The Case of the Savant Albrecht Von Haller

REPUBLICAN IDENTITY AND THE WORLD OF THE COURTS: THE CASE OF THE SAVANT ALBRECHT VON HALLER

Barbara Braun-Bucher

Renowned in German-speaking Europe as a poet, respected, established and influential in Göttingen as a scientist and organiser, Albrecht von Haller—a Swiss citizen and a republican—was commissioned in 1748 to compose tributes to the king on the occasion of his visit to Göttingen. “It is quite possible that in his first years here this poetry of his attracted more young people to Göttingen than his subsequent writings on anatomy and physiology . . .” according to one contemporary who was not entirely well- disposed towards Haller.1 In the summer of 1748 George II, King of England and Ireland and German Elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg, paid a visit to Göttingen. Fes- tivities were organised on a large scale. The architectural theorist Johann Friedrich Penther, professor of mathematics and economics and chief inspector of the academic buildings, was responsible for the construction of a temporary triumphal arch and three honorary portals made of papier mâché,2 while Haller was responsible for symbols and inscriptions. George II arrived in the city on 1 August in an official coach drawn by eight horses. The front side of the triumphal arch depicted the English king’s military engagements—the victorious battle at Dettingen and the naval battle against the French off Cape Finisterre. The back side, with its statue of justice and the muses of the sciences, portrayed the king’s influence as a guarantor of European peace and the country’s pacification through education and culture owing to his founding of a university. A cantata was performed in St. Paul’s Church [the Paulinerkirche] with lyr- ics, also written by Haller, referring to the king’s deeds and the symbols.3 Following graduation ceremonies and a visit to the library, the professors

1 Ulrich Jost, ‘“Dieser unermüdete Geist . . .”. Samuel Christian Hollmanns Erinnerungen an Haller. Aus seiner “Chronik der Georg-Augustus-Universität”’, in Norbert Elsner and Nicolaas A. Rupke (eds.), Albrecht von Haller im Göttingen der Aufklärung (Göttingen 2008), 107–142: 142. 2 Karl Arndt, ‘Denkmäler in Göttingen: Dichter und Gelehrte’, Göttinger Jahrbuch 23 (1975), 107–143: 110. 3 Albrecht von Haller, Versuch Schweizerischer Gedichte (Bern 1777), 275–281.

© Barbara Braun-Bucher, 2013 | doi:10.1163/9789004243910_035 This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0Barbara license. Braun-Bucher - 9789004243910 Downloaded from Brill.com09/24/2021 12:43:18PM via free access 800 barbara braun-bucher gathered in a semi-circle in the jurists’ auditorium, where Gerlach Adolph von Münchhausen, curator of the university, personally introduced each one to the king. Haller, the Swiss, was addressed personally by the king, “with a very gracious expression” and the remark that “he should not con- tract the ‘Swiss disease’” [die Schweizerkrankheit] of homesickness.4 Even the subsequent evening serenade performed by Göttingen University students was based on a text by Haller. Eberhard Friedrich von Gemmingen from Heilbronn, the future minister of state for Württemberg and later a friend of Haller, presented the king with a printed version. Quite an honour for the republican in the Electorate of Hannover!

The Institution of the University under a Monarchy

At the turn of the eighteenth century the Electorate of Hannover began to develop into a major territorial power in the centre of Germany. The university that was to be newly established, like all older institutions of higher learning and especially the religiously oriented state universities, was intended on the one hand to educate future theologians, jurists, physicians and civil servants. From this function of the university as a place of learning for the elites of society, the state, the absolute central power, in the person of the curator, derived its extensive authority. In addition, the new university was explicitly intended to be open to contemporary scientific developments, according to the model of the so-called “reform” university [Reformuniversität] at Halle, and bring students “of rank” to Göttingen. The actual founder, Gerlach Adolph von Münchhausen, assumed the lead- ing role, serving as curator of the state university until his death in 1770, along with his ministerial duties as President of the Privy Council in Han- nover tending to the business of the Elector of Hannover, who resided in St. James as King George II. As an insightful moderator of current trends in science policy, he continually sought the advice of experts and was an advocate of the modern view that education in the sciences must prepare students to meet the requirements of a profession. He was also responsible for paying and recruiting the university’s first professors.5

4 Jost 2008 (note 1), 122; see Urs Boschung, ‘Heimweh, die “Schweizer Krankheit”: vor 300 Jahren erstmals beschrieben’, Inselbote: Hauszeitschrift für das Personal des Inselspitals Bern 2 (Juni 1988), 22–28. 5 Ulrich Hunger, ‘Die Georgia Augusta als hannoversche Landesuniversität. Von ihrer Gründung bis zum Ende des Königreichs’, in Ernst Böhme and Rudolf Vierhaus (eds.), Göttingen. Geschichte einer Universitätsstadt, vol. 2: Vom Dreissigjährigen Krieg bis zum

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Fig. 1. Georg Daniel Heumann: Triumphal arch for the visit of George II, 1748, Städtisches Museum Göttingen.

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Fig. 2. Gerlach Adolph von Münchhausen (1688–1770). Oil painting by G. Boy (1747), Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen.

The Immigrant from Bern

After earning his degree as a doctor of medicine in Leiden under the direction of the renowned Hermann Boerhaave, going on an educational tour to London, Paris and Strasbourg, and studying mathematics under Bernoulli in Basle, in 1729 Haller initially sought to recruit patients from

Anschluss an Preußen—Der Wiederaufstieg als Universitätsstadt (1648–1866) (Göttingen 2002), 139–213: 143–144; Hubert Steinke, ‘Science, Practice and Reputation. The Göttingen University and Its Medical Faculty in the 18th Century’, in Ole P. Grell, Andrew Cunning- ham and Jon Arrizabalaga (eds.), Centres of Excellence? Medical Travel and Education in Europe 1500–1789 (Aldershot 2010), 287–303.

Barbara Braun-Bucher - 9789004243910 Downloaded from Brill.com09/24/2021 12:43:18PM via free access republican identity and the world of the courts 803 patrician circles with the help of friends and relatives and establish himself as a physician Bern.6 He failed to obtain a position, then open, as the fourth city physician, probably owing to his young age and the numerous other candidates for the position, and he withdrew a subsequent application for a professorship of oratory in favour of a friend. In 1735 another friend, Franz Ludwig Steiger, son of the current mayor [Schultheiss], offered him the job of librarian at the city library, as he himself had been elected to the Great Council. In 1732 Haller married Marianne Wyss, daughter of Squire of Mathod and la Motte, a pharmacist and the well- situated owner of a large spice business. She was the niece of mayor Isaak Steiger, father of the librarian. In the contemporary context, Bern was seen as a wise government, with a clever, financially stable and efficient administration, that did not act according to fashionable trends or evince zealousness. But there were laments about its development towards oligarchy. This period was indeed characterised simultaneously by equilibrium and dynamic, constancy and reform, continuity and change. Problems as well as efforts to undertake reform found their expression in petitions addressed to the Council in the years 1710, 1735 (in this case by Haller himself), 1744, 1749, and again later in the 1780s. The same unresolved problems continued to crop up: the declining portion of the citizenry eligible for government service in the government, the de facto exclusion of eligible citizens—usually craftsmen and traders—from council positions and government offices, modifica- tions of voting procedures and expansion of the councils, the definition of sovereignty, the responsibilities of individual government bodies, and debates about trade and luxury. Behind the scenes there was a constant process of balancing power in an attempt to preserve a fragile equilibrium. This process was an obstacle to reform.7 In 1732 Haller published his Versuch Schweizerischer Gedichte(n), at first anonymously.8 He advocated tolerance and freedom of speech, supported religious diversity after having witnessed its functioning in the Netherlands, and, in “Verdorbene Sitten” and “Der Mann nach der Welt”,

6 Details on Haller’s biography from Urs Boschung, ‘Lebenslauf’, in Hubert Steinke, Urs Boschung and Wolfgang Proß (eds.), Albrecht von Haller. Leben—Werk—Epoche (Bern 2008), 15–82; for Haller’s earlier activity as a practicing physician, see Hubert Steinke, ‘Der junge Arzt und seine Patienten: Albrecht von Hallers Praxis in Bern 1731–1736’, in Elisa- beth Dietrich-Daum et al. (eds.), Arztpraxen im Vergleich: 18.–20. Jahrhundert (Bozen 2008), 79–87. 7 Barbara Braun-Bucher, ‘Schultheiss, Rät und Burger zu Bern’, in André Holenstein et al. (eds.), Berns goldene Zeit. Das 18. Jahrhundert neu entdeckt (Bern 2008), 432–440: 432. 8 [Albrecht von Haller], Versuch Schweizerischer Gedichten (Bern 1732).

Barbara Braun-Bucher - 9789004243910 Downloaded from Brill.com09/24/2021 12:43:18PM via free access 804 barbara braun-bucher used satire to attack deficiencies in the Republic as well as the foibles of individual council members. Everyone was aware of the author’s identity, and some Bernese patricians thus felt they had been attacked personally. The preface was meant to mitigate the controversial effect of the poems and it amused friends of Haller who were in the know: “You have armed yourself against all your attackers in your preface, which really gave me a good laugh,” wrote Peter Giller, a physician and fellow student from St. Gallen, on 7 August 1732.9 Although the undeniably problematic issue of morals had already been coolly and factually dealt with in the Bernese Freytags-Blätlein in 1722 and was a recurring topic in sermons, there were no consequences for the authors or for pulpit orators. Haller’s satire, however, was a provocation, and caustic responses from those he had targeted were not long in coming. The rejected job applicant, practicing physician and anatomical researcher—for whom a Theatrum anatomicum of his own was equipped at the expense of the state in 1734 and who hoped in vain for a corre- sponding professorial chair and simultaneously for a government position in the Republic—also wrote a petition to the Council in 1735. In this text, the 28-year-old Haller raised questions about the future of the political system in Bern: Monarchies tend towards unlimited rule and despotism; democracies towards anarchy; and aristocracies end either in oligarchies or democracies. In ancient times both Athens and Rome moved closer to democracy step by step, and in modern times Venice and Genoa became oligarchies; what will be the fate of our own state? There is nothing to exempt it from the same accidents that befell similar republics. Claiming to seek an answer as a sincere patriot who was neither partisan nor socially or emotionally committed, Haller concluded: “The state is exhibiting a tendency towards oligarchy; once it was most like a democracy, but it has gradually moved away from this form of government and is continuing towards the opposite pole.”10 Haller accordingly made pro- posals for remedying the decline in participation by citizens eligible for serving in the government. He expressed the opinion that rivalry among at least 80 families in the council guarantied its stability; he proposed

9 Burgerbibliothek Bern, N. Albrecht von Haller, Korr 105.19, edited in Katja Fehr- Hutter (ed.), Peter Gillers Briefe an Albrecht von Haller 1727–1756, dissertation in medicine, University of Bern, 2003, 89. 10 Burgerbibliothek Bern, Mss.h.h. VI.53 (9).

Barbara Braun-Bucher - 9789004243910 Downloaded from Brill.com09/24/2021 12:43:18PM via free access republican identity and the world of the courts 805 additions to be made from the established noble families, Bernese subjects since 1536, of western Switzerland, as 26 of the 81 families represented in the Great Council were dying out. This would allow the state to avoid the threat of oligarchy. By attacking political and social injustices in the second edition of his poems published in 1734, this time under his own name, Haller made himself thoroughly unpopular. The thoughts of a sincere patriot were rejected with the argument that 80 families were not enough. His prospects for obtaining a government position in the near future were poor. To A.J. Hugo, the royal physician in Hannover—a doctor and botanist with whom he had been in contact for mutual exchange of seeds and plants since 1732—Haller declared his readiness to accept a call to the newly founded university there. Hugo facilitated contact with the curator of the university, Gerlach Adolph von Münchhausen.11

The Georgia Augusta: Well-Regulated Like a Republic

The University of Göttingen became a pioneering model of success thanks to the esprit de corps of its learned professors and students and a network of several individuals who were strategic thinkers and had contacts with the state government. The confidants of the government—a few select civil servants who were beholden to the court—constituted a type of autonomous ruling structure in the university.12 What was new and original about Münchhausen’s model—and here he was in complete agree- ment with Haller—was the conviction that the social mandate to provide education and training could best be realised through the freedom and autonomy of the sciences. The first step in creating the conditions for this was to abolish the right of the theological faculty to supervise and censor what was taught by other faculties. Religious tolerance was fostered in order to attract rich aristocratic and bourgeois students to Göttingen. A Catholic parish was founded in 1747 and a Reformed parish in 1752, and a publication office and a university pharmacy were established as well. Above all, however, planned development of the most important scientific library in Europe was begun.13

11 Hubert Steinke, Der nützliche Brief. Die Korrespondenz zwischen Albrecht von Haller und Christoph Jakob Trew 1733–1763 (Basel 1999), 20–24 and 61–63. 12 Hunger 2002 (note 5), 168. 13 Peter Hanns Reill, ‘“Pflanzgarten der Aufklärung”: Haller und die Gründung der Göt- tinger Universität’, in Elsner and Rupke 2008 (note 1), 47–69: 48.

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In a birthday speech addressed to George II on the occasion of the first meeting of the Royal Society of Sciences on 10 November 1751, Haller called attention to the university’s model structures as the foundation for research, the search for truth, and expansion of the boundaries of knowledge. The Georgia Augusta, with its laws, structured curricula and time- tables, absence of unnecessary entertainment, supervision of the morals of academic citizens, and encouragement of virtue as well as intellect, was well-regulated like a republic and guaranteed a legal basis for peace- ful co-existence. At the same time, the paternalistic royal protector was ever-present, tolerating no compensation for misdeeds through fines that enriched the authorities. He was a strict chastiser of wrongdoers and a beneficent rewarder of outstanding services. He generously supported every aspect of the library, the botanical garden, and the anatomical theatre. Royal beneficence permitted dissection and expansion of knowledge about the human body at minimal expense.14 Another claim made by Münchhausen, the pre-eminent knowledge manager, was that the internal freedom achieved by the university must be secured by a carefully planned policy for recruiting professors who would teach in the spirit of enlightened scientific ideals. Renowned names could only be attracted with remuneration and favourable conditions—good salaries, recognition in the form of titles such as that of court councillor [Hofrat], social reputation, and social security for their families, such as insurance for spouses through a survivors’ insurance scheme for the widows of professors [Professoren-Witwen-Casse]. This clearly structured model facilitated rapid acquisition of the necessary funding from the beneficent king and quick granting of a Privilege for the university by the Emperor.15 Münchhausen did everything he could to create good work- ing conditions in Göttingen for Haller, as well, and acceded to his many rather immodest demands in order to keep him there. Even ennoblement was sought from the Emperor in Vienna in 1749.16 After Haller’s return to Bern in 1753, Münchhausen, almost up to the time of his death in 1770,

14 ‘Rede an dem Geburtstage Georg des Zweyten: die königliche Gesellschaft der Wis- senschaften sich zum erstenmal öffentlich versamlete, den 10. November 1751’, in Samm lung kleiner Hallerischer Schriften (Bern 1772), 3 vols., II: 175–206: 185–186. 15 Hunger 2002 (note 5), 145. 16 Reimer Eck (ed.), Albrecht von Haller in Göttingen. Ausstellung im historischen Saal der Paulinerkirche anlässlich des dreihundertsten Geburtstags Albrecht von Hallers [16.10.2008– 18.01.2009] (Göttingen 2008), 10, König Georg II. an die Geheimen Räte in Hannover [King George II to the Privy Councils in Hannover], 25 February 1749.

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Haller’s Integration in Göttingen and the Development of a Network

Haller was called to a professorship in anatomy, surgery and botany at the newly founded Georgia Augusta in Göttingen for the winter semester of 1736/37. Shortly after he arrived, his wife Marianne died. For a long time at the beginning of his years in Göttingen he was in the grips of sorrow and depression, as reflected in his diary begun in the winter of 1736. Münch- hausen called Haller’s friend Johann Jakob Huber from Basle to Göttingen as a prosector “to encourage Haller and give him peace of mind”;17 in addition, Münchhausen created an anatomical theatre for Haller, provided him with a house free of rent, offered him the opportunity to develop the royal botanical garden, raised his salary several times, and granted him a leave of absence already in the winter of 1737 should he want to take his motherless children back to Bern. Haller found no peace; on 30 April 1738 his firstborn son died, while petty jealousies among colleagues and literary disputes irritated him and kept him on edge: “Certain intrigues and factions opposing the one that protects me have given me cause to seri- ously consider keeping open an option to return,” he wrote to his friend Sinner in Bern in 1738. Doubting the favour of those in high positions he continued, “nothing would console me here on the blows of fate . . . my sights are always on the same: my homeland and my honour.”18 Haller was not averse to accepting honours. On 14 September he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the philosophical faculty; this was followed on 14 November by his being named personal physician to the British king, which moved him to remark: “In Bern, as you know, some doubted that I am of any use in general, others doubted that I am of any use in my art, and most were little impressed by the same talents (as I feel compelled to say) that have earned me respect in this country.”19

17 Ludwig Hirzel (ed.), Albrecht von Hallers Gedichte (Frauenfeld 1882), CLXXVIII. 18 Emil Franz Rössler (ed.), Die Gründung der Universität Göttingen: Entwürfe, Berichte und Briefe der Zeitgenossen (Göttingen 1855), 320, Albrecht von Haller to Johann Rudolf Sinner, 27 August 1738. 19 Eduard Bodemann (ed.), Von und über Albrecht von Haller. Ungedruckte Briefe und Gedichte Hallers sowie ungedruckte Briefe und Notizen über denselben (Hannover 1885), 107, Albrecht von Haller to Johann Rudolf Sinner, 17 December 1738.

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Applying his intellectual talents for the common good was a strong incentive for Haller. He spared no effort even in Göttingen to be elected to the Great Council in Bern—the springboard for any career in public life20—and had learned well in the meantime how to position himself as a politically astute academic in both scientific and social circles. Haller recommended Johann Samuel König of Bern, who had been banned from Bern for ten years in 1744 after signing a petition claiming traditional civil rights, to the Prince of Orange, whom König ultimately had to thank for his call to Franeker as a professor of philosophy and mathematics and his transfer in 1749 to Den Haag as a court councillor and librarian. In a letter to Johann Jakob Bodmer in Zurich, König nevertheless showed little reverence when he reproached Haller for failing to take a stand for the rights of citizens: “Here is M. Haller’s response to me. Oh, politics—what power you have! He kneels before the golden calf like every peasant! He refuses to pass judgment on whether we are right or wrong, but I fear that he will have the occasion of soon being obliged to pass judgment in spite of himself.”21 It must be kept in mind that Haller was about to be elected to the Great Council and could probably not afford to be too obviously critical of the political system. In the realm of science, however, he made no concessions in the sense of gallant erudition either in the dispute with Hamberger over the theory of intake of breath or during the polemics that resulted from his evaluation of van Swieten’s interpretation of Boerhaave’s theorems, or in relation to the theory of irritability.22

Haller’s Contacts with Royal Courts

The University of Göttingen—the sovereign’s object of prestige which was planned and administered by able officials with connections at the courts of Hannover, Brunswick, Kassel, Celle, Stuttgart, St. Petersburg, Stockholm, Dresden, Copenhagen and Turin—was the centre from which Haller built up most of his relationships and his international network of contacts.

20 Martin Stuber and Stefan Hächler, ‘Ancien Régime vernetzt. Albrecht von Hallers bernische Korrespondenz’, Berner Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Heimatkunde 62 (2000), 125–190: 145–159. 21 Hirzel 1882 (note 17), CCXLIII. 22 Hubert Steinke, ‘Der Patron im Netz. Die Rolle des Briefwechsels in wissenschaftli- chen Kontroversen’, in Martin Stuber, Stefan Hächler and Luc Lienhard (eds.), Hallers Netz. Ein europäischer Gelehrtenbriefwechsel zur Zeit der Aufklärung (Basel 2005), 441–462.

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Haller cultivated relationships with royal houses and even initiated them through distribution of his own writings. His poems and utopian novels, but also his scientific works were dedicated to the kings of England, the King of Denmark, the Queen of Sweden, the Bishop of Brixen, the Gover- nor General of Austrian Lombardy, and the Crown Prince of Brunswick. The first edition of his compendium of Swiss flora was also sent to nobles interested in botany, including the Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and the Prince of Wales. Haller had contacts with the personal physicians of kings and bishops, high-ranking officials, representatives of the Imperial Chamber Court, royal counsellors, heads of government, ambassadors from the Imperial Diet, ministers of state, and presidents of imperial chancelleries.23 Haller acted as an intermediary and recommended physicians and teachers seeking work to the Swedish and the English courts as well as to the Russian Demidov family, who were engaged in iron production and employed 40,000 people. He was sought for advice primarily about improving medical education in Stockholm and Dresden, as well as in Brunswick and the Electorate of Saxony, as he was a recognised expert in this field. The Bishop of Salzburg asked him about measures for enhanc- ing the educational system; following his return to Bern, Haller built an image as a tireless admonisher on this issue. He gave and received information on constitutional law and the philosophy and history of law in as well as from Frankfurt, Göttingen and Hannover, and engaged in detailed discussions about the ideal form of the state—republic or monarchy. This accumulated general knowledge was at his disposal later as an advisor in the Republic. He engaged in countless consultations on economic and practical issues, about cattle plague in Holland, about agriculture, viti- culture and beekeeping with the abbot in Adelberg (Württemberg), and about mineral resources, metal processing, grain shortages and climate change in Sweden. All this information later found practical application during his time as a magistrate.24 Thanks to the long-established rela- tions that he continually cultivated with the Swedish royal house and the House of Habsburg, Haller received specific mandates after his return

23 See Urs Boschung et al. (eds.), Repertorium zu Albrecht von Hallers Korrespondenz, 1724–1777 (Basel 2002), 2 vols. 24 Martin Stuber and Regula Wyss, ‘Der Magistrat und ökonomische Patriot’, in Steinke et al. 2008 (note 6), 347–380; Martin Stuber, ‘“Vous ignorez que je suis cultivateur”. Albrecht von Hallers Korrespondenz zu Themen der Oekonomischen Gesellschaft Bern’, in id. et al. 2005 (note 22), 505–541.

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25 Bodemann 1885 (note 19), 107, Albrecht von Haller to Johann Rudolf Sinner, 17 December 1738. 26 Richard Hamel (ed.), Briefe von J.G. Zimmermann, Wieland und A. von Haller an Vin- zenz Bernhard von Tscharner (Rostock 1881), 66, Albrecht von Haller to Vinzenz Bernhard Tscharner, 9 September 1750.

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Haller’s official contact in Hannover was Heinrich Eberhard Balck, privy secretary of the chancellery [geheimer Kanzleisekretär], who was responsible for university policy, finances, and administration. Balck supplied him with official government communications, and with Balck’s help he frequently attempted to place protégés in suitable positions. Haller continued to correspond with Balck after his departure from Göttingen.27 Another interesting relationship existed with the royal court librarian and archivist, Christian Ludwig Scheidt, the one-time teacher of crown prince Frederick V of Denmark, one of the foremost historians of his time, who possessed a comprehensive collection of sources and published studies of national history, the history of the nobility, and legal history. The two correspondents both worked and wrote reviews for the Göttingische Gelehrte Anzeigen and engaged in knowledgeable discussion about the organisation of the Society of Sciences in Göttingen and the remuneration of contributing authors.28 Haller had many contacts in Württemberg, first with the ducal brothers raised at the court of Frederick II, but also with Charlotte Sophie von Bentinck from the House of Aldenburg, who resided intermittently at the royal residence in Stuttgart.29 She had brought her entire inheritance into her marriage, but after feuding with her spouse she abandoned her pos- sessions and spent extended periods of time at the courts of Copenhagen, Berlin and Vienna. On travels through Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, she collected coins and bronzes. She established contact with the Duke of Württemberg, and assuaged Frederick II—she too was approached by Haller in this regard—concerning Haller’s decline of the call to the court at Berlin. She was in turn deployed to approach Haller about the offer of the position of chancellor at the University of Halle, and she also negoti- ated a loan for Austria with the state of Bern. From 1748 Haller corresponded sporadically, and from the 1770s inten- sively, with Eberhard Friedrich von Gemmingen, poet, composer and head of the government in Württemberg. In the context of Haller’s utopian novels they discussed the advantages and disadvantages of republics and monarchies, specific comparisons of the Republic of Bern and Würt- temberg, and topics such as luxury, famine, the operation of lotteries, fire insurance, the agrarian system [Agrarverfassung], road construction,

27 Boschung et al. 2002 (note 23), I: no. 42. 28 Ibid., no. 928. 29 Ibid., no. 77, 547 and 644.

Barbara Braun-Bucher - 9789004243910 Downloaded from Brill.com09/24/2021 12:43:18PM via free access 812 barbara braun-bucher purchase of grain by Bern in Württemberg, and a model for a plough developed in Bern for improving agricultural yields.30 Haller also took up political and practical topics with Wilhelm Friedrich von Benckendorff, the chamberlain and forester for Duke Karl Eugen von Württemberg and later chamber president and first minister for Margrave Karl Alexander von Ansbach Bayreuth. Benckendorff consulted Haller as an expert, seeking information from him about salt extraction techniques, microscopic examination of blood, plant systems, porcelain manufacturing, chemi- cal procedures, medicines, Bernese political institutions, supra-regional anomalies in precipitation, high grain prices, famines and the causes of the crisis of subsistence in 1770–1772, which Haller ascribed to excess mor- tality and a decline in baptisms and marriages.31 Truly a wide spectrum for someone trained in medicine and botany! Haller dedicated the new edition of his poems in 1762 to Queen Louisa Ulrika of Sweden, the sister of Frederick II of Prussia. The queen had initiated the founding of the Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm in 1753. Haller’s accompanying letter, although addressed to the monarch, was personally delivered by the president of the Swedish imperial chancellery, Ulric von Scheffer, one of the most influential men of the later reform period under King Gustav III. Scheffer also later transmitted the Order of the North Star to Haller so that he would not have to travel to Sweden to accept it.32 Through the pastor, reader [Vorleser] and intimate counsellor Jean-François Beylon, the queen inquired with Haller about contacts with famous scholars in Paris, recommendable reading material, his opinion concerning the prince’s inoculation, and taking soundings about whether a loan of 100,000 Ecus for Sweden was possible in Bern.33

The Returnee

This living monument—the renowned poet and scholar, physician and one-time university professor, creator of the royal botanical garden, president of the Academy of Sciences, scholarly reviewer and centrepiece of a far-reaching communication network—returned to his homeland in 1753 as town hall administrator [Rathausammann]: “Fate, as the clearest call of

30 Ibid., no. 346. 31 Ibid., no. 74. 32 Ibid., no. 927. 33 Ibid., no. 99.

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Fig. 3. Albrecht von Haller, Versuch Schweizerischer Gedichte, 9th ed. (Göttingen 1762), dedication.

Barbara Braun-Bucher - 9789004243910 Downloaded from Brill.com09/24/2021 12:43:18PM via free access 814 barbara braun-bucher divine providence, has brought me back to my fatherland. The many ill- nesses that I endured in Göttingen appear to have proven that the atmo- sphere and the work there were not conducive to my physical well-being.”34 Back in Bern, Haller wrote to Eberhard Friedrich von Gemmingen that he did not intend to return to Germany and would thus be unable to pay him a visit: “To tell the truth, the court is an element in which I was neither born nor raised and would inevitably remain a stranger . . .”35 But the scholarly world abroad would not rest. In 1755 Haller received a call to the chancellorship of the University of Halle, with no less a figure than Leonhard Euler making the request in the name of Frederick II. Haller manoeuvred once again; from Berlin he was asked to state his “unequivo- cal conditions,” while Münchhausen, with whom he was simultaneously negotiating a return to Göttingen, expressed the wish “that your Lordship make known your conditions in order to make everything quite precise for a report to H[is] R[oyal] Majesty.”36 The negotiations failed. Münch- hausen tried for 17 years to persuade Haller to return to Göttingen. For his part, Haller remained torn between service to his fatherland, the Republic of Bern, his family obligations, and the university, research, and scholarly activity.37 His contemporaries reproached Haller for euphemising conditions in Bern after he took up his public office there. His later biographer, Johann Georg Zimmermann, wrote to him that The favour of the king [Frederick II] is certainly a welcome thing; I con- gratulate you with all my heart. I would tell you one thing, had you not said it yourself a quarter-hour after setting foot in Bern in 1753. You are no longer for this world. You owe your ungrateful country nothing but contempt, and that is easier to show in the Palace of Sanssouci than in Bern in the attic of the town hall.38 The “attic” was an allusion to the public apartment in the town hall that Haller occupied as administrator of the town hall.

34 Urs Boschung, Haller in Göttingen 1736–1753 (Bern 1994), 94, Albrecht von Haller to Georg Thomas von Asch, 21 July 1753. 35 Hermann Fischer (ed.), Briefwechsel zwischen Albrecht von Haller und Eberhard Friedrich von Gemmingen und Bodmer: aus Ludwig Hirzels Nachlass (Tübingen 1899), 6, Albrecht von Haller to Eberhard Friedrich von Gemmingen, 21 August 1753. 36 Hirzel 1882 (note 17), CCCXXVII. 37 Urs Boschung, ‘Ein Berner Patriot. Hallers Lebensstationen’, in Elsner and Rupke 2008 (note 1), 21–46: 40; id., ‘Albert de Haller ambivalent: réussite scientifique à l’étranger ou réussite sociale dans la patrie’, Revue Médicale de la Suisse Romande 112 (1986), 1051–1059. 38 Hirzel 1882 (note 17), CCCXXVII.

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Theories of Government and Virtuous Rule

As early as 1749, probably in connection with the so-called Henzi conspiracy, Haller wrote to his correspondent von Gemmingen of his plans to deal with different types of government in the form of novels. With reference to historically defined forms of government—the monarchy and the republic, Haller used the example of enlightened despotism (Usong), the model of English parliamentarianism (Alfred) and the system of government in the Roman Republic (Fabius und Cato) to show that state constitutions have the aim of promoting and ensuring the well-being of the subjects: “All constitutions aim to achieve the happiness of their people,”39 he wrote in a dedication to Minister Count von Firmian in the preface to Fabius und Cato. Haller had already touched on the theme of the ideal constitution for a state, however, in his poems published in 1732 and in his unpublished petition of 1735. His categories were developed not from a priori rational judgement or from utopian models; they were the product of a process of abstraction in search of common features, in which the natural scientist drew conclusions from empirical issues just as he did from meticulously designed experiments. He deduced his findings from factual circumstances and from different opinions, customs and laws, always referring to concrete examples from ancient or modern history. In addition to contemporary works concerned with government and history, which he reviewed for the Göttingische Gelehrte Anzeigen, Haller drew primarily on his comprehensive collection of travel journals, for which he had shown a passionate interest since his student days in Basle. Haller’s reflections contrast, for example, with those of Rousseau, who did not accept the patriarchal scheme of the house as the model for the constitution of a state: Haller, assuming the natural dominance of the paterfamilias model, believed that irrespective of the governmental system princes and magistrates must rule like true patresfamilias. The prerequisites for this were personal qualities, a sense of justice, virtue, and sense of duty. The claim to power was linked with demands for the common weal and a belief in the ideal of a strong and stable state, rooted in fundamental laws and moral authority. In order to bring about these conditions, paramount attention had to be given to education, as it provided

39 Albrecht von Haller, Fabius und Cato: ein Stück der römischen Geschichte (Bern and Göttingen 1774). Dedication to Carl Joseph Gotthard von Firmian of 2 March 1774; preface of 15 March 1774; see Florian Gelzer and Béla Kapossy, ‘Roman, Staat und Gesellschaft’, in Steinke et al. 2008 (note 6), 156–181.

Barbara Braun-Bucher - 9789004243910 Downloaded from Brill.com09/24/2021 12:43:18PM via free access 816 barbara braun-bucher the knowledge necessary for governing and distinguished the ruler from other members of the government. Haller advocated maintaining balance, which was continually at risk; for him, balance represented the greatest achievement in domestic as well as foreign policy: “The perfection of government consists not in prevent- ing all discord, which is impossible, but in balancing the weight of the state with adequate counterweights so that it rights itself again if it tilts too heavily to one side.”40 This image was reminiscent of the iconography on the reverse side of the above-mentioned triumphal arch honouring George II, which also depicted the king’s foreign policy deeds in times of peace. Mars, the god of war, holds a scale, one side of which appears to rise with the weight of the Austrian coat of arms while the other side sinks under the coat of arms of the Bourbons; the pressure of England’s trident holds the scale in balance. The inscription on the arch read: AEQVILIB- RIUM EVROPAE RESTITVTVM.41

Praise of Princes in Haller’s Dedications

It was precisely these prerequisites for ideal regency—personal qualities, a sense of justice, virtue, a sense of duty, and pursuit of non-selfish aims to promote the common good—which Haller addressed in the dedications he wrote to magistrates and princes. “One can never reiterate enough to princes that their happiness consists in the fulfilment of their major duty, the happiness of their subjects.”42 In a dedication to the mayor Isaak Steiger in the second edition of the poems first published under his own name in 1734,43 Haller praised “the brave hand, the raw courage, the strong and unaffected mind” of the ancient confederates and recommended the emulation of simple, raw morals as the model for a virtuous way of life, thereby simultaneously serving national stereotypes. “One should not despise us [republicans]; we are the seat and the kingdom of freedom on earth . . . and he who has freedom

40 Albrecht von Haller, Tagebuch seiner Beobachtungen über Schriftsteller und über sich selbst. Zur Karakteristik der Philosophie und der Religion dieses Mannes (Bern 1787), 2 vols., II: 181–185 (‘Über die Regierungsverfassung freyer Staaten’): 181. 41 Haller 1777 (note 3), 279. 42 Haller 1774 (note 39), preface. 43 Dr. Albrecht Hallers . . . Versuch von Schweizerischen Gedichten (Bern 1734), dedication to Isaac Steiger.

Barbara Braun-Bucher - 9789004243910 Downloaded from Brill.com09/24/2021 12:43:18PM via free access republican identity and the world of the courts 817 of thought thinks well.” In the early days of the confederation, however, the mind consisted only of reason and education had a militant character. Although this helped bring military fame, war caused “pleasantry and the muses to flee”. Now victory had brought peace, embellishments were appreciated, the mind was acknowledged and treasured, and the mayor, after the tiring business of government, also valued the poet. Acquired knowledge of statecraft and political order, law, and history increased the “wisdom and majesty” of the mayor, who bore the burden of ensuring the welfare of the fatherland. History was progressing and being influenced and shaped in this enlightened age. For Haller, King Frederick V of Denmark and Norway was the model of a prince who, following conquests, pacified the wild Nordic lands of the “Goths and Vandals” and helped bring about political stability and balance in the Baltic region by governing wisely. Advised by the influential Danish foreign minister and enlightened reformer Count Johann Hartwig Ernst von Bernstorff, he pursued an active policy of peace, improved over- seas trade by founding trade associations, maintained neutrality, and supported art and science. To him Haller dedicated his magnum opus—the first two volumes of his major work on physiology.44 The Prussian princess Louisa Ulrika, sister of Frederick II and Queen of Sweden, had established a splendid royal household in Drottning- holm Castle in the wake of the European-wide dissemination of French culture, where she assembled members of the Court party from literary and artistic circles in the high aristocracy. In the so-called Age of Liberty (1719–1772) the Privy Council [Riksrådet], which had existed since 1220 for the original purpose of mediating between the king and the people, came under the influence of the of the Swedish Parliament [Riksdag]. In 1720 this assembly of the estates—consisting of nobles, prelates, bur- ghers and farmers—compelled the king, in the tradition of parliamentary autonomy and with reference to the achievements of the Glorious Revo- lution in England, to recognise the right of parliament to have a voice in government. The Riksdag was split into the aristocratic party of the “Hats” and the anti-aristocratic party of the “Caps”. Moreover, the high aristocracy surrounding the queen gathered in the Court party, which refused to recognise the parliamentary constitution and attempted to gain greater

44 Alberto v. Haller, Elementa physiologiae corporis humani (Lausanne and Bern 1757– 1766), 8 vols., dedication to Frederick V of Denmark of 11 May 1757 (vol. 1) and 22 October 1759 (vol. 2).

Barbara Braun-Bucher - 9789004243910 Downloaded from Brill.com09/24/2021 12:43:18PM via free access 818 barbara braun-bucher influence for the king. The Court party gained influence and importance during the time of severe economic and financial crisis brought on by the Seven Years War, and parliamentary authority threatened to turn into rule by the aristocracy. In 1757 the queen attempted a coup d’état. But it was the young King Gustav III who first succeeded in August 1772 in abolish- ing the liberal parliamentary constitution, thus breaking the power of the estates.45 In 1762 Haller dedicated the ninth edition of his poems to Queen Louisa Ulrika of Sweden.46 In the embellished language of a courtier, he pro- jected onto the Queen all the ideals of a wise prince, such as benevo- lence, virtue, reliability, and serving as an exemplary model. He ascribed to her the enlightened demands for common weal, peace, cultural refine- ment, education and science. As the simple citizen made life easier for those around him by bringing light to the souls of friends or students, thus brightening a room or a cottage, so the wise and virtuous prince was bound to bring happiness and morals to millions of people if, like the sun, he filled the world with light and warmth and promoted science and reason, as well as knowledge of the good, among entire populations. The wilderness was replaced by cities and culture, and superstition by truth. Like a lighthouse, the prince showed his subjects the way to lasting happiness and eternity. The Swedish East India Company, founded in 1731 and supported by the future queen, brought unfamiliar cultural objects such as porcelain, silk, mother of pearl, copper, tea and spices from China and Arabia to northern Europe on its ships. Contact with the sources of these goods, as Haller described it, brought new knowledge about foreign cultures and imparted more knowledge in a short time than had been done in the past one thousand years. In 1750 the royal couple constructed a Chinese pavilion filled with original articles from China in the park of Drottningholm Cas- tle, the scene of court rural life. Haller praised Louisa Ulrika’s facility with language and poetry, which inspired him, a solitary poet, to compose new verses. During the preparation of the eleventh edition of Haller’s poems in 1776, the question of using dedications from earlier editions arose. The political situation in Sweden had undergone fundamental change in the meantime. Following the royal coup of 1772, Haller had doubts about

45 Michael Roberts, The Age of Liberty. Sweden 1719–1772 (Cambridge 1986). 46 Haller 1777 (note 3), 2–4.

Barbara Braun-Bucher - 9789004243910 Downloaded from Brill.com09/24/2021 12:43:18PM via free access republican identity and the world of the courts 819 whether his unrestrained praise was still justified, yet he excused himself with politically strategic prudence: “My tribute to Louisa Ulrika has been printed, and although I wrote it only half-heartedly, given that it already appeared in the earlier edition it would have been an act of hostility, and a foolhardy act of hostility, too, to leave it out. I have friends in Sweden who told me such things that I almost came to regret my flattery,”47 he wrote to his friend Gemmingen. From 1764 to 1769 two brothers of noble birth—Wilhelm August and Peter Friedrich Ludwig von Holstein-Gottorp, princes of Oldenburg, were staying with their tutor Carl Friedrich von Staal in Bern. Following the early death of their parents, they were placed under the protection of their cousin Catherine the Great, who sent them to Bern and to the knight academy in Bologna to be educated. Both were honorary members of the Economic Society of Bern, which had been founded in 1759. In 1772 Haller dedicated the third edition of his novel Usong48 to the younger of the princes, Peter Friedrich Ludwig, making reference to enlightened educational ideals and the hope they would bring results. Better education of young people destined to rule was the greatest benefit of the age. They were no longer trained as hunters and warriors, as they were meant to rule over people. Although war might be a necessary evil, the aim of all wise princes was to achieve and maintain peace. A comparison with the Christian princes of the fifteenth century painted those of the enlightened eighteenth century in a more favourable light. Common weal was inex- tricably linked with the well-being of a prince’s subjects and the wisdom of the prince. The name and heritage, and the talents and abilities of the young ruler-to-be, gave the citizen of a republic reason to hope for identi- fication with the ideals of philanthropy. Haller hoped that his novel would have a general educational effect, and specifically that it would promote a reduction in duties and taxes on the subjects, as he wrote to Colonel von Staal: “Usong has not yet had an influence. But the Provost [Dompro- bst] von Wessenberg has read it with the Archbishop of Trier, and other German princes have done the honour of reading it. If only it made an impression on their minds! And could persuade them that the volume

47 Fischer 1899 (note 35), 101–102, Albrecht von Haller to Eberhard Friedrich von Gem- mingen, 21 September 1776. 48 Albrecht von Haller, Usong: eine morgenländische Geschichte, in vier Büchern (Bern 1772), dedication to prince Peter Friedrich Ludwig von Holstein-Gottorp.

Barbara Braun-Bucher - 9789004243910 Downloaded from Brill.com09/24/2021 12:43:18PM via free access 820 barbara braun-bucher of duties and taxes enriches a prince as little as it enriches his people.”49 Peter Ludwig Friedrich von Holstein-Gottorp later became the sole heir to the throne after his brother fell from the mast of a ship during a storm and drowned while serving in the Russian navy. He indeed tried to emulate Usong, which he took as a model. While he wished the prince to emulate an ideal model, Haller later com- pared George III, the third British monarch from the House of Hannover who had been born in England and ascended the throne in 1760, directly with Alfred the Great, the protagonist of his novel, both as a person and as a prince. He dedicated this excursus on parliamentary monarchy, which appeared in 1773, to the monarch on the “world’s finest throne.”50 Like Alfred, George loved virtue, sought his only pleasure in good deeds, and never acted out of revenge. He sacrificed his brilliant victories to the more beneficial cause of peace, loved and was knowledgeable about the sciences, protected and promoted the arts, and acted justly as king, con- sort, son and father in accordance with his duties, distinguishing himself among all monarchs by these qualities—which were soon to be of benefit to millions of people brought into the British Empire through the incor- poration of French colonies in Canada and India. May the descendants of the noble Alfred, Haller wished, sit on the British throne for thousands of years, promoting the happiness of their subjects and serving as virtuous examples. Haller had a life-long admiration for the British constitutional monarchy. George III, who pursued a relatively modest lifestyle and loved life in the countryside, was a personification of the wise, modest prince who understood the concerns of his subjects. Haller, the “free Helvetian” republican, dedicated his last novel Fabius und Cato, about the Roman Republic, to the “His Lordship Carl, Count and Lord of Firmian, Knight of the Golden Fleece, Chamberlain, Privy Coun- cillor [wirklicher Geheimrat], Governor of the Duchy of Mantua etc., and Minister Plenipotentiary in the government of Austrian Lombardy.”51 Karl Joseph von Firmian, an aristocrat and politician, art collector, and patron of the sciences and the arts, had been the Austrian Governor General

49 Berend Strahlmann, ‘Albrecht von Haller und Herzog Peter Friedrich Ludwig von Oldenburg: mit Briefen Albrecht von Hallers an die Prinzen von Holstein Gottorp und an den Obersten von Staal’, Berner Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Heimatkunde 20 (1958), 115–149: 127, Albrecht von Haller to Carl Friedrich von Staal, 25 September 1772. 50 Albrecht von Haller, Alfred, König der Angelsachsen (Göttingen and Bern 1773), dedication to George III of England. Haller had already dedicated the second edition of his Historia Stirpium indigenarum Helvetiae inchoata (Bern 1768, 2 vols.) to the king. 51 Haller 1774 (note 39), 3.

Barbara Braun-Bucher - 9789004243910 Downloaded from Brill.com09/24/2021 12:43:18PM via free access republican identity and the world of the courts 821 bibliothek Bern. Usong: eine morgenländische Geschichte (Bern 1778), title page. Burger morgenländische eine Fig. 4. Albrecht von Haller: Usong:

Barbara Braun-Bucher - 9789004243910 Downloaded from Brill.com09/24/2021 12:43:18PM via free access 822 barbara braun-bucher in Lombardy since 1756. After Haller’s death, at the request of the state chancellor in Vienna, Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz-Rietberg, he purchased Haller’s extensive library, “considered the best private library in all of Europe,”52 along with his partly unpublished manuscripts, and integrated it into the Biblioteca Braidense in Milan. As any constitution of a state, according to Haller, aimed to promote the happiness of its people, whoever contributed to this aim earned the thanks of all humankind. Haller, a free Helvetian, paid tribute to the active, enlightened minister who promoted the best for his subjects and who was a father to his brothers. The Alps did not prevent him from recognising in Firmian a praiseworthy man of this description.

The Republican Self-Image

Haller’s works contain repeated references to republican self- understanding—the sense of individual and collective responsibility for the common political good, and the conviction that this common political good could endure only if citizens organised the state under conditions in which they were free and could act on the basis of shared responsibility. Haller preferred the aristocratic form of government for a republic: “Moreover, I have a definite preference for a republic and for aristocracy, the best government for a modest state, as one that is too extensive cor- rupts the morals of citizens. Venice is still the state that remained stable longer than any other.”53 Haller also placed great value on political balance, as aristocracy tended either towards democracy, and hence anarchy and tyranny, or toward oligarchy, as in Bern in his day. Haller had already proposed a solution for this in 1735 by calling for revitalisation and an expansion of the number of actual ruling families, drawing on the established nobility in Vaud, a region subject to Bern. He continued to believe in this remedy. By contrast, he was far less interested in restoring the curtailed rights of citizens—the pri- mary inducement to protests and submission of petitions in his time. The proportions of the estates had to be balanced in an exemplary republic.

52 Ferdinand Vetter, Bericht über den handschriftlichen Nachlass Albrecht Hallers in Ita lien und den eingeleiteten Rücktausch eines Teils desselben für die Stadt- und Hochschulbib- liothek in Bern und für die Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft (Stein am Rhein 1922), 2. 53 Fischer 1899 (note 35), 47, Albrecht von Haller to Eberhard Friedrich von Gemmin- gen, 11 February 1773.

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This would be achieved through tolerance, freedom of thought, patriotic virtue and—not to be forgotten—religion: In order to preserve the balance among estates that is appropriate to the spirit of a republic, and to overcome the prevailing difficulties in offering rewards, every member of the government should be motivated solely by a general feeling of fulfilling his duties with zeal, regardless of reward or retribution, and serve the fatherland with passion. This patriotic virtue must be grounded in religion.54 The reawakening of patriotic virtue would also guarantee the recovery of a republic corrupted by luxury.55 Haller’s opinions were by no means accepted by his partners without dispute, although this did not impede mutual friendly understanding. While Haller was writing his utopian novels, a spirited exchange about the advantages and disadvantages of different forms of government was taking place. In a discussion about the theme of the novel Alfred, Gem- mingen maintained that the government of England, with its moderate monarchy and its parliament as a third force between king and people, was the best constitutional basis: “Monarchy is in every way the most suitable form of government for great and beneficent actions.” The prob- lem, however, was moderation, which was dependent on the person of the monarch; often the sons destroyed the work of their fathers.56 Haller argued with his correspondents not only about the advantages and disadvantages of theories of the state, but also about terms, such as freedom, the seat and realm of which the Swiss located exclusively in the republic. Gottlieb Paul Werlhof, personal physician to the king and himself a poet and Haller’s closest confidant and most faithful friend during his time in Göttingen, replied: “We are unlikely to agree about freedom. I see no distinction between republican freedom and freedom under the Ger- man monarchies; as the constitution ultimately has no influence on my way of life, I take no notice of it. For your present way of life, your studies and your character, it is of no consequence whether you live in such a

54 Haller 1787 (note 40), II: 184. 55 On the debate over patriotism, see Simone Zurbuchen, ‘Patriotismus und Nation. Der Schweizerische Republikanismus des 18. Jahrhunderts’, in Michael Böhler et al. (eds.), Republikanische Tugend: Ausbildung eines Schweizer Nationalbewusstseins und Erziehung eines neuen Bürgers (Genf 2000), 151–181: 154. 56 Fischer 1899 (note 35), 33, Eberhard Friedrich von Gemmingen to Albrecht von Haller, 2 September 1772.

Barbara Braun-Bucher - 9789004243910 Downloaded from Brill.com09/24/2021 12:43:18PM via free access 824 barbara braun-bucher monarchy or in a republic.”57 Werlhof was a citizen of the free Hanseatic city of Lübeck and also regarded himself as a republican. In relation to implementing reforms as well as direct measures, meth- ods differed under different forms of government: “It is true that institutions which serve the public good are more prevalent in free states: they waste little and are more solvent; moreover, a single patriotic speech in a council with many members can bring about great decisions. But a wise prince can carry out a thousand more delicate operations that are impossible for a republic.”58 And what of Haller as a critic? He entered into the debate over luxury and lamented the decline of morals, and discussed the events of the so- called Henzi conspiracy of 1749 in numerous reviews in the Göttingische Gelehrte Anzeigen, where he also openly expressed his displeasure as a council member and aspirant to an administrative position. In a com- mentary on Lessing’s short piece “Samuel Henzi,” he maintained: “The sad incident of 1749 . . . is, according to friends and foes,”—he has thus lis- tened to both sides!—“the fruit of excess luxuriance and squandering, of a decline in morals and a loss of the old civic virtue.”59 In an evaluation of the need to found an orphanage in 1755 as well, Haller cited the causes of the decline in morals: “The patrician arrogance and conceitedness of assuming to be born to rule and the comfort of receiving a contribution to one’s livelihood without doing real work of any sort are the causes of this corruption . . .”60 One is reminded of the criticism found in the poems of 1731 and 1733, “Die verdorbenen Sitten” and “Der Mann nach der Welt,” which was nevertheless diluted by the foreword added in 1748, in which Haller cited the “thriving condition of my happy fatherland” as evidence that the basic rules according to which the top authorities (of the Repub- lic) acted were sound and served the common good. Haller maintained contacts with royal houses and court officials, heads of government, ministers and ambassadors through dedications of his works and by acting as an intermediary facilitating contacts with experts such as physicians and educators. And vice-versa: Haller was consulted

57 Paul Gottlieb Werlhof to Albrecht von Haller, 29 August 1738, Burgerbibliothek Bern, N. Albrecht von Haller, Korr. 105.70. 58 Fischer 1899 (note 35), 25, Albrecht von Haller to Eberhard Friedrich von Gemmin- gen, 10 June 1772. 59 D. Albrechts von Haller . . . Versuch Schweizerischer Gedichte (Göttingen 1751), foreword. 60 Hirzel 1882 (note 17), C.

Barbara Braun-Bucher - 9789004243910 Downloaded from Brill.com09/24/2021 12:43:18PM via free access republican identity and the world of the courts 825 by court circles on questions of medical training, education, forms of government and constitutional law, and economics. Torn throughout his life between service to his fatherland, the Republic of Bern, responsibility for the body politic and the continued existence of his family in political affairs, and the world of science and research, the university, he still regarded the third option, in terms of the new sphere of influence offered by his summons to the court in Berlin, as a great honour. The environment was not completely comfortable, however. Life at court was too precarious, the intrigues too arcane, the shadow-boxing with sharp pens and refined rhetoric too hollow, French culture too dominant, and dependence on the favour of the king—on “princes who are really des- pots, including those who want to be philosophers”—too uncertain.61 As early as 1750 Haller wrote to his friend Gessner: “As far as my ennoblement [the certificate was dated 23 April 1749] and the new insignia honouring my family are concerned, although it is a sign of royal tribute, you nevertheless are aware how vain such privileges are in our fleeting lifetimes.”62 The republican with an acquired title which meant little at court and nothing at all in Bern63 also assessed his place in the class hierarchy correctly: “Allow me the pleasure of no longer using the title ‘Baron’ when addressing me. I am certainly not a baron,” he wrote to his friend Vinzenz Bernhard Tscharner in 1751.64 It appears that the republican ideal of equals among equals had at ultimately won the upper hand: “People of great talent do not count for anything in republics.”65 This applied in 1744 to Samuel König, who was banned, and it also applied to Haller. But improvements were possible even in the best of all republics: “The more I contemplate our government, the more I assure myself that aristocracy is still the best form of government for a small state. We could do much greater good but we do little evil . . .”66

61 Fischer 1899 (note 35), 23, Eberhard Friedrich von Gemmingen to Albrecht von Haller, 30 April 1772. 62 Boschung 1994 (note 34), 78. 63 See Nadir Weber, ‘Auf dem Weg zur Adelsrepublik. Die Titulaturenfrage im Bern des 18. Jahrhunderts’, Berner Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Heimatkunde 70 (2008), 3–34. 64 Hamel 1881 (note 26), 70, Albrecht von Haller to Vinzenz Bernhard Tscharner, 28 March 1751. 65 Bodemann 1885 (note 19), 119, Albrecht von Haller to Johann Rudolf Sinner, 10 July 1744. 66 Fischer 1899 (note 35), 60, Albrecht von Haller to Eberhard Friedrich von Gemmin- gen, 5 November 1773.

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