Karl Lebrecht Immermann

COLUMBLA UNIVERSITY GERMANIC STUDIES KARL LEBRECHT IMMERMANN SALES AGENTS NEWYORK : LEMCKE& BUECHNER 30-32 West 27th St. LONDON: HENRYFROWDE Amen Comer, E. C. KARL LEBRECHT IMMERMANN A STUDY IN GERMANROMANTICISM BY ALLEN WILSON PORTERFIELD NEW YORK 1911 Copyright, 191 I BY THECOLUMBIA Umvmsln PRESS Printed born type Febrtl.r)-, 1911 PRESS or TYS HIW ERA PnIMT1110 COUCIII). LAMCASTTI. PA. TO THE MEMORY OF MY MOTHER NOTE Considering the extent and variety of his literary production and the peculiar interest of the ' epigonic ' period in which his best work was done, Immermann has been too little studied. I do not mean that he is a neglected genius, for he was not a man of genius. But the many-sidedness of his talent, his sen- sitiveness to every breeze that blew, his eager experimentation, make him especially interesting as a mirror of the Romantic epoch. Mr. Portefield has undertaken to study him in his total relation to the Romanticists and to all that they were driving at. I regard the work as a substantial contribution to our knowledge of Immermann and his contemporaries. CWMBIA UNIVERSITY, December, 1910. vii I p I""" : .; ,.a -..,:. ..: > *&d PREFACE In its most remote origin, this study grew out of a desire to familiarize myself with an important and suggestive epoch in German literature while solving a somewhat broad yet definite problem taken from this epoch. Immermann's lifelong though irregular and varying interest in German Romanticism appealed to me as abundantly satisfying this requirement. To Professor Calvin Thomas I owe indeed much by way of general suggestion, substantial assistance and personal encour- agement. To Professor Robert Herndon Fife, of Wesleyan Univer- sity, I owe a deep debt by way of advice as to the most feasible method of approach to Romanticism from. the standpoint of an individual poet. To my predecessors, I owe most to the works of Haym and Huch on Romanticism, and to those of Putlitz and Maync on Immermann. To Professors W. H. Carpenter, Hervey, Krapp, Lawrence, Remy and Tombo of Columbia, and to Professor I?. W. Trus- cott of West Virginia University, I owe that peculiarly unpay- able debt that disciple always owes to master. To my colleague, Mrs. Juliana Haskell, Ph.D., who so carefully read the proof, I owe not a little. A. W. P. NEW YORKCITY, November, 1910. CONTENTS Immermann's General Relation to Romanticism : I . Literary Connections ......................... 6 2 . Personal Traits .............................. 27 CHAPTERI1 Romantic Sources : I . Middle High German ........................ 34 2. Romance .................................... 60 3. Folksong .................................... 64 4. Miscellaneous ............................... 68 CHAPTERI11 Romantic Contents : I . Poetry ...................................... 74 2. Philosophy .................................. 80 3. Religion .................................... 89 4. Mysticism ................................... 91 5 . Miscellaneous ............................... 100 CHAPTERIV Romantic Structure : I . Poetic Form ................................ 103 2. Prose Form ................................. I05 3. Style ....................................... IIZ Immermann's Opposition to the Romantic Current : I . Rationalism ................................. 120 2 . Realism ..................................... 128 3. Antiromanticism ............................. 133 Conclusion ......................................... 137 Bibliography ....................................... 142 Chronologically classified List of Irnrnermann's Writings : I . Predominantly Romantic ...................... 152 2 . Predominantly Unromantic .................... 152 3. Miscellaneous ............................... 153 xi INTRODUCTION Since the beginning of the third decade of the nineteenth century, an extremely resourceful theme for students of Ger- man literature has been "Romanticism." That so many treatises, pretentious and unpretentious, have been written on this subject argues, however, in no sense, that it is so deep as to be unfathomable, so broad as to be only vague. It is not discussion, but silence that condemns a work. Many com- mentaries have been written on " Faust," because it is suggestive. Romanticism deals with the suggestive rather than the determined phases of life. It has been treated, extensively, from the genetic, biographic, philosophic, popular and appreciative standpoints. It has been treated, intensively, from, one would think, every standpoint. But these briefer studies con- cern themselves almost entirely with narrow, individual phases, ofttimes idiosyncrasies of romanticism and consequently lack breadth and balance. And the larger studies, because so wholly philosophic, become abstruse and at times decidedly vague. The average reader will understand the text of " Lucinde" more easily than Haym's comment on it. Works like those of Dilthey, Joachimi and Kircher are of more value to the philosophic student than to the appreciative reader; yet the latter is part of a larger company. Thus far, no attempt has been made to give a broad, analytic, concrete picture of German romanticism; to note and classify those themes and devices that occur with significant frequency in romantic creations. There is a long series of works from Heine's " Romantische Schule " ( 1833) to Wernaer's " German Ro- manticism" (1910). But no one of these was written with the sole purpose of giving a well-rounded picture of romantic sources, themes and forms. Immermann's poetic activity extends over the period from 1820 to 1840. He was well read in the literature of his day, and, possessing a more receptive than productive mind, was 1 much given to imitation. That he was influenced by romanticism, no one denies. The nature and extent of this influence, no one has determined. He leaned most heavily on Cervantes, Calderon, Goethe and Tieck. During his lifetime he enjoyed but little favorable criticism. From his death to the centenary of his birth (1896) literature on his works was fairly exiguous. Since 18g6 there has been a mild Immermann revival. Opin- ions as to the eternal value of his poetry vary from the harsh sentence of Goedeke, who sees practically no good thing in him, to Geibel, who thinks that in "Merlin" he wrote a second " Faust " and that " Epigonen " and " Miinchhausen " deserve a double cheer. But no one of these criticisms concerns itself, except in a most casual and general way, with Immermann as a romanticist. The purpose of this study has been, then, twofold: (I) to determine Immermann's exact relation to romanticism; (2) to give a broad, concrete picture of romanticism, so far as this can be done with only Immermann as a background. It has been neither my purpose nor my duty to set up an epigrammatic definition of romanticism. I have tried, on the other hand, so to arrange the study that every sentence should constitute a part of a definition and delimitation of the term. It is, however, no more impossible of succinct definition than are such terms as " religion," " education," " success," " de- mocracy," or " pantheism." Goethe declared (Eckermann, April 2, 1829) romanticism to be diseased, Schiller (Beller- mann, Vol. VIII, 335-341) said it was sentimental, Jean Paul (Vorschule der Aesthetik, Vol. XVII, 74-94) said it was modem, Tieck (Kritische Schriften, Vol. 11, 237) said it was synonymous with poetic, Friedrich Schlegel (Minor, Vol. 11, 220) said it was progressive, universal poetry, Heine (Elster, Vol. V, 217) described it as being a revivification of the Middle Ages and Wernaer (German Romanticism, 24) calls it soul- culture. What it means to a given student depends largely on what writer or writers he reads most carefully. If he reads, for example, those two romanticists who were most similar, Novalis and Wackenroder, even here he will come to a different conclusion. In the one it is the art of religion, in the other the religion of art. And if he could read all of the romanticists, / he would very likely say with Fr. Schlegel that it is progressive, ' universal poetry. That romanticism is incapable of a concise definition is due to the fact that it can not be delimited as to time, and as a movement it passed through various stages of development. It would be very simple if we could set up " Wilhelm Meister" as the Magnu Charta of romanticism and date everything from 1796. But this would be like saying that the great French Revolution dated rigidly from 1789, and that there were no revolutionary signs previous to that year. Whereas, just as the writings of such men as Turgot and Adam Smith in- directly led up to the Revolution, so were there signs of an approaching romantic era long before the romantic doctrine had been formulated or the romantic school established. In- deed from the days of Otfried on there has always been a romantic strain in German literature. The writings of Jacob Bohme (1575-1624) contained two fundamental romantic tenets-nature-philosophy and mysticism. It was simply during,the generation from 1795 to 1830 that romanticism was predominant. And it is just barely accurate to speak of a romantic " school " even during this period. The situation more nearly resembled a great romantic institute, with one school here and another there and still another some- where else, the leading spirits of which had, at times, hardly a speaking acquaintance one with another. They all taught, however, a similar doctrine. An illuminating picture of romanticism is contained in the history of its symbol,

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