Paul de Lagarde, 1827–1891: A Study of Radical Conservatism in Germany [Reprint 2014 ed.] 9780674431089, 9780674431072

Citation preview

ΨαηΙ de J^garde IS2J-I8ÇI A STUDY OF RADICAL CONSERVATISM IN GERMANY

ί^ л

/^^r/i

ΨαηΙ de J^garde i82'J-I8ÇI A STUDY OF RADICAL CONSERVATISM IN GERMANY

ROBERT W. LOUGEE

HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS ·

I962

© Copyright 1962 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College All rights reserved Publication of this book has been aided by a grant from the Ford Foundation Published in Great Britain by Oxford University Press, London Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 62-17221 Printed in the United States of America

то Grace, Lorraine, Robert, and John

Acknowledgments

O

ne of the rewards of scholarship is the experience of friendly and constructive help which the scholar encounters as he goes about his work. Certainly, this experience has been mine, and I am grateful. I appreciate the understanding and encouragement of my family and realize, better than they, the magnitude of their contribution to this book. I owe much to those scholars who have generously made their time and knowledge available to me, particularly, Professor Holbom of Yale, the late Professor Armstrong of Brown, my colleague Professor Marks of Connecticut, Professors Kaehler and Schramm of Göttingen, and the late Professor Alfred Weber of Heidelberg. I do not, of course, mean to suggest that my errors should devolve upon them. I have found the staffs of the libraries and archives which I have used invariably courteous and able. I feel particularly indebted to Miss Roberta Smith and others at the University of Connecticut Library, to the staffs of the Harvard College Library and of the Hartford Seminary Foundation, and to Drs. Luther and Denecke and their staffs at the State and University Library in Göttingen. Among the more arduous tasks in the preparation of this study was the transliteration of some of the nearly illegible

vili

Acknoivledgments

manuscripts from the archives in Göttingen. I am especiallygrateful to Professor Hans Weber of Dartmouth College, Mr. August Weyer of Coventry, Connecticut, and Mr. Donald Spund of Medford, Massachusetts, for their help in rendering seemingly impossible lines. In preparing the final typewritten form of this manuscript, I was most fortunate to have the services of Mrs. Betty Seaver of Storrs, Connecticut, and Miss Ann Lescoe of Willimantic, Connecticut, whose patience, skill, and good humor were never failing. Research in Germany was made possible by a leave granted by the University of Connecticut and by a grant from the American Philosophical Society. Through the kind permission of the editors of the Review of Politics I have used certain portions of an article of mine which appeared in the Review in October 1959. I thank the Director of the State and University Library at Göttingen for permission to quote from some of the letters in the Lagarde Collection. Robert W . Lougee February, 1962 Storrs, Connecticut

Contents

INTRODUCTION I.

I

CURRENTS OF THOUGHT IN THE AGE OF ROMANTICISM

11

THE BERLIN PERIOD

49

III.

THE GÖTTINGEN PERIOD

88

IV.

THE ELEMENTS OF LAGARDE'S

IL

THOUGHT V.

THE CRITICAL ATTACK AND PROPOSALS FOR REFORM

VI. VII.

VIII.

117

15O

LAGARDE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES

2x8

LAGARDE AND GERMANY AFTER 1 8 9 1

257

AN EVALUATION OF LAGARDE'S HISTORICAL ROLE

297

A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

32 I

NOTES

327

INDEX

353

Introduction

Q he news from Paris in the late spring and summer of X 17 89 was greeted with considerable enthusiasm east of the Rhine. The spectacle of a great nation reforming itself under the inspiration of high ideals and achieving freedom for individual development and expression appealed to the mood of the time. Even many who moved in government circles were more fascinated than apprehensive in these early days of the Revolution. Within a short time much of this enthusiasm had given way to concern and dismay. Princes, governments, and privileged groups could not long ignore the danger to their position. The events which carried the Revolution to violence and extremes seemed to belie the hope that blessings for mankind would flow from this upheaval. The application of natural laws appeared to enchain rather than to liberate men. The suddenness and decisiveness with which the revolutionists replaced old values and institutions conflicted with the historical sense which at that time was rapidly maturing in Germany. The French Revolution aroused in Germany, therefore, a spirit of opposition which became the animus of conservatism. In Prussia, where the response to the Revolution was most marked, two forms of conservatism took shape

2

Paul de hagarde

in the first decades of the nineteenth century, bureaucratic absolutism and romantic conservatism. Bureaucratic absolutism was in the spirit of eighteenthcentury enlightened despotism. Against the doctrine of the rights of man, the absolutists reasserted the power of the crown and state. They had no use for democratic constitutions or popular assemblies, but they were aware of the need for some modernization of existing laws and institutions. They were not against reform, provided that it was moderate, initiated with royal approval, and carried out under ministerial direction. The work of Stein and subsequently of the Prussian ministries in the Restoration was consistent with this viewpoint. Hegel sought to give philosophical justification to bureaucratic absolutism. Romantic conservatism, from which Paul de Lagarde's radical conservatism derived, drew its ideas from the romantic movement in Germany. Romantic literature was not, for the most part, specifically political, but romantic ideas were pregnant with significance for politics and society. Against natural rights the romantic conservatives placed historical rights. They insisted that drastic and arbitrary changes could not effectively be made in the dispositions wrought by the great irrational force of history. Influenced by the religious orientation of the late romantics and pietists, the romantic conservatives regarded the traditional order as sacred. They were quite as offended by some of the assumptions and activities of the absolutists as by the revolutionists. The romantic or "old" conservative movement lacked a systematic theorist. Systemizing and theorizing were, indeed, inconsistent with the nature of the movement. The Swiss conservative, Karl Ludwig von Haller (1768-1854), although known and read in conservative circles in the

Introduction

3

Restoration, was far too much the theorist and exponent of the natural rights of property to be the spokesman for this group. Julius Stahl's Die Philosophie des Rechts (18301837), a landmark in conservative literature, contained many views with which the romantic conservatives could have no quarrel. But this work was too much concerned with state power and Realpolitik to become the definitive expression of romantic conservatism. The old conservatism developed, rather, in small private circles, such as that of Ludwig von Gerlach, and its nature can best be discovered through a study of the letters and memoirs of such men.^ The absence of any major assault on the traditional order in Germany before 1848 had two consequences for the romantic conservatives. In the first place, not being confronted with a new social or political order, they were not placed in a position where they had to make a choice between accommodation or radical opposition to an existing regime. In the second place, they were not forced to examine carefully modern developments and problems and to consider what modification of their conception of the traditional order might be required to maintain a viable conservative position. In brief, the course of events did not force them either to take radical action or to define precisely what could and should be conserved. By the middle of the century events were closing in upon the romantic conservatives. Whüe the Revolution of 1848 only temporarily subverted the traditional order, it did demonstrate the reality and power of new forces. The question of unification could not forever be considered in light of the Holy Alliance and "legitimate" rights. Aristocratic privilege which had no greater justification than hereditary right could not be expected to survive in a society rapidly developing new and powerful groups. Social questions, reli-

4

Paul de Lagarde

gious questions, and economic questions were all demanding a response. Conservatism must provide it or fail to be anything more than a poetic vision. By and large romantic conservatism did not respond and accordingly declined after midcentury, finally to expire in the first years of the Bismarckian Empire. Romanticism and the closely related national and religious movements contained material for a more dynamic conservatism which would not seek the perpetuation of any particular set of institutions but the conservation and ever fresh re-expression of the life and spirit of a people. Such a conservatism could allow, nay encourage, radical action against whatever might stand in the way of life and spirit, whether it be an outmoded institution from a remote past or an arbitrary action of a popular assembly, Paul de Lagarde appears to have been the first to develop and elaborate the new conservatism and to give it a name. He called himself a radical conservative as early as 1853. Lagarde shared many of the views of the romantic conservatives. He, too, rejected undue interference with the natural process of historical change whether from the absolutist right or liberal left. He, too, admired an organic society of natural groups in harmonious relation with one another and under monarchic and aristocratic leadership. But Lagarde was much more attuned to the romantic urge for striving, movement, and change. He understood the romantic yearning for the fulfillment of what is sensed or imagined but not presently realized. Accordingly, Lagarde did not cling literally to the traditional order or as stubbornly to historical rights which were meaningful only under circumstances no longer existing. He was ready to see many traditional arrangements dissolve from historical necessity.

Introduction

5

Moreover, Lagarde broke with dogmatic Christianity. This break not only set him sharply against the romantic conservatives, but opened the v^ay to a nevi^ religious perspective. He szw God's v/ord as fulfilled not in any particular event or time or truth, but as being revealed endlessly in the process of history. In reconstructing his religious view Lagarde was much influenced by both the religious experience of the ancient Hebrews and that of his own people in the days of the liberation from the French. In both cases he saw God as the God of a nation, a God that led, that chastised, that was ever present with awful immediacy in the thoughts and deeds of His people. Lagarde came to believe that God revealed Himself in the unfolding history of the nation. If the nation is to serve faithfully as the vehicle of God's revelation, then it must be a nation in the purest sense. Its members must be morally strong and keenly aware of the spiritual ties which bind them together and to their common past and future. The nation must remain true to its own cultural heritage and stand firmly against the importation of foreign elements. Idealism, simplicity, trueness-toself are its virtues. What Lagarde would redeem and conserve is the pure and viable nation. Lagarde mounted a biting and radical criticism against all that stood in the way of God's revelation. With the force of religious conviction he demanded the extirpation of the foreign, the unhistorical, the divisive, and the arbitrary. He first turned his pen to Zeitkritik in 1853. His three short political works completed between that date and 1859 contain all the elements of his radical conservatism and launched his criticism into vital areas of church, state, and society. His writing began under the influence of the intense Prus-

6

Paul de Lagarde

sian reaction of the fifties. His examination of life in Prussia and Germany did not reassure him that the nation's condition was "pure and viable." He was disgusted with the Prussian state which had stood humbled at Olmiitz but had turned harshly to persecute its own people. He had little use for churches which seemed to him more concerned with supporting the regime and teaching arid dogmas than with stirring piety. He could not tolerate the claims of a functionless aristocracy. He was shocked that disparity and antagonism marked the relations of the social classes rather than harmony and community of purpose. He found the political disunity of Germany shameful and as early as 1854 laid down the essence of his proposal for a great German Middle Europe. Disappointed and dismayed at the partial unity achieved in 1871 and at the course of events thereafter, Lagarde resumed his Zeitkritik with vigor in 1874. He recast his earlier views in the light of the new conditions. The state in its Bismarckian guise seemed as dangerous as ever to the welfare of the nation. The churches, he now argued, must be denied any state support or protection, and he hoped that a national religion might arise in their place. He observed with the greatest consternation that the increased political activity under the Second Reich was taking the form of sharpened political partisanship and that industrialization was bringing economic rivalry and new class hatreds. He ranged widely in his criticism over the whole face of German culture and found the nation unfaithful to its high mission and unsuited as a vehicle for the divine will. In these circumstances, he struck the chord of the prophet and called for the rebirth of the German nation. Lagarde's impact on the Reich in the seventies and eighties was not great, although he evoked a sympathetic response

Introduction

7

from a surprising number of influential and knowledgable men. For example, the young Nietzsche at Basel and his friend Overbeck read aloud to one another with delight one of Lagarde's most characteristic works. Lagarde was content to let the printed word go forth and do what it could. He had neither the time nor inclination to organize or agitate. Yet his words came to have effect. Increasingly after 1890, as a neoromantic reaction set in, Lagarde's Deutsche Schriften was read and made its mark on the movements and the men of the Wilhelmine period. His popularity reached a peak in the First World W a r and his words were made a part of the war effort. In the troubled years that followed, Lagarde continued as a source and inspiration to many of the rightist nationalist groups. Not all of them understood the conservative, rehgious, and moral substance of his thought. The Nazis were not alone in misunderstanding and misusing him.

The following study treats Lagarde as a radical-conservative critic and as an inspiration to revolutionary and nationalist movements of the right. Lagarde was not a particularly original thinker in the sense of having new insights into the world of nature or history. He was, however, resourceful in drawing out the implications of the ideas of others and in forming interesting though sometimes grotesque combinations of rather disparate ideas. He was not without imagination in applying ideas in ways unforeseen by their originators. Lagarde was strongly influenced by the romantic thought and the closely related pietism and nationalism of the second decade of the nineteenth century. From the ideas of this period Lagarde forged a social and political philosophy which he held up as a standard to the

8

Paul de

hagarde

rather unsympathetic age of realism. The romantic ideas that are most central to Lagarde's thought are not ideas which are familiar to the Western mind. They are ideas which may readily be misunderstood if hastily defined or equated to the Western ideas which may appear to be cognate to them. Accordingly, Chapter I is devoted to the isolation and the meaning of the romantic ideas and viewpoints that Lagarde accepted and used. The aim of this is to sketch the foundations on which Lagarde's thought rests, foundations which he did not really build himself. Chapters II and III deal with Lagarde's life, which falls into two periods, a Berlin and a Göttingen period. No doubt the personal circumstances and events in the lives of all of us bear significantly upon our thought and values. This is particularly so for Lagarde. A difficult childhood, an almost hopelessly long wait for the recognition of a professorship, and a scholarly project impossible of fulfillment were all sources of frustration and help to explain some of the vagaries of his thought. Lagarde's personal history is not without interest quite apart from its importance for his thought. He was a remarkable person and an interesting specimen of the nineteenthcentury German mind. He possessed extraordinary intellectual gifts and tireless energy. His erudition was staggering. He could not confine himself to his life's work, an exhaustively critical edition of the Septuagint, but had to wander restlessly over the most diverse terrain—from medieval synagogical poetry to ancient Persian botany, from the writings of Giordano Bruno to the origin of the mathematicians' "X." Few, if any, of his fellow scholars possessed his mastery of languages, ancient and modern. His capacity for work astounded an age accustomed to massive scholarship. His relentless idealism and ferocious defense of the

Introduction

9

truth, or what he regarded as the truth, made him conspicuous even in a time when fundamental questions were more vigorously and openly discussed than they are today. The fourth and fifth chapters of this book examine Lagarde's thought. In treating a man's thought one has a choice between describing each of his works according to a chronological or other arrangement, or of dealing systematically with his thought as a whole. In Lagarde's case the latter method seems far more preferable. He applied his ideas a bit differently at one time from another and his criticism shifted somewhat in specific content with the flow of events. Yet, from 1853 to 1891 Lagarde did not change essentially any of his underlying ideas. In interpreting Lagarde, therefore, it is, for the most part, not vitally important to give careful consideration to the particular time in which he wrote. Moreover, Lagarde was a most undisciplined thinker and writer. In his political works he shifts incongruously from one subject to another. What is worse, his observations on society and politics are not confined to works which purport to deal with these subjects but are scattered promiscuously throughout his scholarly writings. T o present Lagarde's ideas systematically, therefore, seems the most useful way of trying to do what Lagarde himself has not done for his readers. Chapter V I shows the reception which Lagarde's political and social ideas were given during his lifetime and Chapter VII is concerned with his posthumous influence. Thanks to the diligence of Frau de Lagarde, several thousand items from Lagarde's correspondence have been assembled and deposited in the archives of the State and University Library in Göttingen. While it is possible and, indeed, likely that Frau de Lagarde may have destroyed some items which

IO

Paul de La garde

reflected unfavorably on her husband and his work, the correspondence is so large and diverse that the collection as a whole cannot fail to afford a reasonably good indication of the extent and nature of Lagarde's influence during his lifetime. After 1891, references to Lagarde and his ideas become common in the literature of German nationalism, conservatism, religion, and education. Chapter V I I examines those movements which stood demonstrably under his influence. Lagarde was, of course, only one of a number of influences on the German mind in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He must be numbered, however, with Friedrich Nietzsche and Constantin Frantz as among the most formidable critics of the Bismarckian Empire. Chapter VIII evaluates the significance of his thought, in comparison with that of Nietzsche and Frantz, for the conservative revolution which all three of them so manifestly helped to inspire. The comparative evaluation of a man's thought is hardly an exact science. It seems only fair, however, that this study should offer some judgment on the historical impact of its principal subject.

CHAPTER I

Currents of Thought in the Age of Romanticism

П the summer of 1850, a young instructor at Halle traveled down the Rhine to Cologne. The trip downstream past the moidering ruins of medieval castles, by the scenes of memorable events in German history, and through the grandeur of the valley's natural beauty made a deep impression on his romantic mind. In Frankfurt he gazed upon the portraits of the German emperors. "The last emperor hangs in the list niche," he exclaimed. "Will we not have another truly German emperor?" At Bonn he visited the aged Arndt, poet of the folk. The old man's heartiness, his gnarled and noble countenance, his zest and ripe wisdom gave him an heroic stature in the eyes of the young man. In Cologne the cathedral wrought a great effect on him. "My God, my God what a building! A primeval forest of Christianity, and it has so clearly sprung forth from the bosom of a folk. May God grant me leave to see it finished and with it Germany's unity." ^ Thus did Paul de Lagarde for the first time step beyond the narrow confinement of an austere home and a pitifully studious university life. He had found comfort in these earlier years by turning to the writings of the generation

/

12

Faul de Lagarde

of the War of the Liberation, the generation of the national and rehgious reawakening and of romantic thought and feeling. The passions and images which this literature had stirred in him were given a three-dimensional reality on the Rhine in the summer of 1850. The experience was a profound one for Lagarde. The enthusiasm which he felt and expressed at Frankfurt and Bonn and Cologne was not the ephemeral enthusiasm of the tourist. He was affirming a faith. He had come to the altar of the Rhine, as it were, after years of preparation, and he had confessed his faith in God and folk. "At that time," his wife Anna was later to write, "every thought and emotion in him focused on two points, religion and Germany." ^ A good measure of the fervor he experienced on the Rhine abided with him throughout the forty-one years of his life which followed. Lagarde has not left us any very precise account of the origins of his thought. As we ponder the mind of this young scholar we are, even without his guidance, led back to certain elements of romantic thought and to some of the prevailing ideas of the related movements of conservatism, nationalism, and the religious Awakening which emerged in the first decades of the century. These were the wellsprings from which Lagarde drew. While he was no man's disciple, nor the follower of any particular movement, very nearly all that he wrote and thought is derived from the ideas and feelings of the age of romanticism. Romanticism In Germany, cultural life had been comparatively barren from before the Thirty Years' War to the middle of the eighteenth century. Then, between 1770 and 1830, came the

Currents of Thought in Romanticism

13

two generations which brought to flower a German culture, rich, humane, profound. Achieving greatness with Kant and Herder, whose work established its forms and character, culminating in the thought of Hegel and Schelling, and illuminated throughout by the genius of Goethe, this age takes its place with fifth-century Greece, Renaissance Italy, and Elizabethan England. Romanticism, foreshadowed by Herder and the young Goethe, arose as a recognizable movement in the seventeen-nineties with the writing of the Schlegels, Tieck, Novalis, and others. Possessing multifarious and contradictory elements, romanticism, generally speaking, represented a new feeling for life, of extraordinary depth and richness and was opposed to the Enlightenment and to the concept of man as a subject of only outer sense experience.® Four aspects of the thought of the romantics had particular significance for questions of society and politics and were at the core of Lagarde's thinking about these subjects. They were ( i ) the romantics' view of knowledge, (2) their philosophy of history, (3) their notion of the individual and the community, and (4) their spirit of protest. The romantics' view of knowledge was in sharp reaction to the rationalism of the eighteenth century. The Enlightenment tended to conceive reason as a means or faculty by the use of which knowledge could be discovered, rather than simply as an orderly state of mind. As Lessing put it, the power of reason is to be found not in the possession, but in the acquisition of truth. The method of the Enlightenment was to take the positive or the given, analyze it into its elements, and then to perceive how the elements were combined in the given phenomenon. The aim was to establish generally valid principles. Such a method had been

14

Paul de Lagar de

used in scientific studies in the seventeenth century and now in the eighteenth century was applied to political and economic problems. Unlike the thinkers of the Enlightenment, the romantic writers did not consider analysis an indispensable tool in discovering knowledge. This is not to say that they were unbridled irrationalists given only to incessant flights of fancy, but simply that they preferred to experience deeply and directly, to feel, to empathize, to grasp as a whole the meaning and significance of the given situation. The positive or the given, as it appeared to them, was their point of departure. Hence their suspicion of concepts as artificial, as nonexistential. Hence their disdain for a mechanical world view in which simple, understandable laws are used to describe and explain all nature. Hence their indifference to the logical contradiction among different elements of their thought, or indeed, their evident pleasure in discovering and accepting as reality what to the logical, conceptual mind must appear as polar opposites. Herder had contributed to this theory of knowledge. He had taught that "every kind of human knowledge has its own character, that is, its nature, time, place, and period of Ufe; Greek culture, for example, grew according to the time, the place, and the circumstances and sank as these passed."^ Whence it follows that the uniqueness of each human situation forbids the application of principles derived from the analysis of some other situation. The essence of a given situation is to be grasped by a specific study thereof and by an effort to feel one's way to the very core of it. N o one expressed the romantic sense of the inadequacy of the new knowledge of the Age of Reason better than Novalis who wrote bitingly of the "men who were rest-

Currents of Thought in Romanticism

15

lessly engaged in eliminating poetry from nature, from the soil, from human souls and from the sciences; destroying every trace of the sacred, heaping sarcasm on all great men and events, and depriving the world of its variegated color. Light, because of its mathematical obedience and its movement, became their favorite subject. They enjoyed light more because it could be analyzed than because it could produce colors, and so they named after it their great preoccupation, the Enlightenment." ® Joseph von Görres carried this spirit into later romanticism and in a clever figure likened rationalist thought to the vision of an insect which sees the world as fragments rather than as a single whole.® The romantic theory of knowledge appears explicitly or implicitly on nearly every page of the chief romantic political thinker, Adam Müller. The key to his Elemente der Staatskunst is his distinction of concept (Begriff) and idea {Idee). A concept is a word or definition which describes the state, or some other institution, as it appears from one viewpoint or from a given point in time. As the picture of a sunset cannot catch the subtle play and change of shape and color, so does the concept fail to contain what is living and vibrant in the object. If the thought {Gedanke) however expands, "if it moves and grows as the object moves and grows, then we name the thought not the concept but the idea of the thing, of the state, of life. Our usual theories of the state are heaps of concepts and therefore dead, useless, impractical; they are not in step with life, because they tum on the error that the state may perfectly and once and for all be conceived; these theories do not allow for movement whereas the state moves on without end." ^ The concept is, thus, the vehicle of thought used by the rationalist. The idea is the vehicle used by the romantic.

Iб

Paul de Lagar de

Those statesmen who have really taught us something, Müller continued, have not taught from textbooks or from statistics, that is from "the tiresome speculation of the study," but have based their teaching on life and movement. Miiller's advice to the student of politics was to study things as they were and to get firsthand experience with laws and institutions. A real feeling for these things, he held, is worth vastly more than the "watchmaker type" of understanding, for, as all higher branches of knowledge, political science is to be "experienced," not merely coldly "learned." « The romantics, then, rejected analysis and speculation as the best means of acquiring knowledge. They were realists who wished to catch the flow of being firsthand, so to speak, not after it was filtered through a conceptual network. Their suspicion of theories as a basis for the reconstruction of state and society was an important source for conservative thought. Their view, to which Lagarde owed much, stood against the strong tendency of modern culture to rationalize, systematize, and mechanize. The romantic philosophy of history was complementary to the romantic epistemology. The insistence that reality must be grasped directly and not through abstractions led naturally to an interest in history which is the full play of reality in time. The romantic view of history embraced at least four mutually consistent but distinct ideas, all of which recur prominently and incessantly in Lagarde's writings. In the first place, the romantics looked upon historical change as properly following from historically given circumstances and regarded any deliberate and arbitrary human intervention as unwise and unnatural. Adam Müller made the point by rejecting the appUcation of Archimedes' principle to political change. Archimedes had said: "Give

Currents of Thought in Romanticism

17

me a fixed point outside of the earth, and I shall move the earth out of its hinges." Müller argued: do not all unfortunate errors of the French Revolution coincide in the illusion that the individual could really step out of the social contract, that he could overthrow and destroy from the outside anything that does not please him, that the individual could protest against the work of thousands of years, that he need recognize none of all the institutions he encounters, in brief, it is the illusion that there really exists a fixed point outside the state which anyone can reach and from which anyone can mark new paths for the body politic, from which he can transform an old body into a completely new one and can outline for the state in place of the old imperfect, but well tried constitution, a new one which will be perfect at least for the next fortnight.® Not human reason and planning but the divine will appeared to Müller and the later "theological romantics" as the force behind historical change and development. Men should be guided by this force rather than trying to obstruct or alter it. Secondly, the romantics did not perceive in history a gradual approach to perfection. Perfection is possible at every stage and is often attained. Amid the most suitable conditions Homer produced the perfect epic. Herder believed. Later poets turned to drama and other forms and brought them to perfection. "Phidias created his mighty Jupiter and no higher Jupiter was possible." Likewise, social and political forms as well as artistic come to maturity and perfection in their season and then give way to others which are not higher or better but simply different. This is what Burke, an important stimulus to German political romanticism, meant when he wrote of "the great mysterious incorporation of the human race" which "is never old or middleaged or young, but in a condition of unchangeable

18

Paul de Lagar de

constancy, moves on through the varied tenor of perpetual decay, fall, renovation, and progression." History is cyclical rather than linear, a view of enormous significance for modern conservative theory.^" Thirdly, the romantics emphasized the culturally and historically creative role of the simple people—of the folk. The folk were idealized and seen as the pecuUar instrument of God's will. Whence came Greek culture, Herder asked: "By no master was it forced upon them; through the sound of the lyre at holy ceremonies, games, and dances, through self-discovered knowledge and skills, mostly through repeated intercourse with one another and with other peoples; by these means the people assumed now this, now that direction, custom, and law." In a magnificent passage in the Ideen, Herder suggested how the origin, character, and spirit of a folk is bound up with its historical destiny. He was writing of the Arabs: "The way of life of this folk, to whom cities appeared as dungeons, its pride in its origins, in its God, in its rich and poetic speech, in its noble steeds, in sword and bow, in everything else which it possesses and believes holy—all this prepared the Arabs for a role which, when their time came . . . they played well." ^^ Eichendoriï expressed the idea succinctly. "In history nothing is arbitrary. That which is enduring is not the despotic work of the few, but rather is generated from within the folk itself." Adam Müller held that ultimately the constitution of the state must be founded not on the will of a majority but on the "temper of a people." Lagarde gave a similar role to the folk.^^ Fourthly, the romantics perceived a world order—or perhaps disorder—in which striving, creation, and re-creation is constantly going on without reference to any immutable norms or principles, that is, a world order beyond the opera-

Currents of Thought in Romanticism

19

tion of natural laws and valid without regard to time and place. Troeltsch found this view a principal point of distinction between Western thought and German romanticism. On the one hand he saw "an eternal, rational and divinely ordained system of Order, embracing both morality and law" and on the other, "individual, living, and perpetually new incarnations of an historically creative mind," a conception of history as "an ever-moving stream, which throws up unique individualities as it moves, and is always shaping individual structures on the basis of a law which is always new . , Adam Müller wrote of the "Chimera of natural law" and uttered the pungent exclamation: "A natural law which differs from the positive law!" In short, the romantic mind was an historical mind. It regarded history not as a chronicle of times past to be used for statistical or illustrative purposes, but rather as a living revelation of Spirit, the principal source of inspiration and knowledge. The coronation of history as the queen of the sciences was performed by Friedrich von Schlegel in his lecture, Uber die neuere Geschichte. Even the higher philosophy, he wrote, may not, without peril, neglect looking constantly to the history of the development of man and of his spiritual powers, for otherwise it unfailingly looses itself in incomprehensible things . . . History . . . if it knows how to conceive and represent the spirit of great times and great men and events, is itself a true philosophy . . . A sense for the excellent and highest in what is brought to us by poetry and art, comes clearly only when we know how to place ourselves in the spirit of the time out of which the art or poetry arises or which it represents. We must turn to the past to understand the present. Only knowledge of the past will give us "a quiet and firm perspec-

20

Paul de hagarde

rive of the present, a measure of its greatness or smallness, and a basis of judgment of it." This romantic philosophy of history has been a vital source of conservative thought. It has been an argument against sudden and basic changes in any given social and cultural pattern. It has been directed against revolution and all movements which aim at reform or planning without regard to the historically given. It has favored theocratic social conceptions which regard man as under divine dispensation and accordingly as well off as he ought to be in any given moment of time. It has worked against doctrines of progress which teach that man is headed upward from the swamp and brambles to the higher Elysian fields. Yet, the romantic phüosophy of history has also been a source for those who have opposed the dogmatists of utter reaction, for history is movement and change, not stagnation. The emphasis on the creative role of the people must be considered an important inspiration for modem nationalism. Lagarde was intensely historical in his orientation and drew from his historicism most of these consequences. The romantic conception of the individual and the community is distinctive and, for the Western mind, remarkable. The romantic tended to place the highest value on the individual, his freedom, his self-development, and selfrealization. Yet, he placed an equally high value on the group, which he considered as a living organism whose laws of organization placed the constituent individuals in a relation of mutual dependence. Unlike the Western mind which tends to set the individual and the group in opposition and assume that either the one or the other must have primacy, the romantic mind found the two completely and necessarily complementary. Romantic individualism must be sharply distinguished

Currents of Thought in RoTmnttctsm

21

from atomistic individualism. The social-contract theories prevalent in the eighteenth century generally- assumed that the individual in nature enjoys a position of independence from his fellow^s, and that he has natural rights v^hich do not derive from any association. But to be independent is not to be unique, and these theories assumed that all individuals behave more or less in the same way and therefore, like atoms, responded alike to general law^s or forces. Romantic individualism on the contrary, stressed the uniqueness of individuals, a uniqueness which placed them beyond conformity to any general law or principle. As one writer has pointed out, before the romantic period all thought had assumed some point of reference outside of the individual, in God, in humanity, in classical culture, in the majority. The romantics in contrast, labored to individualize the world. Man became a law and measure unto himself. The term Persönlichkeit came to be used "as a designation for a person with uniqueness and peculiarity of nature and with the implication that developing one's own individual nature is a primary objective." A Persönlichkeit is one who is distinct, not subordinate, cannot be counted or numbered with others. Goethe was an inspiration for this kind of individualism, Wilhelm Meister, in his long travels and involved experiences, sought to discover and to express his real self. Wilhelm writes to Werner: "What good were it for me to manufacture perfect iron while my own breast is full of dross? What would it stead me to put properties of land in order, while I am at variance with myself? T o speak it in a word the cultivation of my individual self, here as I am, has from my youth upwards been constantly though dimly my wish and my purpose." Kant had contributed to the freeing of the individual personality from what seemed to many of his generation as

22

Paul de Lagar de

mechanistic determinism. His doctrine of the practical reason and the presence of the moral law within assured the individual of his freedom. Fichte taught in the Wissen$сЬф51еЬге the ultimate reality of the self-active ego which creates nature in order to realize itself. This ego may be grasped only by him who proclaims his freedom from the phenomenal world of cause and effect and perceives the universal ego through inner vision, that is, by looking within he may more truly see all that seems to be without. Pietism preached the "inward godly life of the individual" and thereby "brought into immediate consciousness the infinite worth of the individual human being." It is scarcely surprising that one of the foremost preachers of the new individualism should have come from the pietistic Herrnhuters—Friederich Schleiermacher. The greatest Protestant theologian since Calvin elaborated a religious system which revolved around the notion of the fundamental worth of the individual's piety and religious experience. His Monologen repeatedly stresses the absolute quality of the inner freedom of the individual. "So freedom, art thou of all things the innermost, the first, and most fundamental. When I return into myself, in order to regard you, my gaze wanders out of the realm of time and is made free from any necessity; any heavy feeling of slavery is dissipated." The same age which displayed such striking individualism reacted against the isolation of the individual. From the midseventeen nineties romantic writers more and more stressed the role of the individual as a vital part of a larger organic whole. This stress did not aim at subordinating the individual to the group but rather at coordinating Ыт with it. Still less did it aim at eliciting likeness of contribution or equality of treatment. Rather, the group was thought strong according to the uniqueness and diversity of its elements.

Currents of Thought in Romanticism

23

The assumption was that the individual by being completely true to himself would best represent and contribute to the character of the whole. As Schleiermacher wrote: "It has become clear to me that every man ought in his own way to represent mankind." This conception of individual and community reflects the fascination which the men of this age had for polar opposites and the widespread view that reality is a product of the tension thereof. Goethe had written of the "inner totality" as consisting of the unity of "inner and outer thought and deed, necessity and freedom." Adam Müller's early work, Die Lehre vom Gegensatze, had developed the notion of polarity as a metaphysical principle. In his Elemente the ideal society combines youth and age, the juristic (that is, the orderly) and the economic (that is, the aggressive), war interests and peace interests, progress and stability, etc. Novalis held that individuality itself arose from the assimilation and blending of diverse individualities.^® In leading the romantics to their peculiar conception of individual and group, no influence was more direct or greater than the lectures on Die Bestimmung des Gelehrten which Fichte held at Jena during the summer semester of 1794. There the "social impulse" is given a central place. "This impulse arises from reciprocal action, the reaction of opposites upon one another, the give and take between them . . . not as a mere casuality, which is but the activity of the one against the other; the question here is not subordination, as in the material world, but of coordination." The flowering of this "organic conception" came with Schelling's Ideen zu einer Philosophie der Natur (1797). In this work the organic conception stands in the sharpest distinction to the mechanical thought of the eighteenth century. The whole world is considered as an organism and

24

Paul de Lagar de

every part related. "Organization," Schelling wrote, "is the very essence of things." The organic conception was applied to the state and society, terms not sharply distinguished in this period, by virtually every romantic writer who considered this subject. Fichte expressed it in his Foundations of Natural Law: Just as in the product of nature every part, whatever it is, can exist only in this one union and outside of this one union would not exist—indeed outside any organic union it would not exist, for without interaction of organic forces keeping each other in equilibrium no lasting form would exist, but an eternal struggle of being and not being would exist which we cannot even imagine—similarly man obtains only in the union of the state a definite place in the chain of things, a point of rest in nature; and everyone obtains this definite place in face of others and of nature by being a part of this definite association.2i Müller considered the state, and by this he seems more nearly to mean society, "not a mere factory, a farm, an insurance institution or mercantile society; it is the intimate association of all spiritual wealth, physical needs, of the whole of physical and spiritual wealth, of the total external and internal life of a nation in a great energetic, infinitely active, and living whole." ^^ Novalis admired what he believed to be the well articulated state of the Middle Ages. He reiterated the old simile which likened the state to a human being. The guilds and workers were likened to the limbs, the nobles to the moral conscience, priests to the religious nature, scholars to the intelligence, and kings to the wñl. Lagarde's ideas of the individual, of the community, and of the organic relation of individuals within the properly functioning community were almost precisely those of the

Currents of Thought

in Romanticism

25

romantics. He was careful to see that these ideas in one form or another were kept constantly before his readers. Finally, the romantics possessed a remarkable penchant for Zeitkritik. One authority has described the romantic spirit as "an extremely critical spirit . . . troubled with standing doubts about the sense and purpose of existence." The romantic, who could easily reject many accepted norms, had a wide latitude for criticism of existing society and culture. The romantic philosophy of history offered a basis for romantic Zeitkritik. If an institution or an idea or even a whole period appeared to be too much under the impact of human reason, too little the consequence of God's revelation and "genuine" historical evolution, then the romantic could protest. Such a basis of judgment was, of course, not without its contradiction—perhaps the deepest contradiction in romantic political thought. For, on the romantic's own conception of history, how can an event or development take place outside of history, that is, not be genuine? Liberalism and democracy and the modem political theory based on the concept of natural rights undoubtedly are as much rooted in the earth of historical development and as much the product of historical forces as the rise of a feudal aristocracy in the Middle Ages and its perpetuation into modem times. Much of Lagarde's criticism presents the same difficulty. Romantics varied widely in their specific criticisms, but there was a vddespread feeling that the times were degenerate, a conviction that a pristine golden age had passed and ought to be regained. For many, the Middle Ages seemed to be such an age and hence the virtual cult of medievalism. As events turned more and more people away from the French Revolution, romantic writers, many of

26

Faul de hagarde

whom had at first been enthusiastic admirers of what seemed to be a great movement of liberation, came to regard the Revolution and the whole background of rationalistic thought and commercial activity which had helped to produce it as a blow at the human soul and a source of modern degeneration. Novalis, referring to the contention of the modern spirit with the old, expressed the form, if not the political substance of the romantic Zeitkritik. "This great inner schism . . . was a remarkable indication of the harmfulness of culture at a certain stage." The oft-noted romantic longing for what is not present is part of the feeling of dissatisfaction and despair with what is present. It has been remarked that this feeling has become "the basic mood" of modern man and has led to his characteristic "spirit of opposition." The romantic protest was often radical and activist, manifesting not only a contempt for, but a rebellion against the status quo. Novalis wrote: "The fate which oppresses us is the sluggishness of our spirit. By enlargement and cultivation of our activity, we change ourselves into fate. Everything appears to stream in upon us, because we do not stream out. W e are negative, because we choose to be SO; the more positive we become, the more negative will the world around us be, until at last, there is no more negative, and we are all in all. God wills gods." Miiller's radicalism was almost eschatological in flavor. "I speak not of things present, but of things to come," he wrote. " W e must completely destroy this lascivious and sensuous private life, together with the cold, dried-out formality of our public life; let them die together, in common death will their atoms again be reconciled; our grandchildren will live in a new and better creation; at the least it is for us to maintain a learned interest, a philosophical lust for the general upheaval."

Currents of Thought in Romanticism

27

The romantics' interpretation of modern times as degenerate, the admonition "to stream out" as Novalis put it, and the eschatological nature of much of their protest, taken together form an important source for radical conservatism. The romantic protest was against change which seemed the product of artificial and not natural historical evolution. The revolt was not against the historically given, but against that which obscured, or blocked, or diverted the historical stream. This is the kind of revolution which has been made by modem conservatives. This is the kind of revolution which stands at the core of Lagarde's thoughts. Romantic Conservatism Although Lagarde was to become a sharp critic of Prussian conservatism and its role after 1848, much in his thought resembles the old romantic conservatism. The old conservatism eludes easy definition. It was a feeling or an outlook rather more than a set of specific social and political ideas. It was not simply traditionahsm, or opposition to change, even, in certain circumstances, to a rapid rate of change. It was essentially a viewpoint which evaluated change by the standard of historical right as opposed to natural right. It regarded the historically given social and cultural pattern as a standard of right because of its duration, its gradual organic generation, and because it was the work not merely of human hands but of divine Providence. Whence it followed in conservative thinking, that change consistent with or engendered by the given historical pattern was good, any other kind of change, bad. Romantic conservatism was the parent of the more dynamic radical conservatism. None of the important conservative theorists from Müller to Stahl and the Gerlachs denied the necessity for modifying the political and social framework to suit new facts.

28

Paul de Lagar de

They were prepared to prune the rose and even train it to a new trellis as time and condition demanded, but they were unalterably opposed to digging it up, to destroying it root and branch, and to replacing it with an artificial flower, the product of their own design and hands. They were opposed to doing what they believed the French had done. The Old Conservatives tended to embrace Christian orthodoxy. They defended the social inequality of a hierarchic society with aristocratic leadership. They were exponents of authoritarian government provided it did not assume absolute powers with which to interfere with historic rights. They thought of these rights mostly as privileges of certain classes (landowner, peasant, craftsman, etc.). They believed in private property but considered property less a commodity than a trust. They harked back to the feudal conception of tenure as distinguished from the modem conception of unfettered possession. In their thinking they tended to rely on feeling and intuition and were mistrustful of theorizing and abstraction.^·^ In Lagarde's youth the conservative viewpoint was by no means limited to the crown and aristocracy. It was held by individuals and groups throughout Prussian society. Lagarde's father, a Gymnasium teacher without aristocratic family connections, and his circle of professional, official, and bourgeois friends were conservatives. In France, such a group might very well have been tinged with liberalism or even radicalism. Prussia, however, had had no native revolution, no crowned heads had rolled, no aristocrats had been exiled (except for those who ran afoul of the French occupation). Consequently, in the years directly after Vienna, Prussian conservatism did not emphasize, as did French, divine right as a source of absolute political authority. Nor did Prussian conservatism appear so exclusively a doctrine

Currents of Thought in Romanticism

29

aimed at the survival of the upper classes. Historical continuity and the uninterrupted harmony of the several parts of the social structure were the leading ideas. This view was not so much a battle cry against Jacobin elements as a rallying point for all, and, hence, the persistence of conservative or quasi-conservative views in those classes whose political loyalty ordinarily has been preempted by liberalism or even socialism. The development of a conservative ideology in Prussia, although the term was used first generally only in the thirties, came as a reaction against the Enlightenment and revolutionary liberalism, the Stein-Hardenberg reforms, South German constitutionalism, and the radicalism of the youth movement. Conservative views were sharpened and elaborated in reaction to the rise of a native theoretical liberalism at the hands of Welcker, Rotteck,^® and others, and in reaction to the revolutions of 1830-1832 and especially 1848. In the United Landtag in 1847 and in and around the Berlin Assembly in 1848, the conservative viewpoint took shape as a party program. The maturing of the conservative ideology and the beginning of its political organization coincided exactly with Lagarde's youth and university years. The stages of growth and tone of romantic conservatism cannot better be illustrated than by the brothers Gerlach. They were leading figures in the movement and not without special interest to this study because they were sometimes present in Lagarde's father's circle, and Leopold subsequently acted as a benefactor to the young Paul. The Gerlachs—^Wilhelm, Otto, Leopold, and Ludwig— all held important posts in the army or administration, and were close to the Crown Prince, Frederick William. Ludwig was the most articulate and influential as a romantic conservative. Following his service as an offcer in the War of

Зо

Paul de Lagar de

Liberation, he became and remained an important figure in Prussian life until his old-fashioned romantic conservatism finally collapsed before Realpolitik and National Liberalism in the early days of the Empire. His Denkwürdigkeiten are one of the richest and most fascinating sources of the movement and deserve more attention than they have hitherto received. He was involved with the most significant protoconservative movements and with the founding of the Conservative Party. In i8i6 the three brothers, Wilhelm, Leopold, and Ludwig formed a weekly dinner club, the Maikäferei, where they met with Brentano, the romantic poet; Thadden, who was to be so active in the pietist awakening; Alvensleben, later Kultusminister; and several others. This was but a group of youth meeting in the best romantic tradition and under the stimulus of the recent War of Liberation, which had been a kind of holy war, an arouser of religiously colored national feelings. They read poetry, sang, displayed quasi-political interests, and only the first stirrings of a serious conservative Weltanschauung. Yet, here in embryonic form the elements thereof appeared—love of Fatherland, reverence for the traditional order, and the inclination to see the hand of God in these things. Here were visions which were to become political ideals, especially for Ludwig and Wilhelm, and for many in yet unborn generations who, one day, seeing these ideals flaunted, would turn into embittered radicals, conservative radicals. Ludwig has described the group: "The chief interests of the Maikäferei were patriotic-romantic-Christian-poetic. Sometimes Hallerian anti-revolutionary politics was our subject. The pietisticChristian element was at first not present. The tone was one of wit and joking, however, not without earnest tendencies and aspirations." These "earnest tendencies and aspira-

Currents of Thought in RoTmnttcism

31

dons" turned more and more to religion and to the defense of what seemed to this group the God-given order against subversion by absolutists to the right or by revolutionaryminded liberals to the left. In 1826, the Gerlachs and their circle, not without reason, were suspected by the government of hostility toward the state-imposed ecclesiastical reforms. At the same time, they were alarmed by the mounting tempo of religious rationalism. Accordingly, they founded for the defense of traditional Christianity the Evangelische Kirchenzeitung. The journal was placed under the editorship of Ernst Hengstenberg, a young Privatdozent in Berlin and subsequently one of Lagarde's teachers at the university. Under his direction it became one of the most influential religious and conservative journals of the nineteenth century.®" The July Days in Paris turned Ludwig's thoughts, though with considerable consternation to himself, more decidedly from religious to political problems. He wrote in his diary for August 7th: "The Liberals victorious in Paris. A struggle from the 27-29, storming of the Tuileries on the 29th. I feel myself challenged as though all of this were more important than our strife at Halle." Although an entry on the 18th shows that he had recovered to the point of asserting the primacy of the religious question, the impact of the Revolution did lead to one very tangible result, namely, the founding of a "political journal with the proper viewpoint," the influential Berliner Politische Wochenblatt. The first issue of this journal appeared on October i, 1831, under the direction of Jarke and Radowitz, both Catholics. In this enterprise Ludwig paid no heed to the admonition not to collaborate closely with Catholics. A characteristic of romantic conservative thought was a disdain for sectarianism and a conviction that the traditional order and its proper

32

Paul de Lagar de

evolution must be the concern of all men of good will.®^ The following year, 1832, a competing journal, Ranke's Historisch Politische Zeitschrift appeared. This journal was under official sponsorship and represented the interests of the state and dynasty against revolutionary ideas, but also against the romantic conservatives who looked more to God and history than to monarch and officials. Thus, as early as 1832, romantic conservatism was recognized as a potential source of radicalism from the right. The men of the Berliner Politische Wochenblatt looked upon Mecklenburg, with its provincial assembly of estates, patriarchal organization of the districts, and Güter, as a model form of society and blessed by a deep-rooted past. They looked upon liberal schemes for social upheaval as un-German and immoral. Ranke, in the Historisch Politische Zeitschrift, however, rejected the idea of an original German "Welt und Staatsanschauung" and was prepared to embrace valuable elements from foreign cultures if they served the interests of the state. Moreover, some of his articles foreshadowed the changes which were to take place in the traditional German order in 1866 and even such administrative reforms as the Kreisordnung of 1872. These changes the Old Conservatives were to resist to the end.®^ Thus did the Old Conservative view take shape in the thinking and work of the Gerlachs and their friends. Like the romantics, they valued natural historical development and were suspicious of "arbitrary interference" with historical processes. With sublime indifference to modem historical facts, Ludwig wrote in 1869: "The errors of the king, princes, and statesmen in 1848 and of so many different characters in 1866 had a great similarity to the surrendering of the fortresses in 1806 by otherwise brave officers." As though the placid evolution of the traditional

Currents of Thought in Romanticism

33

order could have been maintained against such stern forces of "interference" as the Napoleonic armies, the rioting mobs of Berlin, and the movement for national unity. Like the romantics, the Gerlachs disliked the abstract. Wilhelm deplored the "legislation making" of the Hardenberg period. "The most stupid custom," he vibróte, "is better than the clearest law." Theirs was a counterrevolutionary movement, which, as Ludwig wrote, "grasped the connection between the absolutist revolution from above and the democratic revolution from below." It set itself, that is, against rationalism in any form from any quarter. The chagrin of these men and their followers was deep when both statism and something of democracy triumphed in the nineteenth century. Such, too, was the chagrin of Lagarde.®® The development and definition of romantic conservatism was accompanied by the emergence of a type of conservatism whose antecedent was Frederickian absolutism, whose philosophical basis was Hegelianism, whose chief exponent was Stahl, and whose heirs were to be Treitschke and Bismarck. This line of thought, which, as we have seen, appeared in part in the Historisch Politische Zeitschrift, tended to forsake romantic historicism with its nice regard for historical evolution and to emphasize the power and primacy of the state. No very clear line marks off those who espoused this "statist" conservatism from the romantic conservatives. Frederick William III displayed a fondness for the views of the Gerlachs, yet he made Hegel a philosopher of state and by the use of state power introduced revolutionary changes in the religious and economic life of Prussia. The quixotic Frederick William IV was the "romantic Hohenzollern" of the forties who sought to replace the spirit of Hegel with the figure of Schelling. Yet, in the fifties, Frederick turned the police and the administration

34

P^^l de Lagarde

against the people and their culture in what seemed to the young Lagarde a bureaucratic reign of terror. Similarly, an ambiguity runs through the writings of Friederich Stahl, who, save for Lagarde, was the last of the important conservative theorists until the twentieth century. He was called to Berlin by Frederick William in the forties. His Philosophie des Rechts became and remained an influence in conservative circles until 1918 and beyond. He believed that the conservative must accept and defend the "living" element in society. Yet he was a systematizer—as the romantics were not, he appealed to the abstract idea of right against positive laws, eschewed the organic conception of society, and made the state the chief instrument of the divine will. In more ways than one he anticipated the age of Realpolitik. He urged participation in the Crimean War as a means for raising Prussian prestige, he recognized the utility of modern patriotism as a source of strength to the state, and he recognized that some Uberalization was a sine qua non if Prussia were to play the role of master in the German household.®* Lagarde's views were decidedly closer to the romantic than to the absolutist conservatives. He shared the former's conception of history, their sense of spiritual values, and their revulsion for any purely rationalistic reorganization of church, state, or society. He repudiated the Hegelianism and statism of the absolutists. Yet Lagarde was not simply a romantic conservative of the Gerlach school. W e must understand romantic conservatism as an animating force for Lagarde's thought rather than as a view which he made his own. N o doubt the work of the romantic conservatives was important for Lagarde, as for others, in embodying the notions of the romantics with more specific political meaning. But he could not accept altogether literally their attach-

Currents of Thought in Romanticism

35

ment to existing institutions. He was enough of a child of the new realism to appreciate the significance of power and to be aware of new problems and needs. His radical conservatism derived from romantic conservatism but was a long stride away from the antirevolutionary sentiment of the brothers Gerlach. Religious Movements Lagarde's thought came to flower in what he called his national religion. The term is apt, for all of Lagarde's writings, critical and constructive, rest upon his intense conviction that God's providence comes in and through the Hfe of the nation. His religious ideas, as his political, were less the product of original thought than of a remarkable talent for eclecticism by which he could appropriate and combine, not altogether incongruously, ideas from diverse religious currents. In particular, his religious position compounds sentiments and ideas drawn from the later romantics and the new pietism of the Awakening. He drew, also, from the rising theological rationalism that was to lead to the higher criticism to which Lagarde in turn made so many important contributions. Romanticism had a pronounced impact upon religious thought in Germany and was a particularly pregnant source of religious ideas for Lagarde. The romantics were clearly disposed to seek religious experience rather than to cling too strictly to theology. Novalis indulged himself in Christian aestheticism, and his writings are studded with passionate religious images. He vividly evoked "the spirit of God hovering over the waters" and etched "the celestial island" lying just beyond. Görres urged men to open their hearts to the divine, for reason and understanding "dessicate religious things." ®®

Зб

Paul de Lagar de

The later romantics were inclined to think of themselves, and of mankind in general, as God's instruments. Adam Müller spoke of men as deputies of God, each charged with the maintenance in his own sphere of God's justice and rule on earth. Görres felt that in pubHshing the Rheinische Merkur he was performing a God-given work. He believed that in helping to arouse the moral consciousness of the nation, he was an agent of the divine purpose. This sense of instrumentality was an expression of an old and important Christian idea which was to recur prominently in the Christian Germans, in Christian social movements such as the Inner Mission, and strongly in the prophetic sense of Paul de Lagarde.^® The romantic conception of the individual and the community was frequently stated in religious terms. Friedrich Schlegel, for example, held that religion depends upon selfawareness and "self-activation." Yet, he ardently desired the "reunification of faith," the building of a single community of the faithful. Concentration on self was to be the basis for closer religious association with other selfs. This notion has reappeared in various forms in German religious life. It has been expressed in the conventicles, in the quasi-religious nature of many youth groups, and in the effort to sanctify the nation and lay the foundations for a national church, a movement in which Lagarde played an important role. Romantic thought possessed irrepressible eschatological tendencies, a conviction that the old world was about to yield to a new moral and spiritual kingdom. Fichte, it will be remembered, beHeved that the new age, which he had described in his Characteristics, was dawning as he gave his Addresses in 1806. N o one had a surer view of the new age than Novalis. "Christendom will arise from the sacred heart of a venerable European Council and the business of re-

Currents of Thought in Romanticism

37

ligious reawakening will be performed according to an all-embracing Divine plan . . . When? How soon? . . . Have patience, it will come this sacred age of eternal peace, when the new Jerusalem is the capital of the world."®'' Such a message contributed powerfully to the sense of religious expectancy and enthusiasm which pervaded Germany from the days of the War of the Liberation and which is called "the Awakening." Friederich Schleiermacher was of foremost importance as a source of romantic influence on religious thought. His addresses, On Religion, much admired by Lagarde, were deeply involved with romantic ideas. Schleiermacher made clear in his first address the romantic presuppositions upon which his religious views rested. "I speak to you from the innermost springs of my being which shall forever remain for me the highest . . . I do not speak from any reasoned resolve." From these springs issued forth the romantic notion of the dual nature of the human soul which, on the one hand, "strives to establish itself as an individual" and on the other senses "the dread fear to stand alone over against the Whole" and longs to "surrender itself and be absorbed in something greater." The awareness of what is unique in one's self, increases the awareness of what is unique in others and, thus, "a common band of consciousness embraces all so that though the man cannot be other than what he is, he knows every other person as clearly as himself, and comprehends perfectly every single manifestation of humanity." ®® The "common band of consciousness" is the essence of the religious community. When men share this experience, Schleiermacher taught, they find that they are very close to the Spirit of God. Holy thoughts arise which are easily understood by all. The community has little need for formal

38

Paul de hagarde

theology for it possesses piety which is "the immediate consciousness of the universal existence of all finite things in and through the infinite and of all temporal things in and through the eternal." Without piety religion is "mechanical" and consists only of "vain jugglings vs^ith analytical formulas in which . . . life will not be fettered." The "more glorious association" of the members of Schleiermacher's religious community is the cornerstone of the true and invisible Church. Different communities may have different forms and express themselves in different ways. God has intended diversity. But every community whose members partake of this association is a part of the true Church. As a romantic, Schleiermacher found the unity of God's children greater because of this diversity.^" The diminished importance which Schleiermacher ascribed to dogma and the Church in the conventional sense appealed to Lagarde. Schleiermacher's image of the religious community as a source of religious inspiration and communication deeply impressed Lagarde and emerges repeatedly in his writings. For Lagarde, however, Schleiermacher's "more glorious association" became the body of the folk, the nation. By 1813 many circumstances favored a spiritual and moral reawakening in Germany. The old traditions of pietism and mysticism with their ideas of rebirth and "love, feeling, and inner examination" were still living. The tone and example of the Prussian court with the passing of the indifferent Frederick II and the immoral Frederick William II offered official encouragement. Stein and the other reformers since 1808 had worked for a regeneration of the state and nation by calling upon the latent moral, spiritual, and patriotic sentiments of the people. Arndt invoked the German God and Scharnhorst the highest dictate of idealist morality.

Currents of Thought in Romanticism

39

namely duty. The widespread and influential pamphlet literature of the time proclaimed the war against the French a holy war and precipitated the movement of the Awakening. Arndt's Kathechismus für den teutschen Kriege-undWehrmann, with its suggestive title, is a prime specimen of this literature and stimulus. In this work Arndt wrote: "Your country is beloved by 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 chüdren liberty and His blessing unto the thousandth generation." T w o immediate consequences of this fervor were the stimulation of a youth movement, the Burschenschaft, and a revival of pietistic circles for common prayer and meditation. As early as 1 8 1 1 , followers of Fichte at Jena, who had heard the master prophesy that the older self-seeking generation must give way to youth possessed with "a completely new self," had conceived the idea of an association of German students. This association would eschew the particularism of the existing student societies and their bawdy, brawling, immoral behavior. The Jena Burschenschaft was founded in 1815 by youths charged with the enthusiasm of the war period. The genuine, if immoderate religious enthusiasm of the movement was manifest on the Wartburg in 1817 when the Burschenschaften from all over Germany met to commemorate the Great Reformer and the Battle of Leipzig with hymns, prayer, and orations. The new pietism or "community movement" arose with the scattering of the young men who had formed the Christian-German circles of the war years. The romantic provenience of this group explains why their consciousness of sin and grace, and their cultivation of their inner selves were at first more pronounced characteristics than dogmatic

40

Paul de Lagarde

zeal. A lay leader, Alfred von Thadden, through his pastoral conferences was able to prevent the movement from degenerating into pure enthusiasm and aligned it with the new currents of orthodoxy. By the 1830's, these circles called themselves "positivist" (not, of course, Comptean positivists) in distinction to religious liberals and rationalists. Pietism was by no means exclusively an aristocratic movement, although Junkers took the leadership in the Northeast. In the South and West it was a movement among the handworkers and peasants and even some merchants of the cities formed pietist circles.^^ Although the Awakening was not a prime influence in German life in the years of Lagarde's youth in the thirties, a good measure of pietist sentiment lingered, particularly in the circles in which Lagarde moved. If the increasing orthodoxy of the later pietism had little appeal to the young man, the fervor of the pietists he made his own. The Awakening did not preclude the development of a theological rationalism which had its origins in the preceding century. The theological faculties were becoming more or less rationalist, notably at Halle, which, as we have seen, incurred the displeasure of Ludwig von Gerlach. Here labored Gesenius and Wegscheider whose influence Lagarde acknowledged.^® Wegscheider has been called the dogmatist of rationalism, and the thesis of his Institutionen, published in 1815, is that of rationalism generally. In this work he sought to show that religion is to be derived from the moral nature of man, and that Christianity is valid only to the extent that it corresponds to such a derivation and suits the demands of reason. In the spirit of rationalism and with the aid of new philological advances, critical investigation and interpretation of scripture was carried on with renewed vigor.

Currents of Thought in Ro?mnticism

41

Lagarde did not, of course, take from the rationalists their cold, analytical approach to religion. However, he did accept the idea that Christianity should not be understood in terms of a literal interpretation of Scriptures or dogmas. He was particularly impressed with the possibility of discovering the exact meaning of God's revelations by the use of philological methods. He adopted several other rationalist views, notably, the deprecation of the "vulgar legalism" of the Old Testament; hostility toward the Jew, Paul, because of his messianic interpretation of Jesus; and the harsh treatment of Luther for his dogma of justification by faith. These ideas were to recur conspicuously in Lagarde. Between theological rationalism on the one hand, and orthodoxy and pietism on the other, a middle course developed—the Vermittlungstheologie. This term, denoting a middle way, was used from about 1827. Those who belonged to this persuasion believed that God manifests Himself in history, and that He had done so in a peculiarly meaningful way in the lives and words of the prophets, of Christ, and of the Apostles. They believed that God continued to work through the Church and in other ways in the lives of men. They accepted, in short, basically a Christian view as opposed to the rationalists. They were, however, far from a simon-pure orthodoxy. They were theological liberals, desiring to free the individual conscience from impositions by church and state. They were unfriendly to any system of too rigid and confining dogmas or prescriptions concerning religious conduct. Although Lagarde cannot be identified exactly with the Vermittlungstheologie, his religious position does stand apart from right and left and has not a little in common with the views of this group. It is, perhaps, significant that two of the chief spirits of the "middle" theology were August

42

Paul de Lagar de

Tholuck and Martin de Wette, the one a respected teacher of Lagarde at Halle and the other an acknowledged influence on him." National Thought and Feeling National thought and feeling developed remarkably in Germany after 1806. The national idea was implicit in romantic literature—in some writers rather explicit—and the course of events hastened this development. The rise of a strong national feeling was closely related to the religious Awakening, a coincidence of no little importance for the subsequent intellectual history of Germany. Certainly the national passions of the second decade with their strong religious connotations were an important source for the nationalism of Paul de Lagarde. The morphology of romantic thought was singularly well suited to fostering the national idea. The nation could satisfy the romantic yearning for an organic whole. Moreover, the nation was a rather unique unit of humanity in general, and appealed to the romantic propensity for the individual. The Hstorically creative role of the nation or folk, in romantic thought, has already been noted. The nation was an obvious vehicle for the existentializing of a number of romantic ideas. Well before the Prussian defeat at Jena and the subsequent French occupation of much of Germany, romantic writers had developed some of these implications. As early as 1800, seven years before Fichte's well known Addresses to the German Nation, Novalis was writing of the difference of peoples in their "inner nature," showing a considerable interest in what was to become the German national problem, and calling for preachers of patriotism. Schlegel, in the Philosophische Vorlesungen, had developed

Currents of Thought in Romanticism

43

his idea of the nation in relation to state and society. Adam Müller, in the Elemente, had not neglected to emphasize the honor and duty owed the Fatherland. The French occupation led gradually to a general awakening of national consciousness. In Prussia where the recollection of the military triumphs of Frederickian times was still strong, national resentment and passion was relatively quick to arise, although it was not clearly German as distinct from Prussian. In the rest of north Germany national consciousness manifested itself more slowly. The reception of the French depended very often on the personality of the oiEcials who were sent into the villages. Only where personal interests were directly touched as in the interdiction of coastal traffic or conscription of local youths for coastal defense was there appreciable resentment. The cumulative effect of incidents involving French occupation forces and growing resistance to French administrative innovations produced a "longing for things as they had been, which in turn helped bring to life a consciousness of the folk." The excitement of the War of Liberation in 1813 and 1814 and its brilliant but half-expected success, brought to high pitch the waxing national feeling.^® In the years between 1806 and 1814 a considerable nationalistic literature was produced. Kleist, Fichte, and Arndt were among the most important contributors, and Lagarde was thoroughly familiar with their work. Kleist's Germania: Katechisrmis der Deutschen was, next to Fichte's Addresses, one of the most influential of the nationalistic writings. This work was written in 1809, on the eve of the Austrian effort against Napoleon, when the first wave of anti-French feeling was nearing its crest. It reveals clearly how much hatred of the foreign, and not merely love of country, was an ingredient in the shaping of German national feeling.

44

Paul de Lagarde

Question: What do you think of Napoleon, the Corsican, the most famous Emperor of the French? Answer : My father, do you forget, you have already asked me that. Question: So I have already asked you that. Well, tell me again in the words which I have taught you. Answer : [I think of Napoleon] as a man most worthy of being detested, as the beginning of all evil and the end of all good, as a sinner, and language does not suffice to say enough against him.^® Lagarde, who knew this period through its literature and not firsthand, never reviled the great Napoleon quite so sharply. As we shall later see, however, Lagarde's letters from Paris reveal a contemptuousness and mistrust of the second Napoleon which suggests something of the feeling which the Germans of an earlier generation felt for the first Napoleon. Fichte's renowned Addresses were delivered, not without courage, in occupied Berlin in the winter of 1807-1808. His audiences were rather larger and more enthusiastic than one would suppose possible given the rather abstruse character of some of his arguments. But it must be remembered that in this age of idealism the problem of the self and its relation to other selves was more meaningful than it is today. The tendency was strong to look for moral truth within, rather than looking to experience or authoritarian injunction from without. The attractiveness of the Addresses lay in Fichte's ability to relate this problem to the national crisis and to offer a solution at once morally ideal and calculated to regenerate the nation. In philosophical terms the problem as Fichte defined it, is for the individual self to become related to the absolute self, to the universal moral and rational order apart from which it is nothing. This requires, Fichte continued, the "fashioning of an en-

Currents of Thought in Romanticism

45

tirely new self" which will eschew the self-seeking of the age. The way to the "new self" must be shown by a new education. This education will paint so vivid a picture of a moral world order that the pupil will be filled with a passionate love and yearning for it and the desire to realize it in his own life. The German nation should take the lead in the new education since the Germans have an "original" language and culture. By "original" Fichte did not mean first in time but closest to the real moral world. Hence the Germans, if they will rediscover their own culture and be faithful to it, will come to realize the "new self." The struggle against the French and all foreign influences is a struggle of immense moral significance. The metaphysics which lay at the core of Fichte's nationalism was to have little interest for Lagarde. He did, however, share completely Fichte's moral viewpoint toward the national question and was to be tireless in branding foreign elements as immoral.^^ Arndt, who as an old man at Bonn received and inspired the young Lagarde, was a man of the people and expressed his ideas in simple and meaningful terms. Bom of peasant stock on the charming Baltic island of Rügen, Arndt easily combined an earthiness with a keen sense for the natural beauty of his homeland. His subsequent German nationalism was a generalization of these feelings. Simple, yet powerful, are the opening lines of his widely admired German Fatherland: Where is the German Fatherland? Is Prussia, or the Swabian land? Where by the Rhine the grapes are growing? Or where the Baltic waves are flowing?

40

Paul de hagarde Oh no, more grand, Far wider is our Fatherland.

As with many patriots, the French victories of 1805 and 1806 aroused in him a hatred for the French out of which his national feeling grew. He wrote in his Erinnerungen, "They have been, the French, the most deceptive, arrogant, grasping, the most cunning and untrustworthy enemies of the Reich; with fury I hated them . . . as I loved my Fatherland." In the years following, in association with Stein, Arndt produced numerous nationalistic pamphlets and essays. He condemned the self-interest and the sordid deals of the German princes by which the French had profited at the expense of Germany. He called for an awakening to a sense of national unity and dignity. He stirred the will to sacrifice for Fatherland and hearth. He sketched the vision of a renewed and united Germany rising from the ruins. He assured his countrymen of the high and solemn nature of the work to which he aroused them and of God's blessing thereon, that God's purposes were being fulfilled. His writing was of incalculable significance in stirring his countrymen to the War of Liberation and in molding the German mind to an awareness of the nation.^® After 1815, nationalism displayed its protean nature and took many forms. Father Jahn and his Turnverein expressed a crude proto-Nazi, primitive Germanism. The Burschenschaft, whose religious aspects we have noted, was in Treitschke's apt words a fusion of the spirit of Arminius, Luther, and Scharnhorst, "figures who led germanism in the struggle against foreign encroachments." ®® Conservative circles tended to bestow their loyalty on the Prussian state but retained a feeling for Germany as a cultural whole.

Currents of Thought in RoTmnticism

47

Liberal circles, on the other hand, tended more and more to express their national sentiment in terms of political unification.®^ Lagarde's nationalism was a distillate of the whole broad movement, but a distillate with a high concentration of romantic elements and a caloric content equivalent to the passions of the Liberation period.

All of the men and ideas discussed in this chapter were sources of Lagarde's thought. Nor were they sources simply in the sense that a Novalis, a Schleiermacher, a Fichte, or the others have been a general influence on all that followed. They were a direct and pervasive influence and inspiration. Every essay which Lagarde wrote from 1853 to 1891 contains something of their substance, form, and mood. As we turn to the study of Lagarde's early life, we will be able to discover particular men and books whose influence he acknowledged. But Lagarde reached out beyond these to many others. He was a romantic in the sense that he accepted the romantic views of knowledge, of history, of the individual, and of the community. He was a romantic conservative in so far as he respected the Godgiven institutions and culture which had developed through the ages. His piety had the intensity of the religious feeling of the Awakening and his nationalism the passionate, embracing quality of the age of the Liberation. T o understand Lagarde it is important to realize that he stood much in the debt of the romantic, the conservative, the pietist, and the German nationalist. It is equally important to realize that he was not any one of these in the strict sense. He was too much aware of the reality of power in the affairs of men, and too wedded to "scientific" scholarship to be a complete romantic. He was too ready to revolt

48

Faul de Lagarde

against long-standing practices and institutions to be a perfect conservative. His equivocal views toward Christianity placed him outside the ranks of the pietists and his loathing of patriotism made him a rather atypical nationalist. In short, Lagarde must be viewed against the currents of ideas prevalent in the age of romanticism. T o classify him, however, in terms of any of them would be to render more difficult a grasp of the essence of his thought.

CHAPTER

II

The Berlin Period

Cry^ul Anton Bötticher (later to be known as Paul de _/Г Lagarde) was born in Berlin on November 2, 1827. He matriculated at the University of Berlin in 1844 and became a Doctor of Philosophy in 1849. In 1853 he accepted an appointment as an instructor in the FriedrichWerderschen Gymnasium and continued as a teacher in Berlin until a grant from the King in 1867 allowed him to retire to Schleusingen, a town in Prussian Saxony, and devote himself to a year of undistracted scholarship. After years of disappointment and frustration, he at last received a university appointment in 1869 in the Georgia Augusta at Göttingen. Except for a semester or two as a student and several as an instructor at Halle, and except for a year in England and France as a scholar, the first forty years of Lagarde's life were spent in the Prussian capital, and we may quite properly call them the Berlin period. Lagarde's Berlin years were bisected exactly by the Revolution of 1848. The controversies and conflicts which were brought to a crisis in 1848, and the reaction and triumph of the Prussian state against the Revolution, provided the setting for Lagarde's political education in his formative years. Acutely aware of the problems of the time, and, yet, moving consciously in the effulgent afterglow of late roman-

5о

Paul de Lagarde

ticism, Lagarde wrote his first political essays in the fifties. These contain the quintessence of his thought, when, after the founding of the Empire, he resumed his political writing, it was to attack a political order and culture which neither conformed to his romantic visions nor realized his ideas for political and social reform. Four Great Questions Four questions which preoccupied the decade of the forties and the midcentury bore particularly on Lagarde's thought. They were expressed and argued in many ways— on the barricades in Berlin, by the pens of the Gerlachs and of Heine, by the words and deeds of Frederick William IV, by the orations before the Frankfurt Assembly, in the conversations of hungry, itinerant journeymen, in the mind of the young Paul de Lagarde. These questions were ( i ) the constitutional, (2) the national or German, (3) the social, and (4) the church-state question. ( i ) The Prussian constitutional question grew very simply out of the anomaly that in the midnineteenth century, Prussia was still a divine-right absolutism. Some significant practical modifications in the position of the monarch had occurred, of course, since Frederickian times. In 1792 Prussian laws had been codified. The Stein-Hardenberg reforms had introduced some measure of freedom and some of the procedures of the modem state though the administration did depend ultimately upon the will of the king. Moreover, absolutism is only as strong as the character of the monarch. None of the kings after the great Frederick possessed his strength or imperiousness. Accordingly, aristocratic influences were strong. One has only to consider the role played by the Kamarilla and, later, Bismarck.

The Berlin Period

51

Still, the nation had no constitution which formally limited the royal will or provided a means for national expression. In consequence, discontent grew and liberal protest became more and more articulate. Prussians, after all, were not Mongolians or Russian serfs. Prussia was an integral and vital part of Western civilization, and Prussians were fully aware of, and appreciative of. Western liberalism and revolutionary traditions. Many were (as was the young Lagarde) admirers of England and the Burkean progressive conservatism. Moreover, what educated Prussian could be entirely unfamiliar with such subjects as freedom, law, and right, which had been discussed by Kant, Humboldt, and the German idealists generally. These intellectual influences were being strengthened by the inexorable course of social change. Industrialism was spreading in the Rhineland, in Silesia, and in Berlin and other cities; it engendered an aggressive liberal-minded middle class and a self-conscious, undocile working class. Protest from the "grass roots," especially after 1830, grew more audible. It was often associated with—and sometimes motivated by—economic distress, but always directed ultimately against the political system. The radical press in Berlin and Cologne, the revolts of the weavers at Peterswaldau and Langenbeilau, student unrest, the number of cases of lèse-majesté, the very drinking songs of the Berliners, songs loaded with satire and derision of the state of affairs, all bespeak the temper of the times. The solutions offered to the constitutional question comprised a rather long and involved spectrum, reflecting the German love for the complicated and the individualistic. All of these proposals spread out from three foci: the Ständestaat, constitutional monarchy, and republican democracy.

52

Faul de Lagar de

The principal idea of the Ständestaat was that the estates of the nation should participate to a limited degree in its legislation. The idea was, of course, reactionary. It was a reassertion of the feudal position that status conveyed rights. It was not the slightest concession to the doctrine of popular sovereignty. This essentially conservative idea occurred in the thinking of Müller, Stahl, Ludwig von Gerlach, and Frederick William I V . It was a constitutional defense against a Frederickian type of absolutism rather than an effort to promote freedom in the Western sense of the word. The constitutional monarchists, sometimes called the "Old Liberals," sought the participation of the nation through a national parliament, a clearer definition of individual rights against entrenched privilege, and a less oppressive bureaucracy. T h e y were not, however, untouched by romanticism and did not want, any more than the conservatives, a ruthless overturn of the existing order. T h e y liked to cite the blessings of the British constitution, as did Dahlmann,^ rather than to argue on the basis of natural right. T h e y were not unduly hostile to crovra or state, but desired to bring crown, state, and people together in a common endeavor for the well-bemg of the nation. Republican democracy was a product of French revolutionary and Hegelian inspiration. French ideas were particularly strong in the South but found supporters in the North as well, and generally were influential in Germany at least until after the revolutions of 1848. Hegelianism, as it applied to political thought, was ambiguous. Hegel had argued that the public interest, being more general than private interests, ought to be preeminent, and that the public interest is represented primarily by the state. This view gave Hegelianism its quasi-official status in Prussia. But

The Berlin Period

53

Hegelian philosophy was, also, a point of departure for political radicalism. The equating of the real to the rational could be interpreted in a radical sense, namely, that only that which is or seems rational is real, viable, and worth preserving. Furthermore, the law of the dialectic requires change, indeed, the most sweeping kind of change, negation. From a philosophy with a conservative application, Hegelianism is, by this interpretation, converted into a most revolutionary doctrine. On such intellectual foundations rested the work of men like Arnold Ruge whose Hallische and Deutsche Jahrbücher were a call to arms against the political and social privileges of a monarchic system and of Julius Fröbel who finally became a radical democratic reformer with a deep sense of mission.^ (2) In fragmented Germany, the national question was a complicated one. It involved not only attachment to the nation and its culture, but the creating of a nation-state. In the first half of the century, and beyond, loyalties were divided among the German nation which existed only as cultural entity and the several states. In these circumstances, various, often bizarre, political viewpoints arose. A person, for example, could be entirely loyal to the Bavarian state and yet be a German nationalist in a cultural sense. Or, with some greater strain, he could be both a Bavarian particularist and an advocate of a German national state on the basis of some federalist solution to the German question. One can arrange just as long and just as many-shaded a spectrum of proposed solutions to the national question as can be done for the related constitutional question. The proposals tended to polarize into kleindeutsch and grossdeutsch. Generally speaking, three ideas characterized the kleindeutsch position, namely, the extrusion of Austria from Germany, a moderate constitutionalism, and a political

54

Paul de hagarde

realism which held that Prussian military power was the only means of forging a German state and Prussian adminbtrative genius was the only means of holding it together. The grossdeutsch position was more multicolored but turned essentially on two ideas, namely, that Austria must be an integral part of any German state just as its culture had been an integral part of the German nation, and that German unity must not be the result of the mediatization of any German state by another, especially Prussia. Grossdeutsch plans were for a federal state embracing all of the German lands. In Prussia, there was little grossdeutsch sentiment and much opposition amongst the conservatives to any union which would jeopardize the rights of the princes. Especially after 1850, Prussian historiography accentuated the role of Prussia, past and present, and developed support for the kleindeutsch position. Outside of Prussia, and especially in the middle states, the grossdeutsch view prevailed. In Hanover, the historian Otto Юорр busied himself with an account of Prussian history which he offered as an antidote to the writings of the Prussian school of historians. In Munich, the old Görres made a similar contribution through his Historische Blätter. Lagarde did not choose between these two points of view. He accepted the kleindeutsch reliance on Prussia but rejected its liberalism and most decidedly its extrusion of Austria. He accepted the grossdeutsch notion of an indivisible Kulturnation but showed little respect for the smaller states. A Heidelberg friend and colleague of Treitschke wrote of the distinguished historian that "politics were for him a part of ethics and the unity of Germany a moral claim." Lagarde, too, sensed this claim.®

The Berlin Period

55

(3) The social question scarcely occupied the place of the constitutional and national questions, but after 1830 it was of a growmg significance and in 1848 an important ingredient of the Revolution. Indeed, the property-owning classes were so concerned over the "red-spectre" that they moderated their revolutionary demands and behavior. The origin of the social question in Germany was much the same as its origin elsewhere. It followed the growing awareness amongst the masses of men of the possibility of improvement, and the changing economic conditions which were adversely affecting some groups. Although industrial employment with its cash remuneration was highly attractive to workers in the early nineteenth century, they were not protected against unemployment, against increasing costs of living, or against the intolerable living conditions which developed in most industrial centers. In Germany, where industrialization proceeded rather slowly before 1848, the proletarian problem was less acute than that of the artisans. The Silesian weavers are but one example of artisans reduced to desperation, ultimately because of their inability to compete with foreign and domestic machinemade products. The peasants, too, were less secure, partly as a byproduct of their liberation from serfdom and partly because of the wider fluctuations in market prices. Especially in pre-Marxist times, they figured very much in the social question. Interest in the social question begins at least as early as Adam Müller whose corporate theory of society was designed to make all socioeconomic groups mutually supporting and collectively secure. By the thirties French socialism was receiving attention in the Rhenish cities and preparing the way for the violence of 1848 in the Rhineland. Wilhelm Weitling, the wandering journeyman-scholar, was admix-

56

Paul de Lagar de

ing French socialist ideas with his own and insinuating them into Germany from his exile in Paris and Geneva/ In 1830, when Stahl published the first volume of his Philosophie, socialism was a live concern to Prussian conservatives; the book was in part a polemic against it as well as against French liberalism. In the forties, German socialism was on the verge of becoming a power and not merely a "vérité" as Engels said. The Social Catholic movement and the Protestant Inner Mission date from the forties. The social question was, then, conspicuous during Lagarde's youth. He was not primarily a social reformer and did not stand close to any reform movements. He was, however, by no means oblivious to the social question and was to imagine that his design for a new Middle Europe would provide a solution thereto. (4) The period between 1815 and 1848 was a time of crisis in the relations of church and state in Prussia. Problems between church and state antedate the Reformation and indeed form the very essence of late medieval German history. The problems were only complicated by the Reformation which created new religious confessions. Eventually, the Evangelical churches in most states organized as Erastian churches with the prince as sumrnus episcopus and the clergy as officials. In Prussia the churches were under a general superintendent and general and local consistories. In early postReformation times consistories were comprised by theologians and clergymen and were fairly independent of king and ministers of state. With the waxing absolutism and the secularism of the eighteenth century, church administration came more and more to be a regular department of state. When Frederick William I created the Gen-

The Berlin Period

57

eral Directorium, the Department of Justice was charged with the responsibility for carrying out royal decrees pertaining to ecclesiastical affairs. Only the indifference of Frederick the Great and Frederick William II prevented a complete Erastianism. Accession of Frederick William III coincided with the beginning of the religious revival, and this pious Hohenzollern resolved to rescue the church from the desuetude into which it had fallen. His ambition was to centralize the control of the church as never before, to accomplish the union of Lutheran and Reformed, and to provide a new constitution and liturgy for the new church. Greater centralization was achieved by Stein's reforms which eliminated the provincial consistories and instituted church and school deputations under the new Kultusministerium. The union was achieved, at least partially, by persuasion rather than command. The King desired that the tercentenary of the posting of the Ninety-five Theses be celebrated on October 31, 1817, by a joint communion between Lutherans and Reformed. A synod of Berlin pastors, under Schleiermacher, prepared a communion service which incorporated features of both liturgies. In the Garrison Church in Potsdam the King and court and the Berlin clergy partook of this communion. Thus, the Evangelical Church, as it was now called, was inaugurated, although it was not as yet a legal entity. The task of creating a complete liturgy and a constitution for the new church remained. The King was determined to create an episcopal hierarchy. Accordingly, he appointed provincial superintendents with the right of ordination and visitation, many of whom with his approval took the title of bishop. Moreover, he indulged his aesthetic fancies by preparing a liturgy which was highly ceremonial and, to

58

Paul de hagarde

many, simply popish. In 1830, under great pressure, the provincial synods agreed to the new church constitution, and in 1835 a general ordinance regularized the union. This royal interference led to widespread resistance. Schleiermacher championed the opposition. The Silesian Lutherans, fortified by a tradition of persecution under the Austrians, resisted bitterly. Many went into exile in 1834, singing Lutheran hymns as they sailed down the Spree past the Schloss in Berlin. It is highly likely that the young Lagarde witnessed this scene and, if so, impetus was no doubt given to his strong feeling that church and state should be separate. Frederick William III, also, came into conflict with the Catholic Church in the Rhineland over the question of the religious upbringing of children of mixed marriages. This conflict led the state to imprison the intransigent Archbishop Droste of Cologne and led the Catholic Church to a vigorous defense of its interests. The stage was being set for the bitter church-state struggle of Bismarck's time, the Kulturkampf, which was to be the occasion for Lagarde's return to political writing in the first decade of the new Empire. Youth and University Years Into this unsettled Germany, midway between the Congress of Vienna and the Revolution, Paul Anton Bötticher had been bom. His mother died a few days after his birth, leaving an irreparable gap which Lagarde never overcame. He felt his loss keenly all his life, and as a professor at Göttingen wrote: "O mother, even such a child as I whom you did bear, why stayed you not as my companion? With whom could I grow up from childhood? Indeed, I have remained a yearning child." ®

The Berlin Period

59

He was committed to the care of two great-aunts, one of whom was his mother's aunt, Fräulein Ernestine de Lagarde, whose name he later took for his own. The child was well cared for by his aunts as later by his stepmother, and the man has left only words of gratitude for their kindness. Yet neither elderly ladies nor a stepmother can provide the inimitable affection of a young mother. The absence of these blessings was felt the more keenly in the Bötticher household where reigned a stern, unbending father, saturnine in temperament, inordinate in piety, and for long years unreconciled to the loss of his eighteen-year-old wife. The father, Dr. Wilhelm Bötticher, was an instructor in the Friedrich-Wilhelms Gymnasium in Berlin. He was a gifted student of ancient languages and by his careful instruction laid for his son the foundations of the latter's incredible linguistic knowledge. The elder Bötticher's moralism and his religiosity were also gifts to the son. But how diverse the currents which can run in moral and religious natures. As Lagarde's wife, Anna, wrote: "For the father everything was hopeless decay, but the son saw things as basically sound and fruitful." The difference was that of pietist and prophet. The father was not hopeful for the world; the son, bitter critic though he was, believed he saw the way to God's salvation in the world of man.® Nor could they enjoy intellectual companionship. Wilhelm Bötticher would not employ a jot of his learning to criticize a passage of Luther or Scripture. Paul believed that his father had no right to withhold the use of secular knowledge from criticism and thereby clarification of spiritual knowledge. Indeed, his projected life's work was a critical edition of the Septuagint. For the father this was "an unbelievable presumption in the use of his knowledge and could only show a monstrous lack of reverence and hu-

6o

Paul de Lagarde

mility." The older Bötticher's banishing of music and reading of even such Mterature as Shakespeare and Goethe from the home was a hard circumstance for the romantic, bookloving youth. He could only hope to redress the balance in the Hereafter. "Just wait," he would say to Anna, "in heaven I will be a choir master and play the whole day long." Innumerable clashes arose out of this abysmal discrepancy of outlook. Lagarde could not endure his father's Sunday night meetings of "pious hypocrites." The father could not endure that his son should keep for his own use the frequent stipends and prizes which his scholarship brought him, but required that they be turned to charitable purposes. Father and son came sharply to odds over the events of 1848, and extreme was the embarrassment of the selfconscious son when his father referred critically to "Mein Sohn Paul" in a newspaper article. It was a bitter experience, too, for Lagarde to stand at the side of his dying father's bed in 1853 and yet feel no sorrow.'' In light of this relation with his father, it is possible to understand the meaning of Lagarde's frequent and bitter references to his early life. He remarked to Anna: "So sad were those days that you can neither conceive nor imagine what they were like." Even in his learned writings he could not conceal his self-pity for his friendless boyhood. " A young tree sharply bent will never straighten," he wrote in 1890. "My childhood and youth flowed away without the warmth of human friendship; little wonder that books and dreams exercised a greater influence on my development than I could wish for anyone." ® The books which he read in the early days were mostly the German classics, and the dreams he dreamed those of a young romantic. He made many of the ideas of Novalis,

The Berlin Period

6i

Herder, Fichte, and Schleiermacher his own. He became a living "piece" of this literature as he was later to advise youth to become. He read Chamisso for whom he had once run errands. He adopted as a favorite Archim von Arnim's most romantic and most German tale, Die Kronenwächter. As for Görres, Lagarde could write, he "makes me grow wings," and he found Görres' Heldenbuch a companion to his Homer. These men he regarded not simply as scholars and writers, but as patriots.® In the development of his scholarly interests, he attributed particular significance to four writers whose works considered together present that combination of Germanism, religion, and philological scholarship which were exactly the ingredients of Lagarde's own life and work. He wrote: "These are the books which helped to educate me: Grimm's Grammatik and Mythologie, Lachmann's edition of Wolfram von Eschenbach, Semler's autobiography and several works of Michaelis . . . From these, almost from chUdhood and without a teacher, have I gained the direction which my scholarly life has taken." Lflchmann and Michaelis introduced Lagarde to the philological method of inquiry which he came to regard as the key to the Kingdom of God. Especially he recognized his debt to Lachmann, and in the fullness of his years he looked back on Lachmann as the one who had pointed the way.^^ Semler was an eighteenth-century pioneer of the historicalcritical exegesis. Accordingly, he mistrusted dogma and conventional, orthodox interpretations of Scripture. He possessed a marked anti-Protestant attitude. He held that the Christian Church was a synthesis of "a spiritually free tradition" stemming from St. Peter and "a scrupulously Jewish one" stemming from St. Paul. Semler was a religiously sensitive and pious man, and his writings reveal

62

Paul de Lagar de

more than a hint of national feeling. These ideas and attributes were also Lagarde's. If no other source of Lagarde's thought could be found, one would be strongly tempted to ascribe its inspiration to Semler's Lebensbeschreibung}^ By far the deepest impression, however, was made by Grimm. The old Hessian awakened in Lagarde a deep love for the German past and a feeling for the pristine and unadulterated elements of German culture. Grimm's Teutonic Mythology is a work of immense erudition replete with a formidable apparatus of footnotes. Grimm, with little mercy for his reader, quotes freely from the Old German, Norse, and Slavic tongues as well as from Latin, Greek, and Persian. Yet the book possesses charm and interest. Even a casual perusal of the Teutonic Mythology cannot fail to engender a certain admiration for this ancient Teutonic culture which despite its barbarities and crudities had, at least in the pages of Grimm, richness of life and vibrant animation. How deep an emotion this work must arouse with an intensive reading, and, as with Lagarde presumably, many a rereading." How great the contrast between this idyllic picture of a sterling folk who knew no barrier between themselves and the world of spirits and the people of midnineteenth-century Germany with their veneer of civilization and their eclectic and corrupted culture. At least, so must Lagarde's thoughts have run. Lagarde admired the Teutonic Mythology as a work of scholarship, but it was the spirit of the author that struck him most forcefully. Grimm seemed to breathe the very air of the olden time, and Lagarde had no hesitation in attributing his own enthusiasm for this primeval period to Grimm. Grimm did not present the old myths as a set of beliefs but, at least to Lagarde, as a living experience of the early

The Berlin Period

63

folk with their gods. Grimm, wrote Lagarde, was the great patriot of the Fatherland, and all true Germans will know him well. Grimm was one of the few heroes whom he held up to German youth,^* Lagarde enjoyed also a personal acquaintance with Grimm who must be numbered amongst his distinguished benefactors. Grimm once intervened in Lagarde's behalf in one of the innumerable squabbles with fellow scholars in which Lagarde was involved. On another occasion he pressed for a favor for Lagarde from the Academy of Sciences. He was deeply impressed by the learning of his young admirer and wrote of Lagarde's Proverbien: "Learned and meaty is the work, and I am astonished over your command of words." The other figure whose shadow falls on Lagarde's younger years was the theologian and preacher, Friedrich Schleiermacher. Lagarde's father as a Gymnasium teacher moved in professional circles in Berlin. His house was a gathering place for teachers, clergymen, civil servants, and men of similar stamp. Schleiermacher was a frequent visitor as well as being the family pastor and, thus, was a familiar sight to the young Lagarde. The latter's vivid recollection of the old man reveals an admixture of awe and veneration. "More than once, as a child, I sat upon the lap of this small, lively, misshapen man whose quick glance and sharp eyes pleased me. Yet, I felt almost afraid in his presence, for despite his pleasantries there was something inaccessible about him, and the sweetmeats he offered seemed like lures by which he designed to catch me." There is no suggestion of adulation here. Indeed, Schleiermacher's peculiar, almost mystical mode of expression made him appear to the young lad "not quite right in the head." Yet this incompre-

04

Paul de

hagarde

hensible element in Schleiermacher appealed to him. It gave Schleiermacher a distinctiveness of character which Lagarde much admired in тепЛ' Schleiermacher's personality, not his doctrine, established his reputation at the Dreifaltigkeitskirche. "One clung," Lagar de wrote, "to the personality of this fresh and stimulating man rather than to what he said." Lagarde recalled how quickly the religious enthusiasm which Schleiermacher had stirred up evaporated after his death. Nothing which he had done had reached his "cultured" followers in a really effective or durable way. He had failed in his work in Berlin, and Lagarde became ever more conscious of his pastor's failure as time went on and he himself began to judge the hypocrisy and indifference of Berlin society.^® Schleiermacher's Berlin career was a lesson for Lagarde. Why, he asked, had Schleiermacher made such little headway in his "prophetic mission"? Partly because the times were against him, Lagarde felt. More than that, however, he believed that Schleiermacher had been mistaken in not being content simply to play the role of the great preacher and prophet. "Mornings he played the 'G' string of Religion and afternoons the 'D' string of Philosophy, and according to pleasure, he would reverse the procedure." Schleiermacher was too much the philosopher, and could not resist playing for the benefit of the intellectuals. When he refined his ideas and his dogmatics, he lost his spiritual force.^® These early home influences and intellectual experiences determined the character and disposition of the man so firmly that subsequent circumstances were to shape and mold rather than alter them. A lonely boy, he became a lonely man, and few were those who trespassed in the silent fastnesses of his soul. An uncongenial home for the boy became an uncongenial world for the man. His course in this

The Berlin Period

65

world was to be set by the experiences and impressions of his university years and the days following. At Easter 1844, Lagarde matriculated at the University of Berlin, more child than youth as he later said. The summer and winter semesters, 1846-1847, he spent at Halle and then returned to Berlin where he received his doctorate in philosophy in 1849. He was granted a doctorate in theology, honoris causa, from Halle in 1868. His principal teachers at Berlin were Trendelenburg in philosophy; the theologians, Neander, Hengstenberg, and Twesten; the poet and orientalist, Friederich Rückert, with whom he studied Persian; and Schwartz with whom he read Coptic. In Halle he studied theology with Tholuck and Müller, Old Testament with Hupfelds, and philosophy with Schallet.^" Lagarde has left two quasi-autobiographical essays, Erinnerungen an Friederich Rückert and Uber einige Berliner Theologen und ivas von Ihnen zu lernen ist. These works, taken together with his correspondence, give us a glimpse into his university life and of his relation with his professors. The atmosphere at the University of Berlin was not entirely agreeable to Lagarde's romantic temperament. Hardly an ordinary student, Lagarde had to seek pleasure and the emotional release natural to youth in his studies. However, the prevailing accentuation of Hegelian philosophy and its penetration into nearly all of the academic disciplines at the university meant a scholastic regimen which did not always offer pleasure and release to a romantic mind more responsive to color and substance than to the dialectical triad. He found the orthodoxy and pedantry of the theological faculty uninspiring. He wondered what contribution these erudite men were making, since through the decades during which a theological faculty had been established at Berlin the spiritual dearth had only become more abysmal.

66

Paul de

hagarde

Increasingly, he despaired for science and truth as he witnessed the state make appointments to academic chairs with the aim of serving some ideological or political interest. H e loathed the sharp academic quarrels, especially amongst the theologians, which produced a vicious spirit of rivalry, and which prevented academicians from making their proper contribution to the unity and well-being of the nation.^^ Among his teachers, only two, Rückert and Hengstenberg, were important influences. Rückert was a source of inspiration and Hengstenberg became an object of aversion, but both were important in helping Lagarde crystallize his ideas. The others were variously helpful as teachers but scarcely of primary influence in shaping his character or viewpoint. Of Neander he was contemptuous and his description of his first encounter with Neander should be quoted if only because it reveals a touch of humor in Lagarde's otherwise rather censorious and sober writings. The celebrated man lectured in the great auditorium on the northwest corner of the University. When I came to the first lecture unaware what would happen, I sat near the lectern where the benches were empty although the hall was otherwise quite full. Neander appeared, with eyes almost closed and with bushy eyebrows of truly samsonian luxuriance. His trousers, which were shiny, wrinlded, and not of wool, covered his scrawny legs, stuck in jackboots. The apparition mounted the platform, laid both its arms across the desk and its head on both arms, then raised itself and spit energetically onto the bench where I sat—I now understood only too well why the company had left it empty—and began. The lecture which followed, according to Lagarde, was insupportable. At the end of the hour, Lagarde continued, "to the right of the desk and straight before me was a great puddle; indeed this man was dedicated not only to Pectoral but also Expectoral theology to the highest degree." ^^

The Berlin Period

67

Lagarde admired Twesten's learning, and the standard by which he measured men. Twesten's dictum was that "one ought not judge a man by what he leaves behind, but by what effect he has had on others and by what he has incited them to do." Lagarde repeatedly apphed this standard to men and nations. Twesten's somewhat depreciatory views of Luther were not lost on Lagarde who could not help contrasting the "fine, measured, mild, rich cultured nature" of Twesten with the "rough . . . scolding" Luther, a man "without discipline and limited to the space of his two shoes." Martin de Wette was only indirectly one of Lagarde's teachers. De Wette had been dismissed from his chair at Berlin many years before Lagarde matriculated. His dismissal resulted from a letter which he had written to the mother of Sand, the youth who had murdered the Russian agent Kotzebue in 1819. Because the letter extolled the idealism of Sand and because it took considerable courage to write such a letter in a period of intense reaction, de Wette became something of a hero to a number of intellectuals. Not only did Lagarde share this sentiment, but he admired as well de Wette's courage and independence as a theologian. De Wette had stood apart from both orthodoxy and rationalism and had sought a more meaningful interpretation of God's message in the Scriptures. Lagarde was to dedicate his own life to this task and was forever grateful to de Wette as an inspiration.^^ At Halle, Tholuck was probably of the most importance to Lagarde. As a leader of the Vermittlungstheologie his ideas easily impressed a young mind which had been attracted to de Wette and which was leaning away from the strong orthodoxy of his upbringing. Moreover, Tholuck had a warm personality; Lagarde was able to establish a

68

Paul de

hagarde

more personal rapport with him than with the Berlin theologians. It was to Tholuck that Lagarde turned when in 1849 he sought a theological degree, honoris causa, on the basis of his theological studies and publications. Although not immediately helpful, Tholuck assured Lagarde of the faculty's favorable disposition, of his feeling for their "old personal friendship," and of his continued interest in his student's work.^® Hengstenberg, the Prussian "deMaistre" as he has sometimes been called, was not only a scholar but also a publicist with a decided viewpoint. As the editor of the Evangelische Kirchenzeitung, he was perhaps the most important exponent of the conservative-orthodox viewpoint. Toward such emphatic personalities as Hengstenberg, one must react. Lagarde's reaction was mixed, but on balance, unfavorable. He respected Hengstenberg's courage and held it in his favor that, as a student, Hengstenberg had been thrown in the student lockup because of his support of Arndt. Lagarde confessed that at Halle he was once moved to join in a chorus of a Burschenschaft song after the company had been recollecting some of Hengstenberg's tales of the "swinish behavior of the government in 1819." However, Hengstenberg's uncompromising dogmatism and his inability to sense the religious spirit in the Hfe and ideals of the folk dismayed Lagarde and only served to stimulate Lagarde's awakening feeling for a national religion. Hengstenberg's insistence that dogmas be accepted fully and hterally by everybody everywhere without regard for individual differences or the Zeitgeist seemed to Lagarde a piece of that very rationalism against which Hengstenberg and his party professed to strive. Then, in 1849, Hengstenberg, well shorn of his old Burschenschaft spirit, supported the reactionary government. This placed Lagarde in square opposition. The

The Berlin Period

69

break, however, was not a complete one. Hengstenberg, perhaps possessing more good wUl than Lagarde allowed, helped him gain a stipend and continued to receive appeals from Lagarde for favors as late as 1856 when Lagarde sent him one of his published texts "to pay off old debts." Riickert was not only an admired and stimulating teacher but became an honored and abiding friend. Lagarde was first introduced to Riickert through the latter's poems in which the lonesome, unbefriended boy found that warmth which was missing around his own hearth. One of Lagarde's earliest desires at the university was to read Persian with Riickert. What the seventeen-year-old scholar lacked in Persian grammar he made up for in enterprise. "Fool that I was I prepared a little address in Persian, hoping thereby to impress him." Riickert accepted him and soon became so impressed that he gave Lagarde permission to visit him at any time in his rooms. Thus began a friendship that lasted through the lifetime of the poet.^^ Lagarde quickly came to feel an affinity for the old man who lived a lonely life in the capital and retired to the quietness of the little village of Neusess in 1848. His mind ran along lines congenial to Lagarde, and one may imagine that over their teacups after the Persian texts were laid aside, the younger man heard many things which served to hasten the condensation of his ideas from the diffuse nebulae of youthful thought. Much in Lagarde's mature thought betrayed Riickert's influence. Riickert strengthened Lagarde's romantic propensity for seeing things as wholes. "The whole stood before his eyes," Lagarde wrote, "and we learned from him how to feel it." Riickert was a sharp critic of the surrounding world and measured its evil by the standards of an indwelling moral order. Lagarde did not possess quite this moral

70

Faul de Lagar de

idealism, but in his conversations with Rückert his thoughts were being more surely turned to that devastating Xeitkritik so prominent in all of his writings. Lagarde's unorthodox educational theories owed not a little to Riickert's method of teaching Persian. Rückert did not expound rules of grammar and assign vocabularies but spoke and read Persian with his students as parents teach children their native tongue. Riickert's simple undogmatic piety left a deep impression on the rapidly crystallizing religious views of the young man. "I go to church," Rückert had told him, "to sit with the congregation and say Our Father' with them and let the blessing which flows over the congregation flow over me also; as to the rest I am indifferent." Political questions entered their conversations. Lagarde styled Rückert a radical, a term which he applied to himself in 1852. Lagarde's meaning is significant. "Politically, Rückert had, I would say, become radical, if this word does not call forth a false impression. He saw only individual men . . . of theories he had none." Rückert, that is, was a political maverick who would not align himself with any of the prevailing political or ecclesiastical ideologies. The early years of Lagarde's friendship with Rückert were years when the former was separating himself decisively from any "system" of thought or action.^® Rückert's esteem for Lagarde is clear from his letters. He wrote enthusiastically of his student's scholarship. He praised the young instructor for his "astounding fruitfulness." He expressed his admiration for Lagarde's Syriaca. These and other letters bespeak the Avarm feeling and intimacy between the two. Frau de Lagarde wrote touchingly of her husband's later visits to Neusess and remembered the kindness with which he was received. As teacher, friend.

The Berlin Period

71

inspiration, and in a way, as father, Rückert occupied a uniquely important place in Lagarde's life.^® Influence of Life and Events in the Prussian Capital Lagarde, for more than half his years, was a part of the life of the Prussian capital. Any history of the genesis of his thought must consider this experience. For the Berlin of his earliest days he always felt nostalgia. "Until 1840 or even 1848, Berlin was a city of poetry, for where man finds a home, there he finds poetry. And until then one could call Berlin home." Until then, he recalled, frogs still chirped in ponds and marshes by night, and beyond the center of the town pastoral scenery and solitary walks beckoned by day.®® Yet, there was something about Berlin and Prussia which was not congenial to him. Its culture was too flat and prosaic, too rationalistic and practical. Berlin, after all, was "the city of Nicolai" and the Enlightenment. Its court had sponsored a rather arid theological intellectualism and a highly rationaUstic administration. "Berlinisch" was an early synonym for Philistine. The late romantic writers, Arnim, Hoffman, Chamisso, heroes to the young Lagarde, had protested this culture.®^ Berlin and the Prussian countryside seemed to Lagarde to lack roots. He complained that the region east of the Elbe was a colonial area, its people ground under by a rapacious nobility, its religion imported as a consequence of conquest, and its bishops a part of the machinery of suppression. "The smell of the earth is lacking." Religious life is devoid of "Christian indwelling, homespun piety." Life is outward, superficial, jejune. Even the Hohenzollerns, who as Main Franks he believed capable of deeper things, had to become rationalists in order to recommend themselves to their sub-

ηг

Paul de Lagar de

jects. Accordingly, the Hohenzollerns have been "countinghouse men," "brooms" to keep the state clean and tidy. Indeed, Schleiermacher himself "in his spiritual ministrations to men east of the Elbe was as unsuccessful as a child would be if it attempted to empty the ocean with a thimble." Lagarde was to launch a very similar criticism against the culture of the Empire of 1871.®^ He was well situated to observe and react toward the court, government, and political events in Berlin. His father's circle included men close to Frederick William IV, such as Radowitz, Leopold von Gerlach, and Alexander von Humboldt. While Lagarde was a good enough Prussian to have a sense of loyalty toward the Hohenzollerns personally, he could not abide the despotic statism which they had developed. Even the great Frederick, he held, "had pressed as a great burden upon his country." As for Frederick William III, "he was hostile to higher things because he had never been exposed to anything really great." All that was done under him was a denial of the principle "that in the world as in the state, man is the only thing . . . The state, the law, the king, are only there to help the development and ripening of the individual Persönlichkeiten amongst the folk." Thus, the Carlsbad Decrees, Lagarde found, were "stupid, stupid without measure" and vicious. They were stupid because they only served to make universities, youth, the press, and many judges, clergymen, and officials hostile to the regime. They were vicious because they bore upon many men who had been in the field in 1813 and who were loyal every moment of their lives to the Fatherland. Lagarde had known many of these men and had come to share their bittemess.®® Although Lagarde felt a certain kinship for the romantic Frederick William IV, the hand of the bureaucratic state

The Berlin Period

73

continued to be onerous and under this ruler Lagarde's hostility to the court and state became irrevocably fixed. With several of his classmates at the Friedrich-Wilhelms Gymnasium, he planned a concert to raise funds for the completion of the cathedral at Cologne, a project in which the King was interested. The police president in Berlin banned the concert on the grounds that it would be improper for students of a Protestant Gymnasium to contribute toward a fund for a Catholic cathedral. How little could this man understand, Lagarde later wrote, that "our enthusiasm was for German art and unity, we who were young romantics of fifteen." His early political prejudices were not directed against monarchy as such and did not prevent him from acquiring an aversion for the liberal demagogues. "There was a tension which had come with Frederick William IV. Just why I cannot say, for specific political questions of the time are now dim in my mind. I do know this, that there was an uneasiness formerly not present. Infinitely dull men, called liberals, crept villain-like over the landscape. We had been instructed to hold them in horror—conspirators in frock coats." ®® Consequently, in 1848 when the barricades went up, Lagarde did not wear the Black, Red, and Gold of the revolutionists, but the Black and White of Prussia and supported the ICing. However, his position was equivocal. He supported the conservative principle of monarchy, as an idea, but rejected the system as it operated in Prussia. "I made use of my education and family connections to support the King whose aversion towards a constitution appeared to us justified in light of the consequences which followed the constitutional regime in France. The impression remains with me, however, that at that time in Berlin no one in the government knew what was wanted or what

74

Paul de Lagarde

ought to be done. Rückert felt strongly this way." ®® Thus, in 1848, Lagarde wanted neither a return to the status quo ante nor a leap into liberalism. His radical-conservative position was already inchoate. Though significant for his intellectual development, Lagarde was not deeply involved in the Revolution. It is an interesting commentary on the relatively superficial character of this Revolution that, in contrast to 1789 in France or 1917 in Russia, the personal life of a university student could be so little affected. His extant letters from this year are concerned solely with professional and scholarly matters. Events in Prussia sequential to the Revolution served to confirm his hostile attitude toward the state. The government's wave of vengeance in 1849 against political offenders of the previous year, its adoption of an elaborate system of agents and informers, and the shrill demands of reactionary groups that the state give no quarter to those who presumed to differ with it, Lagarde found revolting. He never overcame his mistrust of unbridled state power. One incident of the persecution of 1849 had a decisive effect on Lagarde's development—the prosecution of Waldeck. In i860, in a letter to his wife Anna, he revealed the crucial significance which this case had for him. "The turning point in my political and religious thinking came with the injustice perpetrated against Waldeck. What I perceived was the evil will of my erstwhile friends [i.e., the conservatives]. In a few days I had, with passion, become another man." Benedikt Waldeck was one of the leading figures in the Prussian National Assembly of 1848, He held strong democratic views and sought Prussian support for the democratic cause in Vienna. As chairman of the constitutional committee of the National Assembly he brought about so considerable a revision in the government-spon-

The Berlin Period

75

sored constitution that the document came to be known as the charte Waldeck. Because of his aggressive democratic position he became one of the chief objects of the government's wrath when in 1849 it could afford to throw off the mask of feigned compromise. He was imprisoned in May on trumped-up charges of high treason and on the evidence of wholly spurious documents. Although he was freed in a few months to become the leader of the democratic opposition in the Landtag during the fifties, the case was a shocking example of arbitrary state power ungracefully and unconstructively applied. Lagarde quickly perceived the dishonesty and shabbiness of the whole proceeding. In fact, he felt plainly nauseated by the work of the knaves who had perpetrated this dishonor to Prussia. He broke with Hengstenberg as a result of their sharp division of opinion over the Waldeck case and found that his reorientation toward a neo-Christian theology, then taking place under the influence of his reading of Martin de Wette, was appreciably furthered by this affair. Since he could only feel abhorrence for Waldeck's principles, Lagarde's reaction was a tribute to his sense of justice.®® Halle-London-Berlin Early in 1850, with a stipend granted by the city of Berlin, Lagarde left for Halle to give his first lectures and to begin nearly four years of life away from the capital—the only significant break in his Berlin years. During the summer of the first of his "two fleeting and happy years" at Halle, Lagarde took his memorable trip down the Rhine with his Great-aunt Ernestine de Lagarde.®® This trip, as we have seen, was a moving experience for him. The image of God and the folk which took such vivid shape in his mind on the Rhine remained forever with him.

76

Paul de Lagar de

His friendship with Heinrich Leo at Halle served to strengthen the impressions of the Rhine trip, for Leo perceived the unfolding of divine ideas in history. H e believed that G o d vi^orked through the spirit of a folk and that culture and institutions are in this sense a work of revelation. Moreover, Leo was a stern critic of what he regarded as the moral emptiness of the time; his Zeitkritik did not fail to impress the younger man. It is, perhaps, significant that, one year after leaving Halle, Lagarde was to write his first critical essay in a spirit somewhat like Leo's. Their friendship lasted beyond Lagarde's Halle days, and later Leo was one of the many distinguished men who tried to help Lagarde find an academic berth.^" A t Halle Lagarde met Anna Berger whom he was to marry. His acceptance into the warm and hospitable Berger household and circle provided him with a kind of human experience which he had not known before nor was to know in the troubled years which lay ahead. Anna de Lagarde has left us a revealing picture of the young scholar as he first came into this circle. He was tall and thin, bent slightly forward as short-sighted people are, with a smooth beardless face. One perceived in him traces of the long period of suffering through which he had passed in his father's house, and yet signs that he was breathing more easily now that the long borne burden was thrown off. He was remarkably self-effacing, obliging to excess, and thankful for every favor. T o us he now became known as the "living Lexicon" since he immediately had an answer to all questions, or knew where to find the answer . . . He did not dance, knew neither cards nor games, and did not possess cleverness or poise.^^ But she concludes, those w h o knew his inner worth came to love him. Her first impressions of his simple earnestness and goodness remained her deep convictions, and her Errinerun-

The Berlin Period

77

gen are a moving defense of her dead husband against the many charges of rancor and maUce which had been laid against him. Lagarde's courtship did not divert him from his scholarly labors. "You are astonishingly fruitful," Riickert wrote him in 1852.^^ The grand plan for an exhaustively critical edition of the Septuagint had not yet taken definite shape. His interest was yet more philological than purely theological or historical. Making use of his rapidly growing mastery of oriental languages, he published numerous fragments on Semitic, Egyptian, and Coptic grammar. Already in these studies one of his chief life interests emerges—the discovery of God's revelations to a people. His Hymns of the Old Catholic Church of England showed the breadth of his interests and bespoke a lingering romantic attachment to medieval Cathohcism. This work served better than his more abstruse philological studies to recommend him in high places. The direction of higher education in Prussia was highly centralized. Appointments, important stipends, leaves of absence, and help with publication were all ministerial matters, often referred personally to the King. One of the rewards of a study of Lagarde's correspondence in these years is the view which it affords of the struggles a scholar had to conduct to gain preferment and advantage under such a system. An appreciable amount of this correspondence was with the Kultusministerium, with influential figures at court, or directly with the King concerning personal matters which in American universities would be taken up with an academic department head or a dean. Lagarde sought to make the best use of the Hymns and sounded out Leopold von Gerlach on their possible reception by the King. Gerlach encouraged Lagarde to send the

78

Paul de hagarde

book and a covering letter to the King through him. He promised to introduce it "in the regular course of business." A copy was accordingly sent with another work and Frederick William dutifully acknowledged their receipt in a personal letter to Lagarde. Radowitz, officially fallen from grace after Olmiitz, but still a friend of the King, also received a copy which he acknowledged with an expression of admiration for the contribution Lagarde was making to philology and an assertion that he deemed it his duty to help promising young men. Unfortunately he was not able to help Lagarde to the desired professorship.^® During the summer of 1852 Riickert's efforts to procure an Extraordinariat at Jena for his young friend proved in vain. With Lagarde's stipend nearly exhausted, Baron Bunsen, Prussian ambassador to the Court of St. James, presumably at the instigation of Rückert, secured from the King himself a grant which enabled Lagarde to travel to London and make use of the rich manuscript resources of the British Museum—especially the recently acquired Syrian manuscripts. He gratefully accepted the stipend though, as he was fond of pointing out later, it derived from the hand of the King, not the state.*^ With Riickert's best wishes and sage advice not to "overburden his stomach" at the British Museum, he set out for London, arriving October 6, 1852. His reaction on meeting Bunsen gives us an interesting indication of his growing sense of mission. "When we met, the first moments revealed to me that we were very different natures. He was possessed by the thing of the moment and dominated by phantasy, I strove after objects which lay far away but were more practical; he was simply the scholar, I wished to bring my studies to bear in some practical way on the life of my people." Notwithstanding, he went to live in Bunsen's

The Berlin Period

79

household and established a pleasant intimacy with Bunsen and his family. Lagarde's social awkwardness did not seem to prejudice his position in the diplomat's circle, and Bunsen congratulated him on his tactfulness. He was even urged to follow the family to its seaside retreat and visited frequently at St. Leonards-On-Sea in the late spring and summer of 1853." Bunsen was a member of the Wochenblatt group, and, hence, though he had remained on friendly terms with the King, was out of favor with the reactionaries at the Prussian court. He had strongly opposed the settlement at Olmütz in 1850 and was equally opposed to the London Protocols which recognized Danish royal rights in the Duchies. When Lagarde arrived in London, Bunsen had returned to earlier scholarly interests to get his mind off these political disappointments. His interests were old church history and liturgy, and the scholarly and linguistic attainments of his protégé were an invaluable help.*'^ Bunsen's influence on the political thought of his young friend is hard to estimate though not without some significance. Certainly, Bunsen represented some of the ideals which Lagarde was to foster. Bunsen's regard for unfettered scholarship and his aid and patronage of scholars and scientific expeditions must have impressed Lagarde who later demanded that high-placed individuals bear responsibilities of this kind. Bunsen was a cardinal example of a nobleman contributing his talents and the advantages of his estate to the service of the nation. He was firm in his attachment to the king and despised the bureaucratic tendencies of the government. His passion for German unity was strong and his political ideas were a compound of romantic conservative and moderate liberal. His hostility for Russia and his contempt for Austria were unconcealed. In

8o

Paul de Lagarde

all of these views, Lagarde was to resemble his benefactor. His residence in London gave Lagarde perspective. As he moved about in diplomatic circles, he became acutely aware of the actual weakness of Prussia and of the potential strength of Germany. Yet, as he looked across the North Sea, he saw that a resurgent Germany could not be the product of political change alone but must follow a national regeneration. As he compared Germany to England, the comparison was flattering to the latter. He admired the English nobility for their conspicuous role in public affairs and he was impressed by the devotion of the people to their monarch. Unlike Marx, then in London, he found no spirit of reaction or oppression. He approvingly observed English national pride which he took to be a form of old Germanic Geist. He ardently wished that Germany could have such a happy national life. His experience abroad did not change essentially the intellectual orientation which his early Berlin years had produced. It did serve as a precipitant. In his letters to Anna we can discern the drift of thought which he was to elaborate the next year in his first political essay, Konservativ?.*^ In January, 1853, Lagarde interrupted his work in London for a two-months' visit to Paris where he sampled the rich manuscript holdings of the Bibliotheque Imperiale. Shortly after his arrival he witnessed the procession from Notre Dame following the marriage of the Emperor. He was struck by the appearance of the crowd which lined the street and shouted their vives. They seemed to be drifters, ringers, a mob, but not really the people. His conviction deepened that anything good, genuine, and lasting must come from the bosom of the folk.^® In Paris he became acquainted with such French scholars as Ernst Renan and Etienne Quatremere who were to ad-

The Berlin Pertod

8i

mire his writings more highly than some of his fellow Germans. A close friendship developed with Renan and an active correspondence flourished between them in the fifties. Kenan's letters reveal a very high regard for his German friend. "You are the best of friends," he wrote, "you have been a great help to me—there is no one whose judgment I value as yours." Although Kenan's letters show clearly his well-known German sympathies, the correspondence did not survive the lengthening span of time which separated the two scholars and—as it were, a small but ominous sign of the times—the cleavage of their two cultures in a time of immoderate nationalism.®" In the late summer of 1853, laden with copies of Syrian manuscripts whose editing and publishing were to occupy the next decade, Lagarde returned to Halle. Cureton, the British orientalist and curator of the Syrian manuscripts, had withheld important manuscripts bearing on the Syrian gospels. Accordingly, Lagarde could not prepare, as he had hoped, an edition of the Syrian New Testament. Despite this disappointment, things looked brighter to him, perhaps, than ever before or after.®^ The prospects for a good university post and a brilliant academic career were very favorable, Lagarde had studied under the best philologists and theologians of Germany. He had an almost unparalleled mastery of ancient and oriental languages. He had been honored by a research grant from the King himself and had had the invaluable experience of working with the rich supply of new materials in London and Paris. Moreover, he returned home carrying the most flattering recommendations from eminent British and French scholars. The French orientalist, Eugene Burnhof, sent letters full of praise for the fragments the young scholar had already published. But the appointment did not

82

Paul de Lagar de

come. In the first place reviews of materials published while at HaUe had not elicited in Germany the praise bestowed upon them by foreign scholars. This tended to keep university doors closed to him. Moreover, his pronounced antiHegelianism was offensive to many university circles. An equally formidable obstacle was the resentment of the bureaucracy aroused by his Konservativ? written in London, and his address, later published as Uber die gegenwärtigen Aufgaben der deutschen Politik, delivered upon his return to Berlin in 1853. These utterances which contained in bold, biting language the essence of Lagarde's critique of the government hardly endeared him to men in high places.®^ In the spring of 1854, he and Anna were married and realizing that a professorship was not to be had, at least for the time being, he was led to accept reluctantly a position in the Friedrich Werderschen Gymnasium in Berlin. Only after fourteen years of disappointments and frustration did he leave this employment which he took as a temporary expedient.®® During these years the coveted appointment seemed at hand several times. In 1860, a call to Halle was interrupted only at the last moment, and in 1863, he hoped for an appointment at Giessen. Indeed, the failure to go to Halle in i860 he always considered the critical reverse in his fortune. If he could have gone to Halle and, thus, have saved eight productive years, he believed he could have finished his gigantic project of a critical edition of the Septuagint.®* His correspondence reveals the many sources to which Lagarde appealed for help in seeking a university appointment. In vain did some prominent people labor in his behalf. His old patron Leopold von Gerlach tried to help. Bunsen wrote Minister Reimer urging that Lagarde richly deserved

The Berlin Period

83

a professorship and counseled Lagarde "to keep knocking and you will not be forgotten." Alexander von Humboldt interested himself in Lagarde and tried to help him. Even foreigners were concerned. A n English friend wrote that he could not imagine that things would not soon be better. Rather misjudging Lagarde's temper, he quoted St. Paul on resisting the devil. "I say, resist Prussia and all despotisms, and they will fly from you." Lagarde, despite his disappointments, was not coming around to a revolutionary, democratic position as the Englishman would have known if he had read Lagarde's Konservativ?.^^ It is not altogether easy to understand why the ministry did not find a place for so able, erudite, and well-recommended a young man. Lagarde's explanation that he was politically unacceptable no doubt has much merit. The fifties was a period of reaction, and academic freedom in Germany suffered. Certainly, Lagarde's religious views were by this time sufficiently unorthodox to raise doubts about the wisdom of appointing him to a position on any theological faculty. There remained only professorships on philosophical faculties, and openings within areas of Lagarde's competence did not occur with great frequency. Lagarde, of course, had to compete with other able and well-recommended young men. Finally, Lagarde's publications were mostly highly annotated texts in some ancient Near Eastern language, likely to be used and appreciated only by a few specialists. Reputations are not rapidly built by such labors. The frustration of this second Berlin period is strikingly evident in his Ankündigung einer neuen Ausgabe der griechischen Übersetzung des alten Testaments. The title suggests a scholarly impersonal report on projected work. Actually, the piece contains long, rather morbid, autobiographical passages. He laments the onerous duties of school

84

Faul de hagarde

teaching and the few hours left in the week for scholarly work. He feels that there are hundreds who can fill his position as a school teacher, but none who can accomplish studies which he has set for himself alone. His meager income, he complains, offers subsistence but little left over for books or expeditions to foreign libraries. Some passages become veritable orgies of self-pity. "Since my fifteenth year I have always had to swim against the current. Without encouragement or counsel I have applied myself with indefatigable industry, yet always have I been confronted with obstacles intentionally put in my way." ®® Despite his disappomtments and bitterness, Lagarde, while in Berlin, was not the more or less eccentric recluse which he became in Göttingen. He retained a sturdy if unorthodox faith which contained a persistent note of hope. "Earthly life appears to me so brief, but I go beyond it in my thoughts. The consciousness of eternity quickens me. Thus, can I easily surmount the rough places and unpleasantness along the way. The wagon of life rolls on, and we approach a better state." He and Anna carried on a fairly active social life. They were friendly with the Rückerts, with Jacob Grimm, and with Radowitz. They had entree to high circles which included army generals (von Brandt and von Pfuel), artists (Wilhelm Hensel and Johanna Wagner), government ofiicials, and writers ( Varnhagen von Ense). In contrast to his later experience in Göttingen, Lagarde had cordial relations with his colleagues, and, indeed, with everyone—"Jews, Catholics, and good-for-nothings . . . he was the friend of everyone who would be friendly with him." " Nor was public-school teaching an unmitigated burden. T o be sure he could complain to a professor in Oldenberg in 1863 that his desire for a professorship was solely a

The Berlin Period

85

question of "the possibility of living," that is, of living with his work. The hardest part of teaching was the preemption of long hours each day which he believed he owed to his work. He did not, however, direct his resentment against his students. As Anna wrote: "The happiness and reward which derived from these years, came from the affection which subsisted between teacher and students. The students, but also their parents, placed the highest confidence in him. He was like a pastor to them." ®® The report of the Berlin magistrates in 1866 on the occasion of Lagarde's resignation noted that "although he constantly occupied himself with the most serious scholarly work, he, nevertheless, was always readily available to his students. He thought much of his students, and they did of him, and he wished to exercise an influence on their development." Throughout his life Lagarde continued to receive letters of affection from his old Berlin students.®® The fifties witnessed Lagarde's first political essays. Konservativ?, written in 1853 while he was still in London, was a kind of soul-searching piece of work in which Lagarde posed and answered the question of whether he could be a member of the Conservative Party. His answer was "no," and he set forth as an alternative to the reigning conservatism the rudiments of that radical conservatism which persisted as a central idea in all of his subsequent writing. Upon his return to Germany, he was given the opportunity to expand his ideas and to criticize the current political, and, indeed, social and intellectual situation in Germany, when a group of friends asked him to prepare an address outlining his views. This address, given at Halle, was later published under the title Uber die gegenwärtige Aufgaben der deutschen Politik. Here he confronted the German Question, elaborated his conception of a germanized Mittel-

86

Paul de hagarde

europa, and raged at German life and culture of the midcentury. This is one of Lagarde's basic works. These two works which defined the essence of his thought concerning state and nation and culture were followed in 1859 by Uber das Verhältnis des deutschen Staates zu Theologie, Kirche, und Religion. In this essay, which Lagarde called "political," he set forth his basic ideas on theology and the Church. He assigned theology an important role in national life, scathingly criticized the existing confessions, and adumbrated his Die Religion der Zukunft. After 1859 Lagarde's Zeitkritik ceased and was reawakened only in 1874 by his dismay at the new Reich and the course of events in the early seventies. We may explain this hiatus partly by the fact that Lagarde felt obliged to progress more rapidly with his scholarly work. In addition, the sixties was a momentous decade, a decade of the high hopes of the New Era, of the advent of Bismarck, and of great Prussian victories. Lagarde did not escape from sharing in the exultation. "The war must be fought out . . . world history is with Prussia," he wrote in May 1866, and a few days later, "Prussia needs but one righteous victory." In these stirring times he felt little compulsion to crusade. Only once, in 1867, at the height of the Luxemburg crisis, did he feel that he must contribute something, and this took the form only of a new edition of the Verhältnis.'^ By 1865 Lagarde decided that the time had come for "energetic steps." Either he must be free to pursue his studies or abandon the hopes of ever making significant progress on the Septuagint. Using the good offices of his friend General von Brandt, he appealed directly to the King. The King responded to this appeal; commencing at Easter 1866, Lagarde received a salary from the state treasury and was relieved of his teaching.®^

The Berlin Period

87

Assured of an adequate income, Lagarde and Anna withdrew to the quiet of Schleusingen for three happy and industrious years. The collecting and annotating of manuscripts went on apace. Libraries and archives cooperated splendidly. Even Napoleon III did "a little favor" by making some French manuscripts available to him. His relations with government ofEcials improved especially after the publication of the Gesammelten Abhandlungen which were well received. He even found some words of appreciation for several officials who were favorably representing the nature and importance of his work to other scholars and to the ministry. Only the necessity of publishing, at his own expense, materials too abstruse and specialized to attract more than a meager handful of buyers, and the dearth, in his judgment, of adequately trained young men upon whom he could rely for assistance were matters for complaint at Schleusingen.®^ In 1869 the long-awaited call came from an hitherto unexpected quarter—Göttingen. He received the chair of oriental languages. The nineteen years which had elapsed since leaving Berlin for Halle had transformed him from an energetic student to a mature scholar engaged in a prodigious project, had opened up to him the wider world of Germany and Europe without having obscured the romantic notions and the ideals of his younger days, and had seen the publication of his first and basic political essays. A new life in Göttingen and life in a new Germany were at hand. Neither, however, opened up the utopia for which he had longed, and he turned in the years ahead ever more decidedly against what he regarded as the evils of his time.

CHAPTER

III

The G'òttingen Period

J

η the last days of March, 1869, Lagarde and his wife arrived in Göttingen. Faithful to his teaching that each man should be a monarch in his own realm, Lagarde speedily set about building a house into which they moved the next year. A massive, forbidding structure of brick, with remarkably simple and stern Hnes, it stands yet on the hill above the university, an eloquent testament to the character of its builder. The year, 1869, was not the most favorable moment for the reception of Prussians in Hanover. The War of 1866 and the annexation of Hanover to Prussia were still fresh in mind. Many Hanoverians were still loyally supporting the Welfish House in its struggle against Prussia to retain its property. Although Lagarde was German rather than narrowly Prussian in outlook, the simple fact could not be obscured that a Prussian was assuming Ewald's chair made empty by the "tyranny" of the Prussian King. Ewald, who had recently published a highly favorable review of Lagarde's work, refused the new professor the courtesy of a seat when Lagarde came to pay his respects. Albrecht Ritschl, the noted theologian, who had often visited Lagarde in Berlin, and with whom Lagarde had shared many pleasant hours of animated conversation, was scarcely more

The Göttingen Period

89

friendly. Lagarde found Göttingen society divided into "circles which avoided one another," and that access to any of them w^ould be difficult for him.^ The war in 1870 engendered some enthusiasm for the Fatherland in Göttingen. On July 15 Lagarde and his wife stood in the station to glimpse the King as he rode through and noted with satisfaction that the Hochs and hurrahs seemed to be sincere. Living outside of the town, Lagarde relied on young friends to bring him the latest news which he eagerly received day or night with brimful eyes. Welfish dissidence had not entirely disappeared, however, and Lagarde had to endure hearing some expressions of hope for a Prussian defeat. In 1872 an incident took place which served to set him further apart from the community and was long to rankle in his bosom. Evidently for partisan purposes, a Frenchman by the name of Bordier published early in the year a collection of letters from Germany which had been received at the Tuileries during the time of Napoleon III. The collection included a letter from Lagarde to President Napoleon written in 1851. Accompanied by a copy of Lagarde's Ну 7ms, it was a request that Napoleon confer upon him the right to wear the insignia of the Noble Order of the Liberation founded by Theodor de Neuhof, King of Corsica, whom Lagarde claimed as a great-uncle. The stir in local circles caused by the revelation of this "servile beggar's letter," as the press called it, must be understood in light of the recent war and the hostile feeling toward the French which had still not subsided. Lagarde submitted his resignation and planned to move to England. These plans he abandoned when neither the university nor the government found sufficient grounds for his resignation. The episode left its mark. Lagarde could not easily forgive the press

ço

Paul de Lagarde

and others who had distorted this act of childishness and had made it a reproach against the patriotism and selfrespect of the man.^ The uncongeniality of the social environment in Göttingen reinforced his natural inclination to lead a life closelydevoted to his work and his students. The focus of his teaching was the Hebrew, Arabian, and Syriac languages. He had ambitions, not realized, to offer courses in the Old Testament, Dante, and on his old friend, Ernst Renan. The keen personal interest in his students which he had felt as a Gynmasium teacher, he retained as a university professor. Ludwig Schemann, one of Lagarde's best young friends, recalled how Lagarde, though he had little use for students who had their minds on a "place," would "thaw" for those interested in learning, and do all he could for them. Ludwig Techen, whose dissertation had been prepared under Lagarde's direction, wrote feelingly and typically to his old teacher a few weeks before the latter's unexpected death.® "So often I think about you and mention your name, yet so rarely do I have the opportunity to display to you my veneration and devotion . . . thanks to God that He has sent you into the world, and, especially my gratitude since I had the good fortune personally to associate with you." * Lagarde had an abiding interest in the university library and in the Gesellschaft der Wissenschaft at Göttingen. N o member of the faculty was a more constant user, creative critic, and general promoter of the university than Lagarde. His interest in the Gesellschaft der Wгssenschφ dated from the moment of his election in 1872 as a replacement for Georg Waitz. The secretary of the society declared after Lagarde's death that there hardly had been so regular and zealous a participant in its meetings and transactions.

The Göttingen Period

91

Lagarde's elaborate plans for the society's future are discussed in the next chapter.® Lagarde traveled frequently during intersemester holidays. His trips were taken either to afford a moment of rest between periods of prodigious activity or to gather new material from the great archival storehouses of Europe. Often both purposes were served by a single trip. His love of nature was gratified by the lonesome stillness of the Schivarzivald, the charm of the Neckar Valley, and the magnificence of the Bavarian Alps. In nature, as in the ancient codices over which he pored, he found the hand of God displayed. Lagarde's years at Göttingen were marred by strife with fellow scholars. Quarrels amongst academicians in Germany have been rather commonplace. They are a sublimated or intellectualized form of dueling, and, indeed, may have their source in this pastime once so cultivated by academic youth. Lagarde was an exception only with regard to the intensity and frequency of his altercations. He was an exception because the extreme demands which he made upon himself as a scholar, he made, also, upon others. His extraordinary sense of obligation openly to state the truth—or what he thought was the truth—made him utterly intolerant of the slightest indication of hypocrisy, dissembling, or insincerity. Whilst not completely exonerating her husband from the common charges that he was spiteful and rancorous, Anna was, in such terms as these, to make an admirable defense of her husband.® His personal experiences no doubt added a measure of asperity to his criticism. His tendency to regard certain classes of scholars—such as theologians whom he called the "Guild"—as beyond respectability, opened the way to

92

Paul de Lagar de

many hard words and counterwords. Moreover, he possessed an almost pathological sensitivity to plagiarism. Many of his publications were texts which he made available in print for the first time, and, accordingly, he had some grounds for his suspicions that authors using these texts were using his work. He particularly resented the unacknowledged appropriation of the rich annotative material which he prepared and published with his texts. He was inclined to believe that any criticism of these texts, which in any way resembled his own, must have been derived from his material. This resentment, whether or not justified, was frequently at the crux of a dispute.^ In the eighties his polemical activities increased in extent and bitterness. In 1880, partly as an answer to some rather harsh criticism of his recently published Symmicta, he published an extraordinary little volume. Aus dem Deutscher Gelehrtenleben, which contains correspondence and reviews of his works and was designed to show the ignorance and maliciousness of his critics. Some of his Anti-Kritik in this decade was plainly vulgar. He assaulted a Munich professor as "too dumb to understand," "witless," and so bad a teacher that his students had a perfectly valid excuse for their inadequacies. Against his colleague, Julius Wellhausen, he displayed a childish spitefulness and wrote to the Kultusminister Althoff, "Yesterday I declared to a colleague that I must close my house to him [Wellhausen] and not even acknowledge his visit by a card. About this declaration I am, as in all things, earnest." ® T w o instances of this strife are particularly noteworthy. Both absorbed considerable time and energy, and one of them became international in scope. His most long-standing feud was with his colleague, Albrecht Ritschl. Ritschl's efforts to give modern meaning and redefinition to Lutheran

The Göttingen Period

93

dogmas cut squarely across Lagarde's efforts to lead the Germans away from dogmatic theology altogether and, in particular, away from Luther whose views Lagarde could not abide. In 1874, Ritschl left a copy of his Rechtfertigung und Versöhnung at Lagarde's home, and the latter wrote a friendly note of thanks from London. Yet, Lagarde could not long conceal his contempt. He soon made clear to Ritschl that he himself was an historian, not a dogmatist, and that as an historian he sought to continue what was living and meaningful in the past and that he despised dogmatic formulas which contained only what was dead. The sharp attacks on Lutheranism in the Deutsche Schriften further chilled relations between the two men.® The break came in 1883, when it was proposed to the university senate that the university should officially celebrate Luther's four-hundredth birthday, November 10, 1884. Ritschl was an enthusiastic sponsor. Lagarde argued that the university should have nothing to do with such a celebration which should rather be held, if at all, by the Lutheran theologians at Göttingen. Ritschl, interpreting Lagarde's views as a calculated insult, was enraged and refused to greet Lagarde on the street. There followed four years of silence between the two colleagues until one night they chanced to meet after a dinner given by the university rector, and Ritschl took Lagarde home in his carriage. Neither this kindness nor Ritschl's death shortly thereafter stayed Lagarde's hand. In 1890 he launched an attack on Ritschl's theology with its emphasis on Luther's doctrine of justification. Characteristically, Lagarde considered this attack an integral part of his offensive against what he regarded as the outmoded and degenerate elements of his time. "I write now as always, without meaning to show love

94

Рлм/ de Lagarde

for or do injury to anyone, only in the service of my Fatherland which I hold it a duty of every good citizen to free from the veneration of false heroes." Lagarde's most noted controversy vi^as w^ith Leopold Zunz. Zunz was a Jewish scholar who had published in translation a collection of medieval Jewish poetry. One of Lagarde's students, Ludwig Techen, had been somewhat critical of the collection in his doctoral dissertation completed in 1883. In consequence, several stinging rebuttals were published and two of them carried the attack from pupil to master. Although understandably indignant, Lagarde might very well have let the matter rest. Instead, he felt obliged to vindicate not only his student and himself, but, as he thought, to turn back a malicious asault on free critical scholarship by men whom he felt to represent a special group rather than the interests of learning in general. He therefore took up the cudgels and setting aside propriety wrote a vitriolic criticism of the work of the recently deceased Zunz, He published it in 1886 under the title Lipman Zunz und seine Verehrer}^ Lagarde's first shafts in this controversy were directed particularly against the author of one of the above-mentioned rebuttals and had much more justification than his subsequent tirade against Zunz. Lagarde pointed out that a dissertation "ought to be a specimen of the erudition of a student, not of his professor," and, therefore, that it was in bad taste to criticize a professor for his student's opinions. Lagarde took Techen's critic to task for having placed the question on a religious plane and having attacked Christian scholars generally. Lagarde then turned to Zunz's work itself and charged him with having translated only poems which tended to glorify the Jews or deprecate the Germans or other medieval Christians. Lagarde hotly contested what he considered Zunz's principal thesis, namely, that in the

The Göttingen Period

95

Middle Ages the Jews were exclusively in the right and that then as always they are an incomparable folk. Lagarde's fury waxed as he wrote, and finally he shook a verbal fist at the Jewish scholar with the petulant exclamation: "There is no doubt that most of these poems have no religious value, but rather belong in a humor sheet." ^^ After the publication of this defense-offense, the affair became international in scope. In London, the Jewish Chronicle took two issues to complete its counterblast against Lagarde. In Vienna, an admirer of Zunz, David Kaufmann, would content himself with nothing less than a book on the subject, Paul de Lagarde's Jüdische Gelehrsamkeit. Kaufmann wished to predicate his argument on "knowledge and fact" not on "confession and feeling." For a time he was as good as his word and made some very telling points against Lagarde's knowledge of the subject. Kaufmann (as others) found it easy to catch Lagarde in inconsistencies. Above all, he resented the attack on Zunz now that the latter had died, and argued with plausibility that "to pull the mane of a dead lion is no heroic deed." Moreover, Kaufmann complained, if Lagarde felt obliged to attack Zunz, why had he waited for the provocation of articles against Techen. Kaufmann, however, gradually drifted into a bitter personal attack on Lagarde and painted him as a combination of buffoon and misanthrope. The affair gradually quieted down but left to Lagarde a legacy of lost time and fresh bitterness.^^ As a controversialist Lagarde revealed both his pettiness and his earnestness. The petty and ridiculous in Lagarde is described by a fellow orientalist and sometime reviewer of Lagarde's works. One remarks in Lagarde, he wrote, the arrogant and slashing tone of his polemic against fellow investigators, the praise for his own works for which he expected public thanks, the tireless effort to establish priority and

ç6

Paul de Lagarde

thus place the personal interest of the investigator over the importance of the thing investigated, the firm belief that nothing was closer to the hearts of others than to persecute him, or silence him, or rob him. He seems to desire that one should cite him when any word he has spoken is used, no matter how commonplace or how long a possession of science.^® On the other hand, one must not overlook the earnest and the ideal. Frau de Lagarde emphasized this side of the man. "It is not a question of the individual Zunz's and Otto's [Ritschl], and never of his own person; it is always a struggle for God against the devil, not the enjoyment of a fight for its own sake . . . Fame he seeks neither for the present nor for the future; he longs only that what he does should count, not for himself, but for all." Lagarde's controversies had serious consequences for both his scholarly and political work. The time and energy given over to polemics were time and energy lost to scholarship. The prospect of bringing his Septuagint studies to fruition was considerably diminished by such profitless activity. The bitterness which the Zunz affair and some lesser altercations aroused was reflected in his political essays in the eighties. His criticism became harder, more exaggerated, and less plausible. Anti-Semitism and other dubious arguments were given more prominence. Had he become more moderate and constructive rather than more abusive in his ripe years, his works might have enjoyed greater weight with thoughtful men. Scholarship Lagarde's Göttingen years were enormously productive of scholarly works ranging over a vast area and with a high purpose. " M y students know that I regard every individual study only as a means to an end, namely, of gaining through

The Göttingen Period

97

the world of man a total view of the Kingdom of God, and that I wish to gain this view as a patriot." " His purpose was to know and serve man, and he believed this could be done only through knowledge of the Kingdom of God. "Even the natural scientist," he wrote, "can scarcely contest that the only really valuable object of study is man." Lagarde's field of interest was as broad as the humanities. Though he taught oriental languages, he always insisted that he was not a philologist but a theologian and historian. His conception of theology was an exceedingly broad one. "The theology," Lagarde wrote to the Kaiser, "which I have cultivated these thirty years and longer is a division of historical science." Theology imposed no strict limitation on his studies which traversed the history and culture of the ancient peoples in whose bosoms the religions of the West arose." In the course of pursuing God's revelations and meaning to ancient man, Lagarde wrote and published incessantly. Yet, no monumental work came from his pen. His principal works, the Gesammelte Abhandlungen, Symmìcta, and Mitteilungen were simply collections of fragments, for the most part drawn from his well-stocked storehouse of edited texts and manuscripts, commentaries, and monographs. The table (p. 98) shows the fields in which he published in the decade of the eighties gives some idea of the multifariousness and apparent fortuitousness of his work.^" This amazing linguistic versatility was equaled by the range of his topical interests. Essays on Semitic names, the origin of the mathematicians' X, and the discovery of cider were the fruit of his curiosity. Jack-in-the-box-like, strange and fascinating molecules of knowledge spring forth from his writings. Here an arresting paragraph on Arabian botany, now a sharp comment on Louis Philippe—such are the

98

Paul de Lagar de

stimulants which offer encouragement to the reader who ventures forth into Lagarde's scholarly writings. Yet, Lagarde did have a lodestar around which he revolved in his highly erratic orbit. His ambition was to prepare an exhaustively critical edition of the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament. This translation was made in the third century B.C., and the translators had worked from Scholarly publications by Paul de Lagarde between 1880 and 1891. Field

General philology Greek Greek and Latin Latin Hebrew Rabbinical Hebrew and Aramaic Arabic

Number

25 26 1 8 22 8 6

Field

Syriac Bactrian Persian Armenian Coptic and Egyptian Paleography Italian

Number

19

Hebrew manuscripts at least a thousand years older than any extant. Since the Hebrew archetype of the present standard version of the Old Testament goes back no further than the time of Christ, and since the compilers of this archetype apparently did not have the use of these older manuscripts, the importance of reconstructing an accurate text of the Septuagint is apparent. The work of reconstruction had to be based upon the most painstaking study of the several versions of the Septuagint and of the innumerable pertinent manuscripts which existed in nearly all the languages of the ancient Near East. This immense labor, for which Lagarde was uniquely prepared, he undertook in the hope that by providing a clearer knowledge of God's

The Göttingen Period

99

revelation to the ancient Hebrews, he would be providing his own people a surer source of truth than they could have through the corrupted biblical texts which they possessed. Lagarde periodically published his intentions and reports of progress in his Septuagint studies. These are remarkable and typical pieces which intermix statements of method and technical problems with recriminations against ministers of state and others whom he imagined to be propelling that stream against which, as he said, he had had to swim all of his life. The first such notice was his Anmerkungen zur griechischen Ubersetzung der Proverbien (1863). Here he set his task. "If we wish to arrive at a clear Hebrew text (for the Old Testament) we must first find the Greek text in its original form . . . All investigations involving the Old Testment must hover in the air if they do not go back to the most nearly verified text." ^^ This work, he asserted, he had begun eighteen years before, surely something of an exaggeration. In 1877, rather prematurely, he published the Vorbemerkungen zu meiner Ausgabe der Septuaginta. This is more nearly a compilation of gravamina than a scholarly notice. The trouble, he complained, went back to his London days when he was not permitted to use the Syrian Gospel and was diverted into editing Syrian manuscripts in order to justify the King's stipend. This "sorry Syrian period," he averred, delayed the beginning of the great work. Then came the long, laborious years of school teaching when the preliminary work of studying and editing the necessary texts could proceed only with painful slowness. Moreover, he had to publish at his own expense on a meager publicschool salary. In 1870, he continued, the war made French manuscripts inaccessible to him and his lectures at Göttingen absorbed much of his time. Though the government had

100

Paul de Lagarde

offered to provide the money for an assistant, Lagarde protested that he could find no one competent enough among the students, most of whom were more interested in their future position than in scholarship. Then, too, "I could not leave unwritten my political essays." ^^ Five years later a new announcement appeared, Ankündigung einer neuen Ausgabe der griechische Ubersetzung der alten Testaments. This work reflected his rising wrath against a culture which, he held, depended on the whims of the holders of power and no longer wanted any real knowledge of God. "I would not lay down my pen, but throw it away," he wrote. He found the economic situation as unfavorable as the cultural, for the cost of printing was so high that few could afford his books. Lament follows hard on lament in this veritable jeremiad.^® In 1889 came a final manifesto, Noch einmal meine Ausgabe der Septuaginta. Here he gave a detailed statement of his method and declared that he could only hope at best to publish the new critically revised text without commentary, Typically, he appended a copy of a letter which he had sent to the Kaiser in 1883. The letter acknowledged past favors and requested that copies of his Librorum Veteris Testamenti Canonicorum be purchased for Gymnasium libraries.^^ If Lagarde had no other center of interest, he did have other areas of interest. One of these was the New Testament, the study of which well suited his knowledge and conception of theology. Several New Testament studies appeared before his Göttingen years, including the Coptic New Testament and a critical analysis of New Testament sources. Mostly in abeyance in the seventies and eighties, his interest in this area was rekindled by his discovery in Rome in 1890 of a new version of the Syrian Gospels. Be-

The Göttingen Period

loi

lieving this manuscript threw important new light on the meaning of the Gospels, he set about preparing an edition and conceived the plan for a popular work under the title Die Evangelien geordnet, übersetzt, und erklärt. Writing to Anna from London in August 1891, he linked this book to his Deutsche Schriften and proclaimed it his duty to bring it to the people. Neither was finished at the time of his death, but the edition of the Syrian Gospels was completed and published by one of his students, Alfred Rahlfs, in An appreciable amount of Lagarde's work belongs to the field of church history. He prepared critical editions of both the Syrian and Greek texts of the apostolic constitutions. His Analecta Syriaca (1858) contained letters between the bishops of Rome and Alexandria, and fragments from Diodorus of Tarsos, Nestorius, and others. He published with full commentaries the writings of Hippolytus, and pieces of Tertullian and Gregorius Thaumaturgus. He interested himself in Clement especially, wrote a number of small articles concerning him, and published a Syrian text, dementis Romani recognitiones syriace, and an edition of Clement's Homilies. Although, as Lagarde said, he resisted the devil's temptations to become a Semitic and general oriental philologist, his resistance was not entirely successful for he could never bound an investigation by its strict theological significance. Accordingly, a stream of essentially philological works issued from his study from his earliest scholarly days. He found a particular fascination in tracing the dissemination of Semitic words through neighboring linguistic groups as in his Horae Aramaicae (1847). He sought to make religious and cultural differences between ancient peoples turn on linguistic differences, a line of thinking significant

102

Paul de Lagar de

for his nationalism. His passion for words and their usage by the people led him into such excursive ventures as a treatise on ancient agriculture, Geoponicon in sermonem Suriacum versorum quae supersunt (i860). He published innumerable fragments and notes concerning Persian literature and history. Indeed, his fondness for Persian, born in the old days víáth Rückert, always remained. His Coptic studies came to fruition in his Aegyptiaca (1883) and Orientalia (1879). Miscellaneous works in Armenian, Bactrian, Greek, and Latin came easily from the pen of this extraordinary scholar. Lagarde's scholarly flights extended even into medieval and modern life. His Hymns of the Old Catholic Church of England and his interest in medieval synagogue poetry have already been mentioned. Partly for use by his students in Arabic, he prepared an edition of Hariri's Maqamat, a popular Arabian tale written around 1100. One of the most incongruous of his enterprises was his edition of Le opere italiane di Giordano Bruno (1888). This work was an excursion into an area far removed in time and subject matter from his Septuagint studies pressing so heavily upon him. It consumed two thousand hours, and he had to foot the bill for publication. Why did he do it? Certainly not, he maintained, for any poUtical reason; least of all for the Progressive Party, which owed something to this independent thinker. Rather, he said, he did it for science. He did it because of the importance of such a work for romance philology and because he hoped that his edition might "help in gaining knowledge of a man who was more than a martyr, a man who first represented the Weltanschauung of today's intellectual leaders." One wonders whether Bruno's intellectual and philological importance were the real reasons for his interest.

The Göttingen Period

103

Bruno, he wrote, was a man "who painted dirt as dirt" and wrote as "a prophet . . . full of the future." Did not Lagarde see Bruno standing against the sixteenth century as he conceived himself standing against the nineteenth century? Lagarde's labor was prompted by his sense of kinship.^e Lagarde's status as a scholar has been widely acclaimed by other scholars. Karl Siegfried, Protestant theologian, wrote of Lagarde's "phenomenal knowledge," "demonic memory," and brilliant and individuaHstic interpretation of his subject. Julius Wellhausen, orientalist and theologian, spoke of Lagarde's "astonishing and extensive knowledge." Even an opponent in the ranks of Protestant orthodoxy, Frantz Delitzsch, admitted that in the breadth and depth of his learning Lagarde had few peers. Foreign scholars were extravagant in their admiration. Renan used such laudatory expressions as "a very elegant piece," "full of finesse and penetration." Professor Samuel Driver, English Hebrew scholar, wrote in the Contemporary Revieiv: In the comprehensiveness of his learning Lagarde stands absolutely alone; others may be more conversant with particular departments, none can compete with him all around; while an accomplished Semitic scholar, he is also master of many other languages and many other subjects as well . . . T h e versatility of his genius is seen most impressively in the many articles, papers, discussions, reviews which flow in almost uninterrupted succession from his pen. It is here that the great wealth of his learning amazes the reader, impels the reviewer to despair. Whatever be the subject under discussion—the meaning of some recondite word, the sense of a passage from the Fathers, the reading of a manuscript, the explanation of a passage from the L X X or other versions—he illustrates it from every source and every side with a brilliance, acuteness and originality which may truly be said to be unsurpassed.

I04

Paul de Lagar de

In New York City in 1893 Professor George Moore, American orientalist, pronounced a eulogy on Lagarde and his contributions to knowledge.^'^ Strength and weakness often conjoin. So it was in Lagarde. Incapable of governing his passion for the concrete or possessing any sense of form or proportion, unable to extrude personal grievances from his learned writings, lacking the pertinacious self-discipline required to pursue the main thread of an investigation, naive in assuming political significance for his scholarship, without a style of presentation which could open his writings to the educated public, without, in short, possessing any gift for simple meaningful organization and communication, Lagarde failed to give the world the full benefit of his incredible erudition. Political and Social Writings The greater portion of Lagarde's political and social essays belongs to the Göttingen period. His main conceptions had already been laid down in the early essays. Bismarck's management of the Empire and the waxing materialism of German life were the précipitants of his renewed literary activity which applied these conceptions as a critique. Of course, much that Bismarck and Prussia had achieved could only be applauded by the neoromantic scholar. The glorious victories, the heroic leadership, the foundation of the Empire, the enthusiasm and Geist manifested by the people, the sense of destiny—these phenomena, he knew, made the times great. Yet, the shape and character which the new Empire was taking grated on his romantic sensibilities and ideals. His worst fears concerning parliamentary government seemed to be realized by the Reichstag which he saw as an arena where special interests battled for their selfish ends or, otherwise, as an instrument of Bismarck's

The Göttingen Period

105

personal rule. The "unitary" state seemed to be placing new power over the nation in the ministries in Berlin. Bismarck's efforts to stabilize rather than expand the Empire were a blow at Lagarde's cherished Middle European dreams. Moreover, the national leadership failed to avail itself of this great moment in German history to reform the churches, the schools, and in general to introduce a reign of ideals. On the contrary, the coming of the Empire seemed to Lagarde a blow to the last remnant of the German spirit and of German idealism. This was the vantage ground from which Lagarde opened his literary fire in the seventies. Lagarde revived his Zeitkritik in 1872 with the publication of a version of Uber das Verhältnis des deutschen Staates zu Theologie, Kirche und Religion, revised and expanded in terms of recent events. He recognized, as he admitted in the introduction, that the work with its stronger stress on the person of Jesus and His place in the life of the nation, was being sent out into a "hostile world." He frankly admitted that he had little hope that many would be convinced by him but regarded it as a duty "in such critical times as ours" that as many people as possible be aroused to the situation. In 1874 appeared a sharp essay, Diagnose, provoked by the Kulturkampf and attacking the crude use of state power against the church. No friend of the Catholic Church, Lagarde wanted a renewed German spirit to assert itself against ecclesiasticism. Diagnose formed a part of the collection Politische Aufsätzen, which included Lagarde's previously published political writings. In the introduction he disclaimed any intention of attempting to capitalize on the discontent of the time (reflecting, perhaps, his old aversion to demagoguery). He did urge, however, that the general insecu-

I об

Paul de hagarde

rity, economic and political, was a product of the "Provisorium" of 1866 and 1871 which unfortunately had separated North Germany and Austria. One detects here the sense of mission which Lagarde increasingly possessed. "Since our contemporaries have neither the desire or capacity to think through the consequences [of the present course], it appears desirable to place this material more readily before them." A spate of writing followed comprising Uber die gegenwärtige Lage des deutschen Reichs (1875), Zum Unterrichtsgesetze (1878), and Die Religion der Zukunft (1878). Together with Diagnose, these works constituted the basis of his critical attack on the Bismarckian Germany of the seventies and contained his program for reform. The first is Lagarde's most important critical work. It, almost certainly, is the most searching criticism of the Empire produced in that decade. Restating his older views on German Middle Europe, Lagarde argued its necessity as a point of departure for a reborn Germany. He proceeded to examine nearly every phase of German life—economics and the social question, the tax question then being much debated, morality and ideals, the parliamentary system, the role of crown and princes, the folk, government corruption, Kultur, Protestantism and Catholicism, the schools and universities, the Jews. Zum Unterrichtsgesetze dealt with the general question of educational reform, a question on which Lagarde, as an old teacher, could write with considerable warmth. He especially directed an attack against the general education law of 1877, which seemed to him to perpetuate some of the worst evils of the Gymnasium, system. Die Religion der Zukunft was a companion piece to über die gegenwärtige Lage and a critique of existing Christianity, Catholic and

The Göttingen Period

107

Protestant. It developed ideas adumbrated in Uber das Verhältnis des deutschen Staates zu Theologie, Kirche und Religion. Die Religion stated Lagarde's national religion, which is to say, it performed a synthesis of the religious and moral with the social and political.^® Early in 1878 Lagarde made a new collection of his political and religious writings and published them on Easter, 1878, as the first volume of the Deutsche Schriften, a work destined to go through many editions, to become widely known and of perennial endurance in Germany, and to be not without influence on subsequent German history. Between Easter, 1878, and February, 1881, Lagarde's pen was not idle. In Die Stellung der Religionsgesellschφen im Staate he developed the implications of his views for ecclesiastical polity. In Noch einmal zum Unterrichtsgesetze he elaborated his views on education. Die Reorganisation des Adels represented the best expression of Lagarde's social theory and appears to have been in part a response to the waxing state socialism of Bismarck. Die Finanzpolitik Deutschlands was an excursion into rather remote waters for Lagarde but reflected his heightened interest in economic questions and is reminiscent (in inspiration, not in content) of the social and economic thought of Fichte. Die graue Internationale was a direct attack on the liberals and found them out in some of their weakest points. These writings together with some poems were published in February, 1881, as the second volume of Deutsche Schriften. In 1886 the two volumes of the Deutsche Schriften were brought together and published along with three new essays as a Gesamtvolksausgabe. The three essays were Trogramm für die konservative Partei Preussens, Uber die Klage dass der deutschen Jugend der Idealismus fehle, and Die nächsten Pflichten deutscher Politik. In the first Lagarde

io8

Paul de Lagar de

defined a party program which anticipated the conservative revolution of the twentieth century. In the second, he at once defended youth and set for them a program which had its impact upon the subsequent youth movement. The third was his final detailed statement of the needs of Germany. The Deutsche Schriften in the form of the Gesamtvolksausgabe has gone through a number of editions. Why did Lagarde take time from his heavy research program to gather together his former writings, prepare introductory and annotative notes, contribute new essays, and see these volumes through the press? Certainly his former publications were hardly sweeping the country in the seventies, and no excuse for such a collection could be found in popular demand. Lagarde himself wrote that his works were receiving notice only "here and there." In 1872 when he had republished the Uber das Verhältnis des deutschen Staates zu Theologie, Kirche und Religion he had fostered hopes of directly influencing legislation and the course of events, particularly in the matter of the Kulturkampf, but in 1878 he admitted to no such hope. He even despaired of stirring up a press controversy and seemed offended that the "loyal press" (i.e., to the government), normally bitingly critical of ideas like Lagarde's, had remained silent, not deigning to notice him.®® He wrought the labor of the prophet, and this labor expressed itself in his political as well as his scholarly writings. He felt a call to stand against his time, its neglect of values, its spiritual apathy, its "un-Germanness," its immorality. He knew that there still were those men, submerged though they might be, "to whom truth and Fatherland stood higher than party," in whom a responsive chord might yet be struck, for whom his words would come as a "blessing." He felt an assurance that, however gloomy the present, "the

The Göttingen Period

109

right wШ come with the future." He would pass the work to other hands, but where were they? The mission seemed to rest with him.®^ "Since all about me remain silent at a time when the situation urgently demands that a voice be raised, then I must speak out though I would gladly have left the task to someone else." That he wrote and dated the preface to the first volume of the Deutsche Schriften on Easter seems no mere coincidence. Whatever Lagarde lacked in orthodoxy, he made up for in the sheer earnestness of his faith. However closely he might scrutinize the life of Christ with the scholar's critical eye, the powerful message of the Resurrection was not lost upon him. He wished for Germany a message of hope and believed that he was constructing one. Perhaps the most illuminating remark Lagarde made about the Deutsche Schriften was a parenthetical insertion in a scholarly brochure: "I offer as a qualification for interpreting the prophets my own prophetical capacity as demonstrated in my Deutsche Schriften." He had been moved to write from prophetic inspiration, and believed that the product of his pen reflected this inspiration.®® Between 1884 and 1891 Lagarde published four large volumes of miscellany under the title Mitteilungen. This extraordinary collection of "Lagardiana" ranges through a wide array of topics—the origin of the mathematical symbol X, problems in Hebrew syntax, the social usefulness of theologians, financial and political matters, the Jewish question, and others. The Mitteilungen are hybrid works in which abstruse scholarship and biting Zeitkritik follow one another in a random sort of way. These works are, in fact, a kind of external representation of Lagarde's mind. They reveal par excellence his inability to make any rational classification of the work which he did. They indicate his

lio

Paul de Lagar de

impulsiveness and eager desire to race up and discover the source of every rivulet encountered in his scholarly meanderings. They prove the colossal learning but, also, display the pedantry of the man.®^ Most of all the Mitteilungen reveal Lagarde's conception that all of his work was of one piece. Though the strange sequence of scholarly fragments, vituperation, Zeitkritik, and self-defense bewilder the reader, all of these things in Lagarde's mind were a part of an effort to bring the German nation to rebirth. Political Interests and Correspondence While Lagarde was deeply interested in current political events and his works stimulated by them, he remained surprisingly aloof from any political activity except for his remarkable efforts to influence people in high places by personal correspondence and through gifts of his works. The student of Lagarde's correspondence is struck by the number of letters to such persons written by this politically obscure scholar. His sense of self-righteousness and missionary zeal account in part for these letters. The character of the Prussian and German state help to explain them as well. The more nearly absolute and the more concentrated and paternalistic the state power, the more natural and necessary to appeal to the few executors of the state power. Writing to one's deputy in the Reichstag was not particularly effective. Then, too, the university professor stood and stands in Germany relatively high in society and the state. Some of Lagarde's letters of this kind were purely personal, a few ludicrous. He wrote Napoleon III in 1869 to enlist his help in having returned books which he had lent to a Frenchman. Through Prince Hohenlohe-Schillungs-

The Göttingen Period

ni

fürst, he sought the aid of the Emperor of Austria in borrowing a manuscript from the State Library in Vienna. Through Crown Prince Frederick, he even asked for the intervention of Queen Victoria on behalf of a friend. The most extraordinary is the letter to the minister of the interior asking recourse against Bürgermeister Merkel who had ordered Lagarde to cease dumping sewerage in a ditch near his house.®® Many of Lagarde's letters to highly placed persons were aimed at influencing the course of events. As the FrancoPrussian War approached a climax, Lagarde wrote a long letter to King William expressing his fear that Bismarck was forgetting Luxemburg, "this crownland of a German Imperial House." Not to return it to the Fatherland, he urged, would, after so many sacrifices in the war, be "an ineradicable blemish upon the shining shield of German honor." He sent a similar letter to King Ludwig II of Bavaria and to the Catholic Church historian, Ignaz Döllinger, in Munich asking the latter to make the cause his own for "what Germany wins is won for the Kingdom of God." In 1873 when the waxing Kulturkampf was provoking a strong reaction from the Catholic Center Party, Lagarde sent a copy of his Uber das Verhältnis des deutschen Staates zu Theologie, Kirche und Religion to the Centrist leader Reichensperger. Lagarde admitted that he was an opponent of the Center, but an opponent looking not for war but peace. He hoped, evidently, that his appeal for a national religion might find a hearing at a moment when the controversy between church and state was the leading political issue. In 1883, still seeking the support of the state for his religious ideas, he wrote a letter, expounding his conception of theology, to the Kaiser himself.®®

112

Faul de hagarde

Lagarde's passion for a Germanized Middle Europe gave him a persistent interest in southeast European affairs. He looked hopefully upon the selection of a German prince, Alexander of Battenberg, as ruler of Bulgaria. Alexander's independence of his patron, the Russian Tsar, in the Bulgarian-Serbian War of 1885 led Lagar de to conceive of Battenberg as a German champion against the Russians. He sent at least a half dozen letters of encouragement to the prince and his father, Alexander of Hesse. He sent them copies of his Deutsche Schriften, which contained his ideas for Middle Europe, and even sent money.®'^ In 1886 he sent copies of the new and complete edition of his Deutsche Schriften to Prince William and to Bismarck. Long pleading letters accompanied these gifts. The needs of the Fatherland, in every way, are so great, he wrote Bismarck, that every patriot must feel a pressing desire to see these proposals realized. He even sent the Deutsche Schriften and some other works to the Pope, partly in appreciation for the very rare privilege which he had of using the Vatican Library, and partly because he could at least hope that this high citadel of spiritual authority might not be completely impenetrable to his ideas. Lagarde continued this activity into the chancellorship of Caprivi who received one of Lagarde's essays in 1891.®® These individualistic efforts to influence developments were without immediately measurable results. The impact of his ideas was greater upon less august levels of society as is shown in Chapter V L Yet, that Lagarde throughout the busy Göttingen years constantly was making such efforts, reveals a basic fact, namely, that his concern was not simply to teach principles but to influence action. His orientation was political, not philosophical. His reluctance, nay, his refusal to become involved in ordinary political activity

The Gömngen Period

113

either through association with political parties or with pressure groups was not the consequence of philosophical detachment, but temperament. He was not temperamentally able to compromise any part of his views, and compromise is a sine qua non of organized political activity. In 1853, the young romantic had rejected the suggestion of the Conservatives that he become a practicing politician. In 1889, he found it even easier to reject the urging of the Deutsche Reform Verein in Cassel that he run for the Reichstag under the banner of the Deutschsoziale Partei. Lagarde's reply was unequivocal. He refused to stand in the election if the group nominated him.®® Almost without exception, he turned down invitations to join, write for, or support groups with a political or ideological interest. Efforts of the Göttingen chapter of the Society of German Students in 1885, and of a local, antiSemitic merchants' group in 1891 to gain Lagarde's support were unavailing. He summarily refused to participate in a periodical for Richard Wagner and his ideas. He rejected with asperity the request of the anti-Semitic writer, Theodor Fritsch, that Lagarde allow his picture to be published in the Antisemitische Volkskalander for 1889. Lagarde's aversion to fighting at the level of popular polemic is nowhere more clearly revealed than in the sharp exchange of letters between him and Fritsch in 1890. Fritsch requested Lagarde to examine the draft of the tenth edition of his Antisemiten-Katechismus. Lagarde's refusal led Fritsch to deplore this neglect of duty.^" "But so it is with our scholars . . . They wish to be kings of science but not of their people—enthroned and unapproachable on the footstools of their wisdom." Lagarde was not slow in delivering a hot answer in which he made it plain that he would brook no insolence.^^

114

^^ Lagar de

End of a Career The summer of 1891 saw Lagarde, at 64, deep in his labors, still hopeful of completing his critical Old Testament studies and, indeed, laying plans for an edition of the New Testament. His work and the welfare of Germany still appeared to him as one. Writing to Anna while on a research trip he made this clear: "I hold it as a duty to give it [a new translation of the Gospels] to the people and wish to see it through the same press as the Deutsche Schriften" A few weeks later he asserted that his New Testament edition must satisfy both the world of scholars and the people. He would publish it in the form of an highly annotated Greek text, but, as well, in German translation, shorn of apparatus which the people would not need for their faith. During the year his health began to fail him, and by autumn his trouble had been diagnosed as stomach cancer requiring an operation. Unwilling to submit to surgery until his notes and papers had been put in order, he worked assiduously throughout the fall so that if the worst happened his material would be of use to others. In December, at the beginning of the holidays, he decided the appropriate time had come. Characteristically, he wished to face the difficult thing alone and set out on foot for the hospital. Anna, peering through the curtains, saw the tall figure pause at the top of the hill, take a lost look at the house of which he was so proud, and then disappear. The operation appeared to be a success, and the next day Lagarde was able to chat briefly with Anna. But a fever set in the following day, and on December 22, 1891, Paul de Lagarde quietly breathed his last.·*® No one but his wife and physician had known the serious nature of his malady.

The Göttingen Pertod

115

When the university community became aware of the courageous manner in which he had carried on during the fall, his stature was immeasurably heightened in the eyes of his colleagues. Lagarde was interred on Christmas morning. A bright sun glistened on a fresh coat of snow. Most of the faculty postponed their domestic celebrations and came out to honor him. The university rector, Wilamowitz-Moellendorf, spoke a eulogy which has every ring of sincerity. He lauded "the man who was superior to us all in the power of work and delight therein [and who] has had to drop the arms, which were just ready to begin to bind up the sheaves of his life's work." He asserted that Lagarde had sown "the seeds of guiding thoughts and feelings which have sprung up in a thousand hearts," and he recognized in Lagarde the earnest searcher whose eye penetrated far deeper than others of his generation.^^ Remembering his own struggles and sacrifices to bring his works into print and harboring a deep concern for the future of "pure scholarship" Lagarde had directed that his splendid library, which he had collected over forty years, be sold and the proceeds used to create an endowment fund at Göttingen to assist young scholars in publishing their materials. Through the efforts of Paul Haupt, a former student of Lagarde's then at Johns Hopkins, the collection was purchased by New York University.^®

Lagarde's character, like that of most men, had two faces. He was, no doubt, petty, vindictive, naïve, lacking in the talent for critical self-examination, narrow and too little prone to offer resistance to his prejudices. His idealism was partly responsible. To hold to ideals is noble. Yet, a tena-

ii6

Faul de Lagar de

cious idealism can make a man inflexible, insensitive to reality, and self-righteous. Moreover, the romantic mind is guided by prejudices w^hich will not easily fade before the withering blast of common sense. Lagarde's personal life, his repressed childhood, and his frustrations as a young adult bred resentments of which his pettiness, suspiciousness, and vindictiveness were expressions. Lagarde's character had its strength and its virtues as well. Some writers, including several not ideologically close to Lagarde, have been quick to point to these virtues.^® He was far more often than not kind and considerate of his fellow men. The genuine affection which his students bore him witnesses to this. Perhaps his motives were not vicious even when he came to blows with others. "Whom did Lagarde hate and persecute?" asked Anna. "He hated and combatted the bad and the evil—^in movements, and unavoidably in men also." But "it was painful for him to blame and chastise." She has many examples of his kindness and friendliness, especially to children, to show as evidence of his warmth and humanity. Even his anti-Semitism, she maintained, was the product of no personal or racial rancor. He picked his friends and bestowed favors without regard to religion or origin, and directed his attacks on the Jews in the same spirit as his attacks on Christian Germans, that is, with the aim of reconstituting German life.^'' Lagarde's remarkable sensitivity to many of the evils of his day and his desire to be an instrument working for the well-being of his nation are entrenched characteristics of his nature. He stood close to his God, closer than some of his more orthodox brethren. He labored diligently in that vineyard which seemed to him most worthwhile to cultivate. He sacrificed much in comfort and in the enjoyment of life to ends and purposes toward which he felt a bounden duty.

CHAPTER

IV

The Elements of Lagarde's Thought

I he idea of the nation in Herder, the ideal moral order JL of Fichte, the position of the individual for Schleiermacher, the Germanism of Grimm, the unadored piety of Rückert—these are the building stones used by Lagarde. The structure which he has erected, however, is quite his own. It is neo-Gothic, quite lacking in classic form and proportion, its façade well covered with gargoyles and other excrescences some of which give it an unlovely aspect. It is buttressed by arguments too frail to support so unwieldy a structure. Here and there, however, is an arch or a stained-glass window of marked beauty which could only be the product of a deep inspiration, and, whatever the inadequacies of the whole, no close observer can deny to the designer an earnest soul. The Form Lagarde's method of thinking and the consequent form of his thought are plainly romantic. Nothing denotes romanticism less equivocally than its irrationalism, the pursuit of knowledge not over the concrete highways of pure reason or controlled observation, but through the wilderness of impression, sentience, emotion, through the half-aesthetic, half-contemplative dallying with the moment or the par-

ii8

Paul de Lagar de

acular. The rewards and dangers of this latter pursuit are commensurate. Richness, profundity, variation are its fruits, but also, confusion, error, absurdity. Lagarde's method of thought more than his personality explains at once the weakness of his general position and the strength of some of his particular insights. That Lagarde possessed no systematic philosophy is apparent from a cursory glance at the Deutsche Schriften. He simply refused to labor the question of the validity of his basic propositions. Indeed, his initial assumptions could well be final conclusions to more refined philosophical minds. He made it almost a point of pride to eschew philosophy. "Not only can I not, but I will not get involved in philosophy," he wrote to the philosopher, Paul Natorp, who had raised some philosophical questions after reading the Deutsche Schriften. The great critical philosopher, Kant, Lagarde dismissed with a figure. "One finds in the study of Kant, I think, a kind of hydrographie net of philosophy; substance is lacking." Reason is only a subsidiary, he wrote elsewhere, and hence the strength of the Church lies in its martyrs, not its sophists. Like Adam Müller, he insisted that no pure or abstract politics exists, but that the ground of politics is the concrete.^ Lagarde, in good romantic fashion, had a passion for gaining "a view of the whole" and achieving a "total impression." T o know a thing as "a whole" was for him a matter of conscience and a persistent objective of his thought. This desire was by no means inconsistent with Lagarde's painstaking concern with scholarly minutiae. In ruminating on the Semitic origin of a word, on an utterance of Zoroaster, or on an early gloss of a scriptural passage, Lagarde constructed his impression of ancient culture and witnessed God's place therein. What he could not tolerate

Elements of Lagar de''s Thought

119

was the approach to the understanding of anything by coldly analyzing it into its elements. As with Adam Müller, to have such knowledge was to possess but a notion of the arrangement of a thing's parts, not an "idea" of the essence of the whole.^ In fundamental questions, Lagarde relied heavily on instinct. "For my part, I trust my instinct, what else is there to do?" H o w contemptuous he was of the "rationalists" who were so eagerly devoured by a newspaper reading public. H o w sorry he found his compatriots in comparison to the first men who through their unaided instinct reached out toward the great new world around them. He felt "instinctively" oriented toward some elemental divine force, manifest to him in nature. An atmosphere heavy with the threat of snow, alpine air, the lonesome woods, the smell of the earth, all could evoke in him a powerful awareness of this force,® He shared something of the romantic notion of truth as the process of striving itself. Faust went to the devil, Lagarde reminds us, when Faust said, "Tarry awhile, you are so pleasant." W e must not linger over facts or think of them as truth itself, for they are but stepping stones. "I will fight for men against facts, for the power to create against that which is created . . ." T o work and struggle for what we can and must have, to prepare for tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow—the persistence of these themes indicates not only a despair with the moment but reveals a deep characteristic of his thought itself.* Philosophy of History Fundamentally, Lagarde's thought is a philosophy of history. His basic conception is a continuously developing, divinely ordained world order. History will not be en-

I20

Paul de Lagar de

meshed in natural law valid for all times and places. Nor is history fortuitous. It is divine impulse, divine revelation. Without the impulse the world could not be. Without the world, the divine impulse could not unfold itself. For each age the divine will reveals what is best, highest, and most meaningful. Since the divine mind is not capricious, the historical content of any age relates to all that has existed before unless willful man refuses to recognize God's intentions. For men may act without careful regard for what is historically sound, which is to say, in Lagarde's view, for what is morally and spiritually right. What actually exists, therefore, may not precisely reflect the divine will. The extent of the difference between the real and the divinely ideal is the measure of the evil of a time and the measure of the radicalism for which the times call. The unfolding of divine wül as conceived by Lagarde bears little resemblance to the self-realization of the Absolute in Hegel. Lagarde saw no logical process in history. He regarded history as cumulative in the sense that one stage supports the next, but he did not find any syllogistic necessity in the historical process. God's meaning may not be deduced. He reveals it through the prophets, through the Gospel, and through the folk when they are allowed to give unadulterated expression to their feelings. "God is not yet finished with His revelation of truth through history," Lagarde declared again and again. Truth, therefore, cannot be found in any creed, or system, or philosophy. Man's search for truth can never be finished. As long as history goes on, men, if they will, can see truth unfolding. "Eternity is long and ample therein is the room to learn and to grow." ® While men, in Lagarde's view, may and do "interfere" with God's intentions, Lagarde did not mean to give God

Elements of Lagardé's Thought

121

the purely passive role of offering His revelations on a basis of take it or leave it. "Historical events are directed by Providence." Historical entities such as nations are "divine institutions." They are not incidental products of the flow of events. They are "created." Men may misuse them or misunderstand their purpose, but it is God who ultimately "makes" history.® Lagarde did not believe that the progress of humanity, in the sense of achieving the appUcation of the same natural laws and rights for all men, was God's task in history. God, rather, purposes the development of a perfect social organism, of a divine symphony where the uniqueness and diversity of the parts are blended into a faultless whole. " T o develop humanity is not the task of history. Everyone, while recognizing the peculiar virtues of others, ought to be and do something unique. Similarly with the different nations. Thus can we come to the ideal of an harmonious choir of individually unique spirits." ^ Lagarde did not conceive the "harmonious choir" as a final product of history. It was to be most nearly attained in the very process of struggling for it. He held that Hegel's folly was to assume that world history culminated in the Prussia of 1830 and in his own system of philosophy. Lagarde, as a romande, found meaning and purpose in the process rather than in the products of history.® Lagarde, consequently, did not look upon past periods as necessarily inferior or to be despised. Only when an age outlives itself, only when it has become stagnant may it be condemned. Lagarde believed that, though no period has complete truth, each period is a necessary moment in the divine scheme. Its mission, institutions, and values are not to be measured in terms of any general model. He wrote to Anna from Paris in 1853: "Every century has its own

122

Faul de Lagar de

mission, and in every century the Church has a new task to fulfill." Nearly forty years later he expressed the same view. The historian, like the botanist and zoologist, he wrote, must allow the worth of each individual and stage in its place. Dogma becomes vital only when recast by each generation out of a compound of "the realities of the time and the facts of religion and history." This is Lagarde's historicism, and it impelled him away from both orthodoxy and absolutism with their inflexible principles as well as away from any system of thought which depends upon the assumption of the timeless operation of natural law.® Like Hegel, Lagarde assigned an important role in the historical process to certain individuals. But his "historical personalities" are not men of glory and renown—not Caesars or Napoleons. Rather, he found, history works its forward momentum through men in whom resides an "energetic living power" which enables them to sense the pulse of the divine in history. Such men are prophets who lead their fellows into the true channels of historical life. But prophets are destroyers. Perforce, "he who pushes history forward must first necessarily be an heretic and destroyer," for the "great Developer" moves incessantly and man's natural rigidity is constantly to be overcome. These prophets who open up the way are self-true individuals. They see and hear and interpret the genius of each epoch.^® Lagarde's philosophy of history was the basis of much of his criticism. "People without historical depth are not the normal, but the diseased," Lagarde wrote. The weak, the vicious, the rotten element in German life has stemmed from the imported, the artificial, the unassimilated. Too much in German life reflects the thought of Greece and Rome, the conceptions of the Old and New Testament, and the political theory of other lands. Not that these are bad

Elements of Lagarde's Thought

123

in themselves, simply that to take them in indigestible chunks is not to provide nourishing substance. Wherever forms have become ossified and outmoded, wherever history has stagnated, there it must be criticized. Great things in history are new. The coming of the new is the decline of the old, and the old, if need be, must be torn loose from the stream of time as must stones which impede the flow of a woodland brook.^^ Lagarde's sense of history is one of the most striking characteristics of his thought. He accepted the postulates which the romantics had made concerning history. He shared as well their enthusiasm for the Middle Ages and the "olden times." Lagarde held fast to the romantic standpoint even though he grew up at a time when the Hegelian influence was strong. His whole position is colored by it. His philosophy of criticism and his philosophy of religion rests exactly upon his philosophy of history.

Organic Idea Lagarde's organic idea, like his philosophy of history, is an essentially romantic notion, and, also, of basic importance in his thought. As in all theoretical questions, he has left it to his readers to acquaint themselves with his organic idea by searching for his scattered and fragmentary discussions thereof. The naïve young romantic of the fifties esteemed the medieval empire as a paragon of organic social organization. In his fancy each class—priests, nobles, peasants, and artisans—filled its proper place, and childlike bliss pervaded the whole, knit together as it was by religious faith and imperial leadership. "My conservatism in this respect is so reactionary that it reaches back to the days of the SaUan and Saxon Emperors and wishes that everything between

124

Paul de Lagarde

then and now might be taken away." ^^ While in England he discerned much of the old organic "German way" in the mutual attachment of king and people and in the existence of a responsible and functioning aristocracy. Strangely, he seems not to have detected, as his countryman, Marx, who came to England about the same time, the reality of the class conflict. By the days of the Bismarckian Empire Lagarde had ceased holding up either medieval Germany or England as models. Yet, in much that he wrote against the Second Reich one may detect his youthful image of the First and of England. Exactly what was Lagarde's organic idea? He did not equate organism to organization since mechanism also represents organization. Lagarde, like the romantics, posited three attributes of organism, none of which could be predicated of artificial mechanism. In the first place an organism possesses life or soul. Such expressions as "the idea of life and organism, which is the same thing," occur frequently in his writings. He believed that the union of Austria and Germany would be organic because "capable of life." He had no doubt that social organisms had a spiritual, that is, a Uving element in them. "I have the firmest conviction of the correctness of the principle that in history neither spirit without body nor body without spirit can work effectively." Mechanism, on the other hand, composed of inert elements, whether material or conceptual, cannot possibly possess a soul or life.^® In the second place, Lagarde held that an organism is not a conjoining of elements, but a mutually dependent integration. His conception of the structure of an organism is exactly that of the romantics. The individual elements do not lose their identity nor are they subordinated to the purposes of the whole. On the contrary the organism provides

Elements of Lagarde''s Thought

125

the means by which individuals can express and fulfill their own nature and purposes. How may one know when he is organically bound with the whole? Where the individual finds that he occupies a "place of effectiveness," when he feels the "healing discipline" of the community, when in a word he senses his integration with all the rest, then he may know that he is a part of a vibrant, living organism. Lagarde spoke only in figures when he discussed the nature of the tie which binds each to each and all to all. T o be a Prussian, he wrote, is to have the capacity to be a Prussian, not only to enjoy the "spice," but to perceive that one has the potentiality of enjoying it. He seems to mean that the tie is an ideal or spiritual one. The living element in the organism is the awareness of each constituent individual that his nature perfectly suits him for the place which he has. Neither force, nor fear, nor hard circumstances bind individuals into organic wholes. They form an organism because they are ideally fitted to be one." In the third place, organism is the result of growth. It is not an artificial product. Unlike mechanism, it cannot be put together, it must grow together. It must be a product of history or nature. He found the "organic articulation of the people," or the nation, a true organism since it is the product of historical growth. The state, he held, was a more deliberate creation and therefore not organic. A truly organic institution is not only a product of past growth, but must retain an intimate connection with the past to remain alive. A tree cannot live apart from its trunk, nor an animal from its skeleton. He predicted the inevitable demise of the Old Catholics, for example, because they had cut themselves off from the tree on which their faith had grown.^® Lagarde, as Schleiermacher, made the organic community

IZÓ

Paul de Lagar de

the source of spiritual life. "Where there is no spiritual organism, there is no spiritual life, only the appearance or echo thereof." The Gospel, Lagarde pointed out, requires the existence of a closely knit community for its realization. The way to God lies through organic union where "each is one's own self, and the more peculiarly one's own self each is, the more harmoniously attuned in the choir of spirits which flies aloft to the God of all." " Individual and Nation Lagarde had no doubt that the nation was the essential organism in world history. The nation and the individual person, who is its principal component, and the relation obtaining between them are of central interest to Lagarde. An individual or Persönlichkeit, in Lagarde's view, is certainly not an atom, a mere irreducible particle similar to all others. Every individual is unique. It is the high duty of the individual to be completely true to himself and express his own nature in all that he does and is. He does not seek to be different simply for the sake of being different. He wills to be himself and in being true to himself he finds himself different.^'' Lagarde believed that the individual is an agent of the divine will, an instrument of revelation. In "individual personality," he wrote to Anna, "the breath of the highest" is revealed. "Every man is a unique thought of God's, and not merely in the general sense that mankind is an idea of God." Character, the singular essence of human personality, is "the impresson left by the Eternal in receptive souls." Little wonder, holding these views, he could cry, "everywhere let there be only personal life." Lagarde's individualism occasionally led him to an extreme position. "Personal life over everything. Every sub-

Elements of hagarde''s Thought

127

stirate for personality is hateful to me. Politically, I am the most German, that is, the most individual of men. Systematic anarchy is the solution to the riddle, and anarchy, that is a condition in which everyone is his ov^n master, can be systematized only through the church." " So radical and anarchic an order was not, of course, Lagarde's real intention. The language is that of the youthful romantic and is quite at variance with his desire for an articulated whole. If one must guard against reading too much into this youthful outburst, still the emphasis given to individuality is never abandoned. Writing in the seventies, when his national sentiment was reaching its pinnacle in reaction against Bismarckian statism, Lagarde continued to insist on the primacy of the individual in society. "Every member of a nation is more, or ought to be more, than simply a subordinate unit thereof . . . for humanity, nationality, clan, family, individual form a pyramid and its point [the individual] reaches far nearer the heavens than its base." The individual as an end outranks even humanity. W e must break with humanity and realize that "individuality is our task." All in the state which does not directiy serve in the development of the individual soul is idol and must perish. The future depends upon the individual. The way must be cleared for him.^^ That the individual was submerged in the political and culmral life of Germany was a constant theme in Lagarde's critical writings. Universal suffrage and political chicanery and propaganda calculated to have mass appeal aroused his bitterest contempt. Education, he thought, can serve the nation only when the false ideal of "general education" is discarded and the aim becomes the acraalization of individual potentialities. His arguments against the state, poUtical parties, the mechanization of life, and against the preoccupa-

128

Paul de Lagar de

don with "culture" all turned on his concern for the individual.^^ Lagarde's idea of the individual obviously owed much to the romantics and especially to Schleiermacher, whose stress on Persönlichkeit Lagarde had valued above all of Schleiermacher's ideas. Lagarde had deplored the trend away from individuality after Schleiermacher's time as the negation of his work. One must also remember Lagarde's friendship with Wilhelm von Humboldt whose remarkable httle book, Ideen zu einem Versuch Grenzen der Wirksamkeit des Staates zu bestimmen, valuing individual freedom, was published in full only in 1851 and was a topic of considerable interest at the time Lagarde was commencing his political writing.^® If the individual stands atop the pyramid nearest to heaven, he has reached his high point because of his life in the nation, and because the nation is the essential formgiving, divinely guided organism. As an organism the nation grows, ages, and declines. "Not only the lives of men but the lives of nations, also, have their natural limits." The Jews, Lagarde held, reached their peak in pre-exilic times and have become an antediluvian survival, a view which anticipated Toynbee's. Moreover, as an organism a nation is highly unified, its members and organs naturally and smoothly related. A folk which takes to itself too much that is foreign, risks disrupting its organic structure and hence its life. As the living organism must have tone or a "life tension," so must the nation have "discipline." Lagarde admired the ancient Hebrews who possessed discipline and the willingness to sacrifice for the common good.^^ What makes a nation? Certainly not purity of blood or genes. We Germans are no nation of unmixed blood and no pure blood may be found within any of the German

Elements of Lagarde^s Thought

129

lands, he insisted. "This impurity of blood is of little concern. N o one doubts that Leibnitz and Lessing were good Germans, yet their names are slavic. Kant's father immigrated from Scotland. Should we, therefore, call Kant no German?" If not blood, then what? Is the nation, as Arndt has proposed, to be found "soweit die deutsche Zunge klingt, und G o t t im Himmel Lieder singt"? N0, even this will not do. T h e Swiss, for example, must properly be distinguished from the Germans, since the former have had a long independent national history and strong national traditions. T h e nation, Lagarde thought, is an organism and as an organism its "living power" lies in the awareness of each member of his unique and vital role and his will to be spiritually one with all the rest. T h e nation is that group which possesses this awareness and wül and has developed them in the course of long historical experience and struggle. T h e German language does not tie the German-speaking Swiss to the German nation. Rather, the Swiss are a nation in themselves because of the common historical experience and will of all Swiss to be a nation, commencing with their heroic struggle against the Hapsburgs. In the last analysis the nation is an ideal, a spiritual essence as his friend Renan also held. N o other bond except the spiritual bond will make a nation. A people w h o combine, for the sake of power, those who are brought together merely by a common material interest, and those who, through egotism, require a place in an organized body, have achieved no true unity but merely a physical convergence which the slightest accident may disrupt. Every community founded on the principle of material interest and aggrandizement must fall in its tum to revolution or disintegration. "Nations are divine institutions." T h e true nation is the

130

Paul de Lagar de

City of God, a people without this spiritual nexus belong to the transient and doomed terrestrial city.^® The folk who constitute the nation are of the "Aristocracy of Spirit." All who are "original men" and who are "in the folk absolutely" belong to this elite. Ideally, all who live in the territory of the nation are included. The folk is animated by a common, pervasive, and creative spirit, the Volksgeist?'' Volksgeist is a common expression in German literature and stems from Herder. In the Ideen Herder had dealt with the soul, the spirit, the Geist of nations. Similarly, Lagarde held that the nation, like a man, has a soul as befits a spiritual being. The folk spirit is a precious plant, it matures slowly, and only according to its own nature. It reveals itself through the folk in their sayings and legends, manners and morals. When the folk spirit fails, the nation ceases to exist. The folk spirit gives the nation a certain timelessness by binding past to present, but also, by binding present to future. The folk spirit demands that a people Uve for the future and not for the past. For the nation as a living thing must develop and progress, while preserving continuity with the past, look always to the future. It demands that youth must be free, free to exploit the presentiment which it has of the future, for our Fatherland, every Fatherland is where its future is.^® T o what extent was Lagarde's conception of the nation an idealization of the German nation? Lagarde was by no means so exclusive a German nationalist as those in the Wagner-Chamberlain-National Socialist tradition. His conception of the nation owed a great deal to the ancient Hebrews whom he admired. He respected the South Slavs and was fearful rather than contemptuous of the Russian Slavs. Yet, Lagarde did recognize order in nature and nations, a higher and a lower. Clearly, he assigned the German nation to the

Elements of Lagarde's Thought

131

higher, to be distinguished even from the other IndoEuropean or Aryan peoples. It would be supererogation to document Lagarde's devotion and zeal for Deutschtum. Wherever one dips into his works, this passion may be found. Lagarde was, indeed, the child of Fichte, Arndt, and the Grimms. He excoriated the Bismarckian Empire because this Empire did not embody perfectly his ideal—an etherealized conception of the German nation. The German nation has, he taught, a mission in the world, namely, to exist as a model nation, a standard, as it were, like the perfect meter in Paris, by which the nations of the world can judge themselves. Accordingly, he maintained, we have the right to do whatever we must to survive and grow as a nation.^® Religious Ideas and Sentiments Lagarde's philosophy of history and his philosophy of society are intensely theistic. Indeed, he made no careful distinction between them and his theology. If he wrote two essays specifically to expound his theological views, these works ranged quite as widely over the whole field of society and culture as any of his others. It is no exaggeration to say that Lagarde, who called himself a theologian, considered that his theological work was coterminus with all of his work—political, critical, and scholarly. T o discover God's revelation to ancient man, the aim of his scholarly endeavor, and to expose modern man's betrayal of God and history, the purpose of his political essays, were of one piece to Lagarde. Lagarde, like the pietists, had a very live sense of the presence and majesty of God. His consciousness of the dualism in the world distinguished him from the theological rationalists whom he resembled in his willingness to submit Scripture and dogma to critical examination. He felt the

132

Paul de Lagarde

power of God in him as did Isaiah and Daniel. The watchmaker God was inconceivable to him for "every moment of existence must stand under the direction of God's will." He found the Hegelian conception of God as the apotheosis of idea, that is, the ideality of God, as deplorably insufficient.®" "All life gravitates toward the central sun. The very being of God teaches that all created life takes its form and energy from Him. Merely to be attracted to Him [as an outsider], is to deny Him . . . rather, it is a fundamental duty to recognize that all human action is or should be in the service of the single and powerful Creator, the Father of Souls." Lagarde saw God as intimately involved with His creation and creatures. The God of the orthodox conservatives, such as Hengstenberg, is too much of a "councilor of state," a sort of remote administrator. A truly deep conviction about God is a conviction that He is over us, beside us, and in us, that He is an "earnest and soHcitous Father, ready to help us at any day or hour." Such a God, indeed, requires an "earthly home" in which and through which He may have His being and exist perfectly according to His narare.ä^ While God, then, is to be sharply distinguished in His being and essence from the nature and world which He has created. He is nonetheless to be found in the world of nature and history. Ethical life, he wrote Natorp, implies God in man. "The immanence of God in men is the condition sine qua non of religion." God must be, and is, Lagarde is saying, involved in His creation. God moves and expresses Himself in time and space, in the locus of the things of the world. "He who is a stranger to nature and history, comes close to denying the existence of his transcendental God." God is, then, "of this world" and yet transcendental. Is the contradiction beyond resolution? Not quite. Clearly,

Elements of Lagar de's Thought

133

for Lagarde, God does not transcend that part of His handiwork which is living and evolving. He transcends the sterile and the inert. God is present in the Volksgeist and in all its works. He reveals Himself therein. He is not present in anything which does not reflect the Volksgeist. He is not present in those things which no longer have or never did have a vital connection with the life of the nation. Placing the Kingdom of God in history is not to dilute its nature or to create an all-embracing pantheism. It is to enhance its awfulness by its living immediacy. The idea of the Kingdom of God is the quintessence of Lagarde's religious thought. The term, though borrowed from Christianity, does not retain exactly its Christian meaning. It connotes the majesty of the City of God, but a City of God with a temporal setting. In Lagarde's idea of the Kingdom his doctrines of immanence and organism coincide. The Kingdom must have the community as its framework. The Kingdom could mean nothing to isolated individuals. Religion rises out of diversity with the recognition of a higher unity. This is a basic condition of the religious experience. Religion could not have begun with Adam and Eve, but only when the human race became diverse and numerous enough to constitute a true community in which the play of historical and ethical purpose could begin, for only under these conditions is God manifest. It follows directly that natural religion, the universal religion founded on natural law of the eighteenth century, is out of the question. Religion has nothing to do with abstract principles "but arises and develops in the community of men." The Kingdom develops as the organism, the community, develops. The viability and the vitality of the one are those of the other. "Spiritual life grows only in organisms." As each member binds himself to another in loyalty, accepts his

134

^^ La garde

burden of the common duty, champions the good and fights evil, turns his virtues against his sins, the community thrives and the Kingdom grovi^s. The Kingdom is a "positive ideal," "the end of all development," "an operations plan for fulfilling all our duties." ®® Like Schleiermacher and the German mystics Lagarde placed great emphasis upon religious experience. His chief criticism of Christianity was that it turned too much upon ideas. "The religious conception of Christianity is false. Religion is false. Religion is always there where it is recognizable as such, not as an idea or a thought, but the personal relation of the pious with God, life with Him." ®® T o make certain historical events such as those associated with the life of Jesus central to faith, is to have not a religion but "historical fetishism." Religion is gained only from experience, just as one learns Bach by listening to his music, or as one learns his native tongue by hearing it from his earliest cradle days. Religion is an expression of life and comes from the heart. A t times Lagarde even disparaged the term religion as a "foreign word" which failed to convey the notion of personal feeling and relation to God.®'' Piety was one of his incessant demands and meant for him an unflagging awareness of the presence of God. Awareness of this Holy Presence, he urged a friend, must above all be taught her children. "Explain to the children that God is a person, a living being, standing over their lives. Seek, with your husband and with all who come to your house, so to live that the children . . . are constantly conscious of the presence of the Holy, the Holiest." For the pious man it is correlative to revelation that G o d must dwell in and through him. The pious man hates the material side of the world, recognizes its transitory nature, and tries to be as free as possible from it. "For the pious man every event of

Elements of Lagarde^s Thought

135

his life comes as a word from God, directed personally to him and understood only by him." Lagarde could find no more damaging critique of his time than that this kind of piety had vanished leaving "only hasty, friendless, narcoticlike pleasures." ®® Though Lagarde had had his "odyssey" through the Church and become a neo-Christian, and though he sharply criticized both branches of Western Christianity as the following chapter will show, nonetheless, he owed a great deal to the Christian Gospels.^" If he could not regard the Gospels or Holy Scriptures generally as a "codex juris divini," a complete revelation of divine law, he could and did confess Christ and immortality. Though in his later years he was more disparaging of Christian dogmas based on the life of Christ, none of his writings reflects doubt that the way of Christ is the way of God. He wrote as his epitaph, yet discernible on his moidering stone in Göttingen, "Via crucis via salutis est." ^^ The Gospels awakened him to moods of deep reverence. "My whole life becomes a quiet acquiescence. I raise my eyes to the hills whence cometh my help. It is clear to me that I do not belong to this time or this world. My Fatherland is a greater one." ^^ The Sermon on the Mount seemed to him not simply an ethic but an exhortation to be godlike. "He [Jesus] taught not merely to love one's fellowman but to strive to be like God, that is to be perfect." Lagarde was heavily indebted to the Gospels for his most unremitting cry—for rebirth. "Rebirth is the great word of Christianity; for not the natural man, but the man reborn in spirit, is worthy before God." Who is reborn? He who for the sake of God bears all, despises the "good life," does not fear death, and looks to the eternal life. God is in him and such a man is free and joyous. He is a proof of immortality

136

Faul de Lagar de

and of a personal God. He is the hope of the world, and all must grow dark if the reborn disappears. Reborn men must face the Herculean task of saving Europe and Germany.^* The ardor and earnestness with which Lagarde wished for the rebirth of his generation led him to his most impassioned writing. Looking about him in the midseventies and seeing the spiritual desolation, the sterility, the acquisitiveness, the lack of any idealism in German life, he experienced a more profound lonesomeness in the busy haunts of men than he had felt on his midnight walks among the sand dunes or on his visits to solitary mountain peaks. At least on the beach he sensed a congenial element in the sea breeze blowing through the rocks and in the alarmed flight of the sea gull, and on the mountain peaks an aíEnity for the heaven above and the earth spread out below. But there was hope, hope that men will be reborn to a "new day which with broad, golden wings will break out a new path along which not a single member of the present blameworthy, untruthful generation may be seen . . . a day when, in the Fatherland, warm heart will meet warm heart, hands will touch one another in performing a common task, eyes will be turned toward the Father's high house. W e are tired with artificiality and devices—^we who are reborn." Scholarship and Theology:

The Ancient

Hebrews

If, as Lagarde held, God's Kingdom develops in and through history, and God reveals Himself in part to each nation at some point in its development, then it follows that knowledge of God and His purposes can be gained by studying His revelation to each people. Scholarship which has this object in view becomes theology. Lagarde was a scholar or a theologian in this sense. " T h e theology which I have pursued these thirty years and longer is a

Elements

of Lagar de's Thought

137

division of historical science," he wrote to Emperor William I. It is the queen of the sciences. "It concerns itself with the highest of which man is capable and with those men in whom this highest capability dwells." It is an exact science whose principles can be shown to be as precise and as compelling as those of Kepler and Newton.^® Lagarde was, in effect, elevating the contemporary enthusiasm for the history of reHgions to pure theology. His own great project for an exhaustively critical edition of the Septuagint was to him a theological enterprise though conducted by historical and philological means. Through his careful study he hoped to reveal the precise working of "supernatural forces" on the hearts and souls of men and, thereby, find the principles of God's Kingdom. Lagarde thought of his Uber das Verhältnis des deutschen Staates zu Theologie, Kirche und Religion as a first tentative result of his theological studies. If most orthodox theologians received it in silence, that was only a further sign of their degeneration, and that they must fall away to the great gain of the Fatherland."^ Having identified theology as a science, Lagarde could only demand in the best tradition of German scholarship that it be objective. Theology cannot proceed to its task while its students are under a "dogmatic prejudice." If theology is to achieve its high mission, the nation, by maintaining a suitable ethical level and by providing the degree of freedom necessary for scholarship, must contribute to this high intellectual and spiritual activity."® Lagarde beheved that much was to be learned about God and the relation of God and men from an historico-philological study of the ancient Hebrews and their religion. The history of the Hebrews affords a classical example, he thought, of how God relates Himself to men through the

138

Paul de

hagarde

nation. The formalization of this relation into the dogmas of Judaism he considered an instructive example of religious degeneration. The reHgion of the ancient Hebrews, a phrase which Lagarde preferred to "Old Testament," was, he held, not founded primarily on individual piety and conviction. It arose from the superlative capacity of the Hebrew nation for self-discipline and sacrifice. Their will to be a nation under God's Kingship, their faith in deliverance from their manifold adversities, elicited and sustained among them the pure Spirit which in, and only in, these circumstances finds historical expression.*® In the promise that the nation would be saved Lagarde saw the clearest indication of the strength of national coherence. The Promised Land was the reward of no special group, but of the nation. Its attainment depended not upon external powers, but upon an inborn feeling of the divine purpose of the nation. Lagarde saw in the vital sense of divine mission and national evolution amongst the ancient Hebrews the key to all history and religion.®" When worldliness and prosperity dimmed the sublime insights which had been vouchsafed them, they were blessed by the presence amongst them of men whose individualism prevented their vision from becoming beclouded by the avarice and corruption of their time. These men were the prophets in whom Lagarde saw that combination of soulsearching power and profound feeling for the nation which he so ardently desired for his own time and in some measure himself represented. "The prophets had the instinct for ethos and for Israel. In them burned most purely the flame of love for the Fatherland, love which was not a traditional formality but [an intense experience] which proved the prophets to be

Elements of Lagar de's Thought

139

bearers of a great mission." These were the men who in the desert wastes heard the commands of God roll down from the mountains, heard the voice of the "Holy Spirit, that is to say, in the Old Testament, the spirit of the community" and spoke what they heard that men might be made whole again. Lagrade found much of his inspiration in the prophets of ancient IsraeL®^ Finally, with the flow of time, the prophets could no longer keep alive the old feeling for God and nation, and the religion of Judaism appeared. Then, religiosity overcame the ancient piety, and this religiosity centered itself in dessicated doctrines, in a tiresome and insipid legalism, and in an inordinate attachment to the externals of Jewish history. The Jews then ceased to have a vital, living relation to God. Alas, cried Lagarde, why do we not emulate the pristine piety of the Hebrews? W h y do we, like the post-exiUc Hebrews, fall into the error of deifying and distorting certain historical events. "What are Adam and Eve, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Moses and David to us? They are foreign and meaningless, even harmful, as they are represented. Original sin is ascribed to Adam and Eve, belief to Abraham, law to Moses, the hope for the Messiah and redemption to David—but modern scholarship has shown that these representations are false and misleading." The scorn which youth felt for its Old Testament Lagarde thought merited, considering such shameful stories as Abraham's presenting his wife to the Egyptian king, the unworthiness of Jacob and Rebecca to Isaac, David's fornication, and the rest. Those who found religious inspiration in this material were, in Lagarde's judgment, far removed, indeed, from any apprehension of the spirit. T o Lagarde, the religious experience of the Hebrews and

140

Paul de Lagar de

all peoples of the past are a book. Let the scholars of the present read it, and let the nations of the present take heed. Lagarde as a Moralist

As a moralist Lagarde was a man with a sense of "ethos" rather than with an ethic. He was fond of reminding his readers of this distinction which betrays once again his romantic bent of mind. An ethic is a system of moral principles. Ethos suggests an immanent moral order which can't be conceptualized but can be "felt" and is a powerful stimulation to him who senses its demands. Lagarde came closest to a definition of ethos by calling it not a program for life but a demand on it.®^ Lagarde was, so to speak, an applied moralist. The ruthlessness of his demands was the ruthlessness of a man convinced of the depths of his moral grounds but more interested in the crops which the grounds could yield than in subterranean explorations. He told his fellow Prussians in the fifties that "ethos" required that their monarchy and aristocracy play a more constructive role, and that Prussia turn its strength to German purposes. Our present boundaries, he thundered twenty years later, are arbitrary and do not reflect the demands of "ethos." The learning in the German universities which proceeds by listening to lectures and note-taking, rather than by intimate association of teacher and student, is an education without "ethos." Such an education can produce men more or less steeped in facts but cannot produce men with any sense of the needs of the Fatherland or their own souls.®® Conscience played, for Lagarde, the role of interpreter of the "ethos." Conscience, though it operates through the individual, has its basis in the "moral attitude of the community." Conscience is not a faculty or capacity as eating

Elements of Lagarde^s Thought

141

and drinking. "Conscience rests on the historically evolved conditions and stands under the spirit of the time." Thus the conscience of sixteenth-century Germany set itself against the indulgences, the conscience of Bismarckian Germany against an overreaching state.®' Cannot the conscience of the community be wrong or misguided or ambiguous and divided? Of course. Such is the case when the community fails to be organically articulated. For "in the moral world we are not incidentally related to one another but related as members of an organism." If a community lacks this organic organization, it will fail to have a conscience sensitive to the demands of "ethos." " Lagarde possessed and made incessant use of several moral ideals which, he held, betoken the presence of "ethos." Of these, the most conspicuous are originality {Ursprünglichkeit), truth {Wahrhaftigkeit), and spirit {Geist). Lagarde gave no exact meaning to these terms, no more than to their parent, "ethos." They are feelings or attitudes rather than ideas. As Fichte, Lagarde believed that the Germans were capable of possessing and had possessed a sense for the "absolute prime, the original." The great virtue of the Germans, Lagarde often pointed out, is that they are an "original folk." His meaning is not that the German people are first in time or oldest, or that they believe themselves so, or that they preserve or admire primitive ways and forms. Rather, the Germans have maintained through much of their history an intimate contact with the original and fundamental spiritual impulse out of which their nation arose and grew and which must always be the source of vitality for the nation. A nation may lose this contact, as, indeed, he believed the Germans had recently done, for

142

Paul de Lagar de

"originality" is not inborn, but an acquired orientation, which is to say that it is moral. A nation which possesses "originality" has a sense for "ethos." A nation which has lost it does not.®® By Wahrhaftigkeit Lagarde did not mean simple truthfulness. " T o thine own national self be true" might be a just rendering. Truth, in this sense, is the great virtue of politics, untruth the capital crime. If parties, interests, or religious organizations stand in the way of the nation's "trueness to self," those who support them are in the abyss of immorality and error. Truthfulness requires the rejection of much in the revolutions of 1517, 1789, and 1848 as foreign. It is the ideal of truthfulness which must lead one to renounce the moral cowardice of the majority in modern Germany and join with the few who stand firmly against all that is alien. In the name of truthfulness Lagarde censured Frederick William III for his plans for Church union. Not that Frederick William was insincere in his desire for a united Church, but that he failed to see that the "true" needs went deeper than a mechanical coupling together of the fragments. Truthfulness is a twin of originality.®® Geist is spirit, the living element in the world. Lagarde did not mean this in any metaphysical sense. He meant by Geist not Absolute Mind but perfect spiritual attitude. Geist, or spirit, ought everywhere to be manifest. Religion is unthinkable until man achieves the level of "spirit." Genuine political life is a life of "spiritual" struggle. In pedagogy it is "spirit" which is the least common denominator of a group of heterogeneous pupils. T o find this "spirit" and to elicit and expose it is the teacher's great task. "Spirit" is the ingredient which determines the attractiveness of personalities, their vitality, and position as bearers of history. As

Elements of Lagar de's Thought

143

deeply fascinating as Grimm's philology was, Lagarde was impressed most with "the spirit of the man." Inwardness {Innerlichkeit), freedom {Freiheit), and duty {Pflicht) are other clarion calls which Lagarde trumpeted from nearly every page. They are different notes but belong to the chord, "ethos." One is often appalled at the ambiguity lurking in these terms and tired by their repetition. We cannot altogether scorn this man, however, who was defending moral values at a time when men were turning to pseudo-Darwinian notions of might makes right, or to an escape from moral law altogether, through an ethical pragmatism which would reduce human action from the moral to the judicious. Lagarde's Thought as a National Religion and as a Zeitkritik Lagarde did not present his ideas as a program which men might take or leave. He presented them as dogmas, though he would not have liked this term applied to them. He believed that his fellow Germans must accept them and act on them or perish. His national religion, or "religion of the future" as he sometimes called it, was not apart from but identical with his philosophy of history and society. T o state the elements of his philosophy of history and society is to state precisely the dogmas of his national religion. Lagarde's Zeitkritik, animated by a profound sense of mission, was a wide-ranging attack on a world which did not meet the standards required by these dogmas. They may be stated as follows: ( i ) That God reveals Himself and His will in the history of the nation. (2) That God's highest creation and concern is the individual man. (3) That the individual man can develop his potentialities only within the

144

^^ Lagar de

organic community of the nation. (4) That the Kingdom will be realized as the national community becomes perfect and men perceive how God has spoken to their nation in the past and understand the meaning of His word in the present. (5) That the new "historical" theology will show the way. While Lagar de rejected essential elements of both Catholic and Protestant theology, as the following chapter will show in detail, he by no means escaped the influence of Christian tradition. His God was the Judeo-Christian God. He confessed no tribal gods. When he spoke of God he did not speak metaphorically as Hitler or metaphysically as Hegel. He spoke of the Hving God of Isaiah, St. Augustine, and Calvin. His national religion was neo-Christian. Some of the key ideas stated in his "dogmas" bear comparison with Christian thought and tradition. Christians have generally held that God has an immediate interest in human affairs and history and occasionally intervenes in them. Christian theology derives from the direct involvement of God in human history in and through Christ. The Holy Ghost has been sent as a "Comforter" into the world. In placing God in history, Lagarde was following in the Christian tradition. In this respect he was closer to the spirit of Christianity than those whom he chided for regarding God as a "remote administrator." Lagarde saw God's presence in the days of Abraham and Moses and in Gospel times. He believed that God was just as close to the Germans of the nineteenth century. The aim of his religion was to make his fellows understand this fact and prepare themselves to receive God's word. Lagarde's quarrel with Christian orthodoxy was not over God's reality and presence in the affairs of men, but over the preeminence given to certain historical events such as the Crucifixion. Lagarde held that Jesus was a "direct dis-

Elements

of Lagarde^s Thought

145

coverer of eternal truth," and in that sense God was in Him. But Lagarde denied that in Christ men are redeemed. He could not accept the notion of any final reckoning between God and man. His religion was attuned to a continuous and unending exchange between God and man. Christians traditionally have attached considerable importance to the closely knit community as a source of religious strength and fervor. W e need think only of the first Christian congregations, of the early monasteries, or of the pietist communities. Lagarde, similarly, attached great importance to the spiritual role of the community. Where Lagarde differed from this tradition was in his definition of the ideal religious community as the community of the nation. Christianity from the time of Jesus has emphasized the universal value of its teachings. It has not conceived of God's word as relative to the culture and situation of each people. In holding that God spoke differently to different people, Lagarde was attributing a religious significance to cultural differences which is entirely strange to Christian orthodoxy. Christianity above all is concerned with the salvation of the individual soul. It makes no special promise to men of any particular class or condition. The Church is a vehicle for the individual's salvation and not an end in itself. Similarly, Lagarde's concern was for the individual. The community of the nation was an indispensable framework within which the individual could realize his spiritual nature and "save" himself. But the viable nation was only a means in Lagarde's thought, just as the militant Church is only a means in Christian thought. Christ said that His Kingdom was not of this world. Nevertheless, Christ labored heroically in the world, and Christians as a whole have always been an active group. The

146

Paul de Lagarde

Catholic doctrines of the freedom of the wül and of the importance of works have given the individual an extremely active and important role in his own salvation. The early Protestants who held that salvation follows from faith or is by predestination, were, none the less, zealous in the performance of good works and in building a society as close to the Kingdom as possible. Generally, Christians have found many ways to give practical effect to their beliefs. They have, for example, given alms, founded hospitals, carried on missionary work, and worked for peace. Only a few Christians have been satisfied with a life of contemplation and prayer. Most Christians have found it necessary to express, if not always well, their beliefs and to try to justify themselves in some active way. Lagarde's religion had its mystical elements but he did not mean it to be a religion of contemplation. He shared with the Christians the feeling of need for action against "the world," although, to be sure, his sense of urgency and radicalism exceeded that of many Christians. At the very outset of his Die Religion der Xukunp he laid it down, in the romantic vein, that man comes to God not by fear or dependence or understanding or even by faith, but "through striving to become better." "To be pious," he continued, "is to understand that one's own life and history are one." The religious man, then, is one who not only strives to become better but must see to it that his life and the world around move together to a higher purpose. The religious man, in Lagarde's view, is a man of action.®^ Lagarde expressed his will to act neither by taking sword or rostrum, although he held that both the army and a purified conservative leadership must play their part in the spiritual leadership of Germany. He acted through the pen. His works constitute probably the most sweeping body of

Elements of Lagarde's Thought

147

Zettkritik launched in Germany in the second half of the nineteenth century. As one writer has pointed out, Nietzsche said little about German life or culture which had not already been said by Lagarde.®^ Many who have read Lagarde, even some who have not found his ideas congenial, have described his criticism as "prophetical." Their meaning is that he shared with the prophets of old the intense conviction that he was enunciating the commandments of God. There is no doubt that Lagarde's Zeitkritik possessed this prophetic quality. He unquestioningly believed that his religious principles, in light of which he carried out his Zeitkritik, represented as much of divine truth as any human of his time might know. He felt, as he wrote to the Munich historian, Döllinger, that to carry out the great tasks of the Fatherland was to be about the Father's business.®® As a critic, Lagarde was a radical. His description of Jesus was in some respects an autobiographical statement. The "old prophecy" arose again in Jesus, Lagarde wrote. Jesus was "a late bloom" of the spirit of old Israel. He came as a voice of opposition to the formalized "Jewishness" of His time. He came, as one who knew eternal truth, to recall the life close to God, which the Hebrews had once known. But He came also, Lagarde wrote, to proclaim the Kingdom of God over against the theocracy of priests, against "the synagogue-state." Lagarde saw himself proclaiming the Kingdom of God in the face of what he believed a similar dessication of spirit in the state, church, and life of his own time.*^ Lagarde was proud to call himself a radical and often did so. "I am too conservative not to be a radical," he wrote as early as 1853. "There are no radical conservatives except for me and my wife," he lamented in 1869. In 1875 he

148

Paul de Lagar de

did find another and wrote Carlyle: " w e . . . are conspirators of the future." The same year he pointed out to his countrymen that a religion was the fruit of hard and violent revolutionary struggle. The prison, the cross, and the pyre are its stations, not the benches of the reform party. In 1881 in his important essay against liberalism, he laid it down that progress may be by slow growth, but also must come at times by "elemental bursts of energy," a view which must have shocked all liberals except for old time Jacobins. He described his Deutsche Schriften to Bismarck in 1886 as a "work of opposition." ®® The prophetic voice of Israel was as conservative in purpose as it was radical in substance. Jesus and the Old Testament prophets were demanding conformity to the will of a God, a will under which they stood and always had. They preached no new gods, only the indifference to the abuse of the will of the living God. The human error and evil lay in what men had done to forsake God. When Jesus said, "repent," and Isaiah spoke of being instructed to discretion, they meant that their hearers should be contrite and amend their lives in light of God's laws. They were conservators of God's spirit and will among men. Lagarde, as a Zeitkritiker, was also a conservator of God's spirit and will among men. He did not attack Christianity in the spirit of the agnostic, but because he felt that certain dogmas stood in the way of God's will and of the development of a genuine religious Ufe. His attack on the state was, unlike that of the anarchists, not designed to promote unbridled individual freedom but to remove an ostacle to the perfect reahzation of the more natural and divinely ordained national community. He took the offensive against the Bismarckian Empire, capitalism, and the schools and universities, but not with the intention of overthrowing

Elements of hagarde''s Thought

149

them. He sought a more viable empire, a juster economy, and a more effective system of education. Through his Tjeitkritik he hoped to prepare the way for an order of society and culture which would realize God's will and the implications of history for man and nation. In this sense Lagarde was a radical conservative.

CHAPTER V

The Critical Attack and Proposals for Reform

r r h e preceding chapter analyzed Lagarde's theoretical JL position and showed its significance as a philosophy of criticism. The present chapter describes Lagarde's critical attack on German politics and culture and the remedies which he prescribed. He was no more systematic in treating concrete than theoretical questions. Though the essays in the Deutsche Schriften generally have a prevailing thesis— such as liberalism, or education, or church-state relationseach becomes involved with all the topics of paramount interest to Lagarde. His scholarly writings are studded with homilies on the condition of German life, some of the most interesting to be found in remote areas of his literary work. Despite the diffusion of his criticism, the student of Lagarde soon discovers its principal objectives, so persistent is he in the attack. These objectives may be grouped as follows: ( i ) Christianity and the state—critical of the forms of both as they then existed, Lagarde was particularly aroused by their struggle in the Kulturkampf. (2) The governance and economy of the nation—^views which were bound intimately with Lagarde's conception of the role of princes and aristocrats and with the necessity for a German Mittel-

Critical Attack and Proposals for Reform

151

europa. (3) Kulturkritik—the condition of German culture, particularly as manifested in education, in the corruption of youth, and in the activities of the Jews. CHRISTIANITY AND THE STATE

Christianity Christianity, although not commanding the universal influence which it enjoyed in the Middle Ages and in the early Reformation period, remained through Enlightenment, Revolution, and the rise of science and materialism, a powerful force in European and German life. In Germany, the romantic conservative and pietistic movements had reinvigorated the old faith. Christianity was heavily institutionalized in German life. It was recognized in public law, in Prussian administration through the Kultusministerium, by the existence of Catholic and Protestant theological faculties in the universities, and in many other ways. Any critical evaluation of German life could hardly escape attention to Christianity. Lagarde gave it prominent place in his critique. As shown in the preceding chapter, Lagarde's intense piety and his idea of the unfolding of the Kingdom of God in the national community led him to despise arid formalization in religion. W e have observed his admiration for the pristine piety of the ancient Hebrews who lived so consciously in the presence of God in the early days of their struggles and tribulations, and his scorn for the Judaism which seemed to him a barrier which Jews had erected between themselves and God. On these same grounds he criticized Christianity. The period of Jesus' life and the proclamation of the Gospel was, Lagarde held, a time of vital spiritual inspiration.

152

Paul de Lagar de

On the morrow of the Crucifixion, Jesus' disciples began to show their deep misunderstanding of His teaching and to erect a theology based on the outward events of His life and the circumstances of His death. Then came the doctrinal development of the Pauline period and the way was prepared for the dogmatic Church. The earliest sign, Lagarde thought, which indicates that Jesus was being misunderstood, is the use of the term "Christian" in the Acts of the Apostles 11:26. Hitherto, Jesus had been known as the Nazarene, and his followers as Nazarenes. The new term marks the predominance of the messianic idea that a savior would come, and that Jesus was this Christ. Thereafter, Christ's death and the atonement, rather than His life and message, became the basis of the growing Church.^ This construction by the Apostles and the early Church was completely erroneous, Lagarde thought. In the first place, the messianic idea formed no integral part of old Hebrew religious thought. It had no place amongst the "groups close to the people" but only amongst a sect of Jews who were given to reading apocalyptical writings and whose imagination had led them without justification to infer the coming of a savior from the words of the prophets. That the Jewish people held no such hope is further demonstrated by the fact that "a people would not nail its ideal to a cross." The Apostles and the early Church in conceiving Jesus as Christ were taking over, in Lagarde's judgment, a little established or defensible Jewish idea.^ N o t only did they err in believing that Jewish sacred history offered any foundation for the Messiah, but they erred even more grievously in imagining that Jesus thought of Himself as this Messiah. Indeed, Lagarde held, Jesus was singularly unfortunate in His disciples. None of them ap-

Critical Attack and Proposals for Reform

153

peared to have got his point. Only two of them, Peter and John, became in any degree preeminent, and, yet, as far as extant manuscripts reveal, Peter nowhere accurately set forth the Master's teachings, and John's Gospel is a "polemic" in the interests of the early Church. The early misunderstanding and obfuscation of the historical Jesus opened the way for the distortions made by St. Paul. Paul, as Lagarde saw him, represented the rigid and narrow rehgiosity of the Pharisees. Without having had any direct association with Jesus and very little with any of the Apostles, he proceeded to construct a Christian theology out of Judaic elements. The result was "misunderstanding, lack of understanding, a mongrel compounded of Pharisaism and phantasy" which no historically educated person should accept. Into the Christian religion Paul brought the old dogmas. He introduced a concept of sin unknown to the fishermen and craftsmen who surrounded Jesus. He laid the foundation for the Mass in the old Jewish sacrificial ideas and developed the idea of atonement. He brought to Christianity the old Jewish legalism with its insistence on literal interpretation and its unfeeling dogmatism. Thus, Paul oriented the new religion toward Christ's sacrifice rather than His message. "That which has happened" rather than the "ever fresh happening" became the center of interest, the past rather than the present the object of religious feeling. The eternal "spirit of man" cannot be satisfied solely in contemplation of what has taken place, for this becomes sentimentality. The consciousness of the eternal power immanent in life grows dimmer with the years if it rests only on a past event however supremely magnificent it may have been. W e must abandon the misdirection given to religion by Paul and tum to the vital and living present

154

^^ hagarde

and find there, as the original Gospel proclaimed, the Kingdom of God. In this sense, Lagarde preached the Gospel.® The Medieval Church and Modern

Catholicism

Lagarde's attitude toward the medieval Church was far from unequivocal. On the one hand he scorned its dogmatic foundations. On the other, he could not escape a romantic attachment to medieval Christianity as a way of life. Modern Catholicism with its rigid emphasis on dogma and discipline seemed to him more of an institution than a way of life. The dogmatic foundations of the medieval Church rested not only on the transplanting of Jewish doctrines into the early Christian communities by St. Paul, but, to make matters worse in Lagarde's view, the rationale for the dogmatic development from Origen through St. Augustine was provided by neoclassical Greek philosophy. The effect was further to remove God's will and Kingdom from their central position in the Gospels. The earliest and most creative branch of the Church, he wrote, was the Greek Church. Here Christianity fell heir to the late Greek sophistry shorn of the original Greek spirit and charm. This decadent Greek spirit overburdened with scholarliness and without religious feeling philosophized over the nature of sin, of the Trinity, and of the sacraments in complete oblivion of the message of the Nazarene.·* The Christianity which emerged from this age rested upon a false "concept of religion." Religion, Lagarde insisted, is not "reflection on, but personal relationship to, God. It is life with Him." A religion which depends upon a glorification of certain historical events misses the point. "Detailed knowledge of the meaning of past events is at

Critical Attack and Proposals for Reform

155

best a means only in God's eyes, and such knowledge should be no more than that to us. The orthodox Christian view of history is fetishism, though it is based upon historical events rather than natural objects." ® Even where dogmas have resulted from genuine spiritual insights, he argued, they have the baneful effect of establishing as universally valid and meaningful the experiences of the men of one place and time. Since the spiritual life of a time depends upon the "disposition" of the men of that time, dogmas have tended to inhibit the genuine spiritual expression of later times. "Mathematical truth is, of course, at all times the same; dogmatics, i.e., religion . . . must on the other hand change because the outlook of a given time changes." ® The Gospel spirit must not be "cabined, cribbed, confined" by dogma but continuously reinterpreted in terms of the circumstances and needs of the nation. Dogmas which represent only the "capital accumulations" of former times have no great value for the present. The ecclesiastical organization of the Church consummated the work of the dogmatists. Its spirit was partly a product of Jewish legalism with its attitude of uncompromising intolerance, and its form largely a legacy from the Roman imperial administration with its centralization and discipline. The result was that the dogmas, as they were developed, did not have to rest upon their merit but found absolute support in the institution of the Church. The emergence of the bishop of Rome as the supreme power in the Church and the undeviating adherence demanded to Church and pope prevented any evolution or modification of dogma and brought the "whole [religious development] gradually to stagnation." Clearly, Lagarde argued, dogmatic Christianity should have no place in Ger-

156

Paul de Lagar de

man life. Its exclusiveness stands in the way of a living German religion from which alone we can achieve a truly spiritual lifeJ Despite this deep-striking criticism of dogma, Lagarde found much to admire in the medieval Church. Its otherworldly and ascetic ideals had an appeal, and he contrasted these favorably with modern moral and humanitarian interpretations of Gospel. Its dogmas could not deprive the Church entirely of the tremendous strength it derived from the heroic sacrifices of the martyrs. If the Church had officious prelates interested only in warring against heresy, Lagarde recognized that it also had its holy men who sought God in the desert wastes and on the mountain tops. Even the intolerance of the Church was not always disagreeable to him. He could understand that a religious community must believe itself in the possession of truth and must therefore be false to its principles if it admits anything to the contrary.® Lagarde's sense for the historical prevented him from making any sweeping rejection of the medieval Church and its rich spiritual life. God's plan unfolds. The Church could not and did not stand in the way. T o those not lost in its theology, it offered a "means" toward a genuine piety. The sacraments appeared to Lagarde as the most important of these "means" for "in the sacraments divine power works in secret ways under the guise of material things." The priests in the medieval Church likewise served a great spiritual purpose by continually holding before their fellows the Church's great mission of salvation. Their resistance of the world, their withdrawal, their celibacy fitted them to serve the higher realm of God on earth.® One of Lagarde's most interesting views on the medieval Church was on the role of the Virgin Mary. On his own arguments, he might well have deplored the virtual apotheo-

Critical Attack and Proposals for Reform

157

sis of St. Mary. Yet, so fascinated was he with the notion of a Mother-God that he regarded the elevation of Mary to something approaching this position as indispensable to the ideal of a self-sufficient Church. Likewise, he held, the cult of Saints provided an additional stimulation of and object for worship. "For the ideal is not exhausted in Jesus . . . the worship of the Saints and of Mary is a completion." A t Trent and since, Lagarde held, the Church has allowed its spiritual life to expire and has become an expounder of dogma and seeker after power and played a stultifying role in the history of modem culture. Catholicism, indeed, has been dead these four and a half centuries. The cause, he found, was Protestantism and other modem tendencies against which the Church sought to defend itself. In making this defense, it altered, nay, it strangled its old self. It has become a power state as Russia or North America, bent upon playing a forceful role in international politics. It uses its position as a great temporal power to promote disunity in state and nation. It stands against nationality declaring that nationality belongs to the lower order of natural things, a view which belies the words God speaks in history. "The Vatican Council of 1870 was not an episode in church history, but the culmination of the establishment of a new Catholic religion. Its relation to the new Catholicism is as the relation of Nicea to the old Catholicism." " He defined the essence of the new Church as Jesuitism. His use of this term was frequent, and often he uttered it with all of the denunciatory fervor of a sixteenth-century Protestant. For him, the term connoted lust for power, fanaticism, inflexibility in attachment to the word, and incapacity to sense the Spirit. He found little place for piety in a Jesuitism which represented the hard "exclusiveness" of dogmatic Christianity. T o the extent that this cold religion

158

Faul de Lagar de

preempts German life, to that extent does German life lie under a heavy burden.^^ Protestantism

Lagarde's antipathy to Protestantism became so strong that he could find little patience for distinguishing the good from the bad. That he should have this feeling is hardly surprising. One who in youth is subjected unpleasantly to some form of religion often reacts against it when free to do so. Lagarde's reaction did not take him in the direction of materialism, but toward a deeper spiritual life than he felt his father's orthodoxy permitted. The momentum of this reaction carried him away from Protestantism altogether, although on occasion, he could approve of his Protestant upbringing and always thought of himself as neo-Protestant.^® Liberal Protestantism, which was a strong movement by the time of his university years, was an influence that led him not only to a critical examination of early Christian sources, but to a critical consideration of the Reformation. Paradoxically, the very latitude for personal evaluation and interpretation allowed by modern Protestantism, which Lagarde condemned as indifference and degeneration, he assumed in full measure in his criticism of Protestantism. Lagarde's primary target was the Reformation and its theology. He scarcely considered, as one of his critics has pointed out, that any acceptance or rejection of Protestantism in the nineteenth century ought to take into account the post-Reformation evolution of Protestant thought." Lagarde saw in the Reformation nothing creative. It had merit in a negative sense in so far as it "freed the spirit from the restrictions of the Church," but even this work was not

Critical Attack and Proposals for Reform

159

well done. It was a work of subtraction which eliminated some abuses of the old Church, and to that extent freed the spirit, but the old confining dogmas were left essentiallyuntouched. The Augsburg and Heidelberg Confessions reproduced in nearly all essentials the Apostle's and Nicene creed, Luther's failure, as Lagarde saw it, was his refusal to withdraw completely from the framework of dogmatic Christianity.^® The "formal" and "material" principles of the Reformation, that is, the absolute reliance upon the authority of scripture and the argument for justification through faith alone, Lagarde dismissed as mere polemical devices which were used in destructive attacks against the old Church but contributed nothing toward a new insight into the spirit. The "formal" principle must redound, when logically carried out, to the detriment of the Reformation itself. In the first place the Biblical texts were not sufficiently reliable for any such Uteral use. But, even if they were, the most diligent search of the New Testament would not reveal the slightest justification for the Sabbatarian attitude, the abandonment of Mosaic laws, the Trinitarian conception, and many other doctrines, new and old, which the Protestants ardently held. The "material" principle of justification by faith, the reformers could not possibly have taken seriously, since their retention of some of the sacraments and their stern moral prescriptions precluded reliance on faith alone. Moreover, Lagarde could not forgive the Reformers for adopting this essentially Pauline doctrine which has little if any root in the Gospels themselves.^® Though Lagarde allowed that the Reformation engendered moral power in Persönlichkeiten like Luther, that power failed with the conclusion of the Peace of Westphalia which achieved recognition for both Lutherans and Cal-

i6o

Paul de Lagar de

vinists and, thereby, removed the challenge which had elicited the fervor and will to martyrdom of the first generation of Protestants. Thereafter, the "inner untenability" of the Protestant position operated to effect its dissolution. This dissolution has taken the course of a retreat to a dessicated and labored theology, a progressive sectarian fragmentation, and an increasing reliance and subservience to the petty temporal powers which were thereby strengthened at the expense of German unity. Particularly in Prussia the greatest of evils have fallen upon the Church as a result of its administration being in the hands of "soldiers and jurists." " Lagarde's sense of history was deeply offended by the Reformation. "Primitive Christianity" could not be won back in the time of Charles V. Protestantism might have done well to free the German spirit from the oppression of the Church and permit it to develop a religious expression in accordance with the time and its own nature. T o attempt a reversion to Jewish and early Christian forms was to place the Protestant Church in Germany on one side of the main stream of German history. Indeed, the Hohenzollems, he held, have been more significant for Germany than Lutheranism.^® Lagarde harbored a deep contempt for the Protestant clergy which he was not hesitant to express. Unbound by rigid dogma and unwilling to search out the spirit deep within themselves, he found that they tended to fall in with the variegated whims of the time and place. "Protestant divines of all shades are nothing other than theologically colored projections of political velleities—maggots which take the color of the fruit on which they feed." " The lack of learning amongst the clergy he considered shocking. In no respects were the Protestant churches so poor as in

Critical Attack and Proposals for Reform

i6i

the paucity of knowledge amongst their clergy. How, he wrote, could it be otherwise given the quality of Protestant scholarship, which failing to convince sought to smuggle its wares into the heads of its students and preachers. He could not explain why the clergy were tolerated at all unless it was that "they collect apple cores, post marks, cigar butts, etc. . . ." for charitable purposes.^" Protestantism as a religion seemed to Lagarde as passé. It exists only as a cult of admiration for Luther, or as a "dyke" which the government uses against rampaging waters. Where Protestants still speak with some vigor, as in the Protestant Verein, they speak against social or political evils rather than affirming any spiritual truths. When Ritschl protested, Lagarde rejoined that "what can be preserved only at the cost of conscience ought to go under." ^^ Much in Lagarde's criticism deserves serious consideration. He was seldom the idle carper. His immoderation and unwillingness to recognize reality are, however, appalling. After all, modern Catholicism and modern Protestantism are historical facts. No Edict of Nantes or Act of Supremacy could destroy them. Moreover, countless thousands of their communicants held the full measure of piety and Gospel faith which Lagarde sought. Rejuvenation rather than upheaval might have been the way. But the prophet condemns in order to save. This is the spirit of Lagarde's attack on the religious faiths confessed and practiced by the greater part of his contemporaries.^^ The State Lagarde attacked the state with the same vigor and ruthlessness with which he attacked the church. He regarded the state, much as he regarded the church, as an intolerable burden on German life. The background of Lagarde's anti-

102

Paul de Lagar de

statism has already been noted, that is, his romantic attachment to the nation and aversion for the "mechanical" state, his reaction to state-power particularly as displayed in the regimes of Frederick William III and Frederick William IV, and his hostility to Hegel. T o these must be added his own unpleasant experiences with the Prussian state bureaucracy which he felt had used him unfairly during his long wait for a professorial chair and subsequently had showed little support or understanding for his work.^® Lagarde's principal argument against the state was that it has become an end in itself whereas, in its nature, the state is merely a means, a product of need, but neither a source nor end of action. The state "prepares the way," it maintains under law the common forms of life of a people, it does what individuals cannot do alone. It is a machine, necessary and valuable, but existing to serve a purpose higher than itself.^^ "It is clear that the state should take no action in a matter where individuals alone can act; rather only where a task requires organized effort. The state's right, its power, and its duty extend only as far as the requirements of the situation in which it may legitimately act." The absolutism which the Prussian state assumed, he found intolerable. What is Prussia but a patchwork fashioned out of three unattached "rags" of the days of the Great Elector. It grew in power with the decline of the Holy Roman Empire and, thus, was simply a product of need as any state. But to fulfill a practical need is not to become sacrosanct or to acquire any metaphysical status. Nothing is more arbitrary than the boundaries of states which have neither spiritual nor ethical determinants and, therefore, can enclose no spiritual or ethical being.^' Where the modern state, as Prussia, has meddled more

Critical Attack

and Proposals for Reform

163

and more in the affairs of individuals, it has done so without reason or justice, for the state "itself is impersonal. It cannot understand the private person." It is incapable of making any judgment about the circumstances of the individual. It cannot distinguish one class of subjects from another. It can only regulate in machinelike fashion for the whole. Thus, indirect taxes on food and drink which fall about equally on everyone are well suited to the state which stands for the whole. Any symptom of personality which may appear in the state really inheres in the king who is a leader of the nation rather than chief of state. The Prussian state, for example, is incapable of bestowing titles and oiEces, only the king can do this. Lagarde made the point graphically when he wrote of the grant "which the king, not the state, gave me." ^^ The decline of German life has been proportionate to the realization of the un-German principle that the state is "the highest form of human activity." He decried the cult, particularly active since the foundation of the Empire, of those who worshiped the state as an idol. That such a cult exists, he wrote, is "for me the clearest proof of the immaturity of the German nation." The state, as Lagarde conceived it, was like an I.B.M. machine. Such a machine is useful, nay a necessity to the complex work of many modern business offices. Similarly, the state, for Lagarde, was a useful and, indeed, indispensable tool in the administration of the complex affairs of modern life. As a machine can do nothing except what it is set to do, the state is nothing but an instrument of human will. Just as it would be absurd to expect an I.B.M. machine to establish company policies, so it is ridiculous to expect the state to institute or promote or play any role except a protective one in the cultural life of the nation. Precisely be-

104

Paul de Lagar de

cause the worshipers of the state had thrust its lifeless hand into so many affairs of the nation, modern culture was in so deplorable a condition. Much of Lagarde's criticism of German life turned upon this conviction. In no area of German culture was Lagarde so aroused over the exercise of state control as in the churches and religious life, and above all in the Kulturkampf. The Kulturkampf

and Separation of Church and State

The conflict between church and state in Prussia in the seventies, the Kulturkampf, led Lagarde to write Diagnose, at once a blast directed against the action of the Prussian state and the opening attack in a protracted war against the Bismarckian Empire. The Kulturkampf was a product of Bismarck's resistance to Catholic politics, of the concern of liberals over the antiliberal position of Pius IX, and of the desire of certain jurists to strike a better balance between church and state. The opposition of some South German Catholics to the W a r of 1870, the rise of the Center Party, the association of the Catholic clergy in Posen with the Polish nationalists, the cooperation of Welfish particularists with the Center, the possible collusion with German Catholics of a France bent upon revenge, were all matters of concern to Bismarck. These dangers to the Empire led him to foster the steps taken to preserve the state against the church. The liberals were offended by the pronounced reactionary attitude of Pius IX as witnessed in the Syllabus of Errors, ideas which they believed would become obligatory for Catholics because of the new dogma of papal infallibility. The term Kulturkampf (the struggle for [modern] culture) took its meaning from the opposition of the liberals. Certain jurists,

Critical Attack and Proposals for Reform

165

notably Emil Friedberg and Paul Hinschius, who were influential in the formulation of the Kulturkampf legislation, including the May Laws of 1873, held that the historical relation of church and state had been upset by the greater freedom allowed the church by the Constitution of 1850 and the abuse of this freedom by the Catholic Church. These jurists sought to restore the historical balance.^® Lagarde shared to a certain extent in these viewpoints. Like Bismarck, he had no love for the Welfs, or Poles, or the Center Party. His hostile attitude toward modern Catholicism might have placed him on the side of those struggling against it. But the overriding consideration for Lagarde was how the struggle was carried out. Since it was carried out by means of law and state power, he could only regard the Kulturkampf as another egregious misuse of the power of the state, a dismaying demonstration that Bismarck and the coming of the Empire had not opened a glorious new era for the Spirit, but that old ways and errors continued unabated. With conspicuous irony he launched his attack on the Kulturkampf by surveying the relations of the state with the Vatican. Rome, he argued, has long enjoyed a diplomatic position in Europe equivalent to the secular states. The popes have been recognized and treated as princes. Protestant Prussia, as well as the Catholic powers, has maintained its relations with pope and curia, and Bismarck's rise to power brought no change in this policy. Bismarck made no protest over the Vatican Council nor raised his hand to prevent any German subject from attending. What recourse, therefore, does Bismarck or the Government have against the temporal powers of Rome, against the prerogatives of church or clergy, or against the decrees of the Vati-

166

Paul de Lagar de

can Council? How can the pope be considered a fellow sovereign one day and on the next a country priest subject to the control of the Prussian Minister of Worship. The error of those who are making the Kulturkampf, Lagarde asserted, is to resort to legal means, whereas the issue is a moral one. The state cannot properly take everything into its own hands, but ought, like John the Baptist, to prepare the way for a reborn national life. Rome will only be conquered by ignoring it and turning to the task of building a national religion.^" Lagarde aimed his sharpest shafts at the May Laws of 1873 and especially at the provisions which prescribed university study of philosophy, history, and literature for clerical candidates and required state examinations in these subjects. Lagarde had virtually a pathological bias against examinations designed as a hurdle over which students must jump in order to be eligible for a position. Moreover, prescription by the state of the curriculum of a clerical candidate appeared to him a new and flagrant interference of the state in religious affairs. If the examinations are really designed to test proficiency in these areas, he pointed out, then candidates will have to become specialists in nearly everything except religion. If the exams are loosely given, the result will be clergymen and theologians "who are even more chlorotic, superficial, and untruthful than they are now." For the Kulturkampf as a cultural movement, Lagarde was utterly contemptuous. How can laws, which amount to "club-law" contribute to culture, he asked. How strange is it that those who are strangers to culture (he was thinking of the liberals) should imagine themselves champions of culture. What the times require is not a state-directed, liberal-supported, absurdly conceived attack on the "col-

Critical Attack and Proposals for Reform

167

lateral government" of the Jesuits and Rome. We need rather a general upheaval of the nation against every "collateral government" whether press or party or bourse or worker's association, that is, on "all clannish things." ^^ If circumstances warrant war against the papal world monarchy then the Chancellor should honestly recognize and publicly proclaim the fact and take the bold and extreme measures called for by war. Alliances should be forged against an effort by Rome to turn existing racial and political antipathies against Germany into religious ones, so that a holy war may be waged. The enemy should be met within, not by mere petty restrictive legislation further extending the sphere of power of the state, but by an imaginative program aiming at a new theology and a new religion of the nation which will put Germany beyond the reach of any outside force.®® The Kulturkampf confirmed Lagarde in his view that church and state should be separated in Germany. Already, in Uber das Verhältnis he had argued that the state as the agency for the whole nation can offer no support, financial or otherwise, to any religious community consisting of only a part of the nation. Accordingly, he would dissolve all existing religious communities and see them reconstituted as private corporations. Since, he held, the churches in their present form no more nearly answer the spiritual needs of the time than flintlocks meet the mihtary needs of the time, their reorganization may be their salvation. As independent communities they may acquire "a really ideal view of Hfe." In Uber das Verhältnis, Lagarde demanded not only independent religious communities, but, as a corollary, the abandonment of state support of theological faculties. Since each theological faculty is sworn to support the dogma of a

168

Paul de Lagar de

given church, the work of these faculties cannot be "scientific" or serve the interest of the vvfhole. Any facultywishing to continue its existence, he recommended, could reorganize as a seminary of its particular confession. On the basis of these arguments, Lagarde appealed to Kultusminister von Mühler in 1870 to effect the separation of church and state.®® In advocating separation, Lagarde was by no means expressing the liberal viewpoint that religion is purely a matter of individual conscience. On the contrary, if religion or any form of religion answers any national purpose, then the state has the duty of preparing the way for the development of that religion. One contribution, which he believed the state could make, would be to promote that nonsectarian, "scientific" theology in which he was engaged. This theology as "knowledge of religion in general" seeks the laws of God not as they apply to this or that confession, but as they apply to the whole. An objective comparative study of all religions without doctrinal limitations is the way of this theology. The state which dissolves the sectarian faculties should establish faculties in the new theology. In making this demand Lagarde was, on his own terms, on rather dangerous ground. For how could he be sure state support would not mean state control.®® The experience of the Kulturkampf intensified Lagarde's views and led him to a more refined definition of his position on church and state in Die Stellung der Religionsgesellschaften im Staate. In this essay he reiterated the view that all of the religious communities of the land are undesirable excrescences. If the times indicate their liquidation, then is any one of them so sacrosanct as to justify its maintenance? Religious customs and practices are constantly being modified. The law of Moses permits polygamy

Critical Attack and Proposals for Reform

169

and yet no Christian, however devoted to the Old Testament, would not condemn the practice. The Franciscans are denied by the rules of their order the use of money, and, yet, they are observed purchasing tickets in railroad stations. Obviously, these represent concessions to the times. The abandonment of religious communities would be doing only as much.®^ He anticipated no problem in severing ties with the Catholic Church. The Protestant problem was more complex. He proposed that the Protestants be divided into four groups: the Lutherans, Reformed, Evangelical, and Protestant (this last presumably intended for the miscellaneous residue). Within a year any unattached person who wished to be attached to one of these groups could so signify. The entire possessions of the former Protestant churches would then be divided on the basis of the per capita strength of each group. The churches, that is the actual places of worship, would be redistributed on the principle that the most numerous sect in the vicinity of each church would have the exclusive usufruct thereof, whether or not it had previously owned the building. No church, under any circumstances, was to be used for civic purposes or in any way that would suggest any connection of church and state. The state, however, must exercise control to the same extent it does over every private institution or person, that is, to protect the interests of the whole. The state must supervise with care the wealth of every religious community to assure that no power formidable for the nation develops. The interests of the whole demand that the state be particularly watchful over Catholic and Jewish communities, the former because its center Ues outside of Germany and the latter because of its international interests. No money may be collected for Rome or for international Jewry by

I yo

Paul de hagarde

these communities. Only individuals may be permitted such gifts. Clergy or officials who have been educated outside of Germany will not be tolerated. The emphasis of foreign educated Roman Catholics is often on the Roman rather than on the Catholic, and the national welfare requires the state to prohibit such persons. T o say the least, Lagarde's position was not unequivocal. On the one hand he vigorously demanded separation, on the other, his Prussian sense of order and discipline made him unwilling to leave the communities completely autonomous. Moreover, he was not consistent in his view of what the future of the independent religious communities might be. In the Verhältnis he expresses the belief that the communities would wither away. But Die Stellung closes on a much more optimistic note which betrays something of the old faith of the pietists and Schleiermacher in the selfcontained religious community. "If the religious communities could only represent the whole, they would have a much greater significance than they now do." ®® His final position seems to have been that if the state would prevent the newly independent religious communities from associating closely with their non-German counterparts, then the communities might take their places as integral parts of the nation and contribute to the spiritual life of the whole. GOVERNANCE AND ECONOMY OF THE NATION

Monarchy

and

Aristocracy

Government for Lagarde was a matter, not of securing and perpetuating the power of an absolute state with its attendant bureaucracy, but of leading the nation along the

Critical Attack and Proposals for Reform

171

way of its destiny. Government is leadership and leadership is not dictation but inspiration. But where, Lagarde inquired, do we find inspired leadership in our time. Our national life is not suited to produce heroes. Our people have no sense of the heroic. The German people can lionize a man at a public banquet, but do they really appreciate such heroes as Prince Eugene or Count Starhemberg? ®® German monarchs, princes, and aristocrats, almost to the man in modern times, have been concerned with their power and position and failed their people. Lagarde sometimes cried for a great man to arise out of the dreary desert and lead men to the land of Canaan. "One man must help us, a man with a firm, powerful and pure will, not a parliament, not law, not the ineffective striving of disorganized individuals. W e do not have such a man now . . . Our superficial and mechanical system probably cannot produce one. True men are becoming ever more nearly impossible and in their stead we have commonplace fellows, regimented and drilled." He agreed with Heinrich Leo that Germany needed a Cromwell. By and large, however, Lagarde's appeal was not for a charismatic leader but for an invigorated monarchy and a responsible and functioning aristocracy. Lagarde's admiration for monarchy was perfectly in harmony with his theories of folk and nation. The Germans traditionally had been led by tribal chiefs who had not been an esoteric and elevated group as the Babylonian patesis but comrades-in-arms who achieved respect and obedience by their superior prowess and wisdom. The comitatus had been organized around such a leader. In the Middle Ages it was the German tribal kings who gave coherence and unity to their people, and in England the spirit of the Anglo-Saxon

172

Paul de Lagar de

kingship held the realm together through the feudal anarchy. Germanic peoples, Lagarde held, are, as a result of their long history, profoundly "könighaft." The German nation must have a strong monarchy, in the best of its monarchic tradition. The perfect king is the "most trusted man in the nation. H e is the center of the nation's life." He is neither conservative nor liberal but altogether above factionalism.^^ His concern is to maintain "the German way" and, thus, promote the inner unity of the nation. Through him alone the devisiveness of liberalism can be overcome. Such a king does not, as Hegel conceived, sit at the pinnacle of the state—presiding like the dean of a faculty. Rather, by his presence, by his mediation, by holding the torch of the ideal before his countrymen, he is the endeared and inspired leader whom the nation may trust to know and execute its will. It is he who perceives what the poorest and the richest of his subjects, what those who most strive forward to the new and those who most cling to the old, feel and cherish. In this sense the king is the representative of God and cannot be hedged in by petty limitations. Yet, woe to the prince who becomes a despot. Once he loses the confidence of the people he will not easily win it back, and his dynasty will likely fall. Such a development is a hard lot for a folk, for new dynasties come naturally and slowly. T h e y cannot be elected. T h e folk may be left with no alternative but a republic, the most "poetryless" and, therefore, unworthy form of political life." Though leadership and governance fall directly upon the monarch, in Lagarde's view, the monarch in his own person does not exhaust the nation's need for direction. This must be supplied by a powerful but responsible body of legati, that is, a regenerated aristocracy. As nerve and blood cen-

Critical Attack and Proposals for Reform

173

ters lie along the spinal chord helping to stimulate and control the members according to signals from the brain, so the aristocracy lies in immediate contact with the people and represents directly and personally the will and hand of the king. The princes, now ridiculous in their inactivity, should resume their role as "tribal" leaders. The nobility of the countryside should assume leadership on the estates.^^ Princes and aristocrats would then recognize their organic attachment to the nation and their God-given place in its history. Such a pure Germanic reorganization of German life would mean freedom from oppressive government and the state. It would mean, in effect, Lagarde urged, the substitution of "self-administration" for "government." It would mean governance not through "an official government party" or bureuacracy, but through a "politically capable class" resting on "a self-conscious people." In the depths of despair over German life in the Bismarckian Reich, Lagarde prepared for the second volume of the Deutsche Schriften in 1881 Die Reorganisation des Adels, the definitive statement of his ideas on the aristocracy. Germany is in a state of extreme disorganization, he premised. The organic reconstruction of the nation is a vital necessity. It can only proceed as a new, vigorous nobility is developed. This nobility must be "not simply the community of the high born, but the community of all those families who recognize and can maintain the family as the basis of the life of the nation. The nobility must be created as a corporation which possesses only those rights necessary in the exercise of its duty . . . The tactical unit, with which 'Ethos' must take the field against nature and sin, is the family." Lagarde's conception of this nobility of families was somewhat narrower than the passage indicates. He wished

174

^^ Lagar de

it constituted by the traditional Prussian nobility, and by all others who served the state, that is, officials, clergy, teachers, and others provided that both the candidate's father and both grandfathers had held the same or equivalent positions, and further provided that parents and grandparents belonged to one of the Christian communities or never joined a non-Christian community.·*^ The nobility must be faithful to ideals. As well, it must be under obligations enforceable in courts of law. These legally mandatory duties are calculated to promote the position, stability, and reliance of the family group. A noble family must: ( i ) Take the responsibility for the support and well-being of all relatives as far as its means allow. (2) Augment the family wealth. (3) Build one or more entailed country seats or, at least, a debt-free city dwelling. (4) Prevent family members from becoming attached to any unsuitable confession. Family discipline will be preserved by a family governing board elected by the adult members which, under the family head, will have the first line of responsibility for the above duties. A herald's office will register and maintain official lists of bona fide nobles. The king will establish noblemen's courts of honor to correspond to those of army officers.^® What did Lagarde expect from this fantasia? He expected the recreating of the "organic" life of the nation which had been disrupted by the rise of the absolute state and completely shattered by the new dominant concept of power. If the German spirit could come to expression in a worthy, rooted aristocracy which could provide the leadership for thè folk, the folk would quickly respond and hastily cast out of the land the foreign, the "un-German debris." Thus, democratic parliaments, liberalism, super-

Critical Attack and Proposals for Reform

175

fidai ideas of progress, all these would go. These delusions are not the way of freedom, for "freedom and democracy or liberalism go together as fire and water." T o find true freedom we must take the bold step of reconstituting the German way and, thus, reexperiencing the original power of German life. "We must get back to the source, high up in the lonesome mountain where the stream starts." Representation Lagarde's political naïveté did not extend so far that he did not sense the need in the modern world for some representation of the people, even in the best constituted monarchical-aristocratic society. His theory of history and conception of the individual were highly inconsistent with the liberal view that men possessed a natural right to contract for and control any mutually agreeable system of government. Yet, he could assert that "the nation must look after its own business. Everyone must be permitted his influence in public affairs. Legislation and administration are only possible with the agreement of the folk." ®® What Lagarde was seeking was representation for the folk, that is, for the people, not for persons. The problem therefore, was not to achieve a duly elected assembly responsible to the majority interest, but to discover a means of expressing the will of the whole. Since the nation is a distinctive organism it has such a will, and its will must set the basic policies of the government. "The folk thinks as a whole about the whole," Lagarde believed. Its imagination comprehends only the big issues. It is incapable of forming any judgment about specific bills or matters of administrative procedure. Its Ja or Nein cannot be determined by the voting system established by Bismarck's general-election law of 1867. This law merely

176

Paul de Lagar de

plays into the hands of the politicians, who through demagoguery and party dictatorship use the vote of the masses for their own purposes. " T h e whole system is a huge fraud." In Prussia the fraud is only the greater because of the three-class provision, since a man's position depends upon nothing but geography. Thus, a man in the first class in Schleusingen would probably be in the third class in ВегИп." The parliamentary system which rests on this electoral law is a "priest-system" arrogant and irresponsible. H o w great the delusion of the Germans who fancy that the Reichstag is in any way representing them. H o w naïve to sit around the table at a political banquet and listen with satisfaction to the report of the local delegate as though he were really expressing their will in the Reichstag.^^ Lagarde proposed several ways to achieve true representation of the "folk-will." In 1875 he called for a system of proportional representation which would allow a voice to the minority. Sectarian and partisan interests would then be less likely to control legislation. He believed that if representatives from all different groups could be brought together they might perceive a common bond of national interest and recognize that much of their mutual hostility was the result of irresponsible demagogic leadership. A t the same time, Lagarde urged the creation of a legislative council to consist of experts in the several fields of government, such as, finance, military affairs, etc. These experts, selected by the king, would be charged with formulating specific laws within their special fields. The representatives could approve or reject, but not debate these laws.®® In 1881, in the Program für die konservative Partei Preussens, Lagarde, partaking of the resurgent conservative spirit of the time, proposed a new version of the old idea of repre-

Critical Attack and Proposals for Reform

177

sentarion by estates. He now felt that the Landtag and Reichstag would most nearly reflect the will of the people if their membership came exclusively from the communal and provincial estates and the local chambers of commerce. The higher assemblies would consist of men experienced in local affairs and conversant with the thinking of the people and, thus, better able to render the popular judgment. Moreover, bureaucrats and functionaries would be excluded and the anomolous situation whereby those who administer the laws have a voice in sanctioning them would be averted.®^ In 1885 in his last major political essay, Die nächsten F fliehten deutscher Politik, he redefined the German estates of the Empire to include not only the provincial estates and chambers of commerce but, also, the old unmediatized knights of the Empire and the higher ranks of the nobility. In this essay he has a rather cumbersome proposal for a way out of a deadlock between king and estates. In such a case, he would create an assembly to decide the issues. Its delegates would be "proposed" after the manner of write-in ballots rather than elected from slates of candidates. Presumably the assembly would cease to exist after the issue which had instigated its creation was settled.®® These proposals can hardly be called a political system. They were little more than positive elements in his general attack against the prevailing political organization and leadership. They were neither practical nor theoretically sound. Representation by estates made no sense in the nineteenth century. Germany's multiparty system gave a kind of proportional representation, but the history of the Reichstag affords no evidence that the proximity of differing groups led to a dissolution of their partisan aims in the solvent of national harmony. The legislative council of ex-

178

Paul de Lagar de

perts, if it were genuinely such, could hardly fail to be at loggerheads much of the time with the king and aristocracy. It is hard to see why the fraud and corruption, which Lagarde associated with any liberal representation, could not thrive equally well under his own. Yet, Lagarde perceived with foreboding, as many of his countrymen did not, the lack of idealism in political life, the delusion practiced upon the masses that they somehow were a significant political force by virtue of universal manhood suffrage, and the growing divisiveness born of greed and special material interests. The events of the twentieth century have confirmed Lagarde's worst fears. Political Economy When Lagarde wrote on economic or financial questions he was on the periphery of even his broad province of knowledge. Neither training nor inclination suited him to deal with them adequately. Yet, he was too well aware of the import of economic questions to ignore them. He concerned himself primarily with two: ( i ) state finance and (2) an invigoration of the national economy which would bring a better life to the folk and strengthen the nation. Lagarde's thinking on finance and politics is contained almost exclusively in his essay on this subject written in February 1881. The timeliness of this essay is, of course, apparent.®® He was dismayed at the factionalism and blatant self-interest displayed by the different groups involved in the tax question. As with all things, he wanted to place even so mundane a matter as taxes on an ideal basis. "German politics has proceeded from the unideal. It must be shown that the true politician is an idealist." Proceeding in this spirit, Lagarde asserted that "military duty and tax obliga-

Critical Attack and Proposals for Reform

179

tion are parallel." Both are duties owed to the Fatherland and both must be properly used by the Fatherland.®® Taxes properly fall to the Reich to enable it to carry out its functions. But the provinces and communities, also, have claim to their share. Between local governments and the Reich lie the several state governments which may or may not serve a useful purpose but "have made orderly taxation an impossibility." He regarded one set of taxes as highly suited to the Reich, and another, not overlapping, suited to the local communities, but none which properly pertained to the state governments. The latter, accordingly, must be done away with.®® The Reich ideally should draw on three different kinds of income: indirect taxes, fees, and loans. There can be no question of a graduated direct taxation which falls unequally, for the state knows no distinction between persons. It is the agent of the whole and cannot judge who is best able to pay. An income of 5,000 marks to one man might have the same real value as 10,000 for another. The state can make no judgment. Thus, the Reich can most fairly lay claim to indirect taxes, and especially those which have the most general incidence. Nothing could be more suited than taxes on food and pleasure. Taxes on bread, meat, wine, beer, etc., would fall on everyone as befits a national tax. Tobacco, Lagarde would subject to an especially severe tax. It not only falls into the above-mentioned class, but it is a carnal pleasure to which men have enslaved themselves and, hence, is a sin.®° The tariff, he classified, as a special form of indirect tax. Yet, since it is applied, quite rightly, as a device to protect native industries, it is more a weapon than a revenue measure, and, hence, the proceeds quite legitimately could be

i8o

Paul de Lagarde

turned toward increasmg the capital wealth or state domain. H e could not resist adding that protective tariffs are effective only over a large trade area such as "Germany, Austria, and Rumania together." The second class of income which properly falls to the Reich are fees, that is, the postal rates, proceeds from justice, and from the several services which the state renders such as providing river pilots. T h e post, justice, rivers, etc. transcend local areas. The nation as a whole is served, and the Reich may rightly collect the cost of providing these services.®^ Finally, the Reich may take loans provided they are expended in the national interest for projects beyond the scope of private means. Such loans must be repaid by the generation to whose benefit they redound. Only if they are used to create durable objects which will serve the future may repayment be extended into the future.®^ Within the communities, similarly, natural sources for taxation can be found. These are primarily real estate and income taxes. These are not legitimate for imperial taxation since they are relative to the local communities. Thus, over the land there is the widest discrepancy in the value of comparable pieces of land, as in the salaries of persons of similar professions and skill. In the local areas these discrepancies diminish, and the incidence of the direct taxes is just. As the Reich should severely tax tobacco for the well-being of the nation, so should the community use its taxing powers to stimulate a movement toward home ownership. N e w homes should be tax exempt for ten years and heavy taxes laid against rental dwellings. For, "to live in one's own house is not a luxury, but, for a true German, a moral necessity." Both Reich and community should gradually build up

Critical Attack and Proposals for Reform

i8i

its domain to the point of self-sufficiency. This means thrift so that each year may see an accumulation. The Reich should make judicious investments and particularly acquire and reforest waste lands. As Bismarck, Lagarde wanted a complete imperial monopoly of the railroads. T o achieve an annual surplus the treasury must be free from the voracious demands for the military. Only the assurance of peace will allow curtailment of defense preparations. This assurance may be had if Germany and Austria wül combine into a great empire of Middle Europe, and enforce the peace. Such an empire, moreover, is a basic necessity in the economic and social rejuvenation of the German nation. Lagarde was well aware of the "social question." He was dismayed that the finance minister Camphausen could report with equanimity in 1871 that six and one half million adults received 140 or less talers per year. Inequality is a condition of progress, but he saw clearly that inequaUty must not be so great "that the rich may swallow the poor or that the poor cannot defend themselves against the rich." β" Lagarde's solution to the social problem did not take the direction of a welfare state, of subsidies for the underdog, or a redistribution of wealth through government disbursements. Raids on the public treasury struck him as an evil of the time. Nor did Bismarck's state socialism suit him, for it was too purely a material solution. He could hardly turn to the Social Democrats. They were a party faction, they looked to political democracy and not to aristocratic governance, they were an international movement, not primarily concerned with fulfilling the destinies of a romantically conceived national spirit. Lagarde's peculiar set of political ideas required a corresponding set of economic ideas.®®

182

Paul de Lagarde

As a first step in his argument for economic sufficiency and spiritual renewal, Lagarde sought to demonstrate the limitations of industry. Germany, he pointed out, has an abundance of coal and iron, and upon that basis industry has grown. But an elaborate industrial economy is a false economy. It has no stability and depends for the most part upon creating artificial demands rather than satisfying elemental needs. Germany will never be able to compete successfully with other nations in the production of industrial goods, and consequently the demand created in Germany will more and more be filled by imports which means an increasingly unfavorable trade balance.®® The good old German piety, the way of simplicity and joy in the things which God provides, if it could be restored, would make nugatory the high-blown arguments of the indispensability of industry. Industries destroy the German character by inciting material desires for their products. Its mass production methods enslave the worker in a division of labor which places him at the mercy of the system and converts work from pleasure to drudgery. The individual becomes a machine, and as a machine he loses his vital organic relation to the whole. On the other end of the scale, the "rubber, coal, and Schnaps barons and the princes of the stock market" likewise lack organic articulation to the nation. They take no responsibilities as leaders but are concerned only with the creation of dividend paper. "Industry with its corrosive worldliness is responsible for the limitation of ethical life." In the fifties when he first wrote against modern industrialization, he was writing as a romantic dismayed at the marring of the pastoral life of Europe. In 1875 Lagarde renewed his attack on German industry which, stimulated by the French indemnity, had undergone a frenzied expan-

Critical Attack and Proposals for Reform

183

sion in the early years of the decade. In the midseventies, two palpable results of industrial expansion were a greatly increased materialization of German life and a severe economic depression. In these circumstances, Lagarde struck out against industry and the indemnity which he regarded as its immoral progenitor. Nothing good, he held, can flow from wealth acquired like the indemnity, without work. Victory in the war brought us our reward in AlsaceLorraine and in unification. If we had to take an indemnity at aU it ought to have been used solely for pension funds or other works of rehabilitation made necessary by the war.®® There is an economic alternative to industry, that is, an agrarian trading economy with handicraft production. If husbandry be diligently promoted, if the Junkers can reconstitute themselves as efficient agriculturists, and, above all, if a new German Empire will embrace the Balkans and open up the vast land resources therein, then Germany can literally flow with milk and honey. It will then be able to feed Europe. If it secures Trieste and Schleswig-Holstein it will then be in a position to master the European carrying trade. Its farm produce and commercial ventures will enable it to acquire all of the industrial commodities it properly needs.«» The revival of the class of skilled craftsmen will provide Germany with a more natural and happier working class than the miserable proletariat. These craftsmen will provide nearly all the fabrications which Germany needs and will assure the quality of their goods. The old skills have largely decayed through desuetude. Few masters any longer take on apprentices. Cheap foreign labor is frequently imported for construction work. This trend must be abruptly reversed, and the possibility of doing this rests four square on

184

Paul de Lagarde

resettlement in central Europe whereby the great urban population masses may be broken up and the old and orderly villages reconstituted^" In short, a German Mitteleuropa comes very close to being a panacea for Lagarde. The free lands of Central Europe will provide the wherewithal for the above-mentioned projects. A useful and healthy occupation for paupers and unfortunates may readily be found. The incalculable loss of German emigrants to lands beyond the seas may now be halted and the stream diverted eastward. Germany will find self-sufficiency, the social problem will be solved, and the German nation rediscover a moral and dignified and indigenous way of life.''^ Mitteleuropa Lagarde's greatest dream was of a German Middle Europe. He believed that its creation would be a challenge great enough to engender the ideal political leadership which he sought. Its realization would provide the best possible framework for the maintenance of such leadership. It was, as we have seen, a sine qua non in his plans for economic well-being. The provenience of Lagarde's Middle European ideas lies in his youthful image of a glorious medieval German Empire. Although his youthful hopes for a literal restoration of the old Empire were pretty well dissolved by the fifties, he could conceive of a German Middle Europe as a modern version. In turning to the question of eastern Europe and Germany's relations thereto, Lagarde was not alone. The subject aroused lively interest in the debates at the St. Paul's Church in 1848 and had received thoughtful attention in Friedrich List's The National System of Po-

Critical Attack and Proposals for Reform

185

liticai Economy (1840). Lagarde's friend, Baron von Radowitz, to whose circle, as we have seen, he had access, was much concerned with the future of the Germans in the east and southeast. Characteristically, Lagarde's ideas on this subject were rather unique and shaped to the contours of his emerging thought. He first appealed for Middle European colonization in Uber die gegewwärtigen Aufgaben der deutschen Politik in 1853. The building of a German Middle Europe seemed to Lagarde the only ultimate answer to the "German Question." The problem, he thought, was not primarily a dynastic one, but whether the German people were to be given "a soul, bread, and a sword" which they so sorely needed. In Mitteleuropa they would possess these things— a soul because Middle Europe would allow proper scope for an organic organization for princes and people; bread because only preemption of the Middle European land mass could assure self-sufficiency; and a sword because a Germanized Middle Europe must stand as an arbiter between east and west enforcing a pax germaniaP In the seventies Lagarde's demands for a greater Germany were only whetted by the new Reich which in no sense seemed to him a fulfillment, but only an intermediate step toward unity. He moved further away from any idea of the prussianization of Germany and closer to a dualistic greater Germany which could readily exploit the central European area. More remarkable was the vigor with which he reopened a question so evidently closed by the events of 1866-1871. All his old feeling for a greater Germany recurred now, reinforced with newly drawn although not essentially different, social, economic, and military arguments. Again playing the role of the prophet, he was not

186

Paul de Lagarde

deterred by the realities of the situation, whether Bismarck's fixed purpose of maintaining instead of expanding the Reich or the prevailing apathy toward Austria. What exactly did Lagarde mean by the term Mitteleuropa? In 1853 he defined a greater Germany "provisionally" as the states of the Confederation plus Hungary and Galicia and "naturally" Venice and Lombardy. Austria must see to it, he added, that these latter are not lost to a united Italy which is surely coming. The lecture in which he laid down the above was not finished before he had called Istria and the port of Trieste a "matter of life" for Germany and "to possess the mouths of the Danube in addition would be still better." Subsequently Lagarde added other areas. If all of these were brought together Lagarde's Mitteleuropa would stretch from the Danish frontier in the northwest, south to include most of the valleys of the Moselle and the Saar, northeast to the marshes of eastern Poland, and southeast to the Black Sea and the Adriatic. Such an Empire would have been far greater in area than that of the Hohenstaufens—and could well indeed have been the arbiter mundi as Lagarde imagined.'^® Lagarde's demands for territorial expansion persisted from the eighteen-fifties to the end of his life. During the Crimean War, for example, he called for Prussia to enter the War on whichever side would promise the most help in creating a German Middle Europe. He thought it most likely that Schleswig-Holstein, Alsace-Lorraine, and Poland could be gained from a grateful and victorious Russia. The War of 1870 seemed to him an opportunity for achieving something more than the unification of north and south. As the War was nearing its climax, he wrote a long letter to King William reciting the historical claims of Germany to Luxemburg and branding failure to take it a shame

Critical Attack and Proposals for Reform

187

to German h o n o r I n the eighties in his last essay for the Deutsche Schriften he appealed to Russia to make room for Germany on the Black Sea coasts. As the last man seated on the bench in a full beer hall arises and gets a stool to put at the end of the table to make room for a newcomer, he wrote, so Russia, as a "last man," should give some room to Germany by withdrawing a safe distance to the east and concede some Black Sea coast in whose hinterland beggars and poor peasants can settled® Though Lagarde saw little hope that his Middle European dreams could be even approximately realized, he did find some satisfaction in the colonization of Posen in 1888. He wrote that he had long seen the necessity of "Germanically" colonizing Poland and Austria and that, although he had been "answered by silence and dirt . . . at least now they are colonising Posen." ''' If Germanic elements were to preempt Central Europe they would be confronted with the existence over much of this area of non-German peoples who would either have to be disposed of or thrust into a helot-like role. The current of sentiment for autonomy or national independence which had been running strongly in the nineteenth century would somehow have to be turned aside. Lagarde as a dedicated nationalist could not escape the moral question thus presented. The moral issue he met with the sheer sophistry that the non-German Balkan peoples do not possess the qualities for nationhood, and, therefore, that they scarely deserve consideration. The Magyars, especially, he thought, are passé. Only "spiritual forces" could restore and maintain them, but they display no such powers. His hostility for the Magyars had only been augmented by the Ausgleich of 1867. The Hungary of the Dual Monarchy, he pictured.

188

Paul de Lagar de

as a land without statesmen or political sense, of wanton prodigality, tyrannical suppression of non-Magyar nationalities and gross sycophancy. As for the Czechs, the romanticism of his youth had impelled him to some admiration for the old Bohemians and hope for their revival. He even learned their language and collected a small Czech library. He found his illusion now dispelled. "Magyars, Czechs, and similar nationalities which live under the Austrian scepter are a burden on history. They could, however, as an alloy with a nobler metal, perform a good service." '''' He found a measure of respect only for the South Slavs. "The peoples of the Empire with the exception of the Germans and the South Slavs are poUtically worthless. At best they are the material for a new Germanic edifice." This whole motley central European area, he insisted, is a nuisance to Europe. Its peoples are like merchants who have no capital with which to operate. They exhaust themselves in acquiring the multiplicity of languages used in the region. What a great moral purpose would be served by their Germanization. "To rebuild village after village on German lines . . . would be to show the Magyars, Czechs, Ruthenians, and Slavs who the better men are, and who, therefore, ought to rule." W e have a mission to do this, he argued, and this mission is our right.''® Lagarde's conception of Middle Europe as a source of bread has been discussed in the preceding section. H e regarded Middle Europe, also, as a necessity if Germany were to have a real "soul" and strong "sword." A greater Germany, he believed, would provide the space and the challenge which the Germans needed to develop as an organic nation faithfully expressing the "German soul." The resources of Middle Europe, moreover, would assure Germany security from both east and west.

Critical Attack and Proposals for Reform

189

In his early essays Lagarde argued that Prussia does not have a body large enough to contain its soul. Austria has a large body, but no soul. Austria is an abundant and productive land vi^hich has, however, "no idea to hold it together." Prussia, with its idealism, can supply soul and idea. Together and only together Prussia and Austria may enjoy a "rational, German politics." The theme was restated with new urgency as Lagarde took up the cudgels against the Empire. " A t present we are still in a 'provisorium' " he asserted. However necessary and salutary the break in relations between Austria and Prussia in 1866, this break should have been followed by some form of union. Austria and Prussia must now recognize that the desideratum for both is for Austria to become a "colonial state." Germans must be sent from the north and settled to the extremities of the Empire to the south. Confronted with this task the Austrian and German emperors must join hand in hand to create a greater Reich. Such a Middle Europe would allow scope for the kind of organic social organization natural to the German nation. Here, the great dynastic families, the Reuss, Lippes, Solms, and other families, now useless to Germany, could reassume their historic functions as hereditary rulers of Danubian duchies. Under them the lesser aristocracy in tum would become a functioning class accorded privileges but obliged to accept corresponding duties. This gentry, which any large and honorable landholder might join, would be no source of support to a reactionary Camarilla seeking to maintain a regime of privilege. Rather, it would "come into such close contact with real life, that it could no longer consort with medieval phantoms." It would acquire such resourcefulness in affairs and reliability as to justify laying the greatest administrative duties upon its shoulders. Gentry

190

Paul de Lagar de

who are non-noble in origin could well assume as familynames, the names of villages destroyed during the ThirtyYears' War. The solid base of this structure would be the German peasants and artisans. Far better for the Germans to migrate to a German Mitteleuropa than be lost to the Fatherland by emigration to America. Men could be freed from their military obligations if they would settle in the southeast. Paupers could be settled there. In 1853 when Lagarde first propounded these ideas, the question of which dynasty, Lothringian or Hohenzollern, should stand at the pinnacle seemed to him "a singularly tiresome one." In seven-eighths of all their affairs, the interests of Prussia and Austria are identical. Any differences over the remaining eighth must not be allowed to prevent their unity. He inclined at the time to a trias solution by which the Hohenzollerns would control the north and northeast from Schleswig through Russian Poland, the Princes the southeast including all of the non-German Austrian lands, and the Austrian Emperors would hold sway over "Germany," that is, the Empire of the Saxon emperors, and the German lands of Austria. These divisions would be bound by strong and natural ties including a defensive alliance, a common tariff system, joint direction of colonization and the military establishment, and a common parliament for deciding questions of peace and war.®^ After thirty-three years during which Lagarde made a German Middle Europe a panacea for many of Germany's problems, he restated his ideas in Die nächsten Pflichten deutscher Politik. Basically, they remained the same, modified only to allow for change since 1853. The creation of the German Empire and the stronger Austrian interests to the southeast, precluded trialism. He now proposed a dualistic rule of Hohenzollern and Hapsburg-Lothringian,

Critical Attack and Proposals for Reform

191

whereby the failure of either line would result in the succession of the other to the whole. He attached particular importance to the four autonomous religious communities which he had defined in his Die Stellung der Religions gesellschaften im Staate. They were to be proclaimed by both emperors and serve as spiritual nuclei around which men could gather without regard to sectional interests. He would constitute an imperial estates-general from representatives of the provincial estates, trade organizations, and higher aristocracy to approve great matters such as taxation. Generally the emperors would possess the legislative power which they must exercise through their council of state.®® The exact nature of the constitution of German Middle Europe, however, was not of real moment to Lagarde. The great common effort to form this German Empire would, in itself, serve, as nothing else, to stir the German soul to self-awareness and toward that moral and inner unity of which political unity could be no more than a precondition. The awakened German soul could not fail to express and preserve itself as each German, whether prince or peasant, took his place in this German world. Lagarde's thinking about Middle Europe was in no small degree influenced by his concern for the defense of Germany and his conception of a "German peace" for Europe. In the fifties he pointed to three vulnerable areas which required geographical rectification: Alsace, an assembly point for a French army; Holstein, which could provide a conqueror with access to the heart of Germany; and Poland, which nearly cut off East Prussia. His fear of Russia was not yet full blown. "It is questionable whether it would be worth the trouble to build a special wall against Russia," he wrote.®^ After the formation of the Empire in 1871, however, he

192

Paul de Lagar de

came to regard Russia as the principal menace to the Fatherland, a menace which must be countered by a German Middle Europe. He bemoaned the fact that children in the better situated Prussian famiUes, his included, were taught to regard Russia as an inseparable friend. He regarded Russia as a dissembler which had befriended Prussia only to derive some advantage for itself. Its doctrinaire religious structure, its racial peculiarity, and lack of idealism made it appear as "Catholicism, Judaism, and North America wrapped up as one." Against this monstrosity "only a Germanized Austria could stand fast." Neither the Emperor's connection with Russia nor the Chancellor's attitude toward Hungary must stand in the way of our eastward movement. History must move east as well as west. We must see to it that the development in the east is "nonRussian" which is to say "not dangerous." Particularly aroused by Russian pressure in Bulgaria, he sent a letter of congratulation to Prince Alexander of Hesse. "Your highness' son has only done his duty when he, as Prince of Bulgaria, has furthered a Bulgarian and not a Russian policy. All of the brutalities of the powers will not prevent this policy from bearing good fruit . . . Every politically thinlang German knows that everyone who resists the Russia represented by Katkov and Ignatiev fights for Germany." ®® So urgent did Lagarde believe the Balkan German bastion to be that he was prepared to see this "expropriation process" carried through by means of war. Once Germany had mastered the Southeast, he thought the Fatherland could mamtain a modern pax romana. "Only through the foundation of a German Central Europe will a power be created sufficient to hold all of Europe in check, and thereby able effectively to assure the peace." ®®

Critical Attack and Proposals for Reform

193

In 1890 he surveyed the position of the great powers and saw that France, by turning toward Russia, had betrayed her own best interests and, hence, failed as a significant independent power in European politics. England, though still a sea power could no longer dominate Europe through perfidy. Germany now stood posed between the growing might of America and Russia. A great Middle European Germany must be built to hold the lever straight and assure the German position. This was a moral work in which all must be hazarded. " A peace must be found which is not simply the absence of war, but which has a moral content and, thus, positive good." A greater Germany with its manifold blessings would provide a "moral content," and the Germans must not cease striving for its attainment.®'^ KULTURKRITIK

In addition to religious, political, and economic questions, Lagarde expressed himself critically and sometimes constructively on several other aspects of German culture and life. They are considered in this section following an examination of Lagarde's appraisal of Kultur in general. These views are consistent with the pattern of his thought and taken together constitute a general Kulturkritik. Kultur Lagarde was convinced that German Kultur was in an advanced state of decay. Even in early letters to Anna, he spoke of the similarity of the times to the late Roman Empire. "We live indeed in a similar autumn now." "Everywhere untruth, and I fear that in Europe civilization goes under completely." Culture today, he held, either clings to that "which has become and remains and where one finds

194

^^ Lagarde

only decay" or stems from foreign culture learned from abroad "like a vocabulary" and hence superficial. T o make matters worse, this culture, at once lifeless and corrupted, is ranked with the state as a vice-god ruling the ways of men.®® Modem culture he found eclectic, a juxtaposition of disparate elements. How can the ideals of the Greeks, Jews, Romans, Germans, and others be heaped together the way we Germans do? It is sheer cacophony—like an orchestra practicing but not playing. Out of this jaundiced viewpoint came an endless string of denunciatory epithets with which he assailed modern culture. Thus, he wrote, we drink foul water, only debris is piled around us, we are deep in mire and burdened with a balast of culture. The tenor of this criticism is virtually that of another biting Zeitkritiker, Friedrich Nietzsche.®® Culture, Lagarde held, is a means, not an end. In the physical sense it is the means through which the needs of the body are met. In a higher sense it is the means of fulfilling the purpose of human existence, namely, in helping bring the idea of God which lives in every individual "to a more living expression." Culture, he wrote elsewhere, is the realization of what morality demands. He found little of this "meaningful" culture as he surveyed the life of the time.»» Liberalism and Conservatism Lagarde thought of liberalism and conservatism not as party programs but as broad systems of political and moral values and, therefore, as important elements of the culture of the nineteenth century. Lagarde was not unequivocally antiliberal. Indeed, he has been called a pre-March liberal since he partook of the

Critical Attack and Proposals for Reform

195

idealism of the early liberal era which valued the individual and feared the state. Like the liberals he had little affection for the German Confederation and was ardent for a united Fatherland. In a most un-Prussian manner he wished for men to be freed from subservience to the state and its ordinances. He even conceived liberalism as "the necessary complement to conservatism, and a true statesman must be both conservative and liberal at once," a view also expressed by such different figures as Adam Müller and John Stuart Mill. Thus, he possessed a liberal sense of progress and observed that as the conservative must conserve, so must "the liberals see to it that new sources of energy may freely work in society." He warned, however, that a nation must have a conservative historical sense before it can indulge its liberal impulse.®^ On the other hand, Lagarde was outspokenly hostile to much of liberalism or, at least, to what he called liberalism. He saw its origin in the French Revolution and its characteristic form in the France of Louis Philippe. The Revolution seemed to him not only a ruthless break with the past, but a movement without moral foundation. He feared that the moral degeneration in Prussia must lead to such an upheaval. "If we do not create Ethos, we will have another 1789, and with it a flood of misfortune and tears." The liberalism of the Revolution was based on "theorems" not on "principles." Superficiality, materiahsm, acquisitiveness were its hallmarks.®^ The liberalism of the France of Louis Philippe appeared to Lagarde close to the nadir of political degradation. The charter and monarchy were irreconcilable. The system was held together only by the greedy bourgeoisie who for the sake of economic freedom were indifferent to the fact that their government was without foundation in French history

196

Paul de

hagarde

or the French people. Louis was, indeed, "the king of grocers." Lagarde considered the liberalism which had developed in Germany as the despised French variety. As a romantic he was shocked by its "atomism." The attitude of its exponents had offended him since his youth when he had found the demagogues "endlessly tiresome men." Their answers to the big questions of state and nation had seemed to him superficial sophistries. B y any moral or intellectual measure, he found liberalism in Germany "a dwarfish thing." ®® Above all, Lagarde held that liberalism was grossly inconsistent with Germanism. Liberalism sought the progress and well-being of mankind, but Germanism implies that "an individual nation stands higher than mankind." Moreover, he argued, liberalism is satisfied with the mere fact of political unity along with a few superficial guarantees of civil rights—"the darling expedient of liberalism." But Germanism demands for Germany a unity of spirit, a moral unity. Futhermore, the hberal aversion for religious and for the deeper historical questions cannot be reconciled with the moral sensitivity and profundity of the true German.®^ Bismarck's turn to an apparently more conservative position in 1878 raised Lagarde's hopes that a final blow might be struck at the liberal parties in Germany, and he prepared (in 1881) for the second volume of the Deutsche Schriften a scathing critique of the liberal influence on German culture. Liberalism, which he termed the gray international, is of the same brood as other great international movements such as the red international or Catholicism. "It (liberalism) is without a Fatherland like its sisters, and, therefore a most cursed thing. It would gladly rule, but it has no power . . . It destroys, perhaps unintentionally, conscience and the capacity to conceive life as a whole, and, thereby, kills personality." ®®

Critical Attack and Proposals for Reform

197

Liberalism has only perpetuated in the nineteenth century the long infidelity of Germans to their own history and culture. "Patchwork followed 1648, patchwork followed 1806," Liberalism has penetrated the school and university system so that a mundane and democratic reading of all writers has replaced the effort to acquire the spirit of the whole. Even modern orthodoxy, though its adherents profess to be antiliberal, is deeply tainted by the liberal spirit. The doctrinaire insistence on narrow form has prevented orthodox churchmen from gaining a wide and imaginative historical viewpoint which could have given the modern church a vitally spiritual orientation. Liberalism has been responsible for the party system which seeks not leadership of the whole but the political power of a minority. Even the Conservative Party has fallen into this political quagmire. This party spirit is general throughout German life, and a kind of "Zeus of the modern Pantheon." The liberal spirit has preached a most un-German tolerance of the Jews who eat their Kosher, circumcise their sons, and celebrate their holidays with the greatest of indifference to German culture. Indeed, the very fact that to many, the Jews do not seem a foreign group, is telling evidence of the degeneration of German culture which the liberal attitude has wrought.®® If Lagarde identified the liberalism of his day as an important aspect of the general cultural degeneration, he was not slow to regard contemporary conservatism in the same light. His Frogramm für die konservativ Partei Preussens, published in 1886, offered a line of action strongly at odds with the prevailing sentiment and policies of the Conservative Party. His analysis of the Revolution of 1789 betrays his romantic conservatism and places him in the tradition of Burke and Adam Müller. "Whereas the plan of the old

198

Paul de Lagar de

structure should have been studied in order to determine where it had become rotten, while every stone should have been struck with the hammer in order to tell whether it were still sound . . . instead, placing confidence in their own wisdom, they tore everything asunder, to build anew not according to real needs but according to ideas . . ," From this view Lagarde's definition of a conservative follows quite easily, that is, a conservative is not one who maintains "that which exists," but one who "knows how to maintain the living power of a nation." T o be conservative in this sense is the same thing as being truly German. But, he held, many existing institutions and practices in church and state clearly are not expressions of the "living power" of the nation and therefore not worthy to be maintained. The old forms need not be entirely destroyed, but they must be filled with a new, living content which will justify their existence, for "to open the door to a new life one has only to ehminate the presently existing selfishness, laziness, and ignorance." This should be the sense of a true conservative movement.®® Lagarde found the Conservative Party of the eighties far removed from this ideal. In the first place, in "founding" a party the conservatives were only falling into the error of the liberals in believing that human agency can create an institution, whereas only God and nature can do this. The conservatives, moreover, are "kanzlerisch," a mere temporary amalgamation of self-seeking persons who allow themselves to become tools of the government in the hopes of achieving personal ends. Their faith in the power of the state is a travesty to the course of history which develops through the divinely inspired human spirit and not through Realpolitik. Their adherence to doctrinaire Protestantism has destroyed their spiritual sensitivity. Their lack of moral

Critical Attack and Proposals for Reform

199

principle is reflected in the equanimity with which they regard the government corruption of the press, the "Reptilismus" which is one of the most flagrant corruptions of the time. Against this mean spirit of "opportunism and compromise" a new Conservative Party must arise based on "nobility of sentiment and willingness to work and to sacrifice." It must serve as a hammer and anvil to crush out all that is ignoble in German Ufe whether it has to go against king, chancellor, or public opinion.®® Lagarde posed many tasks for a revamped Conservative Party. It should work for the creation of a group of guardians charged with watching and prosecuting public officials. It must assure that the state does not expand beyond its limited sphere of competency. The party must free the churches and the schools from state influence and control, and promote the communal and provincial estates as significant elements in the governance of the land. The party must strive to reestablish a pure German monarchy, look to the integrity and expansion of the German nation, and stir the national soul to the fervor of a national religion. Lagarde's final charge to the conservatives contains the essence of his radical conservatism. True conservatives, he wrote, will recognize that a miasmic fever broods over Europe and will know that one dispels a fever neither with canons or with state socialism, but with the fresh air of the heavens. T h e y will be ready, in Germany, which today is the "guiding light," to open the doors and windows. Conservatives, far from wishing to maintain the status quo, will seek the status quo ante. Not that they will wish to go back to any given period and resurrect it as the ideal, but they will lead us back to where we took the path which has led us astray into the woods. Once we get back on the high road, we must go forward in God's name, bending neither

200

Paul de Lagar de

left nor right, straight to that city in the hills which is our destiny."" Party and Press Lagarde was completely intolerant of the partisan spirit which he felt was a mark of cultural degeneration. "The press, bourse, workers' associations, mutual admiration societies—" all of these are "clannish things," he held. This attitude followed, of course, from his romantic conception of the whole, a conception which cannot allow any exclusive or detached groups to exist in society. Lagarde's personal experiences had strengthened his hostility toward party or clique. He attributed his difficulty in gaining a university appointment to his refusal to support the Kreuzzeitung group, and his feuds with Lutheran theologians wül be recalled. He attributed the cool reception of his works to the partisan spirit and, not without smugness, declared that he wrote for those above party Modem party discipline, the subordination, that is, of the will of the generality to that of the elite or the leader, seemed to him as to Burckhardt, to be highly destructive of Persönlichkeit and to be preparing the way for Caesarism. Party loyalty is a form of untruthfulness, he asserted, for the loyal member is faithless to his own individuality. Precisely this intolerance of independent opinion on the part of party leaders, he felt, has made the parliamentary state, a state where the fist of the party leader rules. "I am no party man," Lagarde often confided in his letters and used this declaration as a justification for reaching directly to people in high places to get a hearing for his ideas.^"^ Lagarde considered the press as a vicious twin to party. The press forges lies for the sake of party, and Germany will be beset with this evil until the parliamentarianism

Critical Attack and Proposals for Reform

201

which begets it is ended. The liberal intellectuals, who guided the unity movement toward Kleindeutschland and away from true unity, possessed a conspiratorial apparatus, and this was the press. The press has been the means for bringing before the German people glowing misrepresentation of foreign institutions and, thus, leading us far astray. Worst of all the press has lent itself to corruption by the government, to "Reptilismus." An institution which so readily accepts bribes from the government is not a wholesome thing for the nation. Moreover, "Germany is engulfed in waves of paper," which contain for the most part reports and stories without significance for the German people. How is our spiritual and political life deepened by the knowledge that Gordon is at Khartoum, that Gladstone chops wood, or that a Russian officer has been shot by a nihilist. The people cannot base their life and ideals on such transient and trivial occurrences. If the Chancellor would cease sending provocative articles to the press, papers would be less read, and we would be looking to deeper sources for our inspiration.^®® On Bismarck

Lagarde's judgment on Bismarck and his works was far less grotesquely one-sided than his judgments often were. He realized that Bismarck was the man who had performed the great task which Heinrich Leo had once said only an heroic leader could. Lagarde seems to have been eager to find points of agreement between himself and the great man. He wrote hopefully to the Chancellor about the "fundamental harmony" between the Deutsche Schriften and a recent speech of Bismarck's, and he found a published letter of Bismarck's expressing ideas similar in principle to some of his own. He could call the Chancellor a

202

Paul de hagarde

good patriot in 1879 when Bismarck seemed to turn away from Russia, inaugurated new tax policies, and repudiated the pohcies of Falk. He took comfort at Bismarck's criticism of the three-class voting system as the worst electoral system which a state ever had, and in Bismarck's restoration of the Council of State in 1884.^®^ Yet, more and more he came to regard Bismarck as the sign and symbol of German life in decline. Bismarck has followed, he wrote, the ideas of the National Verein and introduced much of its sickly liberalism into the Empire. His devotion to the power of the state and his insensitivity to spiritual values in his struggle against the church, as well as his use of the Reptile fund, demonstrate that he shares the "unideality" which is a mark of our culture. He lacks comprehension of the need for the complete unity of a greater Germany. The Reichstag which he created is only one of the more prominent sources of untruthfulness in the Empire. Lagarde's sense of individuaUsm was offended by a great deal that Bismarck did. The latter's dictatorial manner left little room for independent ^Tersönlichkeiten" to assert themselves in government. The Chancellor's maintenance of an official government party prevented the growth of a capable governing class in which such "Persönlichkeiten" could thrive. His new grandiose centralized state further narrowed the area for free individual action in society. The German general-election law, which Bismarck predicted would invigorate the legislative body, effectively prevented the rise of "original" men by assuring the rise of party men. Originality was looked upon almost as a sin by Bismarck who beat it down ruthlessly.^®® Lagarde believed that after 1870 "the Chancellor had done his work," and that he was unsuited longer to be the "leader of the folk." Indeed, "the old Germany is not

Critical Attack and Proposals for Reform

203

dead, but it lies higher and deeper than where the Chancellor and his friends seek." Bismarck serves now the cause of decay and stagnation rather than seeking rebirth to a pure German culture.^"® Education Education lies at the root of a people's cultural life. Lagarde as a teacher realized this and bestowed a great deal of attention, both critical and constructive, on education in the Fatherland. Characteristically, he wrote to Bismarck that "our once highly valued educational system now finds itself in a condition which cries to heaven. I have already won men of insight to the conviction that there is just as much need for reorganisation [of our schools] as there once was for army reorganisation; furthermore to postpone this reorganisation will be to make more questionable its realization." Despite the popular view that the schools had been an important factor in providing the margin of victory for the German soldiers in 1870, the following decades witnessed a mounting criticism of German education. The growing interference of the state, which was prescribing curricula and examinations for clergymen, chemists, and others, was arousing apprehension over academic freedom and independence. Doubt was growing over the wisdom of the "general education" curriculum. This Hegelian-inspired curriculum, introduced by Johannes Schultz, aimed at implanting something about everything in the student's mind. One contemporary victim could think of no consequence which this vast mass of material had had except to disturb his sleep with frightful dreams about the schoolroom for years after he had left it. Even against the famed German universities, which had achieved such distinction in nearly

204

Paul de La garde

all fields of learning, rumblings of discontent were becoming audible—disgust with the pedantry of professors, dismay at the preponderant role of theological faculties, concern over the heterogeneity of student curricula. Lagarde was, then, no isolated critic of German education although as Friedrich Paulsen styles him, he was one of the bitterest and most thoroughgoing. As always he was somewhat immoderate in his criticism and visionary in some of his proposals. Yet, the corpus of his writings on education constitutes his most valuable contribution toward the reform of German culture, and, as we shall see, was not without influence upon such perceptive critics of education as Paulsen, Treitschke, and Hillebrand.^"® A constant object of Lagarde's hostility was the excessive interference of the state. The interests of the state in education, he held, can extend only "to the orientation of the new generations in civil life" and to the preparation of men "who in the widest sense of the word can govern." The former requires that all subjects receive a basic practical knowledge which need consist only of a knowledge of seeing, hearing, obeying, speaking, reading, writing, and reckoning. The latter requires that the few gifted individuals be provided with opportunities for advanced education which will suit them for their roles of leadership. Beyond assuring the means for this training, the state must not go. Religious education is not a state affair. Public funds may not justifiably be expended in training artisans, or business men, or specialists of any kind whose activities are not primarily in the public interest. The state must not prescribe curricula or write examinations. The state, or at least the ministries in Berlin, must not have the primary responsibility for appointing teachers or professors, for how can a minister in Berlin understand local needs and prob-

Critical Attack and Proposals

for Reform

205

lems or be knowledgeable enough in the many fields of learning to appoint wisely. Indeed, so long as Berlin is our educational capital its pestilences will be transmitted to the uttermost parts. How can a minister in such an environment stand against the "pushers" who are seeking a place for themselves or their ideas in German education.^"® Lagarde deplored the concept of "general education" which was the basis of the curriculum in the Gymnasia. General education seemed to him to ignore utterly the individual and his need for developing his own personaUty but rather to impose upon him a general program devised by an absolute state which considered itself the embodiment and interpreter of "high reason." At best, he believed, general education "may teach the specific German form of civilization," but it can offer only the inert residue, not the spirit of Kultur}^" In the Middle Ages one man could master the whole body of knowledge and find it meaningful, he argued. Today, this is impossible, and it is fatuous for the Gymnasia to attempt it. What is gained by spreading out horizontally to touch every known object? The student wanders about in our schools like the proverbial "dweller of the Berlin Mühlendamm who goes from selling old trousers to manufacturing soda water, then to making millinery feathers, shirts, knives, then to retailing, peddling newspapers, etc." Consider, he asked, the incredible array of topics given to students in the Werderschen Gymnasium—The Justification of Humor in Poetry, The Significance of the Tudors for the Wellbeing of the English, God in World History, Circumstances of the Rise of the Greek Epic. Such a regimen seemed to him not simply ludicrous but downright disastrous. When compounded with inexcusably erudite and stuffy lectures, the result for the student can only be "bad

2 об

Paul de Lagar de

eyes, a yawning boredom with respect to everything in the past, and an incapacity to face the future." The crowning disgrace of the whole system he found to be the state examinations. These examinations, he complained, measure a student's success in absorbing globules of heterogeneous knowledge and make a certain degree of success in this activity a prerequisite to a career in government or the professions. The completion of several terms entitles the student to apply for some post, enter a special school, or meet his military obligation as a "one year volunteer." The whole point and purpose of the Gymnasium, under present conditions, is, Lagarde held, the attainment of some material advantage. A student gorges himself on the rich offerings of the academic "dining menus" for no other reason than to qualify for a position or gain an objective. Thus, it is a consequence of our educational policies that "a tough, resistant slime of educational barbarism lies over our Fatherland and keeps God's light and air from us . . . it must be set aside before we can speak of the health and development of the nation." We must acknowledge the sorry condition of the schools and take the same bold, corrective steps as in the reform of the army.^^^ The key to reform must be "to see the whole as a whole." The individual must be considered in his relation to the whole, to the nation. But the interest of the whole depends upon the individual development of the many. Paradoxically, then, the nation as a whole is not served by a "general education" but only by a flexible and realistic educational plan allowing for the needs of each individual. In this way the individual develops his potentialities and the nation benefits accordingly. A realistic educational program, for Lagarde, is one in which the curriculum is not a descriptive guide to the universe but leads into fewer

Critical Attack and Proposals for Reform

207

pastures, and leaves the student more time to become faтШаг with the terrain he does traverse. The nature of the whole can better be understood from a more profound understanding of some of its parts. The individual is left freer to cultivate "that direction of the will which strives toward the eternal, and which enables men thereby to contemplate from on high the lay of the land and, therefore, overlook the whole . . ." Leading the student to the eternal—the timeless—truth of things is the work of the teacher. N o curricula, no set of facts can do it. T o reach, stimulate, and inspire each student is the prime objective of the teacher. The teacher must take every opportunity to strike a personal relation with each student, by hearing him recite at every class, by personal comments on his papers, by developing an instinct for saying and doing before the class those things which will appear to each individual as peculiarly directed to him. Teachers are "soldiers of knowledge." The state must recognize their vital and even heroic role in the nation. Like soldiers, teachers may be sent where they are needed, and, like soldiers, they must perform their duties with selfless devotion. As good armies must be well provided for, so teachers must be well compensated, be able to live decently, buy books, and walk about with change in their pockets. The teacher must not be so overburdened that he has no time for study or reading, or for preparing for his classes, for his words and ideas must be completely meaningful to his students. The teacher must recognize his position as an upholder of ideals, and, consequently, he will eschew the society of the beer halls, casinos, and political clubs and stay fresh and clean by spending his time with his family and nature."^ The teacher's task of inculcating the ideal, Lagarde be-

2o8

Paul de Lagar de

lieved, would be vastly easier if schools at the level of the Gymnasia were cloistered in more remote country districts. The students, then, would be set apart from both the cities and their parents. The materialistic atmosphere of the city is a constant temptation to the student to point his efforts toward passing some state examination and providing himself as quickly as possible with a secure income. Life in many city families is so devoid of seriousness of purpose, especially where the head of the family has grown up since 1848, that the proper training of children is virtuaUy impossible while they remain in such an environment. But teachers, whatever their personal situation or whatever the teaching situation may be, must assiduously perform their duty realizing that "they are serving God, bringing the future into a living relation with the past, and giving to the nation its leaders." Lagarde's criticism of the universities was not dissimilar to his criticism of the lower schools. Too many students, he felt, are seeking solely personal advantage, and too many teachers are stuffing rather than inspiring. The doctorate has become more and more a means for those who wish to become managers of chemical factories, gain the confidence of capitalists, and bring to wives titles which are so much admired in the smaller towns. We must not, he wrote, promote into the ranks of the intellectual aristocracy those who desire to use their knowledge as party hacks, or who will be mere pots hanging conspicuously in factory, school, or skating club from the hook of their Ph.D.'s. Promotion to the doctorate should be limited to those going into university life. Remembering his own struggle to secure academic preferment, he proposed a set of regulations which would assure that new doctors were properly recommended to the ministry, had their dissertations printed and distributed to relevant university faculties, and, in general, regulations

Critical Attack

and Proposals for Reform

209

which would give better assurance that qualified scholars were placed in suitable positions. T h e university student suffers from both the aloofness and pedantry of too many of his professors and from the encouragement he receives to stuff himself with all kinds of learning. Professorial vanity, which fears that students will circulate the professor's ideas in distorted form, leads to the common practice of reading lectures and expecting the students to copy them down faithfully. But knowledge must not be laid down like propaganda. T h e professor must give something of himself as well as of his weighty words and establish an intercourse with his students. Long before the age of mass education, Lagarde raised a cry for smaller classes and more seminars that this personal contact might be accomplished. Professors should not encourage their students to gorge themselves with miscellaneous or trivial knowledge. Leading the student to consider significant questions and helping him to pursue knowledge "on his o w n " are the great objectives of university teaching.^^® A f t e r a decade's experience at Göttingen, Lagarde came to advocate clearer separation of teaching and research. T h e narrow specialist, he argued, is often not suited to open up views for the student. Yet, there are many men, who may not be creative or gifted scholars, but who have achieved massive knowledge and clear insight into some area and may be ideally suited as teachers. Lagarde wished institutional recognition of this distinction. Academies should be created for the discovery and advance of knowledge. T h e universities should present the results of this work. H e would make the curriculum of the universities completely theoretical and create separate schools, presumably located in university cities, for the training of students in the specific vocations of law, medicine, and church, etc. Lagarde drew up rather specific plans for such academies and suggested

2IO

Paul de hagarde

that the academies might be supported by the income from certain ecclesiastical properties. These endowments were, he reasoned, set up originally by idealistic benefactors. Since these funds are now often misused, their rededication to the ideal of pure learning would be to return to something of the spirit of the original gift.^^·^ Lagarde was mistrustful of the existing academy at Berlin because of its proximity to the ministry. He inclined to the elevation of provincial scientific and scholarly societies to the status of academies. He was especially anxious to see the Gesellschaft der Wissenschaft in Göttingen, of which he was a member, and which he remembered in his will, achieve this status.^^® Lagarde's philosophy of education upon which all of his criticism turned, he stated pungently. "Above all, knowing is loving, scholarship is a marriage. W e are monogamous, because opposite to the Indogermanic Ich stands only a Du, not a harem or Odolisk." His meaning was that in learning as in life we reach out not to the vague and indefinite, but to the meaningful, to that which we can embrace. The particular knowledge, the "du" which each acquires, is that which suits his nature. "There is, therefore, for each man only one kind of Education, . . . specially designed for him, and it must make the most it can out of him. . . . A nation in the true sense of the word is only conceivable as a community of men educated in this way . . ." Such a community in which each plays his natural and unique role is one in which men and not things are the basic determinants, in which the learner is more important than learning.^^® The Jews Lagarde's anti-Semitism was of a piece with his Kulturkritik, for he regarded the Jews as in part a cause and cer-

Critical Attack and Proposals for Reform

211

tainly a manifestation of the cultural decay of the Fatherland. His anti-Semitism was not a biological racism for Lagarde attached no significance to purity of blood. Nor was Lagarde's attack directed against Jewish culture per se, but against a Jewish culture in a German context and a Jewish culture which was not, in his view, faithful to the best elements of its ancient Hebrew heritage. In short, Lagarde identified the Jews with liberalism, in his meaning of the term, and as bearers of liberalism, he saw them as a nefarious element, a great barrier to a German rebirth. Lagarde's anti-Semitism mounted in proportion to his rage against the Empire. The growing acerbity of his comments no doubt are to be related to the furious quarrels he had with Jewish scholars in the eighties. Lagarde's major assault commenced in 1881 in Die Stellung der Religionsgesellschaften im Staate. Here he emphasized the foreign nature of the Jews and the impossibility of fusion of German and Jewish culture. He attributed this foreignness to pharisaical fundamentalism which demanded of the Jews literal observance of laws which were outmoded even in the time of Jesus. Especially, the dietary laws, absurd and revolting to the German, keep the Jews apart. And why must they regard the Middle Ages, the birth time of German civilization, with horror? The Jews feel only hatred for the Germans upon whose hospitality they depend, and like the Jesuits and Freemasons reach out to their confreres in contempt of national frontiers. Foreign bodies within other bodies do not make for good health, Lagarde urged, and, accordingly, the Jews must abandon the law of Moses and become German if they are to stay.^^° Lagarde continued in Oie graue Internationale (1881) to attack the role of the Jews. He deplored their superficial, culture-leveling tendency. Jews and liberals are natural allies

212

Paul de

hagarde

for they are both artificial, both disrupters and destroyers of the culture in which they live. The prevailing conception of education as a standard preparation of a standard product ideally suits the Jewish-liberal contempt of culture. Jews like liberals go by the book. The one is moved by the prescriptions of the law, the other by the catchwords of liberal doctrine, but neither by ideals or profound spiritual experience. The German people must recognize that it is not a question of whether to tolerate the Jew, but of which way of life, theirs or ours, will prevail. It is a "question of strength" and with their growing control of wealth and of the press, they are winning. Our hope, Lagarde concluded, lies solely in the earnest and energetic dedication of the people to their national life and ideals. "Every Jew who is a burden to us is a severe reproach to the purity and truthfulness of our Deutschtum." Strengthen this latter, and the Jewish problem will no longer exist.^^^ In Vrogramm jm die konservative Partei Preussens (1884), Lagarde became more abusive. He classified the Jews as parasites in Western history. "Of all the impulses which have moved Europeans, not one stemmed from a Jewish heart. The Jews have discovered nothing . . . for the progress of history they have suffered nothing. In place of substantial contributions they have offered only makeshifts." ^^^ Despite this, Lagarde continued, the Jews are allowed to manage the bourse, serve as ministers, and occupy university chairs. This state of affairs, he wrote, must in itself give a sense of urgency to the work of creating a party dedicated to the awakening and conservation of the German spirit. In 1885 under the influence of personal attacks by Jewish scholars and, perhaps, influenced by the current wave of anti-Semitism, Lagarde published his most sweeping and

Critical Attack and Proposals for Reform

213

bitter essay against the Jews. They now appeared to him not only as "foreign" and "parasitic," but "hateful." The emancipation of the thirties has proved an enormous mistake, he declared. Prior to 1830 thousands of Jews turned German in religion, in customs, and in national feeling. The emancipation removed the stimulus to Germanization and, thus, has led to the perpetuation of a foreign group and, indeed, provides the Jews with the opportunity to seek to achieve the superiority they feel is theirs. The Jews have accordingly perpetrated vicious swindles. They have formed a new and more solid international front against the Christian world. Usury, their principal means of liveHhood throughout the ages, has become a means to world power. They have captured much of the press of Europe and use it to destroy their enemies and to foist upon Europe their own "Asiatic and heathen" viewpoint. Without training or talent for politics, they have gained in the new Reich political power which they use to promote fantastic and Utopian schemes which serve to weaken the traditional position of monarchy. In fear that a greater Germany would be strong economically and, hence, free from Jewish finance, they work actively against any union with Austria or expansion toward the East.^^® Lagarde's letters in the late eighties reflect his increasing bitterness toward the Jews. In 1888, following his custom of laying directly before the ministry matters about which he was exercised, he wrote to Minister Althoff that no Jew must be considered for a professorship at Göttingen. "I find Israel and half-Israel represented in superabundance— ten times over—in Göttingen." Several of Lagarde's letters touch upon the murder in Tisza Eslar in Hungary in 1882 of a Christian girl allegedly in a synagogue. This occurence gave credence in some circles to the belief that the Jews

214

Lagar de

employed Christian blood in their religious services. A group of rabbis even inquired of Lagarde his view in this matter. While admitting that there was no basis in the law for such a practice, he seems to have believed the worst in the Tisza Eslar case and wrote as much to Minister von Gossler. In this letter he decried Austro-Hungarian justice which had not gained a conviction and believed that the courts had been under the intimidation of the Vienna Rothschilds who, he had been informed, had threatened to depress Hungarian securities by twenty percent in case of a conviction. He continued in this very long letter to the Minister to adduce evidence that the superstitious Jews did sometimes use blood, the lack of a Talmudic prescription notwithstanding. In 1890, he stated his final position on the Jews. "Self-seeking is this race and, thus, all the more dangerous." Remarkable that he refrained from applying this formula more generally to the nations of 1890, this age of high imperialism—^including his own nation.^^^ Lagarde's anti-Semitism can be termed racism only with careful qualifications. His own words complicate the matter. "The Jewish question is also a race question, however, no ideally minded man will deny that spirit can and ought to overcome any racial problem." Clearly, he cannot mean "race" in any physical sense, for he sees no problem which cannot be solved by spiritual means. In his argument against Jewish officeholding, for example, he insisted that his case against the Jews was simply that their customs and traditions were foreign to those of the Germans and had in no way fitted them for public office. Tests of religion or race are absurd, he wrote, for "Germanness lies not in blood but in the heart." i^« The humaneness of the man neutralized his touch of gall and precluded any savage racism. His respect for worthy

Critical Attack and Proposals for Reform

215

individuals was too great to be stood off by racial consideration. He could write to Solomon Buber that he held him and all Israelite scholars, who were not chauvinists, in high esteem. He took keen pride in some of his Jewish students who turned out well, and amongst them he found some of his closest friends. He even conceived of himself at times as the great friend of the Jewish people earnestly engaged in pointing out their insufficiencies and showing them the way to their salvation through Germanization. He distinguished his anti-Semitism from that raging around him. " I know Jews who suffer severely from the anti-Semitism of the mob, and yet these same Jews preach my brand of antiSemitism." Lagarde's position is a difficult one to support. His principal contention is that the Jews have stood outside the main line of Indo-Germanic development and, therefore, are a disruptive and foreign body in the cultural life of Western nations. But the Jews, too, have had a history during modern as during ancient times. The German Jews have roots going back a thousand years to the early settlements on the Rhine. Either the Jews have developed in complete isolation and hence are a distinct nation entitled to be respected as such, or they have developed as an integral part of German culture. Lagarde denies both alternatives. The only way out of the dilemma is to assume that the racial strain has been maintained, and that this is the point of difference. Lagarde expressly denies fundamental significance to race in the physical sense and is left without the advantage of a certain crude consistency enjoyed by the Nazis. Youth and the Ideal The essay of Lagarde which has the most pungent message for the world, without regard to time or place, is his

2i6

Paul de hagarde

Uber die Klage dass der Jugend der Idealismus fehle. Неге Lagarde absolved youth from responsibility for the cultural abyss into which he believed Germany had fallen. He gave a decisive "no" to the common complaint that young Germans had no capacity for the idealism of their fathers. On the contrary, he wrote, the core of the trouble is the faithlessness of the older generation to ideals and its failure to nurture the tender shoots of idealism that naturally spring up in young minds. Idealism he pictured as a rose which the vine has a capacity to produce but will only produce if the plant is properly cultivated, fertilized, and protected from the cold of winter and shaded from the heat of summer. Youth has the capacity for the ideal, but a wicked and negligent generation, like the slothful gardener, has afforded neither protection nor encouragement. How hypocritical to denounce youth from the benches of smoky beer halls. How stupid to measure the youth of today by the standards of an older generation or to expect youth to accept the "manufactured" ideals such as the universal education of the Prussian schools. What good, he asked, are these many "talkers of ideals" when what is needed is men to lead youth to a full-blown idealism.^^® More exactly, what is this idealism which youth has potentially and which if cultivated would be the key to the rejuvenation of German culture? It is the striving of the present for the future, a striving, moreover, which must take place in everyday life and which can only be meaningful in terms of what we do and what we are each day. "The ideal is no fancy delicacy but our daily bread." What is this future? It is the future of the Fatherland which follows from God's plan, and it is God's plan that the future come through each of us. The ideal is that each of us be conscious of himself as a moment in the nation's becoming, aware of

Critical Attack and Proposals for Reform

217

our insignificance compared to the whole and yet aware, also, of our indispensable role in preparing for the future. "The ideal lies in that man who is each and every day what he ought to be. The man who takes his calling seriously, is the heir, the essence, the ripe fruit of all that which has been before him, and therefore, the forefather, the root of the future, and because he is at once heir and forefather he is an ideal." ^^^ For Lagarde, the ideal was neither a thing, nor an idea, nor a proposition or program. It was a "state of mind," a myth in the parlance of the twentieth century, a mantle of incessant awareness of the individual's relation to the nation. Youth cannot be brought to the ideal by ordinary instruction, Lagarde recognized. They must be stirred, not taught, and he knew himself to be a stirrer of youth. He wrote that though his hair and beard were growing white, he felt it his duty to help youth raise up the storm—"soon the wind will blow, the dust fly, the thunder growl, and then will come the driving rain which will, in turn, quicken the flowers, the woods . . . and hearts."

CHAPTER

VI

Lagarde and His Contemporaries

(j I he search for the consequences of a man's thought, JL even as the search for its antecedents, is never easy or sure, certainly not in Lagarde's case. Yet, one can discover areas v^here Lagarde's ideas unmistakably appear, and one can point to persons who clearly reveal his influence on them. The present chapter studies his not insignificant impact upon his contemporaries and the follov^ing chapter the more pronounced influence on men and movements after his lifetime. Many obstacles prevented Lagarde's ideas from achieving any quick and sweeping effect, even though they were challenging to many individual readers. For one thing, much of his thought lacked timeliness, at least for the generality who were riding the wave of imperial greatness. Few of his contemporaries took such a completely disparaging view of the Empire. While many could respond emotionally to the ideal and romantic spirit which permeated his works, the time was not ripe for the translation of these ideas into mass political action. Moreover, his ideas came before the public in a fragmentary fashion and were never systematized for posterity. His failure to arouse even a small organized following may be attributed in considerable part to the fact that his ideas remained widely dispersed in a matrix

Lagar de and His Contemporaries

219

of inelegant prose, and to his own unwillingness to engage in practical politics or agitation. The Utopian nature of many of his proposals discouraged some of his readers from taking him seriously, as even his wife admits.^ Lagarde's own estimate of the reception of his works is rather inconclusive. Writing in 1880, for example, concerning the first edition of his Deutsche Schriften, he exclaimed, "God, be praised, it has found some enthusiastic response." Yet, in the introduction to the new edition of the Deutsche Schriften in 1886, he could only complain that his work had met with "total silence" in the press although he noted that "my books have their friends." A year later, in the Goettingen Gelehrte Anzeigen (July 1887) he reported more hopefully that "it is unnecessary to speak of the new, complete edition of my Deutsche Schriften for these writings already have a considerable, grateful, and expanding circle of readers." ^ Clearly, the best indication of Lagarde's reception and influence is afforded by an analysis of his correspondence. This shows that Lagarde's works and ideas, at least, were reaching into intellectual circles—to scholars, teachers, clergymen, editors, and leaders of various movements. His letters and the gifts of his books to ministers of state, and even to Bismarck and the King, were having little discernible effect on the policies of government, but there can be no doubt that by 1891 his ideas had spread to a select but influential and by no means indifferent audience. General Reaction to Lagarde's Writings If some of Lagarde's correspondents, such as Moltke and Bishop Ketteler made rather perfunctory comments on his books, many expressed remarkable enthusiasm for his ideas and betrayed in their letters evidence of a careful reading

2 20

Paul de La gar de

of his works. Treitschke wrote that he had been much occupied with Lagarde's Uber das Verhältnis des deutschen Staates zu Theologie, Kirche und Religion and found it "too rich and original" to acknowledge only with thanks. He went on, therefore, to express his "warm agreement" with everything Lagar de had written concerning modern "progress," the "dessication of the spirit and the barbarism of halfeducation." Reichensperger, a leader of the Center and obviously remote from Lagarde's religious standpoint, found, nevertheless, this work "spiritually rich" and could only regret that Lagarde was not on the Catholic side in the currently raging Kulturkampf? Prince Chlodwig Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, then German ambassador in Paris, found that Lagarde's Politischen Aufsätzen, published in 1874, contained "serious things worthy of careful consideration." Uber die gegenwärtige Lage des deutschen Reiches, published the next year, elicited a typical comment from Lagarde's friend in Kiel, Georg Hoffmann. "Your essay . . . has made me ponder much in recent days. Much that you say concerning the defects in our economic and social situation, the present policies of the government in church affairs, and concerning theology and our system of education has been exceedingly illuminating to me. Much, we must hope, because of these insights which you have given us, will be improved in not too long a time." " The publication of the Deutsche Schriften in 1878 brought forth similar expressions of enthusiasm. "Since Sunday, I have literally read only your book. Your wine is heavy and sharp and wonderfully pure. The taste pleases me," wrote a Berliner. Another expressed his enthusiasm for Lagarde's Deutsche Schriften and Programm für die konservative Partei Preussens, writing that they "must set aflame

Lagar de and His Contemporaries

221

everyone who has preserved a clear sight and a warm heart in the dusty materialism of our time." He continued with his thanks for the comfort and strength which the Deutsche Schriften had brought. May these ideas awaken youthful students and, thereby, "may the way to the moral regeneration of young Germany be broken out." Eduard Schröder, the Germanist, was impressed with "the earnestness and richness" of the Deutsche Schriften and added that Lagarde's poetry completed the picture. Adolf Erman, director of the Egyptian Museum in Berlin, read the Deutsche Schriften with his brother, and they found this work "like a fresh draft coming in to the stuffy air of modern life." ® The Deutsche Schriften found favor amongst some Protestant clergymen despite its anti-Protestant bias. Pastor Holtermann of Heppers in Jeverland affords an interesting example. In the early seventies a friend of his, a teacher, traveled to London and there met Carlyle. Carlyle's advice to the German was to read the works of his compatriot. Professor "LaGrange" of Göttingen. Either Carlyle's tongue had slipped or the German had misunderstood. When the friend passed this advice on to Holtermann, the latter commenced a long, vain search for the works of "LaGrange." Years later he received a card from a fellowclergyman with the single sentence, "Buy the Deutsche Schriften of Professor L, Vol. II, and then Vol. I, also." This he did, and the volumes became, as he wrote Lagarde, "devotional works" for him. "Some passages I have for joy learned by heart. How sad a mark for Germany that your name is not well known, and that I had to become 55 years old before I learned it." He continued in his rapture, "Your works are like Emerson's and Carlyle's and clearer, more definite, and concerned with more essential things than Goethe's." Holtermann wished for an association of con-

222

Paul de Lagar de

genial spirits to propagate Lagarde's works and wisdom in Germany. Lagarde replied that the letter "has stirred me and brought joy and embarrassment." His emotion was not, however, aroused to the point where his judgment was beclouded, and he advised Holtermann against publishing some poems which he had sent for criticism. In his subsequent correspondence, Holtermann's enthusiasm remained undiminished.® Paul Natorp, the philosopher, responded to his reading of the Deutsche Schriften with probably the longest letter Lagarde ever received. Much of the letter argued on philosophical grounds against Lagarde's assumption of a personal God as a basis for moral and social life. He argued, in distinction to Lagarde's thesis, that mind is free to choose the good and needs no reference to a "prayer-worthy universal order." But the tone and demands of the Deutsche Schriften struck Natorp who found himself "radical enough to see the necessity for a change from the roots up." Only, let us not, he warned, fall into the sheer idealism of the forties, the kind which "strives in the blue." "Let us now have, instead of modest words, modest deeds . . . show us the way." Lagarde replied to this half-philosophical treatise, half-manifesto of the 21-year-old philosopher with a rather fatherly note admonishing him that "young men cannot expect and should not claim to possess the experiences of all other men" and, therefore, ought not to reject the validity of the religious insights of others. As for deeds, he continued, the first great deed is to make the dangers of our present situation clear to not just a few, but to everyone. Then will come the "change for which you and I long." The exchange, apparently the only contact the two men ever were to have, was concluded with a letter from Natorp expressing his gratitude to Lagarde for his reply and as-

Lagarde and His Contemporaries

223

suring him that his words and the Deutsche Schriften would remain unforgettable^ Lagarde's later works, also, brought forth expressions of approbation. A. Bezzenberger, the noted anthropologist and director of the Prussian Museum, wrote warmly of Juden oder Indogermanen. "I am on your side concerning the Jews," he said, "and am happy to see your position made so clear." The semiautobiographical Uber einige Berliner Theologen und ivas von ihnen zu lernen ist elicited favorable comment. The theologian Adolf Harnack was so impressed that he acquired the other volumes of the Mitteilungen and commiserated Lagarde on his struggle with Ritschl. A Gymnasium official became so enthusiastic upon reading the Berliner Theologen that he wished to see it published in the Berliner Post, a desire to which Lagarde did not accede.® If Lagarde's works were well received by a number of people who were not close to radical groups, one important reason is that he appealed to a feeling that the times were degenerate, a mood prevalent in at least some quarters. This mood is strikingly revealed by some of his correspondents. Finding "comfort and strength" in Lagarde's poetry, Georg Bickell, the Catholic scholar, complained of how few really prophetic individuals could be found in these "terrible times." Holy things, he wrote, are defended mostly by those who do so simply because it is their "vocation." A Protestant pastor, August Mummbrauer, wrote typically: "In our time, when we live in a boring and an arid land in which the state church makes itself felt not only beyond the Elbe but even here [Lünenberg], we yearn for fresh and cool dew for the tired soul. What a pity that I did not learn more from you in 1876/77 . . ." The aristocracy shared this sense of despair. A noblewoman. Use von Gilse, wrote

224

^^ Lagar de

to Lagarde that while she could not accept all of his ideas, yet she recognized that they both had the common purpose of leading Germany from its difficult straits.® Lagarde's appeal to the despairing is well illustrated in the case of Moritz von Egidy, quondam Prussian army officer, who had come to look with deep dismay upon German life and culture. Egidy's unorthodox ideas had led to his dismissal from miUtary service. His movement which aimed at the simplification of Christianity and the regeneration of the nation, attracted much attention in Berlin. Egidy considered Lagarde a great prophet of the Fatherland, "ahead of us . . . but we follow after, certainly." Egidy could only regret that Lagarde had not paid more attention to him and realized how his group in Berlin were striving to see Lagarde's ideas realized." No letter better expressed the note of pessimism than one from a former student of Lagarde at the FriedrichWerderschen Gymnasium^ Dr. Georg Carel, who in 1890 was an instructor in the Sophien Gymnasium in Berlin. He fought, he wrote to Anna, like many other young men in 1870 for the creation of the German Reich. But what was the result? . . Brutal suppression . . . empty headed mediocrity . . . continued dissatisfaction . . . neither joy nor security, nor humanity." Lagarde, he asserted, had spoken truly of these things. In a Germany where such sentiments existed, one must wonder why radicalism was not more flourishing.^^ The reception accorded Lagarde's ideas was by no means uniformly favorable. Some simply rejected Lagarde's views as too lugubrious. The light optimism of one correspondent, Wilhelm Spitta, contrasted sharply with the general pessimism of many of Lagarde's correspondents. Spitta admitted that the Germans had their political and religious

Lagar de and His Contemporaries

225

battles but he held that the Fatherland was witnessing one of its best times and that these struggles were a sign of health and power. Many sensed a utopianism in Lagarde's thought and, consequently, an undercurrent of scepticism is discernible even amongst those who obviously possessed a relish for Lagarde's line of thought. His friend, Hoffmann, doubted that it was "realistic" to hope that Austria could or would play the role of a colonial state, an idea absolutely central to Lagarde's whole plan for national reconstruction. Moreover, he found Lagarde's theology and philosophy of history too "metaphysical," shrouded as they were in vague "overearthly ideals." Another correspondent, even though he could not read anything else until he had finished the Deutsche Schriften, did not foresee Lagarde's ideas becoming "flesh and blood." Irritation over Lagarde's rough handling of Christianity runs through some of the letters. Treitschke, generally in agreement with Lagarde's assault on modern culture, took sharp exception to Lagarde's views on St. Paul and Lagarde's denunciation of the theological faculties. Nietzsche's friend, Bachofen, believed that to divide the church into associations or sects could lead to disintegration, and he doubted whether Paul was responsible for so complete a change from Evangelium to Christianity as Lagarde taught. ^^ A sprinkling of protest appeared from those who felt Lagarde's medicine against the Jews or some other group a bit too strong. Thus, Tomas Masaryk was moved to doubt Lagarde's opinion on the Czechs though he sent Lagarde a copy of one of his books as thanks for the Deutsche Schriften. That a more devastating criticism of a man whose ideas were so antagonistic to so many, does not appear in his incoming letters, suggests that Jews, liberals, socialists, and others particularly abused by him were not

220

Paul de Lagar de

reading Lagarde or at least not taking him seriously. It suggests, also, that amongst intellectuals there were many who shared enough of Lagarde's sentiments and concern, to be able to restrain any shock which they may have sensed at the enormity of some of his ideas.^® Lagarde and Austrian Germanism Dissident nationalist groups in Austria were readily attracted to Lagarde and his pan-German schemes. Engelbert Pernerstorfer, a leading publicist of the German national movement in Austria, and editor of one of its best known organs, Deutsche Wort, endeavored, as he wrote to Lagarde, to direct attention to all things "purely German." Amongst these he included Lagarde's Deutsche Schriften which he described as "a source of great joy" and added hopefully that "while such things are said, then the German way still lives." While steering clear of the rabble-rousing antiSemitists, Pernerstorfer applauded Lagarde's position on Jews and liberals and sought permission to reprint Die graue Internationale in the Deutsche Wort. Lagarde, rather out of character, gave his permission "very gladly," perhaps because Austria occupied so central a part in Ids thinking that he could scarce refuse support to the German national movement there. Pernerstorfer founded the Deutsche Schulverein, a group whose purpose was to resist the "slavification and corruption" of the schools. Lagarde was asked to support these efforts by signing an open appeal to Tisza. Avoiding involvements in foreign politics since his embarrassment over the letter to Napoleon III, Lagarde refused, but thoughtfully suggested others who might cooperate." In 1883, Pernerstorfer, who had been associated with the circle of Georg Ritter von Schönerer, another leading

Lagarde and His Contemporaries

227

figure in the Austrian German national movement and a prominent anti-Semitist, separated from von Schönerer because of the latter's rabble-rousing anti-Semitism. Von Schönerer then founded his own journal, Unverfälschte Deutsche Worte, and this journal repeatedly sought Lagarde's support and the right to publish material from his writings. One of the editors, Dr. Rudolf Geyer, wrote Lagarde of the "enjoyment and excitement" which the Deutsche Schriften had brought him and indicated the attraction of Lagarde's ideas for those Austrians who want not love and compassion but unity with the Reich. He then besought Lagarde to allow use of the Deutsche Schriften for the Unverfälschte Deutsche Worte. Lagarde grudgingly assented under certain conditions and especially demanded that his ideas and not his person be presented. Geyer gave careful assurance that his journal was superior to the Deutsche Wort which, he asserted, even had Jewish collaborators, and that the Unverfälschte Deutsche Worte had a circle of readers to whom Lagarde's name was already well known "in a favorable way." Overcoming some of his initial suspicion, Lagarde corresponded in a more friendly vein in 1887 with von Schönerer allowing him to publish Juden und Indogermanen. Lagarde's relation to the German national movement in Austria was certainly significant and by this means Lagarde played his part in shaping the mind of that impressionable young man who drank so freely from this fountain at the turn of the century—Adolf Hitler.^® Lagarde, the Basel Group, and the Wagners In the seventies Lagarde was received enthusiastically by the Basel circle of Bachofen, Overbeck, and Nietzsche, and through them came in touch with Bayreuth and the Wagners. Although growing differences in thought and circum-

2 28

Paul de Lagar de

stance were to keep Lagarde and these Baselers from forming an intimate and enduring attachment, they had a rather common drift of thought in the early seventies.^® A romanticism hostile to the new Empire persisted in Basel as it did in the mind of Lagarde. The three Baselers, no more than their colleague Burckhardt, could escape from an affectionate sentiment for the Kleinstaaterei which made Germany politically impotent but culturally rich, a fairyland of wonderfully variegated life. The new systematized, Prussianized Reich was of a piece with the rapidly introduced technical civilization and the methodical and "scientific" emphasis in all areas of thought. The voice of protest raised in Göttingen was, accordingly, welcomed. Apparently, Lagarde first came into touch with the Baselers in 1873 through Bachofen who found Uber das Verhältnis des deutschen Staates zu Theologie, Kirche und Religion "a cornucopia of truths." H o w different, he wrote, "is your approach to contemporary problems from the usual mess of porridge from which we must turn in disgust." He thought, too, that the rebirth of German culture required a new theology, free from the state and from "the mechanical tradition of a closed dogmatic." A few months later he sent his Theologie to Lagarde and regretted that his vacation was not long enough to permit a visit to Göttingen.^^ While the friendship with Bachofen apparently did not continue, a correspondence with Overbeck began in 1874 and lasted for nearly a decade. In November Overbeck thanked Lagarde for the friendly reception he gave to Overbeck's Christlichkeit and expressed his debt to Lagarde. Overbeck found no little joy in reading Lagarde's Politischen Aufsätzen. Generally in agreement with Lagarde's views, Overbeck did find difficulty in accepting the idea of a national religion. Like many, he was pessimistic over the

hagarde and His Contemporaries

229

possibility for actual reform on Lagardian lines. He felt an urge, like his friend Bachofen, for a personal talk with Lagarde and hoped that Lagarde might come to Switzerland the following summer. Subsequent essays from Lagarde's pen found their way to Basel and elicited anew laudatory comments from Overbeck. He wrote that he shared Lagarde's concern over the omnipotence of the state, and he regretted that he no longer stood in well enough with the editor of Das Centralblatt to submit a review of Lagarde's Uber die gegenwärtige Lage des deutschen Reichs. In 1878, Overbeck refused an invitation to Göttingen but revived his invitation to Lagarde to visit him in Basel. " I could wish," he wrote in an almost adulatory vein, " f o r no other reader among theologians than yourself." Nietzsche was introduced to Uber das Verhältnis des deutschen Staates zu Theologie, Kirche und Religion by Bachofen in 1873 and read "with enthusiasm" the work which he subsequently sent to Wagner. On a winter's Sunday in 1874, Nietzsche and his friend, Overbeck, read aloud the first and last essays in the Politischen Aufsätzen. Although no letters appear to have passed between Nietzsche and Lagarde, Overbeck at any rate, assumed that Lagarde had an interest in the brilliant young scholar and in 1878 gave Lagarde a rather elaborate report on the state of Nietzsche's health. Nietzsche's direct extant comments on Lagarde are limited but significant. He wrote his friend Erwin Rohde in 1873: " A small, highly striking writing, in fifty ways false, but in fifty ways right and true—thus, a very good essay—neglect not to read. The title would not attract the likes of us and so I recommend it to you." The "striking writing" was Uber das Verhältnis des deutschen Staates zu Theologie, Kirche und Religion. In March of the same year he identified his friend Overbeck and Lagarde

230

Paul de Lagar de

with "that radicalism without which I can no longer associate with anyone." Rohde repUed to his friend that he was impressed with Lagarde's "very powerful apostle-like tone and earnestness." Years later Nietzsche made a less flattering appraisal. "The writing of that sentimental and vainglorious mule makes me laugh," he wrote to Theodor Fritsch in 1887 and added that he rejected it with "cold contempt." Lagarde was brought into contact with the Bayreuth circle by Nietzsche who dispatched a copy of Lagarde's Uber das Verhältnis des deutschen Staates zu Theologie, Kirche und Religion thither in 1873. Overbeck continued the connection. In his first letter to Lagarde, he wrote that an interesting comment on "your brochure" comes from Frau Wagner, and he asked Lagarde to assist her cousin. Dr. Frantz von Liszt, then about to commence teaching in Göttingen, A few months later Overbeck reminded Lagarde to send a copy of his Uber die gegenwärtige Lage to Frau Wagner which Lagarde did. In her reply Frau Wagner expressed her appreciation to Lagarde for his warm reception of von Liszt and assured him that both she and her husband had read his essay and returned to it more than once. Our copy, she continued, now "wanders from friend to friend." She assured him that she and her husband felt a community with every voice of concern raised and especially felt attracted to Lagarde.^^ "The task you assign Austria, your proposals concerning the schools, the view that a folk is living only through its ideals, the effort to save the kernel of Christianity—all these ideas have bound us to your essay and made sense." ^^ The letter ended with an appeal to Lagarde to come and "rendez-vous" with Overbeck at Bayreuth where "kindred souls" could be found.

hagarde and His Contemporaries

231

Lagarde, of course, did not go and remained outside of the Bayreuth circle and traditions. Wagner's music and flamboyance offended him, and in 1879 he declared he had no time to discuss questions with Frau Wagner, and that he was no Wagnerian. He continued to resist efforts to bring him closer to Wagner or Bayreuth. Thus, in 1886, he curtly refused participation in the Richard Wagner Jahrbuch saying that he had heard little of his music or works and had no right, therefore, to write about him.^® Though Wagner was a critic like Lagarde and was moved by a grandiose conception of the German spirit, and though his final religious synthesis was a kind of neo-Christianity which rejected dogmas and sectarian divisions and rested on piety and the spirit of Jesus, the two men diverged widely. Lagarde emphasized the spiritual quality of the nation, the nation as divine revelation, and called the folk to be reborn to its own God-given tasks. Wagner, under the influence of Gobineau, espoused a more materialistic racism. Lagarde's appeal was moral, Wagner's esthetic and sensual. Ludwig Schemann, who labored long to convert Lagarde to Bayreuth, found his efforts breaking on this inexorable difference. Schemann believed that had Lagarde not been so tied down during his middle years as a school teacher, he might have taken up Wagner and understood how much he was strengthening the stream of German life, and that he was not simply bent on "esthetic imperialism." Schemann finally had to admit defeat when Wagner, desiring to bring some "political heads" within his orbit besought the cooperation of Constantin Frantz and Lagarde in the Bayreuther Blätter. Lagarde refused to pay any attention to this appeal, leaving Schemann, the "confidant" of both, to answer the old man in Bayreuth.^"* With Liszt a somewhat more lingering relation de-

232

Paul de Lagar de

veloped. Liszt shared that profound sense of despair which made him receptive to Lagarde's writings. "How dismally our political situation shapes up, ever new and threatening clouds from all sides arise. I know of no way out, nor of anyone who does." The connection continued into the eighties, Liszt looking to the older man as a source of political wisdom and hope. In 1883 he wrote of how much he desired to hold "a political conversation" with Lagarde in order to be able to see better the way toward the rebirth of the German people.^® The group at Basel and the circle at Bayreuth have been of major importance to the recent intellectual history of Germany. Lagarde's association with them, however tentative, serves to identify him broadly with the movements and literature of protest which they represented. But the very tentativeness and the evanescent quality of his relation with these men, his refusal to align himself with them or even to indulge himself seriously in their ideas, underscore not only his individualism as a personality but the essential uniqueness of his own position is a radical conservative. Tönnies, Wolff, Schemann Many men of diverse callings and temperaments felt the stimulation of Lagarde's romantic nationalism and heard his call for rebirth. His relations with Ferdinand Tönnies, the sociologist, Eugen Wolff, literary historian and critic, and Ludwig Schemann, writer and librarian, are notable cases in point. Tönnies, in his famous study, Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft, elaborated the distinction between two types of societies, and his distinction is essentially that which Lagarde made between the nation true to its soul and its history and the nation of the present day organized for the purposes of

Lagar de and His Contemporaries

233

state and industry. Tönnies conceived Gemeinschaft (community) as the product of a "natural will," that is, an association wüled for no ulterior purpose—an association which is an end in itself. Gemeinschaft is an "ultimate, private, exclusive living together." Marriage and family associations are Gemeinschaften. Religion, language, folkways, mores are the basis of Gemeinschaft. Gemeinschaft is an older form of association, its relationships develop slowly, they are deeper, longer lasting, genuine, organic. A Gesellschaft (society), on the other hand, is the product of a will which has an ulterior object, and the association which it forms is only a means. A Gesellschaft may rest upon an idea, but not upon any element or necessity of life. Gesellschaften may be formed or disbanded at any time as, for example, stock companies for business purposes. They are "mechanical aggregates." Tönnies held that the tendency is for societies formed as Gemeinschaften to change into Gesellschaften.^^ Tönnies, of course, in his book was defining and applying "scientific" sociological concepts, but it is clear from his letters to Lagarde that he felt a strong attachment for Gemeinschaft. He wrote Lagarde in 1884 that he had "long felt indebted to him" and hoped that a community might arise in Germany "based upon the ideas of your Deutsche Schriften as a center of gravity. A long preparation will, of course, be necessary." In this letter he mentioned his thinking about his book {Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft) which was published three years later in 1887, and he hoped that he might have Lagarde's cooperation as he prepared it. He added his thanks for the "truly hearty German evening" which he had passed with the Lagardes. In 1887, when Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft was published, Tönnies wrote that although Lagarde's ideas lighted the way for his

2 34

^^ Lagarde

own, he did not mention Lagarde in the book since he did not wish to be associated with any particular religious or political direction. But, " I hold to the hope that it may be granted me soon the opportunity to converse with you over those vital matters to which you have given prophetical expression. Perhaps we will then find that it has been allotted to us to do something other than talk and write. Should we not live for the realization of our dreams in this foreign . . . gesellschaftliche world?" Eugen Wolff, literary historian, long-time professor in Kiel, and coiner of the title "the moderns" in 1886, stood as a young man much under Lagarde's inspiration. It was Wolff's notion that "the modems" in literature ought to make contemporary social, religious, and " f o l k " struggles the themes of their art. Wolff, especially, caught the spirit of Lagarde's call for national rebirth and sought his support for an association of German academic youth whose purpose would be the maintenance of "the moral power of the folk." " W e visualize, honored Professor, an association of spirits such as you have characterized in your Deutsche Schriften." "Your noble Deutsche Schriften," he added, "have found enthusiastic followers in our own circle." Lagarde, characteristically, refused any support to the enterprise. Strangely enough, in light of the ambiguities of his own works, he protested that the expression "moral power of the folk" was too vague. He concluded with the plea that Wolff and his friends take this advice from an old man—"Let each do in his own place the best that he can, and let him associate with his neighbor of like mind not through an organization but person to person." Five years later, Wolff, then a university lecturer, sought to interest Lagarde in the Deutsche Schriften für nationales Leben, a journal to be edited by Wolff and designed "to set into mo-

Lagar de and His Contemporaries

235

tion the dormant powers of our people" and to represent a standpoint above parties. Despite an appeal by Wolff in which he enumerated topics bearing on national life in which Lagarde had a vital interest, the aging scholar asked only to be left alone to finish his studies.^® Wolff's persistent interest extended beyond Lagarde's death. In 1892 he dedicated an issue of his Deutsche Schriften für nationales Leben to Lagarde's memory and requested from Anna letters and other materials in order to prepare a volume on Lagarde as a political thinker. Anna replied that she had no special materials to offer. "The whole political thinker lies for all the world to see in the Deutsche Schriften." Ludwig Schemann was one of Lagarde's fondest admirers and stood, perhaps, closer to him than anyone else in Lagarde's restricted circle at Göttingen. Schemann became the chief exponent of Gobineau in Germany, translated the Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races, founded the Gobineau-Vereinigung in 1894, and published Gobineaus Rasseniverk in 1910. He wrote a book on his recollections of Wagner and a biography of Lagarde. These are the three men, he testified, "from whom above all others I learned of the German spirit." Schemann came to Göttingen as an assistant librarian in 1875 and immediately came into close relations with Lagarde because of their mutual acquaintance with the Rückert famñy. The association ripened to intimacy as Lagarde, a zealous user and friend of the university library, came into almost daily contact with Schemann. Lagarde's paternal interest in Schemann during a period of emotional stress for the latter cemented the relationship so firmly that even Schemann's importunate efforts to bring Lagarde to a more friendly understanding of Wagner did not disrupt it.

236

Paul de hagarde

Lagarde's specific influence upon him was not untypical of Lagarde's influence upon many others. "As my political instructor he unlocked for me the meaning of the words 'political life and spiritual life.' He taught me that only the best was good enough for true politics, that the hitherto existing division between the German political and intellectual classes was an absurdity, and that no one had the right to consider himself German without honestly participating in the life of the state. In a jiffy he turned me into a conservative and into a pan-German." After Schemann left Göttingen, he sent to Lagarde one of the most adulatory letters which the latter ever received. He wrote that from his youth he had considered it a high purpose to serve and emulate heroes. His heroes, he continued, were not those of the mob, but those of whom Carlyle taught—men who stand against their time with sword or scepter or ideas and who represent the Word of God. Schemann made it clear that Lagarde was such a hero, engaged in "the glorious struggle for the destruction of the false, and of the unworthy." Responding to Lagarde's gift of Uber einige Berliner Theologen, Schemann wrote that reading Lagarde's works were like giving a purifying bath to mind and heart. "Your star has led you to make good again that which has become so bad." He hoped that Lagarde's work might be furthered by a literary history which would capture German ideals and make Germans aware of their heritage and true nature. Schemann aspired to write such a work, as a disciple of Lagarde.®^ These are but three of the more notable personalities who seemed ready, had Lagarde only raised a standard, to leap into the ranks behind him. Had the spirit of the captain taken possession of the scholar, Lagarde most certainly could have had an enthusiastic company.

Lagar de and His Contemporaries

237

Langbehn Julius Langbehn was a strange, almost absurd, figure who meteor-like momentarily lit the German skies with a work of astounding popularity, a work which was commonly ascribed to Lagarde. He was born in Hadersleben in North Schleswig in 1851. Though well educated and widely traveled he could never quite forget the rustic simplicity and deep-rootedness of the low German stock from which he sprang. Against the real and imagined virtues of this stem he weighed the character of the Germans under the Empire and was led as a result to write the romantic and critical Rembrandt als Erzieher which had less to do with Rembrandt as a man than Rembrandt as an ideal German type. An interesting relation developed between Lagarde and this curious man who left his principal work unsigned since he felt that his obscurity might limit its influence, who wandered about in poverty under a sense of mission which forbade his turning to regular employment, and who finally found refuge in Catholicism when he despaired at the renewal of German life. They came into contact with one another first in 1887 from which time a rather extensive correspondence ensued. By 1890, Lagarde was sufficiently impressed with his young admirer to break all precedent and write an endorsement of Rembrandt als Erzieher. Yet some strange barrier apparently kept them from meeting face to face. In October of 1887 Langbehn, who had come upon Lagarde's Symmicta, wrote immediately to Lagarde to express his enthusiasm. "I was highly surprised to hear such a tone of truth coming from a German scholar; perhaps the number of noble people in present-day Germany is greater than the exterior appearance suggests." He declared that he

238

Paul de Lagar de

had been "stirred to the depths and aroused in the most joyful sort of way" by Lagarde's remarks concerning conditions in Germany. He went on to express his desire to read the Deutsche Schrijten but explained that the library in Dresden did not have it, and he could not afford to buy it and, therefore, besought Lagarde to loan it to him. Lagarde, replying that the library at Dresden was about to be relieved of its serious shortage of space and would soon have his works, presented a copy of the Deutsche Schriften to Langbehn. Langbehn's reaction was marked and instantaneous. "[Your work] . . . contains a rich treasure of things of which the German people have need. You can scarce conceive what pleasure it brought to me as I read it; I was enheartened and felt like Iphigenia when she first emerged from the desert waste and saw Greek people once again." In 1888 Langbehn was at work on Rembrandt als Erzieher whilst the inspiration of the Deutsche Schrijten was very much upon him. He sent the Deutsche Schrijten to his valued friend, the painter, Hans Thoma. The latter replied, "Lagarde is wonderful, and I understand him," but he went on to express sadness at the thought that many of Lagarde's ideas must remain an empty dream. Langbehn also sent the Deutsche Schriften to another friend and, in an accompanying letter, assured him that, in spite of Lagarde's "professorial manner," and his "shocking criticisms" (among which Langbehn reckoned the attacks on Bach and Luther), and in spite of the purely negative content of the work, it was excellent because it "is filled with scorn for the present false education and for liberal influences." ^ In December he wrote Lagarde that he had acquired the new edition of the Deutsche Schriften (apparently his enthusiasm had overcome his poverty), and that he often

hagarde and His Contemporaries

239

"consulted it." He confessed that he belonged, like Lagarde, to those who contributed to the rise of another Germany and accordingly, was drawn toward him. Langbehn realized that he traversed a somewhat different course from Lagarde since he devoted himself to artistic interests, yet, he, too, labored for "honesty and Deutschtum." This letter marked the first of a series of vain appeals for a meeting with Lagarde. In April, 1890, Langbehn expressed his loneliness in almost pathetic terms in a letter to Anna and besought a chance to converse with Lagarde. He told her that he could only feel happy when with people "whose honesty does not cease at a certain point, and such people are at present hard to find . . . your husband is an exception, and I have enclosed him in my heart." But Lagarde even refused to read and appraise some poetry which Langbehn had sent. Anna wrote apologetically that Lagarde had not time for his poetry and could not see him either then or later during the summer vacation for then he must take a work trip and will be "grubbing around in old manuscripts" even though, as she wrote, it would be better if he fled from his work to the hills or to the sea. She added that it was difficult to write such a reply to one who showed toward her husband such understanding and warm inclination.®® Langbehn was still not satisfied and appealed anew for a two- or three-hour conversation, anytime, day or night, at Lagarde's convenience. Langbehn's reasons are of interest. "The reasons which bring me to this request are not personal but substantial. I would converse seriously with you concerning present Germany in order to bring about an improvement; it seems to me absolutely necessary that the conspirators [that is, those who would bring it about] should draw close to one another. I hold such action possible and would like the judgment of others and especially

240

Faul de hagarde

yours." We must remember, too, that Langbehn, at work on his book, must have been anxious to drink directly from this Göttingen fountain of German romantic nationalism.®® Rembrandt als Erzieher was published anonymously at the beginning of 1890. On January 15, Lagarde received a copy from the publisher with a printed notice, Langbehn waited only a week to reveal his authorship to the Lagardes, who were among the very few so favored. He asked to be assured that his secret would be kept. Anna replied that while she did not approve of his anonymity, that he should know that she and her husband were most careful people. As though to give double assurance for herself, a woman, she styled herself old Frau Scruple. She expressed the hope that Langbehn would not be disappointed to know that Lagarde had already guessed the authorship.®^ A series of exchanges in the spring of 1890 finally led to Lagarde's writing an endorsement of Rembrandt als Erzieher, published with other endorsements on the occasion of the seventh printing of the book. For the retiring and preoccupied Lagarde, this was an extraordinary action and made Langbehn as nearly a disciple as any one ever was. The book was doing rather well even without this encomium for in March, only two months after publication, a new printing of two thousand volumes was called for, and further printings appeared regularly after this. "I would like to explain this," Langbehn wrote, "on the virtue of the drink rather than on the basis of the thirst of the people . . ." But in any case, he added, it is a good sign.®® In his endorsement Lagarde wrote: In February, 1881 . . . I characterized it as our duty to form a new public opinion . . . It seems to me that Germany is at the present time occupied with seeking this new opinion. The recent book, Rembrandt als Erzieher, may be suited . . .

hagarde and His Contemporaries

241

to promote my demand. The author possesses a complete love of truth and an original style of expression and exposition. That I do not agree with the views of the author in many points, does not hinder me from recommending his work. May it be read by many Germans. I expressly assert that, since, according to my judgment, my name is unknown beyond the circle of my colleagues, these lines have been written only because of a repeatedly expressed wish which quite overvalued my influence.^® This last sentence which rather underestimates his position and even contradicts his opinion as expressed elsewhere, reflects his sensitivity to the charges of arrogance which had been flung at him. Under gentle pressure from Langbehn he permitted this stultifying sentence to be omitted from the printed text. The fairly common view that Rembrandt als Erzieher was the work of Lagarde or of one of his disciples disturbed Langbehn who wished to appear unique. The Kieler Zeitung particularly irked Langbehn by identifying the author as one of Lagarde's "group." Langbehn's individualism made it intolerable to be classed as a satellite "revolving around a common center." He wrote to Anna that his "whole belief" was in "a basic German aristocratism," in self-articulation. Lagarde's friend, Hoffmann, reported to him that the local press linked his name with Rembrandt als Erzieher. Anna wrote understandingly to Langbehn that she and her husband could well appreciate his feelings for Lagarde, too, saw everything coming from "the individual person." ^^ Lagarde's almost total absorption in his work in the last year of his life and Langbehn's preoccupation with successive editions of his extraordinary successful book conspired virtually to halt their exchange from mid-1890. Langbehn's affection for Lagarde did not cool, however, and among

242

Paul de Lagarde

the first notes of condolence which Anna received after Lagarde's death was one written by Langbehn on the Christmas day of Lagarde's burial. T h e brief letter revealed his shock, and he could only say that the loss was a great one not only for her but for Germany Langbehn has well stated his attachment and relation to Lagarde. " A prophet like you I am not, but I am a poet and a certain relationship lies between such men; thus, I am drawn to you. So often as I read your Deutsche Schriften, I find something new . . . It is an appeal for sense and honor . . . and the Germans have neither. This generation is lost. I look for an improvement to come from those w h o are sworn to you and belong myself to them . . . O r perhaps I might better say to those w h o are sworn friends of truth." As one compares the ideas of the two men, it becomes clear that Langbehn not only stood under Lagarde's inspiration, but reproduced many of his ideas. Langbehn's biographer, Momme Nissen, has well said that "the general tone of the Rembrandt book is harmonious with Lagarde's thinking, and many ideas so glowingly expounded in the former are closely related to the ideas of the old university scholar." « T h e romantic symbiosis of individual and folk reappeared in Langbehn. A folk, he held, possesses a "primal energy" which gives coherence to the life and culture of any healthy society. But the individual is not submerged in the body of the folk. He used Lagarde's metaphor of the pyramid to show that the individual is at the apex of the social structure. A s Lagarde, he emphasized that the apex of the pyramid is inseparable from the base, and that individuality takes its meaning and value not in glorious isolation at the apex, but precisely as "it relates itself to the great structure of national life." T h e relation of individual and nation is an

Lagar de and His Contemporaries

243

organic one. The individual emerges especially, he believed, among the Germans who are "undoubtably the most individualistic and self-willed of all peoples." In the perfect individual, who perforce must also represent perfectly the spirit of his people, exists the ideal possibility for religious feeling. For piety is a national virtue which inheres in the nationally oriented individual. Only such an individual can recapture the spirit of primitive Christianity. Thus, Rembrandt, the perfect "Niederdeutscher," Langbehn held, caught and expressed the spirit of Christianity as no other painter. This religious view reveals unmistakably a Lagardian influence. Lagarde, however, went on to proclaim a national religion whereas Langbehn found the religious impulse satisfied in art. "Religion is art," he wrote, an assertion which must have been incomprehensible to Lagarde. Here surely is an important difference which helps explain why the two men remained at a distance.*® The Bismarckian state appeared to Langbehn inconsistent with the nature of the German people. He saw the state not as "a power factor" but "as creating the organic preconditions for the spiritual and intellectual development of the folk." Politically, therefore, Langbehn as Lagarde, could join the camp of neither the National Liberals nor the Conservatives, both of whom had come to take their stand behind state power.*® Exactly as Lagarde, Langbehn held that the nation must not be governed by an impersonal, bureaucratic state but by the personal leadership of king and noblemen. The king's sovereignty has no metaphysical justification. His commanding position derives from his place as "the first nobleman of his country . . . thus, the monarchic principle is basically the principie of nobility." The leadership of the king should

244

Рлм/ de La garde

be extended throughout the nation by a national aristocratic hierarchy which runs from the princes through the noblemen, to the artists, and thence to the burgher and farmer. Significantly, artists replace scholars in this adaptation of Lagarde, but Langbehn in no way changed the principle. "Equality is death, articulation is life," and democracy is therefore a mere "herd-principle," the symptom of a sick society.^^ In his criticism of education and scholarship, Langbehn adhered to Lagardian ideas. Education, he held, is never achieved by the acquisition of knowledge. "Several passages out of Goethe do not suffice as a philosophical content for life." Scholarship which merely rehashes old ideas is materialism. The aim of education and scholarship should not be to describe the world, but "to paint" the world picture.^® The way out of the morass could be shown by a true conservative party which would abandon the Prussian conservatives who have lost their character. These true conservatives would possess a "pure low German" spirit which "is conservative but with a broad, natural basis in the folk." The aim would then be not the conservation of political power for a given class but the preservation of "folk-character." For Langbehn, this was a panacea.*' Rembrandt als Erzieher went through a great many printings, and as Nissen asserts, undoubtedly gave wider circulation and a more literary presentation of Lagardian ideas than the Deutsche Schriften. As early as April, 1890, Anna wrote to Langbehn "You have contributed to the greater dissemination of the Deutsche Schriften.^'' The conception of Lagarde held in the twentieth century has doubtless been appreciably influenced by the Rembrandt book. It is, therefore, significant to note that Langbehn, despite

Lagarde and His Contemporaries

245

his use of Lagarde, did not catch, or at least reproduce, some of Lagarde's most fundamental principles.®" Langbehn lacked Lagarde's historical sense. He experienced a romantic enchantment for the past, but the notion of a continuously unfolding Kingdom of God, a world historical process, formed no part of his thought. However iU-defined this view, it gave Lagarde some philosophical basis for his thought which Langbehn did not have. Moreover, Lagarde took his Gospel in profound seriousness. He wanted a political, social and cultural transformation of the Empire from which would come an entirely new religious orientation and a literal rebirth of the German soul. Langbehn did not dig as deeply as Lagarde. Though not a racist, he stood between Lagarde and racism. The balance was tipped from GeTniit to Blut. The bond of spiritual feeling which held Lagarde's nation together tended to be replaced by the bond of a pure "Niederdeutsch" background for Langbehn. The Anti-Semitic

Movement

Lagarde's connection with the wave of anti-Semitism which arose in the seventies and persisted to the turn of the centiiry is an obvious point of inquiry. Mutual religious intolerance had existed in Germany since the Middle Ages although considerably diminished with the decline in religious feeling in the eighteenth century. The emancipation of the Jews which was completed under the North German Confederation in 1869 gave rise to the fear that a group, which, despite numerous defections, retained a high degree of coherence and exclusiveness, might prove a political power which would menace the community at large. Antagonism to the Jew was augmented when he became a scapegoat for the financial crisis of 1873,

246

Paul de Lagar de

the more so because a number of Jewish capitalists were involved in dubious speculations. This essentially nonracial, or at least not primarily racial, anti-Semitism was carried on in the eighties by conservative groups interested in gaining political advantage against the liberals who enjoyed considerable Jewish support and counted such Jews as Lasker and Bamberger. Two more or less distinct groups developed within the anti-Semitic movement in the latter part of the century. One group had as its chief aim the integration of the Jews into the state and church—that is, the elimination of the Jews as an isolated, divisive, and potentially dangerous cultural element, through conversion and assimilation. Stocker and Treitschke belonged to this group. The other group was more radical in its methods, labored under a stronger sense of despair for German life and culture, and espoused a more racial anti-Semitism which sought exclusion of the Jews from German life. Wilhem Marr, Liebermann von Sonnenberg, Otto Boeckel and Theodor Fritsch were among the leaders of this persuasion. Lagarde, whose ideas concerning the Jews antedated the writings of all of these men and were without doubt an influence on them, cannot easily be identified with either group. He scorned the cruder forms of anti-Semitism. He was not a racist in the sense that he attached great significance to blood. His aim was a regenerated nation and cultural unity. Both Stöcker and Treitschke could applaud these views and admired the Deutsche Schriften. On the other hand, Lagarde's anti-Semitism was an element of his pessimism and, moreover, of his radicalism so that he was prepared, if necessary, to exclude the Jews by transportation to Palestine. This radicalism and the increasing bitter-

Lagar de and His Contemporaries

247

ness of his remarks concerning the Jews in the eighties, made him an important source for the radicals.®^ Lagarde, characteristically, refused entangling alliances or even transient cooperation with any anti-Semitic party or group, save that of Theodor Fritsch. He rejected the invitation of the Deutschsoziale Antisemitische Fartet to stand for the Reichstag as one of its candidates in 1889. This party was racist and founded by Liebermann von Sonnenberg, one of the most prominent anti-Semites of the eighties. Lagarde paid little attention to letters urging him to play a more active role in the struggle against the Jews. A solicitation of Lagarde's opinion on the Jewish question, to be published with statements from other anti-Semites, remained unanswered. A request to sponsor a lecture by Liebermann von Sonnenberg was coolly received.®^ Among the conservative anti-Semites, Lagarde had direct contact with Stöcker, and among the more radical with Fritsch and may very well have influenced Wilhelm Marr. Court Preacher Stöcker, who was close to the Kreutzzeitung, orthodox in his religion, and leader of the Christlich Sozial movement,®® obviously possessed ideas dissimilar to Lagarde's. Like many Germans, however, Stöcker felt the weight of Lagarde's writings. A reference to Lagarde in a public speech by Stöcker brought the two men into touch. Lagarde objected to being cited as an authority for the view that the state ought not to support any Jewish schools, and that Jews should be held to a certain percentage in the universities. Stöcker declared his willingness to admit publicly his error if he had, indeed, misinterpreted Lagarde. Notwithstanding Lagarde's indignation Stöcker declared, " I use this occasion to press your hand, Herr Geheimrat, for your struggle against Jewery and assure you of my

248

Paul de Lagar de

high esteem. Let me express the wish, that it may befall that I may speak with you in person and explain my views concerning the future of the church and of Christianity, views which differ from yours." Lagarde replied cordially to this letter and suggested that nothing further be done about the speech. "We do not wish to make life too difficult." He sent Stocker a copy of Uber einige Berliner Theologen und was von ihnen zu lernen ist and hoped that Stöcker would read the new edition of the Deutsche Schriften, "a much read book despite the silence of all parties." He added that it would be a joy for him to talk with Stöcker.®® Although Lagarde and Marr appear never to have had any personal intercourse, some of Mart's ideas are virtually identical with those to be found in Lagarde's earlier writings. Marr was a prominent anti-Semitic theoretician of the seventies. Like Lagarde, he broke away from the older type of anti-Semitism which centered on the religious differences of Jew and Gentile. He believed that the Jews had grown to be a world power, and that it was questionable whether the Germans had the physical and intellectual power to combat them. Furthermore, like Lagarde, he held that the Bismarckian Reich, ridden with the materialism and expediency of National Liberalism, provided the perfect soil for the growth of Jewish corruption and domination. Marr's ideas, however, did not coincide entirely with Lagarde's. Marr placed less emphasis on the conflict of German and Jewish culture, but, rather, saw the origin of the Jewish problem in the greed of medieval lords who blamed the Jewish usurers for the exactions which the lords themselves levied upon their peoples. In reacting to the consequent hatred which fell upon them, according to Marr, the Jews developed the nefarious traits and came to occupy the crucial positions which made them dangerous to society.®®

hagarde and His Contemporaries

249

Lagarde's relations with Theodor Fritsch were far more extensive and through Fritsch Lagarde became a significant influence on German anti-Semitism. Anna spoke of Fritsch and Langbehn as the two men who derived most from the Deutsche Schriften.^'' Fritsch became the leader of the Deutsche Reform Partei, a fairly moderate anti-Semitic group, in Leipzig in 1884 and associated the group with the Deutsche Antisemitische Vereinigung which labored for the repeal of the emancipation law and for legislation which would treat the Jews as aliens. In 1889, Fritsch was close to the Deutschsoziale Antisemitische Partei founded by Liebermann von Sonnenberg and involved with its organ, the Antisemitische Correspondenz. Fritsch published Das Hammer, a source of anti-Jewish utterances, culled from writers ancient, medieval, and modern and which may have been inspired by Lagarde's Indogermanen where Lagarde sought to strengthen his anti-Semitic arguments by appealing to the comments of historical personages. Fritsch, as an antiSemirist, is particularly remembered as the author of the Handbuch der Judenfrage and the Antisemiten-Kathechismus. The latter must be compared with Lagarde's antiSemitic writings. Proceeding in catechismic style, Fritsch argued that the Jew should not have equal rights because he has not contributed to the growth of the nation. Moreover, since his enfranchisement began in 1848 he has not hastened to join the community of Germans and leave his own defunct heritage. This is the position of Lagarde in the Indogermanen. Like Lagarde, Fritsch considered the Talmud and the Jewish religion generally as an ossified formalization of the ancient Hebrew religion. He particularly deplored Jewish attachment to the Talmud because it represents a whole

250

Paul de Lagar de

"view of life" and, thus, effectively dominates the cultural life of Jewish communities and leaves no room for the penetration of the German way of life. Their life, their culture, their moral concepts, he argued, are non-German and hence, anti-German. Fritsch believed that the contrast in character of German and Jew clearly reveals this cultural cleavage. The German is inclined toward farming, skilled in craft work, courageous, noble, loyal—peculiarly a part of a creative culture. The Jew is unsettled, nomadic, inclined to booty wherever it beckons him, sharp in trading, but without the capacity to be productive—peculiarly the "Kultur-Beduine" (that is, plunderer of culture). Between the two there can be no compromise. If German culture is to stand, then the Jew must go, and Fritsch's solution was their resettlement in a colonial area. If they stay, they must be compelled to tum to farming and manual labor. This was Lagarde's solution in Konservativ? ®® Direct contact between Fritsch and Lagarde appears to have commenced in 1886 when Lagarde sent Fritsch a copy of his essay, Die nächsten Pflichten deutscher Politik. "Seldom have I found," Fritsch responded, "such an abundance of powerful ideas in so restricted a space . . . [It is] incomparably German." He explained that he had taken the liberty to include excerpts in the Antisemitische Correspondenz. Far from being incensed, as he often was at any unauthorized use of his ideas, Lagarde made several contributions to the Correspondenz and, indeed, showed a considerable interest in its effectiveness. He even offered editorial advice. "Citations which are not exact," he admonished Fritsch, "help only those who are already knowledgable . . . not, however, the vacillating and cowardly who ought to be won over." ®®

hagarde and His Contemporaries

251

This rather partisan manifestation of interest by no means meant that Lagarde was actively identifying himself with Fritsch and his group. Only a few months after Lagarde gave this piece of advice, he summarily refused to allow his picture to be published in Fritsch's anti-Semitic Volkskalander for 1889. His pretext was that "sharp earnestness is my way" and that his picture, therefore, would "only do damage to a good cause." In the spring of 1890 Lagarde made his essential isolation from the movement even clearer. Fritsch asked him to examine the draft of the tenth edition of the Antisemiten-Kathechismus, explaining that so important a "lever" of the anti-Semitic cause should not be issued without the valuable advice of Lagarde. Apparently assuming Lagarde's cooperation a foregone conclusion, Fritsch alluded to Lagarde's participation in the forthcoming edition in a notice in the Antisemitische Correspondenz. Lagarde's wrath was not slow to fall, and in a blunt note, blunt even for him, he dissociated himself from the enterprise and demanded that his note be printed in the next issue of the Correspondenz in order to show that "he had absolutely nothing to do with the Kathechismus." Fritsch replied that he deplored this neglect of duty. "However, so it is with our scholars . . . they wish to be kings of science, but not kings of their people . . . inapproachable in their wisdom." T o this Lagarde could only suggest that he would leave Fritsch to the "technique of the mule" and asked that Fritsch allow him to practice the "technique of the scholar." β« This exhibition on Lagarde's part did not seem to stun Fritsch for in two weeks he sent Lagarde a flyer inviting him to a meeting in Hanover sponsored by the leadership of the Deutschsoziale Partei, a meeting which was to be a "confidential discussion" of the future of the party. Lagarde's

252

Paul de Lagar de

advice on the affairs of the party was sought again in October. Both of these appeals were in vain.®^ Nothing suggests better Lagarde's relation to Fritsch and, indeed, to the whole anti-Semitic movement, than his last letter to Fritsch written only a few days before his death. He thanked Fritsch for sendmg a copy of the Antisemitische Correspondenz. "The lead article will certainly serve our cause, it is so superior in tone . . . That I am given a good role to play is pleasing to me, but it is for me only a side issue, very much a side issue." ^^ Educational

Reform

Lagarde's ideas on educational reform were increasingly noted and were not without influence as concern for the condition of the schools became manifest in the eighties, Lagarde's direct approach to the authorities as a means of stimulating reform go back to his school-teaching days in Berlin when, in rather sarcastic terms, he importuned the city fathers for improved facilities. In 1886, he appealed directly to Bismarck to face the task of educational reorganiaztion just as he had faced the task of army reorganization in the early sixties. In the same year he urged Prince Wüliam to interest himself in educational reform and pointed to the "warm approval by youth groups of my words against higher education." In 1890, he sent copies of his essays on education to Captivi, evidently hoping that his ideas would be laid before the school conference which William had called to meet in December 1890, or otherwise influence the prevailing spirit of reform. That he was not invited to this conference was surprising to his contemporaries.®® Whether his appeals to William and Captivi received attention is uncertain, yet the force and originality of his

Lagar de and His Contemporaries

253

ideas were appreciated, as will be shown presently, by such influential writers as Treitzschke, Friedrich Paulsen, and Karl Hillebrand, and through them certainly must have been known to those who prepared for the conference. Many of the ideas presented for discussion were remarkably Lagardian in flavor, including those of the Emperor. In his speech of December 4, 1890, William asserted that the classical Gymnasia had failed to teach a sense of German unity. Teachers, he said, have operated on the "principle that the pupil must know as much as possible, whether it be of use in after life or not, and if one tries to point out to these gentlemen that a young man must be prepared with some kind of practicality to face life and its problems, they answer that the province of the school lies not in practicality but in mental gymnastics. I believe that this standpoint will have to be abandoned." He urged that "we should educate young Germans, not young Romans or Greeks." He wished a simplified curriculum which would revolve around a German subject matter. Though the Emperor's ultimate concern was more with the creation of a disciplined and loyal people than, as with Lagarde, with the development of the individual personality, yet the similarity to some of Lagarde's ideas is so striking that one wonders whether, after all, Lagarde's appeals struck the mark.®^ The conference considered, also, such topics as the reform of the system of state examinations, the privilege given to some students of fulfilling their military duty in one year, and a lightening of the student's burden in the interests of better learning and better health. These questions Lagarde had been agitating about for many years.®® The dissemination of Lagarde's educational ideas owed much to Treitschke, Paulsen, and Hillebrand. Treitschke, however enthusiastic a supporter of the German unity

254

^^ hagarde

movement, was by no means incapable of criticizing the new Reich and often used his position as editor of the Preussische Jahrbücher to this end. Some of his critical writings resemble Lagarde's, especially in the field of education. In 1883 Treitschke wrote an article, "Einige Bermerkungen über unser Gymansialwesens," with Lagarde's recent essays on education very much in mind. Like Lagarde, he saw in youth a capacity for the ideal, which was quite overlooked and, indeed, stifled by the Gymnasium system. He wanted a simplification of the curriculum so that it would not be a barrier to the expression of individual personality. He wished German education to be animated by "Geist" and referred his readers to Lagarde's "all too little read Deutsche Schriften" where, he said, they would find this need so clearly delineated. Though he pointed to some of the impracticalities in Lagarde's proposals such as the separation of children from household influence by removal of schools to remote areas of the countryside, he saw in Lagarde's wider views "deep and vital truths." ®® Friedrich Paulsen, a foremost authority on education, was an important critic of the school system and was well aware of the force of Lagarde's ideas. Paulsen was particularly concerned over the baneful influence of the state. He expressed agreement with Lagarde that teachers were required to act as employees and to please king and public, whUe teaching was a secondary consideration. He referred approvingly to Lagarde's bitter antipathy toward Hegel and Schulze as corruptors of the schools. He quoted at length Lagarde's words that general education cannot produce individual men, and individual men are what Germany so urgently needs. His disgust at the overwhelming materialism of Prussian education is a piece with Lagarde's. " T o expect everything from sheer subject matter is a crude

Lagar de and His Contemporaries

255

materialism. As Lagarde has pointed out, moral and spiritual education is not like wet loam which will easily stick merely by being thrown up against a wall." Lagarde made Paulsen a gift of some of his essays, and in his reply Paulsen bestowed some warm praise on them.®^ Karl Hillebrand was a frequent critic of the schools and a prominent contributor to the Deutsche Rundschau. In 1879 he published an article, "Halbbildung und Gymnasial Reform," which related the pUght of Kultur to the ill-conceived system of state education. Acknowledging Lagarde's inspiration, which came in part from the Symmicta which Lagarde had sent him two years previously, Hillebrand developed the thesis that the German Empire, far from being the goal, was only the opportunity for achieving an integrated and genuine national life. He pointed to the tensions in German life such as that between church and state, and between the old ideals and the new drive for material acquisition, and argued that true unity could be achieved only when "inner misunderstanding" could be overcome. It may be overcome, he wrote in the manner of Lagarde, by turning away from "half-way education" to a real education which will give a unity of purpose and spirit to the German people.®® Like Lagarde, he decried the concept of education as "much knowledge" and cited Lagarde's criticism that the schools "limit understanding by insisting on details." The purpose of education is harmony—"that is, the proper relation of individuals one to another and to mankind as a whole." T o be educated in this sense is for a man "to be adapted to his class and business position." The educated man is the one who has developed to the point where he can properly assume his role in the life of the nation, live virtuously, and contribute to the well being and harmony of

256

Paul de Lagar de

the whole. Hillebrand urged his readers to turn to Lagarde whose "point of departure and end point as well" he commended to them. Few, he wrote, have as clearly seen Germany's errors, no one has spoken out so fearlessly and eloquently. His works should be passed from hand to hand throughout the land as the words of a prophet. Surely, Lagarde had no greater admirer amongst his contemporaries than HUlebrand.«»

CHAPTER

VII

hagarde and Germany after i8çi

he interest which had gradually developed in Lagarde _L and his ideas during his lifetime did not abate with the end of his life. The nationalistic movements and causes which flourished in the Wilhelmine period readily made use of a multitude of his ideas. The reawakened idealism at the turn of the century and the increasingly prevalent mood of protest against the rampant materialism of the Empire afforded a growing audience for the Deutsche Schriften. The romantic spirit, which had been satisfied for a season by the glories of military triumphs and Empire-building, yearned perceptibly in the new century for the subtler experience of heroic personal fulfillment and found itself attuned to the prophetic cries of the Göttingen Jeremiah. Though one might, with some plausibility, detect Lagarde's thought in a multitude of movements and developments in German life after 1891, this chapter will consider particularly those where the evidence of his influence and significance is unmistakable. These are the Youth Movement, the Pan-German Movement and Middle European thought, the currents of religious nationalism, the Young Conservative Movement, and certain elements of pre-Nazi and Nazi thought. An analysis of the general literature on Lagarde, and a consideration of his impact upon these

258

Paul de Lagar de

groups and movements will afford us some understanding of his place in the intellectual legacy bequeathed to the twentieth century. The Literature on Lagarde Literature concerning Lagarde prior to 1891 was, as we have seen, rather meager, and, in fact, limited to several polemical works by Jewish scholars written in the course of his altercations with them in the eighties and several articles in theological journals written from a scholarly viewpoint as commentaries on his works. In 1891, occasioned by the current interest in educational reform, several articles treating his pedagogical views appeared. Only following his death did Lagarde begin to receive wider publicity. His death was the occasion for many newspapers to carry sketches of his life, and journals of various kinds from Fritsch's anti-Semitic Das Hammer to the learned Nachrichten der Göttinger Gesellschaft der Wissenschaft published articles on his works and significance.^ The flow of writing on Lagarde while not abundant became fairly steady thereafter. Each year a few articles appeared and occasionally a substantial pamphlet or small book. Much of this literature treated Lagarde as a prophet, a renewer, one who had summoned the Germans to a new Renaissance. He was compared with Nietzsche, Fichte, Humboldt, and even with a figure seemingly so unlike himself as Wilhelm Raabe. So naturally and frequently was Lagarde cast in this kind of role that one is led to conjecture that had Nietzsche never existed, Lagarde might well more prominently have filled that need for a physician felt by the Germans and, thus, have gained some of the fame which was accorded Nietzsche in the years after 1900.^^

hagarde and Germany aper

259

Those who served some particular cause were not slow to avail themselves of the Lagardian arguments which served their purposes. His concept of Middle Europe was popular in the age of pan-Germanism. His educational views proved persistently interesting. His stature as a theologian grew in the nineties, favored no doubt by the new regard for religion. His integration of national and religious feeling aroused great interest in the years before and during the First World War. Other themes are not uncommon—^Lagarde and youth, Lagarde and the Jews, Lagarde as poet, Lagarde and Bismarck, Lagarde and Russia.® The coming of the war in 1914 required the Germans to marshal to the utmost their spiritual as well as physical resources. In this effort Lagarde was not overlooked. A Gymnasium teacher in Charlottenberg virtually set the kind of Deutschtum that Lagarde had taught and exemplified as a principal war objective. A Mecklenburg newspaper took a similar view and urged it as a duty, in the hour of struggle, for all Germans to acquaint themselves better with this man and his works. An Evangelical journal appealed to the Germans, now that they were "ringed with enemies to turn to one of the best and noblest of people—Paul de Lagarde." German students admonished those who dreamed of a separate peace with Russia to harken to the words of Lagarde. Lagarde's doctrine that the nation has a soul as well as a body was an appealing theme to set before a people who were making terrible sacrifices for the Fatherland. He was hailed for having insisted that the "German Spirit" was not merely a fine phrase, but a real and existing entity. Germans were urged to read Lagarde, to become aware of this "Spirit," and to find, thereby, an inexhaustible source of strength for the conflict at hand. In a similar vein others directed attention to Lagarde's insistence that "being Ger-

2бо

Paul de Lagar de

man" was not simply a physical or legal status but an absolute ideal. The impUcation was that extraordinary sacrifices were justified.* The theme that out of the holocaust of war a new and purified Germany would emerge, was a common one during the war. Lagarde's frequently reiterated cry for rebirth was often recalled. Now is the hour, one writer declared, when Lagarde's call for rebirth, which has its roots deep in German mysticism and idealism, may be realized. Another writer prepared a small volume with the suggestive title Paul de hagarde und das Deutschland von Morgen. We must not lose the opportunity, he argued, to be "reborn in the higher sense which Lagarde . . . sought in his day." The book goes on to picture in Lagardian terms the renewed German nation. An article in the Evangelical journal, Oie Christliche Welt, soberly urged that the way of the future was the way pointed out by Lagarde and held it the duty of "every teacher, pastor, government official, party leader, and newspaper editor" to become "thoroughly famihar" with Lagarde.® The disasters and defeat of 1918, the unsettled conditions and frustrations of the postrevolutionary period, and the growth and persistence of an extreme nationalist opposition to the Weimar regime assured a continued reception for Lagarde's ideas. In these circumstances his doctrine of rebirth retained its war-time vogue. In 1925 a book-length work. Die Wiedergeburt durch Lagarde, lent emphasis to this theme. Never, the author held, have Lagarde's words had such timeliness as in the twenties with German Ufe a sordid picture of disintegration, with strange and foreign ideas, crass and immoral conduct besetting the nation. Never have Germans stood in such sheer need of halting in their

Lagarde and Germany aper

261

tracks, listening to the old Göttingen scholar, and finding in his words and spirit the means to regeneration.® Between 1920 and 1930 Lagarde and his political writings received for the first time serious scholarly attention. In 1920 Lagarde's old friend and protégé, Ludwig Schemann, published his biography. While Schemann was far from a disinterested observer of Lagarde's life and ideas, and although he thought of his study of Lagarde as a contribution to the rebirth of the broken and demorahzed German nation, his book is a serious and detailed effort to treat Lagarde's life and ideas. In 1927 the first important treatment of Lagarde's Middle European ideas appeared. In 1930 a somewhat polemical, but, nonetheless perceptive, account of Lagarde's conception of the state and nation was published.'' In the depression years and during the Nazi period, Lagarde anthologies appeared with increasing frequency. At least a dozen were published between the late twenties and 1944 and are an important part of the "Lagarde Renaissance" of these years. They tended to possess, consistent with the extraordinary nationalism of the time, the character of devotional works, as their titles suggest—Concession to Germany, I Warn and Proclaim, German Faith— German Fatherland.^ An analysis of the flow of articles concerning Lagarde, which were produced annually for the years 1919-1950, is at least suggestive of the relation of his ideas to different phases of the unfolding political situation. Assuming about a one-year delay between conception and publication, we may formulate the hypothesis that the peaks of the graph reflect crises which led to an appeal to Lagardian literature. The troughs reflect periods of relative quiet and stability.

202

Paul de Lagar de

On this hypothesis the peak of 1920 follows the signing of the Treaty of Versailles and the lawlessness of 1919. The trough of 192 2-1923 represents the somewhat quieter con-

ditions after the Kapp Putsch. The peak of 1925 easily suggests the impact of the inflation and the occupation of the Ruhr, and the trough of 1926 the returning financial and political stability of the early Stresemann era. The year 1927 marked the centennial of Lagarde's birth, and this fact

Lagarde and Germany after

263

rather than any political crisis explains the high-altitude peak of that year. The continued prosperity and improvement in the international atmosphere of the later Stresemann period explains the rapid descent of the line after 1927. The peak of 1933 suggests the impact of the depression and mounting extremism. The fairly high peak for the years following indicates the appeal of Lagarde in the National Socialist period. The peak of 1939 seems to reflect the mounting tension leading to the war. The precipitous drop thereafter is a most interesting phenomenon. Interest in Lagarde after 1940 virtually vanishes except for the year 1942. Publications in this year are mostly of a memorial nature occasioned by the fiftieth anniversary of Lagarde's death in December 1941. Clearly our hypothesis does not help us in elucidating the position of the graph covering the Second World War years, which is surprising when we recollect that the First World War produced a spate of Lagarde literature. The conjecture may be made that the German mind and soul had become supersaturated with heroic nationalism and could no longer find refreshment in Lagarde's wine in which this ingredient was so concentrated. Perhaps, too, the Germans were beginning to become dimly aware of the enormity of their crimes and of the need to confess them before a God not clothed in the garments of the German spirit. Since the collapse of 1945 nothing has occurred to suggest the revival of Lagarde as an inspiration to the German people. He seems to have become a curiosity rather than a prophet for many Germans, as for President Heuss, who remarked in an address in 1951 that he wondered whether the archives at Göttingen might possess some papers which would throw light on this phenomenon [Lagarde] from whom Heuss felt separated by an abyss.®

264

Paul de La gar de

The Youth Movement Toward the tum of the century a new youth movement arose in Germany. Unlike the Young Germany of the eighteen-thirties, the movement was not a protest of liberal intellectuals against the regime so much as a banding together of youth under a neoromantic inspiration in reaction to a culture which seemed foreign to their ideals. The first important youth group was Karl Fischer's Wandervogel organized in 1897. As its name suggests, it was dedicated to "experiencing nature," to an escape from the conventional pattern of urban life to the free air of the woods and countryside. As the idea caught on and new groups were founded, the movement took on a deeper cultural and spiritual meaning. It became a protest against the materialism of the age, against mechanization in the schools and in government, and the sheer "lack of the spiritual and the ideal." Such was the spirit of the influential Freideutsche Jugend, a journal which expounded remarkably Lagardian religious and nationalist ideals. The youth festival on the Hohen Meissner, October 11 and 12, 1914, was held under the sponsorship of the Freideutsche Jugend. The chief address at this gathering was delivered by Gottfried Traub, a clergyman inspired by Lagarde.^" That Lagarde's ideas had an impact upon the youth movement is not difficult to understand. He had written a specific defense of youth and extolled its capacity for the ideal. The whole bent of his writings served to stimulate and guide a reaction from the flaccid culture of the Wilhelmine period. Allusions to Lagarde's impact upon youth were common in the period of the flowering of the movement. One writer held that Lagarde's influence on youth was greater than his influence in any other direction. At

Lagarde and Germany after i8pi

265

the Lagarde festival staged in Göttingen in 1897 the principal speaker concluded his address by identifying Lagarde with youth and its hopes for rebirth. The renewed youth activity during the First World War led to fresh consideration of Lagarde's role, and one subsequent study unhesitatingly specified Lagarde, Nietzsche, and Langbehn as the three prophets of the Youth Movement.^^ An analysis of the ideology of the movement into its three principal elements indicates its close relation to some of the main elements of Lagarde's thought. These elements are the concepts of ( i ) the ideal, (2) the organic relation of individual and community, and (3) the religious. The Youth Movement was ideal in precisely Lagarde's sense. It eschewed "ideality" as mere adherence to traditional precepts and turned to "idealism," that is, the development of its inward capacity to achieve through self-expression a greater solidarity with its fellows. Such idealism, Lagarde had taught, is the gift of neither states nor philosophers, but lies potentially in the breast of each youth who is not too heavily shackled by a corrupted culture. Lagarde's hope that youth's idealism would surge upward through society and the nation was the animating spirit of the Youth Movement. His call for "originality" and "truthfulness" became the very ideal objectives toward which youth oriented itself as it sought to cut through the "externalising and mechanising" of the age.^^ One of the moods that powerfully stirred youth at the turn of the century was the feeling of "being left out." This led to their emphasis on mutual helpfulness, to their yearning for a mystical affiliation with the divine, and above all to a desire for solidarity, for a community wherein each would be in organic relation with all of the others. The simultaneous expression of individual personality and group soli-

206

Paul de Lagar de

darity was the primary concern and aim of the Youth Movement.^® One enthusiastic adult described the intense and romantic individualism of youth: "The Free German Youth represent an attitude toward life on the part of young men who energetically and out of inner necessity strive to give the highest and clearest expression to their nature in all of its aspects." How did the youth express itself "in all of its aspects"? They did it by aligning themselves behind a leader. They did not mean to submerge their personality, at least wittingly; rather, their thought was to find perfect freedom in perfect service to group ideals. Lagarde's dictum could have been, and doubtless was, taken as a text at many a youth gathering. "He is not free who can do what he will, but rather he who can do what he ought. He is free who can follow his innate life-principle." In short, youth faced the old problem of the one and the many and solved it essentially on the Lagardian principle of subordinating neither the one nor the other but finding the power and uniqueness of each enhanced by their interrelation. "The 'We' is living in the Ί,' and the Ί ' works for the common 'We.' " A third element of the movement, the religious, also bore a close relation to Lagarde's thought. The renewed interest of youth in religion was undoubtedly a product of the same mood which led to the desire for community. Youth was not impelled toward positive religion. Indeed, as for Lagarde, whatever in religion was fixed or final, was inconsistent with its mood for Streben and was a part of the decayed and indifferent civilization from which it sought escape. "If religion is conceived not as something fixed but as a seeking and a longing, as the presentiment of an upper

La garde and Germany aper 1891

267

world of spirit, then one is thinking of the religion of the youth movement." As though his pen were directed by Lagarde's own hands, one writer in the Freideutsche Jugend pointed to the difficult and yet vital necessity for youth to penetrate the Pauline and ecclesiastical mists which obscure the true Gospel message of the Master. This message was a call for rebirth to the highest capabilities of human beings, to the highest virtues of humanity. The youth placed Christ and the Gospel over against the Pharisaism and narrowness of the prewar years just as Lagarde had against the Bismarckian Reich. Especially among the Freideutsche Jugend, Christ was regarded as a "warrior and hero," as a model leader who could show the way out of the morass of materialistic and degenerate culture. The spiritual significance of organic articulation clearly emerged. "Beyond the this-worldly implications . . . [of the youth's religious ideas] . . . burned the desire for the effective joining together of all men everywhere in the cosmos as a basis for endless spiritual generation." " Here is a common Lagardian view with the accent on "cosmos" rather than a nation. The Youth Movement did not depend upon Lagarde for its inception or for its rapid growth and widespread influence. However, in the development of its ideology, in its romantic proclivities, in its eagerness for community solidarity, in its accentuation of the ideal, in its religious criticisms and views, the movement unquestionably owed a great deal to Lagarde, and had he never turned aside from his scholarship to become critic and prophet, these characteristics of the Youth Movement might well have been far less pronounced.

208

Paul de Lagar de

The Fan-German Movement and Middle Thought

European

Lagarde was an important inspiration and source of ideas for the Pan-German Movement though his death came before the movement was well developed, and he did not participate in any organizations or contribute to any journals that might be called Pan-German. The Pan-German Movement, although the term is variously used, may be thought of as that movement, commencing around 1890, which through organizations and journalistic activities sought to promote German interests and expansion overseas and in Eastern or Middle Europe and the Levant, to foster German economic and military might, and to encourage patriotism and national idealism through educational reform and other means. Many organizations and journals, whose programs reflected these objectives in whole or in part, flourished at the turn of the century. One of these organizations of preeminent significance was the Pan-German League {Alldeutscher Verband). Lagarde's influence on the League and, especially, on its Middle European program, aifords a good indication as to his influence on the PanGerman Movement generally. The Pan-German League grew out of the agitation for German colonies overseas. The Steamship Subsidy Act of 1885 had been the occasion of the first public outburst of enthusiasm for African colonization and manifestation of hostility toward England which seemed to be seeking to save most of Africa for herself. Considerable resentment was provoked by the Anglo-German Treaty of 1890 by which Germany recognized a British protectorate over Zanzibar and Pemba and received Heligoland in exchange. T o colonial enthusiasts, the gain of a temporary advantage

hagarde and Germany after i8pi

269

in better relations with England was small comfort for the permanent sacrifice of German interests in an important area of Africa. Taking advantage of this adverse public reaction, Karl Peters, African explorer and publicist, in cooperation with others, founded the Allgeineiner Deutscher Verband in 1890 which became the Alldeutscher Verband or Pan-German League in 1894. Colonial interests by no means remained the exclusive concern of the League. Especially, after the election of Emst Haase as president in 1894, the League developed a variety of interests in Deutschtum along a broad political and cultural front. Indeed, the League strove in these years to awaken the Germans from what one of its invitations to membership called the "slumbering . . . of the powerful enthusiasm of the year 1870 which had enflamed the Germans to heroic deeds." It is not difficult to see the value of the Deutsche Schriften for this purpose." That Lagarde was a fertile source of ideas for the League was made abundantly clear by the League's official history, Otto Bonhard's Geschichte des Alldeutschen Verbandes. The prominent position which Lagarde was given in this book was exceeded only by a few men such as Dr. Haase who had been intimately connected with the development of the League. Lagarde received about the same amount of attention as Treitschke and far more than such figures as Friederich List, Constantin Frantz, or Langbehn. Nearly every issue which the League agitated, except for overseas colonization, Bonhard felt impelled to discuss in the light of Lagarde's ideas and influence. He pointed to Lagarde as an inspiration for the League's espousal of the whole nation and its consequent zeal against partisan disunity. He identified Lagarde with the group consisting also of Friedrich List, Wilhelm Roscher, and Field Marshal Moltke, which

270

Paul de Lagar de

had perceived the necessity for German penetration and organization of southeast Europe. Dr. Haase, Bonhard wrote, merely took up this line of thought and made it the Pan-German viewpoint. Particularly, Bonhard asserted, the League's campaign to estabUsh German emigrants in the east and southeast followed from Lagarde's colonial ideas, and the League's argument, that such colonies would develop a stronger sense of Deutschtum and form indissoluble bonds with the mother country, was Lagarde's. His Middle European ideas led Bonhard to place him in a key position in that ascending hierarchy of Treitschke who represented kleindeutsche; Lagarde, grossdeutsche; and Haase, alldeutsche thought." In the struggle against French egalitarian democracy and modern flaccid liberalism, Bonhard held, the League had little to do but purvey the ideas of Lagarde and others on these subjects. He equated Stein, Arndt, and Fichte to Bismarck, Dahn, and Lagarde—the statesman, poet, and idealist of the Liberation—to their counterparts in another age striving for German freedom and unity. Lagarde, like Fichte, did "the quiet preparatory work of the intellectual hero," and Lagarde was the hero par excellence of the PanGerman League. Anna de Lagarde taking, as Bonhard believed, the course her husband would have followed had he lived, became a "true patroness" and "enthusiastic supporter" of the League, and her death in 1918 was described as a great loss to the League.^" Nor was Lagarde a prophet without honor in his own town. On December 15, 1897, the Göttingen chapter of the Pan-German League held a memorial celebration in honor of Lagarde. The president, Major Lehrmann, asserted that "the Pan-German League has been built on the principles and teachings of Paul de Lagarde, and it is our duty

Lagarde and Germany after i8pi

271

not to forget this great champion." Quite generally Lagarde's name was associated with the Pan-German Movement and, indeed, Naumann, without qualification, called Lagarde the "leader of the Pan-Germans." ^^ The ample pamphlet literature of the League reflects many of Lagarde's Middle European ideas. A supplement to the Allgemeine Deutsche Blätter in 1903 virtually restated Lagarde's ideas. Another tract argued that Lagarde's Middle European ideas made him one of our "best economists" and, accordingly, that it was the League's duty to see the realization of his ideas. Even those League exponents of German colonization in Turkey, a project that far surpassed Lagarde's aims, held that Lagarde's argument, that colonization was the key to reawakening national selfconsciousness, applied as well, and better, to colonial enterprises in the Levant.^^ Interest in Middle Europe was by no means limited to the Pan-German League. From the nineties, an increasing flow of literature agitating this question appeared and reached maximum proportions during the First World War. Much of this literature betrays Lagarde's influence. Not infrequently his contributions to the Middle European idea were specifically acknowledged. This was especially true during the war. The Magdeburgische "Zeitung followed Die Tat in publishing selections from Lagarde as a means of supporting expansion of Germany, particularly to the southeast. Lagarde's friend and protégé, Franz von Liszt, contributed a number on Middle Europe to the war-time series, Zwischen Krieg und Frieden, and in this essay he showed how faithful he had remained to Lagarde's ideas. Nearly all of Lagarde's basic arguments for a Germanized Middle Europe—a makeweight against Russia, economic viability, resettlement to prevent the loss of Germans over-

272

Paul de

hagarde

seas, a completion of the work of Bismarck, a source of unity and idealism for the German people—are reproduced in Karl von Winterstetten's (pseudonym, Albert Ritter) Das politische Frogramm des Krieges. Lagarde, Winterstetten wrote, was among those who "showed the way of a truly German Weltpolitik" and whose ideas are "the safest guide for our future." In a book-length study published in 1917, Jacques Stern assigned a major role to Lagarde as a bearer of the Middle European idea. Stern conceived the Middle European ideas as a part of German intellectual history. Walther von der Vogelweide had imagined a broad German empire the peculiar locus for "a noble mankind." Leibnitz had proposed a greater German federation for the well-being and peace of Europe. Following this idealistic tradition and impelled by growing mistrust of Russia and increasing concern over the economic viability of the German nation, four pioneers —List, Frantz, Christian Planck, and Lagarde—showed the way their countrymen should follow. Of these, Stern finds Lagarde alone was really "Pan-Germanic," that is, emphasized the need for the ascendancy of German culture in the Middle European area to the exclusion of other cultures and held this nationalistic ideal at least as important an objective as the economic.^* A consideration of Lagarde and subsequent Middle European thought quite naturally leads to the question of the relation of Lagarde and Friederich Naumann, chief pillar of Middle European thought during the war years. In some essential aspects of their social and political thought Lagarde and Naumann were far apart. In Demokratie und Kaisertum, where Naumann most systematically developed his political thought, points of divergence with Lagarde appear on page after page. History seemed to Naumann as a se-

hagarde and Germany

after i8pi

273

quence of upheavals where power determined the survivor. Therefore, "historical right, as long as the world has existed, has belonged only to the stronger." There is no question of doing violence to history by revolutionary changes, rather history is constituted by these changes. H e did not find the organic conception of history meaningful. T o Naumann, therefore, liberalism did not appear as quite such an outrageous travesty of German history as it had to Lagarde. Indeed, Naumann wrote that the generation or two of liberalism in the early part of the nineteenth century had given a great moral uplift to the German people, inspired them toward unity and awakened the marvellous productive energy they had displayed in the last half of the century. A n even more remarkable divergence was Naumann's acceptance of the industrial, imperial, military complex of the Bismarckian Reich, and his hope that upon this base and with a genuine democratization a new German culture based upon national strength and social justice would arise. But despite these important points of difference Naumann's major thesis would have been clearly understood by Lagarde. Demokratie und Kaisertum, folk and emperor, Naumann held, have in recent German history gained prestige and position at the expense of the feudatories and bourgeoisie because each has reinforced the other. T h e future of Germany depends upon monarch and people retreating from the extremes of divine-right absolutism on the one hand and radical social democracy on the other and joining together. This is a concept clearly akin to Lagarde's dream of a "royally minded folk" closely articulated with its king, presenting a phalanx against factionalism and division for the greater welfare of each and the greater glory of the nation.^®

274

^^ Lagarde

Naumann, moreover, possessed a romantic Germanism which related him to Lagarde and quite possibly was stimulated by Lagarde. Early in the eighteen-nineties, Naumann began to display a decided attachment to the Volksleben.^^ At this very time, under rather idyllic circumstances at Allgaii on the Freibergsee, he first read Lagarde's Deutsche Schriften. Twenty years later he wrote of this experience: "Everything is still clearly before me. The massive mountain, the closeness of the clear, deep water, the view out onto the green slopes with their grazing herds—and, with all the rest, this worthy preacher of a German rebirth out of the depth of the Volksseele.^'' He seemed, Naumann wrote, "a strongly honorable chap. I liked him very much." To understand Nietzsche, he held, one must know Lagarde.^·^ Whatever the force of the stimulation of the Deutsche Schriften, Naumann reechoed many of its ideas. He was convinced that Germany needed a rebirth, a new "political ethos." His liberalism was not atomistic in the French democratic tradition, but resembled the German "community way of thinking." His politics was "folk-politics" not "working class politics," his faith was in the monarch not the Reichstag. Like Lagarde, he was suspicious of party extremes and wished his group to be considered neither right nor left. Not party or class struggle but to instill "a sense of the Fatherland in the people" was his political principle.^® In his ultimate religious position he came close to Lagarde. Naumann regarded not the church, but the folk as "an instrument to achieve moral depth and the progress of human society toward inner development and truth" and, indeed, to help achieve God's kingdom. His Christology, like Lagarde's, sought to remove the Master from His re-

Lagarde and Germany after 18pi

275

mote ecclesiastical position and to bring Him and His Gospel message once again amongst men. For man is not merely a political or economic animal but (and here he uses virtually Lagarde's language) "he is the one living soul, w^ho possesses, by virtue of his peculiarity, eternal value." Geist as vi^eU as bread is, therefore, an essential consideration in the national social problem.^' Naumann did not hold that Christianity could be made a Volksreligion. But then, neither did Lagarde. Lagarde wanted the Spirit of Jesus—^His sterness, compassionate love, His teaching of striving for the Kingdom, and of brotherly harmony and oneness—this Spirit and message, latent in the German folk, to come to the surface again. Naumann's position was not dissimilar. Jesus is the great Volksman. Above all His spirit is fundamentally a part of the German Gemüt. "Through Him [Jesus] can German life again become sound. The health of the folk is in His hands." With respect to the one greatest common interest. Middle Europe, the two men diverged rather widely, and Naumann acknowledged no debt to Lagarde. Naumann's Central Europe surveys in over three hundred pages the possibility and desirability of a Central European unity without once explicitly mentioning Lagarde except in the bibliography. Both could agree that a unified Middle Europe was a necessity in order: ( i ) to assure the military security of the peoples of the area in an age of power politics, and (2) to gain economic self-sufficiency. But the kind of Middle Europe which each wanted was quite different. Lagarde envisioned basically a greater German nation, a wider land area for German colonization and resettlement, a larger body for the German soul, in a word, the Germanization of the Balkans. Naumann was thinking of a Balkan federa-

276

Paul de Lagarde

don, a joint enterprise for prosperity and security. For Lagarde, Czech, Hungarian, and Jew were obstacles to be removed. Naumann wished to "stretch the hand of fellowship from the North to the South to all who will march with us to our goal." Far from wishing to eliminate the Central European Jews, Naumann discussed ways of winning what he conceived as their powerful support in promoting the idea of a Middle Europe.®"^ Lagarde, in the romantic vein, thought in terms of the revival of the solidarity of the medieval empire, a completion of the work of national unity only partially carried out by Bismarck. Naumann, while respectfully treating the old empire and the national movement in the nineteenth century, held that the national idea had, in a constructive political sense at least, run its course. The new Central Europe must forget ancient antagonisms. Constitutionally, neither Lagarde nor Naumann wanted a highly centralized state. However, Lagarde did want political unity under a dual German monarchy and ultimately under the line of the survivor, either Hapsburg or HohenzoUern. He came to think of the state governments as the incarnation of evil and saw no reason for any intervening government between empire and the local estates. Naumann, however, wished to retain the position of all member states and merely wished an agency through which they could achieve joint and unified action. Clearly Lagarde's inspiration did not lead Naumann to accept his specifications. Currents of Religious Thought By the turn of the century the winter of materialism was pretty well over, and Germans were seeking fresh, if not always orthodox, sources of religious experience. Above all,

La garde and Germany aper iSpi

277

religious inspiration was sought in the idealism of Eucken, in a new Pietist Gemeinschaf tsbewegung, and in a renewed interest in the spiritual character of the nation. The latter two obviously were related and defined themselves with increasing sharpness in terms of the old romantic postulate that "the secret of creation will be found connected with . . . the nation." Lagarde's writings obviously were well suited to support this trend. Indeed, Lagarde was looked upon by some with a kind of quasi-religious awe. He was called the "seer of our national culture," a "powerful spiritual personality," and the Deutsche Schriften was described as a "foundation stone in the future edifice of German glory." He was listed with "the patriots whom Providence has given to our folk in times of great crisis." He was hailed as a guide who could lead the Germans to the wondrous mystery of rebirth which comes to a folk when, after struggling tirelessly upward toward God, suddenly the day comes when "all darkness, outer struggle, inner doubt, all despair over one's power and worth fall away, and they stand in light and joy and jubilation." ®® More specific consideration of Lagarde's national religion and the possibility of its realization commenced on the eve of the war. In 1913 an article gave Lagarde the significant role of "an apostle of a German religion." The next year the prominent Evangelical weekly. Die Wartburg, appealed for a German religion in Lagarde's sense. In 1916, Lagarde and his ideas for a national religion received important recognition when he was included in the series Klassiker der Religion, which contained such illustrious names as Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, and Kierkegaard. This work was unequivocal in its judgment on Lagarde's place in a German religion. "He has spoken of God and eternity

278

Paul de Lagar de

with a new tongue . . . He belongs to the German prophets." T o some, his national religion seemed to be the way to the future, the true association of Gospel and idealism, and the one basis for the reconstruction of German life.^^ Whether or not it is an exaggeration to remark as does one observer of German life and letters that "Lagarde has set religion in motion in the twentieth century," it is clear that his ideas have impinged upon a number of religious thinkers. A comparative analysis of Lagarde's ideas with those of the Die Tat group and of the theologians Friedrich Gogarten and Ernst Troeltsch is suggestive.®® The circle of Die Tat, first published in 1909, gave much attention to a dynamic and nationalistic interpretation of Christianity, and Lagarde's ideas were not overlooked. Typical titles of articles published in Die Tat suggest the affinity for Lagardian theology—"The Prophet and the People," "Religion and Nation," "Religion—German Weapon," etc. Allusions to Lagarde and his ideas occur in these and similar essays. Especial attention was given to his Pauline and Gospel theories. An important article in 1914 analyzed his general religious position, and selections from his works together with his picture were published.^® The articles of the associate editors, August and Ernst Homeffer, are extremely suggestive. Like Lagarde they felt the power of the words of Jesus, when the words were taken in their natural and "human" sense, as an inspiration to overcome the barriers to the rise of the Kingdom in this world amongst men and nations. They bemoaned the foreign religious inspiration so pronounced in Germany. The people need and want "to do things according to their own religious and moral instincts." The nation is the foundation of religious experience. Through it the soul is elevated and expressed. "If our people wish to raise themselves to a free

hagarde and Germany after

279

and pure religious experience, to find their own true and inimitable religious and moral character, they must harken to the views of their national prophets, who, in place of the prophets of old, show the people their soul." The Homeffers, like Lagarde, drew the conclusion that rebirth through the national spirit must be accompanied by a consonant social and political reform. Only through rebirth and Sozialpolitik, they held, can come the rejuvenation and preservation of "the good Volk" ®® Friedrich Gogarten is one of the most notable theologians Germany has produced in the twentieth century. As one of the founders of the dialectical theology he has helped develop a speculative theological position rather remote from the historicism of Lagarde.®® Yet, Gogarten's works reveal considerable interest in Lagarde and offer at least a strong suggestion that Lagarde's ideas were not without significance for the dialectical theology. Gogarten launched one of his earliest works. Religion und Volkstum, in war-time Germany under the auspices of Die Tat. It is this work which best suggests his connection with Lagarde, and one critic holds that it was deeply under the influence of Fichte and Lagarde.^® Reminiscent of Lagarde, Gogarten laid down the two propositions that the German way depends upon a full and unhindered expression of "our inner strength" and that God reveals Himself to the German nation through its history. This is to say much what Lagarde said, namely, that the German nation has a soul, and so long as the nation is true to itself and expresses its spiritual nature it is expressing God's will. Exactly as Lagarde, Gogarten drew the conclusion that political and social organization which is foreign, which does not express the spirit of a people is evil and the condition of a sick society. Like Lagarde, he looked

28ο

Paul de Lagar de

upon the modern state and many of the institutions and practices of modern life with indigation, not alone because their this-worldly orientation violated the ancient piety, but because they had become ends in themselves and not expressions of the German spirit. In Gogarten's theology, at this stage, the essential opposition was not between God and creature, but between the divine as a force in the development of the nation and those forces which would impede or obstruct the expression of the divine. Lagarde, too, saw in this opposition the essence of good and evil, and here, to be sure, is an adumbration of the theological dialectic.^^ Of Lagarde's students at Göttingen, Ernst Troeltsch became one of the most eminent. A more refined and philosophically disciplined thinker than his old Göttingen teacher, Troeltsch found himself deeply under the inspiration of Lagarde. This inspiration he acknowledged in his dedication of his principal collection of essays. Zur ReItgiönsen Lage, Religionsphilosophie und Ethik, to Lagarde. Troeltsch expressly disclaimed any admiration for Lagarde's anti-Semitism, his underestimation of Luther and Protestantism, or for some of his schemes for social reconstruction. "But despite these things, the scope of his historical view, his historical and essentially non-speculative conception of religion, the strength and assurance of his religious feeling, his facility for seeing religion in terms of the conditions of life, his relation of religion to political affairs . . . all of this was extraordinarily stimulating to me." As a theologian Troeltsch stood less directly under the nebulous ideas and sentience of romanticism than Lagarde. Troeltsch faced more realistically the problems of the Church and sought to reestablish and reinvigorate Christianity. He could not help thinking of Lagarde as one rich in depth of feeling {Gemüt) and piety, but more nearly

Lagar de and Germany

aper

iS^i

281

"possessing a longing for religion than religion itself." In his philosophy of religion, however, Troeltsch adopted some of Lagarde's viewpoints and ideas. Like Lagarde, Troeltsch held that "religion is moving and alive, in each age recreated by God, an inward, personal, and individual thing. The Church on the other hand is fixed, always the same." He opposed rigid and abstract dogmas expressed apart from their meaning for particular times and places. He acknowledged that Lagarde's perception that the Kingdom developed through the flow of concrete events made Lagarde "one of the most stimulating and important, if somewhat unusual, theological thinkers." He accepted and followed Lagarde's teaching "that religion must not be regarded as a logically self-contained discipline but appreciated for the richness of its details." Nor was Troeltsch unmindful of Lagarde's conviction that the divine Spirit manifests itself through the Volk. Troeltsch wrote enthusiastically of the "powerfully expressive Deutsche Schriften" which had awakened the German people to an awareness of the divine element in their history. Troeltsch, accordingly, found as had Lagarde, that religion is an affair of the organic and living nation and not of the state. He agreed with "that outstanding conservative, Paul de Lagarde" that what is needed is a conservative movement which can depart from petty class politics and tum toward the conservation of the spiritual qualities in German life and toward the German "spiritual realm within, a realm free from the sway of force." He held as Lagarde and Schleiermacher that the individual can only express his moral and religious impulse in and through the community of the nation in an atmosphere of brotherhood and common striving.*^ These religious views were intimately related to

282

Paul de Lagar de

Troeltsch's social and cultural ideas which, in tum, resembled much in Lagarde. Troeltsch's essays on German life and culture have been collected and published under a title which quite neatly expresses their general thesis, Deutscher Geist und Westeuropa. Like Lagarde, Troeltsch saw in the "Deutscher Geist" a unique, precious, and, indeed, sacred heritage remarkably different from the "material and social atomism and the universal natural law of the west." The German spirit revolves around a "concept of individuality, a positive, moral, historical principle of divine origin, but also a concept of community organization." The social ideal for the Germans, then, is "not the combination of basically equal men in a rationally organized total society, but rather the expression of the fullness of the national spirit which in its struggle achieves high spiritual power and which is the mirror of God . . ." Here is a doctrine which Lagarde could not have disputed since it was toward this end that he hoped religion, politics, and education might tend. Troeltsch, like Lagarde, was not slow to indulge in the Xeitkritik implicit in his viewpoint. As Lagarde had protested that the Reichsgriindung had failed to elicit indwelling unity, so Troeltsch found that the Germans of the war years had not achieved spiritual unity even in the face of the common foe. The comparison of reality with his cultural ideal led him to a Lagardian denunciation of the tendencies of his time which betrayed "thoughtless pursuit of enjoyment, superstitious deification of money, hesitant skepticism." He saw the abstract, the artificial, and the divisive working against the "organic unity of life" of the individual and folk. He extolled in the face of their neglect ideals often valued by Lagarde—"living originality, freedom to develop individual sensitivity, disciphne [in the

Lagarde and Germany after i8pi

283

sense of duty]." He found that the Gymnasia must turn to teaching a humanism and culture based not on foreign or antique models but upon German history and tradition.^® Lagarde sought to save Germany from the consequences of victory and glory in the Franco-Prussian War. Troeltsch sought to save Germany from the consequences of defeat and despair in the First World War. Lagarde taught regeneration through spiritual and moral striving for God and nation. Troeltsch likevs^ise wished not for "quiet through God" but "struggle for God" and considered the salvation of the German spirit in the face of collapse and revolution as an expression of this religious obligation.^^ The Young Conservatives The movements, circles, and journals devoted to the cause of the national revival in the Weimar period are legion. The multitudinous outpouring thereby occasioned is in effect a vast commentary and elaboration of essentially Lagardian themes. Of course, Lagarde was not consciously on the minds of all those who indulged in this revivalism, nor was he the only possible inspiration. Yet, his name comes to the surface often enough that we may know that he was not forgotten by the generation whose fathers had hailed the Deutsche Schriften in the age of Bismarck. While Lagarde had reached, for the most part, only intellectuals in his time, the national revivalists of the twenties were being heard by the whole German nation. The Young Conservatives were certainly one of the most important and influential streams of Weimar nationalism. Though the term is used variously by different authors, it generally refers to those men who first came together in 1919 in the Juni Klub and later in the Herrenklub, and who aimed at the reconstruction of the Fatherland along con-

284

Рйм/ de Lagar de

servative and nationalist lines. T h e y wanted a medieval, authoritarian, corporate society and despised the parliamentary democracy of the Weimar constitution. They did not wish simply a return to Wilhelmine or Bismarckian times. They were inclined to regard the November Revolution as no revolution at all. T h e y saw it as a realignment of power but otherwise as a continuation of the liberal, acquisitive, leveling, philistine spirit which had possessed the Empire. Moeller van den Bruck was their principal fountain of ideas, although he was by no means an original thinker. Heinrich Freiherr von Gleichen was a leading and energetic member of both clubs. Othmar Spahn may be identified with this group, and so likewise, Edgar Jung. Jung carried on Moeller's work in the late twenties and even into the Nazi period when, unlike many men of the right, he distinguished conservative from Nazi ideas. In consequence, he fell victim to the purge of June 30, 1934. Lagarde's significance for Moeller and Jung give us a measure of his importance for the movement. B y the end of the First World War, Moeller had established some reputation as a literary and cultural historian, a translator of Dostoevsky, and the author of a remarkable book. Der Preussische Stil, which discovered and extolled a peculiarly Prussian culture. His importance for the Young Conservative Movement as it developed in the twenties stemmed primarily from his Das Dritte Reich published in 1923. In this book Moeller left no doubt that the nation must turn to its genuine conservatives, who, unfortunately, he found, have been left outside of politics. The nation must, he argued, rise up and follow after those who have been "little known, almost unattended or soon forgotten, from the early conservatives through Adam Müller to Paul de Lagarde and Langbehn." In reviving and preaching the true

hagarde and Germany

after 18^1

285

conservatism, Moeller, indeed, leaned very heavily upon Paul de Lagarde."® In Das Dritte Reich Moeller made a scathing criticism of Wilhelmine and Weimar politics and life much as the Deutsche Schriften had attacked Bismarck's Germany and the civilization of the midnineteenth century. W e are, Moeller protested, without any great "idea" on vs^hich to base our political life. Accordingly, we are left with the mechanically organized, uninspired and uninspiring political parties which are defined by cold and abstract "concepts." Our spiritual exhaustion following unification has made us particularly defenseless against foreign political ideas. Wilhelmine imperialism in no sense provided the great idea out of which spiritual rebirth might have come, for Wühelmine imperialism aimed solely at power and wealth. Like Lagarde before him, Moeller cried with the scorn of the prophet: "What kind of men had we become in this last age that preceded our collapse—rigid stuff shirts, dilettantes, insufficient moieties . . ." Even the Revolution of 1918 produced really nothing. N o great men appeared to awaken and lead the nation, nor did the Revolution give expression to any German ideas and ideals except possibly for the Communists whose zeal for the masses was akin to the idealism of Thomas Münzer and his disciples in the days of the Peasant Wars.^® Just as Lagarde had condemned the Revolutions of 1789 and 1848 as un-ideal and un-German, so Moeller rejected 1918 as no revolution at all and prophesied that the "true," the conservative revolution was yet to come. A revolution, Moeller held, is "a most peculiarly original affair" in the life of a nation. A genuine revolution is made by a nation in itself, through itself, and in pursuit of its own destiny. Never can it be an accommodation to foreign peoples or

286

Paul de hagarde

ideas. Like Lagarde, Moeller held that "our history has gone astray," but through a revolution we may put thmgs right again. Like Lagarde, he held that revolutions are not made by theorists or parties, but by new and reborn men. "This new revolutionary elite whom we await . . . has nothing to do with those of the past." It will lead us against our very selves.®" Lagarde wrote bitingly of liberalism, the gray international, as the bane of German life. Moeller's views and even phraseology are remarkably similar. Just as forcefully Moeller attacked the Social Democrats who had come to play a leading role in political life in the early days of the Republic. As the "democrats" of 1848 ("the LouisPhUlipists") had, in Lagarde's view, tried to deliver Germany to the enemy, the Social Democrats of 1918, in Moeller's view, had succeeded in doing just that. They had brought the victory of alien ideas, and, moreover, had given Germany into the rapacious hands of the men of Versailles.®^ What must the conservative revolution do? Certainly not promote a reactionary movement. Reactionaries have their horizons limited by their rights and interests and can perceive only political problems and can use only political means just as the other factions. Lagarde, similarly, had castigated the Conservative Party of his day. Almost exactly like Lagarde, Moeller held that to be conservative is to have the will to conserve what is most worth conserving in the life of the nation. The conservative judges worth from the standpoint of one who has purged his soul of partisan, materialistic, and ideological interests, as one cognizant of the nation's roots in the past, sensitive to what is valuable in the present life of the nation, and ready in light of this knowledge to prepare the way for the nation's future. This will mean rising up against much that is evil in the nation. This

hagarde and Germany after i8pi

287

is the meaning of Moeller's rhetorical question and answer. "Does the conservative idea lose its meaning by the revolution? No. It gains it back again." Edgar Jung was a young and enthusiastic member of the Herrenklub who came to Berlin fresh from active participation in the struggle against separatism in the Palatinate. He gained some recognition in 1927 with the publication of his Die Herrschaft der Minderivertigen which revealed traces of his old teacher, Pareto. The work which most closely identified him with the conservative revolution was his Sinndeutung der deutschen Revolution, a rather bold book in which Jung was not careful to interpret the revolution of 1933 along strictly Nazi lines. In this book the conservative, the "German" revolution, "the heritage of Lagarde and Nietzsche" as Jung called it, received one of its best brief treatments, and Jung revealed himself as a most faithful heir of this heritage. As Lagarde and Moeller, upon whom he also relied, Jung rejected the spirit of 1789 and the Philistinism of the liberal century which followed. Men, he argued, even as they have lost personal touch with the Divine, have deified the world around them. They have idolized civilization, progress, technology, welfare, and comfortable life, earthly power, and the state. It is against this liberalism of inferior values that the conservative revolution is directed, he asserted, and against nineteenth-century bourgeois nationalism, as well. For this nationalism had practical objectives, was without any spiritual "idea" and could not satisfy the hunger of the folk. The root of the evil was that in Bismarckian and Wilhelmine times the other Germany, the Germany of Bach, Kant, Goethe, had become separated from political power and action.®® As Lagarde and Moeller, Jung conceived the task of con-

288

Paul de Lagar de

servation to be a return to that which is living, to implement "the historically necessary revolutionary principle with which the liberal age will be dissolved." What specifically were the aims of the conservative revolution, "which belongs amid the most beautiful flowers of German spiritual life?" They are familiar ones, indeed, to the student of Lagarde. Jung would revamp the educational system that it might inculcate the ideal, construct a political and social order based on the estates and the aristocratic principle, promote a religious rebirth, foster the well-being and culture of the folk. The conservative must show the way toward these blessings, but, as Lagarde, Jung held that the folk will be the bearers of the revolution, for the nation is the eternal element and the medium through which history must work.®^ The Nazis The potential significance of Lagarde for National Socialism is obvious at first glance. Certainly, Lagarde-like ideas are commonplace in the writings of the Nazi theorists. Yet, their ideas are set in a different matrix. The style is harder and signs of the spiritual and ideal are dimmer. The warmth and humanity which emerged here and there in Lagarde are lacking. These Nazis are fanatics of soul as well as of mind. Their personalities frighten as much as their doctrines. Many of their most oft-reiterated themes are cast in a form which would be incomprehensible to Lagarde. How could Lagarde who confessed the Sermon on the Mount have understood the constant drumbeat "Nordic, Nordic, Nordic," or the irrational devotion to the Führer. Of the efforts to relate Lagarde to National Socialism none better shows the possibilities and pitfalls of such a comparison than the article of Arno Koselleck published

hagarde and Germany aper i8pi

289

three years after the advent of Hitler. Koselleck quite rightly saw Lagarde as an important witness to the unfolding self-consciousness of the folk and saw this self-consciousness as an important antecedent of National Socialism. He went beyond this, however; "A glance into the world of ideas in Lagarde shows surprising relations to the ideas and demands of National Socialism." Koselleck enumerated the ideas and demands which appeared to him to make Lagarde a Nazi prototype: anti-Semitism, desire for a German faith, emphasis on folk-organization, rejection of parliamentarism, and the necessity for an elite and for a new spiritual foundation, discipline, and leader. While one may grant that these ideas and demands may be predicated of both Lagarde and the Nazis, the question is whether the meaning is the same for one as for the other. The answer is clearly, no. Lagarde's anti-Semitism was not that of the Nazis, his religion not that of the Faith Movement, his doctrine of the folk wholly inconsistent with the Nazi organization of society, his rejection of parliamentarism certainly not an endorsement of party dictatorship, his concept of a rooted, benign aristocracy not an exhortation to fanaticism.®® Misunderstanding, often flagrant, misuse, often deliberate, and the tendency to single out Lagarde's more exaggerated figures of speech are characteristics of the Nazi writers from the pre-Nazi Houston Stewart Chamberlain, to the party "philosopher" Alfred Rosenberg, and the party theorists generally. In The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century Chamberlain called Lagarde "one of the most authoritative theologians of the nineteenth century." But it was Lagarde the anti-Semite and "thorough Teuton" whom he called upon to reinforce his own arguments. He cited Lagarde to prove that the spiritual conception of the

290

Paul de Lagar de

Messiah was Indo-European and not Jewish. He sought to show that Lagarde meant to apply his dictum that Germanism does not lie in the blood, but in the mind, only to a few individuals whose strong ideas may conquer blood. He sought thereby to salvage Lagarde as a racial antiSemite who recognized that essentially Teutonism is a matter of the difference in blood between the German nation and others, particularly the Jews. Aside from a few words of disapprobation of Lagarde's views on Luther, Chamberlain had not a word to offer on the whole complex and range of Lagarde's thought. Had he done so, he could hardly have failed to reveal that Lagarde's philosophy of history and conception of rebirth and revolution were quite distinct and irreconcilable with Chamberlain's racial materialism.®® Alfred Rosenberg, the leading theorist of the movement, gave conspicuous attention to Lagarde in his Der Mythus des 20 Jahrhunderts, a work which went through 122 reprintings. Lagarde undoubtedly was brought, thereby, though in rather distorted shape, to the attention of more persons than he had been by any other means. Der Mythus contains more references to Lagarde than to any other writer except Nietzsche. Many of Rosenberg's ideas are in form conspicuously Lagardian. He was well acquainted with the general character of Lagarde's ideas. He had written an essay on Lagarde for the Völkischer Beobachter, which had more or less accurately outHned the main drift of Lagarde's thought. In this essay Rosenberg dealt with Lagarde as the prophet of the folk, discussed his Zeitkritik, reviewed his major theological teachings, especially his Pauline criticism, and pointed to his doctrine of rebirth as a provocative challenge to all Germans.®'' In Der Mythus Rosenberg, like Lagarde, asserted a phi-

Lagarde and Germany ajter i8pi

291

losophy of history with its center in the nation. He saw development of the folk through faithfulness to its "commanding ideals." The state appeared to him as a mutable form whose value at any given moment depends upon its service to the nation. Indeed, the burden of his attack against the Weimar Republic was precisely that of Lagarde against the Empire, namely that "the authority of the folk ought to stand higher than that of the state." In 1933, Rosenberg held, the Revolution led to a realization of this principle. He placed his hope in Persönlichkeiten who will develop their potentialities without doctrinaire restraints and who wül, therefore, be free to acquire "the earth-rooted style of life of the folk" and hence will result in "a new German type improved in body and soul." ®® Rosenberg repeatedly called Lagarde into play in support of these ideas. He pointed to Lagarde's views on the nobility as suggestive of the function of an heroic leadership. He found that no religious message since Eckhart had so convincingly freed God from formality and offered Him to the German people. Lagarde was the great foe of "the whole bourgeois, capitalistic world and felt both a talent for and duty in service to his people." For all of this, Rosenberg's aim, as the reader soon discovers, was not that of Lagarde. Rosenberg sought to present the German people with a myth, the myth of blood. "Today a whole race begins to understand that anything of value and permanence can be created and maintained only where the law of blood stirs the ideas and deeds of men . . ." On the principle of blood history is to be interpreted, duty and morality defined, and the future course of the nation indicated. On this principle, the highest religious expression is to be founded. "The history of the race discovers . . . the mystery of the soul." ®®

292

Paul de Lagarde

Lagarde's conception of the nation as ideal and spiritual in essence is wholly incompatible with Rosenberg's material principle of blood. In view of his essay in the Völkischer Beobachter, we must assume that Rosenberg was aware of this. Certainly he made no effort expressly to relate his position to Lagarde's. His technique was rather to quote Lagarde, and leave the reader with the impression that Lagarde's meaning was that of Rosenberg. A t one point in Der Mythus Rosenberg concentrates on Lagarde for two consecutive pages, in the course of which fifteen unrelated and misleading quotations from Lagarde are offered. These quotations are taken from various Lagarde works, placed in curious juxtaposition, and followed by only several lines of inadequate exposition. H o w bitterly would Lagarde have rued the intemperance of his phraseology had he lived to see this work.®^ Generally speaking an intellectual gulf existed between Lagarde and the Nazi leaders and points of similarity are not bridges over this gulf. One can see in the writings of Robert Ley, leader of the labor front, social conceptions somewhat similar to Lagarde's. L e y held that each should have his place and do his duty, and that each is equal, if not in rank or reward, at least in worth, so long as he fulfills his duty to the limit of his capacity. Yet, the emphasis and objective were different for Ley. T h e nation fulfilling its God-given mission and the full expression of Persönlichkeit were not the ends in view, but rather a nation of soldiers doing their duty for Führer and Reich. Many Lagarde-like ideas appeared in the writings of Gottfried Feder, such as his animus against industry and doubt that it was a genuine source of prosperity, his enthusiasm for a "back to the land" movement, his hatred of "finance" or investment capital, and his conviction that this latter was a vicious device

hagarde

and Germany after

293

of the Jew to control the state and parasitically sustain himself. Yet, Feder's standpoint was that of the National Socialist economist rather than of a romantic nationalist reformer. The agrarianism of Walter Darre, Minister for Food and Agriculture, contained elements familiar to the reader of Lagarde, but Darré's Nordic peasant was a soldier, in peace as in war, who was compelled by his nature never to relinquish either sword or plow. Lagarde, too, beUeved in the noble peasant and deplored the corruption of the folk which had taken place since so many had withdrawn from the land. But Lagarde's vision did not detect in the plowman, shepherd, and reaper the form of the Prussian soldier, nor did he see in these simple folk the wül to war and to military discipline. Consider Hans Günther, the master architect of Nordic theory. How must Lagarde have treated this pseudo-anthropologist, who was so concerned with the physical details of his six races, and so sure of their psychological peculiarity. The student of Lagarde will indeed find some familiar questions discussed in the works of Günther—anti-Semitism, the corrupting influence of the city, the conviction that the West with its prevailing liberalism is in decline. Günther's standpoint, however, was not that of the moral idealist, but of the champion of the role and destiny of Nordic blood. Pan-Nordism is not a doctrine which rests on Geist und Gemüt. In comparing Lagarde's theological position with the religious extremism of the thirties, we have another means of measuring his difference from the Nazis and their times. Though the Nazis did not officially endorse the neoChristian, neopagan, or other Germanized religious sects, such currents of religious thought ran close to their ideological position. Expedience rather than conviction made them hold aloof. Lagarde undoubtedly was a stimulant to

294

de Lagar de

these movements. The increased interest in Lagarde in the thirties was particularly directed at his religious thought. As always, writers could find Lagardian aphorisms which could easily be interpreted to support their position. One foreign observer flatly considered Lagarde the principal precurser of a German religion and its exponents in the thirties as his disciples. Dreams of an Indo-Germanic neopaganism "were spread largely by Chamberlain and Paul de Lagarde" the same writer asserted.®^ If this writer meant that Lagarde wished to revive old German forms of worship, the assertion is absurd. Nowhere did Lagarde introduce the old Teutonic gods into his arguments except in a figure of speech and even these references are exceedingly few. Nowhere did Lagarde call for a revival of primitive ceremonies and rites. He was no antiquarian revivalist. Rather his eye was upon the present and future, and his meaning was not that old forms must necessarily be brought forward, but that the old German spirit and virtues must be projected into the present and future. He wanted the religious inspiration of the Gospel, not of Teutonic mythology, to become integrated with German Ufe. The writer in question designated Ludwig Fahrenkrog as a disciple of Lagarde. Like Lagarde, Fahrenkrog had a touch of the mystic and insisted on the "experiencing of the divinity" and on the peculiar facility of the Germans for doing this. There the resemblance ends. Fahrenkrog was scornful of "efforts toward a history" of God, whereas Lagarde zealously labored to achieve an ever more nearly precise and full knowledge of God through an historically oriented theology. Lagarde vigorously held to the evangelical concept of the being and majesty of God. The nation and its history became significant as the mode of revela-

Lagar de and Germany

after i8pi

295

tion of God to man. For Fahrenkrog and the neopagans, however, the nation became prime. T h e y taught that Spirit wells up out of the folk, and the crystallization of these spiritual sensibilities is the hierarchy of tribal gods. "As a folk is, so is its God"—not vice versa. If Lagarde proved an inspiration to neopagan circles, he was not thoroughly understood in those circles.®® Lagarde's ideas are to a certain extent reflected in the German Faith Movement founded in Eisenach in 1933. Its principal leader, William Hauer, pointed to Arndt and Lagarde, and to a certain extent to Neitzsche, as founders of a German religion. T o the extent that the Faith Movement held that "God had laid a great task on our nation, and that He has, therefore, revealed Himself specially in its history and will continue to do so," it might claim Lagarde as a predecessor. But the movement went beyond this. It was not merely neo-Christian, as were Lagarde's views, it was anti-Christian. Lagarde, while rejecting creeds and dogmas, could reconcile the Christian Kingdom and national history. He wished to Germanize rather than to reject the Gospel spirit and the Christian virtues.®^ The Faith Movement, though it did not revive the pagan gods, threw off Christian spirit as well as Christian dogmas and found its inspiration in the deification of the German Spirit. The new religion would create a new ritual and new sacraments revolving around such supposedly sacred moments as the reception of the child into the fellowship of family and tribe or marriage which leads to creation of new members of the national community. This new religion was a religion of blood. As such its members were bound by this substance, and its membership limited by the same substance. "But the conviction has driven itself home to me with more and more clearness, that race and religion, blood

296

Paul de Lagar de

and faith, are as intimately connected as race and law, blood and morality." ®® Lagarde could hardly have shared either the Nazi complacency toward neopaganism or the Nazi affinity for the German Faith Movement with its essentially un-Christian attachment to blood. His whole pattern of thought was knit together by a profound religious and moral sense. It was very literally a theology, a neo-Christian theology. National Socialism was not. Herein lies the irreconcilable difference between them.

CHAPTER

Vili

An Evaluation of Lagardé^ s Historical Role

^ 1 he preceding chapter has indicated that Lagarde's _L words and ideas were not left untouched but were taken up and made a part of the "conservative revolution" which commenced to flourish after 1890, This chapter evaluates the significance of Lagarde's thought for this revolution, particularly in comparison with the thought of Friedrich Nietzsche and Constantin Frantz. The conservative revolution has come to denote the men and movements which offered opposition, from the direction of the right, to the politics and culture of Wilhelmine Germany. Following the loss of the war and the success of the Revolution of 1918, the conservative revolution flowered anew in the days of the Republic. Many of the men and movements discussed in the preceding chapter belonged to this revolution. The revolution was opposed to the liberal and socialist movements and would extirpate whatever of the works and spirit of these movements had penetrated into German life. While not standing literally in defense of the traditional order, the revolution called for the rebirth of a "spirit" attuned to the values of the nation's heritage. T o clear the

2ç8

Paul de hagarde

way for this spirit, the revolution raised the sword against such alleged evils as the "philistine," the "bourgeois," and the "materialistic." The revolution sought to recreate the organic community of the nation, and saw the hand of God, or at least "fate," deeply involved in the life of the folk.^ In evaluating Lagarde as a source of the conservative revolution, we must first ask whether Lagarde was simply writing somewhat in advance of the crest of a growing wave of discontent, more articulate, more aroused than some, but essentially sensing the same needs, stirred by the same fears, and longing for the same rebirth as many of his countrymen. If so, his historical significance is that he was early in the field and that he made an initial contribution to the stockpile of thoughts, insights, and phrases to which men could turn when such wares came into more demand. That Lagarde was significant at least in this sense is clear. Standing in opposition to the reaction of the fifties in Prussia, Lagarde consciously thought and wrote as a radical conservative prophet to the German nation. In this spirit, he developed in his first three essays at midcentury a TLeitkritik which he found easy to extend to the Reich of 1871. It would be difficult to find in the fifties in Germany another voice which combined so many romantic and conservative sentiments with so wide a critique of German life and which spoke with such zeal for the nation. Frantz's important critical essay, Wiederherstellung Deutschland, was published only in 1864, and Nietzsche's critical works came after 1870. Lagarde was without doubt a pioneer in the literary history of the radical conservative spirit from which the conservative revolution developed. We must inquire further whether Lagarde was more than an early example or model for later writers and movements. Was his work more elemental? Was he himself in

Evaluation of Lagar de's Historical Role

299

any sense the great Destroyer, Stirrer, and Prophet for whom he called? In a word, was he responsible in any significant way for arousing the romantic rebellion, for provoking the mood of the men and movements which belong to the conservative revolution? Clearly this is a difficult question to which no simple and precise answer may be given. In seeking an answer we must inquire whether the direct evidence suggests that Lagarde's ideas may have been stimulating as well as useful. Furthermore, it will be instructive to compare Lagarde with the two other leading critics of the Bismarckian Empire— Nietzsche and Frantz—to determine whether Lagarde's views were importantly different from theirs or likely to have been more provocative of the sentiments of the conservative revolution. Finally, it will be useful to analyze the tendencies and structure of Lagarde's thought in terms of its potential appeal for this movement to the generations after 1890. The Direct

Evidence

The direct evidence bearing on Lagarde's influence and the penetration of his ideas into the consciousness of Germany has been presented in Chapters V I and VII. Obviously this evidence is suggestive rather than absolutely conclusive for the point under discussion. W e can only say for certain that Lagarde appealed strongly to a number of his contemporaries who read the Deutsche Schriften. Many of the letters now lying in the archives at Göttingen were written by men who were deeply moved. Among those who read the Deutsche Schriften were men who, taken collectively, were of unquestionably powerful influence— Tönnies, Langbehn, Paulsen, Naumann, Troeltsch, Schemann, Nietzsche, Hasse, and many others. These men did

Зоо

Paul de Lagar de

not cast their thought in a mold common to one another or to Lagarde. T h e y diverged widely among themselves and from Lagarde. Yet, each in his own way and style did purvey something of the essence of Lagarde, each was something of a prophet and a stirrer. Lagarde, Nietzsche, and Frantz Lagarde, Nietzsche, and Frantz had much in common. T h e y were the most severe and articulate critics of their time. Each stood apart from any of the conventional political standpoints. Each was concerned with the reconstruction of modern life in terms of moral considerations and not in light of the needs or interests of any particular class or party. Each in his Zeitkritik dealt with subjects treated by the others. But each differed from the others in the underlying ideas and tendencies of his thought. In these latter respects Lagarde appeared far more the harbinger and awakener of the conservative revolution than either Nietzsche or Frantz. Although Nietzsche was two decades younger than Lagarde, Nietzsche's writing was done primarily in the period 1870-1890, also the period of Lagarde's greatest activity as a political essayist. Nietzsche was struck down with madness two years before Lagarde's life and writing came to an end. Both Lagarde and Nietzsche were profoundly affected by the Germany which emerged in 1871 and became bitter critics thereof. It is not, therefore, surprising that their works should contain some similar themes and ideas, or that they should find similar targets for attack. The first three parts of Nietzsche's Unzeitgemässe Betrachtungen were published in 1873-1874 coincidentally with Lagarde's Politische Aufsätzen. Though remarkably different in style and argument, these works had much in

Evaluation of Lagarde^s Historical Role

301

common. As did Lagarde, Nietzsche ridiculed the pretension that the German culture of the time was superior. He deplored its heterogeneity and the German delight in juxtaposing bits and fragments gathered from the cultural experience of other peoples and times. True culture he defined as the "unity of artistic style" ^ rather than the promiscuous jumbling of styles which had resulted from the immensely productive but relatively useless labor of German scholars. The Germans, Nietzsche argued in a Lagardian vein, did not understand or appreciate the great spirit of the German past. The Philistines only made "cash payments to culture" with their banquets and societies honoring great men rather than pursuing truth in the spirit of these men. Lagarde shared these views exactly.® Nietzsche was appalled at the strength of the institutions in Germany which demanded conformity and at the willingness of individuals to fit into the required pattern. He found a "tendency to sloth" in men, a tendency to hide the fact that each man is "a marvelously picturesque piece of diversity." He would have each man boldly express his unique self. Lagarde, too, urged men to do what they must to realize their "individual personalities." With greater subtlety than Lagarde, but from a similar viewpoint, Nietzsche considered the fate of the individual in a system of general education. Should all the student's qualities be cultivated and brought into a harmonious relation, he asked? Was Cellini's father right in "continually forcing him back to the dear little horn" when his talent lay elsewhere? Or should not education rather guide the individual's growth according to his own genius? More bluntly, in the manner of Lagarde, he attacked the crazy heads and moldy devices "of the belauded Gymnasium" which did nothing for the individual. N o r did he, any

302

Paul de hagarde

more than Lagarde, spare the universities. German scholars, Nietzsche complained, did not educate a man to be a man; they "fall to their dish of knowledge," do not educate, but merely train their students "by that inhuman abstraction, science." ® Against the view scarcely uncommon in the Germany of the early seventies, that the state is the highest end of man and that a man's prime duty is to serve it, Nietzsche preached with the vehemence of Lagarde. Such a view, Nietzsche wrote, is not only "a relapse into paganism, but into stupidity." Certainly a higher duty than serving the state and conforming to its requirements, Nietzsche admonished, is the duty of destroying such stupidity. Moneymakers and militarists (Lagarde would say ministers and kings of the bourse) have the state in their hands and would make it an object of idolatry as the Church once was. Like Lagarde, Nietzsche wondered how, under such conditions, one could expect a genuine culture to flourish.® Nietzsche's attack on Christianity resembled in many points that of Lagarde's. In reading the Anti-Christ, one familiar with Lagarde's works cannot help surmising that Nietzsche borrowed more than a little from Lagarde's Uber das Verhältnis des deutschen Staates zu Theologie, Kirche und Religion which, as we know, Nietzsche had read with some enthusiasm. Nietzsche sharply distinguished Jesus, the man, from Christ as a theological concept. He felt some kinship for Jesus but believed that the spirit of the man was obscured by the concept of the Christ. Nietzsche denounced Paul as the corruptor of the Gospel and as a weakling who could neither observe Jewish law nor the evangelical injunction to resist not evil. Christianity, through Paul, developed dogmas of Christ as savior and a sacrificial ceremony as a substitute for Jesus' teaching of

Evaluation of Lagarde^s Historical Role

303

nonresistance, Nietzsche held. The Church, far from "resisting not evil," became the intolerant persecutor. Christianity, is, therefore, hypocrisy. The hypocrisy of Christians in his own time, Nietzsche felt, was even greater, for modern philological and historical scholarship had demonstrated the faulty foundations of much dogma. If Lagarde were not Nietzsche's only source for these ideas, he clearly was one. The similarity of Nietzsche's criticism to Lagarde's did not extend to the central ideas underlying their critical views. Their difference in viewpoint is suggested by the difference in their early experiences and interests. Lagarde's early years belonged to the thirties and forties when romantic conservative thought was still vigorous and in conflict with the French revolutionary liberalism of 1830 and 1848. Nietzsche grew up in the fifties and sixties in an age of realism and amidst the demands and realization of unification through Prussian power. The young Lagarde found his favorite authors among the romantics, and particularly Eichendorff and Grimm. Nietzsche remembered Plato's Symposium as his great early inspiration. The romantic poet, Heinrich Rückert, was Lagarde's most revered teacher and friend. Nietzsche faithfully followed the classical scholar, Friedrich Ritsehl to Leipzig. Lagarde's scholarly interests turned to oriental philology and religion, and the Hebrews became a perennial source of fascination and inspiration. Nietzsche's scholarly interests lay in classical philology and philosophy, and he learned much from the Greeks. Lagarde never escaped from the influence of romantic conservative and Christian values though he did not always espouse them in their traditional forms. Lagarde was within the conservative tradition and his radicalism was simply a

304

Paul de Lagar de

recognition of the dynamic element in a conservatism which rests on values rather than on some given and fixed political, ecclesiastical, or social establishment. Nietzsche not only did not stand in the romantic conservative and Christian tradition, but he stood against it. He stood against it not because it had become corrupt or degenerate but against it in its essence. Nothing is further from Lagarde than Nietzsche's conception of "the good" as laid down in the first chapter of the Genealogy of Morals. The good proceeds from the egocentric "aristocratic man, who conceives the root idea, 'good,' spontaneously, and, straight away, that is to say, out of himself." Good has nothing to do with the relations of one with others. This latter notion is the great fraud of the Jewish-Christian slave morality of the West, Nietzsche held. But Lagarde had written that morality and spiritual feeling exist only when two or more are together. All that is good comes from the experience of harmonious relations with others and the community, and especially the community of the nation which God has designed that these good things might be realized. Lagarde's purpose as a conservative was not to destroy traditional values but to restore, maintain, and perpetuate the historical life and order of the national community.·^ Lagarde's conservatism rested on a philosophy of history which was essentially different from Nietzsche's. Both men shared the "sense of history" which was so well developed among the Germans in the nineteenth century. Nietzsche sometimes reproached his fellow philosophers for lacking this sense and displayed in some of his aphorisms a fine feeling for historical events and figures. Nietzsche did not, however, share Lagarde's conception of history as revelation. Lagarde, throughout his writings.

Evaluation

of Lagarde^s Historical

Role

305

was forever directing attention to history as an incessant process of the unfolding of God's will. "God is not yet finished with His revelation." Men must strive endlessly to keep abreast of God's meaning for their time. They must see that the life and institutions of the present fit into the continuum of relations of God and man which has come down through the ages. Hence, Lagarde's insistence on studying the past to discover the totality of divine truth and meaning, and his approximation of his historical-philological investigations to theology. Nietzsche, on the other hand, emphasized the specific moment and the "higher truth" which comes in the exaltation of that moment. Wisdom, he wrote, lies with the "super-historical man . . . for whom the world is complete and fulfills itself in every single moment." There is no question of looking to history to see truth unfolding. History may have its uses and, indeed, it "is necessary to the man of conservative and reverent nature." Its necessity lies only "in the simple emotions of pleasure and content that it lends to the drab, rough, even painful circumstances of a nation's or individual's life." Nietzsche would have us limit our concern with history to these aesthetic interests rather than, as Lagarde, look to history as the source of truth.® Nietzsche could hardly have placed himself further from Lagarde than when he wrote: "An historical phenomenon, completely understood and reduced to an item of knowledge, is, in relation to the man who knows it, dead." ® Lagarde's great scholarly effort was to reduce the Septuagint and the story of the Hebrews and their God to a completely understood "item of knowledge." To accomplish this, he believed, would not be to produce something stillborn, but to offer a living part of God's truth as revealed to men.

зоб

Paul de Lagar de

Holding quite different views toward history, it is not surprising that Lagarde and Nietzsche should have been two quite different kinds of radicals. Nietzsche taught the revolution of the Übermensch (superman). If we follow what seems to be the most plausible interpretation of this term, then Ubermensch is not to be thought of as a superior specimen in a Darwinistic sense. He is superior in the sense of the Greek hero. He is the symbol of the repudiation of conformity to any norm, über in this interpretation is used as in the word überioindung (overcoming). "I teach you the Ubermensch" Zarathustra was made to say, "Man is something that should be overcome." Übermensch will be beyond the constraining force of the ideas, forms, and values which history has yielded. Ubermensch has discovered his will to power and therewith broken those fetters which encumber ordinary men. In an age of nihilism, of collapsing spiritual values ("God is dead," Nietzsche wrote), Ubermensch will know how to cast off the encrustations of a now lifeless past and to realize with his new values the essence of life and existence. The revolution of Übermensch is a thoroughly radical, not a conservative, revolution.^" In a striking passage Nietzsche states the catastrophic nature of his revolution. "One day there will be associated with my name the recollection of a crisis such as there never was on earth, a crisis of the deepest stress of conscience—a decision conjured up against all which had been until then believed, demanded, and considered holy. I am no man, I am dynamite." ^^ Lagarde's revolution, though sweeping, was conservative rather than nihilistic in spirit. Lagarde did not seek to destroy and transvalue but to restore. The key word which he used over and over again, was not Überwindung but Wiedergeburt (rebirth). He did not wish to destroy the

Evaluation of Lagarde^s Historical Role

307

Gospel, the sentiment for soil and folk, the old virtues, or the society of noble lords and sturdy peasants. His concern was not that the set of values associated w^ith these things was life-destroying, but that these values had been corrupted, He besought his fellow Germans to become "born again," born to a realization of the high spiritual purpose of the nation, born with the determination to redeem the divine heritage from the corruption of the present and to seek divine guidance for the future. Not by overcoming but by renewing and purifying their heritage could men find themselves and realize the meaning of their existence. W e must conclude that Nietzsche's thought can less readily be identified with the conservative revolution than Lagarde's. While attaching great importance to the individual, Nietzsche had little concern for the interdependence of individuals in the national community. Though he opposed liberalism and democracy, he did not accept the feeling for history and the traditional order which connects Lagarde with the early romantic conservatives and the later conservative revolutionists. Nietzsche's radicalism was not aimed simply at clearing the way for rebirth and renewal. It was a devastating radicalism that neither Lagarde nor the men of the conservative revolution could literally have accepted. Constantin Frantz and Lagarde had a wider range of common interests than did Nietzsche and Lagarde, since Frantz was more directly concerned with social and political questions than Nietzsche. Frantz's views in these matters are often quite similar to Lagarde's. Frantz's important political work, Die Wiederherstellung Deutschlands, contains much that is to be found in Lagarde's first three essays of the fifties. In this book Frantz scorned both

3o8

Paul de Lagarde

the reactionaries and the liberals, for he felt that the position of neither was based on sound historical and moral foundations. He castigated both for the artificiality of their doctrines, their class orientation, and their general lack of awareness of the great needs of the time. Much as Lagarde in his Theologie, Kirche und Religion, the definitive edition of which appeared about the same time, Frantz deplored narrow confessionalism and called for a resurgence of religious spirit in preparation for the reorganization of Germany. The Germany which Frantz envisioned was a federal Reich in which neither individual men nor tribes would lose their identity. A highly centralized and overreaching state was as much a thing of evil to Frantz as to Lagarde. Frantz besought the German princes and nobility to become functioning elements in an organic social hierarchy.^^ Frantz's brief, bitingly critical articles of the seventies are in some respects companion pieces to Lagarde's articles of Zeitkritik of the same period. Frantz attacked the "Roman spirit" of the new state. He castigated the shallow, vicious "phrase-making" press. He denounced the National Liberals and the National Liberal spirit which he saw everywhere in the Empire. He railed against the "reign of money" and its debilitating effect on the national life. He suggested, as did Lagarde, that the clerical ultramontanism, against which the Kulturkampf was directed, was less a betrayal of German tradition than the activities of the state and stock exchange.^® Significantly different patterns of thought gave the two men rather different conceptions of religion, nation, and revolution, however. A key to this difference is that Frantz was not conspicuously under romantic influence. Frantz, who was ten years older than Lagarde, was born and

Evaluation of Lagarde^s Historical Role

309

brought up at a time when romantic ideas were strong, but his education and early experience were unlike Lagarde's and less suited to stimulating an enduring attachment to the romantic viewpoint. His father retained much of the rationalist position of the eighteenth century. Frantz's interests at the university were mostly in the fields of philosophy and mathematics. Quite the opposite of Lagarde, he was attracted to the Hegelian philosophy which owed more to the Enlightenment than to romanticism. His education completed, Frantz entered the service of the Prussian state and wrote in the interests of the ministry. Thus, Frantz came to develop a more rational and realistic approach to the problems of his time than did Lagarde, a difference that is immediately striking in their style of writing and manner of argument. Frantz wrote with the persuasiveness of the reformer, Lagarde with the zeal of the prophet. Frantz did not hold Lagarde's romantic philosophy of history or the ideas of nation or religion implied by this philosophy of history. T o be sure, Frantz had a strong sense of history which appeared in his early philosophical work, Grundzüge des wahren und wirklichen absoluten ldealis?ms (1843). He believed that strong and viable institutions were the products of historical development. He did not perform any apotheosis of history, however. He did not conceive the German nation, as the ancient Hebrews had conceived theirs, as a peculiar instrument of God's word, nor did he place any sacred value on the institutions or culture of the nation.^^ Frantz was a Christian in a more conventional sense than Lagarde and, as such, Frantz understood that God's will and laws were not designed to be applied in a special way to any particular national group. Lagarde had attacked the National Liberals because they would alter some national

3IO

Paul de Lagar de

institutions in accordance with the principles and practices of international liberalism without particular scruple as to the God-given national character of these institutions. Frantz, on the other hand, reproached the National Liberals for replacing the religion of the Gospels with the worship of such idols as national power and greatness. While Frantz, like Lagarde, considered the existing confessions as onesided and appealed for a superconfessional church, he did not seek a unified church in the service of a national religion. Rather, he envisioned a federally organized church through which the several confessions cooperatively could teach and uphold Christian principles for all mankind.^® The measure of the distance between Lagarde, the romantic nationalist, and Frantz, the more conventional political realist, may be taken from Fantz's interesting Drei und dreìssig Sätze vom Deutschen Bunde. In this work Frantz made clear that he was not seeking a radical nationalist revolution. Indeed, he expressly cautioned against it. He believed that the Germans already had too many fantasies in their political thinking, too many "inspirations of the heart." He viewed Germany's problems as too real and demanding to be clouded by the myths of romantic nationalism. Let us not ask, "how it is possible to lead the German nation to unity," but rather, "how it is possible to unite Austria, Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria, etc." Frantz was not concerned with what Lagarde would call "ethos" so much as the practical task of forging a Germany which could offer the basis for European peace and stability. He stood in the tradition of Leibnitz and Kant rather than Arndt, the Grimms, and Lagarde.^® Although some of Frantz's many essays sounded nationalistic notes, his most noted work, Der Föderalismus (1879) was a fairly realistic and convincing appeal for a German

Evaluation of Lagarde^s Historical Role

311

and Middle European order which would have universal meaning. In this work Frantz called for a federal Reich rather than a centralized state. He did not intend this Reich to be a closed society. Neither geography nor morality would permit this. On the one side, he wrote, the Reich will bring together the "independent" German states whose people will be left in possession of their local rights and customs. On the other side, the Reich will be toward Europe. Since no state will lose its identity by associating with the Reich, others will naturally and easily join—Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, and some of the peoples of southeastern Europe. The harmonious alignment of so many people will be a formidable military power, he believed, and hence a source of stability for Europe. Eventually it would become, he hoped, a nucleus for the federation of all people. Frantz conceived such an international structure not as a universal state but as a "league of peoples." Its principles could not be those of national life but must be based on the Christian conception of the original unity of mankind and the reunification of the divided nations. Federalism, thus, would become the worldly side of Christianity.^^ Frantz was not a radical conservative. He was not essentially trying to conserve, purify, and prepare the German spirit for a new revelation of the divine will. He was a keen observer of the needs and dangers of nineteenth-century Germany and Europe and offered a reasoned solution thereto. His call significantly was not for Wiedergeburt but Wiederherstellung (a repairing or adjustment)—that is, a task which can be carried out by labor and planning, and which does not require a spiritual transformation shaking man and his society to the foundation. Frantz has been regarded by some as an important forebear of the postSecond World War movement of "good Europeanism" just

312

Paul de Lagar de

as Lagarde has been classed as a forebear of pan-Germanism. In each case qualifications must be made, yet something of the difference between the two is suggested by the difference in these two movements. Lagarde's radical conservatism with its emphasis on the rebirth of the national community in continuity with the nation's history seems to be much closer to the substance of the conservative revolution than the thought of either Nietzsche or Frantz. Neither Nietzsche nor Frantz gave the national community so central a place in his thought. Neither saw God unfolding His will in the nation's history nor molded his Zeitkritik into a national religion. Nietzsche was not in the conservative tradition, and Frantz, though holding some conservative ideas, developed them in a universal and cosmopolitan context, strange alike to Lagarde and the conservative revolution. Nietzsche attacked not only the evils of his time but many of the traditional values of Western civilization. A Nietzschean revolution could hardly have introduced an order in continuity with the past. Frantz was a reformer bent on creating a Europe in which Christian ideals might be realized and in which, because of its federal nature, national cultures might be preserved. But this was not the national revolution for which a Lagarde or a Moeller van den Bruck called. To show that Lagarde's thought in substance and spirit seems to be closer to the conservative revolution than that of Nietzsche and Frantz is, of course, not to demonstrate conclusively that Lagarde was a more important influence on this movement. Innumerable words and ideas in Nietzsche and Frantz, particularly when taken out of context, could have and must have helped to stimulate the revolution. So provocative a writer as Nietzsche could hardly have failed to be a source for many different groups dis-

Evaluation of Lagarde's Historical Role

313

turbed over the status quo. One needs only a slight acquaintance with twentieth-century literature to realize how widely and variously his works and ideas have been used. It may, then, be impossible to establish exactly by these internal arguments the relative significance for the conservative revolution of these three prominent critics of the days of the Bismarckian Empire. Yet, it does not seem amiss to conclude from this analysis that Lagarde's inspiration on this movement was profound. The Appeal of Lagarde's Thought Turning now to the third and last line of inquiry posed at the beginning of the chapter, we may now ask whether the structure and form of Lagarde's thought possessed any elements which might make it particularly appealing to the generation or two which followed him. Did his thought, that is, take that shape, or was it endowed with those tonal and harmonic qualities which might be expected, sooner or later, to strike upon the eye and ear of the broad masses of the German nation in an age of mounting crisis? To have such an appeal, a line of thought seemingly must possess two characteristics. First, it must contain something of the familiar, some of the ideas and sentiments more or less ingrained into the mind and soul of a people, and which a people can sense, if only vaguely, as a part of their Hfe and history. Second, if it is to speak a compelling word it must be turned to the moment of the present and shaped to fit the configurations of thought and feeling which exist, at least embryonically, in that moment. Especially, in a time of crisis or impending uncertainties, will a voice like this be heard, for it combines the reassurance of the familiar with the hope that a way is at hand to master the future. Lagarde's thought seems to fit the first of these specifica-

314

Paul de Lagar de

tions. His thought reflected his life as a child of the nineteenth century and of the romantic tradition which was its common heritage, and he possessed many of the characteristics of a typical nineteenth-century German. He shared the penchant and passion of his contemporaries for history as the most meaningful road to knowledge and truth. His life coincided with the harshest phase of the clash between modern science and rationalism, and traditional religion, and as for so many others, this clash was a personal crisis for Lagarde. He, too, was profoundly moved, as we have seen, by the spirit of nationalism which so powerfully affected the course of events. While a conservative in his peculiar way, he was by no means untouched by the powerful current of nineteenth-century liberalism. From his revulsion at the Process Waldeck to his last strictures against the German Conservative Party, from his anti-statism to his dislike of the Social Democrats, Lagarde was acting the part of a liberal. In turning from Hegel and speculative thought generally, in seeking to reform and rebuild a nation, in conceiving of his scholarly work, even in its most remote meanderings, as politically significant, Lagarde, as Stahl and Ranke, was in the drift of midcentury realism. Lagarde, then, in his life and thought, was no stranger to his century, far less a stranger than he sometimes felt himself to be, less a stranger than Nietzsche who trans-valued rather than re-valued. Lagarde's thought, too, seems to fit the second of our specifications. He combined his ideas into forms and employed expressions which struck the mind of the later nineteenth century with peculiar force. In particular, modern man's demands for the myth, activism, the eschatological and the heroic may be found plainly in Lagarde. In the recent history of the Western mind, the term

Evaluation of Lagardé's Historical Role

315

myth has come to connote an idea or plan of action which, unlike a utopia, has no good basis in reason, history, or morality, or only incidentally so. A myth is, rather, designed, like a goad, to produce action or, like certain drugs, to stimulate the enthusiasm and passion. Lagarde's myth was the myth of the nation, not the myth of the nation as race, or as power, military or commercial, but the myth of the nation as religious community. This idea as we have seen was complex. It contained the passion for religious experience evident in the mystics, in Schleiermacher, and in the pietists. It followed the devotion to the nation and the religious connotation given to national feeling by Herder, the romantics, the sentiment of the Liberationszeit, and of the Christian Germans. It invoked historicism, the conviction that truth comes in and through history and, specifically, the idea that the nation is the peculiar vehicle for the unfolding of truth as it emanates from the divine. It required the use of the higher criticism and of science as a means of discovering the true revelation in order that the national community would not be wallowing in error. In binding these notions together, Lagarde created a myth in precisely the modern sense of the term. The nation as a religious community, in Lagarde's complex sense, was less a Utopia, a theoretically possible goal, than a stimulus to the imagination. It was the call of the trumpet to heed rather than a blueprint to follow. Modem man has displayed a remarkable penchant for action. T o some extent action has become a substitute for ratiocination as reason has fallen into comparative disrepute. Perhaps, the psychologists can relate modern activism to the remarkable modern means of locomotion. T o those who sensed an urge to act, Lagarde could hardly have failed to be provocative. His works possessed an inflammatory and

3i6

Faul de Lagar de

inciting quality of style and expression. His words had that bold and unqualified character which can more readily stir action than meditation. He prescribed change by "elemental bursts of energy," an excellent formula for precipitous movement. He added, too, a moral note meaningful to those who were seeking not alone the exhilaration of physical strife, but who felt called to give of themselves for some greater cause and purpose. For Lagarde lauded not the Church's sophists but her martyrs. Eschatological thought and literature have been commonplace in certain periods of Western history, but except for a few fringe groups, not a pervasive interest throughout much of the nineteenth century. However, rapid and fundamental changes were provoking profound apprehension and anxiety over the outcome thereof. In these circumstances a tendency arose to foresee and foretell what appeared to be a momentous fate for European man. Lagarde's writings, as we have seen, abounded in this kind of eschatology. His eschatological pronouncements were somewhat hypothetical. He left no doubt, barring a successful assault on the corruption of the century, that the German people were headed straight for the abyss of chaos and annihilation. This was a terrible message which could not easily be overlooked. Should, however, such an assault be successful, should the "new dawn" which Lagarde sometimes discerned through the mists of his pessimism really break through, then the German nation must come to quite a different end. Then, Lagarde asserted, the struggle of the German people would end not in the abyss of nothing, but in the heavens of eternal glory, where the German nation would finally realize the aspirations which God had long harbored for it. To this latter end, Lagarde devoted his life and work. He was as he called himself, a "conspirator of the future." He

Evaluation of Lagarde's Historical Role

317

besought his countrymen to bring the German nation, finally, to its hour of glory. Every age has its heroes, but only in an age or moment of crisis arises a widespread sense of the need for heroic action. As early as the midcentury Heinrich Leo had called for a charismatic leader. Cromwell became a much admired figure in Germany, not simply as a military genius, but as the heroic leader. If references to the heroic stature of Charlemagne, Barbarossa, and Frederick the Great were plotted, the graph would show a steady upswing through the latter years of the century. Lagarde keenly sensed this need, and his thought at many points was turned toward the evocation of the heroic. His concern was not alone in discovering the heroic leader, but in engendering a society of heroes. In his philosophy of society, he taught that ideally each individual is at the apex of the social pyramid. In his philosophy of education, he taught that the individual must be allowed to reach out to the "du" in the world about him, to those things with which, because of his pecuhar nature, he may establish intimate personal relations as with a friend. A nation. Lagarde held, is a community of men educated in this way. The individual, elevated to this high pinnacle, the individual whose unique nature is so valued, cannot be of common clay. He has the potential of the hero. But he must actually become a hero. He is not a man apart. He is bound by a thousand links with his nation and its destiny. That the individual must struggle, must give relentlessly of himself to heroic proportions, is an imperative of Lagarde's thought.

In coming finally to appraise Lagarde's historical role several facts are clear. Lagarde was a pioneer radical con-

3i8

Paul de

hagarde

servative in the midnineteenth century. In Bismarckian Germany other voices of protest, notably those of Nietzsche and Frantz, joined with his. However, the ideas underlying Lagarde's "Leitkritik were closer to the spirit of the conservative revolution than were the ideas of either of the others. Thus, for nearly four decades before 1890 Lagarde was a rather unique source and inspiration for the conservative revolution. His thought, moreover, possessed characteristics which made it particularly meaningful to many who lived in the intellectual climate of the Wilhelmine and postwar period. In light of these facts and in light of our knowledge that Lagarde's works were known and used by the leaders of the conservative revolution, the conclusion seems warranted that Lagarde was not less than a major source thereof. Whether Lagarde's life and work, in tum, bore significantly upon the momentous events of recent German history is a question of another order. Perhaps, as Alfred Weber once told the present writer, the material forces affecting Germany were so overwhelming that Lagarde's ideas could have made little difference to the course of events. Yet, it is clear that the German mind became deeply involved with ideas and sentiments similar to Lagarde's which vitally affected the impact of material forces. In understanding the rise and composition of these ideas and sentiments, Lagarde can hardly be denied the status of a good specimen. The student of his life and work cannot escape the conclusion that Lagarde was, indeed, in no small measure the Great Stirrer which he aspired to be.

A Bibliographical Notes

Index

Note

A Bibliographical Note

I.

MANUSCRIPTS

T h e principal source of manuscripts for a study of Lagarde is the Lagarde Collection at the State and University Library in Göttingen. This collection, made b y Frau de Lagarde, has several thousand items and consists of some personal papers, notes pertaining to Lagarde's scholarly works, and the correspondence. T h e historian will find greatest interest in the letters. T h e y have been collected for the period 1845-1892, those of the latter year being the correspondence of Frau de Lagarde over matters concerning her husband. T h e greater part represents incoming mail, although many of Lagarde's outgoing letters, mostly in the form of copies in his wife's handwriting, are present. T h e letters have been bound into thirty volumes and a card index of writers to Lagarde has been prepared by the Archives. Π . LAGARDE'S W R I T I N G S

T h e preponderance of Lagarde's published works consists of edited texts, commentaries, and articles in the fields of oriental and classical philology, especially pertaining to the history of religion. A complete bibliography of this rather large literature was compiled b y Richard Gottheil and published under the title "Bibliography of Paul de Lagarde" in the Proceedings of the American Oriental Society, 95 (1892). Lagarde's social and political ideas appear primarily in a

32 2

A Bibliographical

Note

series of essays eventually collected into the Deutsche Schriften. T h e four volumes of the Mitteilungen which Lagarde published near the end of his life are also an important source. T h e latter work is an extraordinary miscellany of essays, fragments, and notes which Lagarde collected from the four corners of his literary domain. In addition, certain ostensibly scholarly or technical works of Lagarde are particularly rich in material bearing on his life and thought. T h e list below enumerates these writings in chronological order. 1. Gesammelten Abhandlungen (Leipzig, 1868). 2. Politischen Aufsätzen (Göttingen, 1874). This collection includes: (a) Konservativ?, first written in 1853 and separately published in 1854; (b) Uber die gegenwärtigen Aufgaben der deutschen Politik, delivered as a lecture in 1853; (c) Uber das Verhältnis des deutschen Staates zu Theologie, Kirche, und Religion, written in 1859 and first published separately in 1873; (d) Diagnose. 3. Symmicta, vol. I (Göttingen, 1877), vol. II (Göttingen, 1880). 4. Vorbemerkungen zu meiner Ausgabe der Septuaginta (Göttingen, 1877), published as part of Symmicta, vol. I, but probably pub ished separately prior to 1877. 5. Deutsche Schriften, vol. I (Göttingen, 1878). This collection includes: (a) all works listed under 2 above; (b) Uber die gegenwärtige Lage des Deutschen Reichs, first published separately in 1875; (c) Zum Unterrichtsgesetze; (d) Die Religion der Zukunft. 6. Aus dem Deutschen Gelehrtenleben (Göttingen, 1880). 7. Deutsche Schriften, vol. II (Göttingen, 1881). This collection includes: (a) Die Stellung der Religionsgesellschaften im Staate; (b) Noch einmal zum Unterrichtsgesetze; (c) Die Reorganisation des Adels;

A Bibliographical

Note

323

(d) Die Finanzpolitik Deutschlands; (e) Die graue Internattonale. 8. Ankündigung einer neuen Ausgabe der griechischen Übersetzung des alten Testament (Göttingen, 1882). 9. Mitteilungen, vol. I (Göttingen, 1884). 10. Frobe eine neuen Ausgabe der Lateinischen Übersetz ungen des alten testaments (Göttingen, 1885). 11. Deutsche Schriften, rev. ed. (Göttingen, 1886). In one volume this edition includes: (a) all the works listed under 5 and 7 above; (b) Frogramm für die konservative Fartei Freussens, separately published in 1884; (c) Uber die Klage dass der deutschen Jugend der Idealismus fehle, separately published in 1885; (d) Die nächsten Fflichten deutscher Folitik. 12. Mitteilungen, vol. II (Göttingen, 1887). This volume includes, inter alia: (a) Juden und Indogermanen; (b) Erinnerungen an Friedrich Rückert. 13. Mitteilungen, vol. III (Göttingen, 1889). 14. Mitteilungen, vol. I V (Göttingen, 1891). This volume includes, inter alia: (a) Zum letzten Male Albrecht Ritsehl; (b) über einige Berliner Theologen, und was von ihnen zu lernen ist. 15. Deutsche Schriften, 3 ed. (Göttingen, 1903). This is the most easily available edition and is the source, unless otherwise noted, of all references to Deutsche Schriften throughout the notes. It reproduces exactly the text of edition cited as 1 1 above. 16. Gedichte (Göttingen, 1 9 1 1 ) . A compilation of poems published posthumously b y Lagarde's widow, Anna de Lagarde. III. WRITINGS ON LAGARDE

Over the years a rather considerable literature on Lagarde has accumulated. Much of this material is fairly trivial or designed to make use of some particular aspect of Lagarde's wide

324

A Bibliographical

Note

ranging thought or for an immediate political or polemical purpose. The fo lowing paragraphs describe some of those works on Lagarde which have scholarly merit or usefulness or have been of particular significance in extending Lagarde's influence. The books of principal biographical value are Anna de Lagarde, Paul de Lagarde: Erinnerungen aus seinem Leben (Leipzig, 1918) and Ludwig Schemann, Paul de Lagarde: Ein Lebensund Erinnerungensbüd (Leipzig and Hortenstein, 1919). The Erinnerungen of Anna de Lagarde is frankly an apologetic work written by a loyal wife eager to defend her deceased husband against the many detractors aroused by his political and religious views. Yet it is a work of sensitivity and perceptiveness and throws considerable light on Lagarde's personal life and ambitions. Schemann's biography is to a certain extent a source since Schemann was a friend and associate of Lagarde at Göttingen. While Schemann writes with the animus of a German nationalist and offers his book to a defeated nation, the work as a whole is not hopelessly marred by his viewpoint or purpose. Some of his chapters, notably the one on Lagarde's scholarship, are of considerable interest and value. Lagarde's religious views have provoked numerous commentaries. An article signed " V , " "Uber das Verhältnis des deutschen Staates zu Theologie," Protestantische Kirchenzeitung für das evangelische Deutschland, i (1874), and P. Bickell, "Paul de Lagarde's Symmicta und Semitica," Zeitschrift für Katholische Theologie, 3 (1879), are two interesting, early reactions to Lagarde from confessional standpoints. Herman Mulert, Paul de Lagarde (Berlin-Schöneberg, 1913), a volume in Die Klassiker der Religion series, is an account of Lagarde's religious views which emphasizes his importance for the religious sentiment in Germany in the prewar years. G. Dost, Paul de Lagarde''s National Religion (published as Tat-Flugschriften, no. 4, Munich, 1915) was meant to be a contribution to wartime morale. Dost draws attention to the activism implicit in Lagarde's religious ideas. Ernst Troeltsch, Zur religiösen Lage Religions-Philosophie und Ethik in Gesammelte Schriften (Tübingen, 1922), vol. II, contains perceptive observations on Lagarde's theolo^ and its impact. Lagarde's political and constitutional ideas can hardly be

A Bibliographical

Note

325

treated apart from his general Weltanschauung. Several works, however, emphasize these aspects of his thought. Fritz Krog, Lagarde und der deutsche Staat (Munich, 1930) while designed to show how Lagarde represented the "kernel of things German" is a good account of Lagarde's political ideas. Also useful is Wilhelm Mommsen, "Paul de Lagarde als Politiker," Göttìnger Beiträge zur deutschen Kulturgeschichte (August 1927). Lagarde and Middle Europe is treated in Richard Breitling, Paul de Lagarde und der grossdeutsche Gedanke (Vienna and Leipzig, 1927), and J. Stern, Mitteleuropa von Leibnitz bis Naumann über List und Frantz, Planck und Lagarde (Stuttgart and Berlin, 1917). Many writings on Lagarde can only be classed as inspirational or as efforts to use Lagarde, the nationalist, as a source of help and courage in the trying days of the First World War and after. Typical specimens of this literature are Paul Friedrich, Paul de Lagarde und das Deutschland von Morgen (Weimar, 1916), and Mario Krammer, Oie Wiedergeburt durch Lagarde (Gotha and Stuttgart, 1925). Friedrich would have his countrymen build a new Germany after the War in Lagarde's spirit. Krammer's book is a Lagarde anthology. In the long introduction Krammer offers Lagarde as a challenge and hope to the demoralized Germany of the midtwenties. The Nazis made similar use of Lagarde. Notable is Alfred Rosenberg's Blut und Ehre: Ein Kampf für deutsche Wiedergeburt (Munich, 1938), and his frequent reference to Lagarde in his Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts (Munich, 1938). Arno Koselleck, "Die Entfaltung des Völkischen Bewusstseins bei Paul de Lagarde," Historische Vierteljahrschrift, 30 (1935-1936) is an interesting but not altogether convincing effort to relate the ideas of Lagarde and the Nazis. Little has been written on the origins of Lagarde's ideas. The most valuable study is Richard Breitling, "Die Einflüsse der Aufklärung und Romantik auf Lagarde," Archiv für Kulturgeschichte, 18 (1928). Kurt Klamroth, Staat und Nation bei Paul de Lagarde in Abhandlungen der Göttingen Universität Rechts und StaatswissenschaftUche Facultät, 8 (Leipzig, 1928), treats inter alia the subject of influences on Lagarde. Lagarde's concern with German culture and its elements has

326

A Bibliographical

Note

led to a number of commentaries thereon. Few are of great value. A general view on this subject may be had in K. Schiffmann, Lagar de's Kulturanschauung (1938). Schiffmann finds much to admire in the ideas upon which Lagarde would rebuild German cultural life but has doubts about their practicality in the twentieth century. H. Platz, ünsre Nationale Erziehung nach Lagarde und Langbehn (Berlin, 1891) and O. Conrad, "Paul de Lagarde's Bildungsideal und seine Bedeutung für die Gegenwart," Sokrates, Zeitschrift -für das Gymnasialwesen, N.F. 3 (1915), provide some insight into Lagarde's views on education. R. Braun, Individualismus und Gemeinschaft in der deutschen Jugendbewegung (Erlangen, 1929), considers Lagarde's influence on German youth. Except for reviews in scholarly journals, little has appeared on Lagarde in languages other than German. In English, a good statement on Lagarde and an exceedingly interesting example of an American scholar's attitude toward a German nationa ist in the pre-First World War period, is the article by Professor Samue Driver in the Contemporary Review, 55 (1889). An article on Lagarde by the author of this study appears in the Journal of Central European Affairs, 13 (1953) under the title, "Paul de Lagarde as Critic: A Romantic Protest in an Age of Realism." A general essay on Lagarde by J . Anstett occurs as a chapter in M. Baumont, et al.. The Third Reich (New York, 1955). F. Stern, The Politics of Cultural Despair (Berkeley, 1961), which was published after this study had gone to press, contains an interesting discussion of Lagarde.

Notes

Citations of all letters and flyers, unless otherwise noted, r e f e r t o manuscripts in the State and U n i v e r s i t y L i b r a r y Lagarde Collection in G ö t t i n g e n . T h e s e manuscripts have been bound into v o l u m e s — t h e roman numeral in the citation refers to the volume, the arabic numeral t o the number of the manuscript w i t h i n the volume. V o l u m e s I and II are f o l l o w e d b y supplementary volumes designated as I-S and II-S. A n o t h e r v o l u m e is designated as Quartband and referred t o as Q . INTRODUCTION

I. See especially J. Gerlach, ed., Ernst Ludimg würdigkeiten (Schwerin in Mecklenburg, 1903).

von Gerlach:

Denk-

CHAPTER I : CURRENTS OF THOUGHT IN THE A G E OF R O M A N T I C I S M

1. Anna de Lagarde, Paul de Lagarde: Erinnerungen aus seinem Leben (Leipzig, 1918), pp. 12-21. 2. Ibid., p. 14. 3. Paul Kluckhohn in Deutsche Literatur, Reihe Romantik, vol. I (Stuttgart, 1950), introduction. This is a reprinting of the volume originally issued in Leipzig in 1931. 4. Herder, Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menscheit, in Herders Werke, Meyers Klassiker-Ausgaben (Leipzig and Vienna, n.d.), IV, 169. j. Novalis, Die Christenheit oder Europa, in Sämliche Werke (Munich, 1924), III, 17. 6. R. Saitschick, Joseph Görres (Freiburg in Breisgau, 1953), p. 152. 7. Adam Müller, Die Elemente der Staatskunst (Vienna and Leipzig, 1922), I, 20. 8. Ibid., pp. 6, 16.

328

Notes

to Chapter

I

9. Ibid., p. 26. See also E. Lemberg, Geschichte des Nationalismus in Europa (Stuttgart, 1950), pp. 104 ff. 10. Herder, Ideen, pp. 169, 170; Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, in Works (London, 1815-1827), V, 79. For a discussion of the cyclical interpretation of history and conservative thought, see A. Möhler, Die Konservative Revolution in Deutschland (Stuttgart, 1950), pp. 104 ff. 11. Herder, Ideen, pp. 107, 459. 12. Eichendorff, Uber die Folgen von der Aufhebung der Landeshoheit der Bischöfe und der Kloster in Deutschland, in Deutsche Literatur, Reihe Romantik, X (Leipzig, 1937), 37; Adam Müller, Friederich der Grosse und Preussen, in R. Köhler, ed., Adam Müller Schriften zur Staatsphilosophie (Munich, n.d.), p. 107. 13. From Troeltsch's essay on natural law and humanity which occurs as an appendix in E. Barker, Natural Law and the Theory of Society (Cambridge, 1934), p. 204; Müller, Die Elemente, p. 40. 14. F. Schlegel, Uber die neuere Geschichte, in Deutsche Literatur, Χ, 30. i;. Wilhelm Meistert Apprenticeship, Carlyle translation (Boston, 1883), p. 261; F. Schnabel, Deutsche Geschichte im Nehnzehten Jahrhundert (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1929-1937), pp. 243, 244; P. Kluckhohn, Persönlichkeit und Gemeinschaft (Halle, 1925), p. 2. 16. Schleiermacher, Monologen in Deutsche Literatur, Reihe Romantik, IV (Leipzig, 1931), 33; Kluckhohn, Persönlichkeit, 5. 17. Schleiermacher, Monologen, p. 40. 18. Müller, Die Elemente, pp. 98, 99; Kohler, ed., Müller, pp. ν, vi. 19. Fichte, Werke, Medicus edition (Leipzig, n.d.), I, 20. 20. J. Baxa, Einführung in die romantische Staatswissenschaft (Jena, 1923), pp. 17, 28. 21. Fichte, Werke, II, 212. 22. Müller, Die Elemente, p. 37. 23. Baxa, Einführung, p. 7. 24. Schnabel, Deutsche Geschichte, I, 240, 243; Novalis, Die Christenheit, p. IG. 25. Novalis, Fragments in The German Classics, ed., Kuno Francke (New York, 1913), IV, 188. 26. Adam Müller, Friederich der Grosse, p. 100. 27. For an interesting discussion of conservative thought see K. Mannheim, "Das Konservative Denken, I," Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik, 57 (1927), 85 ff. 28. Karl Rotteck (1775-1840) and Karl Welcker (1790-1869) edited the Staatslexicon (1834-1843), an important compilation of liberal ideas. 29. Gerlach, Denkwürdigkeiten, I, 95. 30. Ibid., I, 159, 160. 31. Ibid., I, 193, 199. Ludwig was engaged at the time in a conflict with theological rationalism in Halle. 32. C. Varrantrapp, "Rankes Historish-politische Zeitschrift und das Berliner Politische Wochenblatt" Historische Zeitschrift, 99 (1907). See

The Berlin Period

329

also, G. Ritter, Die preussische Konservativen und Bismarcks deutsche Politik ι8$8 bis ι8η6 (Heidelberg, 1913). 33. Gerlach, Denkwürdigkeiten, I, 30, 40, 120. 34. F. Stahl, Die Philosophie des Rechts (Heidelberg, 1854-1856), passim; S. Neumann, Die Stufen des Preussischen Konservatismus (Berlin, 1930), pp. 103, 104. 35. H. Reiss, translator and editor. Political Thought of the German Romantics (New York, 1955), pp. 135, 137; Saitschick, Görres p. 155. 36. A. Müller, Von der Notwendigkeit einer theologischen Grundlage der gesamten Staatswissenschaft und Staatswirtschaft insbesondere, in Köhler, ed., Müller, pp. 210 ff; Saitschick, Görres, p. 27. 37. Novalis, Christendom or Europe in Reiss, ed.. Political Thought, p. 141. 38. Schleiermacher, On Religion: Speeches to its Cultured Despisers, translated by J. Oman (London, 1893), pp. 3, 4. 39. Ibid., pp. 37, 40. 40. Ibid., pp. 161, 212, 214. 41. From A. Pundt, Arndt and the Nationalist Awakening in Germany (New York, 1935), p. 107. 42. F. Meinecke, "Bismarcks Eintritt in der Christlich-germanischen Kreis," Historische Zeitschrift, 90 (1903), 78-82; Schnabel, Deutsche Geschichte, IV, 388. 43. Wilhelm Gesenius (1786-1842) was a Semitic scholar and biblical critic at Halle. Julius Wegscheider (1771-1849) was a Protestant theologian at Halle. 44. Friedrich Tholuck (1799-1877) was a Protestant theologian of pietist sentiment at Halle. Wilhelm de Wette (1780-1849) was a Protestant theologian in Berlin and subsequently Basel. Both are discussed in Chapter II. 45. W . von Groote, Die Entstehung des Natìonal-Bewusstseins in Nordwest-Deutschland 1^90-1830 (Göttingen, 1955), p. 65. 46. Kleist, Germania: Katechismus der Deutschen in Deutsche Literatur, Reihe Romantik, II (Leipzig, 1937), 74. 47. Fichte, Addresses to the German Nation, translated by R. Jones (Chicago and London, 1923), pp. 12-14, 70, 131, 144. 48. Arndt, Erinnerungen aus den eüsseren Leben (Berlin, 1953), p. 97 and passim. 49. Pundt, Arndt, passim. 50. Treitschke, History of Germany in the Nineteenth Century, translated by Eden and Cedar Paul (London, 1915), III, 54. 51. F. Meinecke, Weltbürgertum und Nationalstaat (Munich and Berlin, 1926), ch. xii. CHAPTER Π : T H E BERLIN PERIOD

I. Friedrich Dahlmann (1785-1860), historian and member of the National Assembly of 1848.

ззо

Notes to Chapter II

2. Arnold Ruge (1803-1880) and Julius Frobel (1805-1893) were leading radicals of the Hegelian left. 3. A . Hausrath, Treitschke (New York and London, 1914), p. 46. 4. C. Wittke, The Utopian Communist: A Biography of Wilhelm Weitling (Baton Rouge, 1950). 5. Paul de Lagarde, Gedichte (Göttingen, 1911), p. 80. 6. Anna de Lagarde, Paul de Lagarde, p. 6. 7. Ibid., pp. 9-12. 8. Ibid., p. 7. Paul de Lagarde, Mitteilungen, II (Göttingen, 1887), 90; Vorbemerkungen zu meiner Ausgabe [sie] der Septuaginta in Symmicta (Göttingen, 1877-1880), II, 138. 9. Mitteilungen, II, 89. Ш. Vorbemerkungen, p. 138. 11. Mitteilungen, I V Böttingen, 1891), 89. Johann Michaelis (17171791), theologian and orientalist, did some important early work in the study of the N e w Testament. Karl Lachmann (1793-1851) was one of the founders of German philology. 12. Semler, Lebensbeschreibung (HaUe, 1781). See vol. I, p. iii, for an indication of his national feeling; vol. II, p. xix, where he places piety against dogma; vol. II, p. 125, on his views concerning Protestantism (remarkably Lagardian); and vol. II, p. 154, on Peter and Paul. 13. Mitteilungen, II, 89. 14. Writers have commonly emphasized the influence of Grimm on Lagarde. Thus, Wilhelm Mommsen, "Paul de Lagarde als Politiker," Göttinger Beiträge zur deutschen Kulturgeschichte (August 1927), p. 135. Also, M. Krammer, "Deutschtum als Prophetie," Preussische Jahrbücher, 220 (1925), 176. See Mitteilungen, IV, 72; II, 89. For other interesting references to Grimm by Lagarde see the following items in Deutsche Schriften, 3 ed. (Göttingen, 1903): Konservativ?, p. 8; über die gegenwärtige Lage des Deutschen Reichs, p. 145; Die Religion der Zukunft, p. 239; Uber die Klage, dass der deutschen Jugend der Idealismus fehle, p. 381. 15. Symmicta, II, v. Grimm to Lagarde, June 25, 1863, П, 52. 16. Mitteilungen, II, 86, 88; IV, 62. He uses almost the same words in Mitteilungen, II, 8. 17. That is, that every man must react to or feel for himself the spiritual content of the world. "In Schleiermacher, personality was everything which he had indicated it to be in his lectures and writings," Mitteilungen, IV, 72. 18. Mitteilungen, I V , 63. 19. Ibid., II, 87. 20. Of these men, not elsewhere mentioned, Friederich Trendelenburg (1802-1872) was a philosopher of moderate repute who, as an opponent of Hegelianism, may have had some influence on Lagarde. Hermann Hupfeld (1796-1866) was a theologian and orientalist who wrote particularly in Genesis and the Psalms. Julius Schaller (1810-1869) tended to

The Berlin Period

331

follow Hegel but was a critic of Strauss. His principal works were historical in nature. 21. Published in Mitteilungen, volumes II and IV respectively. Mitteilungen, IV, 61. 22. Johann Neander (1789-1850), a Protestant church historian and theologian. Mitteilungen, vol. IV. 23. August Twesten (1789-1876) developed under Schleiermacher's influence and was his sucessor at Berlin. This helps to explain why he stood neither with the Hegelians or with Hengstenberg. Mitteilungen, IV, 85, 87 ff. 24. Wilhelm Martin de Wette (1780-1843) was a Protestant theologian at Berlin. His dismissal from the university was occasioned by his letter to the mother of Sand, the murderer of Kotzebue in 1819. The letter reflected the tendency of a number of intellectuals to regard Sand as an idealist and champion of the folk. Lagarde compared the impression made on him by de Wette and by Waldeck and found that it was the similar "unblemished truthfulness" of each man which struck him. Greater the shame that the state had persecuted both of them. Mitteilungen, IV, 58. 25. Tholuck to Lagarde, April 30, 1849,1-S, 13. 20. Mitteilungen, IV, 77, 79, 81; Hengstenberg to Lagarde, April 25, 1852, II-S, 32; Lagarde to Hengstenberg, June i, 1856, I, 90b; Hengstenberg to Lagarde, June 3, 1856,1, 91. 27. Lagarde commenced his essay on Riickert with the words, "to offer some intimate details on so dear a teacher and friend is a work which lies close to my heart." {Mitteilungen, II, 82). Ludwig Techen, who was close to Lagarde, describes him as Rückert's "favorite student." See Techen's articles on Lagarde in the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie. Mitteilungen, II, 83, 90. 28. Ibid., II, 91-92, 94-95. 29. Rückert to Lagarde, January 13, 1847, I-S, 17; Rückert to Lagarde, April 1852, I-S, 34; Rückert to Lagarde, 1857, I, 113; Anna de Lagarde, Paul de Lagarde, p. 61. 30. Mitteilungen, II, 84. 31. C. Nicolai (1733-1811), a figure of the German Enlightenment and opponent of authority and orthodoxy. See Richard Meyer, Deutsche Charaktere (Berlin, 1897), pp. 200 ff. Meyer ascribes great importance to this dualism in the formation of Lagarde's views. 32. Mitteilungen, IV, 60-62. 33. Ibid., IV, 52, 63. 34. Ibid., IV, 103. 35. Ibid., II, 87, 88. 36. Ibid., II, 94. 37. Anna de Lagarde, Paul de Lagarde, p. 11. 38. Lagarde, Program jür die konservative Partei Preussens in Deutsche Schriften, p. 338; Mitteilungen, IV, 58, 81. 39. In 1854 Lagarde took her name for his own. Those unfriendly to

332

Notes to Chapter II

Lagarde have believed that he did this in order to have a noble sounding "de" before his name. Anna explains that Lagarde wished to preserve a much respected family name on his mother's side which otherwise would have disappeared for lack of male heirs. Anna de Lagarde, Paul de Lagarde, pp. 44, 45. 40. L. Schemann, Paul de Lagarde—Ein Lebens und Erinnerungsbild (Leipzig and Hartenstein, 1919), p. 26. Schemann considers Leo a significant influence on Lagarde's development at this point, Leo to Lagarde, 1856, 0 , 17. 41. Anna de Lagarde, Paul de Lagarde, pp. 13, 14. 42. Riickert to Lagarde, April 1852, I-S, 34. 43. Gerlach to Lagarde, December 31, :85ο, I-S, 47; Gerlach to Lagarde, June 18, 1851, I-S, 48; Frederick William IV to Lagarde, April 21, 1852, I-S, 29; Radowitz to Lagarde, 1852, II-S, 35; Radowitz to Lagarde, 1852, I, 12. 44. Anna de Lagarde, Paul de Lagarde, pp. 17, 18; Vorbemerkungen, p. 139. 45. Riickert to Lagarde, September 22, 1852, I, 14; Vorbemerkungen, p. 139. 46. Anna de Lagarde, Paul de Lagarde, p. 36; Bunsen to Lagarde, 1853, I, 17; Bunsen to Lagarde, 1853,1- '8; Bunsen to Lagarde, 1853,1, 19. 47. Bunsen to Lagarde, 1853, I, 20. The Wochenblatt group consisted of moderate conservatives in opposition to the Kreuzzeitung and to the extremity of the reaction of the fifties. Their journal was the Preussischen Wochenblatt, to be distinguished from the Berliner Politisches Wochenblatt. 48. Konservativ?, pp. 7 ff. 49. Anna de Lagarde, Paul de Lagarde, p. 32. 50. E. Quatremere (1782-1857), French orientalist and professor of Persian at the Ecole des Langues Orientales. Renan to Lagarde, June 16, 1853, I, 31; June 30, 1853, I, 33; July 19, 1853, I, 34; August 13, 1853, I, 35; March 21, 1854, I, 48; January 13, 1856, I, 86; January 10, 1857, I, 105. 51. Vorbemerkungen, p. 139. 52. Paul de Lagarde, Aus dem Deutschen Gelehtenleben (Göttingen, 1880), pp. 73 ff. 53. Anna de Lagarde, Paul de Lagarde, p. 47. 54. Paul de Lagarde, Ankündigung einer neuen Ausgabe der griechischen Übersetzung des alten Testaments (Göttingen, 1882), p. 30. 55. Gerlach to Lagarde, November 18, 1853, I, 43. Bunsen to Lagarde, November 29, 1853, I, 44. Von Humboldt to Lagarde, January 25, 1855, I, 64;-i855, I, 6;·,-ι8;;, I, 66. Norris to Lagarde, June 30, 1854, I, 53. 56. Ankündigung, p. 17. 57. Anna de Lagarde, Paul de Lagarde, pp. 51, 52, 56. 58. Ibid., p. 51; Lagarde to a professor in Oldenburg, 1863, II, 80. 59. Anna de Lagarde, Paul de Lagarde, p. 82. A fair specimen of a former student is Dr. George Carel. For example. Dr. George Carel

The Göttingen Period

333

wrote Lagarde in appreciation for the sense of "humanity" which Lagarde had awakened in him. My school comrades and I, he wrote, have found this a treasured blessing in our latter life, Carel to Lagarde, October 17, 1890, X X V I I B, 100. 60. Anna de Lagarde, Paul de Lagarde, p. 84. 61. Vorbemerkungen, p. 140. 62. Ibid., pp. 141, 142. CHAPTER I I I : T H E GÖTTINGEN PERIOD

1. Anna de Lagarde, Paul de Lagarde, pp. 88-91. 2. Ibid., pp. 92-100. 3. L. Schemann, Paul de Lagarde—Ein Lebens und Erinnerungsbild (Leipzig and Hartenstein, 1919), pp. 75, 76. Schemann's relation to Lagarde is discussed in some detail in Chapter VI. 4. Techen to Lagarde, November i, 1891, XXVIII, 217. 5. Schemann, Paul de Lagarde, pp. 77, 78, 370. 6. Anna de Lagarde, Paul de Lagarde, pp. 112, 113, 123 fi. 7. Paul de Lagarde, Ankündigung, pp. 19, 23. Here one may find a typical jeremiad on theologians. Lagarde, Symmicta, II (Göttingen, 1880), iv, V. Lagarde raises the question of plagiarism in a number of places. 8. Lagarde to Friedrich Althoff (Prussian Minister), May 18, 1888, XXII, 112. Julius Wellhausen (1844-1918) was a Protestant theologian and an orientalist at Göttingen. See Mitteilungen, III, 80-82. 9. Mitteilungen, IV, 395, 396. 10. Ibid., IV, 163, 397, 400. 11. An article by В. Ziemlich, Aus der Schule de Lagardes, appears in part in Mitteilungen, II, 115 ff. One by Kaufmann appears in his Paul de Lagarde's Jüdische Gelehrsamkeit (Leipzig, 1887). In Mitteilungen, II, 108 ff. Lagarde, with childish spite, substituted the undignified sounding "Lipman" for Zunz's correct name, Leopold. 12. Ibid., II, io8, 117-119, 142. 13. December 17, 25, 1886. 14. See, especially Kaufmann, Paul de Lagarde's Jüdische Gelehrsamkeit, pp. 16-30. 15. Lagarde, Aus dem Deutschen Gelehrtenleben, p. 92. 16. Anna de Lagarde to Pastor Stakemann, October 10, 1890, XXVII, 86.

17. Mitteilungen, IV, 91. 18. Ibid., I, 2. 19. Lagarde to William I, October 2, 1883, XVI, 131. 20. Compiled from R. Gottheil, "Bibliogr^hy of the Works of Paul de Lagarde," Proceedings of the American Oriental Society, 15 (1892), ccxi. 21. Mitteilungen, I, 20. See also, Lagarde, Ankündigung, p. 17. 22. Lagarde, Vorbemerkungen, II, 138-152.

334

Notes

to Chapter

III

23. Lagarde, Ankündigung, pp. 17, 18. 24. Mitteilungen, ΠΙ, 229 ff. 25. Anna de Lagarde, Faul de Lagarde, p. 114. 26. Mitteilungen, III, 144-148. 27. Schemann, Paul de Lagarde, p. 98; Renan to Lagarde, January 13, 1856, I, 86; Contemporary Review, 55 (1889), 393. George Moore (1851-1931) was an American orientalist and a professor at Andover Theological Seminary. His address on Lagarde was on the occasion marking the opening of the Lagarde library at New York University. His address is reproduced in large part in Anna de Lagarde, Paul de Lagarde, pp. 151 ff. 28. Lagarde, Vorrede to the Politischen Aufsätzen in Deutsche Schriften, pp. 77, 78. 29. R. Breitling in Paul de Lagarde und der grossdeutsche Gedanke (Vienna and Leipzig, 1927), p. 59 suggests that the Kulturkampf had placed new demands on secular education and that Lagarde accordingly took this as an opportune moment to publish his views on education. Breitling, also, suggests that Lagarde's purpose was to offer a substitute to the flagging Kulturkampf. 30. Lagarde, Vorrede to the 1878 edition of the Deutsche Schriften as published in the 1903 edition, p. 80. 31. He liked to describe his writings, scholarly and political, as having a common spirit and method. Thus, Lagarde to Reichensperger, January 24, 1873, VII, 92; Lagarde to Natorp, February 2, 1879, XII, 17. 32. Vorrede to the Deutsche Schriften (1878) as published in the 1903 edition, p. 80. 33. Vorbemerkungen, p. 146. 34. On a single page, quotations and extracts in nine different languages may be found. 35. Lagarde to Napoleon III, September 9, 1869, V , 36; Lagarde to Prince Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, November 4, 1874, VIII, 163 and Hohenlohe to Lagarde, November 6, 1874, 164; Lagarde to Prince Frederick, September 29, 1882, X V , 190; Lagarde to the Minister of the Interior, December 16, 1883, X V I , i9iab. 36. Lagarde to King William I, September 4, 1870, V , 95; Lagarde to DöUinger, January 28, 1871, V , 152; Lagarde to Reichensperger, January 24, 1873, VII, 92; Lagarde to William I, October 2, 1883, X V I , i3iab. 37. Lagarde to Alexander of Hesse, November 22, 1885, XVIII, 257 and April 16, 188Ó, XIX, 98; Lagarde to Alexander of Bulgaria, April 6, 1886, XIX, 98; Lagarde to JÚenges (Cabinet Counselor to Alexander of Bulgaria), November, 1885, XVIII, 257; March 20, 1886, XIX, 72; АргИ, 1886, XIX, 99. 38. Lagarde to Prince William, April 6, 1886, XIX, 96; Lagarde to Bismarck, April 6, 188Ó, XIX, 97; Lagarde to Peter Bollig, S.J., November 9, 1890, X X V I I , 134; Lagarde to Leo XIII, November 10, 1890, X X V I I , 134; Bollig to Lagarde, November 17, 1890, X X V I I , 144; Lagarde to Caprivi, June 3, 1891, XXVIII, 115. Lagarde had sent his article from

Elements of Lagarde^s Thought

335

the June 3 issue of the Nachrichten der Göttingen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaft. 39. Friedrich Stehlich to Lagarde, August 26, 1889, X X V , 230. This party was the conservative antisemitic party of von Sonnenberg. Lagarde to Stehlich, August 28, 1889, X X V , 230. 40. Ludwig Dunting to Lagarde, May 8, 1885, XVIII, 94. The merchants sent Lagarde a flyer entitled Appell an alle Kaufleute, X X V I I I , 231. Joseph Kürscher to Lagarde, February 28, 1886, X I X , 5oab; Lagarde to Kürscher, March 2, 1886, X I X , 51; Fritsch to Lagarde, June 9, 1888, XXII, 129; Anna de Lagarde to Fritsch, June 10, 1888, XXII, 130; Lagarde to Fritsch, July 7, 1888, XXII, 130. 41. Fritsch to Lagarde, March 20, 1890, X X V I , 83, and April 3, 1890, X X V I , 113; Lagarde to Fritsch, April 4, 1890, X X V I , 113. 42. Anna de Lagarde, Paul de Lagarde, p. 114. 43. Ibid., pp. 116 fi. 44. и . von Wilamowitz-Moellendorf, My Recollections: 1848-1919, translated by G . Richards (London, 1930), p. 277. 45. Anna de Lagarde, Paul de Lagarde, pp. 150 ff. 46. Thus, Otto Veek, "Paul de Lagarde's Anschauungen über Religion und lürchenwesen," Protestantische Monatshefte, 3 (1899), 225. Veek, despite his decided disagreement with Lagarde's treatment of Protestantism, praises not only his scholarship, but his "sense for truth." Wilhelm Mommsen, "Paul de Lagarde als Politiker," Göttinger Beiträge zur deutschen Kulturgeschichte (August 1927), p. 131. Mommsen speaks of Lagarde as "one of the richest personalities of a people noted for producing remarkable characters," Mario Krammer, Die Wiedergeburt durch Lagarde (Goth and Stuttgart, 1925), p. 23. T o Krammer, Lagarde was a "vitally living and growing man." R. Meyer, Deutsche Charactere (Berlin, 1897), p. 212. Meyer writes that Lagarde had an "earnest soul, the lightening of a sharp spirit, and the blow of a warrior." 47. Anna de Lagarde, Paul de Lagarde, pp. 123 ff. CHAPTER I V :

T H E E L E M E N T S OF LAGARDE'S THOUGHT

1. Natorp to Lagarde, January 24, 1879, XII, 12 and February 4, 1879, XII, 18; Lagarde to Natorp, February 21, 1879, XII, 17; Mitteilungen, IV, 87. Lagarde, Uber das Verhältnis des deutschen Staates zu Theologie, Kirche und Religion in Deutsche Schriften, p. 59. Lagarde, Die Finanzpolitik Deutschlands in Deutsche Schriften, p. 292. 2. Mitteilungen, IV, 91. 3. Konservativ?, p. 7; Mitteilungen, IV, 105, 106. 4. Uber die Klage, 384; Symmicta, II, 135. 5. Anna de Lagarde, Paul de Lagarde, p. 15. 6. Uber das Verhältnis, p. 66. 7. Mitteilungen, III, 20. 8. Uber die gegenwärtige Lage, p. 159; Uber die Klage, p. 375. 9. Mitteilungen, I, 54 and IV, 175, 79; Anna de Lagarde, Paul de Lagarde, p. 28.

ззб

Notes to Chapter

IV

10. Uber die gegenwärtige Lage, p. 119. Prophet is used here more nearly in the Greek sense of "proclaimer of a revolution" than in the sense of soothsayer. 11. Die Religion, p. 220; Lagarde, Die graue Internationale in Deutsche Schriften, p. 312; Uber die gegenwärtige Lage, p. 142. Mitteilungen, I, 155· 12. Konservativ?, p. 9. 13. Anna de Lagarde, Paul de Lagarde, p. 17; Lagarde, Vorrede to the Politische Aufsätzen, p. 78; Konservativ?, p. 8. 14. Mitteilungen, IV, 97; Konservativ?, p. 6. 15. Lagarde, Die Reorganisation des Adels in Deutsche Schriften, pp. 283, 284; Uber die gegenwärtige Lage, p. 144. 16. Uber die gegenwärtige Lage, pp. 126, 144; Zum Unterrichtgesetze, p. 218; Uber das Verhältnis, p. 58. 17. Mitteilungen, IV, 63; Anna de Lagarde, Paul de Lagarde, p. 26. 18. Programm, pp. 363, 364; Anna de Lagarde, Paul de Lagarde, pp. 23, 28; Vorrede to the 1881 edition of the Deutsche Schriften, as published in the 1903 edition, p. 84. 19. Anna de Lagarde, Paul de Lagarde, p. 28. 20. Uber die gegenwärtige Lage, p. 141. 21. Programm, pp. 367, 326; Uber die gegenwärtige Lage, p. 158. 22. Uber die gegenwärtige Lage, pp. 158, 164; Mitteilungen, IV, 63, 406. 23. Mitteilungen, IV, 72, 79; R. Breitling, "Die Einflüsse der Aufldärung und Romantik auf Lagarde," Archiv für Kulturgeschichte, 18 (1928), 100, loi stresses Humboldt's influence. 24. Lagarde, Uber die gegenwärtige Aufgaben der deutschen Politik in Deutsche Schriften (Göttingen, 1903), pp. 22, 27, 24; Mitteilungen, III, 21. 25. Uber die gegenwärtige Lage, p. 124. 26. Compare with Renan's Qu^est-ce qui une Nation?; Mitteilungen, IV, 44; Uber das Verhältnis, p. 66. 27. Die Religion, pp. 225, 240. 28. Uber die Klage, p. 376. 29. Mitteilungen, I, 96 and II, 330; Die nächsten Pflichten deutscher Politik in Deutsche Schriften, p. 391. 30. A . Koselleck, "Die Entfaltung des Volkischen Bewusstseins bei Paul de Lagarde," Historische Vierteljahrschrift, 30 (1935-1936) comments on Lagarde's duaUsm. Lagarde, Die Stellung der Religionsgesellschaften im Staate in Deutsche Schriften, p. 257. 31. Programm, p. 364. 32. Mitteilungen, IV, 59, 81. 33. Lagarde to Natorp, February 2, 1879, XII, 17; Mitteilungen, I, 48. See also, Lagarde's manuscript draft for an essay on religion dated November 26, 1851 in Q, 9. 34. Die Religion, pp. 218, 219.

Elements of Lagarde^s Thought

337

35. Uber die gegenwärtige Lage, p. 145; Uber das Verhältnis, pp. 74, 75; Uber die Klage, p. 380. 36. Uber das Verhältnis, p. 60. 37. Ibid., p. 73; 2,um Unterrichtsgesetze, p. 183; Die Stellung, p. 248. 38. Lagarde to Else von Seidlitz, April 25, 1890, X X V I , 135. 39. Lagarde's manuscript draft for an essay on religion; Uber die gegenwärtige Lage, pp. 138, 139. 40. Commentators have commonly seen the influence of the Gospels on Lagarde. See G . Dost, Paul de Lagarde's National Religion, published as Tat-Flugschriften, no. 4 (Munich, 1915), pp. 16 ff.; M. Krammer, Die Wiedergeburt durch Lagarde (Gotha and Stuttgart, 1925), pp. 41, 5355; "Deutschtum als Prophetie," Prussischen Jahrbücher, 210 (1925), 18 fï.; О. Veek, "Paul de Lagarde's Anschauungen über Religion und Kirchenvi^esen," Protestantische Monatschaft, 3 (1899), 230 fi.; P. Bickell, "Paul de Lagarde's Symmicta und Semitica," Zeitschrift für Katholische Theologie, 3 (1879), 604. 41. Anna de Lagarde, Paul de Lagarde, pp. 59, 68. 42. Ibid., p. 58. 43. Uber die gegenwärtige Lage, p. 132. 44. Anna de Lagarde, Paul de Lagarde, p. 36; Uber die gegenwärtige Lage, p. 158. 45. Uber die gegenwärtige Lage, p. 125. 46. Lagarde to William I, October 2, 1883, X V I , i3iab; Mitteilungen, IV, 118, 119; Uber das Verhältnis, p. 58. 47. Uber die gegenwärtige Lage, p. 128. 48. Mitteilungen, I, 164. 49. Uber die gegenwärtigen Aufgaben, pp. 23, 24. 50. Die Religion, pp. 222 fï. 51. Ibid., p. 224. 52. Ibid., pp. 2J ff. 53. Zum Unterrichtsgesetze, p. 183. 54. Mitteilungen, I, 70. Lagarde's manuscript draft for an essay on religion. 55. Konservativ?, p. 9; Diagnose in Deutsche Schriften, p. 89; Zum Unterrichtgesetze, p. 191. 56. Uber das Verhältnis, p. 40. 57. Uber die gegenwärtige Lage, p. 116. 58. Die Religion, pp. 240, 242. 59. Konservativ?, p. 15; Zum Unterrichtsgesetze, pp. 179, 201; Die Stellung, p. 262; Die Religion, p. 247; Noch Einmal zum Unterrechtsgesetze in Deutsche Schriften, p. 276; Mitteilungen, IV, 69. 60. Zum Unterrichtsgesetze, pp. 188, 189; Mitteilungen, I, 2 and IV, 7^· 61. Die Religion, pp. 217, 218. 62. J . Anstett, "Paul de Lagarde" in M. Baumont et al., eds., The Third Reich (New York, 1955), p. 168.

338

Notes to Chapter V

63. Lagarde to Döllinger, January 28, 1871, V , 152; Uber die gegenwärtigen Aufgaben, p. 22. 64. Die Religion, p. 226. 65. Konservativ?, pp. 5, 16; Lagarde to Stöcker, January 24, 1873, VII, 92; Lagarde to Carlyle, June i, 1875, IX, 92; Uber die gegenwärtige Lage, p. 142; Die graue Internationale, p. 312; Lagarde to Bismarck, April 6, 1886, X I X , 97. CHAPTER V :

THE

CRITICAL A T T A C K

AND PROPOSALS FOR R E F O R M

1. Uber das Verhältnis, p. 53. 2. Ibid., p. 54. Lagarde's supposition that a people would not crucify its ideal is doubted by A . Hilgenfeld, "Der Alte und der Neue Glaube," Zeitschrift für Wissenschφliche Theologie, 16 (1873), 342. He asks what about Socrates. 3. Uber das Verhältnis, pp. 55-^2. 4. Ibid., pp. 59-61. 5. Ibid., p. 60. 6. Mitteilungen, IV, 79. 7. Uber die gegenwärtige Lage, pp. 130-132. 8. Ibid., p. 132; Uber das Verhältnis, pp. 59, 60, 69. 9. Die Religion, p. 234. See P. BickeU, "Paul de Lagarde's Symmicta und Semitica," Zeitschrift für Katholische Theologie, 3 (1879), 599. Die Religion, pp. 234, 235. Lagarde's romanticism sometimes beclouded his considerable knowledge of the Middle Ages. Medieval clergymen did not all correspond to this ideal. This does not, of course, demolish Lagarde's general argument. 10. Die Religion, p. 235. 11. Uber das Verhältnis, p. 48. 12. Uber die gegenwärtige Lage, p. 137; Die Religion, pp. 233, 238. Lagarde alludes to the Jesuits in a number of places. 13. Anna de Lagarde, Paul de Lagarde, pp. 32, 33. 14. See Meyer, Deutsche Charaktere, p. 205. Uber die Klage, pp. 382, 383. Hilgenfeld, "Der Alte und der Neue Glaube," p. 350. 15. Uber die gegenwärtige Lage, p. 140; Uber das Verhältnis, p. 39. 16. Ibid., pp. 42, 45. Lagarde's criticism overlooks the doctrine of the ennoblement of good works which insists upon meritorious conduct not as a menace to Salvation, but toward the further glorification of God as in Calvin's Institutes. 17. Mitteilungen, IV, 112 fï.; Uber die gegenwärtige Lage, p. 133. 18. Uber das Verhältnis, p. 46. This view is open to some serious objections. In holding that the Protestants could not revive the Gospel or the spirit of the primitive Church, Lagarde was really arguing against his own doctrine that the Gospel must be refound and relived in all of its pristine meaning. T o deny Protestantism anything short of an enormous influence in modern German history is absurd. 19. Konservativ?, p. 13.

Critical Attack and Proposals for Reform

339

20. Zum Unterrichtsgesetze, p. 188; Mitteilungen, I, no, 220. Lagarde, as so often, exaggerates. Certainly, independent Protestant thinking may be found in nineteenth-century Germany. One has only to remember the theologians at Halle in the time of Frederick William III. Surely, the most original and important theologians of the century were Protestants—Schleiermacher, Hegel, Tholuck, Ritschl, etc. 21. Die nächsten Pflichten, p. 399; Mitteilungen, IV, m ff., 104. 22. Theologians tended to accept and even applaud parts of his work consistent with their own views. Hilgenfeld, a Protestant writer, appreciated Lagarde's rejection of rigid dogmas but was disturbed by his hostility to Luther. Bickell, a Catholic writer, regarded Lagarde's critique of Protestantism as profound and his feeling for the medieval Church estimable and could only hope that his prejudice of modern CathoHcism was a temporary stumbling block to his conversion. 23. See R. Breitling "Die Einflüsse der Aufklärung und Romantik auf Lagarde," Archiv für Kulturgeschichte, 18 (1928). For a review of his grievances see: Lagarde to Minister von Gossler, July 31, 1882, XV, 166 and to the Royal Ministry of Spiritual, Educational, and Medical Affairs, Dec. 17, 1885, XVIII, 281a (very useful). 24. Programm, p. 326; Diagnose, p. 96; Die Stellung, p. 249; Uber das Verhältnis, p. 63; Uber die gegenwärtige Lage, p. 143. 25. Uber das Verhältnis, p. 63. 26. Diagnose, pp. 88, 89. 27. Die Finanzpolitik, pp. 296, 298, 299 ff.; Vorbemerkungen, II, 140. 28. Uber die gegenwärtige Lage, p. 122. 29. Emil Friedberg (1837-1910) was a canonist at Halle and Leipzig; Paul Hinschius (1835-1889) was a legal scholar who taught at Halle and Berlin. 30. Diagnose, pp. 90, 91, 96, 97. 31. Ibid., p. 93; Uber die gegenwärtige Lage, pp. 146, 156. 32. Uber die gegenwärtige Lage, pp. 126, 134. 33. Diagnose, pp. 92 ff. 34. Uber das Verhältnis, pp. 63 ff. 35. Ibid., pp. 38 ff.; Mitteilungen, IV, 62 ff., 83, 114. 36. Uber das Verhältnis, pp. 67, 68. 37. Die Stellung, pp. 251, 252. 38. Ibid., pp. 258-260, 262, 63. 39. Eugene (1663-1736) and Starhemberg (1638-1701) were heroes in the late seventeenth-century wars of Austria against the Turks. Eugene was also a distinguished Imperial general in the War of the Spanish Succession. 40. Die Religion, p. 247. 41. Konservativ?, p. 7. 42. Similar to Novalis' view of kingship. See Breitling, "Die Einflüsse," p. 100. 43. Lagarde to Hans Meyer, December 2, 1883, XVI, i8o; Programm, ΡΡ· 355. 350; LJber die gegenwärtigen Aufgaben, p. 19.

340

Notes to Chapter V

44. Uber die gegenwärtige Lage, p. 122. Lagarde considered the Kreisordnung, which diminished aristocratic rights, as another example of the visciousness of parliaments, Uber das Verhältnis, p. 51. 45. Die Religion, p. 246. 46. Die Reorganisation, p. 284. 47. On other occasions he wished the clergy completely detached from the state. Lagarde seemed to forget that a few years before he had savagely attacked all Christian communities rather than making them prerequisites for ennoblement. 48. Die Reorganisation, pp. 285, 286. 49. Ibid., pp. 289, 290. 50. Uber die gegenwärtige Lage, p. 117. 51. Ibid., pp. ii9ff.; Vrograrrm, pp. 350, 351. 52. Uber die gegenwärtige Lage, p. 121. 53. Ibid., pp. ii8£F. 54. Vrogramm, pp. 351 ff. 55. Die nächsten Pflichten, p. 413. 56. Die Volkswirtschaftliche freie Vereinigung had been actively interested in tax reform, especially tariff reform, since 1878. Bismarck's program for higher indirect taxes, especially tariffs, was adopted essentially in April 1879. A congress of tax reformers met in February 1880 and proposed many reforms. The question of the Tabakmonopol was the key issue in the election of 1881. 57. Die Finanzpolitik, pp. 293 fi. 58. Ibid., p. 295. 59. This sudden interest in strengthening the central administration of the Reich appears at first glance inconsistent with Lagarde's idea of an organic and estate polity. But, in doubting the utility of the state administration, Lagarde was only maintaining an old prejudice, and his desire for greater administrative centralization in the Reich does not imply that he now favored a strong new political bureaucracy, or that he meant to diminish community or provincial activities. 60. Ibid., p. 296. Presumably Lagarde approved Bismarck's proposal for a tobacco monopoly. One might argue that Lagarde in demanding a special tax on tobacco, was departing from the ideal, for is it up to the state to judge or condemn users of tobacco? 61. Die Finanzpolitik, p. 300. 62. A typical Lagardian notion, ideally defensible, but practically inapplicable. How can one decide when an object, for which a debt might be contracted, is of value to the present but in no sense to the future. Where is the line between the present and the future to be drawn? When does a debt become a burden to the future—after one year, five years, ten years? 63. Die Finanzpolitik, p. 304. 64. Uber die gegenwärtige Lage, p. 105; Programm, p. 364. 65. Noch Einmal, p. 272; R. Breitling, Paul de Lagarde und der grossdeutsche Gedanke (Vienna and Leipzig, 1927), p. 74.

Critical

Attack

and Proposals

for

Reform

341

66. Uber die gegenwärtigen Aufgaben, pp. 28, 29. 67. Uber die gegenwärtige Lage, pp. 107, 108. 68. Die graue Internationale, p. 311; Die nächsten Pflichten, p. 386; Uber die gegenwärtige Lage, p. 114. 69. Uber die gegenwärtigen Aufgaben, pp. 29 ff. 70. Uber die gegenwärtige Lage, p. 108. 71. Ibid., pp. 105, 109; see W . Mommsen, Faul de Lagarde als Politiker, Göttinger Beiträge zur deutschen Kulturgeschichte (Göttingen, 1927), p. 152; Krammer, Die Wiedergeburt durch Lagarde, pp. 71 ff. 72. Uber die gegenwärtigen Aufgaben, p. 20. 73. Ibid., pp. 25, 29 ff. 74. Lagarde to King William I, September 4, 1870, V , ç j . 75. Die nächsten Pflichten, p. 390. 76. Lagarde to Α . von Kröcher, November 9, 1888, XXIII, 255. 77. Uber die gegenwärtigen Aufgaben, p. 27. Lagarde also found the Germans of his time far removed from his conception of a nation. It might well be urged against his position that if the Germans could be restored why not the Ma^ars or the Czechs? 78. Uber die gegenwärtige Lage, p. iii. 79. Ibid., p. 113; Die nächsten Pflichten, p. 391. 80. Austria, Lagarde thought, ceased to have any great historical function and, hence, any great moral idea or purpose when the Turkish wave began to subside, Uber die gegenwärtige Lage, p. 1:3; Uber die gegenwärtigen Aufgaben, pp. 35, 36. 81. Vorrede to the Politische Aufsätzen, p. 78. 82. Uber die gegenwärtigen Aufgaben, pp. 20, 27-33. 83. Die nächsten Pflichten, p. 411. 84. Uber die gegenwärtigen Aufgaben, p. 36. 85. Lagarde to Prince Alexander of Hesse, November 22, 1885, XVIII, 250; Programm, p. 359; Die Finanzpolitik, p. 308. 86. Die nächsten Pflichten, pp. 391, 414. 87. Mitteilungen, IV, 419. 88. Anna de Lagarde, Paul de Lagarde, pp. 30, 40; Mitteilungen, I, 155; Die graue Internationale, p. 311; Die Religion, p. 243. 89. Uber die Klage, p. 379. 90. Uber die gegenwärtige Lage, p. 127; Q, 9. 91. Mommsen, "Paul de Lagarde," p. 140; Anna de Lagarde, Paul de Lagarde, p. 32; Konservativ?, p. 14; Programm, p. 330. 92. Konservativ?, p. 9; Die Religion, p. 244. 93. Die Religion, pp. 238, 245; Mitteilungen, II, 87, 88; IV, 63; Vorbemerkungen, p. 90. 94. Uber die gegenwärtigen Aufgaben, p. 20; Symmicta, II, 90. 95. Die graue Internationale, p. 311. 96. Ibid., pp. yi ff. 97. Die Religion, p. 244. 98. Konservativ?, pp. 7, 14; Mitteilungen, IV, 117; Ankündigung, p. 17. 99. Die graue Internationale, p. 314; Programm, pp. 323 ff.

342

Notes to Chapter V

100. Programm, pp. 331 ff., 369. ΙΟΙ. Uber die gegenwärtige Lage, p. 134; Aus dem Deutschen Gelehtenleben, pp. 75, 76; Vorrede to the Deutsche Schriften (1878), as published in the 1903 edition, p. 80. 102. Vorrede to the Deutsche Schriften (1881), as published in the 1903 edition, p. 86. Uber die gegenwärtige Lage, p. 177; Zum Unterrichtsgesetze, p. 179; Die Religion, p. 241; Lagarde to Carlyle (n.d.), VIII, 181 and to Prince William of Prussia, April 6, 1886, XIX, 97. 103. Die nächsten Pflichten, pp. 402, 405; Trogramm, pp. 345, 347, 348. 104. Konservativ?, p. 16; Lagarde to Bismarck, April 6, 1886, XIX, 97; Programm, pp. 350, 353; Die nächsten Pflichten, p. 409; Breitling, Paul de Lagarde, p. 82. 105. Vorrede to the Deutsche Schriften (1881), as published in the 1903 edition, pp. 81 and 82; Uber die gegenwärtige Lage, pp. 122, 134, 167; Diagnose, p. 96; Die nächsten Pflichten, p. 408; Die Religion, pp. 241, 245, 246. 106. Programm, p. 371; Die Religion, p. 239. 107. Lagarde to Bismarck, April 6, 1886, XIX, 97. 108. F. Paulsen, The German Universities and University Study, translated by F. Thilly (New York, 1906), pp. 342, 145, 146. G. Parthy in Paulsen, Geschichte des Gelehrten Unterrichts (Leipzig, 1885), pp. 626, 627. 109. Noch Einmal, pp. 266, 271; Zum Unterrichtsgesetze, pp. 201, 202. 110. Uber das Verhältnis, p. 72. 111. Zum Unterrichtsgesetze, pp. 169, 180, 181; Mitteilungen, IV, 117, 118. Die graue Internationale, p. 317. 112. Uber die gegenwärtige Lage, p. 162; Ankündigung, p. 24. 113. Zum Unterrichtsgesetze, pp. 168, 180, 181; Uber das Verhältnis, PP· 73· 114. Zum Unterrichtsgesetze, pp. 187-189·, Noch Einmal, pp. 267, 270. 115. Noch Einmal, pp. 267, 270. 116. Zum Unterrichtsgesetze, pp. 170, 180, 192; Mitteilungen, III, 129, 125. 117. Zum Unterrichtsgesetze, p. 176; Noch Einmal, pp. 278, 276, 266 ff. 118. "Die königliche Gesellschaft der Wissenschaft in Göttingen betreffend" in Anna de Lagarde, Paul de Lagarde, p. 165. 119. Mitteilungen, III, 125; Uber das Verhältnis, p. 72; Uber die gegenwärtige Lage, p. 160. 120. Die Stellung, pp. 252-256. 121. Die graue Internationale, pp. 316-322. 122. Programm, p. 365. 123. Mitteilungen, II, 338 ff. 124. Lagarde to Althoff, May 18, 1888, XIX, 112; to Minister von Gossler, April 7, 1889, XXIV, 105; to Α. Ludwig, March 19, 1890, XXVI, 10. 125. Mitteilungen, II, 159, 160. 126. Uber die gegenwärtigen Aufgaben, p. 24.

hagarde and His Contemporaries

343

127. Lagarde to S. Buber, Febraary 5, 1887, X X , 45; Anna de Lagarde, Paul de Lagarde, p. 52; Mitteilungen, II, 160, 346. 128. Uber die Klage, pp. 373 ff. 129. Ibid., pp. 376, 377, 382. 130. Ibid., p. 384. CHAPTER V I :

LAGARDE AND H I S CONTEMPORARIES

1. H. Mulert, Paul de Lagarde (Berlin and Schöneberg, 1913), in the Die Klassiker der Religion series, p. 21; ¡Vleyer, Deutsche Charaktere, p. 209; Anna de Lagarde, Paul de Lagarde, p. 136. 2. Lagarde to Erman, July 8, 1880, XIII, 309; Lagarde, Deutsche Schriften, p. 3. 3. Moltke to Lagarde, Dec. 17, 1874, VIII, 195; Kettler to Lagarde, Dec. 8, 1874, VIII, 184; Treitschke to Lagarde, Mar. 29, 1873, VII, 123; Reichensperger to Lagarde, Feb. i, 1873, VII, 97. 4. Hohenlohe to Lagarde, Dec. 28, 1874, VIII, 203; Hoffmann to Lagarde, Dec. 31, 1875, IX, 210. J. F. Liebermann to Lagarde, Oct. 22, 1879, XII, 145; Fahrenbruch to Anna de Lagarde, Apr. 3, 1885, XVIII, 53; Schröder to Lagarde, Nov. 23, 1885, XVIII, 252; Erman to Lagarde, July 7, 1880, XIII, 308. 6. Holtermann to Lagarde, July 19, 1888, XXIII, 168; Lagarde to Holtermann, July 23, 1888, XXIII, 171, and Nov. i, 1888, XXIII, 223. 7. Natorp to Lagarde, Jan. 24, 1879, XII, 12; Lagarde to Natorp, Feb. 2, 1879, XII, 17; Natorp to Lagarde, Feb. 4, 1879, XII, 18. 8. Bezzenberger to Lagarde, Jan. 10, 1887, XX, 24; Harnack to Lagarde, June 20, 1890, X X V I , 216; Apr. i, 1890, X X V I , 108; Jan. 15, 1891, XXVIII, 11; Röhricht to Lagarde, JVIay 11, 1890, X X V I , 160; Lagarde to Röhricht, May 12, 1890, XXVI, 160. 9. Bickell to Lagarde, Feb. 24, 1888, XXII, 58; Mummbrauer to Lagarde, June 13, 1890, X X V I , 206; Use von Gilse to Lagarde, Mar. 24, 1890, X X V I , 87. 10. Egidy to Anna de Lagarde, Jan. 20, 1892, XXIX, 157; Feb. 22, 1892, XXIX, 199; Sept. 6, 1892, XXIX, 164. 11. Carel to Anna de Lagarde, Oct. 25, 1890, XXVII, 108. 12. Spitta to Lagarde, 1876, X, 47; Hoffmann to Lagarde, Dec. 21, 1875, IX, 210; Liebermann to Lagarde, Oct. 22, 1879, XII, 145; Treitschke to Lagarde, Mar. 29, 1873, VII, 123; Bachoffen to Lagarde, Feb., 1873, VII, 96. 13. Masaryk to Lagarde, Oct. 30, 1886, XIX, 130. 14. Pernerstorfer to Lagarde, Aug. 20, 1883, XVI, 99; Lagarde to Pernerstorfer (n.d.), XVI, 99; Julius Zuspitza to Lagarde, Mar. n , 1882, X V , 51. 15. Geyer to Lagarde, June 7, 1886, XIX, 161 and June 16, 1886, X K , 170; Lagarde to Geyer, June 1886, XIX, 165; to von Schönerer, May 19, 1887, X X , 126. 16. J . Bachofen (1815-1887) was a student of Roman law who de-

344

Notes

to Chapter

VI

veloped a romantic interest in antique mythology and symbolism. F. Overbeck (1837-1905) was an Evangelical theologian who sought a culture dissolved from Christianity. 17. Bachofen to Lagarde, Feb. 1873, VII, 96; July 30, 1873, VII, 162. 18. Overbeck to Lagarde, Nov. 2, 1874, VIII, 160; Dec. 30, 1874, VIII, 205; Jan. 14, 1876, X, 9; Feb. 1 2 , 1878, VI, 55. 19. Overbeck to Lagarde, Feb. 12, 1878, VI, 55; Nietzsche to Rohde, Jan. 31, 1873, in Nietzsche, Gesammelte Briefe (Berlin and Leipzig, 1 9 0 2 ) , p . 394.

20. Nietzsche to Rohde, Mar. 22, 1873, 'I'id., pp. 401, 402; Rohde to Lagarde, May 20, 1873, ibid., p. 409; Nietzsche to Fritsch, Mar. 29, 1887 in M. Nicolas, From Nietzsche down to Hitler (London, 1938), p. 58. 21. Nietzsche to Wagner, Apr. 18, 1873 in Elizabeth Foester-Nietzsche, ed.. The Nietzsche-Wagner Correspondence (London, 1922), p. 170; Overbeck to Lagarde, Nov. 2, 1874, VIII, 160; Jan. 14, 1876, X, 9; Lagarde to Cosima Wagner, Jan. 15, 1876, X, 10. 22. Cosima Wagner to Lagarde, Feb. 16, 1876, X, 19. 23. Lagarde to J. E. Websky, July 4, 1879, XII, 98; Joseph Kürscher to Lagarde, Feb. 28, 1886, XIX, 50; Lagarde to Kürscher, Mar. 2, 1886, XIX, 5 1 . 24. L. Schemann, Paul de Lagarde, pp. 374 fî. 25. Liszt to Lagarde, May 17, 1876, X, 97; Aug. 22, 1883, XVI, 127. 26. Tönnies, Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft, translated by С. Loomis as Community and Society (East Lansing, Mich., 1957), pp. 33 fï. 27. Tönnies to Lagarde, Jan. 8, 1884, XVII, 14; Aug. 2, 1887, XXI, 190. 28. Eugen Wolff to Lagarde, July 1885, XVIII, 166; Lagarde to Wolff, Aug. 8, 1885, XVIII, 171; a circular sent by Wolff, XXVII, 58; Lagarde to Wolff, Aug. I, 1890, XXVII, 58. 29. Wolff to Anna de Lagarde, Apr. 14, 1892, XXIX, 227; Anna de Lagarde to Wolff, Apr. 6, 1892, XXIX, 227. 30. Schemann to Lagarde, Jan. i, 1890, XXVI, 6; Schemann, Paul de Lagarde, p. 372. 31. Schemann, Paul de Lagarde, pp. 369 ff., 378. 32. Schemann to Lagarde, Jan. 1, 1890, XXVI, 6; Mar. 18, 1890, XXVI, 80. 33. Julius Langbehn to Lagarde, Oct. 12, 1887, XXI, 332; Lagarde to Langbehn, Dec. 16, 1887, XXI, 335; Langbehn to Lagarde, Dec. 20, 1887, XXI, 33534. M. Nissen, Der Rembrandt Deutscher (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1 9 2 6 ) , p p . 73, 142.

35. Langbehn to Lagarde, Dec. 27, 1888, XXIII, 267; Lagarde to Langbehn, Dec. 29, 1888, XXIII, 267; Langbehn to Anna de Lagarde, Apr. 19, 1889, XXIV, ICQ; Anna de Lagarde to Langbehn, Apr. 4, 1889, XXIV, 94. 36. Langbehn to Lagarde, Aug. 18, 1889, XXV, 295; Nissen, Der Rembrandt Deutscher, p. 142, asserts that Langbehn finally did visit Lagarde at Göttingen. Lagarde's correspondence offers no confirmation. 37. XXVI, 18; Langbehn to Anna de Lagarde, Jan. 22, 1890, XXVI, 31; Anna de Lagarde to Langbehn, Jan. 23, 1890, XXVI, 31.

hagarde and His Contemporaries

345

38. Langbehn to Lagarde, Mar. 22, 1890, X X V I , 85 and Mar. 25, 1890, XXVI, 90 and Mar. 30, 1890, X X V I , 100; Anna de Lagarde to Langbehn, Mar. 24, 1890, X X V I , 85; Langbehn to Anna de Lagarde, Mar. 25, 1890, X X V I , 90. 39. Lagarde to Langbehn, Apr. 2, 1890, X X V I , 1 1 1 ; Langbehn to Anna de Lagarde, Apr. 3, 1890, X X V I , 112. 40. Langbehn to Anna de Lagarde, Apr. 30, 1890, X X V I , 143; Hoffmann to Lagarde, Apr. 24, 1890, X X V I , 134; Anna de Lagarde to Langbehn, May 7, 1890, X X V I , 153. 41. Langbehn to Anna de Lagarde, Dec. 26, 1891, XXIX, 59. 42. Langbehn to Lagarde, July 27, 1889, XXIV, 47. 43. Nissen, Der Rembrandt Deutscher, p. 142. 44. Langbehn, Rembrandt als Erzieher (Weimar, 1922), pp. i, 4, 5. H. Hartwig, Langbehn als Vorkämpfer der deutschen Volkwerdung (Mannheim, 1938), p. n characterizes Langbehn's "concept of individualism" as "the basic element in Langbehn's thought." 45. Langbehn, Rembrandt als Erzieher, pp. 24, 25. 46. Hartwig, Langbehn als Vorkämpfer, pp. 17, 20, 23. 47. Langbehn, Rembrandt als Erzieher, pp. 114, 115, 140, 141. Langbehn offers an etymological argument for the leadership principle, namely, that "Volk" derives from "Gefolge" which implies leadership. Moreover, "Fürst" derives from "Voreste" which suggests the position of the prince. 48. Ibid., pp. 45 ff. 49. Ibid., pp. 120 ff. 50. Fifty printings by 1922, although the intense interest in the book in 1890 quickly subsided and apparently was a product in part of curiosity as to authorship. Anna de Lagarde to Langbehn, April 30, 1890, X X V I , 134. 51. P. Massing, Rehearsal for Destruction (New York, 1949); Mitteilungen, II, 346. 52. F. Stehlich to Lagarde, Aug. 26, 1889, X X V , 230; Lagarde to Stehlich, Aug. 28, 1889, X X V , 230; Rudolf Müller to Lagarde, Feb. 27, 1890, XXVII, 27. Müller wrote under an elaborately printed letter head "Die Juden sind unser Unglück." A brochure from E. Klopfer in Munich, 1891, XXVIII, 147; to Lagarde, Dec. 5, 1890, XXVII, 169. 53. This movement aimed at reducing the gulf between rich and poor and winning the workers for a Christian and conservative standpoint. It had a decided anti-Semitic orientation. 54. Stöcker to Lagarde, Mar. 25, 1890, X X V I , 89. 55. Lagarde to Stöcker, Mar. 27, 1890, X X V I , 93. 5Ó. This idea he developed in Der Sieg des Judentums über das Germanentum first published in 1873. 57. Anna de Lagarde, Paul de Lagarde, p. iio. 58. Theodor Fritsch, Antisemiten-Kathechismus (Leipzig, 1892), pp. 112 ff., 18. 59. Fritsch to Lagarde, May 13, 1886, XIX, 130; Lagarde to Fritsch, Mar. 3, 1888, XX, Ó6.

34б

Notes

to

Chapter

VI

60. Fritsch to Lagarde, June 9, 1888, XXII, 129; Lagarde to Fritsch, July 7, 1888, XXII, 130; Fritsch to Lagarde, Mar. 20, 1890, XXVI, 83; Lagarde to Fritsch, Mar. 28, 1890, XXVI, 95; Fritsch to Lagarde, Apr. 3, 1890, XXVI, 113; Lagarde to Fritsch, Apr. 4, 1890, XXVI, 113. 61. Sent to Lagarde, Apr. 20, 1890, XXVI, 124; Fritsch to Lagarde, Oct. II, 1890, XXVII, 92. 62. Lagarde to Fritsch, Dec. 12, 1891, XXVIII, 258. 63. Aus dem deutschen Gelehrtenleben, pp. Soff.; Lagarde to Bismarck, Apr. 6, 1886, XIX, 97; Lagarde to Prince Wilhehn, Apr. 6. 188Ó, 96; Lagarde to Captivi, Sept. 22, 1890, XXVII, 75 and June 5, 1891, XXVIII, 115; Anna de Lagarde, Faul de Lagarde, p. 137. 64. This speech, in part, appears in the Annual Register (1890), pp. 315 FF.

65. A. Wahl, Deutsche Geschichte von der Reichsgründung bis zum Ausbruch des Weltkriegs (Stuttgart, 1932), III, 118 ff. Wahl considers Lagarde an important source of the ideas discussed at the School Conference of 1890, particularly of ideas concerning reform of the system of examinations and simplification of the curriculum. 66. Thus, see Treitschke's criticism of the press, "Die Universitäten und die Presse," Preussische Jahrbücher, 1 (1880), 2 (1883), 159, 171, 172, 177 ff. 67. Friedrich Paulsen, The German Universities and University Study, p. 97; and Geschichte des Gelehrten Unterrichts, pp. 627, 628, 721, 776; Paulsen to Lagarde, Jan. 31, 1877, XX, 34. 68. Deutsche Rundschau, 18 (1879), 425, 434; Hillebrand to Lagarde, May 7, 1877, XI. 69. Deutsche Rundschau, 18 (1879), 435, 436, 42Ó. CHAPTER V I I : LAGAKDE AND GERMANY AFTER 1891

1. See the remarks of Herman Sauppe in the Nachrichten for 1892, pp. 576 ff. and the address of Julius Wellhausen in the Nachrichten for 1894, PP· 49®· Wellhausen's rather critical and blunt address made a lasting impression in Göttingen. In 1956 the author was surprised to hear people in Göttingen still talking about this speech. 2. For comparisons of this kind see the follovs^ing: P. Friedrich, Lagarde und der deutsche Renaissance (1912); Krammer, Die Wiedergeburt; К. Albrecht, Paul de Lagarde (Berlin, 1901), p. 4; O. Conrad, "Paul de Lagarde's Bildungsideal und seine Bedeutung für die Gegenvirart," Sokrates Zeitschrift für das Gymnasial-wesen, N.F. 3 (1915), 333 ff.; H. Dost, "Der 'wiedergeborene Mensch' Lagardes und Raabes 'Unruhige Gäste,'" Eckert, 9, no. 2 (1914), 73. 3. References to Lagarde's Middle European ideas are abundant throughout the literature on him. See especially R. Breitling, Paul de Lagarde und der grossdeutsche Gedanke (Vienna and Leipzig, 1927). Lagarde's educational views are treated in H. Platz, Unsre Nationale Erziehung nach Lagarde und Langbehn (Berlin, 1891). For Lagarde's re-

Lagarde and Germany aper 18 pi

347

ligious views see G . Dost, Paul de Lagarde's National Religion, and Hermann Mulert, "Lagarde als Prophet Deutsche Religion," Monatsheft für Kultur und Geistesleben, 25, no. i (1916). 4. The following works not only document this paragraph but, along with those cited in note 5, represent the most interesting and characteristic wartime writings on Lagarde: O. Conrad, "Paul de Lagarde und unser Krieg," Deutsches Philologen-Blatt, 24, no. 3 (1916); R. Eberhard, "Uber Paul de Lagarde," in a supplement to the Mecklenburger Nachrichten, March II, 1916; "Paul de Lagarde," Christentum und Gegenwart, 6, no. I (1915), p. 4; F. Reichhelm, "Lagarde in Russland," Akademische Blätter, 30, no. 15 (1915); К. Jentsch, "Lagarde," Die neue Rundschau, 2 j (1914), pp. 702 ff.; P. Friedrich, Paul de Lagarde und das Deutschland von Morgen (Wiemar, 1916), pp. 7 ff. 5. H . Dost, "Lagarde's Ruf an unsere Zeit," Eckert, i (1914-1915), pp. 626 ff.; P. Friedrich, Lagarde und Deutschland, p. 16; P. Fischer, "Paul de Lagarde, ein Prophet des deutschen Volk," Die Christliche Welt, nos. 48, 49, 50 (December 2-16, 1915), p. 955. 6. Krammer, Die Wiedergeburt, pp. 5, 6. 7. Schemann did not have the use of the Lagarde archives at Göttingen, not as yet opened. Breitling, Paul de Lagarde und der grossdeutsche Gedanke; F. Krog, Lagarde und der deutsche Staat (Munich, 1930). 8. Ich Mahne und Künde (Breslau, 1944); Deutscher Glaube: deutsches Vaterland (Jena, 1925); Bekenntnis zu Deutschland (Jena, 1933)· 9. T . Heuss, Würdigungen (Tübingen, 1955), p. 172. 10. G . Steinhausen, Deutsche Geistes-und-Kulturgeschichte von tS-jo bis zur Gegenwart (Halle, 1931), p. 474. E. Frobenius, Mit uns zieht die neue Zeit (Berlin, 1927), pp. 29 fï. 11. L . Schemann, "Paid de Lagarde: Ein Gedenkwort zu seinem 70 Geburtstag," Comenius-Blättern für Volkserziehung, 5 (1897), 8; E . Harmsen, Göttinger Anzeiger, no. 4655 and no. 4656 (December 17 and 18, 1897); R· Braun, Individualismus und Gemeinschaft in der deutschen Jugendbewegung (Erlangen, 1929), p. 13; O. Conrad, "Paul de Lagarde und die akademische Jugend," Akademische Rundschau, 4 (1916). 12. Frobenius, Mit uns, pp. 32, 33, 120. 13. Ibid., p. 49; Braun, Individualismus, p. 13. 14. C. Hermann, "Der Sinn Freideutsche Jugend," Freideutsche Jugend, 1 (1915), 92. 15. Braun, Individualismus, pp. 88, 142. 16. J . Koenig, Das Ethos der Jugendbewegung in Deutschland (Düsseldorf, 1929), p. 18. 17. W . Stählin, Von Schicksal und Sinn der deutsche Jugend in Braun, Individualismus, 126; Freideutsche Jugend, 2 (1919), 59; Koenig, Das Ethos, p. 30. 18. A bibliography of the numerous pamphlets published under the auspices of the League is given in M. Wertheimer, The Pan German League (New York, 1924), pp. 2 i 9 f f . An inspection of this will reveal

348

Notes to Chapter

VU

the breadth of the League's interests. H. Grell, Oer Alldeutscher Verband: Seine Geschichte, Seine Bestrebungen und Erfolge (Munich, 1898), p. 7. 19. О. Bonhard, Geschichte des Alldeutschen Verbandes (Leipzig and Berlin, 1920), p. 6. 20. Ibid., pp. 95 ö., 152 ff., 179. 21. Harmsen in the Götünger Anzeiger, December 17, 1897. F. Naumann, "Paul de Lagarde," in Gestalten und Gestalter (Berlin and Leipzig, 1919), p. 153. This essay originally appeared in Die Hilfe in 1912. 22. F. Winterstein, Kletn-Deutschland: ein Kehrbild (Munich, 1903); E. Bassenge, Deutschlands Weltstellung und die nächsten Aufgaben deutscher Politik (Munich, 1899); F. Bley, Die Weltstellung des Deutschtum (Munich, 1897); Deutschlands Ausbrüche an das Türkische Erbe (Munich, 1896). 23. An introduction to the literature on Middle Europe is afforded by P. Sweet, "Recent German Literature on Mitteleuropa," Journal of Central European Affairs, 3 (1943). Consult also H. Meyer, Mitteleuropa in German Thought and Action (The Hague, 1955). The supplement on Lagarde in the Magdeburgische Zeitung is entitled Lagarde in Mitteleuropa and appeared April 22, 1916. See also F. von Liszt, "Ein Mitteleuropaischer Staatenverband," Zwischen Krieg und Frieden, 2 (1914). K. Wintersteten (pseudonym Α. Ritter), Das politische Programm des Krieges (Frankfurt, 1914), esp. pp. 7-16. 24. J. Stern, Mitteleuropa von Leibnitz bis 'Naumann über List und Frantz, Planck und Lagarde (Stuttgart and Berlin, 1917), pp. 14, 16. 25. F. Naumann, Kaisertum und Democratic (Berlin and Schöneberg, 1905), pp. 10-26, 157, 180 ff. 26. Some writers see this tendency becoming clear in Naumann's essay, Was Heisst Christlich-Sozial? (1894). See W. Shanahan, "A German View of Power and Nationalism," in E. Earle, ed., Nationalism and Internationalism (New York, 1950), p. 357. 27. Naumann, "Paul de Lagarde," p. 155. 28. T . Heuss, Friedrich Naumann (Stuttgart and Berlin, 1937), pp. 147, 163 ff., 201 ff., 585. 29. F. Naumann, Geist und Glaube (Berlin and Schöneberg, 1911), pp. 24, 26. 30. F. Naumann, Jesus als Volksmann (n.p., n.d.), p. 2. 31. F. Naumann, Central Europe (London, 1917), pp. 4 ff., 64, 76. 32. Eucken wrote approvingly of Lagarde's religious view and styled it a "moral-religious personalism, the ideal of the reform personality." See T . Lindström-Goslar, Paul de Lagarde: Ein Vorkämpfer deutschsozial Reform (Berlin, 1897), p. 6; A. Weinel, "Religious Life in Germany Today," The Hibben Journal, 7 (1909), 722 ff.; F. Wieneke, Deutsche Theologie im Umriss (Soldin, 1933), p. 25. 33. Lindström-Goslar, Paul de Lagarde, p. 5; Schemann, "Paul de Lagarde: Ein Gedankwort," p. 10; Dost, "Lagarde's Ruf," pp. 626 ff.

Lagar de and Germany

aper i8çi

349

34. G.B., "Ein Apostel deutscher Religion," Das neue Jahrhundert, 21, no. 38 (1913); О. Conrad, "Deutsche ReUgion in Sinne Paul de Lagarde," Die Wartburg, 13 (1914). This article interprets Lagarde in a somewhat more Evangelical sense than he probably would have allowed. H. Mulert, Paul de Lagarde (Berlin and Schöneberg, 1913), p. 7; Dost, "Lagarde's National Religion," p. i. 35. A. Bartels, Betrachtungen und Bemerkungen (Weimar, 1909-1917), pp. i-üi, 90. Some works which particularly seem to reflect Lagarde's ideas are as follows: G. Traub, Staatschristentum oder Volkskirche (Jena, 1911); W . Stapel, "Warum ich nicht zu Gott, sondern zum deutschen Gott bete," Chrichliche Welt, no. 4 (January 28, 1915); Hermann Heller, Sozialismus und Nation (Berlin, 1925); Artur Bonus' works generally. 36. "Das alte Christentum—von ein Prediger," Die Tat i (19101911), 142 ff., 154, 155. M. Christleib, Paul de Lagarde," Die Tat i (1913-1914). 37. E. Horneffer, "Die Religion des Masses," Die Tat i (1911-12), 3; A. Horneffer, "Geschlechtstrieb, Heroismus und Christentum," Die Tat 2 (1909-10), 433. 38. A. Horneffer, "Artur Bonus: Die Kirche," Die Tat 2 (1911-12), 39. In a conversation with the author in 1956 in Göttingen, Gogarten sharply contrasted the interest which the young Germans of his day took in Fichte and Lagarde with the lack of interest among the youth of )ost-Hitler Germany. He did not specifically indicate to what extent he limself felt obliged to Lagarde. 40. H. Mulert, "Religion und Volkstum: Eine Auseinandersetzung mit Gogarten, Lippert und Scheler," Christliche Welt, no. 52 (August 12, 1915), p. 637; F. Gogarten, "Religion und Volkstum," Tat Flugschriften, no. 5 (n.d.). 41. Mulert, "Religion und Volkstum," pp. 636, 638; Gogarten, "Religion und Volkstum," pp. 5 ff. 42. E. Troeltsch, Zur Religiösen Lage, Religionsphilosophie und Ethik in Gesammelte Schriften (Tübingen, 1922), II, viii. 43. E. Spiess, Die Religionstheorie von Ernst Troeltsch (Paderborn, 1927); Ernst Troeltsch, "Die Christliche Weltanschauung und die Wissenschaftliche Gegenströmung," Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche, 4 (1894), 17Ó; Zur Religiösen Lage, in Gesammelte Schriften, II, 17, 18, 148, 149. 44. Troeltsch, Zur Religiösen Lage, in Gesammelte Schriften, II, 20, 21, 150, 151. 45. E. Troeltsch, Deutscher Geist und Westeuropa (Tübingen, 1925), p. 15. 46. Ibid., pp. 4-48, 219-221 ff. Many other Lagardian views were suggested in these essays. Thus, Troeltsch touched on the building of a "Danube-block" (pp. 51-53), encouraged "family sense and love of home" (p. 60), perceived the fundamental identity or similarity of the religious and political spirit (p. 66).

350

Notes to Chapter

VU

47. Friedrich Meinecke in the introduction to E . Troeltsch, SpektatorBriefe (Tübingen, 1924), pp. iv, v. 48. Α . MoeUer van den Bruck, Das Dritte Reich (Hamburg, 1931), p. 116. 49. Ibid., pp. i f f . , 5, б ff., 17, } i . 50. Ibid., pp. I, 3, 9. 5i.See especially ibid., pp. 97-100, 10. 52. Ibid., pp. 214 ff., 299. 5j. E. Jung, Sinndeutung der deutschen Revolution (Oldenburg, 1933), pp. 12, 44, 59, 65. 54. Ibid., pp. II, 23, 92-94, 120. 55. Arno Koselleck, "Die Entfaltung des Volkischen Bewusstseins bei Paul de Lagarde," Historische Vierteljahrschift, 30 (1935-1936), 320. 56. H. Chamberlain, The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century, translated by John Lees (London and N e w York, 1 9 1 1 ) , I, 235, 519 ff.; П, 373. 374. 502. 57. Sept. I, 1927; reprinted in A . Rosenberg, Blut und Ehre—Ein Kampf für deutsche Wiedergeburt (Munich, 1938), pp. 228 ff. 58. Α . Rosenberg, Der Mythus des 20. Jahrunderts (Munich, 1938), pp. 21 ff., and especially pp. 145, 526-531. 59. Ibid., see especially pp. 138, 237, 443, 444. 60. Ibid., pp. 22, 23. 61. Ibid., pp. 457, 458. 62. Albert Béguin, "Le Neo-Paganisme Allemand," Revue des Deux Mondes, 27 (May 1935), 281. 63. Ibid., p. 280. Fahrenkrog was a painter and writer who founded as early as 1908 a community for a German faith. Ludwig Fahrenkrog, Germanisches Glaubensgut (Heidelberg, 1934), pp. 4, 27. 64. William Hauer, The German Faith Movement, translated by T . Scott-Craig and R. Davies (New York, 1937), pp. 30, 53. 65. Ibid., pp. 33, 42, ¡6, 62. CHAPTER

VILI:

ΑΝ

EVALUATION

OF LAGARDE'S

HISTORICAL

ROLE

1. A . Möhler, Konservative Revolution, offers an elaborate bibliographical treatment of the conservative revolution. 2. Nietzsche, David Strauss, in The Complete Works, Levy edition (London, 1927), IV, 5. 3. Ibid., p. 14. 4. Nietzsche, Schopenhauer as Educator, in The Complete Works, V , 103. 5. Ibid., V , 109, I I I . 6. Ibid., V , 135, 138. 7. Nietzsche, The Genealogy of Morals, Modern Library edition (New York, n.d.), p. 21. 8. Nietzsche, The Use and Abuse of History in The Complete Works, V , 14, 25.

Evaluation of Lagarde^s Historical Role

351

9. Ibid., ν , 15. 10. W . Kaufmann, Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist (Princeton, 1950), p. 272. 11. Quoted in K. Löwith, Von Hegel zu Nietzsche (Stuttgart, 1941), p. 206. 12. C. Frantz, Wiederherstellung Deutschlands (Berlin, 1865), pp. 443 ff·

13. C. Frantz, Die Nationalliberal Reichseinheit und das Reichsgericht Augsburg, 1873), p· Abfertigung der Nationalliberalen Presse nebst einer höchst nöthigen Belehrung über den Oltramontanismus (Leipzig, 1873), p. 9. 14. C. Frantz, Grundzüge des Wahren und Wirklichen Absoluten Idealismus. Frantz's ideas as developed in this paragraph are drawn from this essay via E. Stamm's excellent work, Constantin Frantz Schriften und Leben (Heidelberg, 1907), especially pp. 25-40. 15. E. Stamm, Ein Berühmter Unberühmter (Constance, 1948), pp. 23 fr. 16. С. Frantz, Drei und dreiszig Sätze vom Deutschen Bunde (Berlin, 1861), pp. 4-9. 17. С. Frantz, Deutschland und der Föderalismus (Stuttgart and Berlin, 1921), pp. 123, 156-160, 232, 233.

Index

Absolutism, bureaucratic, 2, 33 Alexander of Battenberg, Prince, 112 Alexander of Hesse, Prince, 112, 192 Alvensleben, Albrecht von, 30 Anti-Semitism and the Jews, 96, 210-215, 227, 245-252 Aristocracy, 170-175, 189 Arndt, Ernst Moritz, 11, 38, 45 Arnim, Archim von, 61 Austria, 189, 226-232 Austro-Prussian W a r (1866), 88 Awakening, religious, 11, 35, 40, 42. See also Pietism Bachofen, Johann, 225, 227-229 Bayreuth, 227-232 Berlin Assembly (1848), 29, 74 Berliner Politische Wochenblatt, 31. 3z Bezzenberger, Α., 223 Bickell, Georg, 223 Bismarck-Schönhausen, Otto von, 33, 104, H2, 148, 164, 181, 196, 201-203 Bötticher, Johann Friedrich W i l helm (Lagarde's father), 28, 29, 59; 72 Bötticher, Luise (Lagarde's mother), 58 Brentano, Clemens, 30 Bruno, Giordano, 8, 102 Bunsen, Christian Karl von, 78

Burke, Edmund, 17 Burckhardt, Jakob, 200, 228 Burnhof, Eugene, 81 Burschenschaft, 39, 46 Calvin, John, 22 Caprivi, Leo von, 112, 252 Carlsbad Decrees, 72 Carlyle, Thomas, 148, 221 Catholicism, 151-158 Center Party, 134, 165 Chamberlain, Houston Stewart, 130, 289 Chamisso, Adelbert von, 61 Church-State, 56-58, 164, 170 Conservatism, Radical, and the Conservative Revolution, 2-4, 147-149, 297-298 Conservatism, Romantic, 2, 27-35 Conservative Party, 197-199 Conservatives, Young, 283 Crimean W a r , 34, 186 Darré, Walther, 293 Delitzsch, Franz, 103 Döllinger, Ignaz, i n , 147 Driver, Samuel, 103 Education, 203-210, 244, 252-256 Egidy, Moritz von, 224 Eichendorff, Joseph von, 18 Empire of 1871, German, 131, 140 Enlightenment, 13 Erman, Adolf, 221

354

Index

Eucken, Rudolf, 277 Evangelische Kirchenzeitung, 31 Ewald, Georg Heinrich, 88 Fahrenkrog, Ludwig, 294 Feder, Gottfried, 292 Fichte, Johann Gottlieb, 22-24, 36, 39. 44, 141 First World War, 7, 259, 260 Fischer, Paul, 264 Folk and Volksgeist, 18, 130, 133, 174. 175 Franco-Prussian War, 89, 186 Frantz, Constantin, 10, 231, 300, 307-313 Frederick William I, King of Prussia, 56 Frederick William II, King of Prussia, 38, 57 Frederick William III, King of Prussia, 33, 57, 72, 142, 162 Frederick William IV, King of Prussia, 29, 33, 72, 77, 162 French Revolution, i, 25, 26, 195, 197 Friedberg, Emil, 165 Fritsch, Theodor, 113, 230, 246247, 249-252 Fröbel, Julius, 53 Gerlach, Leopold von, 29, 30, 72, 77. 82 Gerlach, Ludwig von, 3, 29-35 German Confederation, 195 German Faith Movement, 295 Gesellschaft der Wissenschaft in Göttingen, 90, 210 Gesenius, Wilhelm, 40 Geyer, Rudolf, 227 Gobineau, Joseph de, 231 Goethe, Johann Wolfgang, i, 3, 21, 23 Gogarten, Friedrich, 279 Görres, Joseph von, 65 Grimm, Jakob, 61, 84 Günther, Hans, 293

Haase, Ernst, 269, 270 Haller, Karl Ludwig von, 2, 30 Hardenberg, Karl von, 29 Harnack, Adolf, 223 Hauer, Wilhehn, 295 Haupt, Paul, 115 Hebrews, ancient, 128, 130, 136140 Hegel, Georg Friedrich Wilhelm, and Hegelianism, 2, 33, 34, 120, 121, 132 Hengstenberg, Emst, 31, 65, 66, 68, 13z Herder, Johann, 13, 14, 17, 18, 130 Heuss, Theodor, 263 Hillebrand, Karl, 204, 253-256 Hinschius, Paul, 165 Historisch Politische Zeitschrift, 3^, 33 History, philosophy of, 17, 25, 119-123 Hitler, Adolf, 227 Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, Chlodwig zu, no, 220 Holy Alliance, 3 Humboldt, Wilhelm von, 72, 83 Individual, 20-25, 122, 126-131, 206, 242-243 Individual and community, 20-25, 126-131, 242 Jahn, the Rev. Friedrich, 46 Jarcke, Karl, 31 Jesuits and Jesuitism, 157, 167 Jung, Edgar, 284, 287 Kant, Immanuel, 13, 21, u8 Kettler, Bishop Wilhelm von, 219 Kleist, Heinrich von, 43 Koselleck, Arno, 288-289 Kultur, 193-194 Kulturkampf, i n , 164-170 Lachmann, Karl, 61 Lagarde, Anna de (Lagarde's wife,

Index née Berger), 76, 116, 196, 240, 270 Lagarde, Ernestine de (Lagarde's great aunt), 59, 75 Lagarde, Paul de: youth and family, 58-60; early intellectual influences, 60-65; in Berlin, 6575, 82-85; if! Halle, 75-77; scholarship and teaching, 77, 90, 96104, 136-140; political writings, 85-86, 104-П0; in Göttingen, 8796; structure of thought, 117119; philosophy of history, 119123; organic idea, 123-126; individual and community of the nation, 126-131 ; basic theology, 131-140; as moralist, 140-143; national religion and Zeitkritik, 143-149; Christianity, Catholicism, and Protestantism, 151-161; the state, 161-164; Kulturkampf and separation of church and state, 164-170; constitutional theories, 170-178; political economy, 178-184; social question, 181-184; Middle Europe, 184193; Liberals, 194-197·, Conservatives, 197-200; education, 203210, 252-256; anti-Semitism and Jevifs, 210-215; youth, 215-217; reaction to his writings, 219-226, 258-262; Austrian Germanbm, 226-232; Conservative Revolution, 297-299; Nietzsche and Frantz, 300-312 Langbehn, Julius, 237-245, 249 Leo, Heinrich, 76, 171 Leo XIII, Pope, 112 Lessing, Gotthold, 13 Ley, Robert, 292 Liberalism and the parliamentary system, 176, 194-197 Liberation, War of the (18131814), II, 29, 30, 43 Liebermann, Max, von Sonnenberg, 246-247 List, Friedrich, 269

355

Liszt, Franz von, 230, 271 Louis Philippe, King of France, 195 Luther, Martm, 93, 159 Magyars, 187, 190, 276 Maikäferei, 30 Man, Wilhelm, 246-248 Masaryk, Tomas, 225 May Laws, Prussian, 165, 166 Michaelis, Johann, 61 Middle Europe, 6, i8i, 183-193, 268-276 Moeller van den Brack, Artur, 284-287 Moltke, Helmuth von, Î19 Monarchy, 170-173 Moore, George, 104 Mühler, Heinrich von, i68 Müller, Adam, 15-19, 23-24, 36, 43 Mummbrauer, August, 223 Napoleon III, 87, 89, iio National idea, 42-48, 126-131, 141 National religion, 143-149, 275, 277-283 National Socialism, 7, 130, 261, 263, 288-296 Natorp, Paul, n8, 132, 221 Naumann, Friedrich, 272-276 Neander, Johann, 65, 66 Neo-paganism, 293 Neuhof, Theodor de, 89 Nietzsche, Friedrich, 7, 10, 147, 227-230, 258, 300-307, 312 Novalis (Friedrich von Hardenberg), 13, 14, 24, 26, 27, 35, 4z Olmütz, 6 Organic idea, 22-25, 123-126, 133 Overbeck, Franz, 7, 227-230 Pan-German Movement, 268 Paul, St., 41, 153 Paulsen, Friedrich, 204, 253-256 Pernerstorfer, Engelbert, 226

Index

35б

Pietism, 11, 35, 39, 40, 131. See also Awakening, religious Pius IX, 164 Poland, 186, 187, 190 Political economy and state finance, 178-184

Press, 2 0 0 - 2 0 1 Protestantism, 1 5 8 - 1 6 4 Prussia, 6, 140, 102, 176, 189, 190 Quatremere, Etienne, 80 Radowitz, Joseph von, 31, 72, 78, 84,

i8j

Ranke, Leopold von, 32 Reichensperger, August, 11, 220 Religion: Pietism and the Awakening, I I , 2 2 , 3 5 , 4 0 , 4 2 , 1 3 1 ; national religion, 1 4 3 - 1 4 9 , 2 7 5 , 2 7 7 283; theological rationalism, 131; Vermittlungstheologie, 41, 67; church-state, 56-58, 164-170; Kulturkampf, i n , 1 6 4 - 1 7 0 ; kingdom of God, 1 3 3 , 1 4 7 , 2 4 5 ; rebirth, 135, 260; revelation, 120; Gospel and Scripture, 126, 135; dogmas, 131, 155; orthodoxy, 1 3 2 , 1 4 4 ; ethics, 1 3 2 , 140-143; Christianity and Jesus, 134, 1431 4 9 , 1 5 1 - 1 5 4 ; St. Paul, 4 1 , 1 5 3 ; Catholicism, 1 5 1 - 1 5 8 ; Protestantism,

158-164

Renan, Ernest, 80, 90, 129 Revolution of 1848, 3, 73, 74 Ritschl, Albrecht, 88, 92, 161, 223 Rohde, Erwin, 229, 230 Romanticism, 4 , 1 2 - 2 7 , 35. 4^. " 7 Rosenberg, Alfred, 290 Rotteck, Karl von, 29 Riickert, Friedrich, 65, 66, 69, 70, 78 Ruge, Arnold, 53 Russia, 187, 191, 192 Scharnhorst, Gerhard von, 38, 261 Schelling, Friedrich Wilhelm, 15, 23. 24. 33

Schemann, Ludwig, 90, 231, 232, 235-236

Schlegel, Friedrich, 19, 36, 42 Schleiermacher, Friedrich, 22, 23, 37, 38, 63, 128,

134

Schleusingen, 49, 87 Schönerer, Georg von, 226 Schröder, Eduard, 221 Semler, Johann, 61 Septuagint, 8, 137 Social Democratic Party, i8i, 286 Social question, 5 5 , 1 8 1 - 1 8 4 Stahl, Friedrich, 3, 27, 33, 34 State, statism, 2 4 , 1 2 7 , 1 6 1 - 1 6 4 , 1 6 8 , 204

Stein, Heinrich vom und zum, 2, 29, 3 8

Stöcker, Adolf,

246-248

Tat, Die, 2 7 1 , 2 7 8 Techen, Ludwig, 94 Thadden, Adolf von, 30, 40 Tholuck, August, 42, 65, 67 Thoma, Hans, 238 Tieck, Ludwig, 13 Tönnies, Ferdinand, 2 3 2 - 2 3 4 Traub, Gottfried, 264 Treitschke, Heinrich von, 33, 204, 220,

253-254

Trendelenburg, Friedrich, 65 Troeltsch, Ernst, 19, 2 8 0 - 2 8 3 Twesten, August, 65, 67 United Landtag, 29 Vatican Council, 157, 165 Vermittlungstheologie, 41, 67 Wagner, Richard, 113, 130, 227232

Waldeck, Benedikt, 74 Wegscheider, Julius, 40 Weber, Alfred, 318 Weitling, Wilhelm, 55 Wellhausen, Julius, 92, 103 Welcker, Karl, 29 Wette, Martin de, 42, 67

Index Wüamowitz-Moellendorff, Ulrich von, 115 William I, German emperor, i i i , 112, 137, 186 William II, German emperor, 253 Wolff, Eugen, 232, 234-235

357

Youth, Lagarde's views on, 215217 Youth Movement, 264-267 Zeitkritik, 5, 6, 25-27, 143-149 Zunz, 94