimes, http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2745, 19 – 1 – 2019. 6 Dan McAdams, The Redemptive Self: Stories Americans Live By (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2006). 7 Ibidem, 42. 2 Before we are able to do so, we have to take into consideration that this act was committed before the 1880s, which is considered by David C. Rapoport the beginning of modern terrorism.8 However, Sand’s deed has an important similarity with first wave terrorism in that it is an assassination of someone in order to achieve a political target.9 Sand’s act is a form of ‘Propaganda by the Deed’10 before that term was coined. The first wave was about ‘assassinating prominent political figures’11, which is what Sand did: he assassinated a prominent public figure, whom he saw as a political danger. Moreover, we will in his case perceive martyrdom, which Rapoport sees as characteristic of the assassinations of the first wave.12 Finally, Sand’s deed includes important elements from the other waves on the basis of which one can be justified in calling the act terrorism: the element of political violence for national self-determination (second wave) and for religion (fourth wave).13 1.2: Karl Ludwig Sand: Background and Early Life But let us now first move to Karl Ludwig Sand himself. Sand was born in 1795 in the city of Wonsiedel as ‘the youngest son of Godfrey Christopher Sand, first president and councillor of justice to the King of Prussia’14. The first years of his life were troubled by disease, mainly as a result of the smallpox he contracted whilst still being a baby.15 However, he conquered disease and, despite the intellectual setbacks he encountered as a result of several of his illnesses16, succeeded in becoming a bright individual, who left the gymnasium of Regensburg in 1814 with praise: “Karl Ludwig Sand gehört unter die an Gaben des Geistes und Vorzügen des Gemühtes vor vielen ausgezeichneten Jünglinge.”17 Apart from the formidable qualities discerned by the gymnasium’s rector, Sand possessed a religious nature. Alexandre Dumas describes him as ‘always religious, even in his childish pleasures’18 and this finds expression in his decision to study theology in Tubingen and later in his life in Erlangen and in Jena.19 8 David C. Rapoport, “The Four Waves of Modern Terrorism,” in Attacking terrorism. Elements of a Grand Strategy, edited by A.K. Cronin and J.M. Ludes (Washington D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2004), 47. 9 Ibidem, 50. 10 Ibidem. 11 Ibidem, 54. 12 Ibidem. 13 Ibidem, 53 and 61. 14 Dumas, “Karl-Ludwig Sand”, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2745/2745- pdf.pdf?session_id=854e1c7420bf63bfbfa0bd24d730a33656213418, Page v. 15 Ibidem, Page v and vi. 16 Ibidem, Page ii. 17 Robert Wesselhoeft, Carl Ludwig Sand, dargestellt durch seine Tagebücher und Briefe von einigen seiner Freunde (Altenburg: Hahn, 1821), https://reader.digitale- sammlungen.de/de/fs1/object/goToPage/bsb10066471.html?pageNo=43, 25. 18 Dumas, “Karl-Ludwig Sand”, Page viii. 19 Ibidem, Page xxii 3 Odd as it may seem, his religious nature is also revealed in Sand’s decision in 1815 to abandon the study of theology for the time being in order to fight Napoleon, who had just returned from Elba.20 Sand thought it his religious duty to resist Napoleon, which for him meant serving the cause of Germany and the cause of God. He wrote his parents: “Immer will ich Gott vor Augen und im Herzen haben, um mit Heiterkeit alle Mühen und Gefahren des Heiligen Krieges bestehen zu können.”21 The war was for him sacred, namely the fulfilling of the divine will. It is clear that for Sand, as his diaries reveal and as Dumas highlights, life needed a divine purpose, i.e. a higher goal for which to strive: “Das Leben ohne einen höhern Zweck ist öde und leer.”22 He found this in theology, but equally in fulfilling political goals he thought of as sacred, including resisting Napoleon. Such a higher purpose, however, is as well present in Sand’s continuous attempt to purify himself. His diaries served the purpose of contributing to this process of self-purification. George S. Williamson notes that ‘Sand used his diary as a means of self-examination and self-recrimination’23. This self- examination was necessary in order to achieve the purification he desired. He writes in his diary when the end of 1816 is nigh: “Wenn es mir im Taumel des Lebens einmal gelingt, auf mich zu schauen und in mein Innres zu dringen, so muß ich fühlen, wie schlecht ich bin und wie schwach; aber ich bin selbst dazu zu unaufmerksam.”24 But his repeated insistence on his sinful nature and the need for improvement show that he did see the evil within himself and was motivated by the ‘great longing in the human heart for righteousness, for the blameless life, the life that is properly guided’25. This desire for purity was a feature of the so-called ‘Burschenschaften’ in Germany at the time. These Burschenschaften were ‘fraternities dedicated to the moral and spiritual reform of the German university and, ultimately, the German nation’26. Sand had joined such a community when he went to university. Golo Mann claims that these communities and their members, although devoid of proper taste, were not necessarily dangerous: “Harmlos waren doch im Grunde diese Knaben, harmlos, gut und allenfalls geschmackslos; man hätte sie unbehelligt lassen können.”27 The individual Karl Ludwig Sand was, according to Mann, an exception: he was, unfortunately, ‘eine Bursche von krankhafter Natur’28. 20 Dumas, Karl-Ludwig Sand, xiii. 21 Wesselhoeft, Carl Ludwig Sand, 30. 22 Ibidem, 46. 23 George S. Williamson, “What Killed August von Kotzebue? The Temptations of Virtue and the Political Theology of German Nationalism, 1789–1819,” in The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 72, No.4 (2000), 922. 24 Wesselhoeft, Carl Ludwig Sand, 71. 25 Roger Scruton, The Face of God: Gifford Lectures 2010 (London: Bloomsbury, 2012), 38. 26 Williamson, “What Killed August von Kotzebue?”, 915. 27 Mann, Deutsche Geschichte, 126. 28 Ibidem. 4 That is Golo Mann’s diagnosis of Sand, but the sources indicate that Sand was more a profoundly religious person, who, after surviving Waterloo in 181529, struggled with existence and longed for a better life or a higher purpose. One of his diaries from 1816 contains for instance this passage: “Ich hatte heute inniges Sehnen wieder nach dem Scheiden aus dieser Welt, und dem Eintritt in eine höhere.”30 He longed for something higher than earthly existence, especially since this would give him the desired purity of soul. A purity he hoped to achieve through Christ. He prayed to God that Christ would take possession of his soul and give him the clarity he desired for self-examination and improvement: “O gieb, O Vater! Daß dein Sohn, Jesus Christus, in mir seine Wohnung nehme; gieb, daß ich oft das Geräusche der Welt verlasse, und in die Stille zu mir und zur recht begeisterten und scharfen Betrachtung meines Innern gelangen könne.”31 This desire for Christ’s presence and his longing for purity were combined with a quest for significance32.
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