Gottfried Keller's Martin Salander as a social and political document Item Type text; Thesis-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Bohannan, Laura Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 06/10/2021 05:12:52 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/553726 GOTTFRIED KELLER’S MARTIN SALANDER AS A SOCIAL Aim POLITICAL DOCUMEHT w A Thesis submitted to the faculty of the German Department in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Graduate College University of Arizona 1947 Approved: I'Cwu^Xk 1 TrijwStmfof" f • 3 I 3 CONTENTS Introduction ....... .......... 1 Chapter I. The Literary Form of Martin Sal ander. ........................ 4 The Critical Opinion of Martin Salander • • 4 The Literary Form of Martin Salander. • • • 8 Chapter II. A Comparison of the Finished Novel with Keller*s Plans for Martin Salander. ...... .......... • 20 Chapter III. Some Aspects of the Development of Keller’s Political and Philosophical Views . ............. 49 Chapter IV. Keller’s Social and Political Views as Expressed In Martin Salander. • ........ ....... 80 The Social and Ethical Effects of a False Idealism. .......... 82 Das Strebertum.......... 95 Volksfeste. .............. ••••• 102 The Development of the Individual • • . • • 110 The Citizen ............... 116 The New Economy .............. 125 Government and the Politician ....... 131 The Role of School and Family in Education. 147 The Growth of the Nation. ................. 159 Conclusions. • • • .............. ...... 168 Appendix. An Outline of Swiss History During the Nineteenth Century • • • 170 Bibliography ••••• .......... ...... 184 U $ 184232 1 IHTROESJOf 1011 Martin Salander has been almoat universally dis­ missed. by the critics as the unfortunate work of Keller * s old age* A more serious and equally prevalent criticism has been that the book was solely concerned with the pol­ itics of Switzerland in the seventies and eighties; therefore, it has been said, the reader of another time or country would not be interested. This scant esteem of Martin salander together with the popular feeling that the nineteenth century was politically, morally, and ar­ tistically dull has kept the book on the library shelf. This study has been undertaken In the hope of demon­ strating that Keller * s Martin Salander is a social and political document of great interest to every citizen of a republican or democratic country. It was written for a world beset with the problems which arise from an uned­ ucated electorate endowed with far-reaching political powers, a government composed of self-interested and often corrupt politicians, and an industrial economy based on world trade and a speculative market. It..was written for a people who thought that a democratic ard generally prosperous nation was automatically safe from the social, political, and economic upheavals that might trouble tiie rest of the world; Keller wished to destroy this illusion* Martin Salander was not, therefore, of purely contemporary interest: "Die Zukunft gahSrt ihm. und d a m k&nn er das golden® Bach des Republlkaners warden.xr^ Martin Salander must, of course, be considered in the light of the general trends of the nineteenth cen­ tury. In the early nineteenth century an International and idealistic liberalism was in constant rebellion against the conservatism of church and state throughout Europe. After 1850 the individual nations, liberal or conservative, were concerned with highly practical domes­ tic problems which were influenced to an Increasing ex­ tent by the international economic situation. In conse­ quence of this historical development the writers of the nineteenth century became, in Hletzache1s words "immer entsohiedener, antiideallstlscher, gegenatflndllcher, furehtloser, arbeltsamer, m&asvoller, misstraulscher gegen plStzllche Verindenmgen, ant ire volut lonfir . Martin Saiander represents the culmination of just such a development in Keller. By means of this book he tried to persuade his people that the day of the idealistic revo­ lutionary was past, that the citizen of the future must 1/ Baeohtold.J., Gottfried Keller's Leben. Seine Briefe und Tagebfloher, Vol. Ill, p. 308. 2/ Lange, V., "The Present State of Nineteenth Century Studies in German Literature,n The Germanic Review. Vol. XVI, #4, 1941, p. 285. ” — 3— approach national and International problems objectively and realistically. In many respects, Martin Salandor might have been written for the American citizen of today. - 4- CHAPTER I THE LITERARY FORM OF MARTIN SALAHLER Martin Salandei* has been either neglected or decried by most critics, and this mainly on the score of artistic weakness. Therefore, although this study Is primarily concerned with Martin Salander as a social and political document, it is necessary also to comment briefly upon first the critical opinion of Martin Salander and to turn then briefly to a literary evaluation of the novel itself* The Critical Opinion of Martin Salander In comparison with the extensive research devoted to most of Keller1 s works, his Martin Salander has received little more than passing notice from the critics. Keller himself was not satisfied with Salander. feeling that in the rush of publication it had died under his hands* He was tired and was often unable to meet the monthly deadlines for publication in the Rundschau; s/ as he wrote the editor, Julius Rodenberg, BIch arbeite eben nlcht raehr leicht und spflre das Alter. Deshalb habe ich auch das Gefuhl, dasa die Arbeit an diesen Romans ctwas long- welllg und trivial aussehe und Hire wohlwol- l/ Letter to J.V. Widmann, 25 August, 1886. Keller, G., lerke. Vol. VII, p. 557. Zj Letter to J. Rodenberg, 18 April, 1886. Baechtold, J., Op. clt., Vol*. Ill, p. 598. -5-, leaden Bemejrkungen ein blsschen dem Strel- chain elnea mflden Genies glelehen. ” Keller continued to think this book an unlucky one. He had not been able to finish It as he wished. It was mis­ understood In Germany, and he did not think it worth the U translation Into English. Only the Swiss admitted that they were concerned with its message. The critics shared such opinions of Keller's about Martin Sal under. Robertson dismissed the novel in one sentence* "Finally, Martin Salander, a somewhat prosale and unimaginative novel of modern Swiss life, closes the series of his works In 1886*^ Von Klenze found Martin 3/ Salander. "...the work of his old age, though Inferior to Keller's best narratives furnishes inter­ esting, if somewhat depressing comment on the development of his political views." Lange called the book "a tendentious work of political 4/ fictio" T- and Bonnet, "his least successful produc- tion. A1 though Edith Yiharton claimed that Martin Salander was a novel which Keller's "more ardent devotees rank l/ Letter to K. Kroeker-Freillgrath, 8 August, 1887. Keller, G., Werke, Vol. VII, pp. 660-561. 2/ Robertson, J«, A History of Modern German Literature, p. 571. 3/ von Klense, C., From Goethe to Hauptmann, p. 126. Aj Lange, V., Modern German Literature, 1660-1940. p. 16. %J Bennet, F..‘"A History" of the German Novelle From w e the to Hauptmann, p. 178. 1/ high, among his works,M even such friends stinted their praise# Some critics thought Martin Salander merely needed the same kind of revision Keller had given Per grdne Heinrich# Others referred to It as an unfinished works "Martin Salander (1886) 1st rair ein Bruch- stuck eiiier geplanten umfangrelchern Dlch- tung# ...die Fortaetzung, die ... der Ver- nelnung echt kellerisch die Bejahong folgen lessen sollte, unterblieb#* 3/ Bartels also found a kind word to says "Imerhln flbertrlfft Martin Salander die moisten anderei polltischen licmane der Deutschen und wflrde, wenn der geplante sweite Tell noch geschaffen worden wire, vielleicht auch als Komposition mSchtlger wlrken. " Many critics thou^it Martin Salander Important as a political novel only. 8In selnem letzten Werk, Martin Salander, 1st zwar ein nftchterner Bealismus fShlbar, aber lebhafte, ja leldenechaftllche Tell- nabrae an dea polltischen Leben der Schweiz und vor allem seines Heimatskantons . .. durchflutet auch diesen Roman...B But even this political content was generally dismissed as too narrow In subject matter; as Weitbrecht put it. 1/ Wharton, E., ^introduction" to Keller*8 A Village Romeo and Juliet, p. xlv. 2/ Walgol. 0.. Die deutsehe Llteratur von Goethes Tod bis zur Qegenwart, p. 43. Keller, unhappy with the hurried ending he had written to Martin Salander. planned to write a second volume, viz. p. 15. 3/ Bartels, A., Qeachlchte der deutschen Llteratur. Vol. Hi, p. 568. 4/ Vogt, F., & Koch, M., Qeachlchte der deutschen Liters- "Eur. p. 365. - 7- an understanding of Salander demanded more than a mum­ mer's trip to Switzerland. A point of view which Keller did not anticipate is that which considers Martin Salander as the older Hein­ rich Lee. Kluge said Salander Mkann als cine Art Fort- 2/ setzung des giNtnen Heinrichs betraehtet warden,and Koenig made the statement: MDer Held Martin 1st ndmllch der grflne Hein­ rich in reiferem Mannesalter, wezm er aueh mit anderem Hamen und in anderem Gewande er- soheint und andere Ziele sich steekt als sein jugendlicher Yorgftnger. " The differences between the two novels, even as pointed out by Koenig himself, are so great as to make such a connection between Lee and Salander rather arbitrary. Recent criticism has had little to say about Martin Salander. There is a new school which maintains that Gotthelf overshadows Keller as a political novelist. This Is indeed a curious viewpoint and one which will, as Lange points out, "in the long run confuse the proper his* 4/ topical perspective.8 Keller surpasses Gotthelf in both political and historical breadth and in artistry. 1/ Weltbrecht, C., Deutsche LTteraturgoachlchte des 19. Jahrhunderts, p. 43. 2/ Kluge, H., Geachichte der deutschen Kational-Lltera- fair.