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 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Cambridge University Press and University of Notre Dame du lac on behalf of Review of Politics are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Review of Politics. http://www.jstor.org 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 I 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 roman- ticists,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