Arndt and the Nationalist Awakening in Germany 9780231878616

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STUDIES IN HISTORY, ECONOMICS AND PUBLIC LAW Edited by the FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

NUMBER 413

ARNDT AND THE NATIONALIST AWAKENING IN GERMANY BY

ALFRED Gr. PUNDT

ARNDT AND THE NATIONALIST AWAKENING IN GERMANY

BY

ALFRED G. PUNDT, PH.D. Instructor in History The Pennsylvania State College

NEW

YORK

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON : P. S. KING & SON, LTD.

1935

COPYRIGHT,

1935

BY COLUMBIA UNIVKRSITY

PRESS

PRINTED IN T H E UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Und ihr sollet euch wieder brüderlich gesellen zu einander, alle, die ihr Deutsche heisset und in deutscher Zunge redet, und den Trug bejammern, der euch so lange entzweit hat. — Kurser Katechismus für den teutschen Kriegs- und Wehrmann.

FOREWORD study does not profess to be a biography of Arndt or an analysis of all his writings and activities. It attempts, rather, to concentrate on such facts concerning his early environment and his intellectual development and achievements as are pertinent to an understanding of the kind of nationalist he was and the type of nationalism which he advocated during the Napoleonic Era and down to 1815. Special attention is given to his work as a propagandist—to his popular and patriotic pamphlets and poems. THIS

The year 1 8 1 5 constitutes an important landmark in the political history of Central Europe as well as in Arndt's public life, and it has been thought fitting, therefore, to terminate the study at this point. Although Arndt lived for forty-five years after the Congress of Vienna, his nationalism and his reputation for liberalism were suspect by the reactionary regime of those years, and with his suspension from the professorship of history at Bonn in 1 8 1 9 and his subsequent arrest for being involved in staatsgefahrliche Umtriebe und Verbindungen he lost a good deal of the immense influence and popularity he had achieved during the Liberation War. The writer welcomes this opportunity of acknowledging his great debt to Professor Carlton J . H. Hayes, of Columbia University, whose intelligent guidance and sympathetic encouragement must bear a large responsibility for whatever merit this work may possess. The author is also grateful to Professor G. T. Robinson, of Columbia University, for his many helpful suggestions as to form and organization as well as for his innumerable constructive criticisms of detail Likewise, Professor James E. Gillespie, of the Pennsylvania State College, has been especially helpful, giving cheerfully of his experience as a writer and a scholar. Finally, hearty thanks are extended to the library staffs of Columbia University, the University of Chicago, the State University of Iowa, the Pennsylvania State College, and the Congressional Library, for their courteous service in supplying material necessary for the prosecution of this study. 6

CONTENTS PAGE

CHAPTER I A Swedish Subject

9 C H A P T E R II

Transition

30 C H A P T E R III

Maelstrom, 1806-1813

67 C H A P T E R IV

Resurrection, 1813-1815

91 CHAPTER V

Conclusion

140

BIBLIOGRAPHY

177

INDEX

191

7

CHAPTER I A

SWEDISH

SUBJECT

O Eiland, das ich meine, Wie tut's nach dir mir weh! Nach Fluchten und nach Zügen Weit über Land und Meer, Mein trautes Ländchen Rügen, Wie mahnst du mich so sehr I

THE career of Ernst Moritz Arndt begins in the natal year of heroes. By a curious coincidence, the same year that saw the birth, on a Mediterranean island, of one of the greatest military geniuses of all time, witnessed also the birth, on another island in the Atlantic of the Duke of Wellington, perhaps Napoleon's greatest military adversary. It was in this fateful year — 1769 — that Rügen, a small island in the Baltic Sea, gave Germany one of her most colorful and devoted patriots. The paternal connection of the Arndt family reached back to Sweden proper. Our hero's great-grandfather, Andreas Arndt, had served as a corporal in the royal Swedish army and had for some years been attached to a Finnish regiment.1 A f t e r engaging in several wars, Andreas had abandoned military service, and, migrating across the Baltic from Sweden, had married into a family from Rügen, where he subsequently settled down as a serf on an estate 1 Wolfram, Richard, " Ernsit Moritz Arndt und Schweden," in Forschtmgen zur neueren Literaturgeschichte, vol. lxv (Weimar, 1933), p. 21

9

10

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of the count of Putbus.2 Rügen, being a part of Hither Pomerania, was at that time, and until the Congress of Vienna many years later, a dependency of Sweden. Ernst Moritz Arndt's father, Ludwig Nikolaus, a younger son in a large family, made his mark in the world as a shrewd and enterprising farmer. When but a youngster, his lord, Count Malte of Putbus, had often employed him as Jäger on his travels, and during the Seven Years War, Ludwig was sent on many responsible and dangerous missions. While still a young man he was made inspector of the Count's Schoritz estate. Presently hereupon, in recognition of his services and ability, Ludwig Nikolaus was freed from serfdom. He was a man of mild temperament, not given to extremes or strong partisanship. By nature not a militant Christian, he was nevertheless pious and Godfearing. As a father he was both kind and indulgent. The mother of Ernst Moritz, Friederike Wilhelmine Schumacher, was of a different cast.8 Hers was an emotional and religious nature. With a pietistic and mystical turn of mind she combined a lively intelligence. A soul of simplicity, she was inclined to be more austere than the circumstances of a thrifty lease-holder demanded. Vanity and the desire for pleasure held little seduction for her. In Arndt's own words: " A more cheerful and congenial soul in a fragile body nature has never created; courageous in good fortune, helpful in adversity, modest, pious and energetic, gifted with a rich imagination and a pure heart." 4 For much of this the autobiographical Hugo Rösch, volume schriften (Leipzig, Erinnerungen. 2

early period the writer's chief reliance has been on Erinnerungen aus dem äusseren Leben, edited by one of the Erste einheitliche Ausgabe seiner Haupt1892-1909). Henceforth this will be cited as

8 Cf. Meisner, H., " E. M. Arndts Mutter," in Vossische Sonntagsbeilage no. 36 (1897).

Zeitung,

* Quoted from a letter of 1805, in Ernst Morits Arndts Briefe an eine Freundin, edited by Erich Gülzow (Stuttgart and Berlin, 1928), p. 28.

A SWEDISH

SUBJECT

II

This is the picture of Arndt's mother that emerges from his writings. Professor Steffens colors and further illuminates this picture by the disclosure that Wilhelmine Schumacher had two illegitimate children before her marriage, the second of which was fathered by Ludwig Arndt. 5 This circumstance, however, must be considered in the light of the contemporary situation — against the background of the tumult and horror of the Seven Years' War in which this orphaned innkeeper's daughter was left to contend against the license and brutality of quartered mercenaries. No doubt her piety and almost religious devotion to her family was an attempt to atone for the weaknesses and passions of her youth. The early years of Arndt are associated with the estate Schoritz which his father had rented and which was situated on a bay separating the Zudar peninsula from Riigen proper. The Arndt home sat in the midst of large flower gardens and woods studded with tall birch and oak. Here the youthful Ernst Moritz lived in a dream world—a world of abundance, freedom and romance. The fantasy was punctuated by visits from Ernst Moritz's uncle and godfather, Moritz Schumacher, as well as from an old Prussian captain, von Wotke, from Further Pomerania. But the visitors did not always find Ernst's father at home, and in such instances, Moritz Schumacher sometimes amused his young nephew with interesting stories of war and murder as well as with chapters out of his own colorful experiences. About 1775 the stewardship over the Schoritz estate was abolished, whereupon Arndt's father, encouraged by credits advanced by some Stralsund friends, moved to Dumsewitz, where he leased several farms. Compared with Schoritz, Dumsewitz was in many respects primitive; it was like 5

Cited by Wolfram, op. cit., p. 24.

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going from palace to hut. There was a new but smaller house and the country roundabout was still comparatively wild. While as a farm it was crude, as a home this country enthralled the emotional and impulsive young Arndt. Since there was no school close at hand, Ernst Moritz divided his time between duties on the farm, bathing in the sound, and tramps through the wilds that he loved. Meanwhile the education of the Arndt children—of which there now were six, five boys and one girl—had not been entirely neglected. First the parents undertook to teach them the rudiments of reading, writing and arithmetic during the winter months. When they approached their teens, however, a new arrangement had to be made. Thus the eldest, Karl, was sent off to school at Stralsund, while a certain elderly Mr. Krai was engaged to tutor the rest. But Tutor Krai, feeling himself slighted, soon left, and school was out once more. A t this time Rügen still cultivated a pietistic Christianity.6 Here the zeal of the Reformation had persisted in spite of Deism and the Enlightenment. In fact, Rügen was little touched by the outside world, save the court circles, where the French language was spasmodically used. There were then few commoners on the island who even understood High German, Low German being almost everywhere the rule. Even in the best society, after a few stiff introductory compliments in High German, there was a quick and natural relapse into dialect. Thus, although Rügen had long been a part of Swedish Pomerania, the dominant nationality of its inhabitants was German. There also existed a generous hospitality on the island which involved a great deal of visiting and fed a spirit of conviviality. 7 6 Cf. Pommersche Geschichtsdenkmäler, (Greifswald, 1889), passim. 7

Erinnerungen, pp. 12-20.

vol. v, edited by Theodor Pyl

A SWEDISH

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13

In 1780 the Arndt family moved from Dunsewitz to Grabitz, which was situated in the northeast corner of the island, about four English miles from Stralsund. Here Ludwig Nikolaus leased the estates of Grabitz and Breesen from a Colonel von Schlagenteufel. Although the land here was not so romantic as at Schoritz, much of it was still uncultivated and wild. These early and formative years Arndt subsequently recalled as the happiest of his life. The unrestrained and spontaneous existence, unhampered by any formal and rigorous discipline, appealed strongly to his emotional and mystical temperament. He describes himself at this time as " a faithful, obedient and industrious young man," as " impetuous, obstinate and self-willed, both more stubborn and more bashful than any of my brothers." Visiting strangers, according to the same account, generally put him down last in the family. It was at Grabitz and Breesen that Ernst Moritz attended a regular school for the first time. A private tutor, Müller, was jointly engaged by his father and a certain neighbor, Lange. He taught the Arndt children and Lange's daughter writing, arithmetic, Bible, some history, geology and Latin. As a tutor Müller had his limitations, however, for he had been a soldier by profession, having served in the Prussian and Swedish armies. His whole bearing and approach were military and betrayed an ostentatious contempt of the peasantry and day-laborers, a circumstance that led, in 1783, to his displacement by Dankwardt, a theological student. Dankwardt had come largely through the initiative of the local pastors Stenzler and Krüger and of Ernst Moritz's mother with whom these two had great influence, and it was not long before he had thoroughly ingratiated himself with the Arndt parents. He was cheerful, sincere and pious. As Arndt later writes of him, he " had an eloquent

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head, a keen mind, and, although mediocre in French, weak in English and very weak in Greek, he was a passionate Latinist." 8 Later, as pastor, he remained a warm friend of the Arndt family. In spite of his late initiation into formal education, there were meanwhile many influences shaping the character and mind of the young Arndt. Life on the estates as renter, even in those days of post-coaches and poor roads, of few, little-read and expensive newspapers, did not necessarily entail isolation from the larger world wherein one lived. There were contacts through the visits of friends and relatives and the stimulus of such newspapers and books of legends, fairy tales and history as could be had. It is noteworthy that even the far distant American Revolution, which was then in progress, became a subject of lively controversy in the Arndt home. The young Arndt quickly championed the cause of England. Although early inculcated with liberal sympathies, he was firmly attached to the monarchical principle, for the whole setting of Riigen was strongly royalist. While Arndt's father took little interest in politics prior to 1800, the uncles, Hinrich Arndt and Moritz Schumacher, who were frequent visitors at Ernst Moritz's home, discussed politics at length and with strong partisanship. Both of the older men kept the youth informed of current events. Often on week-ends, too, young Ernst Moritz went to Posewald to visit with " Father " Arndt, as uncle Hinrich was reverently called. Radiant with cheer and goodness of heart, this man was truly a venerable patriarch. With a keen appreciation of the poetic and romantic, he enchanted his young nephew with old Riigen and Swedish fairy tales, stories and anecdotes. While Hinrich was all Swedish, Arndt's maternal uncle, Moritz Schumacher, was 8

Erinnerungen, p. 30.

A SWEDISH

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a staunch Prussian. He felt an unstinted veneration for everything Prussian, admired and respected many Prussians in Rügen, who as nobles and army officers had served under Prussian banners, and even took to wearing his own clothes in the style of a Prussian cavalryman. But Moritz Schumacher brought not only a sincere veneration for things Prussian into the Arndt home; he also carried with him a royalist air and a fervent worship of Frederick the Great. For the " alte Frits," still ruling with his iron hand from Sans Souci, was fast becoming in those days a legendary figure, a veritable god, in large sections of northern Germany. In addition to the rival uncles who often came to the Arndt home, there was frequent association with the Lutheran pastors, Stenzler and Krüger. On their way to Stralsund these men frequently stopped over at Grabitz as old family friends and usually left books for the children to read. In turn the Arndt boys, in company with the candidates—students of theology and candidates for ordination as preachers—often visited the houses of both Stenzler and Krüger. Meanwhile young Arndt had done a great deal of promiscuous reading, mostly in the form of poetry. While still at Grabitz he had read Pamela and the History of Sir Charles Grandison, by Samuel Richardson, Gellert's Swedish Countess, Goethe's Sorrows of Werther, Wieland's translations of Shakespeare, and various writings of Lessing, Eschenburg, Claudius, Bürger and Stolberg. This romantic propensity was naturally accentuated by " heaven-storming youths " like Kosegarten and Hagemeister who, with the candidates, often held literary sessions in the Arndt home, as well as by Ernst Moritz's poetically inclined younger brother Frederick. Often the latter and Frederick Schumacher joined young Ernst Moritz in "versifying" sessions.

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Even the stone walks in the Arndt garden presently bore the names of contemporary poets, such as Uz, Lessing and Bürger. Along with a youthful pre-occupation with romantic poetry went also much reading of another sort—in the realm of fantasy and history. The inspiration for much of young Arndt's historical interest came from translations of Pufendorf, dealing mostly with the Thirty Years' War, with the work of Gustavus Adolphus and that of the Great Elector Frederick William. A s the court historiographer successively of Sweden and then of Brandenburg, Pufendorf had not always maintained a strictly objective attitude, especially in his treatment of France and French politics.9 It was natural, therefore, that Pufendorf's work should strongly move the impressionable Arndt against the " ambitious and atrocious deeds of Louis X I V " and inculcated in him a profound hostility toward the whole French people. Already at this early age he was prepared to celebrate an English victory over the French. It was at this time, too, that Arndt's interest in fairy tales was rapidly developing, so that he took special delight in vying with his brother in the extemporaneous telling of stories. Such was the carefree, congenial and romantic life of young Ernst Moritz until his seventeenth year, that is, until 1787. In this year his father gave up his holdings at Grabitz and Breesen and took an eighteen-year lease on the so-called Löbnitz estates, situated on the main highway between Stralsund and Rostock, about thirteen miles from the former. In the same year young Arndt entered the Gymnasium 10 at Stralsund, beginning in the second form. 11 8 Rödding, Hans, Pufendorf als Historiker und Politiker (Halle, 1912), p. 49 et seq. 10

A gelehrte Schule corresponding to the later Gymnasium.

11

The Sekunda, next to the highest form or grade.

A SWEDISH

SUBJECT

A s his father was in straitened circumstances, some unknown patrons were induced, through the initiative of pastor Stenzler and a certain Mr. Brunst, to supply sufficient funds to keep Ernst Moritz in Stralsund. Here Arndt spent the next t w o years as a diligent and industrious student. Although his academic work at Stralsund was largely a continuation of what he had previously been studying, this Stralsund period nevertheless marked an important development in him. This was due, on the one hand, to the novel environment and, on the other, to his introduction to a new field of interest. Stralsund was then a city of considerable importance. In the Middle A g e s it had been the second city in Pomerania. Broad market squares, quaint old town buildings and imposing churches, all attested to its ancient glory — impressive reminders of a glorious past. T o a young man inured to the hardy but pious and somewhat austere routine of a thrifty and enterprising farmer, however, Stralsund seemed " l o o s e " in both manners and morals. The whole atmosphere of the city seemed sensual to him, that of a population given over to the enjoyment of ease and pleasure. Moreover, the existence of the Swedish-Pomeranian soldiery, a band of mercenaries gathered from the four corners of the world, constituted an unedifying local influence, " a cancer in the healthy body of the citizenry." 12 T h e consciousness of dawning manhood as well as the fortifying admonitions of his ageing and sickly mother both tended to give Ernst Moritz a more serious mood. It was a crisis in his life. O n the other hand, here were new sources of inspiration and interest in the form of new associates, teachers and books. Upon his arrival he had taken lodging at the home of the assistant principal, Furchau. A s his room was adjacent to the assistant principal's library, it was not long until 12

Erinnerungen, p. 57.

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he began to explore its stores. Then when Furchau became a family friend these opportunities were definitely assured. Coming to Stralsund as a rustic, his unsophisticated manner and homespun clothes at first provoked derision among his fellows. But his competence in the art of self-defense as well as his methodical and assiduous enterprise soon made a favorable impression and in two years he counted among his companions K a r l Rudolphi, later professor of anatomy at Berlin, Johann Pommer-Esche, subsequently the historian of the island of Rügen, Friedrich Reincke and Ernst von Gagern. These he often joined in tramps into the country and, in the winter, in skating and sleighing. Y o u n g A r n d t also frequently made visits to friends and acquaintances of his father in Stralsund. Many of these, with a view to cutting down his expense, invited him to dinner. But, while such dinners brought him into the best society, he declined many of them lest they should tempt him to epicurean living and a neglect of his studies. It was while at Stralsund that Arndt experienced his first serious conflicts of conscience. N o w , for the first time, he was left to shift for himself somehow, remote from the restraining and fostering solicitude of fond parents. Then, too, these years marked the noon-tide of his adolescence, a circumstance which imposed upon him trying problems of self-discipline. Moreover, in a youngster reared in a rural atmosphere of simplicity and true Christian piety, the sophisticated manners and lax morals of urban Stralsund aroused many qualms of conscience. Thus we see his transition from the simplicity, the blissful innocence and freedom of country life to the rigorous discipline of the Gymnasium as a process of disillusionment, struggle and renunciation. 13 1 8 Meisner, Heinrich, " Ernst Moritz Arndt und Charlotte Quistorp," in Nord und Süd, Band 78 (July, 1896), H e f t 232, p. 105.

A SWEDISH

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During the Stralsund period, Arndt's greatest intellectual interest was in history, which was then taught there according to Schrock's Lehrbuch der allgemeinen Geschichte. This " exalted a kind of historical pragmatism, connecting and applying all events with and to the present, according to the methods of the Enlightenment." 14 Tutor Dankwardt had already introduced him to Caesar and Livy, both of whom helped to intensify his subjective outlook upon history in general. Now he read Ovid's Metamorphoses and Terence's poems, and presently Cicero's Letters, Tacitus, Virgil and Horace. But he never became partial to the Romans whom, with the Spartans, he regarded as perverted—perverted by virtue of their militarism which, while cultivating and exalting the warrior virtues of moral courage and physical strength, at the same time fostered the most abject slavery and indisposed them to the cultivation of the arts.15 When, in 1789, Arndt finished his course at Stralsund, he hardly knew what to turn to. A t the annual presentation and examination of the students, he had come off among the first, and it was confidently expected that he would attend a university. Most of the graduates of the school at Stralsund continued their education at the university of Gottingen, but the thought of university life roused serious misgivings in the impressionable young Arndt. It seemed too easy, too monotonous and dull, and student life in his mind was too much identified with carousing, debauchery, vice and ostentation. Prices had gone up as a result of the Revolution in France, and his father's farms were flourishing, yet the prospect of a university career left him unmoved. Much more congenial to him was the life of a farmer, or, at all events, a career closely associated 11

Miisebeck, Ernst, E. M. Arndt (Gotha, 1914), p. 26.

15

Ibid., p. 74.

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with what in his imagination was the fine, hardy, wholesome and simple life of the peasant. Thus, without notice to anyone, young Arndt set out from Stralsund in the fall of 1789 with the object of finding a post as secretary to a farmer. With ten dollars in his pocket and a bag of clean linen on his back, the young man went forth to seek his fortune. A f t e r two days of wandering, he came within sight of Greifswald, but fearing to meet with acquaintances, he avoided the city proper and then proceeded up the Peene river. Along the way he sought among the gentry and the more well-to-do farmers a position as secretary or bookkeeper. Finally, after many failures, an old captain, von Parsenow, after proffering him food and lodging, agreed to employ him, pending his father's consent. But his father urged him to return home immediately where he should have every opportunity to learn farming. This was soon agreed to, and the years from 1789 to 1 7 9 1 Ernst Moritz spent at home in Löbnitz; not so much in farming, however, as in studying. This course had been strongly urged upon him by teachers and friends, and now an eager pursuit of knowledge was joined to a self-imposed Spartan discipline to mold a cultivated mind in a hardy body. In the meantime Arndt had been seriously considering entering the ministry. He had very probably been led to this not only by his mother but also by his own impressionable and sensitive nature which instinctively recoiled at the more sordid aspects of reality. In any event, the following two years, 1 7 9 1 to 1793, young Arndt studied theology at the university of Greifswald. But he also found time for the study of natural science, philosophy, history, geology and languages, the latter entirely on his own initiative. His principal teachers at Greifswald were Muhrbeck the elder, a native of Sweden who lectured on philosophy and an

A SWEDISH

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ardent critic of Kant, Brismann, also a Swede, " a clear and sprightly intellect," and Schlegel. 16 A t Greifswald he seems to have entered upon a normal, carefree and comfortable student career. W i t h fellow students he often made evening excursions to the seaside village of Wieck, where a certain Mrs. Möller gave them shelter and food. Here, in a party, they often drank, bowled and played, or went on walks and sailing expeditions. Arndt appears, from the correspondence, to have entered fully into the student life at Greifswald. 1 7 T h e spring of 1793 took Arndt to Jena where he hoped to finish his theological course. Here he made contacts with Griesach, Schütz, Reinhold, Fichte, Ulrich and Paulus. Although little interested in philosophy, in which Jena then specialized, he found the university atmosphere stimulating. W h a t impressed Arndt most at Jena were Ulrich's lectures on the history of philosophy and literature, and Fichte's fiery personality. Heinrich's lectures on general German history and recent Saxon history, on the other hand, impressed him as " dry and monotonous as the Sela desert." But somehow he did not fully enter into the university spirit at Jena, owing probably to home influence, to his ideal of a spotless and chaste theologian, and also to a secret affair of the heart. More interesting to the budding pastor was the country in that part of Saxony, and he delighted in making excursions in all directions from Jena. But the great event was the trip home, taking him by w a y of Leipzig, Dessau, over the H a r z mountains and Brunswick, thence over the Lüneburg moor and through Hamburg. 1 6 Foreword to Briefe an eine Freundin, ed. by E. Langenberg (Berlin, 1878). This reference is to Gottlieb Schlegel (1739-1810), theologian and preacher who, after 1790 became first professor of theology and generalsuperintendent at Greifswald. 1 7 Meisner, Heinrich, " Ernst Mortiz Arndt und Charlotte Quistrop," in Nord und Süd, Band 78 (July, 1896), H e f t 232, p. 106.

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It was in the interval between Greifswald and Jena that Arndt experienced his first love affair. Charlotte Marie Quistorp, an illegitimate daughter of a Greifswald professor of natural science, seems to have been the object of the adoring enthusiasm of many a son of the muses before Arndt met her. Fragmentary accounts picture her as a remarkable young lady, sprightly, with an open nature, and a heart full of tenderness and the proper romantic emotions. A f t e r undergoing a serious illness she blossomed out into a beautiful and mature woman. After meetings with many a young gallant, experiences that soon began to cast a shadow on her reputation, came a warm attachment to Arndt. V e r y shortly after their first meeting followed a mutual declaration and a secret engagement. Thus, in the spring of 1793, while the young lady went to a Pension at Barth, Arndt left Greifswald with love in his heart and began a new student career at Jena. 18 It was this sudden but profound attachment that gave Arndt's career an especially determined and serious direction, as is evidenced in his letter to Benjamin von Bergmann: " Out of the agreeable mist of confusion and spiritual delirium which does not entirely let me sense the transition into philistine life, I see in retrospect a blissful yet an all too quickly gone past and before me an uncertain future, which, when this agreeable mist lifts, reveals no golden sun. Until now I enjoyed life and let others w o r k ; now comes the time of action and work for me, too." 19 A f t e r a year 2 0 at Jena, Arndt returned to Löbnitz once more, where, until 1796, he tutored his younger brothers 1 8 Meisner, Heinrich, " Ernst Mortiz Arndt und Charlotte Quistrop," in Nord und Süd, Band 78 (July, 1896), H e f t 232, p. 108. 19 Ein Lebensbild 1898), p. 18.

in Briefen,

edited by Meisner and Geerds (Berlin,

20 T w o years according to the foreword to Briefe op. cit.

an eine

Freundin,

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and sisters. In the latter year an old family friend, Pastor Kosegarten, engaged him as tutor for his children, a position he held for the next two years. His duties were very light, and most of his time he employed in exploring the extensive library of the pastor. It was during this period that he was examined by the elder Schlegel, 21 became a formal candidate for ordination and was admitted to preach. H e did preach on several occasions. But it was just here at Wittow, 2 2 where people began to take his spiritual role seriously, that he lost his resolution to enter the church. It was owing principally, he says, to his realization of the large role played by politics in preaching appointments in Pomerania and Rügen, where clerical appointments seemed to be virtually bought and sold, or at least much influenced by political connections with Stockholm. Probably also the contemporary lukewarmness toward theology and the clergy in general influenced his decision. T h e chief reason for Arndt's rejection of the clerical career, however, seems to have been a matter of the heart rather than of the mind, as is clearly disclosed by his contemporary correspondence. A s a teacher he had quickly won the affection of the Kosegarten children, and as preacher at W i t t o w he had soon gathered a large congregation. As Arndt was of marriageable age, many of his friends and relatives now came forward with various proposals for his marriage into a family enjoying the patronage of a comfortable pastorate ( f e t t e Pfründe), as was the custom among prospective preachers in Pomerania during the Swedish régime. In his anxiety to see his son well situated and suitably married, Arndt's father opened negotiations with a certain pastor, Scheer, who was trying to make a match for his daughter and install the prospective pair in 21

Probably, Gottlieb Schlegel ; cf. footnote 16.

22

N e a r Altenkirchen in Rügen, where Kosegarten preached

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the Langenhanshager parish. The issue was thus squarely joined; either Ernst Moritz must marry a woman whom he did not love, and be assured of clerical preferment, or he must renounce this and remain true to his student love. His decision, as well as the confession of his earlier engagement, he expressed in a touching letter to his father in the spring of 1798: " I will not now nor ever become a preacher. . . . Even if the lady were the most perfect in my eyes, this condition is ruled out. I have been for a long time bound to a girl by a bond which only a strong power can rend asunder. This is the Mamsell Quistorp, who once was staying in the Pension of Madame Fischer at Barth. . . . If, despite all external appearances to the contrary, I respect in her a glowing and noble heart, if I regard her as above all the women in the world, then surely you will not deny me your consent but rather bless me with your whole heart." 23 Hereupon, the parents, who had feared that this match might cloud Ernst Moritz's future, bowed to the inevitable and gave their assent. Arndt had not yet found himself. His early years had been carefree, untroubled and unscarred, and, when he left home it had rarely been for a long time. His sensitive and emotional nature was still deeply rooted in the provincialism of a prosperous Pomeranian farmer and, although Ernst Moritz already displayed an ever more insistent curiosity in the larger world in which he lived, he was still spiritually far removed from that world. A strong predilection for the simple life of a peasant and pietist led him to the idea of a career as notary to a large-scale farmer. But this romantic idealization of country life was not strong enough to overbalance the prospects that a fine liberal education presented 28 Meisner, Heinrich, " Ernst Moritz Arndt und Charlotte Quistorp," in Nord und Siid, op. cit., p. 111 et seq.; cf. Ein Lebensbild in Brie fen, op. cit., p. 26.

A SWEDISH to his lively imagination.

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25

Then he had undertaken some

tutoring, meanwhile completing the course in theology.

But

a passionate love barred his w a y to a comfortable ministry. E v e n though he had not, in his complacent semi-provincial existence, been strongly attracted to the larger world about him, he was not content now to resign himself to the conventional routine of a sedate and secure existence.

A dual-

ism asserted itself in his character, a struggle of the passive, contemplative and retiring man against the ambitious, publicspirited and adventurous man of action. T h e period from the spring of 1 7 9 8 to the fall of

1799

was for A r n d t a period of adventure, the beginning of an adventure in which he was first to find himself.

T h e pros-

perous condition of his father's business fortunately supplied him with adequate means for the enterprise.

H i s first im-

pulse drove him to Vienna where he visited for several months.

Then he proceeded to Hungary, and thence across

the Alps into Italy.

While he was in Tuscany he was sur-

prised by the outbreak of war which obliged him to abandon a projected tour to Rome, Sicily and Naples.

Going north-

ward, he came to Marseilles and from there went on to Paris where he spent the entire summer.

Thence he pro-

ceeded to Brussels and eastward to Cologne, Frankfurt, Leipzig, Berlin and Pomerania.

Undertaken merely out of

impulsive curiosity to see the world and an overpowering restlessness, this tour had no definite direction or destination.

Nevertheless, it greatly enriched his understanding of

lands and peoples.

It was a valuable supplement to his

formal training, and it gave him new interests and already sowed the seeds of his subsequent patriotic activities; it marked the beginning

of

his transition

from

Swedish-

Pomeranian provincialism to a passionate German patriotism.

But the fire was as yet only smouldering, and it

required a national catastrophe to stir it into raging flames.

26

ARNDT

AND

THE

NATIONALIST

AWAKENING

O n his return home in 1800 Arndt married Charlotte Marie Quistorp and became Privatdozent at Greifswald, and the following year, largely through the influence of Dr. Quistorp, his father-in-law, he was made assistant ( A d j u n k t ) in the philosophical faculty at a salary of 300 Thaler.2* Altogether he was connected with this university for nine years, about half of which were spent in travel, largely in Sweden. In 1806 he was made associate (ausserordentlicher) professor with a salary increase of 200 Thaler — a circumstance that made foreign travel possible. Beginning with lectures on philosophy, Arndt soon took to lecturing on history, and in this field he continued during the remainder of his connection with the university of Greifswald. It is important to point out here that Arndt's connection with Greifswald gave him close contacts with prominent Swedes on the university's staff, and it was this which was largely responsible for his subsequent Swedish travels and which in general fostered in him a pro-Swedish sentiment. 25 Greifswald was then a small and obscure school, almost unknown. Regarded as a kind of preparatory school for Swedish universities, no attempt was made to enlarge or improve it and, consequently, it offered little in the way of intellectual stimulation. Nevertheless, Greifswald was long fondly remembered by Arndt as the source of some fine and enduring friendships, notably with Rudolphi, Muhrbeck the younger, Rühs and Schildener. In the spring of 1807, several months after Arndt's flight to Sweden, 28 the French marshal Soult brought about Arndt's formal suspension and 24

Probably Reichsthaler, worth about 75c.

Müsebeck, E., " Ernst Moritz Arndts Stellung zum friedericianischen Preussen und zur französischen Revolution," in Preussische Jahrbücher, vol. 117 (1907), p. 262. 25

26 The French invasion of Germany in 1806 obliged Arndt to flee to Sweden where he remained an involuntary exile until 1808.

A SWEDISH

SUBJECT

27

had Kosegarten, an ardent admirer of Napoleon and a lifelong enemy of Arndt, appointed to his place. When Arndt returned to Greifswald to resume his duties in 1808, he found himself in the midst of a Francophile staff. In order to give a fuller understanding of Arndt's character, brief mention should be made of certain incidents in his private life. A s a young student at Stralsund and later at Greifswald, Arndt had consistently kept aloof from the society of young women. Yet in both cases he gradually developed a large circle of young men friends who, particularly in Greifswald, were chiefly sons of resident faculty members. All association with the local set of young women he deliberately shunned, seemingly out of a sense of reserve. A s he says of himself later, " an obstinate timidity toward all women which left me only in later years, held me back." 27 The first love affair of Arndt's life centered, as we have said, in the person of Charlotte Marie Quistorp. It led to his marriage in 1800, but the very next year, with the birth of a son, the life of the young mother came to an end. T w o years later we find Arndt penning love songs to a certain Charlotte Bindemann of Barth, a friend of his first wife and a sister-in-law of his friend, Professor Billroth. For almost a decade this remarkable woman seems to have exerted a profound influence over Arndt. The affair came to an end in 1810, when, at her father's instigation, she retracted her promise to marry the " political adventurer." Already before this time Arndt had begun a forty-five years' correspondence with Johanna Henrietta Charlotte von Kathen, born Mühlenfels. They had met in the winter of 1804, probably at an evening gathering at some mutual friend's home in Greifswald. Their correspondence began the following year and an examination of these letters re27 Briefe an Freunde pp. 80 et seq.

(Altona, 1810), pp. 172, 176; cf.

Erinnerungen,

28

ARNDT

AND

THE

NATIONALIST

AWAKENING

veals the profound influence the couple exerted upon each other as well as the strong bond of common interests that underlay their friendship. 28 W e have already alluded to Arndt's early interest in politics, his early contacts with historical annals and newspapers, his uncle Hinrich's strong Swedish influence as well as Moritz Schumacher's staunch Prussian patriotism, the early royalist impressions left by a local veneration of the Swedish sovereign and likewise by Pufendorf's royalist preachments, the young Moritz's partisanship for England in the American Revolution, and his cursory reading of history books and annals. Hereupon suddenly the French Revolution burst upon the world, a revolution that soon became the subject of controversy everywhere. In his Erinnerungen, Arndt states that the French Revolution, at the time of its inception, " had more friends than enemies in the Arndt home " and that " in spite of my hostility to that nation I belonged more to the former than to the latter." 29 However this may be, we have seen that it was not until toward the very end of the eighteenth century that Arndt took any serious interest in politics. Until that time he was still immersed in the sensuous impressions of childhood and youth — in a poetic-romantic world of the imagination—in Sturm und Drang literature, in the current rationalism, and was being touched by Romanticism. It was not until after his foreign travel in 1798 and 1799 that he gained anything like a realistic impression of the Revolution in France, 30 and not until several years after the turn of the century that he began to understand its significance. Moreover, it was not until after 1805 that he really became a German patriot. In fact, prior to this time, his 28

Briefe an eine Freundin, op. cit., p. 7 et seq.

29

Erinnerungen, Leffson edition, p. 72. Müsebeck, E., Preussische Jahrbücher, op. cit., p. 265 et seq.

80

A SWEDISH

SUBJECT

29

closest political contacts and his loyalties were more Swedish than German, as, speaking of the years before 1806, he says later, " I was still on the Baltic, f a r from the theatre of operations, and had, as yet, more a Swedish than a German heart." 3 1 Thus, also, before the disasters of Jena and Auerstedt, he was not only indifferent but actually hostile to Prussia which he epitomized as a " despotic military state, a gigantic machine whose achievements, while they cannot be denied, are nevertheless bought too dearly." 32 Thus also, in 1804, he wrote to his sister Dorothea from Sweden, " the Prussian air doesn't suit me." 81 82

Erinnerungen,

p. 80.

Hübner, A., "Arndt und der deutsche Gedanke," in Magazin, Heft 1030 (1925), p. 12.

Pädagogisches

C H A P T E R II TRANSITION Ich sehe dein Unglück und das Unglück deiner Kinder, und müsste ein heilloser Bösewicht sein wenn ich nicht mit einem W o r t e der Strafe und Warnung drein werfe.

THE year 1806 marked the beginning of a new phase in the life of Arndt. A s he says ten years later, " The years 1787 to 1806 were the years of my youth, what was still seen, heard and experienced unconsciously by me in the first half of these years the other half has brought to consciousness." 1 What was the character of his intellectual genesis during this period ? W e have already pictured the youth of Arndt as set in a background of romance and fantasy. With the shedding of that dream-world came a growing absorption in the classics and the romantic literature of the Sturm und Drang. Meanwhile he had, no doubt, made contacts with the pietistic mysticism of Jacob Böhme and the educational theories of Rousseau.2 His academic study of history, which was not very thorough, owed much in this early stage to Hume.8 Intellectually, therefore, he began as a child of Pietism and Romanticism, touched by the Enlightenment.4 1 Geschichte der Veränderungen Verhältnisse in dem vormaligen (Berlin, 1817), p. 15.

der bäuerlichen und herrschaftlichen schwedischen Pommern und Rügen

2 For contrasts and parallels with Rousseau's pedagogical ideas see F. Menzel, " Rousseausche Ideen in E. M . Arndts Fragmente über Menschenbildung," in Pädagogisches Magazin, H e f t 477 (1912), pp. 31-33. s Cf. Klätte, Erna, Studien über die Stellung des jungen Arndt su den Ideen der Geschichtsschreibung des 18. Jahrhunderts (Bonn, 1922).

* Ruth, P . H., " Arndt und die Geschichte," in Historische Beiheft 18 (1930), pp. 16-20. 30

Zeitschrift,

TRANSITION

31

Then came his first love affair and foreign travel. Already in the Reisen, published in 1805, appear evidences of the influence of Herder's humanitarianism and of the particular romanticism of Rousseau and Adam Müller,5 and likewise a crystallization of Hume's empiricism into a positive and dynamic historical perspective. Arndt's earlier studied objectivity gave way after the turn of the century to a clearly formulated point of view, to stern moral purposes, in the same way as his earlier aimless career was now definitely charted.® The personality of Charlotte Bindemann was perhaps the most potent influence upon Arndt during the ten years following the death of his first wife. All their correspondence has apparently been destroyed, but she must have been singularly influential in fertilizing his long latent powers of creation and giving him the necessary stimulus to abandon a narrow academic career. Under her spell he consecrated himself to combat and strife and laid the foundations of an illustrious career.7 This illustrious career, this combat and strife, he sought in a crusade of patriotism. What influences had been at work to carry him beyond the pale of his complacent Swedish-Pomeranian provincialism and mold him into a passionately patriotic German? A beginning in this direction had already been made even before he left home for the first time. A n extensive reading in old chronicles and compendiums had laid the foundation for his knowledge of the antique world and of Swedish and German history. But, as a child of the Enlightenment, he had come to think of Germans not as nationals but as cos5 Cf. Frömbgen, Hans, E. (Münster, 1926), pp. 46-48. 8

M.

Arndt

und die deutsche

Ruth, op. cit., pp. 23-26.

Ruth, op. cit., p. 80; cf. Gülzow, Erich, Ernst Moritz Schweden (Greifswald, 1920), p. 20. 7

Romantik

Arndt

in

ARNDT

AND

THE

NATIONALIST

AWAKENING

mopolites, as he says in 1807 : " A s a boy twenty years ago I had already heard us Germans commended by Germans but I assure you that this commendation did not appeal to me. . . . F o r in my heart I carried the conception of Germans as true and proud nationals and not as the cosmopolites and philosophers that they actually were or aspired to be. Thus it exasperated me to hear my Germans praised as cosmopolites, as men who everywhere transcended national frontiers and ideals and who, after the fashion of their more enlightened contemporaries, disdained all ' petty ' ideas of nation and fatherland as incompatible with their world vision. T o my mind it was this cosmopolitanism which was to be disdained because I really wanted to be proud of my German people for the sake of their peculiar culture and tradition." 8 It was in this early period that he first read Rousseau, who, he says, " profoundly affected me." 9 W h a t he read of Rousseau was chiefly the Emile (in a poor translation), but while it probably greatly influenced his early emotional life, it seems to have played a minor role in the patriotic spell that came later, even though the Rousseauean influence was also purveyed by several Kantian teachers at Jena. Moreover, the influence of Herder accentuated Arndt's early predilection for folklore in general, and for the German national culture in particular. Thus Arndt's Reisen, Germania und Europa and Die Freiheit der alten Republiken seek to comprehend the individual and a whole people and their development in terms of their peculiar characteristics and their special environment instead of invoking generally valid logical laws. Their ideas seem clearly to echo Herder, who already in 1791 had explained that everything which happens on this earth is conditioned by the situation or re8

Quoted by Miisebeck, op. cit., p. 20.

9

Ibid., p. 21.

TRANSITION

33

quirements of the place where it occurs, by the circumstances and opportunities of the period in which it transpires and by the acquired or inherent character of the people in question.10 Herder's Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit was already well known by the turn of the century and it is not unlikely that Herder's ideas were an important part of the general stock of knowledge of the time. Moreover, while at Stralsund Arndt no doubt felt the influence of the " Heynish " philology which, according to his own account, 11 was then reigning there, and Heyne 1 2 may be regarded as a disciple of Herder. Besides, among the early patriotic influences upon him was that of Pufendorf who, as Arndt himself admits, early embittered him against the whole French nation. Without doubt Pufendorf was also instrumental in planting in Arndt the germs of a dynamic German patriotism.13 Even at the Gymnasium at Stralsund, where history interested him most and where the history of Europe from the decline of Rome to the Peace of Westphalia consisted largely of the history of Germany, he already showed a partisanship for the German emperors against the popes and great vassals and mourned the fate of Henry I V and Frederick II, the last great Hohenstaufen. All these early impressions had created in him a sympathetic feeling toward the German people as a whole; but it was not until his travels in 1799 that a vigorous sense of nationalism first budded. This was probably due, on the one hand, to the profound impression made upon him by the old Rhenish cities of Cologne, Mainz and Coblenz, as well as by the imperial city of Frankfurt, with all their profuse reminders of an ancient German 1 0 Herder, J. G., Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit, edited by E. Kühnemann (Stuttgart, 1893), vol. ii, book xii, p. 487. 11

Erinnerungen, p. 53.

12

Christian Gottlob Heyne (1729-1812), German classical philologist.

13

On the romantic influence, cf. Frömbgen, op. cit., p. 58 et seq.

34

ARNDT

AND

THE

NATIONALIST

AWAKENING

glory and, on the other hand, to his experiences in non-German lands. Thus Arndt says of the Germans in his Reisen: " W e had forgotten that there is such a thing as national or patriotic sentiment which is often as potent and vitalizing as the emotional enthusiasm for, and romantic attachment to liberty. This national spirit . . . dwells among every noble and enterprising nation enjoying independence and fosters its finest virtues." 14 Manifestations of this spirit he had witnessed in Hungary, though he felt it to be strongest in France and wholly absent from Germany. O f the latter he regretfully acknowledges that " a people of thirty million souls is become the butt of all Europe, it lacks all feeling of national solidarity." 15 Admiring the militant patriotism o f the French, he became a bitter critic of the old particularist and cosmopolitan Germany and within a few years dedicated his life to the nationalist awakening of Germany. N o sooner had Arndt returned and settled in Greifswald in 1800 than he published his first extensive work. 1 6 This was a brochure entitled Ein menschliches Wort ueber die Freiheit der Alten Republiken and was dedicated to Baron Essen, governor-general of Pomerania and Riigen and chancellor of the academy there. Later it was republished in the form of a dissertation for his Magister degree awarded the same year. The central thesis of the work was to emphasize the importance of civic and political liberty as a factor in, or condition of, cultural achievement and progress in any state or society. Commenting in some detail upon the culture o f Sparta, Athens and Rome, Arndt here seeks to show that notwithstanding their comparative cultural advancement, their political organization was fatally defective. 14

Quoted by Miisebeck, op. cit., p. 6i.

™ Ibid. 1 8 During the latter 1790's many of Arndt's poems were published in Aschenberg's Bergisches Taschenbuch.

TRANSITION

35

This defect he saw in the rule of the aristocracy, in the ruthless exploitation of the masses, and, above all, in the absence of a well-established constitutional tradition to insure the supremacy of the law. Soon afterwards he began the publication of his highly instructive Reisen durch einen Theil Deutschlands. In preparation for his visit to France he had read the then very popular work of Friedrich Schulz, Über Paris und die Pariser, which pictured the French capital on the eve of the Revolution, and in his o w n book he also refers to Myer's travel works, Mercier's pictures of Paris and George Forster's Ansichten vom Niederrhein, von Brdbant, Flandern, Holland, England und FrankreichWhile Arndt's own work was undoubtedly colored by these readings, it displayed much originality, especially in its description of French character and in its account of the political situation in France in the last year of the Directory. 18 In 1803 appeared two other works. The first of these, Germanien und Europa, written in 1802, Arndt himself describes as a " wild and choppy elucidation of my sentiment about the current state of the world." 19 The second was Versuch einer Geschichte der Leibeigenschaft in Pommern und Rügen which, after a short survey of serfdom in Germany as a whole, and after tracing the genesis and development of the institution in Pomerania and Rügen since the twelfth century, pointed out the urgency and outlined the procedure of reform. The work bore the motto, " In a free state, tongue and spirit must be free." Whatever may have occasioned the work, it clearly indicated Arndt's strong liberal convictions. A f t e r all, he was himself of " servile " 1 7 Forster is discussed in A l f r e d Stern, Der Einfluss der französischen Revolution auf das deutsche Geistesleben (Stuttgart and Berlin, 1928), pp. 16 et seq. 18

Müsebeck, op. cit., pp. 48 et seq.

19

Erinnerungen, p. 86.

36

ARNDT AND THE NATIONALIST

AWAKENING

stock and sympathized fully with the largely inarticulate demands of the serfs f o r emancipation. A l r e a d y as a boy he had acquired a wide and sympathetic understanding of Swedish history and never ceased to admire the people and institutions o f a land in which serfdom was unknown. Moreover, he had early been brought into sympathetic touch with English history. A m o n g all the newer historical works he most highly prized Hume's History of England, and E n g land soon became to him the model o f a free state. Whether this was o w i n g to Hume's or Montesquieu's influence, both o f w h o m he read assiduously, is debatable, but the fact remains. Both in England and in Sweden the existence of a large measure o f personal liberty did much, he felt, to promote strength of character and breed a sense o f national solidarity among the people as a whole. Immediately the Versuch einer Geschichte der Leibeigenschaft in Pommern und Rügen created something of a sensation. It stirred up considerable debate and provoked much antagonism not only a m o n g the nobility, against whom it was felt to be especially directed, but also among large numbers o f the gentry and great renters, w h o began t o regard the y o u n g writer as a corrupter o f the people and an inciter of revolution among the peasants. A group of noblemen led by a Baron Schultz von Aschenraden, a broker of peasant properties, and t w o brothers von Bagewitz, after having underlined certain passages which they deemed seditious, went to the length of showing the pamphlet to K i n g Gustavus Adolphus I V of Sweden. Whereupon, in order to have the writer called to account, Gustavus sent the w o r k to General Essen at the university of Greifswald. B u t Arndt, in answer, proceeded to underline other passages in elucidation o f those in question, requesting that the whole be returned to the K i n g . Gustavus, it may be noted, had already intended to free the serfs in Pomerania and Rügen, but w a r

TRANSITION

37

had supervened; now, following closely upon the heels of Arndt's essay, the Swedish King finally decreed the abolition of serfdom in his German lands and in the same year his decree was formally ratified by the Swedish Diet.20 Shortly after this affair Arndt returned to Greifswald, having meanwhile requested a leave of absence in order to make a long-projected tour of Sweden. Beginning in the fall of 1803, he spent a whole year in travel through various parts of the northern kingdom. But this was only the first of a series of travels which he undertook in Sweden in subsequent years. In the meantime he published the account of the first tour in 1804 as his Reisen durch Schweden. T w o years later, while Arndt was still in Greifswald, King Gustavus I V of Sweden made some far-reaching changes in the constitutional status of Pomerania and Rügen. In April, 1806, he issued an order for the establishment of a Pomeranian militia. But the Pomeranian officials, bound by oath to observe the ancient constitution, refused to execute the edict, whereupon they were summarily dismissed. Then, in the summer of 1806, the existing Pomeranian government was abolished, while simultaneously the Swedish constitution and Swedish laws were extended to Pomerania. Following these measures came the abolition of serfdom and an administrative reorganization of the province. Arndt later asserted that he had been asked, in the fall of 1805, to assist in drafting the edict of emancipation. Be that as it may, in the following year, before the close of the academic term, he received a call from the government office in Stralsund to assist in the Swedish reforms. Meanwhile, a curious incident occurred in the summer of 1806 while Arndt was occupied with these matters in the chancellery in Stralsund. One evening, while he was chatting with colleagues and friends in a public garden and all 90

Erinnerungen, pp. 86 et seq.

38

ARNDT

AND

THE

NATIONALIST

AWAKENING

were becoming exhilarated by wine and conversation, Arndt took to praising Sweden to the skies. Suddenly, a Swedish officer by the name of Gyllensvärd made a sneering remark about the Germans, whereupon Arndt promptly challenged him to a duel. In the conflict Arndt was seriously wounded and regained health only after several months' convalescence. 21 Hardly had Arndt recovered from this injury in the fall of 1806 when the political situation in Europe was rapidly approaching a crisis. Pitt came back to power in Great Britain in the spring of 1804 and immediately set about welding together the Third Coalition against Napoleon, though it was not until the summer of the following year that the alliance between Russia and England, secretly joined by Austria, was finally effected. Then speedily followed the battles of U l m and Austerlitz, and the seeming utter collapse of Austria. These events aroused in Arndt the greatest apprehensions, for he had never been a friend of Napoleon and when the " conqueror " set foot on German soil Arndt waxed furious: " A f t e r Marengo I saw in him personified horror. But an implacable hostility to the French crystallized first after the Peace of Luneville and was further aggravated by the sordid bargaining and negotiations by which Talleyrand and Maret began cutting and splitting Germany up." 22 Hope persisted, however. Austria had collapsed, but there was still Prussia. The prowess of Prussia under Frederick the Great was not easily forgotten, and many German liberals naturally looked now to Prussia as to a savior. Arndt particularly cherished the fond hope that Prussia might now exonerate herself for her long inactivity; in Prussia he saw " redemption." This was before the great debacle at Jena in the autumn of 1806. 21

Erinnerungen, p. 90.

22

Erinnerungen, p. 82.

TRANSITION

39

In order to comprehend more adequately Arndt's Prussian sympathies at this time, it will be necessary to sketch briefly the political background in Prussia of the events of 1806. Shortly before the outbreak of the Revolution in France, Frederick the Great had brought his extraordinary career to a close. It was a rich legacy that Frederick bequeathed to the old Prussia. Absolute monarch that he was, he had sought to govern with intelligence and in the best spirit of the Hohenzollern tradition, to be the first servant of the Prussian state and to devote himself wholly to its welfare. A s the last words of his will expressed it: " Until my last breath my desires shall center in the happiness of the State. May it ever be governed with justice, wisdom and strength! May it rejoice in the mildest of laws! May its finances be the best administered! May it be ever bravely defended by an army that aspires to naught save honor and noble military glory! May it flourish to the end of time! " 23 These lofty ideals, to his mind, involved above all an efficient administration, the pursuit of enlightened domestic policies and the prosecution of an aggressive foreign policy. The Prussian peasant he sought to make into a more prosperous, contented and useful person, the Prussian merchant he protected and fostered, and the Prussian nobility, with whom he maintained the closest alliance, were urged to emulate his policies and methods on their respective landed estates. Though sincerely devoted to the welfare of his Prussian subjects, Frederick took the autocratic character of the state for granted. In foreign affairs, rather than pursuing a German policy, the King had been disposed to follow an " un-German " course. Twice he had allied himself with foreign powers against Austria and the Empire and toward the end of his reign he had stayed the ambitious 33

Eulenberg, Herbert, The Hohensollerns, translated by M. M. Bozman (New York, 1929), p. 168.

40

ARNDT

AND

THE

NATIONALIST

AWAKENING

Joseph's hand in Bavaria. A s Frederick remarked to his brother : " Prussian interest alone is my motive, only it is most important not to say so." 24 Indifferent to German literature, science and art,25 he had been a patron of French learning and philosophy. Exhibiting the best features of the old regime, his genius had raised the Hohenzollern dynasty to a position of preeminence and made Prussia a great power. Yet the death of Frederick, the greatest of his line, was perhaps more ardently desired than that of any Hohenzollern before or after him. In every department of administration his iron hand had been felt with a growing measure of oppression, while the royal parsimony, imposed upon him by costly wars, an enlarged military establishment and the slender resources of his scattered dominion, accentuated the dissatisfaction of an honest bureaucracy. Hence the accession of the well-meaning but mediocre and pleasureloving Frederick William II in 1786 was greeted with general satisfaction. It would be difficult to imagine a greater contrast than that between the personalities of Frederick II and his nephew Frederick William II. Though Frederick William II, by sharing in the last two partitions of Poland, greatly enlarged Prussia's territorial domain, and though he strove, after a fashion, to perpetuate the shining halo which his predecessor had brought upon the dynasty, it soon became apparent that there was no greatness in him. Genial, humane, even-tempered and generous, Frederick William II lacked moral and intellectual stamina. For a few years after his accession the able Count Hertzberg sought to guide the fortunes of state. 24

Marriot, J. A . R., and Robertson, C. Grant, The Evolution

of

Prussia

( O x f o r d , 1915), P- 155. 2 5 On Frederick's attitude toward German culture see Hegemaitn, W . , Frederick the Great, translated by W i n i f r e d R a y ( N e w Y o r k , 1929), pp. 224-238.

TRANSITION

41

Following Hertzberg's retirement, the King, held in thraldom to his bigamous wives, to his precious Madame Rietz as well as to a species of religious mysticism, successively made the ex-parson Wöllner and General Bischoffwerder his chief advisors. Both Wöllner and Bischoffwerder were important figures in the notorious Rosicrucian religious cult of which the King himself was a veteran member. Under these circumstances, Prussia experienced what every state with an over-centralized autocracy must experience when placed under the control of an inefficient or misguided administrator: she underwent a decadence, a decadence that infected her whole political organism. In the third year of Frederick William II's reactionary régime came the French Revolution with its avowed liberalism, and in the circumstances it was not surprising that among the Prussian people, still chafing under a despotism as thoroughgoing and perhaps as obnoxious as that which the French were forcibly repudiating, there should be many who strongly sympathized with the revolutionaries at Paris. Simultaneously, the influence of Locke, Hume and Montesquieu was beginning to make an impression on writers and on intellectuals generally throughout Germany. Fichte, Humboldt and Hegel were not alone among the younger generation of intellectuals in extolling the new philosophical liberalism.26 The greatest impetus to the growth of the constitutional and liberal movement in Prussia, however, undoubtedly came directly or indirectly from the French Revolution itself. Here was a present example of tyranny actually destroyed, a tyranny that for various reasons had become intolerable. Moreover, the economic and social condition of the Prussian peasantry was probably more wretched than 26 Stern, Alfred, Der Einfluss der französischen Revolution auf das deutsche Geistesleben (Stuttgart and Berlin, 1928), pp. 3-16; cf. Gooch, G. P., Germany and the French Revolution (London, 1920), pp. 39-73.

ARNDT

AND

THE

NATIONALIST

AWAKENING

that of the French peasants, and the lowest classes in Prussia probably fared better than those of the numerous smaller German states where petty princes sought to maintain ostentatious and expensive imitations of the Grand Monarch's court at Versailles. The high-minded Joseph had attempted to abolish feudalism in Austria, and Frederick the Great in Prussia had introduced a measure of efficiency in government. But Joseph's fine plans had come to nothing and Frederick William II failed to maintain the vigor of his predecessor's policy. Hence, no sooner had the Revolution begun than the Prussian peasant began to feel his chains. For these reasons, therefore, there was in Prussia considerable approval of and sympathy with revolutionary events in France. This took the form both of agitation for redress of grievances among the depressed classes, and of enthusiastic demonstrations and sympathetic encouragement by middle-class radicals—students, writers, philosophers and teachers, among whom there was much ado about " liberty trees." 27 However, many forces soon supervened to stem the tide of the liberal movement in Prussia.28 The seventeen-nineties was a period of prosperity for the agricultural classes in Europe generally. The turmoil in France, together with its resultant political complications, led to a steady rise in prices and the mass of peasants on the continent generally prospered.29 Moreover, the terror that marked the second stage of the Revolution in France was calculated to alienate people among whom a respect for life, property, law and order was traditional, from a cause involvStern, op. cit., p. 60 et seq. On the German reaction to the first phase of the Revolution see " Ode auf die gegenwärtigen Unruhen," in Der Teutsche Merkur (Weimar, Oct., 1789), pp. 60-65. 27

28

29 Young, Arthur, The Pamphleteer (London, 1815), vol. iii, pp. 166186; c f . Körösi, Joseph, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Preise (Pest, 1873),

p p . 14-19.

TRANSITION

43

ing so much horror and bloodshed. Thus when the Prussian government, animated doubtless by a desire to protect altar, throne and the interests of a powerful aristocracy, took up arms against the revolutionaries, ostensibly in the name of humanity and established authority, it encountered comparatively little internal resistance. Then, too, the bourgeoisie, whose leadership was instrumental in initiating the Revolution in France, was not nearly so numerous in Prussia as it was in France. Prussia was still more predominantly agricultural than France, and its bourgeoisie, such as it was, became allied to the royal government by the Hohenzollern policy of recruiting the ever-expanding bureaucracy from the middle class. Nor was there any unanimity of political opinion among the Prussian middle class. Some were liberal-minded, but more of them clung tenaciously to the autocratic tradition of their country. Being much divided, they were unable to organize and cooperate as the French middle class did in Paris. Moreover, Prussia lacked a large working class, a class which greatly influenced the course of the Revolution in France. 30 Besides, the Prussian nobility was less purely ornamental and vastly more influential and powerful, than that beyond the Rhine. For in Germany as a whole the aristocracy still controlled affairs. Not only did it everywhere own large estates that gave it a steady and considerable income, but it was also in closest alliance with the several courts. The German nobility never became the obsequious fawning parasites that characterized the French régime at Versailles. F o r there were many independent " Germanies," each with its own administration and court life. Also, in Germany, the nobility was still a very vital and essential factor in the 80 On the reaction to the second phase of the Revolution see " Eine Bemerkung über die französische Staats-Revolution," in Neuer Teutscher Merkur (June, 1790), p. 144 et seq., also issue of October, 1793, p. 188 et seq.

44

ARNDT AND THE NATIONALIST

country's

economic

and

political

life.

AWAKENING While

numerous

princely courts in Germany emulated the elaborate display and elegance of the court of Versailles, the great majority of the German aristocracy were either t h r i f t y gentlemen farmers or important and responsible government officials. M a n y o f them took a special pride in the improvement and development of their estates. T h i s was more especially true in Prussia, where there was perhaps less French influence and where the soil was generally less fertile than in other German principalities, and where there was only one central royal court which, since the seventeenth century, making a policy out o f a necessity, greatly encouraged t h r i f t and industry.

Since the Great

Elector's time it had become traditional for the younger sons of the Prussian Junkerdom to enter the higher offices in the civil service or the church, while the army offices continued to be monopolized by this class throughout the nineteenth century.

T h e Hohenzollerns required the support of the in-

fluential

and wealthy noble class, and hence they protected

and fostered the aristocracy which, in turn, was the strongest pillar of Prussian autocracy. It was largely against the privileged position which the nobility had gradually achieved that many peasants and their liberal allies protested.

B u t these might fulminate ever so

vociferously and advance arguments ever so cogent in behalf of the " fundamental rights o f m a n , " yet, as long as entrenched landlordism cooperated with monarchy, f e w liberal concessions could be anticipated. possibilities in the situation.

T h e r e were only

two

A great national crisis might

intimidate the sovereign and his aristocratic allies into concessions calculated to weld the whole people more firmly together, or a new economic class might seize power and put a liberal program into effect.

TRANSITION

45

It was not long before the first of these possibilities—a national crisis—did in fact confront Prussia. Even though the autocracy of Frederick William II was generally taken for granted, it soon became evident enough that the ideas of the French Revolution were beginning to make an impression in Prussia. Moreover, the ostentatious demonstrations of intellectuals as well as the aggressive propaganda of demagogues did much to create an exaggerated idea of the extent of popular sympathy outside France for the radical experiments at Paris. 31 Frederick William became especially apprehensive when he reflected upon the manner in which his Bourbon fellow monarch had been unceremoniously dispatched. These apprehensions were widely shared among the staunchest supporters of his régime, particularly among the Junkers who saw in the abolition of serfdom and the consequent terror a threat against their whole order. To this liberal movement, therefore, the Prussian monarch at first opposed a policy of coercion and suppression. Jointly with panic-stricken fellow monarchs, he would strike the " sedition " dead in its cradle with the Prussian sword. To this end, he joined Austria in war with revolutionary France. But the allies had not reckoned with their host. T h e Declaration of Pilnitz issued in the autumn of 1791, followed by the proclamation of the Duke of Brunswick the following spring, stirred up a patriotic fervor in France which not even a European coalition could resist. French soil was cleared, the left bank of the Rhine seized and Belgium invaded before the coalition began to see the full implications of the force they had set in motion. The Prussian Eagle contended against a national French army, but alas ! it was not the Eagle of Frederick the Great. Finally at Basel, Frederick William sought to save his face and 8 1 Meinecke, F., Das Zeitalter der Deutschen Erhebung (Bielefeld and Leipzig, 1906), p. 21 et seq.

46

ARNDT

AND

THE NATIONALIST

AWAKENING

that of Prussia by an ignominious bargain which gave away a large block of Germans on the left bank of the Rhine in return for a precarious hegemony in northern Germany and some Rhenish provinces. Austria continued the struggle for two years more, but then made the humiliating peace of Campo Formio. Presently, as we have seen, Austria joined a second coalition against the infant republic. In the meantime, Frederick William II had been succeeded by the virtuous and well-meaning but weak and vacillating Frederick William III. For the next nine years this Prussian king managed to keep his realm out of the general European conflict. In his foreign policy he was doubtless actuated largely by prospects of selfish aggrandizement. Nevertheless, it was not long before a war-party emerged in Prussia that censured the policy of Frederick William not only as weak and vacillating, but also as unpatriotic. 32 Many of the older generation, still cherishing fond memories of Frederick the Great, were dismayed by the pacific policy of the reigning sovereign who, with what they believed to be a formidable army, maintained a complacent neutrality while Napoleon carved half of Europe into vassal states. Many of the younger generation, on the other hand, " awakened " by the events in France, began to feel the pulsation of a new nationalism and to perceive in Napoleon's vast designs a grave menace to all Germany. The " o l d " Prussians clamored for greater self-assertion on their king's part which would promote and protect their own interest, while the " new " Prussians waxed sentimental in patriotic attachment to all that was German. 33 W h e n it became evident, therefore, that Napoleon's projects ran counter both to the self-preservation of the old Boyen, Hermann von, Denkwürdigkeiten und Erinnerungen (Stuttgart, vol. i, p. 114 et seq. 88 Stern, A., Geschichte der preussischen Reformzeit (Leipzig, 1885), pp. 210-235. 83

1899)>

TRANSITION

47

régime and to the patriotic ideals of a new Germany, Frederick William's do-nothing policy was already doomed. It required only a specific proof of the ineffectiveness of royal diplomacy in dealing with Napoleon to put the Prussian warparty in command, and this proof was afforded by the failure of the King's negotiations for the annexation of Hanover. For Frederick William III, by the promise of Hanover, as well as by Napoleon's fine compliments, was bribed into neutrality in the fateful struggle of 1805 between France and Austria; and then, when Austria was crushed, Napoleon faced about and offered to restore Hanover to England instead of assigning it to Prussia. That was too much for the war-party in Prussia and even for the irresolute Frederick William III, and the latter decided to act upon the counsels of the former and to use the sword. This was the situation when Arndt, recovered from his bullet wound, prepared to resume his duties at Greifswald. Though he still believed, before the catastrophe of 1806, that Prussia, by bold action and timely cooperation with her allies, could save Germany from a general French occupation, he did not share the delusion that the Prussia of his day was still the mighty Prussia of Frederick the Great. Already before Jena and Auerstedt, Arndt beheld the reality of a decadent Germany—a Germany treading falteringly on the edge of an abyss. Only the most heroic efforts of a generation that seemed to him to have gone mad could, in his mind, forestall a national catastrophe—efforts of regeneration, of social, political and intellectual reconstruction. It was with the object of bringing the actual condition clearly before the attention of all thinking Germans and, simultaneously, of stimulating them to a great effort at national reformation, that he published his first major work, Geist der Zeit.

48

ARNDT

AND

THE

NATIONALIST

AWAKENING

A s we shall presently discover, Arndt became a very prolific writer. Already before the appearance of his Geist der Zeit he had published innumerable poems, a four-volume account of his first foreign travels, the Ein menschliches Wort über die Freiheit der alten Republiken, the Versuch einer Geschichte der Leibeigenschaft in Pommern und Rügen, a play entitled Der Storch und seine Familie, the Fragmente über Menschenbildung, his Reise durch Schweden and t w o short essays entitled Germanien und Europa and Ideen über die höchste historische Ansicht der Sprache. O f these only the Ideen über die höchste historische Ansicht der Sprache and the Fragmente über Menschenbildung can be traced to more than one edition, and even these appeared in but two editions. 34 O f all these works, his Versuch einer Geschichte der Leibeigenschaft in Pommern und Rügen probably exerted the greatest influence though it enjoyed only a local reputation. A s these writings readily reveal, Arndt began his authorship with very broad and not too clearly defined interests. Thus he wrote on a great variety of subjects ranging from educational theory and philology on the one hand to poetry and tragedy on the other. Y e t , as we have seen, Arndt began his lectures at Greifswald in philosophy, from which he presently turned to history, and his literary productions before 1805 reflect these as his dominant interests. His Ein Menschliches Wort über die Freiheit der Alten Republiken, Versuch einer Geschichte der Leibeigenschaft in Pommern und Rügen, and his Germanien und Europa also indicate certain political interests—interests that probably grew out of his historical readings and researches. But prior 8 4 These were the only editions cited by the well known Arndt specialist, Heinrich Meisner, in his " Eine Arndt Bibliographie," in Zeitschrift für Bücherfreunde, vol. i (1897), pp. 433-38 and 471-74. No further editions of these works except for a reprint of Fragmente über Menschenbildung in 1904, were found to exist.

TRANSITION

49

to 1805 Arndt was still groping for light, for a definite intellectual orientation in the same way as he was still struggling to resolve the polarity in his emotional life. Seen in this setting, Arndt's Geist der Zeit, part one, acquires a special significance. It symbolized a landmark in his emotional and intellectual growth. Thus we may distinguish, in broad outline, several stages in the evolution and development of Arndt's nationalist ideas and sentiments as represented by the Geist der Zeit, part one, written in 1805, part two, composed in 1809, his Der Rhein Deutschlands Strom aber nicht Deutschlands Grenze indited in 1813 and the Blick aus der Zeit auf die Zeit written in the early part of 18x4. These works have a unique significance, therefore, in reflecting Arndt's transition from Swedish particularism to German patriotism and the final culmination of this German patriotism, in 1814, in a fiery and intolerant Prussian nationalism. It will serve our purpose, therefore, to undertake a somewhat detailed examination of each of these works and to refer more briefly to others that may help to amplify and clarify certain important aspects of our subject. The first part of the Geist der Zeit was finished in 1805 and was published the following year while Arndt was active in the Swedish administrative offices at Stralsund. It was unquestionably one of the most influential of his exceedingly numerous works. In it he revealed more or less clearly many of his liberal and patriotic ideas, and an understanding of it is indispensable to a grasp of Arndt's influence among his contemporaries. While it displays considerable power of observation and poetic appeal, it is somewhat marred by the strong subjectivism characteristic of all Arndt's earlier works. The work opens with an attack upon the Enlightenment. " The era that appeared to be so youthful when I was a boy,"

5

o

ARNDT

AND

THE

NATIONALIST

AWAKENING

he says, speaking of the late eighteenth century, " now resembles a decrepit old man." It seemed to have retained only a few memories of a youthful past and the culture it represented was in an advanced stage of atrophy and paralysis. Although many " enlightened" and intelligent people persisted in describing the late eighteenth century as a progressive and rational era, says Arndt, it was just in this period that eighteenth century rationalism culminated in the most grotesque and tragic distortions. 36 Thus Arndt exhorts his contemporaries, " contemporaries! you will not or cannot heed. W h a t strange and terrible placidity beguiles you into insensibility! . . . W h a t great cataclysms are in store, into which you falter unwittingly." 38 This insensibility was brought about by the progressive rationalization of western culture, a process that gradually destroyed all poise and equilibrium. Arndt describes the process as a flight from the realities of this world into fanciful abstractions. Such rationalization, according to Arndt, gradually transformed man into a strange phantom. Naturally, says Arndt, the intellectuals and the artists, those who had most to do with this " Promethean stuff," were most infected by it until they, too, became intellectual mummies and skeletons. They began to lose human vigor and moral stamina—the power to mold worlds and men. They seemed to forget that while knowledge is a fine thing, life itself is something better. The period from the fourteenth to the beginning of the eighteenth century, according to Arndt, was a period of creative achievement, rich in truly great geniuses, whose conquests were assimilated and elaborated in the eighteenth century, the " enlightened " century. In this way, knowledge and reason were made the foci of the new culture. Hence, while there were many learned, refined 35

Geist der Zeit, I, p. 2.

86

Ibid., p. 9.

TRANSITION

51

and clever men, the highest wisdom and inspiration, an intellectual balance and a really holy passion for liberty and power disappeared. These qualities were, therefore, wanting in those who would be the seers and spokesmen of Europe. The really learned man, Arndt explains, now had to know too many things and this clouded his judgment and stifled his spirit until, like the apparition that he was, he stood in a vacuum, without firm anchorage, without animation, without a sense of reality.37 And it was likewise, Arndt continues, with the philosophers. In the days of Kepler, Gutenberg and Leibnitz there was still some constructive thinking. And German mystics and naturalist philosophers such as Jacob Bohme, Lavater and Schelling, indicated that there still remained a noble striving force in the German nation. But philosophy as a whole did not long remain lofty and esoteric—it became profane and vulgar. With commendable zeal and sympathetic hearts, the best minds in the nation began to elaborate Leibnitz's teachings until, in fifty years, while they had molded his ideas into clear-cut formulas, they had lost his essential spirit. All that survived the distillation was a mass of system and terminology without any living doctrine. Only a shell was left, says Arndt, from which the seed had vanished, and no one knew what had happened to it nor was anyone greatly concerned about it. Then philosophy began to pity the imperfections and lack of " enlightenment" in other sciences. Having destroyed its own soul, it proceeded upon a career of destruction elsewhere. Theology was rendered sterile at the very time when philosophy sought vainly to augment and enrich it. Other fields of learning suffered a similar fate. History, politics, esthetics and even finance and agronomy took to philosophy. Ultimately this philosophical speculation became so abstract that it obscured the 87

Geist der Zeit,

I, pp. 22-29.

ARNDT

AND

THE

NATIONALIST

AWAKENING

realities of human existence and ignored the fact of spontaneous expression and action. Then came Kant to demolish the whole siege machinery and artillery that had been leveled against all true understanding. With him the slow and painful reconstruction began, yet Arndt reproached the contemporary generation with lack of an imagination that dares to venture boldly into life.38 The decadence of theology under the Enlightenment, Arndt particularly stresses. The Church, according to him, had become " unworthy " already in the early Middle Ages. Instead of really representing Christianity, the Church began the pursuit of sordid earthly power. Then, he continues, had followed deceit and corruption, for the Church wished to make the whole world into priestly orders which were strangers to the genius of Christianity. Thus it misled and at the same time terrified the world for several centuries, until God, through the Reformation, took a stand against the hierarchy. With great force a super-mundane spiritual culture then blossomed forth for the first time, and the God of this world became vividly real. Luther persuaded the Church that it had no right to believe in anything but the spiritual life. But, says Arndt, this fine influence, too, has now been dissipated, and Lutheran ministers have become scoundrels who no longer have any faith either in themselves or in their creed. Piety, enthusiasm and zeal have thus departed from the Protestant world, for the time of religious zeal and piety is past, never again to return.89 Neither, says Arndt, are there any truly great historians. Why? Not because contemporary historians lack freedom or liberty but because they lack the simplicity, the energy and the imaginative talent of the old historians. There is no dearth of great events or great feelings and the material 88

Geist der Zeit, I, pp. 29-55.

89

Ibid., pp. 35-42.

TRANSITION

53

world and men are the same today as formerly, but the sense of their value has been distorted. The modern period cannot cease interpreting and judging, it can no longer perceive the whole in the majesty of its organic unity, in which alone the moving world lives. Men, Arndt believes, have become both too wise and too ignorant for history. Only fifty years earlier there had still been some coherence and sympathetic comprehension on the part of historians, but since then, he continues, they have moved ever farther away from reality and have lost all understanding of men and motives. 40 Thus, Arndt continues, the world has come to a point where the sense of simplicity and virginal innocence, that which inspires its geniuses, has vanished. Courage, the impulse toward love and sacrifice, the quiet perception and contemplation of the beautiful and noble, all have disappeared. The world has become morally and spiritually impoverished and degraded by vanity and sophistry. Hence, says Arndt, recent or contemporary poets of undoubted genius find themselves strangers without influence or position. One sees them as apparitions from a grey past. Learning and culture have become subservient to material gain, and justice has been made a mockery. Blind veneration of names or titles among the nobility, vanity among officials in high places and cowardice among intellectuals, according to Arndt, have become the order of the day. This, he says, is the actual spirit of his time. 41 Moreover, Arndt proceeds, while western culture has suffered in this general relapse, the material world has moved on ever more rapidly and was, to his mind, being most speedily transformed at the very time of writing. For the French Revolution has profoundly changed many aspects of Euro40

Geist der Zeit, I, pp. 44-45.

Ibid., pp. 46-50; for a remarkable parallel see Joseph Görres, " Über den Fall Deutschlands," in Rheinische Merkur, vol. i (1810), pp. 118 et seq. 41

54

ARNDT

AND

THE

NATIONALIST

AWAKENING

pean society. But while the political revolution is significant, more far-reaching, he believes, will be the consequent spiritual and moral revolution among men. Y e t contemporary intellectuals, as if stunned, are entirely oblivious of these transformations: " Lacking courage, spirit and imagination, they fear the hazardous leap lest they be drawn into the vortex of misfortune and disaster." 42 Since, therefore, the decadence of the Enlightenment, like an incubus, had gradually undermined the vitality and stamina of men it was only natural that forms of political organization should reflect a like condition. This, Arndt believes, is why republics have been destroyed and monarchies have, for the most part, become despotisms. But the advent of despotism in the West, says Arndt, was largely an historical accident. Thus, whereas the autocratic principle was adapted to the Oriental temperament, it was repugnant to that of the Occident. Nevertheless the exigencies of European history favored its growth there. This absolutism in Europe had developed in measure as resistance to it was weakened, and European political institutions had largely been determined by this fact, not deliberately from design. Y e t continental rulers did not escape infection by the general decadence. Thus, while most European monarchs were well-meaning, they elaborated the machinery of the state to such proportions that finally even their own creation became too unwieldy for them; they lost control of the highly centralized administrative machinery and confusion set in. This being the state of a f f a i r s — a n overdevelopment of political and administrative organization and a consequent emphasis upon craft and ingenuity to keep the colossus functioning—it was not long before " enlightened " apologists appeared who taught that it must be so, and in this belief the last vestige of enlightened judgment vanished. A simi42

Geist der Zeit, I, pp. 54-60.

TRANSITION

55

lar affliction befell other institutions, until the whole western world became more and more mechanized.43 The worst feature of the whole situation, Arndt argues, was the enormous increase of standing armies. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries armies had generally numbered from 10,000 to 30,000 while princes usually fought half-heartedly until neither side had much enthusiasm to continue, whereupon peace was concluded. In the early eighteenth century, armies of 100,000 had become common. A t first no one understood very clearly how to saddle such large armies permanently on a people, but gradually, as wars became more protracted, standing armies arose which were dependent upon princes and not upon the people, thus extending the prince's power.44 The large standing army, Arndt believes, grew principally out of Louis X I V ' s ambitious foreign policy, which compelled other continental powers to arm against him. Since then citizens and soldiers have constituted two mutually alien castes. While armies have become an ever more intolerable burden on the people, they have also exalted the power of their masters, and the sword has triumphed over the plow. Everything has gone into soldiery and munitions, while the burden of their maintenance has borne down on the citizen with a crushing weight until he has lost all initiative and enterprise.45 Another aspect of the over-development of political and administrative organization, Arndt feels, is the increasingly impersonal relations that have developed between the citizen and the state. There existed, in this complicated mechanism, so much privilege, inequality and corruption that presently 43

Geist der Zeit, I, pp. 60-64.

** Compare this with his comment in Grundlinien einer Teutschen Kriegsordnung (Leipzig, 1813), p. 17: "Standing armies have not been discovered and established in recent times. Thus also among the states of antiquity do we find standing armies in times of peace." 46

Geist der Zeit, I, pp. 65-71.

56

ARNDT

AND

THE NATIONALIST

AWAKENING

a feeling of suspicion and distrust of the state itself arose, and men began to calculate how they might filch and deceive this impersonal monster, the state. Psychologically they became slaves of the state, and the servile attitude of deceit and cunning infected the whole body-politic until every feeling of humanity and civic pride finally vanished. More and more one deferred to the aristocracy, while " the people " were forgotten or ignored. This, Arndt believes, is most clearly reflected in contemporary youth. Somehow, he feels, they lack stamina and the impulse toward freedom, while they appear vain, conceited and petty-minded. 46 Stagnation and ineffectualness, according to Arndt, were the two chief characteristics of the age in which he had been reared. Where there was still some latent vitality it could not be sustained. Nothing was any longer substantial and stable. Likewise, real courage and all lofty sentiments seemed to have vanished; there was no longer the glowing impulse to sacrifice, truth or freedom, without some mercenary consideration. Vanity had finally led the latest generation to madness. After thus castigating modern Europe and especially the political, religious and cultural effects of modern " reason " and modern " enlightenment." Arndt assumes the role of historian in his Geist der Zeit and proceeds to review the " national " civilizations of the world from antiquity. Beginning with the ancient civilizations of the Orient, he reproaches the Greeks for the manner in which they have misrepresented them to the West. The Greeks were blinded, he believes, by their own vanity and ignorance, and falsely stigmatized Oriental civilization as characterized by pride, avarice and arrogance. The Persians he especially admires: their rule of law, their lofty religion with its emphasis on holiness and purity in living, and their genial temperament. ii4).P. 456. 39 Arndt, E. M., Nothgedrungener 1847), B, p. 6.

Bericht aus seinem Leben

(Leipzig,

MAELSTROM

1806-1818

89

he wrote, " Dear brother, I do not know what rosy prospects you behold or, rather, in what rose-colored mirror you see all things reflected, or if you have the misfortune to be in love. F o r my part I will stick to realities in saying that this age colors us all with muddy hues." 40 Sometime in the fall of 1 8 1 1 Arndt abandoned his post at Greifswald and went to Trantow to visit with his brother and his son, Karl Treu. In Trantow, Arndt once more assumed the role of an outlaw, avoiding contacts with friends and acquaintances. This seclusion soon became trying, however, and the early part of 1 8 1 2 saw him back in Berlin once more. 41 B y this time preparations for the Russian campaign were rapidly moving forward, and, anticipating apprehension by French officials, Arndt decided to depart for Russia. Count Lieven, Russian ambassador at Berlin, supplied him with a passport. But he remained in Berlin for several weeks, visiting his circle of friends in the Prussian capital—" a large, influential group of men who had only one object to strive for—defeat and destruction of the French." 42 A s soon as Napoleon's Russian campaign actually began, Arndt, following the example of other distinguished patriots, left Berlin for Breslau, the capital of Silesia. Here he came into contact with a number of celebrities, among whom were Gruner, 43 the ex-police commissioner, Scharnhorst and 40 Arndt, E. M., Schriften (Leipzig, 184s), P. 155.

für und an seine lieben Deutschen, part I

41

Ein Lebensbild in Briefen, op. cit., pp. 62-64.

42

Erinnerungen, pp. 106-110.

43

Justus von Gruner (1777-1820), nephew of Justus Moser, after entering the Prussian government service in 1802 was, in 1809, made police president of Berlin, and in 1811 became director of the state police, from which position he was obliged to resign after the detection of his complicity in an anti-French movement in Prussia.

ARNDT

AND

THE

NATIONALIST

AWAKENING

Gneisenau, the army reformers, Count Frederick Dohna,44 and the veteran general, Blücher. In June when Arndt met Gruner in Prague, whither the former had gone on his way eastward, he was informed that Freiherr von Stein, whom Tsar Alexander had called to St. Petersburg, wished to see him. Disguised as a servant, Arndt thereupon set out on the long journey to the Russian capital, and here, in association with Freiherr von Stein, a new phase of his life began.45 ** Friedrich, Burggraf und Graf zu Dohna-Schlobitten (1784-1859) was a Prussian general who, after distinguishing himself in the campaign of 1807, entered the Russian service in 1812 and assisted in the draft of the Tauroggen Convention, whereupon he was put in command of a regiment of the Russo-German Legion. 45

Erinnerungen, pp. 110-120.

CHAPTER

IV

RESURRECTION 1 8 1 3 - 1 8 1 5 : A R N D T ' S P A M P H L E T LITERATURE W i r sind frei, wir athmen wieder.

AFTER his dismissal as Prussian chancellor late in 1808, Stein had gone to Bohemia. From the beginning of his chancellorship Stein had been a staunch champion of reform and liberation for Prussia. It was largely the hope that a regenerated Prussia would also become a free and independent Prussia once more that had inspired Stein's epochmaking reforms in Berlin. While carrying out a thorough reorganization in the government of Prussia, Stein had also instituted measures looking toward the end of Napoleon's hegemony in central Europe. It was the discovery of his part in the " liberation " strategy that had forced his dismissal and banishment. A n exile in Prague, Stein quickly matured his plans for a Prussian insurrection against French ascendancy. These plans called for the speedy military cooperation of Prussia and Austria and the instigation of a popular uprising in northern Germany against Napoleon. It soon became apparent, however, that Austria was indisposed to any prompt and decisive action, whereupon Stein turned to the prospect of Russian intervention. This was brought farther within the realm of probability when, in May, 1812, Stein received an invitation from the Russian Tsar to join him in the Russian capital, an invitation that was promptly accepted. Ever since their first meeting during the negotiations at Tilsit in 1807, Alexander 91

92

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AWAKENING

had continued to entertain a high personal regard for the great German reformer. Following Stein's efforts for the liberation of Germany with keen interest, the Tsar had finally decided to avail himself of Stein's counsel in the early summer of 1812. Thus while Gruner 1 was left to direct the patriotic movement from Prague, Stein proceeded to St. Petersburg, where he lost no time in attempting to persuade the taciturn young Tsar openly to abandon the French alliance and repudiate the continental blockade. 2 Once in Russia, moreover, Stein did not lose sight of his plans for a popular revolt in Germany as a necessary adjunct to the Russian defection. T o realize this part of his program, as he wrote to Gruner from Russia, it was necessary to " heighten and intensify this (patriotic) feeling of the people." A n d this, Stein went on to say, must be done " by the dissemination in Germany of literature which presents an excellent picture of the wretched and deplorable condition of our country." " Arndt's Geist der Zeit," he continued, " is written with compelling force and a terrible veracity. Printed originally in Sweden, this work must be brought by way of Galicia to Prague, whence a new edition must be brought into circulation throughout Germany." He further instructed Gruner to have " Herr Arndt come here (to Russia), where he must immediately be put to work writing poems, songs and pamphlets for distribution among Germans to enlighten and edify them, and be attached to the German Legion, 3 in order, with his writings and all means 1 Shortly after Stein's departure for St. Petersburg, Metternich, the Austrian chancellor, had Gruner arrested and imprisoned for violating Austrian neutrality; with the rapid decline of Napoleon's fortunes in 1813, however, Gruner gained his release. 2

Neubauer, Friedrich, Freiherr von Stein (Berlin, 1894), pp. 135-136.

This was an irregular military organization consisting of German soldiers and officers who had deserted Napoleon's auxiliary regiments as well as of patriotic German civilians who had become impatient with 3

RESURRECTION

1813-1815: ARNDTS

PAMPHLETS

93

of popular eloquence, to inculcate such an inspiration and patriotic readiness to sacrifice as w e have seen in the Duke of Brunswick

4

and Schill."

5

L a t e in June, 1 8 1 2 , A r n d t took up his residence in St. Petersburg where the most momentous period of his life began. H i s position m a y be described as that of confidential secretary to Stein.

In that capacity his duties embraced a vast

variety of functions f r o m the routine writing of orders and the deciphering of letters and despatches to preparing manuals f o r the so-called German L e g i o n and inditing patriotic appeals. A r n d t ' s principal occasional works in this period were in the f o r m of prose pamphlets, poems and songs.

S o m e of

these first appeared as independently published works while others appeared in magazines and in various

collections.

M a n y of the earliest of these pamphlets and poems made their first appearance in Russia whence they were smuggled into Germany contrary to the stringent press laws then prevailing in Prussia. Frederick William Ill's procrastination. Established in Russia in the summer of 1812 under the auspices of the Duke of Oldenburg, Count Lieven, Kotchuby and Stein, it saw little active service against the French and finally, owing largely to inadequate supplies, came to a sorry end in the winter of 1812-1813. Cf. Ein Lebensbild in Briefen, op. cit., p. 84. * Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick (1735-1806), after succeeding his father Duke Karl I in 1770 as the ruler of the diminutive duchy of Brunswick, became a model monarch; his wide military experience soon made him invaluable to the Prussian king, whose forces he led into Holland in 1787 and into France in 1792. Ferdinand von Schill was a major in the Prussian military service who, in 1809, made a premature and unsuccessful attempt to organize an uprising in northwestern Germany against Napoleon, which ended in his being shot and afterwards beheaded. 6 Quoted from Pertz, G. H., Das Leben des Ministers Freiherrn vom Stein (second edition, Berlin, 1851), vol. iii, p. 1 1 6 ; c f . Lehmann, M., Freiherr vom Stein (Leipzig, 1921), pp. 402, 208, and Pagel, Karl, Stein, Briefe und Schriften (Leipzig, 1927), p. 173.

94

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Before the time of Frederick I I there had been no important magazine or newspaper literature in Prussia. His predecessors had taken a strong stand against any criticism of the existing political or religious order. Political writing in the old press organs, therefore, was confined chiefly to foreign affairs and world problems in general.8 Frederick's motto, however, was that " In my dominions all religions must be free, and in my country each man may find salvation after his own fashion," 7 and that the press, to be interesting, must be untrammeled by restrictions. This attitude gave much color and liberality to the current literature of his reign. Less than two years after the death of Frederick the Great, nevertheless, a new censorship-edict again put the press under many restraints. Owing to the influence of Bischoffwerder and Wollner and the Rosicrucian society 8 into which the new king was initiated, as well as to the revolutionary disturbances in France, this law was reenforced by further edicts in 1792 and 1794 which marked a reversion to the pre-Frederician policy. These regulations gave very wide powers to the censor in all matters pertaining to the Empire, to the dynasty, to morals, personal honor, general principles of religion—in fact, to almost anything. These laws remained the basis of Prussian policy toward current literature until 1819. 9 Not only was there a strict vigilance over the existing press, but the Prussian government, failing to apprehend the far-reaching potentialities of the press in moulding public sentiment and creating a propitious patriotic morale, used the 6

Geiger, L., Berlin 1688-1840 (Berlin, 1893), vol. i, pp. 396-439.

7

Eulenberg, Herbert, The Hohensollerns, translated by M. M. Bozman (N. Y., 1929), P- 164. 8

Erinnerungen aus dem Leben des General-Feldmarschalls Hermann von Boyen, edited by F. Nippold (Leipzig, 1889), vol. i, p. 114. 9 Czygan, P., Zur Geschichte der Tagesliteratur wdhrend der Freiheitskriege (Leipzig, 1911-12), vol. i, pp. 2-8.

RESURRECTION

1818-1815: ARNDTS

PAMPHLETS

95

Berlin papers very little itself. With the entry of Napoleon into Berlin in December, 1806, all the papers of the capital came into the invader's hands. In the following year the Hartungsche Zeitung of Königsberg also came under French control. From this time on until 1812 the Prussian press, under a strict censorship, took its cue largely from the French, that is, from Napoleon, through his Berlin representative, St. Marsan, as well as from the Emperor's official mouthpiece, the Moniteur. Meanwhile, however, strenuous efforts were being made to open a literary campaign against Napoleon. Already in 1807 the Livonian, Garlieb Merkel, began a satirical attack on Napoleon in the columns of his Der Zuschauer, which he edited in Riga. With the opening of the Russian campaign he was obliged to retire to Dorpat where he wrote further inflammatory articles for various magazines, the best known of which was his " Call to the Inhabitants of the Baltic Provinces." 1 0 The fall of 1812 saw the foundation, under Russian subsidy, of Kotzebue's Russisch-Deutsches Volksblatt, published in Berlin, which, together with Kotzebue's numerous satirical dramatic sketches, did much to kindle the fires of the anti-French crusade.11 Since Russia had severed relations with Napoleon in 1812 it was not difficult for Stein to persuade Alexander to permit the unrestricted publication of poems, magazine articles, dramatic sketches and pamphlets which, while attacking the French, at the same time enlisted support for the government. This situation gave Arndt a unique opportunity for launching a more extensive campaign of " liberation" propaganda. 1 0 Müller-Jabusch, M., Thersites, Die Erinnerungen des deutschbaltischen Journalisten Garlieb Merkel (Berlin, 1921), pp. 199-213. 1 1 Pertz, op. cit., vol. iii, p. 117; cf. Nicolai, Karl, August vonKotzebues literarisches und politisches Wirken (Tobolsk, 1819), pp. 87-102.

g6

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AWAKENING

Although Arndt wrote upwards of twenty-five pamphlets during the years 1813-1815, he also published a great many songs and poems both before and during the Liberation period. In fact, Arndt became one of the greatest lyric poets of the Liberation War, a distinction which he shared with Körner and Schenkendorf. Rückert, who himself achieved something of a reputation as a poet in these years, regarded Arndt as the greatest nationalist bard of his generation.12 Arndt's patriotic poetry uniquely expressed the romantic enthusiasm with which the German people embarked upon the Liberation War. It is interesting to note that he did not write a single stanza in honor of the patriotic Prussian Queen Louise, and that he dedicated only one poem each to Tsar Alexander, King Frederick William III, and the Emperor Francis. Most of his nationalistic verse was addressed to the common man and to the German soldiers in the Liberation battalions—an example subsequently followed by other nationalist German poets.13 Many of Arndt's poems have found an abiding place in the treasury of German literature, while some of his songs have become national folk songs. It will serve our purpose to cite a few excerpts from his verse. The first excerpt, from his Klage für Liebe und Freiheit, was written in Sweden in 1807 and is quoted here for purpose of comparison: A shroud of gloom forebodes the fateful day, And blackened storm clouds seethe with vengeful fire; Like dust before the wind the Frenchman's sway Dispelled shall be by holy German ire.14 1 2 Lange, Georg, " Der Dichter Arndt," in Berliner Beiträge sur Germanischen und Romanischen Philologie, vol. xxxvii (1910), p. 99. l s Lange, Georg, " Der Dichter Arndt," in Berliner Beiträge zur Germanischen und Romanischen Philologie, vol. xxxvii (1910), pp. 103-13. 1 4 Variation from translation in Coar, J. F., Studies in German ature in the Nineteenth Century ( N e w Y o r k , 1903), p. 58.

Liter-

RESURRECTION

1813-1815: ARNDTS

PAMPHLETS

97

Undoubtedly the best known of all Arndt's poems, one that is in every German song book of today, is his Vaterlandslied, written in 1812: The God who made the iron ore Will have no man a slave; To arm the man's right hand for war The sword and spear He gave, He gives to us a daring heart, For burning words the breath To tell the foeman that we fear Dishonor more than death.15 Oh Germany, bright fatherland! Oh German love, so true! Thou sacred land, thou beauteous land, We swear to thee anew! Outlawed, each knave and coward shall The crow and raven feed; But we will to the battle all Revenge shall be our meed. Let wave, let wave, whatever can, Standard and banner wave! Here will we purpose, man for man, To grace a hero's grave. Advance, ye brave ranks, hardily— Your banners wave on high; We'll gain freedom's victory, Or freedom's death we'll die! 1 6 1 6 Variation of the version in Gostwick, J., and Harrison, R., Outlines of German Literature (New York, 1873), p. 425. 1 8 Variation of the version in Warner, C. D., Library of the Best Literature (New York, 1902), vol. ii, p. 818.

World's

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AWAKENING

Des Deutschen Vaterland, written in 1813, has also achieved great popularity: Where is the German fatherland? Is't Prussia, or the Swabian land ? Where by the Rhine the grapes are growing ? Or where the Baltic waves are flowing? Oh no! More grand, Far wider is our fatherland! Where is the German fatherland ? Declare to us where is that land; As far as 'neath the spreading skies Our German hymns to God arise— All that wide land, Brave brothers, call our fatherland! All Germany we call our own! May God behold it from His throne; And give to all who in it dwell True hearts to love and cherish well All this wide land— All Germany, our fatherland! 17 The next quotation is from Der Freudenklang, after the Battle of Leipzig: Up then, my men, rise up to arms! Up then, ye German Brothers! Up then, with new rejoicing Your oath in common voicing: We are and shall be brothers! As German brothers true The robbers we pursue Who prey upon our honor.18 17

Gostwick, J., and Harrison, R., op. cit., p. 436.

18

Coar, op. cit., p. 57.

written

RESURRECTION

1813-1816: ARNDTS

PAMPHLETS

99

Many of the poems written during the years 1813-15 were in the form of songs for soldiers to sing in camp and on the march. One of the most famous of Arndt's Kriegslieder was his Das Lied vom Feldmarschall, written in 1813: That's the blast from the trumpets, Hussars, to the fray! The field-marshal rides in the rolling melee; So gay on his mettlesome war-horse he goes, So fierce waves his glittering sword at his foes, And here are the Germans: juchheirassassa! The Germans are joyful; they're shouting hurrah! At Leipzig—a glorious fight on the plain! French luck and French might strove against him in vain. There beaten and stiff lay the foe in their blood, And there dear old Blücher a field-marshal stood. And here are the Germans: juchheirassassa! The Germans are joyful; they're shouting hurrah! Then sound, blaring trumpets! Hussars charge once more! Ride, field-marshal, ride to the scene of the war. To the Rhine, over Rhine in your triumph advance! Brave sword of our country, right on into France! And here are the Germans: juchheirassassa! The Germans are joyful; they're shouting hurrah! 18 Das Lied vom Schill, dedicated to the daring patriot-adventurer, also belongs to the year of Liberation: They carried him forth, all silent and dumb, Without music of fifes or roll of the drum, No cannon or rifle saluted his grave To honor the death of a hero brave.20 is Warner, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 817. 20 Gostwick,

J., and Harrison, R., op. cit., p. 425.

IOO

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THE NATIONALIST

AWAKENING

Although only t w o separate collections of this patriotic verse had been published between 1811 and 1815, many of Arndt's nationalistic poems were incorporated with numerous pamphlets and books of his that made their appearance in these years. The same holds true of his songs, of which there appeared nine separate collections between 1813 and 1815. According to Lange, it was with the writing of these patriotic verses and songs that Arndt reached his full stature as a poet. 21 In these nationalist stanzas Arndt glorified the exploits of patriotic heroes, inculcated an unflinching spirit of sacrifice and generally emotionalized the Liberation struggle. His ability to gauge the temper of the time, his mastery of popular and traditional verse forms and his command of a simple, straightforward and eloquent style, at once made him the chief patriotic spokesman of the German masses. Although we are quite reliably informed as to the influence and popularity of many of Arndt's individual pamphlets published during the Liberation period, it is more difficult to establish the nationalistic significance of his verse. This is due largely to the fact that it is difficult to separate his prose from his poetry, in both of which literary forms he expressed similar ideals. Moreover, as we have already pointed out, many o f Arndt's pamphlets also contain songs and poems. Interesting in this connection is the comment of Arndt's brother Frederick in a letter of November, 1813, on the reception of one of the former's songs: " Y o u r Bliicher song, Was blasen die Trompeten, has been received with glowing satisfaction by adults and with enthusiasm by the youth. They talk about it and Mr. Dammas is to set it to music." 22 N o less illuminating on this point is a comment 21

Lange, op. cit., p. 115.

Arndt, E. M., Schriften fiir und an seine lieben Deutschen, part I (Leipzig, 1845), p. 167. 22

RESURRECTION

1818-1816: ARNDTS

PAMPHLETS

ioi

of Goethe in 1 8 3 0 : " T h e awareness of an emergency and the profound sense of ignominy had obsessed the nation like a diabolical force: the glowing flame that the poet wanted to ignite already burned everywhere by itself.

Y e t I will not

deny that Arndt, Körner and Riickert have done something to keep it aglow."

28

Commenting on the comparative na-

tionalistic importance of various Liberation poets, Scherer goes so far as to say that " E r n s t Moritz A r n d t surpassed Körner and his co-workers in both momentary and enduring influence."

24

Before proceeding to a discussion of Arndt's pamphlets published in various parts of Germany in the years 1 8 1 3 to 1 8 1 5 , it will be necessary to comment briefly upon certain censorship difficulties he encountered in this

connection.

Although the sale and publication of Arndt's pamphlets met with comparatively little difficulty from official censorship from the summer of 1 8 1 2 to the spring of 1 8 1 3 , many of his publications appearing from the latter date to the end of the Liberation W a r s ran afoul of the Berlin censor.

In

Russia, E a s t Prussia and Saxony, A r n d t enjoyed the protection of his patron Stein, whose signature or approval frequently shielded Arndt from embarrassing protests of censors in these lands. N o t being a citizen of any German state, Arndt was inclined to assume much license in the publication of his works in Germany.

Repeatedly he was admonished to submit his

writings to the Berlin official censor before having them published or put on sale there. 26

According to all appear-

ances, however, Arndt frequently either ignored or evaded 23

Quoted by Lange, op. cit., p. 98.

24

Scherer, W., and Walzel, O., Geschichte der deutschen

Literatur

(Berlin, 1921), p. 504. 25

Czygan, P., " Ernst Moritz Arndts historisch-politische Schriften in der Beurtheilung des Berliner Zensors in den Jahren 1813 bis 1815," in

Vossische Zeitung, Sonntagsbeilage no. 47 (1907), p. 373.

102

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THE

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AWAKENING

the proscriptions of the Berlin authorities, as is illustrated by a letter he wrote, in April, 1813, to his friend Reimer in Berlin : " In Berlin the censor will probably not allow it (the Russische Kriegsgeschichte) but in Leipzig they will likely be obliged to do so. Should Hofman, 26 however, not dare to publish it, then I shall send it to you and you can give me something inexpensive." 27 Evidently to the same end, many of Arndt's pamphlets of the Liberation era were originally published anonymously. Moreover, the second edition of his Geist der Zeit, part two, and an edition of his Geist der Zeit, part three, published in Berlin by Reimer, in 1813, both bore the name of a fictitious publisher. In Leipzig and Frankfurt, Arndt seems to have encountered comparatively little difficulty with the censor. W e return now to a résumé of Arndt's published songs and pamphlets. Many of his pamphlets which appeared in the years 1813-15 were largely repetitions or summaries, or sought to emphasize certain ideas of earlier works, and these we shall only briefly describe with a view to establishing their popularity and influence. Some of the pamphlets however, as for example, Der Rhein, Teutschlands Strom aber nicht Teutschlands Gräme, introduce important new nationalistic ideas, or mark a clearer crystallization of evolving nationalistic sentiments. These it will serve our purpose to examine at greater length. Arndt's first important pamphlet in Russia was his Die Glocke der Stunde in drei Zügen which made its appearance sometime in the fall of 1812. Early in 1812 there had appeared in some provincial Prussian newspapers an 26 Hofman suggested so many changes that Arndt decided to have Reimer publish it under the title Kurze und wahrhaftige Erzählung von Napoleons verderblichen Anschlägen. A s anticipated, the Berlin cenisor refused to allow its circulation in the Prussian capital. 2 7 Arndt, E. M., Nothgedrungener 1847), section B, p. 18.

Bericht aus seinem Leben

(Leipzig,

RESURRECTION

1813-1816:

ARNDTS

PAMPHLETS

103

" A u f r u f an die Deutschen, sich unter die Fahnen des Vaterlandes und der Ehre zu sammeln," signed by the Russian commander-in-chief Barclay de Tolly. O n learning of it, Napoleon had a German clerk on his staff prepare an " Antwort eines Deutschen " which he ordered published together with Barclay's " A u f r u f . " It was this " Antwort eines Deutschen" that drew from Arndt the " Antwort eines Deutschen auf die Antwort eines Deutschen " in the first part of his Glocke der Stunde in drei Zügen. St. Marsan ordered its suppression and imposed heavy penalties also on those having any part in the printing or dissemination of Barclay's " A u f r u f . " 28 A second and third edition of Die Glocke der Stunde in drei Zügen came out in the following year, and in 1814 a fourth edition made its appearance, all of these being published at Leipzig. T h e first collection of Arndt's poems in Russia, Fünf Lieder für deutsche Soldaten, was intended primarily for the German Legion. This was presently followed by Lieder für Deutsche, a miscellaneous collection of his poems dealing with political developments since 1806. A m o n g these was " Zuruf des Führers," a " Kriegslied," several " Soldatenund Ermunterungslieder" to be sung before going into battle, a " Lied der Rache," a song " A n die Deutschen " who " ignominiously " served under Napoleon, and a song testifying the " Zuversicht auf G o t t " which was to accompany the soldier to the field of battle, together with still others suited to the various crises and trials of the young legionnaire. A l l of these were set to the melodies of well-known church hymns. 29 The first edition of these Lieder für Deutsche 28

Czygan, op. cit., vol. i, pp. 28-32.

Ibid., p. 138. Following the example of Achim von Kriegslieder published in 1806, it became common for the the Liberation W a r to adapt their verses to old German Cf. Walzel, O., German Romanticism, translated by A . E. Y o r k and London, 1932), p. 148 et seq. 29

Arnim im his lyric poets of folk melodies. Lussky ( N e w

104

ARNDT

AND THE NATIONALIST

AWAKENING

made its appearance in 1813, ostensibly at Fleischer's in Leipzig. A second edition, much augmented by songs celebrating recent victories, came out later the same year.80 W e have already referred to a new edition of Arndt's Geist der Zeit, part II, the second edition of which was published in 1813. The same year saw the publication of the third part of this work in two editions. Like the first and second, the third part of Arndt's Geist der Zeit was a commentary on recent political developments; it dealt largely with the significance of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras in Europe generally and recounted the growth of the patriotic " liberation " movements in Germany, England, Spain and Russia. Another of Arndt's pamphlets which had its birth in Russia was his Zwei Worte über die Entstehung und Bestimmung der teutschen Legion. In contrast to Kutusov's Kalischer Aufruf which it preceded, Arndt's work sounds a note of severe criticism of the German princes serving under Napoleon. A s its title implies, this work sought to outline the aims of the German Legion. 31 Meanwhile, many fateful political developments had transpired. In August, 1812, the Grande Armée began its advance into Russia. After the Battle of Borodino, Kutusov, who by this time was put in supreme command of the Russian troops, began a retreat and the road to Moscow lay open. In the latter part of September, Napoleon reached Moscow, where he tarried for several weeks vainly awaiting peace overtures from Alexander. Early in October a great conflagration spread throughout the city, whereupon Napoleon began the long and horrible retreat back to Germany. 80 Meisner, H., " Eine Arndt Bibliographie," in Zeitschrift für Bücherfreunde, vol. i (1897), pp. 433-438. 81

Czygan, op. cit., vol. i, pp. 144-145-

RESURRECTION

1813-1815:

ARNDTS

PAMPHLETS

105

At the first news of Russian reverses at Borodino, pandemonium began to reign in St. Petersburg. The heir-presumptive, Constantine, the Empress Mother and Romantsoff, the premier, all insisted on immediate peace negotiations. But Stein, who had by this time become a great power at the Imperial Court, counselled perseverance, and his counsel prevailed. Moreover, the prospect of " liberating " Europe appealed to the Tsar's personal vanity. Besides, his decision did much to gratify a popular enthusiasm for the war. As Arndt remarks, " The long smouldering hatred of the French now manifested itself openly. Frenchmen had to look out for their lives in those days ; many were banished and scores were sent to Siberia. Even the French Theatre had to be closed during the first months of the war." 32 By the middle of October the remnant of the Grande Armée was retreating across the bleak and frigid plains of western Russia with the Russian forces under Kutusov constantly harrying its rear and flanks. Hereupon, Alexander decided to leave his capital and follow the Russian forces to Germany. Stein was instructed to go on to Berlin, where the Tsar was to rejoin him. It was hoped that Frederick William III could be persuaded to join forces with Russia and that Austria also could be induced to join the coalition. To facilitate these plans the Tsar gave Stein full authority to call the provincial Diet of East Prussia and thus lead the way for a general uprising in Germany. In January, therefore, Stein and his secretary Arndt began the long journey to Königsberg. This Königsberg period marked the climax of Arndt's political career. Here his friend Nicolovius printed many works which Arndt had begun or completed in Russia and published new editions of some of his previous works.83 82 88

Geist der Zeit, part III, edited by Hugo Rösch (Leipzig, 1892), p. 56.

Meine Wanderungen und Wandelungen Stein (Leipzig, 1893), pp. 77-80.

mit dem Reichsfreiherrn

vom

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AWAKENING

Arndt's growing literary fertility now manifested itself in a prolific flood of ever more daring pamphlets. The first of these probably was his Aufruf an die Preussen, first published in Königsberg and of which many copies had been distributed in Berlin already by the sixth of February, 1813, notwithstanding the precautions of the French. It apparently made its first appearance in a collection entitled Zur Befreiung Deutschlands!34 which also included another Arndt pamphlet, Was bedeutet Landsturm und Landwehr, as well as several military orders and an appeal to the German princes which resembles Kutusov's Kalischer Aufruf. This Aufruf an die Preussen was a stirring appeal to Arndt's beloved Prussians, calling them to their " mission " to defend " liberty and honor " and rescue " German virtue." 35 Hardenberg described it as " very well written, but infinitely exalted and insurrectionary; its author," he went on to say, " is the famous Arndt, one of the hot-heads among our writers." 36 In February, 1813, Arndt published another anonymous appeal, his Aufruf an die Deutschen sum gemeinschaftlichen Kampf gegen die Franzosen, bearing the motto: " Wer sein Vaterland liebt, opfert ihm gern seinen letzten Blutstropfen." Published on the eve of Prussia's declaration of war and probably at the instigation of Stein, it sought to pave the way for a general German insurrection against Napoleon. Already in the fall of 1812, while still in Russia, Arndt had prepared a Kurser Katechismus für teutsche Soldaten, for the use of the German Legion there.87 Apparently 34 This collection has only recently been rediscovered; for a reprint of the original edition see Arndt, E. M., Zur Befreiung Deutschlands! (Leipzig, 1916). 35

Ibid., p. 12.

Lehmann, M., Freiherr op. cit., vol. i, p. 150. 38

87

Ibid., p. 417.

vom Stein,

op. cit., p. 247.

Cf.

Czygan,

RESURRECTION

1813-1815: ARNDTS

PAMPHLETS

107

modeled upon his Zwei Worte Uber die Entstehung und Bestimmung der teutschen Legion, copies of it had been distributed among members of the German Legion. Nicolovius advertised the work in his Hartungsche Zeitung in Königsberg as early as February 6, 1813. The Kurzer Katechismus für teutsche Soldaten began with a survey of German history from prehistoric times to the early sixteenth century, throughout eulogizing the achievements and virtues of the nation. Since the early sixteenth century, Arndt declares, the French nation, which had by this time become an important political power in Europe, has systematically abetted and fostered an internecine factionalism in Germany that ultimately led to the latter's disintegration. As a climax to Germany's misfortunes, Arndt says, came the " horrible French Revolution which ushered in general confusion . . . and disseminated its contaminating poison all over the world." 88 This, Arndt concludes, finally brought Germany to a state of imminent collapse because there was no unity among Germans. After a résumé of more recent calamities, Arndt offers a Mosaic prophecy : " Your country is beloved of the Lord. . . . Take these words to heart and live and die as honorable and free men and God will sustain Germany and grant your children and children's children liberty and His blessing unto the thousandth generation." 39 Following this are nineteen short chapters " On the Wicked and the Evil," " On Mundane Glory," " On Righteous and Unrighteous War," " On the Great Tyrant," " On Sin and Misfortune," " On Fear of God," etc. The later editions of this work, of which there were five between 1813 and 1815, bore the title: Katechismus für den teutschen Kriegs- und Wehrmann, worin gelehrt wird wie ein 38

Katechismus für den deutschen edition, Leipzig, 1913), pp. 9-12. 88

Ibid., p. 15.

Kriegs-

und Wehrmann

(Huebler

I08

ARNDT

AND

THE

NATIONALIST

AWAKENING

christlicher Wehrmann seyn und mit Gott in den Streit gehen soll. It was not until recently that the above original, written in Russia, was known to exist. A s we have seen, Stein had come to Königsberg to convene the East Prussian Diet in order to deliberate with them on ways and means of renewing the war with France. It was soon decided to vote supplies and issue an order for the levy of a national militia. The idea of a national guard and militia seems to have had its origin, in Germany, with Scharnhorst and Clausewitz,40 although their plans for such an organization were not very widely known. It was in order, therefore, to facilitate the organization of a national guard and militia as well as to make its essential features generally known, that Arndt was now instigated to publish his Was bedeutet Landsturm und Landwehr. Of all Arndt's fugitive works, this enjoyed the greatest popularity, appearing in upwards of ten editions. The history of the pamphlet and of the circumstances under which the numerous editions made their appearance constitutes an interesting story. Was bedeutet Landsturm und Landwehr seems to have been written in Russia, although its formal debut was delayed until March 1813, 41 when it came out in the collection Zur Befreiung Deutschlands! Although originally written at Stein's instigation and embodying many of his ideas, much of it was, no doubt, original with Arndt. In its main outlines it was probably modeled on Clausewitz's draft which either Gneisenau or Chasot had shown to Arndt in the fall of 1812.42 According to Arndt's own account, it was based 40

Czygan, op. cit., vol. i, p. 152.

According to a note on the title page of a later edition, Was bedeutet Landsturm und Landwehr was first published late in 1812 in Königsberg; cf. E. M. Arndts Schriften für und an seine lieben Deutschen, part one (Leipzig, 1845), p. 289. 41

4 2 Müller, R., " Geschichte von Arndts Schrift: ' W a s bedeutet Landsturm und Landwehr,'" in Nord und Süd, vol. cxxiii (1907), pp. 233-237.

RESURRECTION

1813-1815:

ARNDT'S

PAMPHLETS

109

on the work of the East Prussian prime minister, Schön, his colleague Dohna, and Colonel Clausewitz who was in Königsberg at this time on a secret mission. 43 This first edition gave neither the place of publication nor the name of the author, owing largely to the uncertainty of the K i n g ' s attitude on the matter; it was not until the fall of 1813 that an edition of this work bore the author's name. A second edition of Was bedeutet Landsturm und Landwehr, also published in Königsberg in March, 1813, came out as a separate pamphlet. 44 The following month saw the publication of three editions, the first of which was printed in Saxony and the second of which formed part of a collection printed in Berlin, while the third, published together with Blücher's Aufruf an Sachsens Einwohner45 by the Leipzig book dealer, Wilhelm Rein, bore the title An die deutsche Nation. Shortly thereafter Rein, apparently entirely on his own initiative, published a new edition of this work in a pamphlet jointly with Kotzebue's Aufruf an die Deutschen. In October, 1813, Rein advertised a copy of the same work in another f o r m — i n a collection together with appeals An die deutschen Fürsten and An die deutsche Nation.** Meanwhile Prince Schwarzenberg and Stein had been commissioned by the allies to set up a central administrative board to administer lands occupied by the allied forces and which, in the fall of 1813, took charge of Saxony. The official press organ of this board, Deutsche Blatter, in November, 1813 came out with a further edition of Was be43

Meine

44

Lehmann, M., Freiherr

Wanderungen

und Wandelungen, vom Stein,

op. cit., p. 94.

op. cit., p. 94.

4 5 Many of these proclamations have been collected and republished in Schulze, F., Die Franzosenzeit in deutschen Landen 1806-1815 (Leipzig, 1908), vol. ii, p. 60 et seq. 49

Müller, op. cit., pp. 241-245.

HO

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AND

THE

NATIONALIST

AWAKENING

deutet Landsturm und Landwehr with the sub-title " i n Bezug auf die Länder zwischen der Elbe und dem Rhein." This, however, was a much emasculated version of the original. The owner of the Deutsche Blätter, F . A . Brockhaus, presently published a " Besondere Ausgabe " with the same sub-title and the same revised text. In this form the work came to the attention of a certain Krieger who, with his presses in Kassel and Marburg, reprinted it, adding an admonition that it be disseminated in the interests of the fatherland. The first edition of this work which bore the name of its author came out at the very end of 1 8 1 3 — a particularly attractive edition published in Leipzig and supplemented by an Aufruf an die deutschen Jungen und Männer für Deutschlands Freiheit zu kämpfen. Edited and printed at the instigation of Justus Gruner, it bore the same text and title as the Rein edition. Shortly after the Battle of Leipzig appeared a new edition entitled Etwas über Landsturm und Landwehr, dessen Nutzen und Vorteil, und die glückliche Aussicht in die Zukunft, apparently related to the March collection, Zur Befreiung Deutschlands! In the late fall of 1813 a certain K a r l von Raumer, professor of mineralogy at Breslau, was sent by General Blücher to the Main river region to inquire about shelter for troops. T a k i n g copies of Was bedeutet Landsturm und Landwehr along, he is said to have read them to those with whom he took lodging as well as to people in hotels and restaurants, all of whom he reported to have been much impressed. This experience induced Raumer, early in 1814, to have a new edition printed in Frankfurt with the publisher Eichenberg, with annotations and a supplement outlining the progress of the war. A further edition of Was bedeutet Landsturm und Landwehr appeared in May 1815, eight months after K i n g Frederick William III had decreed the permanent establishment of the Landwehr in Prussia. 47 47

Müller, op. cit., pp. 249-253.

RESURRECTION

1813-1816:

ARNDT'S

PAMPHLETS

i11

Meanwhile the political scene was rapidly shifting. A l ready in February, 1813, the East Prussian Diet, under the direction of Count Alexander Dohna, had voted supplies, called for some 20,000 to 30,000 volunteers and proclaimed a levée en masse.™ In March of the same year K i n g Frederick William I I I ratified the treaty of alliance with Russia, whereupon the war was speedily renewed. Russia and Prussia having combined forces, it was hoped that Austria would soon make a decision to join the Allies. Early in May, 1813, the Allies lost the valiantly defended field at Gross-Görschen, and by July a truce had been arranged. Already, in the latter part of March, 1813, Arndt had left Königsberg for Breslau, where he rejoined Stein. Early in the following month he settled down in Dresden, where he remained until May, when the Allies evacuated the city; whereupon Stein sent him on various errands with letters and despatches to Berlin. From Berlin Arndt was instructed to make an excursion to Stralsund to sound out the Swedish authorities on the matter of a military alliance—a venture that met with no immediate success, however. It was while in Berlin in the late spring of 1813, that he was surprised by the news of Scharnhorst's death in Prague, a circumstance that inspired Arndt to write a s o n g — A u f Scharnhorsts Tod—of which several thousand copies were printed in the Prussian capital. 49 During the armistice, which lasted from June to August, 1813, there appeared another of Arndt's fugitive works, Der Feldzug von 18is bis zum Waffenstillstand. It described the principal political and military developments since the end of the Russian campaign. A f t e r an account of the changes wrought in the Prussian army since 1806, it gave a brief résumé of the recent military operations. The pamphlet 48

Meine

Wanderungen

und Wandelungen,

op. cit., p. 92.

49

Meine Wanderungen

und Wandelungen,

op. cit., pp. 119-137.

112

ARNDT

AND

THE NATIONALIST

AWAKENING

ended with an eloquent plea for a renewed faith and confidence in the future. Meanwhile Arndt published the third part of his Geist der Zeit, intended, as he himself confesses, as tinder for the fire of liberation. The first section of the work comprised a short history of the Russian war, the second dealt with international politics and the third discussed " what must the German people do now? " 50 After a brief pause in Reichenbach, where the Allied headquarters were located during a large part of the summer, Arndt proceeded to Leipzig, where he still remained after the Battle of Leipzig and until the very end of the year 1813. Here he resumed his literary labors with Das preussische Volk und Heer im Jahr 1813.51 This small pamphlet of fifty-two pages, coming, as it did, immediately after the Battle of Leipzig, is a great paean in praise of Prussia. " Everyone who was Prussian," says Arndt, " and was conscious of that proud name, preferred instantaneous annihilation to a dishonorable peace. . . . The Prussians have not only been in the advance guard in the struggle for liberty in Germany, but they have also distinguished themselves for their courage, discipline, resolution and humanity; they are true warriors of God." 62 This was immediately followed by two small pamphlets: Ueber das Verhältniss Englands und Frankreichs zu Europa and Kurze und wahrhafte Erzählung von Napoleon Bonapartens verderblichen Anschlägen, von seinen Kriegen in Spanien und Russland, von der Zerstörung seiner Heeresmacht, und von der Bedeutung des gegenwärtigen teutschen 50

Ein Lebensbild in Briefen, op. cit., pp. 90-96.

51

Ulmann, H., Geschichte der Befreiungskriege (Berlin, and Munich, 1914), vol. i, p. 456. B2 Das preussische Volk und Heer im Jahr 1813 (Leipzig, 1913), pp. 36-37.

RESURRECTION Krieges,

1813-1816: ARNDTS

bearing the sub-title, ein Büchlein

Volke zum Trost und Ermahnung

113

PAMPHLETS

gestellt.

dem

teutschen

T h e first of these

the Berlin censor, Renfner, praised f o r its keen and interesting observations, but he also lamented the fact that " A r n d t is too easily carried a w a y by his personal animosities."

68

T h e second seems to have had its origin in Russia as the Russische

Kriegsgeschichte.

T h e first copies of it were

already struck off in the spring of 1813, whereupon the work was interrupted by the enlistment o f the printing s t a f f ; it was not until the fall of 1813 that the first edition reached the public.

A second and a third edition made their appear-

ance in F r a n k f u r t respectively in 1813 and in 1814.

T o use

the words o f R e n f n e r once more, " its description of the w a r of 1812 against Russia is h o r r i f y i n g . "

" N e v e r , " he

goes on to say, " has a writer carried repeated recriminations and insults to such an extreme."

54

Another pamphlet of A r n d t ' s that probably belongs to this period is his Grundlinien

einer

teutschen

Kriegsordnung.

Dedicated to Stein, this work seems to have appeared in t w o editions in 1813, published by Fleischer in Leipzig.

Says

the preface, " these fundamental principles are born of the crisis and experiences of recent days as well as of a solicitude and love f o r the German Fatherland."

A s the title sug-

gests, it outlined a plan for a national army, according to which all able-bodied youths between the ages of twentythree

and twenty-five

training,

whereupon,

would

undergo

intensive

until they reached

military

forty-five,

they

would constitute a reserve which would be kept in readiness f o r active service by a short annual period of training.

The

58 Czygan, P., " Ernst Moritz Arndts historisch-politische Schriften in der Beurteilung des Berliner Zensors in den Jahren 1813 bis 1815," in Vossische Zeitung, Sonntagsbeilage no. 47 (1907), p. 373. 64 Czygan, P., " Ernst Moritz Arndts historisch-politische Schriften," op. cit., p. 373.

114

ARNDT

AND

THE

NATIONALIST

AWAKENING

pamphlet boasted of two patriotic aims: to train men to defend the fatherland, and to develop the " manly " virtues in the rising generation.65 T w o years later this work made its re-appearance in several chapters of Fantasien fiir ein kiinftiges Deutschland, also published in Frankfurt. Meanwhile, in the early fall of 1813, Austria having joined Prussia, Russia and England, the war had been resumed once more. After several indecisive campaigns, the Allies finally succeeded in defeating Napoleon at the momentous Battle of Leipzig in October, 1813. Napoleon retired to France, with the Allied armies close upon his heels. The following year brought the war to a decisive issue. Negotiations for peace which had been interrupted the preceding autumn by the resumption of hostilities, had been re-opened in February, 1814, on the basis of the status quo of 1792. But Napoleon insisted on " natural frontiers " for France, while the counsels of the Allies were divided. Bliicher and the nationalist party, urging the invasion of France in order to force its capitulation, had finally prevailed. The ensuing campaign, after many vicissitudes, had given the Allies a complete victory. By the Treaty of Paris in April, 1814, Napoleon abdicated, while the diplomats of Europe made ready to liquidate his empire. Perhaps the most popular of Arndt's Leipzig publications was his Der Rhein, Teutschlands Strom, dber nicht Teutschlands Granze, which, as he recalls thirty years later, " gave me great satisfaction." It was a well organized and brilliantly written work, and, seems to have made a very favorable impression upon contemporaries.56 Wilhelm von Hum56

Grundlinien einer teutschen Kriegsordnung

(Leipzig, 1813), passim.

Erinnerungen, op. cit., p. 193. In a letter of January 4, 1814 to K a r l Schildener, Arndt writes: " My Rhine booklet pleases everyone and is taking effect, which is the best," in Preussische Jahrbiicher (March, 1913), vol. cli, p. 470. 68

RESURRECTION

1813-1815:

ARNDT'S

PAMPHLETS

115

boldt described it as " a very fine work, and certain passages, as for example those on south and north Germans, are excellently and beautifully expressed." 57 In a letter of January, 1814, Eichhorn writes to Arndt from Basel: " Your book, Der Rhein, Teutschlands Strom, aber nicht Teutschlands Gr'dnze, has made a strong impression here. W e have distributed it widely." A postscript to the letter adds, " Chancellor von Hardenberg esteems you very highly." M The occasion for the work was Metternich's offer of the Rhine frontier in his negotiations with Napoleon toward the end of 1813. It will serve our purpose here to examine this pamphlet briefly. First, Arndt asks, what are natural frontiers of a people or nation? The only valid natural boundary, he contends, is that of speech. The various languages constitute differentiating walls between lands and peoples, they lie at the basis of those fundamental differences between nations that are so necessary, by way of mutual interaction, to their spiritual self-preservation. Peoples and countries had generally differentiated themselves into certain comparatively distinct linguistic groups by the end of the Middle Ages. Subsequently, says Arndt, in the centuries of conquest, God's natural work was disturbed by an indiscriminate intermixture of foreign and diverse elements. In the days of Luther and Maximilian I, Germany embraced all German-speaking people and practically nothing else. And most of the rest of Europe was then similarly divided into national states. Besides, it should be borne in mind, according to Arndt, that the names of states and nations have been mainly determined by their respective languages. Only where there are 57

Wilhelm und Caroline von Humboldt 1815), vol. iv, p. 211. 6 8 Arndt, E. M., Nothgedrungener 1847), section B, pp. 250-251.

in ihren Brie fen (Berlin, 1812-

Bericht

aus seinem Leben

(Leipzig,

Il6

ARNDT

AND

THE

NATIONALIST

AWAKENING

scattered non-contiguous remnants of nationals, separated from the main stock and surrounded by a people speaking a dissimilar language, may an exception be allowed to the general principle of common linguistic and political frontiers. 69 Second to language, Arndt goes on, physical features, such as mountains and bodies of water, constitute natural frontiers—not in themselves, but because they tend to be barriers of language.60 Thus the Alps separate Italians, French and Germans, while the Ardennes forest, the Vosges and Jura mountains separate the French and German tongues. The sea separates Swedish, Norwegian and Icelandic languages from the German. Similarly the English Channel establishes Great Britain's linguistic isolation from the continent. Deserts and swamps also constitute natural frontiers, since they tend to obstruct contact beween geographic, and hence linguistic, units. On the other hand, says Arndt, rivers have never constituted natural frontiers. For where streams flow, fertile valleys form, valleys which, by their nature, are usually densely populated and which, far from obstructing mutual contacts, actually facilitate them. It is not surprising, therefore, says Arndt, that history knows no cases where rivers have formed natural boundaries.01 As for the Rhine, both sides of this river, Arndt contends, must be German as they were before the Revolution. With89 Der Rhein, Deutschlands Strom, aber nicht Deutschlands Grenze, edited, with introduction, by Edgar Wildberg (Dresden, 1921), p. 20 et seq. 60 These ideas are a striking parallel to those developed in Fichte's Reden, delivered in Berlin in the winter of 1807-08. Although Arndt first met Fichte in Jena as a student in, 1793-94, was he familiar with Fichte's Reden? Müsebeck seems to think so. H. C. Engelbrecht greatly minimizes the influence and popularity of Fichte's Reden in his Johann Gottlieb Fichte (New York, 1933), PP- 127-33. 81

Der Rhein, Deutschlands op. cit., pp. 24-27.

Strom,

aber nicht Deutschlands

Grenze,

RESURRECTION

1813-1815: ARNDT'S

PAMPHLETS

117

out the Rhine, German independence is in jeopardy. This opinion he bases " on my heart, my love of my fatherland and of my people " and " on historic right, on policy, on honor and fidelity to the German name." It is based on historic right, he insists, because the original stock along both banks of the Rhine was Germanic, certain parts having been gradually absorbed by ambitious French kings. It is based on considerations of public policy, Arndt contends, because French possession of the Rhine will entail French domination of Germany as well as the disturbance of the balance of power in Europe. Thus Arndt draws the line of nationality between the French and Germans from Dunkirk in a straight line south below Mons and Luxemburg, to Saarlouis, thence along the Saar and the Vosges mountains to Mompelgard, and thence to the headwaters of the Rhine at Basel. Assuming that the German-speaking area extends from the Alps in the south and from the Ardennes in the west eastward to the Dalmatians, Croats, Hungarians and Poles, to the Baltic and Eider river on the north, and west to the North Sea, Arndt points out that Germany will have an advantage over France of from five to six million souls, which is, however, more than offset by France's strategic position and defensible frontiers. 62 A further justification for the restoration of the Rhineland to Germany by France, Arndt finds in the difference in the constitution and character of the two nations. The German constitution is federal and responsible, and will, no doubt, remain so. Moreover, its people will never tolerate the exercise or abuse of absolute and arbitrary power. " The character of the German is quiet, moderate and just, inclined rather to be too docile than too wild." Except for the troubled period of the fifth and sixth centuries, says Arndt, the Germans have never been a conquering nation. 62

Ibid., pp. 27-56.

Il8

ARNDT

AND

THE

NATIONALIST

AWAKENING

The French constitution, on the other hand, Arndt describes as monarchical, which under strong and aggressive rulers necessarily becomes despotic. Moreover, the French character is " frivolous, inconstant, restive, capricious, always moving between extremes and not capable of sustaining an enduring liberty." " They have and always have had a predilection for conquest but no competence to govern conquered territory." 63 " I f the French possess the Rhine they possess the heart of our people, they attack us in our innermost being, they destroy us in the germ of our life." For the Rhine and its neighboring lands of Swabia, Franconia, Hesse, Westphalia and Brunswick, says Arndt, constitute the heart of the German nation. French hegemony will bring in its train French customs, while the French language will ever become more widespread and dominant and, in a generation's time, will extend for fifty miles on either side of the Rhine. The German tongue will meanwhile expire in this region, and all the people as far as the Lech, the Pine (Fichtel) mountains and the Elbe will gradually degenerate into a wretched and despicable nation of hybrid French. In this way the German national culture will be threatened with irreparable corruption. Even the east and north of Germany will gradually be contaminated under the impact of the alien influence. " This Germany, renowned for her arts, sciences and inventions, esteemed for her customs, laws and virtues, and extolled for her quiet enterprise and pious sentiment! We implore God and men not to suffer its extinction." While the Allies now have the military advantage, Arndt concludes, they must act promptly and in concert, lest Germany be dismembered only to be eventually utterly destroyed or absorbed by France. 64 63

Der Rhein,

Deutschlands

Strom,

dber nicht Deutschlands

Grenze,

Strom,

aber nicht Deutschlands

Grenze,

op. ext., pp. 57-68. 64

Der Rhein, Deutschlands

op. cit., pp. 77-86.

RESURRECTION

1818-1816: ARNDTS

PAMPHLETS

119

Der Rhein, Teutschlands Strom, aber nicht Teutschlands Gräme, written under pressure and to meet an immediate emergency, was of a pronounced propagandist character. Moreover, it seems to have made a good impression on Prussian officialdom. Chancellor Hardenberg praised it, gave the author a stipend, and promised him an office in the Prussian government service.65 Three editions of Der Rhein, Teutschlands Strom, aber nicht Teutschlands Gräme appeared in 1813 and 1814. One of the last products of this Leipzig period and perhaps Arndt's most impassioned work was his Ueber Volkshass und über den Gebrauch einer fremden Sprache. In the first part of this pamphlet Arndt would " inculcate hatred against the French, not only for the duration and purposes of this war, but for a long time, for ever." 86 He continues significantly: " W h e r e the nations of the world are distinguished, each possessing a unique and peculiar character and where a proud and noble hatred fosters and sustains this disparate character, there will the sublime mission of humanity and the manifest will of the Almighty be most efficaciously consummated." 67 In the second part he urges the complete riddance of the " unseemly hegemony of the French language from within our frontiers." 68 It is perhaps not surprising that the Berlin censor Renfner refused to allow its sale and publication. This was in January, 1814, when the Allies, already on French soil, were vainly attempting to induce Napoleon to accept their generous peace terms. " How can I," Renfner, the conservative bureaucrat expostulated, " reconcile the sanction of this work with the spirit 65 Erinnerungen, p. 193. «« Ueber Volkshass und über den Gebrauch einer fremden Sprache (Leipzig, 1813), p. 18. 67

Ibid., pp. 19-20.

68

Ibid., p. 70.

120

ARNDT

AND

THE

NATIONALIST

AWAKENING

of my instructions, with the policies and character of the K i n g and with the prospective amicable relations between civilized nations ? " 69 Meanwhile—on New Year's Day, 1 8 x 4 — A r n d t had left Leipzig for Frankfurt which he made his headquarters for most of this year. Here he continued his literary efforts, while also making sundry expeditions for Stein. Frequently visiting the Rhineland, he was pained to witness the growth of pro-French sentiment there, especially among the upper classes. Thus, in the spring of 1814, he writes from Coblenz, whither Stein had sent him in hope of securing for him a position in the administration of the middle Rhine area: " The people on the whole are agreeable enough; among officials high and low, fifteen-sixteenths are pro-French and it is deplorable that only a few dozen leading German traitors were ostracized and not several hundred routed across the Rhine." 70 In Coblenz, Arndt was joined by Father Jahn, 71 founder of the gymnastic societies, and the t w o made a several months' tour to Cologne, Aix-la-chapelle, Düsseldorf, Elberfeld, Solingen, Remscheid and through Berg. 72 But these journeys only confirmed Arndt's apprehension at the growth of French influence, until he presently went so far as to propose the formation of national societies to combat it, as he says in a letter to Schön: In all large cities where there are enough educated people, we Germans might found German Societies which, in order not to excite suspicion among the authorities, would not be secret but 99 Czygan, P., " Ernst Moritz Arndts historisch-politische Schriften," op. cit., p. 374. 70

Ein Lebensbild in Briefen, op. cit., pp. 108-109.

"Arndt had made the acquaintance of Jahn in 1802-03, when the latter was his student at Greifswald." 71

7 2 Steffens,

W . , "Lebensbild," in part 1 of Arndts Leipzig, Vienna and Stuttgart, 1912), p. lviii.

Werke

(Berlin,

RESURRECTION

1818-1816: ARNDTS

PAMPHLETS

121

would openly proclaim and acknowledge as their purpose the expulsion of French impertinence, lewdness and speech, and the exaltation and invigoration of German morals, usages and language. These German Societies, which would not be philological associations but genuinely national, articulate and living, . . . would raise our language again to the status of a spoken tongue, inculcate the memories of our past history and the strength of German virtue directly in the people, celebrate national festivals . . . raise everything purely German to eminence and keep before the public always the idea that all Germans must be brothers.73 This idea A r n d t developed in a short pamphlet, Entwurf einer teutschen Gesellschaft. Renfner's comment on this work sheds an illuminating light on the growing audacity of Arndt's patriotic agitation: " W i t h due respect for the truly high esteem with which I regard the earlier spiritual productions of this patriotic writer, I have, nevertheless, repeatedly observed how much he has recently degenerated. Here he exhibits a new eruption of his fury. . . . Which authority, which government, authorizes him to impugn our statesmen, preach sedition and incite the masses? Which of the Allies is served by the continuation of his activities? " Later in the same year appeared Ein Wort über die Feier der Leipziger Schlacht as part of the program for his " German Societies." 74 Spurred on by the Allied invasion of French territory by the turn of the year, Arndt presently published a small volume of Kriegslieder der Teutschen. Shortly following this, early in 1814, came a new collection, Lob teutscher Helden, gesungen von E. M. Arndt und Theodor Körner. A second edition of this work, published in Cologne, made its appearance with the resumption of hostilities in 1815. 73

Ein Lebensbild in Briefen, op. cit., p. 106.

74

Müsebeck, E., E. M. Arndt, 1769-1815 (Gotha, 1914), p. 524.

122

ARNDT

AND

THE

NATIONALIST

AWAKENING

This brings our survey of Arndt's pamphlet literature down to the cessation of hostilities in the spring of 1814. But the work of " liberation " had been consummated and while the end of war was enthusiastically heralded as the end also of oppression and tyranny, it presently became apparent that peace also brought its problems. Since many of the above pamphlets were intended primarily as tinder for the " liberation fire," the successful conclusion of the war in 1814 made the continuation of the violent anti-French crusade both unnecessary and obnoxious. Already in the late summer of 1813, Arndt felt that he was going perhaps a little too far in his strictures of the existing order in Germany and in exciting the patriotic ardor of the masses, as he wrote in a contemporary letter to his friend, Reimer: " A s the circumstances have now changed, it behooves me to moderate many strong expressions. A s it is, there will still be enough to make me eligible for some strong fortress." 75 A f t e r the Allied triumph in the spring of 1814, A r n d t sought to moderate the offensive tone of his political writings. A l s o he now became more directly concerned with the problems of national reconstruction in Germany. Although the years 1814 and 1815 saw repeated editions of many of his earlier works, we shall now proceed to review some of his more important new publications of these years. In Die Central Verwaltung der Verbündeten unter dem Feiherrn von Stein, published in 1814, Arndt surveys the history and work o f this body since the Allied defeat at Gross-Görschen in May, 1813. It is supplemented with a long appendix of various official documents and memoranda concerning the commission's jurisdiction and functions. 78 73

Nothgedrungener

Bericht,

op. cit., p. 23.

Die Central Verwaltung der Verbündeten unter dem Freiherrn von Stein (Deutschland (Frankfurt?), 1814). Arndt had been employed by the Central Verwaltung until its abolition in the late summer of 1814. Henceforth he was re-imbursed directly by the Prussian state treasury. 76

RESURRECTION

1818-1816:

ARNDTS

PAMPHLETS

123

Arndt's Über künftige ständische Verfassungen in Teutschland, published the same year, best summarizes his ideals and hopes for a reconstructed Germany. A f t e r citing and deploring the lack in Germany of " love of honor and Fatherland," Arndt urges a six-point program for a constitutional régime: Point i : The subordination of all German princes and states to a common superior, who may be styled " emperor " or " king." Point 2 : The establishment, for the whole of Germany, of adequate measures for defense, including provision for universal military training. Point 3 : Enactment of one Imperial code of laws which, while respecting ancient local rights and usages, will be adapted to the peculiar character of the German nation. Point 4: Foundation of Imperial courts to provide prompt and exact justice. Point 5 : Establishment of a German Reichstag consisting of representatives of the nobility, burghers and peasants throughout Germany. Point 6 : Unlimited freedom of the press, " without which there can be no civil liberty." 77 In the summer of 18x4, Arndt came out with a more formidable work, Ansichten und Aussichten der Teutschen Geschichte. According to Czygan, this work had its origin in Russia where it was first published in 1813 under the title Historisches Taschenbuch, the above title being pasted on those copies which were printed in 1814. 78 However, in his preface to the 1814 edition, Arndt declares it to have been written " i n the spring of the year 1813 in Breslau, under 77 Über künftige ständische Verfassungen in Teutschland, part 10 of Arndts Werke, edited by Leffson, A., and Steffens, W., in twelve parts (Leipzig, Berlin, Vienna and Stuttgart, 1912), pp. 98-99. 78

Czygan, P., Zur Geschichte

der Tagesliteratur,

op. cit., vol. i, p. 145.

124

ARNDT

AND

THE

NATIONALIST

AWAKENING

the pressure of affairs." 79 A large book of 500 pages, it is a somewhat choppy military and political history of the Teutonic nations from the time of Arminius to the eve of the French Revolution. In the late summer of 1814, another Arndt pamphlet, Noch ein Wort über die Franzosen und über uns, made its appearance in Leipzig. It was not allowed in Berlin by Renfner who, in his report to Hardenberg, copied a few passages " since one would not otherwise consider such outrageously rancorous nonsense credible." 80 Meanwhile, the European diplomats were gathering in Vienna for an attempt to liquidate the Napoleonic régime. It soon became apparent that the selfish and dynastic interests of the various powers, abetted by secret diplomatic intrigues and bargains, would lead to many a crisis. Arndt was especially dismayed to witness the vacillating and weak policy of his " glorious " Prussia. A s he says in a letter to Gneisenau : " It is abominable that the K i n g of Prussia has lost all interest in and competence for statecraft and that his delegation does not aim more firmly and forcefully at a single goal. . . . Instead of an enduring peace there is unfortunately only an armistice, and, as matters now stand, we can hope for salvation only from Prussia." 81 Shortly thereafter followed his Blick aus der Zeit auf die Zeit, also published in Frankfurt, in 1814. This work began as an article in the Preussische Correspondent ( K ö n igsberg) late in 1814, entitled, " Über deutsche Volksstämme." 82 It will serve our purpose here briefly to outline its contents. 7S

Ansichten und Aussichten der Teutschen Geschichte

(Leipzig, 1814).

Czygan, P., " Ernst Mortiz Arndts historisch-politische Schriften," op. cit., p. 375. 80

81

Quoted from Pick, A., Aus der Zeit der Noth (Berlin, 1900), p. 312.

Arndt wrote many articles for this magazine of which he was the chief editor from October to December, 1814. 83

RESURRECTION

1818-1816: ARNDT'S

PAMPHLETS

125

In the past, Arndt had addressed his fellow-nationals as a whole; he had consoled, comforted, rebuked or fired them with his hopes and ideals for their country. He was of the people and spoke their language. In this work, however, he speaks for the German people, as spokesman for his compatriots. What, he asks, does the German people desire now? First of all, the German nation requires a protecting and fostering power that is strong enough to weld its various principalities firmly together. The nation anticipates that Austria will resume the imperial honor, since she has borne it for several centuries past, though she should resume it with more power. Should this not prove feasible, however, then the German nation desires to see Austria and Prussia exalted above all other German principalities as the two powers upon whom all Germany relies as its pillars and to whom all the princes should owe obedience. Moreover, the country must be welded together in such a manner as to preclude the possibility of a schism between north and south Germany. In order to protect the frontiers against the nation's most dangerous enemy—France—Prussia must rule on the middle and lower Rhine and Austria on the upper Rhine. Also, the petty princes must be provided for in such a way as to insure their cooperation for the security and integrity of their respective states.83 Secondly, says Arndt, the sovereignty of the several states of the Rhenish Confederation must be abolished, and they must be vigorously administered as dependent parts of the empire. Thirdly, there must be a restoration of free constitutions, of the provincial diets and of the free imperial cities in all parts of Germany. For such freedom is the original inherent right of the German people. Without a parliamentary constitution, according to Arndt, Germany is doomed to stagnation. In the fourth place, the people antici83

Blick aus der Zeit auf die Zeit (Germanien, 1814), pp. 6-9.

I2Ô

ARNDT

AND THE NATIONALIST

AWAKENING

pate from the Congress of Vienna the establishment of a federal German diet; not a diet such as that which sat at Ratisbon, weak and impotent, but a strong, living, powerful diet. It should represent all the cities and princes of the nation whose assembled delegates would meet at stipulated times. Furthermore, there must be established two supreme imperial courts, one for the south and one for the north and organized in such a manner as to insure speedy justice. These must be supplemented by an interstate or federal court, which would decide disputes among princes, states or cities, and from which appeal might be taken to the federal diet. As a student of Herder, Arndt believed that political institutions are modified and conditioned by the factors of race, climate, cultural development, economic organization and tradition. To his mind, divine-right monarchy and the privileged and feudal society of the old regime were entirely out of harmony with the realities of contemporary civilization. Thus he became an ardent champion of constitutionalism and insisted upon the establishment and preservation of individual liberties and the abolition of special privileges as the sine qua non of the society that he saw emerging from the debris of the French Revolution. In the new constitutional structure, according to Arndt, there must therefore be a guarantee of equality before the law. Furthermore, there must be complete freedom of the press, " the palladium of all liberties and the mother of every proud virtue." Currency, weights and measures must be uniform throughout the whole country. Finally, everything which obstructs intercommunication or the free mobility of the people, or in any way retards or delimits the growth and development of the nation as a whole must be forthwith abolished. There must be uniform excise and custom duties, uniform postal rates, and a single uniform military organization throughout the whole country. In this way alone can

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Germany hope to become strong, united, progressive and really liberated.84 A s for Austria, Arndt goes on, she should utilize her advantage now to add Switzerland and Alsace to the empire and really become united in spirit with the German world. On the other hand, she is unjustified in holding the Italians in subjection. They rightfully desire independence and will eventually win it. Austria has always been the bulwark of reaction and the enemy of innovation. Thus she resists Prussia and the new spirit in Germany. The new living forces that are in ferment at the present time may be thwarted or suppressed momentarily, but will inevitably find ultimate expression. A state which pursues a policy of repression will experience exactly what human beings who stifle the living powers within them also experience—it will become paralyzed or atrophied in some part or other. The spirit of the times is so insistent and violent that anyone refusing to move forward with it will be overwhelmed by its momentum. Moreover, Arndt continues, sentiments and ideas have never been so potent as they are today. Thus if Austria cuts herself off from the main trend of German culture without participating in its light and spirit, she will stagnate from inertia and perish in the first vigorous cataclysm which will inevitably overtake her, and then all of Austria's fine pacifism will avail nothing.86 The events of 1806 crystallized Arndt's German nationalism, as we have seen, but Prussia's remarkable resurrection, culminating in her heroic triumph in 1 8 1 3 , also made him into an outspoken Prussia partisan. Thus, while Arndt was still first of all a German nationalist, after the autumn of 1 8 1 3 he also became a militant Prussian patriot. The mantle that Austria has wilfully rejected, Arndt here writes, 84

Blick aus der Zeit auf die Zeit, op. cit., pp. 9-14.

85

Blick aus der Zeit auf die Zeit, op. cit., pp. 15-24.

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has now fallen upon Prussia. For Prussia set an unforgettable example and delivered the decisive blow; without reckoning consequences, she plunged into the most hazardous ordeal and inspired other German princes with courage to follow her example. Even in her disgrace, says Arndt, now repenting his earlier rash judgments, Prussia prized her heritage and fighting spirit; and never did she abandon thoughts of a resurrection that would exonerate her proud name: As, under the auspices of Napoleon's system of repression, there began a persecution of talent and courage all over Germany, Prussia quietly continued to foster the sacred flame of the arts and sciences, to cultivate German manners, customs and usages. From this spirit of patriotic devotion, which the Prussian government nourished and fostered in that stormy crisis, has been born every pride and virtue, which, like an allinspiring and all-permeating fire from the greatest to the most lowly, has lifted up the fallen and given courage to the despondent.89 Moreover, Arndt goes on, Prussia, great by virtue of her history, her people and territories, is still more glorious by virtue of the love and esteem of Germans generally; and possessing a spiritual hegemony, she must likewise be enlarged territorially. She must be the unifier and ruler of north and central Germany, and as such should be augmented by the annexation of Saxony. Moreover, she must be especially strengthened on the western frontier since it is from that quarter that most is to be feared. Hence Prussia should hold the keys to the empire on the middle and lower Rhine by the possession of Luxemburg, Jülich, Wesel, Mainz and their dependencies. The neighboring princes, together with their military forces, must be placed under the Prussian high command and the whole western frontier must be lined 86

Ibid., p. 27.

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with strong fortresses. Finally, Prussia should also demand an indemnity for the shameless extortion she has suffered. Thus a bulwark would be established to insure Germany's defence and to form a rallying point for the whole German nation, while at the same time this arrangement would lay the basis for a spiritual union between north and south Germany.87 What, Arndt asks, is Prussia's mission now? First, Prussia must prepare to stand before all Germany as the model and exemplar of national self-reliance and as the guarantor of individual liberty. Secondly, she must establish, in all territories subject to her jurisdiction, free parliamentary constitutions which will respect and foster the ancient usages and laws and the peculiarities of each locality, and racial stock so far as that is compatible with the public interest. Thirdly, she must proclaim and guarantee complete freedom of press, with only malicious slander, libel and sedition punishable by the state. Fourthly, she must encourage German science and art and protect German customs and speech, as long and insofar as these are menaced by alien influences. Fifthly, she must act as guardian and protector of every religion without discrimination. Finally, she must make her military establishment the finest in equipment, discipline and readiness for action, while simultaneously striving, in peace-time, to minimize the danger of war so far as this is in her power. Thus a nation of Spartans will be made in the spirit " of the old mighty Germans of antiquity." 88 As for the educated classes, their mission—above all the mission of those who by their education and culture have become sentinels and mentors of princes and people—is to " cherish the sentiments and ideals without which the 87 88

Blick aus der Zeit auf die Zeit, op. cit., pp. 26-34. Blick aus der Zeit auf die Zeit, op. cit., pp. 36-38.

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Fatherland cannot subsist, . . . especially the most lofty idea that without concord and communion among all Germans all hopes of happiness and virtue are futile." The idea of emperor and empire, says Arndt, must be kept alive until it is realized. Everyone must continue to strive for the unification of all Germans. The Swiss, the Dutch and the Alsatians must again be brought into close union with the main German trunk. Gradually the separatist barriers must be weakened to facilitate a progressive national amalgamation. Hence none of the petty states of Germany should be enlarged, for if they are they will continue to exist as disruptive forces within the empire. Their sovereignty must gradually be impaired until they are made really dependent members of the empire once more. 89 Moreover, Arndt continues, the rights which the German claims for himself must also be granted to others, as, for instance, the Italians and the Poles. It should be made a fundamental and inviolable axiom that it is unethical to desire to rule alien peoples, who by virtue of their numerical strength and geographical position are able to exist as separate and independent nations. A policy of aggrandizement which unites discrete and mutually incompatible elements brings to the conquering nation disruptive and destructive forces, elements which will corrupt and contaminate its o w n indigenous culture. Thus the Italians, the Poles and the Finns should have their freedom, not for their own interest alone, but also in the interest of their potential conquerors and in the interest of a common humanity. 90 Mountains, lakes and oceans, Arndt insists, constitute the natural frontiers of nations. These geographical features, which generally constitute climatic and economic frontiers, usually determine the disposition, customs and speech of the 89

Ibid., pp. 79-83.

90

Blick aus der Zeit auf die Zeit, op. cit., pip. 70-76.

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peoples they segregate. Hence encroachment upon areas so determined violates the natural order of things for it disturbs the temperament and culture of the victimized nation. This encroachment has frequently found expression in wars of conquest and extermination. Everywhere, says Arndt, history exhibits the striving of peoples toward the perfection of their body, to complete it in all its parts and to sustain its vigor and integrity. This striving, generally obscure, instinctive and spontaneous, is a motive force inherent in every living organism for the development and perpetuation of its being and the development of its character.91 In the section " Über deutsche Volksstämme," Arndt reiterates his arguments for the establishment of a German confederation uniting all branches of the Teutonic stock. Although Arndt often uses the term " Teutonic " somewhat loosely, here he is referring to the Netherlands, Alsace, Switzerland and the various small " Germanies" of central Europe. Although acknowledging the racial kinship of the Germans, Scandinavians and English, Arndt is willing to concede that the Scandinavians and the English have achieved distinct and firmly established national cultures that are co-equal and coordinate with that of the Germans. Speaking of the various small principalities in central Europe, Arndt condemns as irrational and untenable the old doctrine that each of these territories must have an independent political organization and a dynasty. The same is true, he insists, of the claim that such a division is necessary in order best to preserve and foster the national character. Actually, there is only too little German influence at the courts of most German princes, who are too prone to indulge in assiduous imitation of foreign manners, morals, speech and customs. In fact, Arndt contends, there is no good argument for the continuance of so many separate jurisdictions. In many 01

Ibid., pp. 85-91.

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cases there doubtless were ancient tribal differences to distinguish various branches of the race, but, in the course of a thousand years the impact of a common religion, common allegiance to the same emperor and the development of a great national language have done much to obliterate those distinctions. Examples of the union of such principalities in England and Sweden demonstrate that there is nothing inherently impracticable in a similar German federation. Undoubtedly the differences among the so-called Teutonic stocks, according to Arndt, are not incompatible with political union. Moreover, a wise measure of local autonomy might insure the preservation of many cherished local customs and usages. 92 W h a t are the advantages of this much-praised division in Germany, Arndt asks. The small principalities have generally been the worst governed ones. T h e maintenance of an elaborate court in each of these states imposes a staggering burden upon the civil population, whereas one central court in a large state is much more economical. Moreover, A r n d t believes, a small state fosters a petty mentality among its citizens whose imagination and ideals lack scope and depth, while a large state, by its very nature, tends to emphasize magnitude and extension. The champions of petty princes, Arndt declares, have mistakenly compared them with the German princes of the Middle Ages, for these latter, after all, were not independent monarchs. T h e dukes, princes, counts and knights of that age all owed allegiance to the Emperor, whereas since the Thirty Years' W a r they have become sovereign lords while the Empire disintegrated. Also, in a large state, Arndt argues, there is a greater opportunity for efficient administrators, more recognition of merit in government service and generally more liberty and justice, while a petty state lends itself more naturally to the growth 92

Blick aus der Zeit auf die Zeit, op. cit., pp. 147-153-

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of autocracy. Finally, Arndt affirms, the petty state exists more by the sufferance and tolerance of others than by its own capacity for self-defense. Every twenty years it must reckon with the prospect of invasion and the necessity of military resistance.93 Arndt also emphasizes the importance of maintaining the national stock free from the " contaminating " admixture of foreign or alien stocks. Thus he views the " sin-flood " of Jews with alarm, since they are alien in their whole background and outlook; in religion, race, speech, morals and traditions. Such an admixture of alien elements, induces mutual antagonism and thus undermines the vigor and national character of a people. While the Jews are in many respects a great and admirable people, says Arndt, they are themselves hybrids, and when living among Christians in large numbers they endanger the welfare of the latter. Although Jews born in a Christian state should be accorded all the rights, privileges and immunities of other subjects, their influx and increase there cannot be regarded as a boon. For the greatest evil, according to Arndt, is to have states within states and nations within a nation, nations which constitute alien, unassimilated and even superior groups.94 What, Arndt asks, are the prospects for a united Germany ? He foresees only two possibilities. Sooner or later Germany will again be confronted by a national crisis, faced with the threat of foreign invasion. In this crisis a great leader may arise from one of the more powerful ruling dynasties, a leader who by virtue of his strength of character and patriotic motivation may win the loyalty of the whole nation and seize the power of a dictator. After the return to peace, such a hero may remain master as German emperor. This is the more likely alternative. It is also pos98

Blick aus der Zeit auf die Zeit, op. cit., pp. 147-153.

84

Ibid., pp. 191-202.

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sible, but less likely, that the princes, animated by a lofty spirit of patriotic sacrifice may mutually and voluntarily relinquish their present prerogatives and restore the Empire. In the first case, the probability that such a hero might be a just and wise statesman is by no means excluded. He would be well advised in setting up, in each district, diets consisting of nobles, peasants and burghers, and perhaps some clergy. Great caution would have to be exercised to preserve, so far as practicable, cherished customs and traditions as well as everything peculiar to locality and climate. Each constituent part of the empire might retain a measure of local autonomy, having its own administration and police, whose officials would be centrally confirmed. It is noteworthy that by this time Arndt had abandoned his former plan for a dualism in Germany, according to which Austria and Prussia should share political control of the nation. 95 In justification of his earlier position he says, " It was simply because, under the circumstances, nothing better suggested itself; it was more an idea or suggestion in the crisis than a settled view or conviction." 96 N o w , Arndt insisted, political union is not only desirable but also necessary, considering the constant danger of war. Yet, Arndt repeats, a state of threatened war is in itself a disguised blessing. While the hope of an eternal peace may be a humane ideal, its practical attainment, he feels, can only be regarded as a calamity. Humanity requires the periodic shock of war to inspire it to heroic deeds and great sacrifices, for war, according to him, reawakens and regenerates men; it opens the only escape from stagnation and desuetude. 97 95

Blick aus der Zeit auf die Zeit, op. cit., pp. 273-275.

96

Quoted by Miisebeck, op. cit., p. 552.

97

Blick aus der Zeit auf die Zeit, op. cit., pp. 211-215.

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In the spring of 1 8 1 5 Arndt was still in his beloved Rhineland, hoping, no doubt, that Hardenberg would soon redeem his promise of appointing him to a professorship at a new Prussian university to be founded at Bonn. Meanwhile, probably late in 1814, Arndt had published two small booklets: Friedrich August, König von Sachsen und sein Volk, im Jahr 1813, and Die Regenten und die Regierten. While in Cologne the following year, Arndt established a periodical Der Wächter, which, however, enjoyed only a brief existence. It consisted largely of patriotic essays written by Arndt himself, the most important of which were a reprint of his Ueber die Feier der Leipziger Schlacht and Fantasien für ein künftiges Teutschland.9S We will conclude our survey with brief allusions to two new pamphlets which made their appearance sometime in the summer of 1815. The first of these, Ueber den Bauernstand und über seine Stellvertretung im Staate, published in Berlin, comprised excerpts from his Der Bauernstand, a work that appeared in 1810. In this work, Arndt urged the establishment of a free and powerful German yeomanry as the backbone of the state, the limitation of large estates to one third of the total land area of Germany, the direct and separate representation of the yeomanry in a national parliament and pleaded for harmony between the prospective estates or classes." The second of the works was Ueber Preussens Rheinische Mark und über Bundesfestungen, written in February, 1815. It presented an elaborate brief for the territorial enlargement of Prussia's Rhenish provinces and their adequate fortification, and was punctuated throughout with patriotic tributes to Prussia. The pamphlet ended with a significant prayer: 98 Der Wächter, eine Zeitschrift in zwanglosen Heften, in three volumes (Cologne, 1815). 89 Der Bauernstand, part 10 of Arndts Werke, op. cit., pp. 77-84; cf., Müsebeck, op. cit., p. 556.

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Oh God! Who hast so wondrously rescued us from the most recent tyranny, oh ye souls of heroes, who, from the high vaulted heavens, gaze down upon our mundane sorrows, do not suffer us again to revert into stones and logs that have no soul and know no fatherland. Oh sustain in us the spirit of piety and virtue, the spirit of pride and liberty with which Thou once didst inspire us . . . and we will eventually attain that for which we ardently long, a Germany purged of alien stocks, a strong, independent and glorious fatherland. Amen. 100 This brings the story of Arndt's pamphlet literature down to the fall of 1815, to the beginning of a long era of reaction ushered in by the Congress of Vienna. Although Arndt lived on to a very old age, to i860, the far-reaching influence and popularity which he enjoyed in the Liberation years rapidly faded in a reactionary Germany. For this reason we have chosen to conclude our study of Arndt with the end of the patriotic struggle of the Liberation in the year 1815. A curious fate befell Arndt in the years immediately following the Viennese settlement. A s we have seen, Arndt's pamphlet literature achieved a tremendous popularity in the years 1813 to 1815. Men like Boyen, Gneisenau, Stein and even the incumbent Prussian chancellor Hardenberg freely acknowledged and, for the most part, applauded Arndt's patriotic efforts. From the summer of 1813 to its dissolution the following year, Arndt had been on the staff of the Central Verwaltung der Verbündeten. Since by this time Arndt was an ardent Prussian partisan, he was anxious to remain in the service of the Prussian state, an ambition that he made known to Hardenberg. In July, 1814 the Chancellor was able to satisfy Arndt on this point in a letter he sent from F r a n k f u r t : 100 Ueber Preussetis Rheinische Mark und über Bundesfestungen, II of Arndts Werke, op. cit., p. 199.

part

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I am happy to acknowledge the services which you have rendered to the German Fatherland and to the Prussian state through your writings. These services justify your request to remain in the services of the Prussian state in a capacity suitable to your qualifications and wishes—a request which I shall be happy to consider.101 During the years 1815 to 1818 A r n d t received 1800 Thalers from the Prussian state treasury as Wartegeld for his patriotic services during the Liberation W a r s and in 1818 Hardenberg, redeeming his pledge, had Arndt appointed professor of modern history at the prospective university of Bonn, in order " to reward him in an honorable manner in the eyes of the Fatherland." 102 In the fall of 1818 the university of Bonn opened its doors and Arndt embarked upon his new duties. H e had been engaged in his academic labors in Bonn for less than six months when the murder of the Russian spy Kotzebue, in March, 1819, suddenly precipitated a campaign against radicals and liberals throughout Germany that eventually counted Arndt among its victims. Arndt's prolific literary activity had not failed to create offense in some quarters. W e have already alluded to Kosegarten's undying animosity and to Renfner's caustic reports on several of Arndt's later pamphlets. Already in 1814, August von Kotzebue had begun a systematic attack on Arndt in the pages of his Politische Flugblätter. In January of the following year, von Schmalz and von Aretin, the latter in his Allemania, joined the attack. 108 Since the spring of 1814 the Prussian authorities had labored to silence the continuing attacks upon the French as 101

Nothgedrungener

Bericht, op. cit., p. 240.

Burchardi, G. C., "Verteidigungschrift für E. M. Arndt," in Mitteilungen aus dem Literaturarchiv in Berlin, neue Folge 15 (Berlin, 1918), p. 43108 Müsebeck, E., " Die Einleitung des Verfahrens gegen E . M. Arndt," in Historische Zeitschrift, vol. cv (1910), p. 517. 102

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these attacks served only to embarrass the ensuing peace negotiations and keep the French in a state of nervous apprehension. Thus the Prussian war minister, Müchler, an erstwhile friend and collaborator of Arndt's, admonished the latter on this score in an article " A n Herrn Arndt " in Das erwachte Europa in the fall of 1814. Müchler pointed to the danger of inculcating an eternal hatred of the French as Arndt advocated in his Noch ein Wort über die Franzosen und über uns.Wi Already since 1814 Arndt had received many warnings and threats and this, together with the various open and direct attacks that were being launched against him, soon gave him cause for grave concern. Gradually, however, his opponents relented, and in December, 1818 his brother-in-law 105 and friend Schleiermacher could assure him, " W e must forever rejoice, now that the storm which gathered around you has fortunately been dispelled." 108 But the storm had not been dispelled. Following the assassination of Kotzebue in the spring of 1819 came the notorious Carlsbad decrees dissolving the Burschenschaften and ushering in a reactionary régime of suppression throughout Germany. A m o n g the many liberals who came under suspicion was Arndt, who was arrested in the summer of 1819 on the formal charge of being involved in staatsgefährliche Umtriebe und Verbindungen.107 T h e following year, Arndt was suspended from his position and in February, 1821 the criminal investigations of his case began. Although the investigating commission completed its labors 101

Czygan, P., " Ernst Moritz Arndts historisch-politische Schriften," op. cit., p. 375. 105 In September, 1817, Arndt had married Nana Schleiermacher, halfsister of the famous theologian. 108 Nothgedrungener Bericht, op. cit., p. 116. 107 The legal aspects of this case are discussed by Arndt's chief defense counsel, G. C. Burchardi, op. cit.

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in the summer of the following year, the case dragged on desultorily for almost twenty years longer. Niebuhr, Eichhorn and Stein, among others, repeatedly interceded in Arndt's behalf, but to no avail. The candid Stein's commentary on the case in a letter to Witzleben of June, 1827 is illuminating: Intercede in behalf of this courageous man who, for the past eight years has been the victim of calumny, suspicion and stupidity. With unfailing devotion and sincerity he labored for his God, for the King and for our Fatherland by word and sacrifice at a time when many, now in positions of power, trembled and cringed. His works fertilized, inspired and greatly strengthened our spirits with a self-effacing patriotism during the period of foreign domination in Prussia. 108 Although no conviction was ever brought against Arndt, he was not restored to his post at Bonn until the accession of Frederick William I V in 1840. Thereupon, completely exonerated by the King, Arndt returned to his beloved Rhineland amid the tumultuous ovations of a generation that had learned to share his patriotic dreams. 108

Stein Briefe und Schriften, edited with introduction and notes by K a r l Pagel (Leipzig, 1 9 2 7 ) , p. 317-

CHAPTER

V

CONCLUSION T H E GENESIS A N D DEVELOPMENT OF ARNDT'S N A T I O N A L I S M

WITH the broad facts of Arndt's life and principal works before us, we shall now, by way of recapitulation, attempt to trace the genesis and development of his nationalist ideas. Following in broad outline the intellectual and emotional development of Arndt from early boyhood to 1815, we may distinguish four stages in the evolution of his nationalism. The first period in Arndt's intellectual development, to the turn of the ¿eighteenth century, is primarily associated with the island of Rügen and is dominated by the home influence. Arndt idealized his parents and always fondly remembered his childhood and youth as the happiest years of his life. It is not surprising, therefore, that their spiritual influence on the boy and youth was all-powerful. Moreover, Arndt himself embodied the strongest traits of both parents, combining with the sensitive, contemplative, pious and emotional nature of his mother the congenial, cheerful and fiery temperament and the practical and active bent of his father. But Arndt was also greatly influenced by the natural setting of his childhood and youth. It is said that when W i l helm von Humboldt, in 1796, made a tour of northern Germany, he was struck by the singular beauty and romantic diversity of the Rügen countryside. Above all was he enthralled by the island's view of the Baltic Sea. Looking out from the R u g a r d 1 he witnessed an " indescribably beautiful " scene. This colorful and romantic island was the 1

A promontory on the island of Rügen.

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birthplace and playground of young Ernst Moritz. Here, in an environment and atmosphere that never ceased to enrapture him, Arndt spent the happiest years of his life. Even the middle-aged, Prussianized German patriot of the Liberation era wrote of Rügen, with a tender note of nostalgia : 2 Cradle of youth, Beloved island, fare thee well. While these impressions and forces were the dominant features in Arndt's spiritual life until the turn of the century, there were also many other and diverse currents that shaped the Swedish particularist. A s we have related, it was not until he reached his teens that Arndt attended a regular school for the first time. Meanwhile his father taught him the rudiments of writing and arithmetic while his mother taught him reading, mostly in the form of the Bible and hymnal, the former having been read three times. 3 Private tutors presently elaborated these simple foundations by teaching him history, geology, Latin, Greek, French and English. Meanwhile his uncles, Hinrich Arndt and Moritz Schumacher, accentuated his predilection for folklore and played upon his Swedish and Prussian sympathies. B y the middle of his teens, Arndt's emotional and poetic temperament found expression in a strong attachment to the works of Goethe, Shakespeare, Richardson and the poets of the Sturm und Drang. Perhaps one of the earliest nationalist influences upon Arndt may be found in his youthful enthusiasm for Klop2 Gedichte, in part 1 of Arndts Werke, edited by Leffsom and Steffens (Berlin, Leipzig, Vienna and Stuttgart, 1912), p. 89. 8 Erinnerungen aus dem äusseren Leben, part 2 of Arndts Werke, edited by Leffson and Steffens (Berlin, Leipzig, Vienna and Stuttgart, 1912), p. 19.

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stock and Lessing which his memoirs fondly recall. 4

While

Klopstock interested himself in the inculcation of German patriotism, Lessing stands forth as a truly great national German w r i t e r — a s representing a reaction against the cosmopolitan trend in German culture. A s a humanitarian, Lessing urged religious toleration and a true brotherhood of man. Moreover, he sought to distinguish between the indigenous and the alien in art, and did much to purge the German theatre of French influence. 6 It was during the impressionable years of his late teens that A r n d t made the acquaintance of P u f e n d o r f and Hume, the latter of whom gave him a wider comprehension of E n g lish history while the former laid the foundation for his knowledge of German and Swedish history and at the same time antagonized him against the French nation. His memoirs, dwelling at some length on his youthful antagonism to the French, state that, already as a boy, Pufendorf and other writers " inculcated in me a dislike and even an abhorrence of the ( F r e n c h ) people." 6 B y the age of twenty, A r n d t had completed his secondary education at Stralsund. H i s years at Stralsund were the years of his adolescence, and with the end o f boyhood there came also a shedding of the world of dream and fantasy. Not only did the y o u n g scholar become more serious and reflective but he also entered into a new world of thought and emotion. The reigning influence at Stralsund during this time was Heyne, a German classical philologist, and this circumstance, together with the fact that A r n d t had the ample classical library of the assistant principal Furchau at his disposal, soon made him an ardent admirer of the classical authors, especially of * Erinnerungen,

op. cit., p. 46.

Gottschall, R. von, Die deutsche Nationalliteratur Jahrhunderts (Breslau, 1901), vol. i, pp. 26-31. 6

6

Erinnerungen, Leffson edition, p. 72.

des

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Tacitus, Cicero, L i v y , Caesar, Horace, Sophocles, Thucydides, Homer, Aeschylus and Plato. Incidentally he highly esteemed Hannibal, whom he regarded as an immortal hero, and Alexander the Great. 7 It was while at Stralsund that the first news of the French Revolution reached young Ernst Moritz. Both in Stralsund and at home at Löbnitz there was general enthusiasm for the French ideas which, according to Arndt's own account, found favor even in his home. While his brothers were much impressed with French republicanism and gloried in Germany's cosmopolitanism, both of these were abhorrent to Arndt. 8 F o r Arndt was too deeply rooted in the local Swedish royalism to fraternize with regicides. A n d this quite apart from the fact that he was still far from the scene of action, had as yet no well-defined political interests, and was still immersed in the individualism and provincialism of a prosperous Pomeranian squire.9 During the twelve years from 1789 to 1801, many new influences began to mold the maturing patriot. It was during this period that Arndt first fully imbibed the intellectual pabulum of contemporary German culture. One of the first problems that now confronted him, however, was the practical question of an independent livelihood. It was not long before the sensitive and emotional young Ernst Moritz decided to embark upon a clerical career. But the rationalistic and critical theology taught at the universities proved to be a great disappointment to h i m — h o w remote was this intellectual speculation about religion from the personal and vital pietistic Christianity of the parental hearth! 7 Müsebeck, 8

E., E. M. Arndt (Gotha, 1914), p. 19.

Supra, p. 14.

® Miisebeck, E., " E. M . Arndts Stellung zum friedericianischen Preussen und zur französischen Revolution," in Preussische Jahrbücher, vol. cxvii, p. 257 e t seQ-

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For, to Arndt, religion was properly an intimate and personal experience, a direct communion with God. A life-long pietist tinged with pantheism, he scorned institutional Christianity. A s he says in the second part of his Geist der Zeit, " the communion of saints, an external church with customs and usages, with symbols and priests, must disappear with the spiritual rejuvenation of Christianity. . . . In due time a religion of light will be revealed by truly inspired heavenstormers who will restore the corrupted and degenerated race once more to the Gods." 10 Moreover, it is not difficult to see how, in the face of a national crisis, this pietistic predilection fortified his nationalist creed. Feeling himself an inseparable part of Germany, he projected his personal and individual religious experience upon the national community. Thus his poems speak of " the old German God," 1 1 and dwell upon God's solicitude for the patriotic cause, 12 while his Kurser Katechismus für den teutschen Kriegsund Wehrmann makes of war on tyranny, especially on foreign tyranny, a hallowed cause, a service to God. 13 Meanwhile, in the last decade of the eighteenth century, Arndt also rounded out his secular education; privately, he continued the study of history, geology and, above all, the civilization of antiquity. Once more, too, he turned to Goethe and Schiller, both of whom he greatly admired. While at Jena, he was powerfully attracted to Fichte's striking personality and was much stimulated by Ulrich's lectures on the history of philosophy and literature. A t the same time he took an active part in student life. But what 10 Geist der Zeit, II, part 2 of Arndts Steffens, p. 140.

Werke, edited by Leffson and

11 Gedichte, in part I of Arndts Werke, edited by Leffson and Steffens (Berlin, Leipzig, Vienna and Stuttgart, 1912), p. 167. 12

Ibid., pp. 109, 113, 121-

Kurzer Katechismus für den deutschen Kriegspart 10 of Arndts Werke, op. cit., p. 141. 13

und Wehrmann, in

CONCLUSION

145

he most fondly remembered f r o m these years were his rambles through the German countryside, to the Rhineland and through Westphalia, f o r he was a keen lover of nature. Sometime during the 'nineties A r n d t seems to have come directly under the romanticist spell. 14

T h i s influence was

speedily quickened by his natural subjective and emotional bent, as well as by his constitutional distaste f o r rationalism and abstract speculation.

T h u s the philosophy of Rousseau

found a ready response in this emotional and impressionable' youth, in a youth still vainly searching f o r spiritual peace. T h u s already in his Versuch schaft in Pommern

einer Geschichte

of the "divine Rousseau," and his Fragmente bildung,

Leibeigen-

über

Menschen-

begun several years later, owed much to R o u s -

seau's Emile,15

" Should I , " he writes to a friend during

this decade, " c o n d e m n romanticism? view?

der

und Rügen, published in 1803, he speaks

I, with my point of

T h e n must I as a fool condemn all that w e owe to

its inspiration.

F o r where is there still a blossoming spirit

that has not been fertilized by romanticism?"

18

A f t e r the

impassioned patriot emerged in A r n d t , following the catastrophe o f 1806, the romantic emphasis colored more and more all his political t h i n k i n g — a

circumstance due

not

only to the pressure of contemporary events but also partly inspired by his fellow political romanticists, A d a m Müller and Friedrich Schlegel. 1 7 14

See Frömbgen, Hans, E. M. Arndt

und die deutsche

Romantik

(Münster, 1920), p. 45 et seq. 15

Versuch

einer Geschichte

der Leibeigenschaft

in Pommern

und

Rügen (Berlin, 1803), p. 3; cf. Menzel, F., " Rousseausche Ideen in Arndts Fragmente über Menschenbildung," in Pädagogisches Magazin,

Heft 477 (1912), p. 3219

Briefe an Freunde (Altona, 1810), vol. ii, p. 288.

17

Ruth, P. H., "Arndt und die Geschichte," in Historische

Beiheft 18 (1930), p. 63.

Zeitschrift,

I46

ARNDT

AND

THE NATIONALIST

AWAKENING

Although the pages of Arndt's works contain conspicuously infrequent allusions to Herder, the tone of the Reisen and the Germania und Europa, published shortly after the end of the eighteenth century, betray a great indebtedness to him.18 Thus also the nationalist philosophy of Der Rhein, Teutschlands Strom, aber nicht Teutschlands Grenze offers a striking parallel to that of the eighth and ninth book of Herder's Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit. Very probably Arndt made his first contact with Herder through disciples of Heyne at Stralsund. Moreover, it is hardly conceivable that Arndt could have spent two years at the university of Jena, which then specialized in philosophy, without making some direct contacts with Herder's works. Then, too, as we have already suggested, Herder's philosophy had already become an important part of contemporary German thought by the end of the eighteenth century and Arndt was an omnivorous reader. W e have already alluded to Arndt's infatuation with Charlotte Marie Quistorp, a circumstance that gave his whole outlook a more serious cast and his work a more practical direction. W e have also seen how this upset his plans for a clerical career. Toward the end of the century Arndt experienced a great intellectual awakening. In the spring of 1798 he began an extensive foreign tour which took him to Austria, Hungary, Italy, Switzerland, France and Belgium. The impulse that led to this foreign sojourn, he says later, came to him as " a notion from God, without which I might never have 1 8 For example, he refers to Herder, Copernicus and Kant as three great Prussians in his Der Rhein, Deutschlands Strom, aber nicht Deutschlands Grenze, in part 2 of Arndts Werke, op. cit., p. 73. Herder's influence is particularly stressed by Arndt's leading biographer E. Müsebeck, in his E. M. Arndt (Gotha, 1914), p. 78. Cf. also Ergang, R. R., Herder and the Foundations of German Nationalism (New York, 1931), PP. 2S4-2S6-

CONCLUSION

147

become a man." It was the logical culmination and climax of many years of storm and stress. Now for the first time he really felt the pulse of the larger continental civilization. Upon his return Arndt qualified for the Master of Arts degree at Greifswald, which was awarded the following year. Thereupon he married and began his duties as Privatdozent at the university of Greifswald, a circumstance that rooted him more firmly to Pomerania and facilitated many contacts with Sweden. Meanwhile, Arndt had for some time harbored a growing animosity toward the French nation. A s a boy of from nine to twelve his chief mentors in politics were Moritz Schumacher, his maternal uncle, who was an ardent Prussian, and his highly-esteemed paternal uncle, Hinrich Arndt, who was an ardent Swedish partisan. A t the same time his reading of old history books and chronicles widened his knowledge of German history. By the middle of his teens, as we have seen, he read the German works or German translations of Pufendorf and other historians who described the Thirty Years' War and the " ambitious and atrocious " deeds of Louis XIV. 2 0 Thus already in the early 'nineties, while he was still a young man, his mind had been turned against the French. Referring to this youthful French antipathy, he wrote, " I lamented every French victory over the Germans or over the Allies without any self-conscious German patriotism." But at this time he was still remote from the theatre of war and had " more a Swedish than a German heart." Moreover, the whole environment and atmosphere of Rügen was monarchist, a circumstance that left Arndt with a strong distaste for republican experiments. A s he says, " I have always been perhaps an ultra-royalist." 21 19

19

Briefe

20

Erinnerungen,

an eine Freundin,

21

Ibid., p. 70.

op. cit., p. 182.

op. cit., p. 73.

I48

ARNDT

AND

THE

NATIONALIST

AWAKENING

A t length, on his trip to Paris, he had made direct contact with the French people. Returning by way of Belgium and the Rhineland, he was much impressed by the desolation and destruction of the " ancient German glory wrought by this exultant nation." While in Frankfurt he had come into the midst of the fighting and was imprisoned for several days by a French general. Meanwhile, Arndt had been closely following Napoleon's career, but it was not until after the Battle of Marengo that he first clearly saw in Napoleon's ambitious conquests a sinister menace to European peace. Thus, by the end of the eighteenth century many currents and cross-currents had begun to mold the growing man. Nature, as we have seen, had endowed Arndt with an impressionable, emotional and sensitive disposition and with a cheerful and yet fiery temperament. T h e first twenty-five years of Arndt's life were dominated by home influences. There were the impressions of the " beautiful island," of a romantic and colorful countryside, impressions that strengthened his contact with the soil and made him especially cherish the land of his birth. Then there was the Bible-Christianity of the parental hearth, a kind of pietistic Christianity that exalted simple virtues. 22 In his later teens came his formal training which brought new forces to bear: an absorption in fairy tales and poems, contacts with Pufendorf and Hume, who fed his patriotic and liberal sentiments, an enthusiasm for Sturm und Drang writers, some of whom spurred his love of country and countrymen, exposure to eighteenthcentury rationalism and the culture of the Enlightenment with an ensuing reaction against it, a strong attachment to the romanticist philosophy of Rousseau and A d a m Müller, Erinnerungen aus dem äusseren Leben, in part 2 of Arndts Werke, op. cit., p. 56. Cf. Pinson, K . S., Pietism as a Factor in the Rise of German Nationalism ( N e w York, 1934), p. 59. 22

CONCLUSION

149

an interest in Fichte and Herder who fostered his predilection for folklore, his humanitarian outlook, deepened his comprehension of history and probably shaped his interest in nationality. A n d , finally, a year of foreign travel opened up new vistas to him, added to his understanding of peoples, confirmed his anti-French bias and at the same time widened his intellectual reform. The second period in Arndt's intellectual growth, from the turn of the century to the humiliation of Prussia at Jena and Auerstedt, is marked by his transition from SwedishPomeranian particularism to a passionate German patriotism. His appointment at Greifswald had the effect of temporarily drawing him closer to Sweden. In spite of the fact that he had visited many parts of Germany and thus gained a sympathetic understanding of his fellow nationals, he did not yet feel that he himself belonged to Germany, still less to Prussia, for, as he wrote to his sister Dorothea from Sweden in 1804: " The Prussian air doesn't suit me." It was while at Greifswald that Arndt achieved intellectual maturity. A f t e r many vicissitudes he now settled down to the teaching and serious study of history and philosophy— an undertaking which, while giving him an independent livelihood, at the same time deepened his knowledge of history and spurred him on to a wider field of activity. A f t e r his wife's death in 1801, he addressed himself to his duties and studies with redoubled vigor. But he was not destined long to enjoy the security of academic tenure. Three years later came another irreparable loss with the death of his mother, and, within a short time, Napoleon's spectacular victories threatened not only his position but also the prospect of a free and independent Germany. Meanwhile, Arndt had begun his literary career with several minor publications: Germania und Europa, and Ueber die Freiheit der alien Republiken. These were fol-

I [jO

ARNDT

AND

THE NATIONALIST

AWAKENING

lowed by his Versuch einer Geschichte der Leibeigenschaft in Pommern und Rügen in 1802—a work which gave the writer a local fame. If we may accept Ruth's statement that Arndt " always had a positive and high esteem of fame," it is not difficult to see how these early efforts spurred him on to win a wider influence and greater renown, and how his later successes fed a growing ambition. Besides, Arndt always had been something of a pietist and mystic, and felt the consciousness of being led on by higher powers as the " instrument of an unknown God." A s he began to feel his growing stature, this resolve to obey the movements of the spirit also gained new force. In the fall of 1804 Arndt undertook his first tour of Sweden—an experience which strengthened his ties with the land of the Vasas. The diary of his Swedish travels, published several years later, reveals a keen curiosity and a considerable power of observation as well as a warm regard for his northern compatriots. Upon his return the following autumn, Arndt once more resumed his duties at Greifswald. But already he seemed to divine the coming storm. Like so many of his contemporaries, Arndt became troubled by a medley of doubts and fears, as he wrote to Johanna von Kathen in the fall of 1805: What does the future hold in store for us, indeed, for this whole generation? The profound degradation, the godless, lawless spirit of this age has never before been borne in upon me so vividly as in these days. Everything seems destined to utter destruction! Indeed, simplicity of heart is most commendable, but where is it to be found ? Where are there calm hearts ? . . . In this revolutionary epoch I have gone far from the normal poles of my being; who can remain immobile in this interminable flux ? 28 23

Briefe an eine Freundin (Stuttgart and Berlin, 1928), pp. 29-30.

CONCLUSION T h e political situation in Europe on the eve of U l m and Austerlitz represented the same instability, while Napoleon prepared to make himself master of a large part of Germany. T h e year 1806 marks a crisis in A r n d t ' s life.

In the

spring of that year he was promoted to an associate professorship at Greifswald and sometime in the early summer he published what is perhaps his greatest work, the first part of his Geist der Zeit.

O n the one hand a scathing indict-

ment of the old régime in Germany, especially in its political and cultural aspects, the w o r k also reveals a w a r m solicitude f o r his prospective fatherland.

In its indictment of reason

and the Enlightenment as well as in its denunciation of German sectionalism it already clearly foreshadows A r n d t ' s transition f r o m the contemplative, retiring faculty member to the active crusading man of the world.

H i s Geist

Zeit also indicated a reorientation of his nationalism.

der

From

its pages emerges the picture of a man whose interests and loyalties were clearly more German than Swedish.

In the

fall of 1806 came further evidences of this change in his mental attitude in the duel with Gyllensvârd which nearly cost him his life.

Shortly thereafter, late in 1806, came the

bewildering news of Jena and Auerstedt, culminating in Napoleon's unquestioned hegemony

in Germany.

These

events, as w e have seen, obliged A r n d t to flee to Sweden, where he remained f o r the next three years. T h u s by the close of 1806 A r n d t had come to the end of the second period in his intellectual and emotional development.

H e had shed the dream world of his childhood, with

its many discordant features, he had outgrown the home influences and now, at the end of 1806, had completed his transition f r o m Swedish-Pomeranian particularism to a militant German patriotism.

T h u s in his memoirs, he writes,

" not until Austria and Prussia had fallen a f t e r a vain struggle did I really begin to love Germany . . . with m y

I52

ARNDT

AND

THE NATIONALIST

AWAKENING

whole heart. Swedish particularism was dead now. N o w , as Germany succumbed to conquest and subjection, it became to me one and indissoluble." 24 W h y did Arndt experience this conversion? First because Germany, to which he was culturally related, became the prey of a France that epitomized everything he so thoroughly detested—a rationalist France, a conquering France, a Napoleonic France, an imperialistic France. Speaking of his reaction to France, he writes, " It was not only Napoleon . . . that I despised, it was the French, the vain, crafty and perfidious ancient enemies of the Empire." Secondly, because of his profound attachment to Germany itself, to the land of his own mother tongue, to the nation whose historic traditions he cherished and whose people he admired as moral, peace-loving and personally congenial, and for whose culture he had a sincere veneration. Moreover, Arndt was emotionally excitable and had a lofty conception of moral values—values which he saw flagrantly violated by Napoleon's conquests. Then, too, Arndt began to feel the need of strong attachments. W i t h the exception of his son, K a r l Treu, and his father, he had lost all of his most cherished relations: his wife, his mother, his venerated uncle Hinrich and even his much loved younger sister, Dorothea. Furthermore, as a man of ardent emotions, Arndt now welcomed the abandonment of his earlier contemplative and sedentary life. A derelict cast into a sea of discords by political forces beyond his control, he sought for a new purpose in life, a mission and a wider field of activity. But Sweden could not give the fiery Arndt peace and consolation. The very next year, 1807, saw a rapid growth of pro-French feeling in Sweden, as Arndt wrote from Stockholm: " I now find myself in a growing opposition to the men and the whole atmosphere which prevails 24

Erinnerungen, op. cit., p. 82.

CONCLUSION

153

here, in a torrent of feelings, ideas and hopes which I hardly venture to express, and strangely and painfully isolated from people that are congenial and indispensable to m e . " 2 5 Within a few years Arndt was back on German soil, whence, after a brief and furtive sojourn, he repaired to Russia to begin his crusade for the " great cause." The third stage in Arndt's career was that of the crusading and militant German patriot, extending from 1807 to 1813. Liberation from foreign domination was the great issue of these years and Arndt exhorted Austrians, Saxons, Rhinelanders, and Prussians alike to collaborate in the national enterprise. Thus Arndt's pamphlets all voiced his ardent devotion to the ideal of one common German fatherland as the sine qua non of national security. This was especially developed in the second and third parts of his Geist der Zeit, in his Aufruf an die Deutschen published in February, 1813, and in his Kurzer Katechismus für teutsche Soldaten. W e have seen, too, that still in the summer of 1813 A r n d t exalted Austria to a position of preeminence by advocating that she resume the Imperial crown. W e may distinguish a fourth and final stage in the evolution of Arndt's nationalist creed. Although he never abandoned his patriotic ideal of one common fatherland, various circumstances after his visit to Berlin in 1809 drew him closer to Prussia. Many of his best friends were Prussians and, with the beginning of his intensive pamphlet propaganda in 1812, his Prussian contacts greatly multiplied. Meanwhile he had witnessed Prussia's humiliating subjection and had learned to admire her proud determination to liberate herself from foreign oppression. Finally, after the Battle of Leipzig late in 1813, Arndt enthusiastically championed Prussia as the moral and spiritual leader of Germany. Thus his Blick aus der Zeit auf die Zeit, written in 25

Briefe an eine Freundin, op. cit., p. 40.

I54

ARNDT

AND

THE NATIONALIST

AWAKENING

1814, makes Prussia the custodian of the national culture and traditions and ascribes to her the patriotic mission of German political unification. While considerations of expediency impelled him to recognize Austria's position in central Europe, Arndt now clearly looked to Prussia as Germany's sponsor and spokesman. Thus, in the years after 1813, Arndt's nationalism reached its final culmination as his militant German patriotism was capped by a vigorous Prussian partisanship. It must be remembered that A r n d t was a product of a period of transition and flux, a period that witnessed kaleidoscopic changes in the existing political, social and cultural order. A f t e r experiencing all the uncertainties and convulsions of the age, he became himself a pillar of strength for his distracted countrymen. Y e t , without the patronage of Stein and its stimulating effect upon his activities, it is likely that Arndt might have remained a comparatively obscure patriotic pamphleteer little known to posterity. His connection with Stein not only greatly stimulated him, but also speedily gave him an important place in the Liberation movement, a place for which he was eminently well qualified. This recognition acted as a powerful spur to his patriotic fervor, which in turn enhanced his prestige and fame. Moreover, by a process of auto-suggestion, every patriotic feeling inspired an ever more audacious but none the less sincerely felt nationalist sentiment until even Prussian officialdom was moved to deplore his excesses. T H E CHIEF FEATURES OF ARNDT'S NATIONALISM

It is difficult to comprehend Arndt's place in the general patriotic movement in Germany without analyzing the chief elements of his nationalist creed. In general, we may characterize Arndt as both a cultural and a political nationalist, marked by illiberal as well as liberal features. A s such,

CONCLUSION

ISS

Arndt embodies the transition from the preeminently cultural orientation of eighteenth-century German philosophy to the political speculation and theorizing that attended and followed the political and social upheavals of the first quarter of the nineteenth century. In the same way he bridges the gulf between the cultural nationalism of Herder, and the militant, crusading, and more or less intolerant nationalism of Häusser and von Treitschke, who were primarily interested in national consciousness as a political phenomenon. Bearing these considerations in mind, therefore, we shall begin our analysis of Arndt's nationalist doctrines by calling attention to their cultural aspects—that is, to those aspects of his nationalism which he held in common with, and in large part probably borrowed from, Herder. One theme that is prominent in his earlier as well as his later works is his insistence upon the promotion and maintenance of indigenous national cultures. Thus we have seen how his projected German societies 28 were designed to combat the French influence and at the same time to revive indigenous German culture and art. Also in his Ueber Volkshass und über den Gebrauch einer fremden Sprache, he advocated the speedy abolition of the hegemony of the French language in Germany. 27 Even after the Liberation W a r culminated in the collapse of French prestige, Arndt once more returned to these ideas in his monograph, Über deutsche Art und über das Welschtum bei uns. A f t e r briefly sketching the historical beginnings and growth of French linguistic and cultural influences in Germany, which he pictures as a national calamity, Arndt urges their drastic curtailment and the simultaneous revival of the German language and German customs.28 These convictions are not 26 Ueber Volkshass und über den Gebrauch einer fremden (Leipzig, 1813), pp. 66, 89.

Sprache

27

Ibid., p. 70.

38

Geist der Zeit, I V , in part 9 of Arndts Werke, op. cit., pp. 142-152.

156

ARNDT

AND

THE

NATIONALIST

AWAKENING

only a product of Arndt's anti-French bias but are also in line with his conception of nationality already developed in the second part of his Geist der Zeit. God, he contended, has created diverse nationalities in the same way as he has made flowers, trees and plants, and has intended that this divinely-ordained diversity must be jealously guarded against mixture. 29 A s a corollary to this principle Arndt insists that no nation can maintain its vitality or prestige which does not foster its own indigenous culture and protect it against " contamination " by alien influences. Even though Arndt does not subscribe to any theory of racial superiority, he nevertheless stoutly defends the idea of a Volksgeist, a national character or genius. 30 Thus he would distinguish the nationalities of Europe in terms of certain peculiar and unique characteristics, characteristics which he often bases on racial inheritance. Already in the first part of the Geist der Zeit, for example, he stigmatizes the French as vain, impetuous and incapable of any sustained effort, a people given to violence and excess. 31 Thus also he reproaches the T u r k with being a " terrible and tyrannical barbarian," and urges, " away with him out of Europe! The raging animal that can never be domesticated must be exterminated." 32 W e have already alluded to Arndt's partiality to the English whose greatness he attributes to their racial extraction, as he writes in 1840: " W h a t is great and hardy in this mighty world empire is our race; it is Saxon 29 Ueber Volkshass op. cit., p. 59.

und über den Gebrauch einer fremden

Sprache,

30 See Krügel, R., " Der Begriff des Volksgeistes in Ernst Moritz Arndts Geschichtsanschauung," in Pädagogisches Magazin, H e f t 566 (1914), p. 33 et seq. 31 Supra, p. 52, 104; cf. also Ueber das Verhältniss Englands und Frankreichs su Europa, in part one of E. M. Arndts Schriften für und an seine lieben Deutschen (Leipzig, 1845), pp. 450-451. 82

Versuch in vergleichender

Völkergeschichte

(Leipzig, 1843), p. 64.

CONCLUSION

157

and Scandinavian." Arndt regarded himself as belonging to the German branch of the Teutonic race. His eulogy of the Spaniard also has a familiar tone: " The Spaniard exemplifies a lofty individualism and a proud sense of selfreliance." 34 But Arndt has no flattering words for his Russian neighbors. While giving the Russian credit for a certain adaptability and stolidity, he charges him with " a lack of originality and of any spontaneous spirit of enterprise; by nature he is superficial, so that in the more serious and profound concerns he is overwhelmed by a sense of helplessness." 35 The Dutch, according to Arndt, are characterized by their esthetic proclivities, as a people " whose stolid and quiet exterior conceals a stubborn spirit and a deep passion." 38 Moreover, says Arndt, the Dutchman " loves order in material things and logic in things intellectual." Arndt believes that the Dutch, with their strong moral fibre and their Calvinistic austerity, are a highly competent people. Arndt's insistence upon self-determination for all nationalities follows naturally from these ideas on the racial and cultural distinctiveness of nations.37 Thus he would defend the national aspirations of Italians and Poles on the same general grounds as those of the Germans.38 Italy, he contends, should long ago have achieved statehood. Similarly does he sympathize with the Poles, urging that Russia would be well-advised to grant them independence, for " it is better 33

33

Versuch in vergleichender

3*

Ibid., p. 186.

85

Ibid., p. 313.

38

Ibid., p. 362.

V olkergeschichte

(Leipzig, 1843), p. 141.

Herder also favored a national state. Cf., Ergang, R. R., Herder and the Foundations of German Nationalism ( N e w York, 1931), pp. 247, 248. 37

38

Blick aus der Zeit auf die Zeit (Germanien, 1814), pp. 73-75.

I58

ARNDT

AND

THE

NATIONALIST

AWAKENING

to have free neighbors than rebellious and refractory subjects." Moreover, he contends that " The greatest bane is to have states within states and nations within a nation." 89 Since Russia has incorporated the major part of Poland and since he regarded the Russian domination as peculiarly pernicious, Arndt feels Europe has a moral mission to rescue Poland from the menace of Russification. He would, therefore, restore an independent Poland and " Prussia as well as Austria should return the larger parts of their (Polish) booty, at least the parts wherein the majority speak Polish." On the other hand, Arndt would urge Austria to annex Alsace and Switzerland by virtue of their preponderant German nationality.40 In his insistence upon the protection and encouragement of indigenous national cultures, in his conception of national character and Volksgeist, and in his advocacy of national self-determination, Arndt was following closely in the footsteps of Herder, and, as such, may be classified as a cultural nationalist. But there are certain other features of his nationalist doctrine which, departing widely from Herder's broad humanitarianism, relate Arndt more nearly to the integral nationalists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.41 One of these features was his pronounced anti-French bias. W e have seen how, already as a boy, Arndt had been turned against the French nation. This feeling subsequent events were greatly to intensify. Moreover, his antagonism to France was intimately associated with a dynamic patriotic 89 Blick aus der Zeit auf die Zeit (Germanien, 1814), p. 201; cf. also Geist der Zeit, I I I , part 8 of Arndts Werke, op. cit., p. 114. 40 41

Blick aus der Zeit auf die Zeit, op. cit., p. 14.

F o r a discussion of integral nationalism, see the work of Hayes, C. J . H., The Historical Evolution of Modern Nationalism ( N e w York, I 9 3 1 ) , P- 164 et seq.

CONCLUSION

159

attachment to Germany. 42 French conquest threatened Germany's independence in the same way that the hegemony of the French language in central Europe threatened the integrity of German culture. Thus already in the summer before the Prussian defeat, Arndt describes the French as a nation " without religion, without a poetic impulse and without respect for truth, too effete to progress and yet too cultured to comprehend its own degeneracy." A f t e r Jena and Auerstedt this theme becomes more prominent, being especially marked in the second part of his Geist der Zeit,*" in Katechismus für den teutschen Kriegs- und Wehrmann Was bedeutet Landsturm und LandwehrDer Rhein, M Teutschlands Strom, aber nicht Teutschlands Grenze, and in Ueber Volkshass und über den Gebrauch einer fremden Sprache." His arguments for the encouragement and maintenance of a distinctively national culture led Arndt on to the advocacy of a curious theory of race. A s a student of Herder and Lessing he does not, as we have seen, espouse the idea of the inherent superiority or inferiority of any particular race, but he nevertheless pleads earnestly for the maintenance of racial purity. Thus he severely condemns the admixture of any two races with mutually antagonistic " natures " as a serious menace to the vitality of each. The same considerations that led him to advocate cultural self4 2 A striking Italian parallel to Arndt in this respect is represented by Alfieri; cf. Megaro, G., Vittorio Alfieri, Forerunner of Italian Nationalism (New York, 1930), pp. 100-108. 43 Geist der Zeit, II, Leffson and Steffens edition, part 7 of Werke, op. cit., pp. 151-152. 44

Arndts

Part 10, Arndts Werke, op. cit., p. 160.

45

Part 10, Arndts Werke, op. cit., pp. 181-184.

46

Part 11, Arndts Werke, op. cit., p. 60.

47 Ueber Volkshass op. cit., p. 18 et seq.

und über den Gebrauch einer fremden

Sprache,

!6O

ARNDT

AND

THE

NATIONALIST

AWAKENING

containment f o r nations impelled him to urge the maintenance of racial purity or homogeneity.

A f e w years a f t e r the

Congress of V i e n n a he w r o t e : " Those w h o preach to us about a certain Christian, divinely-ordained

intermarriage

and intermingling o f peoples truly have never understood Christ's w o r d s : ' One shepherd and one flock.' "

48

T h e clearest statement o f A r n d t ' s brief f o r the maintenance and promotion of racial and national differentiation is found in the concluding paragraph of his Ueber

Volkshass

und über den Gebrauch

published

einer fremden

Sprache,

late in 1 8 1 3 : May God maintain the differentiation between peoples as well as their reciprocal antipathy, through which alone the liberty and highest welfare of the world can be sustained. But no one desires more ardently than I to renew the disrupted familyconcord (between nations), in which Christianity, as the benevolent guardian and conciliator, intercedes to patch up our petty quarrels. No one cherishes more than I the hallowed bonds by which the peoples and lands are brought together in a sublime communion, and through which the greatest love and humanity will become our common heritage.48 It is in his frankly militaristic preachments that A r n d t makes perhaps his greatest departure f r o m the humanitarian nationalism of Herder.

Eternal peace, says he, would be the

greatest calamity that could befall the human race, because competition and strife are essential to maintain the highest measure of vitality and power of resistance among men and nations generally — combat keeps them on the alert and strengthens their moral

fibre.

Moreover, says this bellicose

civilian, w a r stimulates men to heroic achievements and ele18

Geist der Zeit, I V , op. cit., p. 137.

Ueber Volkshass und über den Gebrauch einer fremden Sprache, in p a r t one of E. M. Arndts Schriften für und an seine lieben Deutschen 49

(Leipzig, 184S), P. 433-

CONCLUSION

161

vates them above the humdrum complacence of " soft enjoyments into a higher plane of experience." Yet, by some: strange paradox, Arndt severely condemns wars of " conquest," or wars undertaken in the spirit of " frivolity or a lust for tyranny," for " cursed be anyone who would subjugate and rule foreign peoples." 60 Human nature being what it is, and what God has ordained it to be, says Arndt, there will always be a struggle for justice and liberty. But there would be no wars of liberation if, as he urges, wars of conquest were outlawed. It seems impossible to reconcile his views on this point. We now proceed to a consideration of certain liberal features of Arndt's nationalism. A keen student of past and contemporary politics, Arndt ardently championed the cause of political liberty which he regarded as the essential prerequisite to the development of a free and great nation. The absence of such liberty, he contended, doomed a people to stagnation since it restrained the natural impulse toward a wholesome self-expression and thus undermined the selfrespect and self-reliance of the individual citizen. In the same way that one nation in its relation with others must be free, independent and self-determined, so must the individual citizen be accorded adequate scope for self-expression. And this was, to his mind, incompatible with even the most benevolent and enlightened despotism. Not blind to the fact that the hereditary nobility and the princely houses were still important factors in German politics, he appealed to their solicitude for the common welfare to restore a wholesome measure of individual liberty as the strongest bulwark of the state. By political liberty Arndt understood, first, the establishment of constitutionalism or the rule of law, second, the setting up of some form of representative government, and, 60

Blick aus der Zeit auf die Zeit, op. cit., pp. 212-220.

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third, the maintenance of certain guaranteed and inviolable individual rights. H e insisted that no one be exempt from the operation of the law. H e says: " T h e proper conception of political liberty is the supreme and universal rule of law."51 This, he maintained, was valid for kings and princes as well as for the peasant and the artisan. F o r any form of absolutism was fraught with grave perils, by its very nature. A t the end of the Liberation W a r he wrote: " Nations have discovered what each individual will discover sooner or later, namely, that nothing is so unstable and dangerous as a completely unrestrained exercise of personal volition and caprice; such action is commendable only when it is amenable to the necessary control of law." 52 Thus Arndt praised the Swedish and English political constitutions because they tolerated neither despotism nor serfdom. Hence he also scorned the Greek state, as we have seen, because it became an instrument of oppression in the hands of a despotic oligarchy. Thus also in the first part of his Geist der Zeit, he pictured the development of political absolutism in seventeenth and eighteenth century Europe as a great calamity. 53 Moreover, he insisted that in Germany the princes and the lesser nobility must share the possession of political control with the middle and lower classes. Thus he wrote in 1815, " where peasant and burgher, this largest and most honorable part of each nation, are publicly represented, one may describe the constitution as democratic." 64 In a pamphlet appearing in 1815 he wrote: " T h u s we have three estates in Germany: the nobility, the peasants and the bourgeoisie 51

Erinnerungen, op. cit., p. 196.

52

Geist der Zeit, III, part 8 of Arndts Werke, op. cit., p. 126.

58

Supra, p. 54.

M Ueber künftige ständische Verfassungen of Arndts Werke, op. cit., p. 106.

in Teutschland, in part 11

CONCLUSION

. . . and these three estates (must) have advisory and legislative powers in all vital concerns and problems of the land." 65 In other words, representation of the people by estates or classes, in a parliament endowed with broad and constitutionally recognized powers, was the essential feature of Arndt's conception of political democracy. He had no respect whatever for the divine-right theory of government which he stigmatized as a "philosophical swindle." He was even less concerned with the social contract theory. Arndt was inclined to be realistic in his political thinking and, as we have repeatedly emphasized, he believed that divine-right monarchy and the privileged aristocracy had outstayed their welcome and outlived their usefulness. This he believed had been conclusively demonstrated during the Napoleonic era in Germany when the moral prestige of these vestiges of the old régime had been thoroughly shattered. By 1 8 1 5 the burghers, intellectuals and peasants — the latter now emancipated in Prussia—had clearly become factors to be reckoned with in the political reconstruction of Germany. Thus Arndt insisted that these classes had the practical right to political representation and need not go begging for their just claims. This point of view was developed in some detail in his monograph Verfassung und Pressfreiheit, published in 1818, in which he writes : Most people in Germany understand quite clearly what they have a right to demand under the circumstances and conditions now prevailing in the commonwealth. They desire only what their forbears in part enjoyed, that is, parliaments in which, besides the nobility and the cities, the completely liberated and articulate peasantry, and here and there also the clergymen and the academic class have representation.56 55 56

Ibid., pp. 120-121.

Verfassung und Pressfreiheit, P. 48.

in part

9

of

Arndts Werke, op. cit.,

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This was in line with his long-standing partisanship of the middle and lower classes as well as with a deep-seated bias against the German aristocracy. Thus he wrote on the eve of the Congress of Vienna : " next to the despotic or arbitrary rule of an autocrat, the worst is a régime in which an hereditary oligarchy have, by common consent, agreed to divide political power among themselves." 57 His reference to an hereditary oligarchy is to the German nobility. On the other hand Arndt welcomed the emergence of a strong middle class. Twenty-five years after the Congress of Vienna he rejoiced that " There has emerged a cultured, enterprising and well-to-do middle class which, recently grown to large numbers, must be regarded as the most prominent class in the state from the standpoint of spiritual and physical power; . . . for money is power and it is this class which now possesses large capital." 68 Of peasant stock himself, and born and reared among peasants, it is perhaps not surprising that Arndt became an ardent champion of the peasant class. Thus already in his Versuch einer Geschichte der Leibeigenschaft in Pommern und Rügen, he contended on moral and humanitarian grounds for the rehabilitation of the peasant in Germany.69 His Der Bauernstand, published several years later, especially emphasized the importance of maintaining a numerous peasant proprietorship.60 Yet, although he liked to think of himself as a democrat, Arndt had no faith in pure democracy; on the contrary, he regarded direct popular rule without the intermediation of 67

Der Wächter, vol. i (Cologne, 1815), p. 241.

Belgien und was daran hangt, in part 12 of Arndts Werke, op. cit., p. 58. 68

69 Versuch einer Geschichte der Leibeigenschaft in Pommern und Rügen (Berlin, 1803), p. 265. 60

Der Bauernstand, in part 10 of Arndts Werke, op. cit., pp. 78-79.

CONCLUSION

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spokesmen or representatives as both an unnatural and obnoxious state of affairs. As we have already seen, he conceived democracy as a government by properly constituted representatives of the nobility, burghers and peasants of the nation. The third component of Arndt's much-vaunted political liberty embraces the guarantee of inviolable individual rights. Most important of these rights, according to him, are those of freedom of press and freedom of expression. Nearly all his political works reiterate this insistence on freedom of the press.91 This perhaps also explains Arndt's vitriolic condemnation of the secret police with whom he was destined to have some unhappy experiences.62 For Arndt believed that personal liberty, as he defined it, was as essential to the fullest development of the individual as political independence was to that of a nation. Elsewhere we have alluded to Arndt's pietist faith, suggesting how it may have served to reinforce his patriotic enthusiasm. Thus an interesting feature of Arndt's nationalism is his implicit faith that God somehow has a righteous and paternal interest in the national well-being of Germany. Thus he wrote to Johanna von Kathen in 1814: " O u r Fatherland has experienced something wonderful and our nation has achieved glory; God has miraculously reappeared in world history." 63 Similarly he wrote to Barthold Niebuhr during the armistice in the summer of 1813: " I see here the belated spectacle of cabinet makeshifts contravening the manifest will of the people at first hand. . . . W e can hope for something only from the people and from God 81

Supra, p. 26.

Verfassung und Pressfreiheit, in part 9 of Amdts Werke, op. cit., pp. 76-77; cf. Sandvoss, F., "Ernst Moritz Arndt, ein Apostel der Deutschheit," in Preussische Jahrbiicher, vol. lxxxxv (1899), p. 519. 82

68

Briefe an eine Freundin, op. cit., p. 66.

r66

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. . . ; nothing from the governments." 64 T h u s also he invokes God in his pamphlet Zur Befreiung Deutschlands, " Enshrine in your hearts the German God and German virtue . . . God has judged, God leads the way, God wills, may you will also." 65 His Katechismus für den deutschen Kriegs- und Wehrmann is no less eloquent in proclaiming God's benediction upon the great work of German liberation. 64 B y way of summary, it will be useful here once more to emphasize certain salient features of Arndt's nationalism. One of the more obvious of these is its strong emotional coloring—the fact that it was to a large extent an unreasoning and impulsive patriotism, with more heat than light. Closely related to this emotional stress were the religious and romantic aspects of Arndt's nationalism. A s a pietist Arndt invoked the supernal powers in his crusade for liberation with implicit faith in the existence of a "German God," that is, a God who was guided by German conceptions of righteousness. Gifted with a rich imagination and enthralled by the scenic charm of Rügen and the Rhineland, Arndt presently cast a halo of romance over all Germany. This idealization was certainly greatly accentuated by his no less romantic attachment to Germany's past, to two thousand years of venerable " national " tradition. It is important also to recall the cultural aspects of Arndt's nationalism, features which probably came down in apostolic succession from Herder. Thus, like Herder, Arndt insists upon the promotion and protection of distinctive national cultures, espouses the concept of a Volksgeist and recognizes the role played by climate, economic factors, natural environment and race in determining national characteristics. 64

Ein Lebensbild in Briefen, op. cit., p. 55.

65

Zur Befreiung Deutschlands (Leipzig, 1916), p. 12.

Katechismus für den deutschen Kriegs- und Wehrmann (Leipzig, 1913), P- IS68

167

CONCLUSION

But Arndt was preeminently a political nationalist in the sense that the cause of German political unification became the great lodestone of his whole literary career. He was keenly interested in political history and in the political issues of his day. Thus he pleaded for national self-determination and, in this respect at least, anticipated the later nineteenth century. Thus also he valiantly championed constitutionalism, parliamentarianism and a kind of democracy. In these respects he was a liberal in advance of his time. But Arndt's nationalist doctrines were not without some intolerant features. Thus his avowed militarism, his belief in the inevitability and desirability of war is difficult to reconcile with his repeated insistence upon the maintenance of the balance of power as well as with the cultural aspects of his nationalist philosophy. Moreover, in his candid antisemitism and curious race theory, while he was not voicing entirely new doctrines, he was nevertheless preparing the way for the intolerant nationalism of our own day. ARNDT's CONTRIBUTION TO GERMAN

NATIONALISM

One interesting fact that must strike anyone who closely examines the current literature of the Liberation era is the extensive use of the pamphlet as a vehicle in disseminating political and patriotic ideas. The volume of political propaganda in general in this period reached unprecedented proportions. At a time when, as we have seen, political exigencies in central Europe destroyed the daily and weekly opposition press, the anti-French forces were necessarily driven to irregular expedients. Clandestinely printed pamphlets were smuggled across political frontiers and their distribution was greatly facilitated by the far-reaching ramifications of the Liberation campaign. Even the vigilant French secret police could not halt the progress of a subversive propaganda, encouraged, as it was, by the connivance of men in high places.

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Though Arndt was by no means the first political pamphleteer, he was nevertheless among the pioneers in the use of this type of patriotic political literature. He gave the political pamphlet a special vogue and it was Arndt perhaps more than any other man who was responsible for its extensive exploitation for patriotic or nationalistic ends. While Arndt's pamphlets circulated through central Europe, Kotzebue was editing his Russisch-Deutsches Volksblatt in Berlin and flooding Europe with small dramatic sketches: Der Flussgott und noch jemand, Noch jemands Reise-Abentheuer, and the poems, Ein Teutscher an Napoleon, Das Mausoleum, Die Stunde der Vergeltung Tönet, all emphasized his pronounced hostility toward Napoleon.87 A s early as 1807 the Livonian, Garlieb Merkel, had gone to Russia vainly seeking official encouragement for a projected campaign against the French press. A s we have seen, he became editor of Der Zuschauer in Riga, the columns of which derided Napoleon in subtle satire. With the opening of the Russian campaign in 1812, he wrote inflammatory articles against Napoleon.88 It is significant, however, that Stein preferred Arndt to both Merkel and Kotzebue for the task of inducing a powerful patriotic morale. According to Czygan, this was because of Arndt's superior talent as a political publicist.89 Be that as it may, the great flood of Arndt's works of this type called others into being until Aufrufe and Ermahnungen in pamphlet form became well established media of political propaganda. 67 Nicolai, Karl, August von Kotzebues literarisches und politisches Wirken (Tobolsk, 1819), pp. 87-102; cf. Pertz, G. H., Das Leben des Ministers Freiherrn vom Stein (second edition, Berlin, 1851), vol. iii, p. "7. 68 Müller-Jabusch, Max., Thersites, Die Erinnerungen des deutschbaltischen Journalisten Garlieb Merkel, 1796-1817 (Berlin, 1921), especially pp. 199-215. 4 9 Czygan, P., Zur Geschichte der Tagesliteratur während der Freiheitskriege (Leipzig, 1911-12), vol. i, p. 80 et seq.

CONCLUSION

But the immediate object of the torrent of patriotic political pamphleteering was to build up a strong nationalist reaction against French domination. A s we have already seen, Arndt was only one among many crusaders in the cause. Some of them gave expression to their sentiments in public utterances, others, as officers or soldiers, made ready for a propaganda of deed, statesmen secretly negotiated alliances, philosophers, artists, journalists and teachers turned against the conqueror, wealthy and poor alike sacrificed possessions of this world for a prospective " liberty," while, in all parts of Germany, carefully disguised patriotic societies were secretly preparing for a war of extermination against foreign meddlers. Most famous of the clubs was the socalled Tugendbund, founded in the spring of 1808 by a number of officials, army officers and intellectuals, ostensibly for " ethical-scientific " purposes, but, actually, as revealed in its secret statutes, to prepare for a war of liberation.70 But Arndt chose the printed page as his weapon and in this field there were few who could match his eloquence or influence. The number and the repeated editions of his works of this period attest to the vastness of the audience he commanded. The years 1813 and 1814 saw upwards of twentyfour political brochures issue from his pen, and of these, eight appeared in two or more editions. Die Glocke der Stunde was reprinted four times in two years and the Katechismus für den teutschen Kriegs- und Wehrmann appeared in no less than five editions. In a letter to his Berlin friend Reimer, Arndt speaks of having two thousand copies of this work printed in an edition appearing in August, 1813. 71 He planned to have between four and five thousand copies of the third part of his Geist der Zeit printed. Was bedeutet T0 Stern, Alfred, Geschichte der Preussischen Reformzeit 1885), p. 38 et seq. 71Nothgedrmgener

Bericht, op. cit., p. 23.

(Leipzig,

l70

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Landsturm und Landwehr was his most popular work. It appeared in eleven editions between 1813 and 1815, to say nothing of its publication as part of collections or in magazines. In a letter he wrote to Stein in 1822, Arndt recalls the appearance of his Was bedeutet Landsturm und Landwehr in hundred thousands of copies. 72 O f his songs and poems there were four collections published in 1813 and 1814, besides the songs and poems incorporated in numerous of his prose works. Perhaps the vast majority of these emanations were soon forgotten. Arndt himself seems to have regarded most of them as purely fugitive works which would soon pass into oblivion. But their popularity and influence in inculcating a strong liberation morale was tremendous. Thus Stein, in a letter from Freiburg in Breisgau, reports the reception of one of Arndt's most popular w o r k s : " Y o u r book Der Rhein, Teutschlands Strom, aber nicht Teutschlands Gräme has gladdened many here, even the chancellor. H e is anxious to meet the brave professor." 73 Hardenberg himself described his works as " insurrectionary " 74 and referred to their author as " the famous Arndt." Similarly the veteran general Boyen comments on their reception: " A r n d t ' s works were not read, but swallowed whole." 75 Arndt's patriotic work was also commended by other eminent contemporaries. Thus Niebuhr wrote to him from Berlin in a letter of April, 1 8 1 3 : You may not recall that our mutual good friend Reimer introduced us on your last visit to this city. W e did not become 72

Ibid., p. 258.

73

Ibid., p. 252.

Cited by Ulmann, H., Geschichte der Befreiungskriege Munich, 1914), vol. i, p. 448. 74

75 Erinnerungen aus dent Leben des General-Feldmarschals von Boyen, edited by F. Nippold (Leipzig, 1889), p. 240.

(Berlin and Hermann

CONCLUSION

171

well acquainted, however. But since then I have come to know you especially through the work with which the great crisis has inspired you.78 You have brought forth the manly tears of thousands. Everyone hails you with " May God grant it! " " Almost a year later, in March, 1814, Schön made the following comment on the reception of one of Arndt's pamphlets: " I have just received your Das preussische Volk und Heer im Jahr 1813. . . . I must thank and commend you for combating pernicious writings and spreading light where light is necessary. Y o u r Das preussische Volk und Heer im Jahr 1813 stands very h i g h . " 7 8 Speaking of the same work, the state chancellor Körner remarks in a letter of December, 1 8 1 3 : " Y o u r work on the Prussians has given me great satisfaction. Y o u have a unique talent for combining profound insight with a great popular appeal." 79 Even though the majority of Arndt's writings were intended only to cope with an emergency situation, his liberal and nationalist agitation left an indelible trace upon the political consciousness of Germany. In the same way that the Revolution in France laid the foundation for the Third French Republic, so did the liberal nationalist movement promoted by A r n d t and his fellow patriots pave the way for German unification and constitutionalism in the second half of the nineteenth century. It was much more than a superficial contagion quickly dissipated by the sobering tasks of reconstruction; on the contrary, Arndt's flamboyant panegyrics fired the minds and emotions of a generation that had suffered the consequences of disunion to strive for the ideal of a common fatherland. In the words of Meinecke: 76

Probably the Katechismus für den teutschen Kriegs- und Wehrmann.

77

Nothgedrungener

78

Ibid., p. 166.

79

Ibid., p. 176.

Bericht, op. cit., p. 161.

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" Arndt stood forth as a mighty preacher and singer to his distracted countrymen. H e preached a God of liberty, of resentment and righteousness who captivates all men who have taken the sword." 80 T h e liberalism and nationalism of this period was launched to the accompaniment of the jarring strains of revolution, violence and conquest. The gospel of liberty, equality and fraternity was announced to the world by blood-stained Jacobins and prostituted abroad by a conqueror. Such a vexatious and tumultuous initiation could not fail to cloud the destiny of those lofty aspirations toward national brotherhood and constitutionalism outside France, as in Germany, Spain and Italy. The agitation, therefore, was officially tolerated in Germany only in so far as it contributed to the great and immediate objective, the downfall of Napoleon. N o sooner had the adventurer gone to his exile in St. Helena, therefore, than the reaction against the liberal nationalist movement gathered its full force. Nevertheless, this movement voiced the aspirations of an emerging society and all the expedients of reactionary suppression could not impair its vitality. One of the less obvious but none the less important contributions of Arndt's agitation was in hastening the revival of a civic and political consciousness in Germany. W e have already alluded to the rise of absolutism in the German states following the Thirty Years' W a r . W e have shown that this development of despotism ushered in a notable transformation of the political structure of Germany as a whole. A s the Holy Roman Empire receded into the background a group of independent lesser states, repudiating the principle of representative government, assumed its functions and responsibilities. The lesser states that thus emerged 80 Meinecke, F., Das Zeitalter der deutschen Erhebung (Bielefeld and Leipzig, 1906), p. 122.

CONCLUSION

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from the ruins of the Empire gradually curtailed or destroyed all vestiges of representative government within their domains. This process culminated in the establishment of paternalistic despotisms in the numerous " Germanies " — despotisms that became closed and exclusive corporations. Under the Imperial régime the leading classes of the community had been, in varying degrees, directly identified with the state through their cooperation in administration, legislation and the formulation of policy, whereas the new autocratic regime centered the whole business of government in the prince. And a natural concomitant of this transformation was a growing cleavage between government and people. Political criticism, under these circumstances, was tantamount to sedition, and public opinion on questions of political policy became an anomaly. Governing was " king's craft." From the end of the Thirty Years' W a r to the accession of Frederick I I , therefore, political discussion in Germany was discouraged or suppressed. W e have already alluded to Frederick's attempts to revive the Prussian press from the blight for which the censorship was largely responsible. Not satisfied with relaxing the press laws, he led the way by preparing articles for several Berlin newspapers. Notwithstanding these high ideals of an untrammeled press, the severe trials of the Seven Years' W a r obliged him to impose restraints at a time when even the staunchest royalist was moved to voice his misgivings. It was not until the first decade of the nineteenth century that German papers paid much attention to domestic political affairs. But political issues gained a new prominence when the French Revolution and the subsequent Napoleonic wars, propagating the political ideals of nationalism and democracy, brought Germany face to face with somber and insistent realities. The paramount issues of the day—political reform and nationalism—became leading topics of discussion

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and all the censorship-edicts of reactionary Hohenzollerns could not keep men and women from thinking and writing. Gradually the old separatism and political disinterestedness gave way to the vigorous assertion of common sentiments. The brilliant editor of the Rheinische Merkur, whom Napoleon flatteringly called the " fifth Great Power," wrote in the fall of 1 8 1 4 : " W h a t is essential above all, is the cultivation, in the heart of the nation, of a clearly defined public opinion which decisively and unmistakably expresses the peculiar character of the people." Speaking of the future of German newspapers, Gorres went on to say: " Partisan works, which have become prominent as a result of the more general interest in public affairs, written with force, spirit, skill and tact, belong to current statecraft; works through which popular opinion is formulated and edified are indispensable stimuli to a wholesome public life." 81 A n d it was this type of literature with which Arndt inundated Germany. Thus Treitschke says of him: " H e was the first to recognize and stigmatize the worst evils of intellectual over-culture, and, to the clever century he exclaimed that it was better to live than to chatter about life." 82 It was primarily in the vast publicity which he gave to his liberal and nationalist program that he most effectively stimulated the long latent civic consciousness of the average German. Questions of political reform—parliamentarianism, constitutionalism, army reform, abolition of privilege, freedom of movement and of thought and expression and the ideal of a common fatherland — became burning questions of the day which, especially during the Liberation years, many periodicals agitated and nearly everyone dis81

Gorres, J. von, Politische Schriften

Treitschke, Heinrich von, History Century (London, 1915), vol. i, p. 275. 82

(Munich, 1854), vol. ii, p. 127. of Germany in the

Nineteenth

CONCLUSION

175

cussed. T h e taboo had been lifted and once again the closed corporation—the state—was, at least temporarily, reconciled with the people. T h e nation, intensely solicitous of its political future, became once more interested in government and public affairs ; statecraft was on the way to become a popular concern. A f t e r a century and a half of political coma Germany was on the way to regain a political consciousness. 83 Again, one must not suppose that the rise of political consciousness in Germany was due entirely to Arndt's agitation or indeed to that of the whole school of literary patriots. T h e whole trend after the outbreak of the Revolution in France moved indubitably and irresistibly toward greater democracy and national consciousness, both of which had obvious political implications — a trend of European historical development attributable to many and varied causes. Indeed, the broad foundations of this movement were laid already before the Revolution, which in turn served to rear a superstructure. Although many writers in Germany, as elsewhere, saw the need of a thoroughgoing political reorganization before the advent of Napoleon, it was not until the Revolutionary disturbances dramatized the worst evils of the old régime that there was much popular interest in the problem. The ensuing Napoleonic régime with its militant nationalism gave the revolutionary ideas in Germany a practical significance and, although the impact of Napoleonic conquest induced a mass reaction, the guidance and formulation of this more or less spontaneous reaction owed much to leading political and literary figures. T h e sponsorship of the liberal nationalist movement by such eminent personalities as Stein, Gruner, Gneisenau, Scharnhorst, Körner, Görres and Arndt clarified its aims, gave it For a fuller treatment of this subject see Ziegler, T., Die geistigen und sozialen Strömungen des 19 Jahrhunderts (Berlin, 1910), vol. i, p. 107 et seq. 83

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an aspect of respectability and, in turn, greatly enhanced its appeal. Thus Arndt's work remains of signal importance in directly stimulating an interest in matters of state—in awakening in the rank and file of the citizenry a vital and lively concern for their common political destiny. It must be remembered that Arndt was of the common people, that he addressed them in their own language and with an eloquence that betrayed the profound sincerity of his patriotic devotion. He reminded common workmen and peasants as well as the bourgeoisie that Prussia was their Prussia, that Germany was their common fatherland and that its destiny was the most sacred concern of all Germans everywhere.

BIBLIOGRAPHY ARNDT"S PROSE W O R K S

Ein menschliches Wort über die Freiheit der alten Republiken (Greifswald, 1800). Reisen durch einen Theil Teutschlands, Italien und Frankreich in den Jahren 1798 und 1799, 6 vols. (Leipzig, 1801-1803). Vol. i, Bruchstücke aus einer Reise von Baireuth bis Wien im Sommer 1798 (1801) ; vols, ii and iii, Bruchstücke aus einer Reise durch einen Theil Italiens im Herbst und Winter 1798 und 1799 (1801) ; vols, iv, v and vi, Bruchstücke einer Reise durch Frankreich im Frühling und Sommer 1799 (1802-1803). Germanien und Europa (Altona, 1803). Versuch einer Geschichte der Leibeigenschaft in Pommern und Rügen (Berlin, 1803). Der Storch und seine Familie; eine Tragödie (Gredfswald, 1804). Second unabridged edition (Leipzig, 1813). Ideen über die höchste historische Ansicht der Sprache; entwickelt in einer R e d e . . . am 1 Nov. 1804 (Rostock and Leipzig, 1805). Reise durch Schweden im Jahr 1804, 4 vols. (Berlin, 1806). Fragmente über Menschenbildung, 3 vols. (Altona, 1805-1819). Second edition (Langensalza, 1904). Geist der Zeit, part 1 (Altona, 1806). Second edition (Altona, 1807). Third edition (Altona, 1815). Fourth edition (Altona, 1861). Fifth edition (Altona, 1863). Sixth edition (Altona, 1877). Ernst Moritz Arndt's Resa genom Sverige ar 1804, 4 vols. (Carlstad, 1807-1808). Briefe an Freunde (Altona, 1810). Die Glocke der Stunde in drei Zügen (St. Petersburg, 1812). New revised edition (Königsberg, 1813). New revised edition ([Leipzig], 1813). Fourth revised edition (Leipzig, 1814). Geist der Zeit, part 2 (Stockholm [London], 1809). Revised edition (Berlin [London], 1813). Abridged edition of parts 1 and 2 (Leipzig, 1921). Geist der Zeit, part 3 (n. p. [Berlin], 1813). Second edition (Berlin [London], 1813). Grundlinien einer teutschen Kriegsordnung (Leipzig, 1813). Second edition (Leipzig, 1813). 177

I78

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ueber das Verhältniss Englands und Frankreichs zu Europa ([Leipzig], 1813). New edition (Zürich, 1917). Das preussische Volk und Heer im Jahr 1813 (Leipzig, 1813). Second edition (Leipzig, 1813). New edition, including Der Rhein, Deutschlands Strom aber nicht Deutschlands Grenze (Berlin, 1925). Ueber Volkshass und über den Gebrauch einer fremden Sprache ([Leipzig], 1813). Second edition (Leipzig, 1813). Was bedeutet Landsturm und Landwehr (Königsberg, 1813). Second and authorized edition, bearing the sub-title, in Beziehung auf die Länder zwischen der Elbe und dem Rhein (Leipzig, 1813). Third edition (Cassel and Marburg, 1813). New edition (Berlin, 1813).— (Leipzig, 1813). Etwas über Landsturm und Landwehr (n. p., 1813). New edition (Frankfurt a/M, 1814). Raumer edition (n. p., 1815). New edition (Cologne, 1815). Kurze und wahrhaftige Erzählung von Napoleon Bonapartens verderblichen Anschlägen (Frankfurt a/M, 1813, 1814). Entwurf der Erziehung und Unterweisung eines Fürsten (Berlin, 1813). Kurzer Katechismus für teutsche Soldaten (St. Petersburg, 1812).— (Königsberg, 1813).—(n. p., 1813). Katechismus für den teutschen Kriegs- und Wehrmann, worin gelehrt wird, wie ein christlicher Wehrmann seyn und mit Gott in den Streit gehen soll (n. p., 1813). Second edition (Leipzig, 1813). New edition (Reichenbach, 1813).—(n. p., 1814)-—(Frankfurt a/M, 1814). —(Cologne, 1815).—(Danzig, 1892). New edition prepared by Martin Hennig (Hamburg, 1916). New edition by L. Weinich and including Der Rhein, Deutschlands Strom aber nicht Deutschlands Grenze (Leipzig, 1933). Zwei Worte über die Entstehung und Bestimmung der Teutschen Legion (Dresden, 1813). Der Rhein, Teutschlands Strom, aber nicht Teutschlands Gräme ([Leipzig], 1813). Second edition (Leipzig, 1813). Third edition (1814). Reprint of Leipzig edition of 1813 (Düsseldorf, 1893). New edition (Munich, 1921). Edition by Edgar Wildberg (Dresden, 1921). Edition prepared by L. Weinich (Leipzig). Reprint of the 1813 edition sponsored by Erich Gülzow (Leipzig, 1925). New edition (Bielefeld, 1926). Die Regenten und die Regierten (n. p., 1814).—(Vienna, 1815). Ueber künftige ständische Verfassungen in Teutschland (Frankfurt a/M, 1814). Entwurf einer teutschen Gesellschaft (Frankfurt a/M, 1814). Friedrich August, König von Sachsen, und sein Volk, im Jahr 1813 (Frankfurt a/M, 1814). Ein Wort über die Feier der Leipziger Schlacht (Frankfurt a/M, 1814). Second enlarged edition (Frankfurt a/M, 1815).

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Noch ein Wort über die Franzosen und, über uns (Leipzig, 1814). Second edition (Frankfurt a/M, 1814). New edition with sub-title, Vergessene Arndtworte f . unsere Zeit, edited by Gerhard Mueller (Leipzig, 1921). Ansichten und Aussichten der Teutschen Geschichte (Leipzig, 1814). Blick aus der Zeit auf die Zeit (Frankfurt a/M, 1814). Ueber Preussens Rheinische Mark und über Bundesfestungen (Frankfurt a/M, 1815). Fantasien für ein künftiges Teutschland (Frankfurt a/M, 1815). Das Wort von 1814 und das Wort von 1815 über die Franzosen (Frankfurt a/M, 1815). Ueber den Bauernstand und über seine Stellvertretung im Staate (Berlin, 1815). Der Wächter, eine Zeitschrift in zwanglosen Heften (Cologne, 1815). Complete edition, 3 vols. (Cologne, 1817). " Zum neuen Jahre, 1816," reprinted from Wächter, Bd. iii (Cologne, 1816), Heft 1 and 2. Geschichte der Veränderungen der bäuerlichen und herrschaftlichen Verhältnisse in dem vormaligen Schwedischen Pommern und Rügen vom Jahr 1806 bis zum Jahr 1816 (Berlin, 1817). Erinnerungen aus Schweden (Berlin, 1818). Geist der Zeit, part 4 (Berlin, 1818). Von dem Wort und dem Kirchenliede, nebst geistlichen Liedern (Bonn, 1819). Ein Wort über die Pflegung und Erhaltung der Forsten und der Bauern im Sinne einer höheren d. h. menschlichen Gesetzgebung (Schleswig, 1820). Ein abgenöthigtes Wort aus seiner Sache, zur Beurtheilung derselben (Altenburg and1 Leipzig, 1821). Nebenstunden (Leipzig, 1826). Christliches und Türkisches (Stuttgart, 1828). Mehrere Ueberschriften, nebst einer Zugabe zum Wendischen Musenalmanach für 1832 (Leipzig, 1831). Die Frage über die Niederlande und die Rheinlande (Leipzig, 1831). Belgien und was dran hangt (Leipzig, 1834). Um Flandern u. Brabant, Die Frage über d. Niederlande u. d. Rheinlande, Belgien und ivas dran hangt, edited by Kurt Leo Walter (Berlin, 1918). Schwedische Geschichte unter Gustav dem Dritten, vorzüglich aber unter Gustav dem Vierten Adolf (Leipzig, 1839). Erinnerungen aus dem äusseren Leben (Leipzig, 1840, 1842). New populär edition by F. M. Kircheisen (Munich, 1917). Second Kircheisen edition (Munich, 1924). New abridged edition by Erich Gülzow (Paderborn, 1927). Das Turnwesen, nebst einem Anhange (Leipzig, 1842).

i8o

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Mährchen und Jugenderinnerungen, 2 vols. (Berlin, 1818). New edition (Berlin, 1842, 1843). Aus dem Märchenschatse Ernst Morits Arndts Märchen und Jugenderinnerungen (Reutlingen, 1925). Complete collection of Arndt's Rügen-Märchen (Karlsruhe, 1931). New edition of Aus dem Märchenschatse Ernst Morits Arndts (Reutlingen, 1932). Versuch in vergleichender Völkergeschichte (Leipzig, 1843). Wanderungen aus und um Godesberg (Bonn, 1844). Die Rheinischen ritterbürtigen Autonomen (Leipzig, 1844). E. M. Arndts Schriften für und an seine lieben Deutschen. Zum ersten Mal gesammelt und durch Neues vermehrt, parts 1-4 (1-3, Leipzig, 1845; 4, Berlin, 1855). Rhein und Ahr-Wanderungen, second edition of Wanderungen aus und um Godesberg (Bonn, 1846). Grundgesetz der Natur von Diderot. Nebst einer Zugabe (Leipzig, 1846). Polenlärm und Polenbegeisterung (Berlin, 1848). Reden und Glossen (Leipzig, 1848). Bilder kriegerischer Spiele und Vorübungen (Bonn, 1848). Noch eine kleine Ausgiessung in die Sündfluth (Berlin, 1848). Nothgedrungener Bericht aus seinem Leben, mit Urkunden der demagogischen und antidemagogischen Umtriebe, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1847). Das verjüngte, oder vielmehr das su verjüngende Deutschland, ein Büchlein für d. lieben Bürgers- u. Bauersmann (Bonn, 1848). Blätter der Erinnerung meistens um und aus der Paulskirche in Frankfurt (Leipzig, 1849). Anklage einer Majestätsbeleidigung des grossen dänischen Volkes aus dem Jahre 1845, begangen von E. M. Arndt (Leipzig, 1851). Pro populo Germanico (Berlin, 1854). Vom nordischen Hausbau und Hausgeist (Jena, 1857). Blütenlese aus Altem und Neuem (Leipzig, 1857). Meine Wanderungen und Wandelungen mit dem Reichsfreiherrn Heinrich Karl Friedrich von Stein (Berlin, 1858). Second printing (Berlin, 1858). Third impression (Berlin, 1869). New edition (Berlin, 1923). New edition by Ricarda Huch (Leipzig, 1925). New edition (Wiesbaden, 1926). Revised edition by Erich Gülzow (Breslau, 1931). New edition by Erich Sielaff (Langensalza, 1931). Briefe an eine Freundin, edited by E. Langenberg (Berlin, 1878). New edition by Erich Gülzow (Stuttgart, 1928). The life and adventures of Ernst Morits Arndt, the singer of the' German fatherland, compiled from the German, with a preface by John Robert Seeley (London, 1879). Ernst Morits Arndts Werke, Erste einheitliche Ausgabe seiner Hauptschriften, edited by Hugo Rösch, 14 vols. (Leipzig, 1892-1909).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

181

Ein Lebensbild in Briefen, edited by Heinrich Meisner and Robert Geerds (Berlin, 1898). Auszüge aus d. Schriften von Ernst Moritz Arndt, nebst einigen Briefen und Gedichten (Düsseldorf and Leipzig, 1903). Deutsche Patrioten in Russland zur Zeit Napoleons (Boston, 1909). Arndts Werke, select edition in twelve parts, edited with introduction and notes by August Leffson and Wilhelm Steffens (Berlin, Leipzig, Vienna and Stuttgart, 1912). Wien, selections from the Reisen, edited by R. F. Arnold (Vienna, 1913). Heimatbriefe, edited by Erich Gülzow (Greifswald, 1919). Staat und Vaterland, a selection from his political writings, edited, with introduction, by Ernst Müsebeck (Munich, 1921). Über d. deutschen Studentenstaat, edited by Helm Wienkötter (Cologne, 1921). Hoffnungsrede vom J. 1810, new edition, with introduction by Erich Gülzow (Greifswald, 1921). Deutsche Märchen (Potsdam, 1922). Meine Jugendzeit, edited by Julius Reuger (Stuttgart, 1923). Worte des Trostes (Cologne, 1923). Aus d. deutschen Mannes Lebenswerk, selection from his works, edited by Fritz Grumbach (Bergen auf Rügen, 1924). Katechismus f. die Deutschen, selection from his works, edited by Julius Berg (Detmold, 1924). Ein deutsches Schicksal, selections from his autobiographical works, edited by Oskar Anwand (Berlin, 1924). Sein Vermächtnis an uns, selection from his works, edited by Heinrich Gerstenberg (Hamburg, 1925). Das Ernst Moritz Arndt Buch, selection from his works, edited by Curt Elwenspoek (Stuttgart, 1925). Von Freiheit und Vaterland, selection from his works, edited by Adam Stössel (Munich, 1925). Volk und Führer, selection from his works, edited by Heinrich Gerstenberg (Frankfurt a/M, 1926). Briefe aus Schweden an einen Stralsunder Freund, edited by Erich Gülzow (Stralsund, 1926). Ernst Moritz Arndt, selections from his works, edited by Otto Richter (Bielefeld, 1927). Briefe an Arndt von seiner Schwester Gottsgab, edited by Erich Gülzow (Stralsund, 1927). COLLECTIONS OF A R N D T ' S

POEMS

Gedichte von Ernst Moritz Arndt (Greifswald, 1803). (Rostock and Leipzig, 1803). (Rostock, 1804).

BIBLIOGRAPHY (Greifswald, 1811). (Greifswald, 1812). (Frankfurt a/M, 1818). , newf corrected edition (Leipzig, 1840). , second enlarged edition (Leipzig, 1843). , reprint of second enlarged edition (Frankfurt a/M, 1843). , new selected edition (Frankfurt a/M, 1850). , complete collection (Berlin, i860). , reprint of first complete edition (Berlin, 1865). •, selection (Berlin, 1889). , newly discovered poems (Leipzig, 1889). , new edition by Leipzig Bibl. Inst. (Leipzig, 1891). , selection (Halle a. S., 1891). , selection, with biographical introduction (Leipzig, 1893). , select edition by H. Meisner (Leipzig, 1894-1895). , from the Manchermaion (Berlin, 1895-1896). , complete edition by H. Meisner, 4 vols. (Leipzig, 1895-1896). , selection, edited by the Dürerbund (Berlin, 1925). , selection, with biographical introduction by Robert Geerds (Leipzig, 1926). COLLECTIONS

OF A R N D T ' S

SONGS

Auf Scharnhorsts Tod (Berlin, 1813). Lieder für Teutsche (Leipzig, 1813). Lieder für Teutsche im Jahr der Freiheit (Leipzig, 1813). Fünf Lieder für deutsche Soldaten (St. Petersburg, 1813). Teutsche Wehrlieder, including several of Arndt's songs a/M, 1814).

(Frankfurt

Kriegslieder der Teutschen (Frankfurt a/M, 1814). Lob teutscher Helden gesungen von E. M. Arndt und Theodor Körner (Frankfurt a/M, 1814). Lied auf den Sieg beim schönen Bunde (Berlin, 1815). Lob teutscher Helden, new enlarged edition (Cologne, 1815). Von dem Wort und dem Kirchenliede nebst geistlichen Liedern (Bonn, 1819). Geistliche Lieder (Berlin, 1855). Bundeslied der Jenaischen Burschenschaft, jubilee edition (Weimar, 1865). Zum Rhein! übern Rhein!, an Arndt war song set to music by W . Wiefrecht (Berlin, 1870). Frei u. fromm. Geistl. Lieder, edited by F. Simon (Herborn, 1916). WORKS

ON A R N D T :

IN

CHRONOLOGICAL

ORDER

W . A. C., Arndt und Kotsebue als politische Schriftsteller (Dresden, 1814). Bitf um's Wort, eine kleine halbe Stunde mit Arndt und Jahn (Strassburg, 1830).

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Bidrag tili Historien om aren 1808, 9 och 13. i anledning af Professor Arndts arbeten (Stockholm, 1840). E. M. Arndt und die Demagogenseit, reprinted from Nothgedrungener Bericht aus s. Leben (Grenzboten, 1847). Kühne, F. Gust., " E . M. Arndt," in Europa, Chronik der gebildeten Welt (1847). Strauss, D., " Z w e i deutsohe Märtyrer," in Jahrbücher der Gegenwart (Tübingen, 1847). Monnard, C., " Ernest-Maurice Arndt," in Bibliothèque univ. de Genève (1849). " E. M. Arndt," in Bibliographische Umrisse der Mitglieder der Nartionalversammlung su Frankfurt a/M (1849). Neumann, W., " E. M. Arndt, Eine Biographie," in series Moderne Klassiker (Cassel, 1852). " Vater E. M. Arndts Leben, Wirken und Tod, eine Erinnerungsschrift," in Gedenkbücher für d. Volk (Leipzig, 1860), no. 3. Wolters, Albrecht, E. M. Arndt, ein Zeuge für den evangel. Glauben (Elberfeld, 1860). Wiesmann, Dr., Am Grabe E. M. Arndts, funeral oration (Bonn, 1860). Witkamp, E. S., Ernst Moritz Arndt (Amsterdam, 1860). Oelbermann, Hugo, Denkrede auf Vater Arndt (Bonn, 1860). Rösler, Robert, pseud. Julius Mühlfeld, Für Arndts Denkmal (Stralsund, 1860). Haym, R., E. M. Arndt, especially printed for vol. v of the Preussische Jahrbücher (Berlin, 1860). Labes, Eugen, E. M. Arndt (Jena, 1860). Baur, Wilhelm, E. M. Arndts Leben, Thaten u. Meinungen (Zwickau, 1861). Second édition (Hamburg, 1862). Third édition, jubilee édition (Hamburg, 1870). Fourth édition (Hamburg, 1883). Fifth édition (Hamburg, 1889). Versen, Alex, von, Des alten und treuen IVächters am Rhein (Danzig, 1861). Rehbein, Hermann, and Keil, Robert, E. M. Arndt, ein Buch für das deutsche Volk, 2 vols. (Schauenburg, 1861). Hoefer, Albert, E. M. Arndt und die Universität Greifswald (Berlin, 1863). Koppe, L., E. M. Arndt, eine Biographie, in Wachler's Deutschlands moderne Klassiker (Leipzig, 1864). Langenberg, E., E. M. Arndt, sein Leben und seine Schriften (Bonn, 1865). Schenkel, Daniel, E. M. Arndt, ein politischer und religiöser deutscher Charakter (Elberfeld, 1869). Schäfer, Arnold, Rede sur Feier von Arndts hundertjährigem Geburtstag (Bonn, 1869).

BIBLIOGRAPHY Schmidt, Ferd., E. M. Arndt, ein Lebensbild (Berlin, 1869). Second edition (Berlin, 1875). Lüsebrink, Friedrich, Der hundertjährige Geburtstag unseres Sängers der Freiheitskriege (Elberfeld, 1869). Grieben, Hermann, E. M. Arndt von Rügen, Beiträge zum Arndt-Denkmal auf d. Rugard (Stettin, 1869). Nitzsch, K. W., Der preussische Staat und E. M. Arndt (Grenzboten, 1870). Gesky, Theod., E. M. Arndt (Halle, 1870). Schmid, Ulrich Rudolf, E. M. Arndt und Zeitgedichte (Jena, 1871). O. L., E. M. Arndt, Deutschlands Dichter und Patriot (Rautenberg, 1872). Karo, G., " E. M. Arndt," in Protest. Kirchen-Zeitung (1881), pp. 289301 and 321-333Treitschke, H. von, " E. M. Arndt u. Wrede," in Preussische Jahrbücher, vol. ii (1882). Hesse, Werner, " E. M. Arndt in Bonn," in Allgem. Zeitung (October, 1882). Petrich, Hermann, Pommersche Lebens- und Landesbilder nach gedruckten und ungedruckten Quellen entworfen, part 2, Aus dem Zeitalter der Befreiung (Stettin, 1887). Euler, K., " E. M. Arndt, Fr. L. Jahn und das deutsche Vaterlandslied," in Nationalseitung (1884). Noorden, C. von, " E. M. Arndt und Preussens deutscher Beruf," in Historische Vorträge, edited with introduction by W. Maurenbrecher (Leipzig, 1884). Lösche, G., " E. M. Arndt, ein Helden- Propheten- und Märtyrerbild," in Deutsche Evang. Blätter, vol. ix (1884). Groddeck, C., " Die Zeitlieder E. M. Arndts," in Vossische Zeitung, Sonntagsbeilage (1885). Hagemann, A., Wie ist E. M. Arndt in Wort und Schrift für seines Volkes Erhebung thätig gewesen (Berlin, 1885). Stallert, Karel, Herrinnering aan en van E. M. Arndt (Ghent, 1888). Zetzsch«, W., " E. M. Arndt, ein Wort zu seinem Todestage," in Akad. Blätter, vol. iv (1890). Nover, Jakob, E. M. Arndt (Hamburg, 1891). Geerds, R., " Einige wunderbare Erlebnisse aus Arndts Leben," in Sphinx (1893). Keferstein, Horst, " E. M. Arndt als Pädagog," in Deutsche Blätter für Erziehung und Unterricht, vol. xx (1893). Republished as separate pamphlet (Langensalza, 1894). Carstensen, Carl, "Aus dem Leben deutscher Dichter," in Für Schule und Haus, no. 3 (Braunschweig, 1893).

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Thiele, Rudolf, " E r n s t Moritz Arndt als Erzieher," in Evangl. Monatsblatt für deutsche Erziehung in Schule, Haus und Kirche, no. 3 and 4 (Treptow a. R., 1893). Stern, Adolf, E. M. Arndt und Johanna Motherby (Grenzboten, 1893). Petersen, Rieh., Morits Arndt og Hans Forhold til Danmark (1894). Paulsdorff, F., E. M. Arndt und sein Denkmal auf dem Rugard bei Bergen (Bergen on Rügen, 1894). Thiele, Rudolf, E. M. Arndt, sein Leben und Arbeiten für Deutschlands Freiheit, Ehre, Einheit und Grösse (Gütersloh, 1894). Kern, Franz, " Z u deutschen Dichtern," in Kleine Schriften, Band i (Berlin, 1895). Mollat, Georg, Reden und Redner des ersten deutschen Parlaments (Zickfeldt, 1895). Branky, F., " Wie E. M. Arndt um Städte werben lässt," in Zeitschrift f. d. deutschen Unterricht, Band ix, H e f t 7 (1895). Meisner, Heinrich, " E. M. Arndt und Charlotte Quistorp," in Nord und Süd, Band 78, H e f t 232 (July, 1896), pp. 105-113. , " E. M. Arndt im Parlamente," in Deutsche Revue, Band x x i (1896). , " Arndts Psychidion," in Euphorion, Band iii (1896). — — , " E. M. Arndts Mutter," in Vossische Zeitung, Sonntagsbeilage no. 36 (1897). Gründler, Ad., " E. M. Arndt," in Schrädel's Illustrierte Jugendbibliothek (1896). Meisner, Heinrich, " Eine Arndt Bibliographie," in Zeitschrift für Bücherfreunde, vol. i (1897), pp. 433-438 and 471-474. Sandvoss, R., " Ernst Moritz Arndt, ein Apostel der Deutschheit," in Preussische Jahrbücher, vol. viii (1899). Geissler, Clemens, Die pädagogischen Anschauungen E. M. Arndts in Zusammenhang mit seiner Zeit (Braunschweig, 1905). Czygan, Paul, " E. M. Arndts historisch-politische Schriften in der Beurtheilung des Berliner Zensors 1813-1815," in Vossische Zeitung, Sonntagsbeilage, no. 47 (1907). Rassow, J., " E. M. Arndts Gedanken über eine Erhebung aller Völker gegen d. franz. u. russ. Weltherrschaft," in Pomm. Jahrbücher, Band vii. Lange, Georg, Der Dichter Arndt (Berlin, 1910). Mätzold, Emil, E. M. Arndts politische Anschauungen und Betätigungen (Leipzig, 1910). Schacht, Walther, Die Sprache der bedeutenderen Flugschriften E. M. Arndts (Greifswald, 1911). Dühr, Albrecht, "Arndt als Agitatur und Offiziosus," Grenzboten, 70. Jahrg. (Berlin, 1911). Menzel, F., " Rousseausche Ideen in E. M. Arndts Fragmente über Menschenbildung," in Pädagogisches Magazin, H e f t 477 (1912).

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Müsebeck, Ernst, E. M. Arndts Verfassungspläne für das zukünftige Deutschland aus den Jahren 1807-1815 (Greifswald and Stuttgart, I9I3)Gruner, Justus, " Die Glaubenswürdigkeit der autobiographischen Schriften E. M. Arndt," in Forschungen zur brandenburgischen und preussischen Geschichte, Band viii (Munich, 1913). Krügel, Rudolf, Der Begriff des Volksgeistes in Emst Moritz Arndts Geschichtsanschauung (Leipzig, 1914). Reprinted in. Pädagogisches Magazin, Heft 566. Müsebeck, Ernst, E. M. Arndt, 1769-1815, vol. i (Gotha, 1914). , " Das Gewissen der Deutschen Gegenwart," in Perthes' Schriften zum Weltkrieg, Heft 2 (Gotha, 1915). , " E. M. Arndts Stellung zum friedericianischen Preussen und zum französ. Revolution," in Preussische Jahrbücher, vol. cxvii (1907). Roethe, G., Bismarck, Arndt u. d. dtsch. Zukunft (Greifswald, 1915). Meisner, H., Arndt als Patriot (Berlin, 1916). Kölle, Conrad, Ernst Moritz Arndts Fragmente über Menschenbildung in ihrer pädagogischen Bedeutung (Langensalza, 1916). Reprinited in Pädagogisches Magazin, Heft 625. Dühr, Albrecht, " Schwedische Gäste beim alten Arndt," in Süddeutsche Monatshefte, vol. viii (Leipzig, 1917). Müller-Eberhart, Wald., Arndt u. d. Friede (Berlin, 1918). Laag, Heinrich, Die religiöse Entwickelung Ernst Moritz Arndts (Greifswald, 1919). Geerds, R., Ernst Moritz Arndt (Bielefeld, 1920). Gülzow, E., Arndt in Schweden (Greifswald, 1920). Stodte, Herrn., Arndts Vermächtnis (Dresden, 1920). Bley, Fr., Arndt, second edition (Gotha, 1921). Schneider, Martha, " Ernst Moritz Arndt und der Rheinische Merkur," in Forschungen zur brandenburgischen und preussischen Geschichte, Band xxxiv (Munich, 1921). Hickmann, Hugo, Wegweiser zum deutschen Aufstieg (Berlin, 1921). Klätte, Erna, Studien über die Stellung des jungen Arndt zu den Ideen der Geschichtsschreibung des 18. Jahrhunderts (Bonn, 1922). Beck, Heinrich, Die Volksbildung bei Ernst Moritz Arndt (Munich, 1924). Dumont, Helen, Das religiöse Weltbild Ernst Moritz Arndts in seinem Werte für die Volkserziehung (Leipzig, 1925). Huebner, Arthur, "Arndt und der deutsche Gedanke," in Pädagogisches Magazin, Heft 103 (Langensalza, 1925). Heckscher, Kurt, Die Volkskunde d. germanischen Kulturkreises (Hamburg, 1925). Berg, Hans, Ein deutsches Gewissen (Hamburg, 1925). Kern, R., Die Katechismen Kleists u. Arndts (Frankfurt a/M, 1926).

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IB 7

Anwand, Oskar, Das deutsche Morgenrot, Ein Arndt und Stein-Roman (Berlin, 1927). Cremer, Emmi, Ernst Moritz Arndt als Geschichtsschreiber (Potsdam, 1927). Schwarz, Hermann, Ernst Moritz Arndt, ein Führer zum Deutschtum (1927). Reprinted in Pädagogisches Magazin, Heft 131 (Langensalza, 1927). Frömbgen, Hans, E. M. Arndt und die deutsche Romantik (Münster, 1927). Hertz, Friedrich Otto, " Das Problem des Nationalcharakters bei E. M. Arndt," in Forschungen zu Völkerpsychologie und Soziologie, vol. viii (Leipzig, 1927). Flad, Ruth, Studien zur politischen Begriffsbildung in Deutschland während der preussischen Reform (Berlin and Leipzig, 1929). Kern, Hans, Vom unbekannten Arndt (Stettin, 1929). , Arndt der ewige Deutsche (Jena, 1930). Gülzow, Erich, Arndt und Stralsund (Stralsund, 1932). Kauer, E. T., Fichte, Arndt, Stein (Berlin-Schöneberg, 1933). Laag, Heinrich, Der Freiheitskampf d. Greifswalder Dozenten E. M. Arndt (Greifswald, 1933). G E N E R A L W O R K S ON T H E P A T R I O T I C R E V I V A L

Biedermann, K., Geschichte des deutschen Einheits-Gedankens (Wiesbaden, 1894). Ergang, R. R., Herder and the Foundations of German Nationalism (New York, 1931). Engelbrecht, H. C., Johann Gottlieb Fichte (New York, 1933). Gasparian, A., Der Begriff d. Nation in d. dt. Geschichtsschreibung (Leipzig, 1916). Hildebrand, J., Die deutsche Nationalliterattir seit dem Anfange des achtsehnten Jahrhunderts, 2 vols. (Hamburg and Gotha, 1850-1851). Jastrow, I., Geschichte des deutschen Einheitstraumes und seiner Erfüllung (Berlin, 1891). Joachimsen, P., Vom deutschen Volk zum deutschen Staat (Leipzig, 1920). L«vy-Bruhl, L., L'Allemagne depuis Leibnitz. Essai sur le développement de la conscience nationale en Allemagne 1700-1848 (Paris, 1890). Liebe, G., Das deutsche Nationalgefühl in seiner historischen Entwickelung (Magdeburg, 1896). Meyer, H., Das deutsche Volkstum, second revised editioni (Leipzig, 1903). Mollenhauer, K., Justus Mosers Anteil an der Wiederbelebung des deutschen Geistes (Brunswick, 1896). Nollau, H., Germanische Wiedererstehung (Heidelberg, 1926).

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Pinson, K . S., Pietism as a Factor in the Rise of German Nationalism (New York, 1934). Schäfer, D., Das deutsche Nationalbewusstsein im Lichte der Gegenwart (Jena, 1884). Schultheiss, F. G., Geschichte des deutschen nationalen Gefühles (Munich, 1893). Tietz, J., Die geschichtliche Entwickelung des deutschen Nationalbewusstseins (Hanover, 1880). STUDIES OF THE LIBERATION PERIOD IN

GERMANY

Czygan, P., Zur Geschichte der Tagesliteratur während der Freiheitskriege, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1911-1912). Der Rheinische Merkur, Jahrg. 1814-1816. Droysen, J. G., Vorlesungen über das Zeitalter der Freiheitskriege (Kiel, 1846). Second edition (Gotha, 1885). Goette, R., Das Zeitalter der deutschen Erhebung 1807-1815 (Gotha, 1891). Gooch, G. P., Germany and the French Revolution (London and New York, 1920). Häusser, Ludwig, Deutsche Geschichte vom Tode Friedrichs des Grossen bis surgründung des deutschen Bundes, 4th edition (Berlin, 1869). Meinecke, F., Die deutschen Gesellschaften und der Hoffmansche Bund (Stuttgart, 1892). , Das Zeitalter der deutschen Erhebung 1795-1815 (Bielefeld and Leipzig, 1906). New edition (Stuttgart and Leipzig, 1928). , Weltbürgertum und Nationalstaat (Munich and Berlin, 1911, 1919). New edition (Stuttgart and Leipzig, 1928). Meyer, C., " Preussen nach dem Tilsiter Frieden," in Deutsche Revue, vol. xxxiii. Müller-Bohn, H., Die deutschen Befreiungskriege (Berlin, 1907-1908). Neubauer, F., Preussens Fall und Erhebung 1806-1815 (Berlin, 1907). Pick, A., Aus der Zeit der Noth 1806-1816 (Berlin, 1907). Ranke, L. von, Hardenberg und die Geschichte des preussischen Staates 1795-1813 (Leipzig, 1879-1881). , Denkwürdigkeiten des Staatskanslers Fürsten von Hardenberg (Leipzig, 1877). Rühl, F., Aus der Franzosenzeit (Leipzig, 1904). Seeley, Sir John Robert, Life and Times of Stein (Boston, 1879). Stein, H. F. K. Freiherr vom und zum, Lebenserinnerungen (Hagen, 1901). , Freiherr vom Stein: Briefwechsel, Denkschriften und Aufzeichnungen, edited by E. Botzenhart, 5 vols. (Berlin, 1934). Stern, Alfred, Abhandlungen und Aktenstücke zur Geschichte der preussischen Reformseit (Leipzig, 1885).

BIBLIOGRAPHY Stettiner, P., Der Tugendbund (Königsberg, 1904). Sybel, H. von, Die Erhebung Europas gegen Napoleon I (Munich, 1860). Ulmann, H., Geschichte der Befreiungskriege 1813 und 1814 (Munich and Berlin, 1914). , " L. G. Kosegarten und E. M. Arndt als literar-politische Gegenführer im Jahr 1813," in Pommersche Jahrbücher, vol. x. Voigt, J., Geschichte des Tugendbundes (Königsberg, 1850). Wahl, A., Die Erhebung der Völker gegen Napoleon I (Langensalza, I93i). Zelle, W., Geschichte der Freiheitskriege 1812-1813, 4 vols. (Brunswick, 1903-1906).

INDEX Aeschylus, 143 Alexander I, 90, 91, 95, 96, 104, 105 Allemanni, 137 Allies, n 8 , 119, 121 Alps, 116, 117 Alsace, 127, 131, 158 American Revolution, 14 Ardennes, 116 Aretin, 137 Arrainius, 124 Arndt, Andreas, 9 Arndt, Frederick, 15, 88, 100 Arndt, Hinrich, 14, 141 Arndt, Ludwig Nikolaus, io, 11 Athens, 34 Austerlitz, 38 Austria, 78, 85, 105, 111, 114, 125, 127, 134, 146, 153, 158

Constantine, 105 Czygan, 123, 168 Danes, 59 Dankwardt, 13 Danton, 77 Deism, 12 Deutsche Blätter, 109, n o Dohna, Alexander, 109 Dohna, Frederick, 90 Dumsewitz, n , 12 Dunkirk, 117 Dutch, 156 Eichhorn, 71, 87, 115, 138 d'Enghien, 63 England, 36, 59, 60, 114, 131, 132, 156 Eschenburg, 15 Essen, Baron von, 34

Belgium, 146 Berlin, 25, 71, 73, 87 Bindemanm, Charlotte, 27, 31 Bischoffwerder, 41, 94 Blücher, 90, 109, n o , 114 Bohemia, 78 Böhme, 30, 51 Bonn, 137, 139 Borodino, 104 Boyen, 87, 136 Breslau, 89 Brisman, 21 Brockhaus, 110 Brunswick, Duchy of, 86, 118 Brunswick, Duke of, 45, 93 Bürger, 15, 16 Burschenschaften, 138

Fichte, 21, 41, 144, 148 Finns, 130 Förster, 35 France, 14, 35, 46, 79, 146, 152, 155 Francis I, 96, i n Frederick the Great, 15, 38, 39, 40, 81, 94 Frederick William II, 40, 42, 45 Frederick William III, 46, 47, 96, 105, 110 French Nation, 60, 61, 81, 82, 84, 87, 116, 117, 118, 147, 148, IS6, 158, 159 French Revolution, 28, 41, 42, 45, S3, 54, 77, 83, 84, 85, 107, 124, 126, 143, 173

Caesar, 19, 143 Carlsbad Decrees, 138 Charlottenburger Bund, 87 Chasot, 108 Christianity, 84, 143, 144, 148, 160 Cicero, 19, 143 Claudius, 15 Clausewitz, 108, 109 Cologne, 25

Gagern, Ernst von, 18 German Legion, 92, 93, 104, 106, 107 German Nation, 61, 62, 81, 85, 86, 116, 117 German Societies, 120, 121, 155 Gneisenau, 72, 87, 90, 124, 136, 175 God, 144, 146, 150, 156, 160, 161, 165, 166 191

192

INDEX

Goethe, 15, 101, 141, 144 Görres, 174 175 Grabitz, 13 Grande Armée, 105 Great Elector, 16 Greeks, 56, 57, 58, 162 Greifswald, 20, 21, 26, 27, 37, 48, 72, 87, 88, 89, 147, 149 Griesach, 21 Gross-Görschen, m , 122 Gruner, 87, 89, 90, 92, n o , 175 Gülzow, 69 Gustavus Adolphus, 16, 81 Gustavus IV, 36, 37, 69, 70, 87 Gutenberg, 51 Gyllensvärd, 38, 151 Hameln, 80 Hannibal, 143 Hanover, 79 Hapsburg, 83 Hardenberg, 72, 106, 115, 129, 135, 136, 137, 170 _ Hartungsehe Zeitung, 95 Haugwitz, 79 Hausser, 155 Hegel, 41 Heinrich, 21 Helvig, 69 Herder, 32, 33, 126, 146, 148, 155, 158, 159, 160, 166 Hertzberg, 40 Hesse, 78, 86, 118 Heyne, 33. 142. 146 Hither Pomerania, 10, 36, 37 Hohenstaufen, 81 Hohenzollern, 43, 44, 86, 174 Holstein, 86 Homer, 143 Horace, 19, 143 Humboldt, 41, 115, 140 Hume, 30, 31, 36, 41, 142, 148 Hungary, 25, 34, 58, 146 Imhoff, Amalie von, 69 Italian Nation, 57, 58, 116, 130, 157 Italy, 78, 146 Jacobins, 172 Jahn, 120 Jena, University of, 21, 22, 144, 146 Jews, 133 Joseph II, 42 Jülich, 128 Jura, 116

Kant, 52 Kathen, Charlotte 27, 150 Kepler, 51 Kleist, General von, 80 Klopstock, 142 Königsberg, 71 Körner, 96, 101, 171, 17s Kosegarten, L. G., 27, 137 Kotzebue, 95, 109, 137, 168 Krieger, 110 Krüger, 13, 15 Küstrin, 80 Kutusov, 104, 105 Landwehr, 110 Lange, 100 Lavater, 51 Leibnitz, 51 Leipzig, 25, 113 Lessing, 15, 16, 141, 159 Liberation War, 96, 100, 101, 153, 154, ISS Lieven, 89 Livy, 19, 143 Löbnitz, 16, 20, 22 Locke, 41 Louise, Queen, 96 Louis X I V , 16, SS Lunéville, 38, 78 Luther, 52, 115 Luxemburg, 128 Magdeburg, 80 Mainz, 128 Maximilian I, 115 Mecklenburg, 71, 78, 86 Meinecke, 171 Memel, 71 Mercier, 35 Merkel, 95, 168 Metternich, 115 Mömpelgard, 117 Moniteur, 95 Möns, 117 Montesquieu, 36, 41 Moreau, 63 Müchler, 138 Muhrbeck the Eider, 20 Muhrbeck the Younger, 26 Müller, Adam, 31, 145, 148 Munck, Elisa von, 69 Myer, 35 Napoleon, 38, 46, 63, 64, 74. 75. 78, 104, 114, 115, 148, 149, iSi. 168, 172

INDEX

193

Nernst, 68 Netherlands, 131 Nicolovius, 105 Niebuhr, 139, 170

Russia, 58, 78, 79. IOI, m , 114, 1 2 3 . 157 Russisch-Deutsches Volksblatt, 95,

Ovid, 19

St. Marsan, 103 St. Petersburg, 93 Savary, 80 Saxony, 78, 86, 101, 109, 128 Scharnhorst, 72, 89, 108, 111, 175 Scheie, 87 Schelling, 51 Schenkendorf, 96 Schildener, 26, 68 Schill, 93 Schiller, 144 Schlegel, Friedrich, 145 Sohlegel, Gottlieb, 21, 23 Schleiermacher, 87, 138 Schmalz, 137 Schöller, 80 Schön, 109, 120, 171 Schoritz, 11 Schröck, 19 Schulz, 35 Schumacher, Frederick, 15 Schumacher, Frederike, 10, 11 Schumacher, Moritz, 11, 14, 15, 141 Schütz, 21 Schwarzenberg, 109 Schwerin, 68 Shakespeare, 15, 141 Sieyes, 77 Sophocles, 143 Soult, 72 Spain, 58, 156 Sparta, 19, 34 Steffens, 11 Stein, 72, 90, 91, 95, 101, 105, 108,

168

Paris, 25 Paris, Treaty of, 114 Paulus, 21 Persians, 56 Pichegru, 63 Pietism, 30, 143, 144, 148 Pilnitz, Declaration of, 45 Pitt, 38 Plato, 143 Poland, 158 Polish Nation, 130, 157 Poromer-Esche, 18 Preussische Correspondent, 124 Prussia, 29, 38, 41, 42, 43. 44, 45. 72, 127,

78,

79.

128,

86,

129,

91,

94,

114,

134, I3S. 153.

125,

158,

176

Pufendorf, 16, 33, 142 Putbus, 10 Quistorp, Charlotte, 22, 24, 26, 27 Race, 159, 160 Rastatt, 78 Räumer, 110 Reformation, 52, 84 Reichenbach, 112 Reil, 87 Reimer, 71, 87, 102, 122, 169 Rein, 109 Reincke, 18 Reinhold, 21 Renaissance, 58 Renfner, 113, 119, 121, 124, 137 Rheinische Merkur, 174 Rhine Confederation, 71, 125 Richardson, is, 141 Robespierre, 77 Romanticism, 28, 30, so, 145 Romantsoff, 105 Rome, 19, 34 Rosicrucians, 41, 94, 118 Rousseau, 30, 31, 32, 145. J 48 Rückert, 96, 101 Rudolphi, 18 Rugard, 140 Rügen, 9, 12, 140, 147 Riihs, 26

109,

IN,

113,

168,

170,

175

147,

150,

151,

120,

136,

139,

154,

Stenzler, 13, 15 Stockholm, 68, 70 Stolberg, 15 Stralsund, 16, 17, 37. 49. m Sturm und Drang, 28, 30, 141, 148 Swabia, 86, 118 Sweden, 36, 37, 68, 70, 78, 88, 132, 152

Switzerland, 78, 127, 131, 146, 156 Tacitus, 19, 143 Talleyrand, 38 Terence, 19 Third Coalition, 38 Thirty Years' War, 132

194 Thucydides, 143 Tolly, 103 Treitschke, ISS, 174 Trolle-Wachineister, 70 Tugendbund, 169 Turk, 156 Ulm, 38 Ulrich, 21, 144 Uz, 16 Versailles, 44 Vienna, 25

INDEX

Vienna, Congress of, 124, 126, 136 Vikings, 59 Virgil, 19 Volksgeist,

156, 158, 166

Weigal, 68 Wesel, 128 Westphalia, 78, 79, 86, 118, 145 Wieland, 15 Witzleben, 13g Wällner, 41, 94 Zuschauer, Der, 95, 168