Romanticism and the Rise of German Nationalism Author(S): Hans Kohn Reviewed Work(S): Source: the Review of Politics, Vol

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Romanticism and the Rise of German Nationalism Author(s): Hans Kohn Reviewed work(s): Source: The Review of Politics, Vol. 12, No. 4 (Oct., 1950), pp. 443-472 Published by: Cambridge University Press for the University of Notre Dame du lac on behalf of Review of Politics Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1404884 . Accessed: 03/02/2013 23:40

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This content downloaded on Sun, 3 Feb 2013 23:40:52 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Romanticism and the Rise of German Nationalism

By Hans Kohn

ROMANTICISM, though in its beginninglittle concernedwith politics or the state, preparedthe rise of German nationalism after 1800. It was an aestheticrevolution, a resort to imagination, almost femininein its sensibility;it was poetrymore deeply indebted to the spirit of music than the poetry of the eighteenthcentury had been, rich in emotionaldepth, more potent in magic evocation. But Germanromanticism was and wishedto be more than poetry. It was an interpretationof life, nature and history- and this philosophic characterdistinguished it from romanticismin other lands. It was sharplyopposed to the rationalismof the eighteenthcentury; it mobil- ized the fascinationof the past to fight againstthe principlesof 1789. In that indirectway romanticismcame to concernitself with political and social life and with the state. It neverdeveloped a programfor a modernGerman nation-state, but with its emphasison the peculiarity of the Germanmind it helpedthe growthof a consciousnessof Ger- man uniqueness. It started as a movementof intellectuals,many of them of the type of unsettledbohemians who are often found in the vanguardof movementsof culturalrenovation which coincidewith the beginning of social change. They were the spiritualchildren of the Storm and Stresswhich had precededthem by thirtyyears, and they werein ardent oppositionto the mature Goethe who had long outgrownhis brief Storm and Stress period. They admiredhim as a creativeman of letters,as the embodimentof the princelyartist, but his conceptof the individualthey rejected. Goethe's goal of education was the well- roundedharmonious individual, the "Persinlichkeit,"the personality which willinglysubordinated itself to bindingforms and to the obliga- tion of universallaw, which rejoicesin measure,symmetry and pro- portion,which acknowledges the limits of the humanand the humane. The romanticindividual, on the other hand, regardedhimself not as 443

This content downloaded on Sun, 3 Feb 2013 23:40:52 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 444 THE REVIEW OF POLITICS a representativeof the universalorder, but as unique,rejecting limits imposedby measureor societyand demandingfull freedomfor his creativegenius.1 But the romanticist,feeling himself hemmed in by the societywhich he foundaround or ratherbeneath himself, did not acceptthe titanicloneliness of the Stormand Stress.He wasdrawn longinglytowards a communityof like-mindedindividuals who would live a full life accordingto theirinnermost emotions. The complexity and anguishof this searchfor a communitywere heightened by the underlyingall-demanding subjectivism; the uniqueindividual longed for a total self-assertionof all his conflictingdesires and yet felt the tragicneed for fulfillmentin the miracleof a trueharmonious union in whichall the conflictingopposites of life wouldbe reconciled,of a new goldenage whichseemed accessible to the magicpower of the artist. Art becameto the romanticiststhe newreligion. In theirquest for the miraculousthe romanticistsfound the ration- alismand commonsense of the eighteenthcentury shallow and super- ficial. The decisiveforce of the individual,according to the romanticists,resided in his sentimentswhich distinguished him fromothers andrendered him unique among men. The strengthof the individual's desiresin whichhis trueego expresseditself validated them; the pas- sionof longingestablished the rightto its object.The morepassionate manwas, the morefully he lived. Passionwas the prerogativeof the artist, poet, seer who obeyeddeep impulsesin his innermostself. While this discoveryof the irrationalenriched poetry and the under- standingof man, it carried,as Goetherecognized, a threatto the

1 See on "personality"and "individuality" Fritz Strich, Dichtung und Zivilisation (Munich, 1928), p. 35, and his Deutsche Klassik und Romantik (Munich, 1922). See on romanticismin general the articles by Arthur O. Lovejoy, Goetz A. Briefs and Eugene N. Anderson in Journal of the History of Ideas, vol. II, No. 3 (June, 1941). On the political implications see Paul Kluckhohn, Persinlichkeit und Gemeinschaft, Studien Zur Staatsauffasungder deutschen Romantik, (Halle, 1925); Carl Schmitt, Politische Roman- tik, 2nd ed. (Munich, 1925); Jakob Baxa, Einfihrung in die romantischeStaatswissen- schaft (Jena, 1923); Gesellschaft und Staat im Spiegel deutscher Romantik, ed. by Jacob Baxa (Jena, 1924); Kurt Borries, Die Romantik und die Geschichte (Berlin, 1925); Andries David Verschoor, Die iltere deutsche Romantik und die Nationalidee, (Amster- dam, 1928); Gottfried Salomon, Das Mittelalter als Ideal in der Romantik (Munich, 1922); Reinhold Aris, History of Political Thought in Germany from 1789 to 1815 (London, 1936), pp. 205-341; Josef Kmrner,Die Botschaft der deutschen Romantik an Europa (Augsburg, 1933). Two more general works are Julius Petersen, Wesenbestim- mung der deutschen Romantik (Leipzig, 1926), and Henri Brunschwig, La Crise de l'Etat Prussien a la fin du XVIIIe siecle et la genese de la mentalite romantique (Paris, 1947). On the differencebetween English and German romanticismsee Hoxie N. Fair- child, "The Romantic movement in England," part of a symposium on romanticismin PMLA, vol. 55 (March, 1940), pp. 1-60.

This content downloaded on Sun, 3 Feb 2013 23:40:52 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions ROMANTICISM AND GERMAN NATIONALISM 445 rationalorder of law and societyif it luredman to lose oneselfin it insteadof challenginghim to controlit. The desiredeasily appeared to poeticimagination as the indispensableto be achievedat any cost; everythingcould be turnedinto an instrumentof full self-realization or self-enjoyment.The idealcommunity of the utopiandream refused to acceptthe hard limitationsof realityimposed in the interestsof equalfellow-men; it promisedto uniteall in an organicway in which everybodywould be fully himselfwithout any limitationsand yet at the sametime fully part of the whole in a lovingembrace without conflictor friction. In such a perfectcommunity individual and societywere no longerin needof legaland constitutionalguarantees in theirrelationship; individual and communitybecame two sidesof the one perfectlife whichwould be all in all, far beyondand above all legaldistinctions and the needfor them.The anarchicindividualism found its complementin the total community.Both these extremes existedoutside the real societywith its necessaryadjustments and compromises;they led a "purelife" in the imaginationof the romantic artists. To mistakeimagination for desirablereality was boundto spelldanger to the freeindividual and to a societybased on law. The romanticmovement began as an artisticrevolt against eighteenthcentury culture which seemed not to satisfythe soul and not to warmthe heart. This apparentlyuninspired and uninspiring civilizationseemed inflated with philistine pride in the recentprogress of men. The romanticistsfound thereneither chivalry nor poetry, neithermiracle nor mystery.French rationalism had contemptuously. lookeddown upon the past and especiallyupon the MiddleAges. The romanticistsfound in thesevery periods the wondrousfairyland which they missedin the present.Repelled by theircontemporary world,they discovered inspiration and beautyin history. On this roadto the pastthey followed Justus M6ser and Herder, the forerunnersof Germannationalism.2 But Moser was a practical statesman,and his love of the ruralfreeholders of the MiddleAges was rootedin his nativesoil and in his personalexperience. Herder's vision was infinitelybroader; like the romanticistshe saw creative forcesat workin everyphenomenon of natureand history, a dynamic pantheismof organicgrowth, yet all theseforces were held withina

2 Hans Kohn, The Idea of Nationalism, pp. 413ff,

This content downloaded on Sun, 3 Feb 2013 23:40:52 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 446 THE REVIEW OF POLITICS contextof enlightenedhumanitarianism and rationalmorality, rejected by the romanticists.But thoughMoser and Herdervalued the past, they livedin the presentand wishedto go forward;the romanticists succumbedto the lureof historyand wishedto enrichthe presentby revivingthe past. Theyfelt it so overflowingwith poetry, so venerable with legendand prophecy,that theycould not studyit withrational detachment;it seemedto themimpenetrable to the analyticalapproach of scholarlyreason; it couldbe embracedonly as a wholeby the in- tuitionof greatlove whichimmersed the longingindividual in the flow of the past whichwas organicallyliving on in the presentand wascarrying forward into the future. Thus the individualfound himselfrooted in the past and deter- minedby it. He appearedconditioned by the peculiartraditions of the nationalcommunity. Though they had no factualfoundation for it, the romanticistswere convincedthat thesenational characteristics werenever as pronouncedas in the MiddleAges. The artof knights andguilds seemed to themto expressthe true national soul, its creative forcenot yet corruptedby a rationalismwhich makes everything alike and whichdeprives it of life. The nationalpast set the model,valid only for the one nationalcommunity; it gaineda new centralim- portancefor all culturallife. The conceptof individuality,unique and all-containing,was transferred from the individualto the national community.The nationwas no longera legal societyof individuals enteringinto union accordingto generalprinciples and for mutual benefits;it was now an originalphenomenon of natureand history, leadingits own life accordingto the lawsof its growth. Civilization andlaw were deemed due to the immanentforces of the people. This nationalindividuality alive, growingand striving,often stirredby desiresfor powerand expansion,appeared as a manifestationof the divine with a specialmission to fulfill;it overcamethe quiet static characterof stillness and the listening within characteristicof eighteenthcentury Germany and followedinstead voices calling it to unfoldits dynamicforces and to live and exploreall its potentialities. The nationalcommunity or the state- the romanticistsdid not establishclear distinctions-became the sourceof all aestheticand soon also of politicaland ethicalcreativeness. It was a personalityover- flowingwith life andpulsating with movement, not a mechanicaland "dead"concept as the state of the Enlightenmentappeared to the

This content downloaded on Sun, 3 Feb 2013 23:40:52 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions ROMANTICISM AND GERMAN NATIONALISM 447 romanticists.The relationshipof man to the statebecame intimate and highlypersonal; the state,an objectof deep love and admiring devotion. Such a stateeasily resembled the feudalpatriarchal state, a greatfamily estate, held together by tiesof loveand mutual responsi- bility,deeply hostile to the spiritof rationalcapitalism and to the mobilityof trade,but agreeableto socialistmeasures of controland protectionof the individualwithin the community.This idealwas not a returnto thepast, for thepast of whichit talkedhad hardly anything in commonwith the past reality;it was a poeticdream which trans- figuredthe past into a goldenage. The firstgreat German romanticist, FriedrichFreiherr von Hardenberg(1772-1801), or Novalis,lived in a strangeborder land of poeticgenius, mystic thought and consuming malady;he hated the Prussiaof Frederickthe Greatas a soulless rationalmachine and glorified the mediocreFrederick Wilhelm II and his touchinglybeautiful Queen Louise as the fulfillmentof true monarchy.

Novalis'close friendand contemporaryKarl FriedrichSchlegel (1772-1829)defined in 1798 theirpoetic ideal. Poetry "can be fathomedby no theory,and only divinatorycriticism could presume to characterizeits ideal. It aloneis infinite,because it aloneis free, and recognizesas its first law that the arbitrarycaprice of the poet toleratesno law."3 Schlegel'sbrother August Wilhelm (1767-1845) had alreadyin 1789bitterly complained about the unpoeticcharacter of the age. "Thetimes when a poetby thepresentation of greatevents of antiquitycould becomethe preserverof folk sagas,the beloved teacherof his nation,are perhapsgone forever.It seemsalmost im- possibleto writea nationalheroic poem. The wordFatherland has lost its magicpower; the placeof patriotismhas been taken by a more generalbut thereforealso colderinterest for mankind.With the de- structionof the folk religionsthe old saga perishedtoo. We have beenalienated from our ancestors, while the laterGreeks encountered the memoryof theirHomeric heroes in thousandsof objects.But our peacefuleducation, which is entirelydirected toward domestic

3 In an essay in the periodicalAthenaum (Berlin, 1798-1800), vol. 1, part 2, pp. 28f, quoted by John C. Blankenagel,PMLA, vol. 55, p. 3.

This content downloaded on Sun, 3 Feb 2013 23:40:52 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 448 THE REVIEW OF POLITICS activities,seems to have made us generallyless susceptibleto the im- 4 pressionof great deeds in whichwarrior courage prevails." In spite of this lamentover the loss of heroicpatriotism, the early romanticistshardly betrayedany national feeling. Though Novalis endowed the state with an unprecedentedimportance, he did not see it as a Germannational state. His famous"fragments" some of which were publishedin Athenium and many more only after his death were sometimescontradictory and often non-consequential,rather the result of a deep intuitionthan part of a politico-philosophicalsystem; nevertheless,their main tendencywas unmistakable.They all wished to make the state more of an intimatereality in man's life. "It is a great mistake of our states, that one sees the state too little. The state should be visible everywhereand every man should be charac- terized as a citizen. Could one not introduceeverywhere marks of distinctionand uniforms? Whoever regardsthis as insignificantdis- regardsan essentialpart of our nation." "The state is known too little to us. There should be heraldsof the state, preachersof patriotism. At presentmost citizens are on a ratherindifferent almost hostile footing with the state." "The state is a person like the individual. What man is to himself, the state is to men. The states will remaindifferent, as long as men are different. Essentiallythe state like man remainsalways the same." "The perfect citizen lives entirelyin the state; he has no propertyoutside the state." This all- embracingstate was howevernot a political concept,it was a poetic creation,the embodimentof that perfectionto whichman aspires. "A state with intensespiritual and intellectuallife will by itself be political. The morespiritual the state is, the moreit approachesthe poetical,the more joyfully will every citizen out of love for the beautiful great individuallimit his demandand be readyto makethe necessarysacri- fices, the less will the state need it, the more similarwill the spirit of the state becometo the spirit of a single exemplaryman who has ex- pressedforever one law only: be as good and as poeticalas possible."5

4 Review of "The Athenaid," an epic in thirty books published in 1787, two years after the death of its author, Richard Grover (1712-1785), in the GottingischeAnzeigen von gelehrten Sachen, 1789, p. 1988. 5 Novalis' Werke, ed. by Hermann Friedemann(Berlin: Deutsches Verlagshaus Bong & Co., n.d.), vol. 3, pp. 168, 159, 163 (Fragments 947, 884, 885, 887, 919). See also Richard Samuels, Die poetische Staats- und GeschichtsauffassungFriedrich von Harden- bergs (Novalis), Frankfurt a.M.: Diesterweg, 1925.

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Novalis'emphasis on the statewas a manifestationof the same love whichhe foundin idealmarriage and in religiousmysticism, a perfectunion and interpenetration.The ideal state was for him a divinework of art. "A trueprince is the artistof artists. Everyman should becomean artist. Everythingcan becomebeautiful art."6 As everyman should become an artistand a king,this truemonarchy was compatiblewith a truerepublic, in fact theywere complimentary for the republicdemanded the identificationof everycitizen with the state. Novaliscomplained that in the Germancities only smalllocal eventswere discussed, while great and generalquestions aroused no interest."This is betterin republicswhere the state is themain concern of everyperson and everybody feels his existence tied up in an immense livingwhole, and thus broadens his imaginationand his understanding with greatcauses and almostinvoluntarily forgets his narrowself in the greattotality." True republicanismwas generalparticipation in the wholestate, intimate contact and harmonyof all membersof the state. Novaliswas convincedthat a king withouta republicand a republicwithout a kingwere nothing but emptywords.7 Neitherof themexisted for the utilitarianpurpose of makingmen happier;the truestate made men better and stronger.It increasedthe burdensim- posedupon them, not howeverwithout increasing their strength. "The best amongthe formerFrench monarchs wished to makehis subjects so richthat every peasant would have every Sunday chicken and rice on the table. But wouldnot a governmentbe preferableunder which a peasantwould rather have a sliceof moldybread than a roastin anothercountry, and yet thankGod for the good luckof havingbeen bornin thisland?" 8 Novalisnowhere stressed a Germanstate as a desirablegoal. "The Europeanstands as high overthe Germanas the Germandoes over the Saxon,the Saxonover the residentof Leipzig.Above the Euro- pean is the cosmopolitan.""Our old nationalitywas trulyRoman. The instinctiveuniversal policy and tendency of the Romansis shared

6 Novalis Werke, p. 175 (Fragment 967). See also Fragment 946, "Alle Menschen sollen thronfiihig werden," and Fragment980 which explains that there is only one king by reason of economy. "If we were not obliged to proceed economically, we would all be kings." 7 Ibid., pp. 155, 174, 169 (Fragments 863, 965, 950). 8 Ibid., p. 165 (Fragment 936).

This content downloaded on Sun, 3 Feb 2013 23:40:52 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 450 THE REVIEW OF POLITICS by the Germanpeople. The best thing the Frenchgained in the Revolutionis a shareof Germanity.""There are Germansevery- where. As littleas Romanity,Hellenicity or Britannity,is Germanity confinedto a peculiarstate; they all aregeneral human characteristics which havebecome here and theremore Germanityis only 9 general. truepopularity, and thereforean idea." Thoughhe expectedmuch from the true state,and sometimeshinted in his mysteriousway at somefuture cultural greatness of the Germans,his visiondid not en- compassthe age of nationalism;it lookedbackward to an idealized Christianitywhich had broughtspiritual unity to mediaevalEurope; it lookedforward to a newJerusalem as the capitalof the earthwhere Christianitywould again establish its spiritualdominion. "Blood will not ceaseto flowover Europe until the nationsbecome aware of their frightfulmadness which drivesthem aroundin a circle,until the nations,struck and soothedby divinemusic, stop beforethe altar interminglingto undertakewords of peace,until a loving feast of peaceis celebratedwith burningtears on smokingbattlefields. Only religioncan reviveEurope, can makethe nationssecure, can reinstall Christianityin a newand visibleglory on earthin its old peacemak- ing office."10 This was the messageof Novalis'strange and significantessay "Die Christenheitoder Europa"(1799) whichhe submittedto the Athenaum.Its editors,the Schlegelsand Tieck,rejected it because theyfound its historicalconception too arbitrary.Though Novalis, a descendantof ProtestantPietists, never embracedCatholicism, his praisefor the mediaevalChristian hierarchy was too strongfor his friends,many of whomlater joined the CatholicChurch. But in spite of the fact that the essaymingled poetry with religiousoutpourings, it introduceda newinterpretation of historywhich ran counter to that of the eighteenthcentury. Likede Bonaldand de Maistre,Novalis rejectedthe claimsof reasonand progress.11Reformation, rationalism and revolutionseemed to him a deviationfrom the truepath of Europe,a rapiddescent from the spiritualuniversal monarchy of

9 Ibid., pp. 137, 176 (Fragments 756, 972, 973). 10 Ibid., vol. 4, p. 145. 11 Though Novalis himself warned wisely: "It is strong proof how far we have really progressed,that we think so contemptuouslyof our progress, of the stage we have reached." Ibid., vol. 3, p. 139 (Fragment 768).

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Christendomin the thirteenthcentury. "Thesewere beautiful bril- liant times,"the essay began,"when Europe was a Christianland inhabitedby one Christianity;one greatcommon interest united the most distantprovinces of this vast spiritualrealm. Withoutgreat earthlypossessions one supremehead directedand unitedthe great politicalforces. A numerouscaste to whicheverybody had access was immediatelysubmissive to his orders,ready to executehis hints and to try zealouslyto strengthenhis benefitsand power."Here was a newpicture of theMiddle Ages, no longerthe Dark Age of savagery andsuperstition but a havenof peaceand spirituality. The romanticists rediscoveredthe MiddleAges and presentedthem in the transfigured gloryof magicpoetry.

III

For Novalisthe MiddleAges was still a universalperiod. Soon however,the romanticistswere to reinterpretit as the fountainhead of nationalcultures. Through romanticism history established its impact over nationalism.Even Novalis contributed to this historicism. "We carrythe burdensof our fatherseven as we havereceived their good,and thusmen actually live in the wholepast and in the future and nowhereless than in the present." "The historianmust often becomean orator. For he recitesgospels -the wholehistory is a gospel."12 Fromthis view,it was only one step to a visionof the nation'spast as a gospelto whichthe livinggenerations were beholden and to whichthey wouldhave to betakethemselves to discoverthe artisticand spiritualtreasures which were their own. Within one decadea pioneerwork was accomplishedby the romanticists;the literatureof the MiddleAges was collectedand edited,the poetryof courtsand knightsas well as the talesof the commonpeople. The romanticistsfound a modelin JohannesMuller whose Geschichten schweizerischerEidgenossenshaft (1786) combinedlove for mediaeval historywith skill in writingand abilityto evokelocal color. His rhe- toricalbrilliancy, but slightlysupported by exactknowledge, secured to hima vastaudience among the generationunder the spellof Rous- seau'ssentimentalism. The emphasiswhich he put on old chronicles

12 Ibid., pp. 191, 192 (Fragments 1064, 1072).

This content downloaded on Sun, 3 Feb 2013 23:40:52 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 452 THE REVIEW OF POLITICS endeared him as much to the romanticistsas his theory that a historian needs a soul. He wrote with patriotic fervor about the strong Swiss men of the Middle Ages and confirmedthe romanticconviction that the Middle Ages was a period of true patriotismand heroic man- hood.13 Muller also drew attentionto the importanceof the Nibe- lungenliedwhich was publishedin 1782, after having been practically unknownfor threecenturies. A few yearslater, Miiller declared in his Histories of the Swiss Confederationthat the Nibelungenliedcould become the GermanIliad, an opinion in which August Wilhelm Schlegellater concurred. In an articlein FriedrichSchlegel's Deutsches Museumin 1812, August Wilhelmdemanded that the Nibelungenlied be used as the chief classicin Germaneducation, so as to endowGer- man history with a great poetic background.14His wish was soon fulfilled. FriedrichHeinrich von der Hagen (1780-1856), one of the early Germanisticscholars who popularizedmediaeval poetry, trans- lated the Nibelungenlied. So did August Zeume (1778-1853), the founder in 1814 of the Gesellschaftfur deutscheSprache, who gave Germanyouth on their way to war in 1815 a special edition of his translation,a Feld- und Zeltausgabe,to carry with them as an in- spirationonto the battlefieldand into theirtents. The firstdecade of the new centurybrought a rich crop of editions of mediaevalliterature. This quest for national culturalroots in the soil of the past, offeredan exampleto the nationalawakening of other central and eastern Europeanpeoples. Ludwig Tieck (1773-1853) who with the Schlegelsand Novalis belongedto the older generation

13 Later the romanticistsaccused Johannes Miller of a lack of patriotism. In reality, Miiller was fundamentally an eighteenth century rationalist and cosmopolitan, an enthusi- ast for human rights and liberty. Adam Miiller in an article in Phoebus, a periodical which he published together with Heinrich von Kleist in Dresden in 1808, blamed the historian for being too impartial. Such an attitude, Adam Miiller conceded, could be ad- mitted while discussing the domestic affairs of the fatherland but it was inadmissible regardingan external enemy. The heart of the historian must include hatred besides love which can be easily corrupted. "Every hero, therefore also the scholarly hero, needs a fatherland, a firm foundation, on which he could build his army camp, his place d'armes." An historian must take a stand; a cosmopolitanmentality was contraryto true humanity, Adam Muller maintained. 14 Josef Krnmer,Nibelungenforschungen in der deutschen Romantik, Untersuchungen zur neuern Sprach- und Literaturgeschichte,ed. by O. Walzel, N.F., no. 9 (Leipzig, 1911). Zeume was also the author of "Der Rheinstrom,Deutschlands Weinstrom, nicht Deutschlands Rainstrom" ("printed on the Rhine in the second year of German liberty") which never achieved the fame of Amdt's similar book.

This content downloaded on Sun, 3 Feb 2013 23:40:52 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions ROMANTICISM AND GERMAN NATIONALISM 453 of the romanticists, opened the cycle with his Minnelieder aus dem schwibischenZeitalter (1803). "If we look back," he wrote in the introduction,"upon a period hardlypast which was characterizedby indifferenceto and disregardof the lettersand arts, then we shall be astonishedabout the quick changewhich in so short a time has come about,so that one is not only interestedin the monumentsof the past but appreciatesthem." At a time when Germanpolitical fortunes seemedat so low an ebb as in the Thirty Years War, when therewas hardly anywherean active national sentiment,the romanticistscalled up the past to kindle spirits;they went back to the treasureswhich they believedburied and yet alive in the minds of the people, in the Volksgemit which had not yet been influencedby the universalra- tional civilizationof the eighteenthcentury. Two years after Tieck's minnesongs,there appeareda collection of folk songs, Des Knaben Wunderhorn,edited by two representativesof the younger romantic generation,the PrussianJunker, Ludwig Joachim (called Achim) von Amim (1781-1831), and the Rhinelander,Clemens Brentano (1778- 1842).15 In 1807 their friend Joseph G6rres (1776-1848) investi- gated popular almanacsand other old story books;16 and the next decade brought the famous editions by the brothersGrimm, Jacob Ludwig (1785-1863) and Wilhelm Karl (1786-1859) the Kinder-und Hausmirchen(1812-1815) and the Deutsche Sagen (1816-1818), an analysisof the oldest epic traditionsof the Germans. In 1808 Amim edited the Zeitung fur Einsiedler("Joural for Hermits"). In his introductionthe changedthemes announced them- selves-the birth of a new patriotism: "Germany,my poor, poor fatherland,"he wrote, "and tears began to flow out of our eyes, my

15 Des Knaben Wunderhorn. Alte deutsche Lieder appeared in Heidelberg in the fall of 1805 with the date of 1806. Two further volumes followed in 1808. The first volume contained an important introductionby Tieck. Arnim's letter "An Herrn Kapell- meister Reichardt" which appeared first in Reichardt's Berlinische Musikalische Zeitung was printed as a postscript to the "Wunderhorn." Both texts are reprinted and easily accessible in Deutsche Vergangenheit und Deutscher Staat, ed. by Paul Kluckhohn, Deutsche Literatur in Entwicklungsreihen,Reihe Romantik, vol. 10 (Leipzig, 1935), pp. 83-126. Under the impression of romanticism Stendhal wrote in 1807 to his sister Pauline: "Je ne sais pourquoi le moyen age est lie dans mon coeur avec l'idee de l'Allemagne." 16..Die Deutschen Volksbucher. Nahere Wiirdigung der schonen Historien-, Wetter-, und Arzneibuchlein,welche teils innerer Wert, teils Zufall Jahnhundertehindurch bis auf unsere Zeit erhalten hat. Von J. Gorres, Professor der Physik an der Sekondarschulezu Coblenz (Heidelberg, 1807).

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17 eyes and the eyes of the readers." Jacob Grimm wrote: "In our time a great love of folk songs has developed and will also draw atten- tion to the sagas and folk tales which still circulate among the same people and are preserved in some forgotten places. The ever growing realization of the true nature of history and poetry has aroused the wish to save from oblivion what previously appeared contemptible, at the very last moment when it still could be collected." This literature of the common people seemed to the romantic enthusiasts of great value: truly national and superior to modern art-literature. "Only folk poetry is perfect," Wilhelm Grimm wrote, "because God himself wrote it like the laws of Sinai, it is not put together from pieces like human work is." Romantic nationality was based not upon a modem constitution but upon traditional customs which grow organically and which should not be interfered with from without. They represented the true folk- spirit, the Volksgeist; there seemed in them much greater wisdom than in all the lofty constructions of rational principles. The folk traditions were securely founded in history and had stood the test of the time whereas, as the romanticists believed, the principles of 1789 had failed because they were conceived without regard for history and had claimed universal validity. Had the edifice so proudly built on these abstract foundations survived a few days of enthusiasm? Had it not crumbled in chaos and disorder, in terror and war? Surely, the romanticists argued, men could not find their salvation in rational gen- eralizations but only in the concrete historical tradition. Even should the French Revolution establish a regime fitting for France, it could not be imitated in other countries where it must fail because it was alien to the national character. History alone was a safeguard for national destiny; and romanticism made the study of national history and the exploration of the national past important to statesmen who found therein an arsenal for fighting the spread of revolution and for establishing or maintaining national independence. The historical Volksgeist had to determine, according to the romanticists, not only the constitution but also the laws of a nation. In 1794 Prussia had introduced a new code of legislation, the Allgemeine

17 The full title of the journalread: "Zeitungfir Einsiedler.Alte und neue Sagen und Wahrsagungen,Geschichten und Gedichte."It appearedfor only half a yearand was then publishedin book form "Trist-Einsamkeit."It was publishedas no. 3 of the Neudruckeromantischer Seltenheiten (Munich, 1924).

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PreussischeLandrecht, conceived in the spiritof the rationalismof the enlightenmentthough making all due concessionsto the aristocratic and militaristicstructure of Frederick'skingdom. The romanticists regardedit as a violationof the Volksgeistand of the lawsof history. In May, 1805Jacob Grimm wrote to hisbrother Wilhelm: "I received yesterdayvery bad news,that a code of lawsshall be introducedin Hesse. Musteverything be imitatedthat sprouts out of the flat Prus- sian sand? The newshas affectedme grievously."In anotherletter of that timehe expressedhis convictionthat the new codewould de- stroyall truejudical scholarship.18 For truelaw couldbe only cus- tomarylaw, rootedin the remotepast and an almostunconscious growththroughout the generations.Law codified to modernprinciples wasrejected by the "historicalschool of law"as muchas wasthe concept of naturallaw foundedon reason. Both theseconcepts of law seemedtoo universaland therefore unhistorical and unscholarly. When AntonFriedrich Justus Thibaut (1772-1840), one of the leadingGer- man juristsof that period,pleaded after the defeatof Napoleonin his (Jber die Nolwendigkeiteines allgemeinen biirgerlichen Rechtes fur Deutschland(1814) for the unificationof Germanythrough the introductionof a civil law code commonto all Germanlands, thus endingthe confusionand diversityof the manyantiquated laws, he was sharplyanswered by FriedrichKarl von Savigny(1779-1861), then professorof law at the newlyfounded university of Berlin. In his VomBeruf unserer Zeit fur Gesetzgebungund Rechtswissenschaft, Savignydenied the vocationof the age to introducenew legislation andjurisprudence.19 "True" law was an emanationof the Volksgeist, and courtsof lawacted as its representatives,not as theexponents of a commonreason. Karl FriedrichEichhorn (1781-1854) inaugurated withhis DeutscheStaata und Rechtsgeschichte,of which the firstvol- ume appearedin 1808,research into the historyof Germanlaw for the promotionof the continuityof legal developmentin accordwith the nationalcharacter and the folk traditions.Romantic historic scholarshiphad its greatday; it couldexplain, and if needbe excuse,

18 Hermann U. Kantorowicz,"Volksgeist und Historische Rechtsschule,"Historische Zeitschrift, vol. 108 (1912), p. 211. Not only law but also religion was a product of the Volksgeist. 19 A translation of Savigny's pamphlet by Abraham Hayward, Of the Vocation of Our Age for Legislation and Jurisprudence,was printed by Littlewood & Co., London, 1831 (?), "Not for Sale."

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IV Earlier than other Germanwriters, Friedrich Schlegel found the way from rationaluniversalism to a mysticnationalism.20 Under the influence of Kant's essay on perpetualpeace he wrote in 1796 an "Essay on the Concept of Republicanism"in which he regardedpo- litical liberty and equality as indispensableconditions of the good state. In the enthusiasmof youth he wroteto his brotheron May 27, 1796: "I can not deny it beforeyou that divinerepublicanism is still a little nearerto my heart than divine criticismand the most divine poetry." Like many Frenchmenof that period,he looked to classical antiquity as the model for the ideal political form which could be nothing other than republican.21But he had alreadydiscovered the promise of greatnessof the Germannational character. "One does not pay much attentionyet to the Germancharacter," he wrote to his brotheron November8, 1791. "RecentlyI think I have discovered that our peoplehas a very great character."He saw it accomplished so far only in a few greatmen, Frederick,Goethe, Klopstock, Winckel- mann and Kant. "There is not much found anywhereto equal this race of men, and they have severalqualities of which we can find no trace in any knownpeople. I see in all the achievementsof the Ger- mans, especiallyin the field of scholarship,only the germ of an ap- proachinggreat time, and I believe that things will happen among our people as never before among men. Ceaselessactivity, profound penetrationinto the interiorof things, very great fitness for morality and liberty, these I find in our people. EverywhereI see traces of becomingand growth."

20 Ernst Wieneke, Patriotismusund Religion in Friedrich Schlegels Gedichten (Mun- ich, 1913); Richard Volpers, Friedrich Schlegel als politischer Denker und deutscher Patriot (Berlin-Steglitz, 1916). Similar was the development of his brother August Wil- helm who first welcomed the Revolution and the consulate and later changed under the influence of Madame de Stael. Otto Brandt, August Wilhelm Schlegel, der Romantiker und die Politik (Stuttgart, 1919). 21 The "Versuchiiber den Begriff des Republikanismusveranlasst durch die Kantische Schrift zum ewigen Frieden" was printed in Friedrich Schlegel, Prosaische Jugendschriften 1794-1802, ed. J. Minor (Vienna, 1882), vol. II, pp. 57-71. There on page 68 Schlegel wrote in the Kantian way: "Nur universellerund vollkommenerRepublikanismus wiirde ein giltiger . . . Definitivartikelzum ewigen Frieden sein."

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This newtune was resumed in a poem"An die Deutschen"in the beginningof 1800. He calledupon the Germansto remembertheir spiritualmission and to createanew in religion,philosophy and poetry the formerflowering civilizations of Hellasand India. WhileEurope decayed,he found in Germanythe sourceof new life whichwould awakenthe otherpeoples.22 EuropasGeist erlosch:In Deutschlandfliesst Der Quell der neuenZeit: Die aus ihm tranken Sind wahrhaftdeutsch: Die Heldenscharergiesst Sich iiberall:Erhebt den raschenFranken, Den Italienerzur Natur und Rom Wird wach. Schlegelhad been converted to nationalismbut it wasa purelycultural nationalism.Had not the Greeks,without desiring or achievingna- tional statehood,assured the leadershipof mankind,and had their greatworks not bornethe stampof theirnational character? Could the Germansnot followtheir example and becomethe Greeksof the new age? At aboutthe sametime Schillerexpressed similar hopes in his fragmentarypoem "DeutscheGrosse." 23 The Germanswere the universalpeople, whose mission it was"to fulfilin themselvesuni- versalmankind and to unite in a wreaththe most beautifulflowers of all peoples." The changecame with Schlegel'sjourney to Paris in 1802. In crossingthe Thuringianmountains and the Rhineriver he discovered Germany.His presencein Francemade him consciousof the alien characterof the new environment.He was deeplyimpressed by the ruinsof the castleWartburg near Eisenach where the famouscontest of the Minnesingershad beenheld and whereLuther struggled and worked."If one seesobjects like these, one cannot helpremembering whatthe Germanshad formerly been, when the man still had a fatherland. Lookingat suchhigh castles like the Wartburg,one truly feels, and wouldunderstand, why ourancestors always lived in theircastles on the top of mountainsand whatjoy of life wasconnected with the heights. Sincemen have gathered in the valleysand around the great roads,greedy for alienways and alienmoney, the heightsand castles stand deserted."Thus the Middle Ages and theirruins began to

22 FriedrichSchlegel, Sammtliche Werke, 2. Originalausgabe,15 vols., ed. by E. von Feuchtersleben(Wien, 1846), vol. X, p. 14. 23 See The Idea of Nationalism, p. 413.

This content downloaded on Sun, 3 Feb 2013 23:40:52 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 458 THE REVIEW OF POLITICS recalla timeof joyousliving and highmorality, while in the modem age people,assembled in the cities,succumbed to the lureof foreign gold andimmorality. "But the poetryof formertimes has disappeared and withit virtue,its sister. Insteadof the furortedesco which had beenmentioned so frequentlyby the Italianpoets, patience has now becomeour firstnational virtue and besideit humility,in contrastto the formerlyreigning mentality, on accountof whicha Spaniardwho traveledwith EmperorCharles V throughGermany called the Ger- manslos fierosAlemanos. But as far as we areconcerned, we wishto retainfirmly the imageor ratherthe truthof thesegreat times and not becomeconfused by the presentmisery. Perhapsthe slumberinglion will wakeup oncemore and perhaps even if we shouldnot live to see it, futureworld history will be full of the deedsof the Germans." Schlegelturned from the Greek republic of antiquityto theGerman monarchyof the Middle Ages, followingNovalis, but with a new emphasis,no longeron Christianspirituality and unity, but on German virtue. "Amongthe worldconquering nations of the past,the Ger- mansoccupy a placeof the firstrank, and whetherwe comparethem withthe Romansor the Arabsthe comparisonwill be in theirfavor. What distinguishesthem above all fromthe Romansis theirgreater love of liberty;it was with themnot a mereword and rule but an innatesentiment. Though they were much too high-mindedto wish to imposetheir characterupon othernations, it neverthelessstruck rootwhere the soil wasnot too unfavorable,and then honor and love, courageand loyaltygrew there mightily. On accountof this original libertyof the Germanlife, whichis an everlastingcharacter of the nation,it appearsalso in its goodtime more originally and enduringly romanticthan even the orientalfairy world. Its enthusiasmwas full of joy,childlike simplicity, without coveting, not as one-sidedand destruc- tive as theenthusiasm of thoseadmirable fanatics who set the globeon firefaster and widerthan even the Romans.Eine gefiihlte Rechtlich- keit, die mehrist als die Gerechtigkeitdes Gesetzesund der Ehre, eine kindlichaufrichtige und unerschiitterlicheTreue und Herzlich- keit der Gesinnungist der tiefsteund hoffentlichnie ganz zu vertil- gendeZug desdeutschen Charakters." 24 24 Schlegel's "Reise nach Frankreich" appeared in Europa, a periodical which he edited in Frankfurt-am-Mainin 1803. There he wrote also: "How immensely farther would Europe be on the road to true liberty and culture,if the center of the Church in past times had not been in Italy but, as it ought to be, in Germany, where the natural greatness of the spirit and the freer heart had better fitted the great aim." In Paris Schlegel

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The Rhine impressedSchlegel as much as the Wartburg,as a symbolof Germannature and history.His poem"Am Rheine"(1802) markedthe beginningof the glorificationof the riverwhich he called "the all too faithfulimage of our fatherland,our historyand our character." "Der alte vaterlandischeStrom erscheint uns wie ein machtiger Strom naturverkiindeterDichtkunst." 25 These sentimentsfound their theoreticalexpression in his Philosophische Vorlesungen aus den Jahren1804 bis 1806, in whichhe for the first time expressedhis political philosophy.26 Eight years before, the republichad appearedto him the most perfectform of governmentand the only safe guarantee of peace. Now, however,republicanism has become "a transient meteorwhich shines a few momentsin a splendorof light but quickly goes out in a stormof civil discordand leavesbehind destruction and confusion." Only the monarchycould be a true guardianof peace, not a constitutionalmonarchy but the mediaevalmonarchy of the Estates,the Standestaatunder the moral guidanceof the Church. In the mediaevalunion of Empireand Church,the internationaltie among nationswas guaranteedby the hierarchyof priestsand scholarswhich was above all national differences. But Schlegel went far beyond Novalis in his emphasison nationalitywithin this Christianuniver- sality, on the nation as a higherreality of natureand history. "The conceptof nation requiresthat all its membersshould form as it were only one individual." This fictitiouscorporate personality became a jealousguardian of the lives of the single and real individualwhich it comprisedand whichit claimedto mold. It imposedconditions which went far beyondthe conceptof a politicalnationality; it was intimately and intricatelytied up with the natural and spirituallife of all its members. To form a true nation- and this meant to Schlegel to resemble a closely knit and all inclusive family-he demandedthat all its membersbe held togetherby ties of blood, of descentfrom the same ancestors. The antiquityand purity of this commondescent would discoveredold German art; he praised Diirer because he had decided to paint not like the ancients or the Italians but in a German way. He went even so far as to prefer for national and religious reasons, old German poetry to Greek poetry and old German paint- ing to Italian art. 25 See Sammtliche Werke, vol. X, p. 93 and vol. VI, p. 212. Schlegel was also the first to sing the glory of the romanticGerman forest, therein the precursorof Eichendorff. 26 They were edited after his death by his friend C. J. H. Windischmann, professor of philosophy at the University of Bonn, in two volumes (Bonn: 1836-37); a second edition appearedthere in 1846.

This content downloaded on Sun, 3 Feb 2013 23:40:52 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 460 THE REVIEW OF POLITICS guaranteethe persistenceof, and the loyaltyto, traditionalcustoms and habits: the greaterthe communityof blood,and the stronger thereforethe perseveranceof thepast, the morethe peoplewould form a nation. Secondto a commonpast and affinityof blood,Schlegel ratedthe unityof languagein which- for reasonsdifficult to under- stand becausethey contradictall historicalevidence-he saw "the indisputabletestimony of commondescent." This new theoryof na- tionalismculminated in two summaryand apodicticsentences characteristicof the age of nationalism:"It is muchmore appropriate to naturethat the humanrace be strictlyseparated (strenge abgesondert) into nationsthan that several nations should be fusedas hashappened in recenttimes .... Eachstate is an independentindividual existing for itself,it is unconditionallyits ownmaster, has its peculiarcharacter, and governsitself by its peculiarlaws, habitsand customs."27 From thatpoint of viewSchlegel protested also against the assimilationof a defeatedand backwardnation to the highercivilization of the victor. "Thatwould be highlyimmoral. The originalmoral character of a people,its customsand peculiarities,must be regardedas sacred."A subjectnationality must be maintainedas a separateentity but it mightbe educatedby the victor,even forcibly, as far as thatbe compatiblewith its character.In thatway, Schlegel maintained, the Ger- mans have educatedmany nations,the Magyarsand others. The French,however, Schlegel thought, were abusing their superiority to destroythe nationalityof otherpeoples. Such an attitudejustified in his opinionthe unionof all peoplesthreatened by the Frenchin a war whichwould lead to the "totalannihilation" of this "corrupt nation."2 Schlegelwas perhapsthe firstGerman writer of renown to issuesuch a strongcall for Germannationality and for a sacredwar. Schlegelwas also the firstto writepatriotic poetry, exhorting the Germansto a confidentstruggle against Napoleon's tyranny. This poeticactivity filled only a few yearsof his life, from1805 to 1809, whenothers like Amdt, Schenkendorff,and Riickert took up the task of nationalbards and soon surpassed him by far in popularity.During thoseyears Schlegel joined the CatholicChurch and, a northGerman

27 Ibid., vol. II, pp. 358, 382. Schlegel was in his lectures, however, so fascinated by the mediaeval Standestaat and so hostile to all the innovationsof the French Revolu- tion, that he was against universal military service of citizens and wished, in the interests of peace, to reservemilitary service to the aristocracy. 28 Ibid., p. 385.

This content downloaded on Sun, 3 Feb 2013 23:40:52 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions ROMANTICISM AND GERMAN NATIONALISM 461 by birth,turned to Austriaas the hope for Germanregeneration. Therehe becamean officialpropagandist for the Austriancause; in 1809in strongand stirring proclamations, he calledupon the Germans outsideAustria to standby herand to braveall dangersin unityand courage.The samespirit breathed through the ferventappeal of his "Geliibde"("The Vow") : 29

Es sei mein Herz und Blut geweiht, Dich Vaterlandzu retten.... Der deutscheStamm ist alt und stark, Voll Hochgefiihlund Glauben; Die Treue ist der EhreMark, Wankt nicht,wenn Stiirmeschnauben.... So spottejeder der Gefahr, Die Freiheitruft uns allen;.... Though"The Vow" marked the end of Schlegel'spatriotic poetry, he continuedto elaboratehis theoryof nationalism,in the lectureswhich he deliveredin Viennain 1810"On Moder History"and the lecture serieson "Historyof Ancient and ModernLiterature" in 1812. Those of 1810 glorified the heroes of German history, especially the Habs- burg princes, Rudolf I, Ferdinand II, and Charles V. "If one does not look on details but on the whole, there is no better counterweight against the onrush of the age than the memory of a great past. For that reason I thought of adding to the interpretationof the three great world-shaking periods-the migration of the Germanic tribes, the - Crusades and the Reformation a picture of the former German nation painted in colors as strong as I could; of its oldest conditions when it lived in its original liberty and character, as well as of its development and culture in the Middle Ages. This demanded a spe-

29 Sammtliche Werke, vol. X, p. 159. The poem was also included into "Deutsche Wehrlieder," edited by Jahn in 1813. Schlegel's stepson, Philipp Veit who served in the free corps, wrote to him and Dorothea, his mother, from Schonhausen near Magdeburg on July 1, 1813: "Jahn is sending you herewith the first issue of a collection of songs which are being sung in our corps or are being rehearsed. You will find there one of your own which was sung here yesterday in church to a good melody by Zelter." His brother August Wilhelm had preceded Schlegel to Vienna. In a letter from Coppet he wrote in 1807 to Countess Louise von Voss, he declared that he knew only one aim for a writer in that historical age, "to present to the Germans the image of their ancient glories, their old dignity and liberty, and the mirrorof the past, and thus to kindle every spark of national sentiment which might be dormant somewhere." Briefe von und an August Wilhelm Schlegel, ed. by Josef Kmrner,2 vols. (Vienna, 1930), vol. I, p. 199f.

This content downloaded on Sun, 3 Feb 2013 23:40:52 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 462 THE REVIEW OF POLITICS cial interpretativeconcern for the great mediaevalforces and forms of the state, for the relationand unifying tie of the Churchand of the old imperialposition in Germany,Italy and Europe,and for the spirit of knighthood."30 His nationalismhad all the fervor which the age of nationalismlater developedin centraland easternEurope, but it was turnednostalgically backward to the period when the im- perialidea - of which Schlegelthought the Germansalone worthy- and the universalismof the churchstill maintainedsome ethicalunity amongnations. It was his Catholicreligion which prevented him from glorifying the secularizedpopular state with its unlimitedmoral self- sufficiency.31 The lectures of 1812-and the periodicalDeutsches Museum which Schlegel edited then-were devoted to the thesis that "every literaturemust and should be national; this is its vocation and this alone can give it its true and full value." The same national spirit should determinelanguage and music, paintingand philosophy. But the first place belonged to poetry, it must preservefor a people its memoriesand legends,embellish them and perpetuatethe gloriesof a great past, "as happensin the heroic epics where the miraclefreely occurs and where the poet attaches himself to mythology." The spiritualgrowth of a nation dependedon its possessionof great national memories"which often lose themselvesin the darknessof its origins and the preservationand glorificationof which constitutesthe most excellenttask of poetry. Such nationalmemories, the most won- derfulheritage that a peoplecan have,are an advantagewhich nothing else can replace;and if a people finds itself in its own feelingselated and so to speakennobled by the possessionof a great past, of memories from prehistorictimes, in brief by the possessionof poetry, it will be raised by this very fact in our judgmentto a higher plane. Memorabledeeds, great eventsand destiniesalone are not sufficientto

30 Sammtliche Werke, vol. XI, p. 195. 31 Friedrich Meinecke, Weltbirgertum und Nationalstaat, 7th ed. (Munich, 1928), p. 92, objected from the point of view of the modem German power-stateas much to the Christian political ethics of the romanticistsas to the rational universalismof the enlighten- ment. "Beide schalten das als blinde Herrschsucht, was im Wesen des Staates selbst begriindetlag, was Ausfluss seiner Selbsterhaltungund Selbstbestimmungwar." Meinecke argued that besides universal morality for individuals there exists an individual morality for the state and that this individual morality justifies the apparent immorality of the power-egotismof the state. "Denn unsittlich kann nicht sein, was aus der tiefsten indi- viduellen Natur eines Wesens stammt," which would justify every strong state and every strong individual to establish his own "nature"as a yardstickof all morality.

This content downloaded on Sun, 3 Feb 2013 23:40:52 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions ROMANTICISM AND GERMAN NATIONALISM 463 keep our admirationand to determinethe judgmentof posterity;a people must also gain a clear consciousnessof its own deeds and destinies. This self-consciounsessof a nationwhich expresses itself in reflectiveand descriptiveworks, is its history." The romanticists pointedto Shakespeare'shistoric plays as the model for the attemptto revivethe nationalpast and to makeit partof the national consciousness.The theaterseemed to themthe most "national"of all the arts; unfortunatelythe romanticists,much stronger in Ger- manyin reflectionthan in creation,were unable to createa national theater. Even their strongestdramatic talent, Heinrich von Kleist, neverreached the popularity of a Schiller.32

Throughthe romanticiststhe state becameagain an objectof poetryand adoration;they regardedit as somethingso lofty and wondrous,so full of miracleand mysterythat it couldno longerbe the workof men. The wordsof Hugo Grotiusdefining the Western conceptof the state-"Est autemcivitas coetus perfectus liberorum hominumjuris fruendi et communisutilitatis causa sociatus"- did not applyto the stateof the romanticists.It was,like the humanbeing, a creationof the unfathomablewill of God and of the elementalforces of nature,an individuallike manhimself, only infinitelygreater and morepowerful. Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff(1788-1857), a leader of the youngerCatholic generation of romanticism,called the state"a spiritualcommunity for a life as perfectas possibleby developingthe strengthof mind and soul in a people,which alone could be called 33 truly life." ZachariasWerner, who startedas a discipleof the enlightenmentand laterjoined the CatholicChurch and the romantic movement,defined the state as "a union whichshould make it pos-

32 The Germans owe to the romanticists,to A. W. Schlegel and Tieck, their first famous Shakespearetranslation. Shakespeare as a great national poet was praised by A. W. Schlegel, Sammtliche Werke, ed. by Eduard Bicking, 12 vols. (Leipzig, 1846-47), vol. VIII, p. 145; and by Tieck, KritischeSchriften, (Leipzig, 1848), vol. I, pp. 38, 327. 33 "Eine geistige Gemeinschaft zu einem m6glichst vollkommenenLeben durch Ent- wicklung der Geistes- und Gemiitskrafte im Volk, welche ja eben allein Leben genann werden kann." Joseph Karl Benedikt von Eichendorff, Sammtliche Werke. Historisch- Kritische Ausgabe, ed. by Kosch and Sauer, 24 vols. (Regensburg, 1908-13), vol. X, p. 159.

This content downloaded on Sun, 3 Feb 2013 23:40:52 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 464 THE REVIEW OF POLITICS sible for a group of humanbeings to fulfill theirhighest vocation. It isolatesthis group to give it back to mankindin an ennobledform." 34 Yet the romanticistswere as individualstoo strongly artistic to allow the state to imposea deadeninguniformity. Accordingto their ideal, the individualshould serve and love the state with all his soul and mind, yet he shouldnot be a robot but a free individualliving his own personaland peculiarway and uniting with the others without losing his individuality.35They praisedliberty but it was libertynot rootedin reasonand equalitybut in historyand peculiarity.In Eichen- doff's novel Ahnung und GegenwartLeontin shouted "Long live liberty,"but he did not mean the universal,natural, philosophical libertyof 1789, whichwas the same for everybodyand in whicheverybody felt himselfproudly free everywhere.He found this cosmopolitan and individualisticliberty as loathsomeas he found the natural religionof that periodwhich regarded all religionsas equal manifesta- tions of the Divine, withoutgradations or preferences.To him liberty was the ancient and vital freedom (jene uralte, lebendigeFreiheit) whichhe found in the proudand simplelife of mountainpeoples who could not live except as honor dictates.36 The romanticconcept of the patriarchalstate and its union of love, was compatiblewith the existence of strong and independentindividuals conscious of their position and their privileges. But it rejectedthe new age of individ- ualism, of economicrationalism, of equal rights, approachingappar- ently from the West; it was a defensiveattitude which looked long-

34 Zacharias Werner (1768-1823), an east Prussian, served the Prussian government in Warsaw and in other Prussian parts of Poland where he became one of the first Ger- man poets expressing their sympathy for the Polish cause. See Robert F. Arnold, Geschichte der deutschen Polenliteratur von den Anfangen bis 1800 (Halle, 1900), p. 277. 35 "So wird auch der grossen Genossenschaftdes Staates mit innerlich ausgewechsel- ten Gesellen nicht gedient, sondern der der liebste sein, der ihr, weil mit ungebrochener Eigentumlichkeit, aus ganzer Seele dient, wie er eben kann und mag." Eichendorff, SdimmtlicheWerke, vol. X, p. 341. 36 Ibid., vol. III, p. 325. 37 The romanticists opposed capitalism, commerce and the "influence of money." Schlegel went as far as to oppose taxes because they might give to the moneyed classes the power to influence the state. He suggested that the state should receive its income from the ownership of land and from the monopoly of all foreign trade. To Iniebuhr in his "Roman History" the period when the Romans tilled their own fields represented the ideal, while the later period based upon commerce and trade, representeddecadence and moral corruption. Another romantic historian Karl Ottfried Muller (1797-1840) found in Greek history his model in Sparta and its constitution full of "deepest political

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ingly to the good old times and to moreprimitive communities which had preservedtheir ancient traditions and theirsocial order. Novalis and Eichendorffwere poets, the brothersSchlegel were literaryhistorians and critics;38 Adam Miller (1779-1829) was the politicalphilosopher of romanticism.39With characteristicvagueness the limitsbetween poetry and scholarshipwere not clearlydrawn. Yet amid its contradictions- the romanticistswere not systematicthink- ers; their work remainedmostly fragments or lectures- romantic politicalphilosophy held fast to the thesis that the state was not man's work or establishedfor the benefitof the individualwho on the other hand was indissolublypart of the state and inevitablydetermined by its past. "Man cannot be imagined outside the state. ... The state is the intimateunion of all physicaland spiritualneeds, of the whole physicaland intellectualwealth, of the whole inwardand outwardlife of a nation in a great energeticwhole infinitelyfull of movementand life. ... It is the totality of all human concerns" (Der Staat ist die Totalitat der menschlichenAngelegenheiten)40- in these words

wisdom." A romantic philosopher, Franz Xaver von Baader (1765-1841) charged in his "OCberdas damalige Missverhaltnisder Vermogenslosenoder Proletars zu den Vermogen- besitzenden Klassen der Sozietat in betreff ihres Auskommens, sowohl in materieller, als intellektueller Hinsicht, aus dem Standpunkte des Rechts betrachtet" (Munich, 1835) that plutocratic servility to gold under liberalism rendered the poor into serfs of money whose conditions were worse than those of rural serfs. See on his social philosophy David Baumgardt,Franz von Baader unde die philosophischeRomantik (Halle, 1927). 38 August Wilhelm Schlegel became a student of Sanskrit and Indian literature. FriedrichSchlegel regardedhis Standestaat as related to the Indian caste system and both as an Aryan heritage. Sammtliche Werke, vol. XII, p. 347. 39 Adam Muller was practically unknown in the second half of the nineteenth century. The German neo-romanticistsof the twentieth century rediscoveredhim. See Otto Weinberger, "Das Neue Schrifttum iiber Adam Miiller," Archiv fir Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik, vol. LI (1924), p. 808 ff; Reinhold Aris, Die Staatslehre Adam Millers in ihrem Verhaltnis zur Deutschen Romantik (Tiibingen, 1929); Ferdinand Reinkemayer,Adam Millers ethische und philorophische Anschauungen im Lichte der Romantik (Osterwieck am Harz, 1926); Jakob Baxa, Adam Muller, Ein Lebensbild aus den Befreiungskriegenund aus der deutschen Restoration (Jena, 1930). At the same time many of his works were republished, Von der Notwendigkeit einer theologischen Grund- lage der gesamten Staatswissenschaftenund der Staatswirtschaftinsbesondere (Leipzig, 1819) as vol. XVI of the Allgemeine Biicherei der 6sterreichischenLeo-Gesellschaft (Vienna, 1897); his Zwoilf Reden iber die Beredsamkeitund deren Verfall in Deutsch- land (Vienna, 1812) and his Vorlesungen iber die deutsche Wissenschaft und Liter- atur (Dresden, 1907) were edited by Arthur Salz (Munich, 1920); Othmar Spann's series "Die Herdflamme" published his Die Elemente der Staatskunst, 2 vols., ed. by Jakob Baxa, and his Versuche einer neuen Theorie des Gelds mit besondererRicksicht auf Grossbritannien,ed by H. Lieser (Vienna, 1922). 40 Die Elemente der Staatskunst,vol. I, pp. 29, 37, 48.

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Miillerexpressed romantic opposition to the liberalstate; he and his friendswere equallyfirm in their uncompromisingrejection of the economicdoctrine of liberalism.He saw in Westerncapitalism "the most generalmanifestation of that anti-socialspirit, of that arrogant egotism,of thatimmoral enthusiasm for falsereason and falseenlight- enment"which were the roots of theFrench Revolution.41 He regarded its libertyand equalityas a changefrom rural serfdom to wageslavery and foundthe latterinfinitely worse; he had no doubtthat the capi- talisticsystem was incompatiblewith the divineorder of things. To the optimismof the eighteenthcentury which looked toward the future, Miilleropposed an optimismregarding the past. Whileboth forms of optimismmight be equallyunfounded, the past was knownto the memoryof men and accessibleto historicalresearch; the futurewas knownto God alone,and this may explain why in thelong run utopias whichplace the goldenage in the future--especiallyin the distant future- exercisea greaterattraction than those placing it in the past -especially a not too distantpast. Miiller'srevolt against the enlightenmentwas a revoltagainst his own youth. He was born,a son of a Prussianofficial, in the Berlin of FrederickII. While a studentin Gottingen,he cameunder the influenceof Adam Smith;only later,under the influenceof Burke and of his friendshipwith Gentz,he turnedto an organictheory of the state. "If oneregards the stateas a greatindividual encompassing all the smallindividuals," he wrote,"then one understandsthat human societycannot be conceivedexcept as an augustand completeperson- ality-and one will neverwish to subjectthe inwardand outward peculiaritiesof the state,the formof its constitutionto arbitraryspecu- lation." In 1805 he joinedthe CatholicChurch; he remainedfor a few yearslonger in Dresdenand Berlinin close touchwith Prussian conservativecircles before he foundin Austriahis politicaland spir- itualhome. After1817 he becameevermore traditionalist and removed fromthe mainstream of Germanintellectual and politicallife, bent exclusivelyupon the praise of the pastand the vainhope for its return. But between1806 and 1810,years of decisiveimportance in the de- velopmentof the Germanmind, he helpedto arousenational resistance to Westernideas and to strengthenGerman confidence in its mission. After 1806,when the Germancause seemed lost andfound scarcely a

41 Ausgewihlte Abhandlungen, ed. by Jakob Baxa (Jena, 1921), p. 21.

This content downloaded on Sun, 3 Feb 2013 23:40:52 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions ROMANTICISM AND GERMAN NATIONALISM 467 friendin Germany,Miiller delivered in Dresdenlectures on German scholarshipand literaturein whichhe proclaimed:"the development of the scholarlymind in Germanyis the mostimportant event in modem intellectualhistory. It is certainthat foreignintellectual life in all its varietywill haveto attachitself in the courseof timeto thatof Germany,and that, just as Germantribes have founded the political orderof Europe,the Germanmind will sooneror laterdominate it." 42 Politicallyprostrate, Germany was destined to spiritualleadership. The Germanmind, more than any other,Muller claimed, was a universal mind, in whichother culturesfound theirconsummation and their harmoniousmediation, a mindtolerant towards all othersand infinite in its longing. "TheGerman mind is forcedto ascribeto itselfas an advantageover all othernations its obedientand piousunderstanding of everythingalien, even if this penetrationand understandingmay sometimesdegenerate into the idolatryof foreignhabits and persons. We find our own happinessnot in the suppressionbut in the highest floweringof the civilizationof ourneighbors, and thusGermany, the fortunateheartland, will not needto denyits respectfor otherswhen it willdominate the world by its spirit."43 When Miillerdelivered his addresses,German political and social life seemedin a processof transformationunder the impact of Western ideas. Even the Germangovernments seemed eager to introducere- forms. Againstthese rational innovations which Miiller condemned as inorganic,he calledup the powerof the deadand the necessityof continuity. "Onlythe traditionsand the historyof the past (die Geschichteder Vorwelt)can transform the meaninglessletter of present times,also of thestate, into a wordof light. The ancestorsevoked by historyare not merelywitnesses called to testify;they respond, theycontinue to act full of thewarmth of life, becausethe spellof the

42 Adam Miiller, Vorlesungeniber die deutsche Wissenschaft und Literatur,p. 4. 43 Ibid., pp. 14f. See also pp. 48, 59f. and passim. What Germany is to Europe, Europe is to the world. "Die gesamte Erdoberflacheunseres Planeten strebt offenbar nach einer grossen Gesellschaft, bei deren ErrichtungEuropa im Ganzen dieselbe Vermittlerrolle spielen wird, nach der sich, unserer neulichen Auseinandersetzungzufolge, die deutsche Bildung im Verhaltnis zu dem Staat von Europa hinneigt. Mittelpunkt der Zivilisation der Welt, nicht bios ihr Gipfel, soll Europa werden." Ibid., p. 38. About the pan- geringeresangelegt als die Vorziige der verschiedenenNationalitaten zu vereinigen,sich in humanismof the Germans see also A. W. Schlegel in Europa, I, 269: "Es ist auf nichts alle hineinzudenkenund hineinzufiihlen und so einen kosmopolitischenMittelpunkt des menschlichenGeistes zu stiften."

This content downloaded on Sun, 3 Feb 2013 23:40:52 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 468 THE REVIEW OF POLITICS heart has rousedthem: in theirpresence one performsin a loftier way and with greaterfreedom. Man shouldnot act for himselfand out of himselfalone, as an absolutelynew beginning:his deeds should only continue the deeds of the ancestors;he should attach himself to a communitywhich has alreadybeen in existence- all communitiesare one but the nearestis the best to him; he should derivethe blood of his instinctiveadvice, the spiritof his decisionfrom older and everolder ancestors. This is the immortalityof all greatnessand goodnesson earth that whereverworthy new life stirs, the old one alwayslives on, and that only cold and vile souls speakof it as if it had gone forever and crumbledinto dust. The great and immortalsoul, for the welfare of which the hero exposed his mortal body, must be called his true body," for only in the immortalityof the nationalcommunity, of the state could the passingindividual find his own immortalityand could his life and actionsreceive meaning.44 In this subordinationof the presentto the past, Miiller followed Burke; in his identificationof the individual'simmortality with the continuityof the fatherland,he anticipatedFichte. He called Burke "the greatest, profoundest, most powerful and most human statesman of all periods and all nations"who belongedmore to the Germans than to the British who never understoodhim fully.45 But of the practicalwisdom of Burke, of his respectfor individualliberty and constitutionalrights, of his understandingfor the living forces of history,Muller knew little. His politicalsense was hardlydeveloped. Like Fichte, he wished to call the Germansto a fatherlandof the mind, first to be built in some awakenedhearts and throughsome miraculoustransformation triumphing over the enemy.46 The vic- torious state whichwould emergewas hardlydefined as a state of the German nation-Muller was little concerned with the problem of

44 Vorlesungeniber die deutsche Wissenschaft und Literatur,p. 163 f. 45 Ibid., p. 165 f. See also Zwolf Reden iber die Beredsamkeit, pp. 124 ff. (describinghis oratory duel with Fox in the night of February 11th to 12th, 1891), 135 ff., 167 ff., 186 f. He paid his tribute also to the oratory of Fox and of the two Pitts but Burke was the greatest of all to him. He called him "Stellvertreterdes unsichtbaren Englands, Geisterseherseiner Geschichte, Prophet seiner Zukunft; . . . Wenn die weltliche Beredsamkeit. . . in Fox einen Gipfel erreicht hat: so hat die heilige Beredsamkeitin diesem Jahrhundertnur durch Einen Mund geredet, durch den Mund Burkes." 46 "Bilde dein angewiesenesWerk nur ruhig fort, du vielfach verwundetesund unter- dricktes, aber auch jetzt schon mit Guitern,die die spitesten Enkel deiner Unterdriicker noch segnen werden, vielfach entschadigtes Volk .. ." Vorlesungen uber die deutsche Wissenschaft und Literatur,p. 167, p. 169.

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Germanunification - it wasa stateopposed in everythingto theideas of 1789 and to economicliberalism, a theocraticstate much less in- spiredby Burkethan by the Vicomte de Bonald and his Theorie du Pouvoir Politique et Religieux dans la socie'tecivile which had appearedin Constancein 1796, twelve yearsbefore Miiller deliveredin the winter of 1808-09 his lectureson Die Elementeder Staats- kunst. There he developedat length his theorythat "the state is not only the union of many familiesliving togetherat one time but also followingeach otherthrough time, a union not only infinitelygreat in spacebut also immortalin time." Against the emphasison the present and on the pursuit of happinesshe stressedeternity and duty: "A people is the august communityof a long enduranceof past, living and future generations,who all hang together in a great intimate union for life and death, of whom each single generation,and in each single generationagain each individual,guarantee the commonunion, and are again guaranteedby it in their whole existence;this beautiful immortalcommunity represents itself to the eyes and sensesin a common language,in commoncustoms and laws, in thousandsof bene- ficent institutions,in manylong-flourishing families which are especially designedto link the periodsof historymore closely,finally in the one immortalfamily which forms the centerof the state, the royal family, and to make the true center of the whole even more visible, in the present king of that family."47 Thus the hereditarynobility, and above all the royal house, was proclaimedthe guaranteeof the con- tinuityand identityof state and nation. Miiller believedthat the tragic errorsof the Revolutionoriginated in the belief that the state was designed to assure the securityand prosperityof its members. If that were true, the individualcould direct the life of the state into new channels,and every generation would be free to begin anew. But in reality,in the immutablenature of things,the individualhad none of these freedomsand the state was, Miiller proclaimed,so inextricablylinked up with everythinghuman, so indispensablefor the fulfillmentof the most elementaryneeds of man's heart, mind and body, that at no time could he hear or see, think or feel, live or love without the state. Nor could science and scholarshipexist as "pure"efforts or responsibilitiesof the individual

47 Die Elemente der Staatskunst, 3rd and 7th lectures. Adam Miiller, Vom Geiste der Gemeinschaft,ed. by FriedrichBillow (Leipzig, 1931), pp. 41, 81.

This content downloaded on Sun, 3 Feb 2013 23:40:52 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 470 THE REVIEW OF POLITICS mind,independent of the state.48 They wouldlose all vigorif they ever triedto developin their own rightwithout serving the society and the state. The politicaland the intellectuallife wereonly two sidesof bodyand soul which could exist but as one. The highestgood of a nationwas accordingto Miillerthe ideaof its peculiarity,the way in whichit was differentfrom all others,its uniqueness.A worldin whichthere would be only one government, one law, one systemof weightsand measures all overthe earth would lack that creativeforce of movementwhich springs from difference and conflict. Mullerregarded perpetual peace, whether assured by a universalmonarchy or by a leagueof republicannations (permanen- ten Volker-Kongress),as a misfortunewhich would bring human de- velopmentto a standstill.Nothing seemed to hima firmercementing of nationsand statesthan "the true war,"because common peril, sorrowand tearsbind betterthan luck and prosperity,and because everythingthat can be hiddenin peacemust in warbecome manifest andgiven to thewhole. A truewar more than any other event would fill and saturatethe existenceof everyindividual with the life of the state.49 Though Miillerbelieved in war as a vital and beneficial forcewhich enhances the characterof the state,he acceptedat other times, as the Holy Alliancedid, a supra-nationalChristian order withinwhich nations could not isolatethemselves. "The concept of the fatherland,as deeplyas it mightbe felt, is not sufficient:there is only one world-idea,the centerof all orderbecause it is the idea of worldorder itself: the Christianreligion." 50 FromDresden Miiller returned for a shortwhile to Berlin. There in the like-mindedcompany of Prussiannoblemen and romanticpoets he couldnote with satisfactionthat "thebetter ones amongus have beenfortunately cured of cosmopolitanism;it was the chapterof our historythrough which we had to pass." Understandablyhe found muchto blamein Frederickthe Greatwho had rationalizedthe ad-

48 2nd lecture, pp. 20-23, 28, 34f. 49 Treitschke, Deutsche Geschichte im neunzehnten Jahrhundert, vol. I, p. 589, praised very highly a book Vom Kriege by Riihle von Lilienstern (1780-1847): "No- where did the keen political idealism of the War of Liberation find a nobler expression than in that book," which in Treitschke's opinion "proved victoriously the indestructible blissful necessity of war." He proposed to "nationalize the armies and militarize the nations." In reality the book was largely plagiarized from Adam Muller. 50 34th lecture, p. 236.

This content downloaded on Sun, 3 Feb 2013 23:40:52 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions ROMANTICISM AND GERMAN NATIONALISM 471 ministrationof the state and had felt himself culturallyto be a dis- ciple of the Frenchenlightenment. In the lectureson the king and the natureof the Prussianmonarchy which he deliveredin Berlinin 1810, he stressedthat it must be for every man a point of honor to have a definite fatherland; to declare that one has none or that one belongs to a cosmopolitan society of independent rational minds, must be as insulting as to declare that one was without sex or honor.51 As regards a European community, Muller believed that it could be realized only through German ideas. "I, too, dreamt much of a union of that great nation of which we are only a branch," he declared, "I, too, expected revolutions and heroes and changes in the mentalities of peoples which would come and favor the realization of my dream. The great con- federation of European nations will come some future day, and as truly as we live, will also wear German colors; for everything great, thorough and lasting in all European institutions is German- that is the only certainty which has remained from all those hopes." The Germans have sown their seeds over Europe; their growth should be left to the care of nature. "Our concern is the nearest and concrete, an enthusiasm foe, our own fatherland, for our own royal lord and for his centenary crown which with royal devotion he regards as something higher than himself."52 Miiller, while paying his respects in Berlin to the Prussian monarch, was soon to follow the Schlegels to Austria but whether in Berlin or in Vienna, whether praising the Hohenzollern or serving the Habs- burgs, he did not alter his fundamental conviction. He waged war

51 Ober Konig FriedrichII und die Natur, Wirde und Bestimmungder Preussischen Monarchie. Offentliche Vorlesungen gehalten zu Berlin im Winter 1810 von Adam Muller (Berlin, 1810), 1st lecture, p. 5. 5:2 2nd lecture, p. 52f. There is something of the spirit of Fichte's "Reden" in Miiller's eighth lecture: "Um die Zukunft mit Kraft und Bestimmtheit zu empfinden, muss man erst das Nationalleben empfunden haben. Was der Privatmann "Zukunft" nennt, ist ein weites Feld des Zufalls, woriiber die Wetter Gottes und seine Winde und Zeiten walten, wovon das Herz nichts ahndet: eben weil es ein isoliertes Herz, ein Privat- herz ist, und weil es den unendlichen Gott von sinem einsamen Standpunke nicht fassen kann, sein Gesetz in den Erziehungscalciilnicht aufnehmen kann. Was der nationale Burger "Zukunft" nennt, ist dagegen etwas sehr Bestimmtes und Besonderes; das Vater- land, d.h. Gott selbst und sein Gesetz, ist ja in der Rechnung. Nicht also der Privat- mann, sonder nur der nationale Burger, kann erziehen; also ist die Nationalitat selbst conditio sine qua non aller Erziehung. Wie moigtihr denn erziehen,bevor ihr einen Altar, ein Heiligtum, ein vaterlandischesh6chstes Gut fest und fur die Ewigkeit erkannt habt? Ohne so ein Mittelstes, Nationales, Religioses, worauf alles bezogen werde, und welches die junge Generationund ihr ganzes Streben ordne und festhalte, erzieht Ihr nur Privat- manner, und ereuert die alte Misere."

This content downloaded on Sun, 3 Feb 2013 23:40:52 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 472 THE REVIEW OF POLITICS against Western ideas. After 1813 he was happy to see-partly throughhis efforts- the tide turn. There "grewup in betternations a tremendouslonging for the discreditedbarbarians of the Middle Ages. Burke and some Germansdivined that there the lost jewel might be found. Thus the idea of nobility again reappeared."But with it also the theoriesand the realityof an anti-liberal,anti-Western nationalism,a Germanophilismwhich becamethe model of the later Slavophilism,a nationalismunknown to the Middle Ages and to Burke. The esotericthoughts of the Germanromanticists turned a century later, under a differentleadership and with a differentemphasis, into people's mystical nationalismsin central and eastern Europe. Their unitinglink was "thewar againstthe West."

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