The Owl of Minerva Symbol of Great Philosophy
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chapter twenty-two the owl of Minerva after early in the morning on one day in april 1942 in frankfurt a.M. i had loaded the two heavy suitcases of the old Jewish lady with the Star of David on her black winter coat on my bicycle, i pushed it slowly down toward the lessing Gymnasium and to its air shelter (ashkenasy 2003; Siebert 2007e; Schweppenhäuser 1996; Kramer 203; wiggershaus 1987a; 1987b; Jay 1980: 137-149; 1981; löwenthal 1989; Smith 1993: 209-229; Byrd 2009). as the old Jewish woman and i walked together side by side, we passed by the soccer field of the lessing Gymnasium, the Palaestra, on which i had played soccer every week since the Sexta, the first class of the humanistic gymnasium. Symbol of Great Philosophy we also walked by the stately home of the Director of the lessing Gymnasium, Dr. Silomon (ashkenasy 2003; Siebert 2007e). as the old Jewish woman and i approached the gate of the lessing Gymnasium, and thus also the entrance of the air shelter right besides it, we heard from down below the confused noise of many voices of a large mass of Jewish people from all over frankfurt. as so many times before, i saw at the gate of the lessing Gymnasium the relief of the Owl of Minerva, the symbol of great philoso- phy, which even survived the later american and British bombardments of frankfurt, and the consequent destruction of the school building and is still there today–in March 2010–and a replica of which i have built in above my fire place in my private library at 630 piccadilly road, Kalamazoo, Michigan. Germany’s great philosopher of law and history, Georg w. f. hegel, who had taught over a century earlier in a humanistic gymnasium in nuremberg, had stated that the owl of Minerva began its flight only with the beginning dusk: philosophy could do its work only after a life form had come to its end (hegel 1986g: 28; app. B, c, D, e, G). hegel could develop his own dialectical philosophy at the beginning of the 19th century only because at the time western civilization had begun to de- cline, and was to be concretely superseded through the american and 996 chapter twenty-two Slavic worlds (hegel 1986a: 218; 1986l: 107-115, 413, 418, 490-491, 513; 1986o: 352; 1986t: 62; app. c, D, G). Since hegel, the decline of western civilization had progressed particularly through two world wars and fas- cism. The relief of the owl of the pallas athena was in a certain sense the symbol and emblem of the very essence and spirit of the humanistic lessing Gymnasium. Thus, it had specifically been dedicated to the great German liberal dramatist, and critic, and enlightener, Gotthold ephrahim lessing, who was deeply rooted in the humanist tradition since erasmus, and who was the author of the famous Three Ring Story, and who through this story, tried at the time to promote tolerance among the three abrahamic religions, taking his friend, the Jewish thinker Moses Mendelssohn for an example, on the basis of the great bourgeois enlightenment and of the hu- man and civil rights it had announced (More 1895; 1901; 1963; Göring 1950: vol. 17: 16-17, 106; vol. 9: 221; hegel 1986a: 21, 29, 611-614; 1986h: 22; 1986k: 279; 1986m: 499, 503; 1986o: 289-280, 491, 503; 1986t: 309, 309, 311, 316; horkheimer 1985g: chap. 22; Solomon 2000: 51-53; Küng 1991b; 1994a; 2004; ashkenasy 2003; Siebert 1965; 1966; 2007e; app. e). where now had gone this enlightenment, these rights, and this tolerance? as so many times before, i read the inscription above the archway, which connected the school with the house of the Director Dr. Silomon: Non Scholae sed Vitae Discimus. on this morning in april 1942, i was, indeed, to learn much more for life rather than for the school about the slaughter bench of society and history: admittedly, in a very different way from the one intended by the latin verse of the humanists (hegel 1986l: 33-55). The SS Officer when i pushed the luggage of the old Jewish woman on my bicycle to the entrance of the air shelter of the lessing Gymnasium, and when there i started to unload it, from below a young, good looking, dashing, plucky, very clean SS officer came running up the shelter staircases (Kogon 1965; 1967; 1995; 2002; askenasy 2003; Siebert 2007e). he was one of colonel eichmann’s men. he carried in his right hand a large folder with names. he was obviously in charge of the collection project, which was going on in the air shelter. The young SS man looked as if he also had once enjoyed a good humanistic education; and as if he had also participated in the German enlightenment; and as if he could maybe also comprehend and interpret the relief of the owl of the patriarchal virgin-goddess athena, who had originated from the head of Zeus, the father of all the god’s on .