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Karl/Carl Follen, Revolutionary Or Reformer?

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Karl/Carl Follen, Revolutionary Or Reformer? Charles Follen. Between Natives and Foreigners: Selected Writings of Karl/Charles Follen. Edited by Frank Mehring. New York: P. Lang, 2007. xlii + 479 pp. $94.95, cloth, ISBN 978-0-8204-9732-7. Reviewed by John Walker Published on H-TGS (April, 2010) Commissioned by Thomas Adam (The University of Texas at Arlington) Franz Mehring has edited a collection of doc‐ sassination. He interrupted his studies briefly in uments and poems written by Karl/Carl Follen order to take part in the Wars of Liberation, (1796-1840), professor of German literature at which further contributed to his enthusiasm for Harvard University, cultural intermediary be‐ the cause of freedom. Upon his return to Giessen tween Germany and the United States, prominent he helped organize a group of revolutionary stu‐ Unitarian minister, a leading abolitionist as well dents, whom he called the “Unconditionals” (die as an early advocate of women’s rights. In addi‐ Unbedingten). Among his most dedicated follow‐ tion to the documents pertaining to his subject, ers was the student Karl Ludwig Sand, who would Mehring has written a useful twenty-page intro‐ become the assassin of playwright August von duction to Follen’s life and works and presented Kotzebue, reviled by German nationalists and lib‐ helpful notes and commentaries on the life and erals. Follen was suspected of being an instigator works of his subject. This volume is, in fact, an of that crime. After being subjected to months of outgrowth of his 2004 biography of Follen, pub‐ intermittent interrogation the authorities were lished in Germany in 2004.[1] unable to fnd credible evidence linking him to Follen is known primarily as the frst profes‐ Sand’s deed. Still feeling he was under suspicion sor of German literature in the United States (ap‐ Follen fed to France and Switzerland in 1820 and pointed to Harvard in 1830) However, his lifelong emigrated to the United States in 1824. struggle for national unity and freedom, both in In addition to his teaching of German lan‐ Germany and the United States, has received guage and literature Follen was constantly en‐ much attention on both sides of the Atlantic.As a gaged in a furry of activities and controversies in student at the University of Giessen he became in‐ his adopted homeland (he became an American volved in radical politics, joined a Burschenschaft, citizen in 1830). To some degree he was an “Un‐ and was known to advocate violence and even as‐ conditional” for the remainder of his life, offend‐ H-Net Reviews ing many with his zeal and stridency. Within a become a reformer rather than a revolutionary? short time he discovered that the salient imper‐ Did he strive to hide his tumultuous past from fection of his adopted country was slavery, an in‐ friends and associates in Boston and even from sight that led to his participation in antislavery or‐ his own family? Historians and commentators ganizations, through which he befriended have differed over these issues. For example, Ed‐ William Lloyd Garrison. These activities played an mund Spevack, in a recent biography (1997), takes important role in his dismissal from the Harvard a more negative view, arguing that Follen, even at faculty. His ordination as a Unitarian minister the end of his life, never completely abandoned gave him an additional channel to promulgate his his advocacy of political violence and that he had antislavery views, as well as a means to support hidden much of his past from his wife and his himself and his family. However, as a minister he son.[3] On the other hand, Mehring’s view is more often offended more conservative members of his positive, as he is inclined to view Follen as an congregations with his passionate condemnation "Emersonian reformer advocating self-reliance, of slavery. the abolition of slavery, and the emancipation of Mehring justifies the publication of this vol‐ women" (p. xxvii). Mehring hopes that the an‐ ume of writings by pointing out that the biogra‐ swers to these and many other questions relating phy and documents published shortly after to Follen’s life and works will be facilitated by the Follen’s death by his wife, Eliza Lee Cabot Follen, publication of these documents. are incomplete, though voluminous, and are diffi‐ Mehring’s collection of these documents casts cult to locate.[2] In his research in Germany and much light on the above questions, even though the United States Mehring found numerous arti‐ final answers may be beyond reach. He performs cles, letters, and poems that he has used to fll in an important service by publishing a more com‐ some of the gaps in these volumes. In addition, plete collection of Follen’s poems from his radical Mehring identifies various texts that Mrs. Follen student days, entitled Das grosse Lied. Mehring had revised or deleted prior to publication, most has been able to counter Follen’s wife’s censorship likely in order to conceal her husband’s radical‐ and to increase the limited circulation of his po‐ ism, particularly in his earlier years. Mehring’s ems beyond his circle of conspiratorial comrades five-volume collection includes forty texts, pub‐ of his student days. Follen’s style is obviously re‐ lished in German, French, and English, reflecting flective of his passion for the dramas of Friedrich the place of their origins: Germany, Switzerland, Schiller, particularly for his drama Die Räuber. In and the United States. Mehring believes that his these poems Follen extols fatherland, freedom, volume includes all of Follen’s publications from friendship, courage, honor, and personal sacrifice, Germany, except for his doctoral dissertation, as he calls for a bloody struggle against tyranny. which is considered to be irretrievably lost. Also revealing are two documents that show the Mehring organizes these documents into six cate‐ young Follen’s anti-Semitism; in his zeal for free‐ gories: literature, language, abolitionism, religion, dom and nationality he advocated the exclusion history, and philosophy. of Jews from a Burschenschaft he was promoting. Follen has continued to generate controversy In his personal and imaginative draft of a consti‐ over the many decades since his death. A fre‐ tution for a new German Reich, he specified that quently asked question relates to his attitude to‐ membership was to be reserved to Christians and ward violence as he increasingly identified him‐ Germans. The documents demonstrate that self with his adopted country. Did he continue to Follen’s militancy and revolutionary ardor did not advocate violence, or did his views evolve? Did he 2 H-Net Reviews diminish during the four years he spent in tween offensive and defensive wars, Follen ar‐ Switzerland. gued that the salient issue was which side was the The documents that he wrote in his new fa‐ oppressed and which the oppressor. He main‐ therland took on unexpectedly moderate tones, at tained that we should not reject “all military hero‐ least from the point of view of this reviewer. To ism” which can be paired with moral heroism. be sure, Follen continued to extol Schiller’s love of One of his arguments was that violence might be freedom and his opposition to tyranny. His con‐ permissible against those who violated the rights demnation of slavery was grounded in philosoph‐ of others. In commenting on this essay Mehring ical reflection and was often nuanced. In his pro‐ asks whether Follen was calling into question his motion of the abolitionist cause he was cognizant earlier opposition to the use of violence on behalf of constitutional issues. For example, in an article of the abolitionist cause. However, Follen hardly in a prominent journal he declared that Congress appears to be the frebrand of his university days. had the power to abolish slavery in the new terri‐ He moderates his reflections on violence by advo‐ tories and in the District of Columbia, but not in cating arbitration among hostile nations, a the individual states. The fery revolutionary from process that should occur within the framework Giessen was now advocating states’ rights. More of an international body or tribunal. important, the ally of the strident abolitionist, We are indebted to Mehring for his significant William Lloyd Garrison was expressing his oppo‐ contribution to the understanding of a complex sition to the use of violence in freeing the slaves. human being who fostered mutual understanding Follen advocated nonviolent means to free the and transatlantic contacts between his adopted slaves. While he recommended political action, he homeland and Germany. This reviewer can make was willing to limit it to the areas in which Con‐ only minor criticisms. On occasion his writing gress had jurisdiction. Otherwise, the abolitionists style is awkward and sometimes even distracting. should confine their activities to moral action, Moreover, one could also wish that some of the meaning that Northern abolitionists, especially editor’s notes were as complete as others. These those who had friends and relatives in the South, are minor shortcomings in the editor’s contribu‐ should present their views in a non-combative tion to scholarship on the life and work of Karl/ manner, which would include the sending of let‐ Carl Follen. ters, pamphlets and other literature to their con‐ Notes tacts. Follen argued that public opinion in the [1]. Frank Mehring, Karl/Charles Follen, South had once been opposed to slavery. Appar‐ deutsch-amerikanischer Freiheits Kämpfer ently he hoped that history would repeat itself in (Giessen: Ferber’sche Unviersitätsbuchhandlung, that region. 2004). Included among the articles in this volume is [2]. Eliza Lee Cabot Follen, ed., The Works of one that may tempt the reader to believe that Charles Follen, with a Memoir of His Life, 5 vols.
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