Pietism as a Factor in the Rise of German Nationalism 9780231888073

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S T U D I E S IN HISTORY, ECONOMICS A N D PUBLIC LAW Edited by the FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

NUMBER 398

PIETISM AS A FACTOR IN THE RISE OF GERMAN NATIONALISM BY

KOPPEL S. PINSON

PIETISM AS A FACTOR IN THE RISE OF GERMAN NATIONALISM BY

KOPPEL S. PINSON, Ph.D.

NEW YORK

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS I-ONDON : P. S. KING & SON, LTD.

1934

COPYRIGHT,

1934

BY COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

PRESS

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

fflo

THE MEMORY OF

MY FATHER AND GRANDFATHER WHO FIRST INSPIRED ME WITH IDEALS OF SCHOLARSHIP

THE

PREFACE WHEREAS the relations between religion and the rise of capitalism have received much attention in the works of Max Weber, Ernst Troeltsch, R . H. Tawney and others, the connections between religion and nationalism—that other great force of the modern age—have hardly been noticed. It was Carlton J . H. Hayes who first drew attention to the close emotional and psychological similarities between nationalism and religion. This study was begun under the stimulus of these ideas of Professor Hayes and it owes its completion in a great measure to the valuable help and inspiring assistance given to me by him. While only a prolegomenon to a larger work which I am contemplating I hope this study will serve to direct attention to this neglected aspect of modern nationalism. I wish to express my deepest appreciation to Professor G. T . Robinson of Columbia University for his kindness in going over my manuscript and offering me numerous helpful suggestions and comments. I also wish to thank Professor Rockwell of the Union Theological Seminary, President Jacobs of the Mt. Airy Lutheran Theological Seminary, Professor Friedrich Meinecke of the University of Berlin and Professor Walter Goetz of the University of Leipzig for many valuable suggestions. I cannot refrain from also expressing my heartfelt thanks to the library staff of Columbia University, particularly to Mr. Charles F. Claar, and to the library staffs of the Union Theological Seminary, the Mt. Airy Lutheran Theological Seminary and the Moravian Seminary of Bethlehem, Pa. for their kind aid throughout the preparation of this study. 7

CONTENTS TACK 7

PREFACE INTRODUCTION

11

PART I CHAPTER I Enthusiasm and Irrationalism

33

CHAPTER

II

Individuality and Individualism CHAPTER

63 III

T h e O n e and the Many

76 CHAPTER

IV

T h e C o m m o n Man

102

PART II CHAPTER

V

Education

123 CHAPTER

VI

National L a n g u a g e and National Literature CHAPTER

153

VII

Christian Patriotism

180

BIBLIOGRAPHY

207

INDEX

225

9

INTRODUCTION IT was in the g r e a t year 1 8 1 3 a f t e r Napoleon's disastrous R u s s i a n invasion.

P r u s s i a w a s in the midst of its struggle

f o r liberation f r o m F r e n c h domination and Berlin in a state of

intense

excitement.

The

Dreifaltigkeit

Kirche

was

crowded to c a p a c i t y ; the l o w e r floor filled with y o u n g men clad in their new soldiers' u n i f o r m s , the balconies w i t h their mothers and s i s t e r s — a n d there in the pulpit stood a short stooped figure, full o f d y n a m i c energy and imbued with an infinite zeal and passion f o r G e r m a n y .

I t w a s Friedrich

Schleiermacher, the first g r e a t patriotic preacher o f Germany. H e w a s g i v i n g the y o u n g soldiers a parting message of inspiration b e f o r e they went off to battle. His sonorous, clear and penetrating voice [records Eylert] rang through the solemn silence of the overflowing church. W i t h pious ecstasy and intense conviction he animated every heart, and the full and clear flow of his powerful oration swept every thing away with it. . . . H i s entire sermon was one torrent and each word emanated from the times and was for the times. When, after addressing the young recruits with all the fire of his enthusiasm, he turned to their mothers and concluded with the words, " Blessed be your bodies which bore such sons, blessed be your breasts that gave such children to suck," the whole assemblage was seized with convulsions and amidst loud weeping and sobbing Schleiermacher pronounced his final Amen. 1 1 T h i s description is taken f r o m Eylert, R. F., Character-Züge und historische Fragmente aus dem Leben des Königs von Preussen, Friedrich Wilhelm III, 3d ed., 2 vols. ( M a g d e b u r g , 1843-46), vol. i, pp. 172-75.

11

12

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About a hundred years earlier on Easter day in the year 1 7 1 4 another famous preacher was standing at the altar, administering Holy Communion. It was Gottfried Arnold, the defender of the heretics. Amid din of tumult a band of Prussian recruiting officers rushed into the church and seized all the young men present at the service in order to send them off for military duty. The shock of the rude interruption was too great for this gentle preacher. He was pained by the intrusion of the spirit of war into the peaceful house of God. His constitution, already weakened by an attack of scurvy, gave way, and three days later he died. How great the contrast between these two scenes! And yet there is a direct and continuous chain which links Schleiermacher to Arnold. In the course of the century intervening between them the seeds of religious thought planted by the generation of Gottfried Arnold developed, matured and bore their fruit in the political as well as the religious work of Schleiermacher. Even Arnold himself unknowingly contributed to the development of the patriotism characteristic of Schleiermacher. Little are thinkers aware of the use to which their doctrines will be put by later generations ! Spener, Francke, Arnold and Zinzendorf would have been quite as shocked to witness the activities of Schleiermacher as would Schleiermacher, Herder, and Fichte to see to what purposes their doctrines have been used by Bismarck, Ludendorff and Hitler. The connecting link between Arnold and Schleiermacher is the religious movement known as Pietism, which developed in Germany towards the close of the seventeenth century. 2 2

The word Pietist originated in 1689 as a term of ridicule directed against the members of Francke's Collegia biblica. As the movement became more widespread, the word lost its original connotation and came to be used as a serious designation for the followers of Spener and Francke (see the Informal oder Unterricht von sogennanten Pietinno by the theological faculty of the University of Leipzig [Leipzig], 1 7 1 1 ) .

INTRODUCTION

13

Pietism was not an exclusively German phenomenon. It had corresponding manifestations in Quietism and Jansenism in France, in Quakerism and enthusiastic Methodism in England, and similar currents were widespread in Scandinavia, Holland and Switzerland. Pietistic roots maybe found in earlier mystical movements like those of Jakob Boehme, Valentin Weigel and Gichtel, in the earlier church poetry, particularly in the works of Paul Gerhardt, and in the work of more emotional and moralistic theologians like Johannes Arndt, Theophilus Grossgebauer, Christian Scriver, and Balthasar Schuppius. There were also some connections between German Pietism and the corresponding movements in other lands. In a wider sense it may be said that Pietism represented a return of German Protestantism to the original character of the Lutheran revolt and a reaction to the standardized scholastic orthodoxy in which later Lutheranism took shape. 8 German Pietism took on a variety of forms. It spread in both the Lutheran and the Reformed churches, although it did not assume great importance in the latter until past the The most comprehensive treatment of Pietism is still the classic work of Albrecht Ritsehl, Geschichte des Pietismus, 3 vols. (Bonn, 1880-86). It is, however, inadequate f o r the social aspects of the Pietist movement in their broader historical connection. M a x Göbel's Geschichte des christlichen Lebens in der rheinisch-westphälischen evanglischen Kirche, 3 vols. (Coblenz, 1849-60), is valuable only f o r the large collection of material assembled. Ernst Troeltsch's essay, " Leibnitz und die A n f ä n g e des Pietismus" (in Gesammelte Schriften, vol. i v ) , is suggestive but minimizes the significance of Pietism. A real and thorough social analysis of the movement is, however, still awaiting an author. 3 Breithaupt, one of Francke's closest associates, declared: " The reformation work of Luther's was to be continued and the church which had become paralyzed in forms of dead doctrinal conformity was to be brought back to the living source of God's word." Mahling, F., Mirbt, C. and Nebe, A., Zum Gedächtnis August Hermann Franckes (Halle, 1927), P- 1.

14

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

middle of the eighteenth century in the persons of such figures as Johann K a s p a r Lavater, Heinrich Jung-Stilling ( 1 7 4 0 1 8 1 7 ) , Anna Schlatter ( 1 7 7 3 - 1 8 2 6 ) , and Gottfried Daniel Krummacher ( 1 7 7 4 - 1 8 3 7 ) . Despite, however, the wide variation in the individual leaders and currents within German Pietism, there are three general characteristics which were common to all of them and which united them all against the established orthodoxy. Pietism represented a turning towards a more inward, emotional, and enthusiastic f o r m of Christianity. Under the emotional stress of the havoc and misery caused by the Thirty Y e a r s W a r , a mystical wave spread over Germany. A reaction took place against the emphasis on dogma and on scholastic argumentation concerning tenets of creed and purity of doctrine. People turned to a simpler and more heartfelt f o r m of religion which would be an expression of immediate feeling rather than an outcome of prolonged study and discussion. T h e second characteristic, closely related to the first, was the emphasis on a more practical Christianity. Learning was not sufficient. Purity of life, saintliness of behavior, active Christianity came to be regarded as the most essential mark of Christian life. It is this which accounts f o r the stress of Pietists on prayer, f o r their development of welfare and philanthropic works, and f o r their great missionary activity throughout the world. T h e third mark of Pietism was the greater emphasis placed on the doctrine of general priesthood. Pietism in all its forms and aspects sought to remove that wide gulf between the official clergy and the lay classes which had hitherto prevailed. The regeneration of the Christian church was to come through the active cooperation of all classes both lay and priestly. The encouragement of Biblical reading and study, which in Luther's day was largely limited to the clergy, was extended by Pietism to include all classes of the population. August Hermann Francke during

INTRODUCTION

15

his year and a half at E r f u r t distributed about 1,000 New Testaments, and the Canstein Bible Institute, founded by a disciple of Spener in 1712, distributed over 435,000 Bibles in sixteen years, and by the close of the eighteenth century as many as three millions. 4 German Pietism may be said to have begun officially with the publication of Spener's Pia Desideria oder Wahren evangelischen Kirche in 1675. Philipp Jakob Spener, 5 the father of Pietism, was born on January 13, 1635 in Rappoltsweiler, in Alsace, and died in Berlin in 1705. He was the son of a royal Hofmeister but received a very pious and stern education. His disciple, Canstein, once asked him in later life whether he had been mischievous in his youth. Spener confessed that he had indeed been wicked, for in his twelfth year he had been enticed by some of his comrades to dance. He had scarcely started when he was seized with such remorse that he rushed away from the dancing never to attempt it again. He studied history, philosophy, Greek and Hebrew as well as theology at the University of Strasbourg and supplemented his Hebrew studies by taking up Rabbinics privately with a Jewish rabbi. A f t e r completing his studies in 1659 he travelled in France and Switzerland. In Geneva he met Jean de Labadie, the leading spirit in the Swiss mystical movement, and was profoundly influenced by his deep religious spirit. Spener returned to Germany in 1661 and occupied posts successively in Strasbourg, Münster, Frankfort on the Main, Dresden, and Berlin. Spener's leading ideas as contained in the Pia Desideria combined an attack on the existing evils in the church and a * See Horst, Stephan, Der Pietismus als Träger Kirche, Theologie und allgemeiner Geistesbildung

des Fortschritts in (Tübingen, 1908),

pp. 14-155 T h e best and only adequate treatment of Spener is by Paul G r ü n b e r g , Philipp Jakob Spener, 3 vols. (Gottingen, 1893-1906).

l6

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

proposal for their reform. H e proposed the institution of private assemblies, or ecclesiolae in ecclesia, as a means of better disseminating the word of God among all classes of the population. Religious life was to be furthered not only by the clergy but by all Christians. Christianity, he declared, consisted not in learning but in practice. He thus placed greater emphasis on good works than did the orthodox clergy. Good works and faith, according to Spener, are related to each other as are the rays of the sun to the sun; one is inconceivable without the other. Recognizing the prevalence of strife and conflict between the different sects as one of the great ills of the church, he pleaded for less attention to disputations and religious wrangling and urged a more moderate and milder attitude toward people of differing religious beliefs. Finally, Spener declared it indispensable for the future welfare of the church to take steps to improve the calibre of the clergy; to provide for better training, to lay greater emphasis on piety and fear of God and to see that the sermons should be made more devotional in character and less learned. Spener further developed these ideas in his later writings and also introduced the importance of the Wiedergeburt, or religious " conversion." Spener never considered himself the herald of a new doctrine. He remained within the church and looked askance at any effort to stimulate sectarian divisions. Theoretically, and apart from numerous minor differences, his only variations in doctrine from the orthodox clergy were in connection with the conventicles and with the Wiedergeburt. But -far more important than matters of creed was the new tone and the new direction which he gave to German religious life. His saintly personality together with his great scholarly prestige combined to spread his influence throughout Germany. Despite severe opposition from the older theologians Pietist conventicles sprang up in many communities. By

INTRODUCTION

17

1700 there were about thirty-two cities in which the Pietists had attained to a position of great influence. In Jena the pioneers of the Pietist movement were Caspar Sagittarius (d. 1694) and Johann Franz Buddeus (1667-1729). Schade took the lead in Leipzig and later in Berlin. The fiercest struggle of the Pietists took place in Hamburg, where they were led by Johann Winkler (d. 1705), Johann Heinrich Horbius (1645-95), Spener's son-in-law, and Abraham Hinckelmann. But the real center of this first stage of Pietist development was Halle. It was here that the great organizing genius of the movement, August Hermann Francke, carried on his important activities." What Melancthon was to Luther and the Protestant revolt, Francke was to Spener and the Pietist movement. Whereas it was Spener who gave the movement its first impetus and its direction, it was Francke who systematized it, gave it a concrete expression in the form of definite institutions and provided it with the prestige associated with academic theologians. Francke was born in Lübeck on March 22, 1663 and died in Halle in 1727. He was the son of an official in the service of Duke Ernst the Pious and it was at the Gotha court that he imbibed the pietistic tradition of the reigning prince. After studying theology and philosophy at Erfurt and Kiel and Hebrew in Hamburg with Ezra Edzardis, Francke came to the University of Leipzig. Here he experienced a remarkable conversion from the more worldly attitude which he had hitherto cultivated and this, coupled with his meeting with Spener in 1688, turned him into a devoted follower of the new movement. With Paul Anton he started a collegium philobiblicum for the study of the Bible and for * For the life and work of Francke, see Kramer, G., August Hermann Francke, ein Lebensbild, 2 vols. (Halle, 1880-82) ; Otto, August, August Hermann Francke, 2 vols. (Halle, 1902-04) ; and Zum Gedächtnis August Hermann Franckes by F. Mahling, Carl Mirbt and A. Nebe (Halle, 1927).

18

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

devotional purposes. This group incurred the enmity of the orthodox theologians and, despite the valiant support of Christian Thomasius, Francke was forced to leave Leipzig. He came to E r f u r t but was made to leave after a stay of a year and a half, and in 1692 he came to Glaucha near Halle. He set about organizing the religious life of the district and established a chain of charitable and educational institutions which soon made Halle the center of the Pietist movement and for a long time one of the most important educational centers in Germany. He attracted to himself a distinguished group of scholars and churchmen, such as Joachim Justus Breithaupt, Paul Anton, Joachim Lange, J . H. Michaelis, J . D. Herrnschmid, and others who contributed the prestige of their names to Halle Pietism. Through his many journeys, through his large correspondence, and above all through the seeds planted in his educational institutions, Francke became the most important agent in the spread of Pietism throughout Germany as well as abroad. Perhaps the most interesting, although not the most influential, figure among the early leaders of the Pietist movement was Gottfried Arnold. 7 Gottfried Arnold was born in 1666 in Annaberg, Saxony and was the son of a teacher in the Latin school of that city. He was left motherless at the age of eight and soon came under the care of a step-mother. The family being large and the father's income rather small, young Gottfried had to start earning a living when thirteen by giving private lessons. However, his father was intent upon giving him a good education and in 1685 he was sent to the University of Wittenberg. The atmosphere of the learned theologians of Wittenberg was not suited to his 7 See Dibelius, F., Gottfried Arnold, sein Leben und seine Bedeutung fur Kirche und Theologie (Berlin, 1873), and above all the penetrating work by Erich Seeberg, Gottfried Arnold, die Wissenschaft und die Mystik seiner Zeit (Meerane, 1923).

INTRODUCTION

19

temperamental mood. He never became intimate with any of his teachers, not even with Deutschmann in whose house he stayed, and the frivolity of student life likewise repelled him. Absorbed in his studies, he led a solitary life and incidentally developed heretical leanings. He was determined, however, to prepare himself for a career in the academic world. " From my youth," he wrote at a later date, " I perceived that the truly divine office of teacher was the most important thing in life." In 1689 he was called to Dresden as tutor in the home of General Wirkholz. Here he became acquainted with Spener and later too with Francke. He attended the private meetings presided over by Spener and found in these conventicles an outlet for his turbulent soul. Through his relations with Spener he became acquainted with conditions in the church throughout the land, and his despair of reform grew all the greater. Spener appeared to him as an entirely too compromising and half-baked sort of reformer. But his high regard for his personality, together with Spener's own infinite patience, kept strong the bonds of friendship between the two until the end. Spener wrote of Arnold's works, " They are like a big net filled with many good as well as foul fish and will have to be read separately." Spener left Dresden in 1691 and with him went his moderating influence over Arnold. The latter, with his strong zeal for righteousness and piety, soon got into trouble with his patrons and was forced to leave. In 1693 he went to Quedlinburg, then a center of the Separatist movement, where he found the intellectual climate more to his liking and temperament. Here he published his first important work Die Erste Liebe—wahre Abbildung der ersten Christen nach ihretn lebendigen Glauben und heüigen Leben. This brought him renown throughout Germany and in 1697 he received a call to the chair of history at the University of Giessen.

20

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AND

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NATIONALISM

Here, too, however, he found no mental rest " Disgust with the bombastic, glory-seeking rationalism of academic life," he wrote, " grew daily," and he astonished the learned world of Germany by voluntarily resigning from the faculty and retiring to Quedlinburg where he published his Offenhertzigen Bekentnis to justify his act. His stay at Quedlinburg marks the peak of his Separatist stage and it was during this period that he occupied himself with the writing of his mystical works. However, a change was imminent. It was already evident in his reply to Spener's criticism of his Offenhertzigen Bekentnis. This change took a two-fold form. The antagonism towards marriage which he had shared with the Separatists was broken down by his love for the daughter of Sproegel, whom he married in 1 7 0 1 , and his despair of the church lessened in 1702 when he returned to the fold and actually accepted a position within the church at Allstedt. Great opposition developed toward Arnold due to his radical religious affiliations. Even the intercession of the King of Prussia, who appointed him his first historiographer, failed to shield him and he was forced to leave in 1705. He occupied a position in Werben from 1705 to 1707 and then in Perlberg from 1707 to his death in 1 7 1 4 . Arnold is well known for his beautiful hymns and for his works on the early Christians, but his outstanding literary contribution is his Unpartheische Kirchen und Ketzer Historie von Anfang des neuen Testaments bis auf das jahr Christi 1688, first published in 1699-1700. He was one of the first to take up openly the cudgels for heretics who had been branded throughout the ages. Never after him was a church history to be written without mentioning these personalities. Arnold summarized the conclusions from his studies under the following five heads: ( 1 ) That often really pious and saintly men have been innocently branded as heretics;

INTRODUCTION

21

(2) T h a t this was due mainly to the activities of the officials of the church; ( 3 ) T h a t the councils and synods were made up mainly of men seeking strife and self-aggrandizement; ( 4 ) T h a t the real church was found usually among the minority and among those persecuted; ( 5 ) That false Christianity made itself evident in images, ceremonies, sacraments, etc. The book was greeted with a storm of indignation and violent prejudice among the right-wing clergy. Only men like Thomasius and Joachim Lange dared defend him. Arnold himself described the reception accorded to his work in these words: " I received thereby also a proof of my impartiality before God and before man in that there is not one party nor one religion that has not either publicly through books, or in private communication, or else orally, complained about my Kirchenhistorie. This book was soon fought with confiscation, with persecution, with bans on the author and with other wiles and intrigues. Some, in many ways, even sought my life and proclaimed before the world that I was a man without any religion, the worst heretic, yea even a monster and a beast and was not to be tolerated in any church or state." 8 The Pietist movement gained a particularly strong foothold in Württemberg. Spener exercised a considerable influence over members of the Württemberg ruling class and over the faculty of the University of Tübingen. Francke's journey through Württemberg was one triumphal procession. Johann Albrecht Bengel ( 1 6 8 7 - 1 7 5 2 ) , Christoph Matthius P f a f f (1686-1760), Friedrich Christoph Oetinger (17028 2 ) , Johann Jakob Moser ( 1 7 0 1 - 8 5 ) , to name only a few of the most outstanding leaders of Württemberg Pietism, carried on the Pietist tradition in South Germany. Württemberg Pietism was free of many of the idiosyncrasies developed in the Halle school. It did not rigidly divide worshipers into 8

D i b e l i u s , op. cit.,

p. 1 1 7 .

22

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" regenerated " and " unregenerated," as the Halle Pietists came later to do. In Württemberg, Pietism became infused with the spirit of the " Enlightenment" much earlier and more directly than it did in northern Germany. And this, combined with the generally greater softness and warmth characteristic of the inhabitants of southern Germany, tended to save the Pietism which developed there from some of the sterner aspects which it assumed elsewhere. The last great outburst of Pietism in eighteenth-century Germany was that of the Moravian Brethren or Herrnhuter. This movement was dominated completely by Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf, one of the most fascinating personalities in modern religious history. 9 Zinzendorf was born on May 20, 1700 in Dresden and died in Herrnhut on May 9, 1760. He came from a noble Saxon family and the sponsors at his baptism were the electoral princes of Saxony and the Palatinate, and the Pietist leader Philipp Jakob Spener. From his early youth Zinzendorf's religious views were marked by a strong emotional character. " All my wishes," he later recounted, " were directed towards the Bridegroom of my soul." 10 He filially conversed with Him for many years, spoke for hours together to Him, like one friend to another. Sometimes, Spangenberg records, " when he had pen, ink and paper before him he wrote a little note to his beloved Saviour, told Him in it how his heart felt towards Him, and threw it out of the window, in the hope that He would find it." 1 1 8 For Zinzendorf and the Moravian Brethren see particularly, Becker, B., Zinsendorf und sein Christentum im Verhältnis zum kirchlichen und religiösen Leben seiner Zeit, 2d ed. (Leipzig. 1900) ; Miiller, J . T., Zinzendorf als Erneuerer der Brüdergemeine (Leipzig, 1900) ; Burckhardt, G., Die Brüdergemeine, 2d ed., 2 vols. (Gnadau, 1897-1905) ; and the various works of Otto Uttendörfer. 10 Spangenberg, A. G., The Life of Nicholas Lewis, Count Zinzendorf, tr. from the German by Samuel Jackson (London, 1838), p. 3.

" Ibid., p. 4.

INTRODUCTION

23

F r o m 1710 to 1 7 1 6 Zinzendorf was educated at the Halle Pädagogium under the supervision of August Hermann Francke. Here he determined to dedicate his life to a religious career but his family had other things in mind for him and sent him to the University of Wittenberg to study law. H e then travelled through Europe and came into intimate contact with people of various religious denominations. His stay in Paris and his meeting with prominent Jansenist Catholics were of particular significance in developing in Zinzendorf a more liberal and tolerant attitude towards Catholics. O n his return to Germany the Count accepted a position in the service of the state of Saxony. Inwardly, however, he was still imbued with the inspiration to carry on active Pietist work. The opportunity for such work came in 1722. In that year several families of the old Moravian Brethren of Bohemia found refuge on the estate of Count Zinzendorf at Berthelsdorf. T h e Count was deeply impressed with the simple piety of the Moravians and he allowed them to settle permanently on his estate. These first refugees were soon joined by others and by numerous Pietists, Separatists, and followers of other mystical sects. Zinzendorf abandoned his secular offices and devoted himself exclusively to the organization and constitution o f the new community. The village of Herrnhut was built up by these congregants and on A u g u s t 13, 1727 the community was officially constituted as the Erneuerte Briiderkirche. Zinzendorf's original conception was merely to realize Spener's idea of a conventicle. But the community soon took on such an individual character that it was no longer possible to keep it officially within the Lutheran Church. Branches of the Moravian Church were established outside Germany, notably in England and America, and a large missionary activity was carried on among primitive peoples. T h e Moravian church, however,

PIETISM

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assumed and carried with it the stamp set upon it by Count Zinzendorf. The religion of Zinzendorf can best be described in one word. It was a Hersensreligion. More than any of the other currents in the Pietist movement it was based on the emotional reactions of the heart and on the feeling of love. " It is not a question of formulas and ceremonies," said Zinzendorf, "nor of taking on certain customs. . . . The question is rather of the heart, in which all children of God are alike." 12 Creed, articles of belief, church dogmas, all these mattered little in the Herrnhut community. The synod of Marienborn in 1740 declared, " U n l i k e the Lutherans, we, however, construct no confession of faith which may not later be altered. W e desire to retain freedom, that the Saviour may from time to time enlighten our teaching." 18 And the synod of 1747 similarly decided that " every one should continue in that which was peculiar to him, which could well consist with a reception into the Moravian church without assuming any other form. . . . It was accordingly resolved that the three divisions of the Brethren—the Lutheran, the Reformed and the Moravian—should each abide by their original confession, and have each their own antistes or bishop." 14 Lessing justifiably attacked the author of a polemical disquisition on the Herrnhuter for seeking out logical inconsistencies in their doctrines. " The mind of a Herrnhutter," wrote Lessing, " full of enthusiasm, is not at all adapted to systematic concepts and well-calculated expressions." 15 12

Zinzendorf,

iiber

Glauben

und

Leben,

ed. by O t t o H e r p e l

(Berlin,

1 9 2 5 ) , P- 3913

H a m i l t o n , J . T . , A History

Church Eighteenth

or the Unitas

Fratrum

and the Nineteenth

of

the Church

or the Unity Centuries

14

S p a n g e n b e r g , op. cit., p p . 341-42.

15

Lessing,

G.

E.,

Review

of

C.

G.

of

known

as the

the Brethren

Moravian during

the

( B e t h l e h e m , 1900), p. 192.

Hoffmann's

Dritte

und

letste

INTRODUCTION

25

W h a t bound the Moravian Brethren to each other was the deep, emotional, and personal relationship of each individual to the person of Jesus. The one essential to a Herrnhuter was the " blood and merits of the Lamb of God." It was the historic, the human Jesus who occupied the central position in Zinzendorf's religious world, the Jesus who lived on earth, suffered and died for the atonement of human sins; Jesus, the " Leidender Gottesmensch." It was this personal and immediate consciousness of the presence of Jesus which Spangenberg found wanting in John Wesley on that memorable trip across the Atlantic in January 1736. " D o you know Jesus Christ? " Spangenberg asked Wesley, " I know H e is the Saviour of the world," replied Wesley after a moment of painful hesitation. " T r u e , " said Spangenberg, " but do you know that H e has saved, you? " , a This personal, almost amorous attitude towards Jesus was the most characteristic aspect of the religion of Zinzendorf. O f t e n too it found expression in a crude and grossly sensual form which has provided the basis for a psychoanalytic study of this captivating religious leader." A f t e r this brief survey of the leading currents in German Pietism the question still remains, W h a t has all this to do with German nationalism? The aim of the present study is to show how certain intellectual, psychological, and emotional reactions engendered and developed within the religious sphere of Pietism, came in the course of time to be transferred to the realm of nationalism and nationality. Pietism brought into eighteenth-century Germany an emotionalism and enthusiasm which were hitherto lacking. This provided gegründete Anzeige derer Herrenhutisehen Grundirrthümer, Sämtliche Werke, ed. by Hugo Göring, vol. xvii, p. 27. 16

See C. E. Vulliamy, John Wesley

Pfister, O., Die Frömmigkeit 2nd ed. (Vienna, 1925). 17

in

his

(London, 1931), p. 68.

des Grafen Ludwig von

Ztmendorf,

26

PIETISM

AND GERMAN

NATIONALISM

the emotional basis for subsequent nationalism.

In addition,

Pietism introduced and diffused the concepts o f individuality and o f multiplicity and variety, which provided the doctrine o f nationalism with a philosophic basis.

Pietism, further-

more, in appealing to the lower classes gave them a greater feeling o f self-respect and prestige and thus helped to cement the widely separated classes into a unified national whole. T h e appeal to the lower classes involved, in turn, a more intensive cultivation o f the language o f the lower classes, German, as opposed to the learned Latin and the aristocratic F r e n c h , a more concentrated effort at public education and an increased concern with social welfare and philanthropy. All these activities were essential elements in the development o f a consciousness as well as a philosophy o f nationalism.

I t is not, however, the aim o f the author to make

Pietism either the sole or even the primary cause o f the rise o f German nationalism.

T h e ideology o f modern German

nationalism has its origin in the interaction o f at least two m a j o r currents, Pietism and the Enlightenment. resented a reaction to existing conditions.

Both rep-

T h e Enlighten-

ment was the leaven which released eighteenth-century Germany from its medieval and scholastic character.

The En-

lightenment loosened the ties o f the individual to his old allegiances.

Life

became

more

secularized

and

religion

could no longer dominate the attention and interests o f man as it had done for so many centuries.

B u t the Enlighten-

ment with its emphasis on rationalism and universalism could not annihilate the emotional and individualistic engendered by the Pietist movement.

reactions

It merely deflected

them from the religious to the secular

field.

T h e early

German nationalist w as what I have termed an " enlightened ?

P i e t i s t , " an individual deeply imbued with emotional enthusiasm and that sense o f dependence so strongly emphasized in Pietist religious literature from Spener to Schleiermacher,

INTRODUCTION

27

but one who no longer could find the support which he craved solely in his Christian religion but was forced to seek a secular outlet for his enthusiasm and his feeling of social kinship. This outlet was provided by the national group. Upon the national group he now came to center his attention and his enthusiasm and in the national group he found his support, his sustenance, and his raison d'être. We will thus attempt to trace how these various attitudes and reactions were first developed within the Pietist movement and then transferred and transmuted into the materials of nationalism and nationalist ideology at the hands of such " enlightened Pietists " as Johann Georg Hamann, Johann Kaspar Lavater, Johann Jakob Moser and his son Friedrich Carl, culminating finally in the clearly defined nationalism of Novalis and Friedrich Schleiermacher. A consideration of these aspects of the German Pietist movement leads one naturally to a comparison with similar movements in other countries. I have already indicated that German Pietism is but one aspect of a world-wide phenomenon during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The analogies to be found in England are particularly noteworthy. Inward emotional religion was stressed among the Puritans, in Quakerism, in the works of that supreme mystic and disciple of Jakob Boehme, William Law, and above all in the enthusiastic Methodism of the Wesleys and George Whitefield. In all these currents we can also see evidences of the same sort of phenomena which we have noted in the case of Pietism : individuality, the idea of multiplicity and variety, enthusiastic emotionalism, appeal to the lower classes, and increased interest in their social welfare and education. Even the combination of religious enthusiasm with patriotism is likewise found in England. John Milton and Bunyan parallel Klopstock and Pyra, John Wesley may be placed alongside Count Ludwig von Zinzendorf, and William

28

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

Cowper and Blake occupy in English Romanticism places similar to those of Hamann, Novalis and the other German Romanticists. Unfortunately the problem of the interaction of English religious life and thought with social and literary currents has hardly begun to be studied and comparisons are, therefore, largely hypothetical. 18 Immaterial too for our purposes is the question of reciprocal influences between Germany and England. That German Pietism was profoundly influenced by translations of English religious tracts and that, on the other hand, definite German influences are traceable in the cases of William Law and the English Methodist leaders, is beyond dispute. But it is a futile and well-nigh hopeless task to attempt to establish priority of influence and cause. The interaction and interflow of religious and intellectual currents are so complex as to defy analysis. There are, however, certain factors which make the relations of Pietistic religion and nationalism more unique and characteristic in Germany than elsewhere. The development of nationalism in Germany has proceeded in quite a different manner from that of other European countries. As in the case of Italy, modern nationalism in Germany arose before the establishment of a unified national state. Whereas England, France, and Spain had practically solved the political 18

See Overton, J . H . and Relton, F., The English Church front the Accession of George I to the End of the Eighteenth Century (London, 1906) ; Stephen, Leslie, History of English Thought in the Eighteenth Century, 3d ed., 2 vols. ( N e w Y o r k , 1902) ; Colligan, J . H., Eighteenth Century Non-conformity (London, 1 9 1 5 ) ; Nagler, A. W., Pietism and Methodism (Nashville, 1 9 1 8 ) ; Lee, Umphrey, The Historical Backgrounds of Early Methodist Enthusiasm (New Y o r k , 1 9 3 1 ) ; Warner, W . J., The IVeslyan Movement in the Industrial Revolution (London, 1930) ; Braithwaite, W . C., The Beginnings of Quakerism (London, 1912) ; WingfieldStratford, E., The History of English Patriotism, 2 vols. (London, 1 9 1 3 ) , especially vol. i, book i, ch. x and book ii, ch. v i ; and Schoffler, H., Protestaniismus und Literatur, neue IVrge zur cnglischen Litcratur des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts (Leipzig, 1922).

INTRODUCTION

29

aspects of nationalism long before the eighteenth century, and the formulation of a political philosophy o f nationalism in those countries, therefore, took for granted the existence of a national state, Germany and Italy remained divided until the middle of the nineteenth century. I n both o f these countries there was greater need for the development of a theory o f nationalism. There was however also a great difference between Italy and Germany. In Italy the nationalist movement was inextricably bound up with the struggle for emancipation from foreign oppression and dominion. T h e national question was for a long time identical with that of the overthrow of either Austrian or French rule in the peninsula. Germany, split up into a host of independent states and principalities, was confronted with only one problem—that of national unity. Thus whereas in England secularization resulted in the transference o f religious concepts and reactions to the more practical questions o f political power and political institutions, and whereas in Italy the issues were beclouded by the struggle of the European powers for the hegemony o f the peninsula, in Germany all the energies released by the secularization o f modern life came to be focused on the problem of nationality. Germany, the home of the Protestant Revolt, in which, in earlier times, all intellectual efforts were absorbed in religious controversy and speculation, now became the classic land o f nationalist speculation and theorizing. Nationalist philosophy was highly developed in the doctrines o f Herder and the German Romanticists, and from them its influence spread into all parts of Europe. The famous German Jewish philosopher, Martin Buber, once compared nationalism to an infected eye which one keeps rubbing all the time and which occupies one's attention constantly. Nationalism for Germany has been like such an infected eye. N o other nation has, to our own day, been so tormented by the problem of nationalist ideology and national unity as the German nation.

PART I

C H A P T E R

I

E N T H U S I A S M AND IRRATIONALISM " Ihr rümet euch der wahren Lehre W e r giebet aber Gott die Ehre Und lebt der wahren Lehre nach? So wisset doch, dass alles Lehren Bei eurem so glaublosen Hören Durchaus nicht sei genug zur Sach." —Bartholomaeus

Crasselius.

" D e r letzte Mann im V o l k wird erst dann bereit sein, f ü r eine Sache einzustehen, wenn sie f ü r ihn eine Angelegenheit des Glaubens und nicht nur eine Angelegenheit der verstandesmässigen Erkenntnis ist."—Joseph Goebbels.

NATIONALISM as a movement as well as a political philosophy depends to a larger degree on sentiment and emotional stimulation than on any appeal to reason or to a rationally constructed system. Courage, patriotism, loyalty, sacrifice, all the ideals of the more militant form of nationalism as well as the longing, yearning, and sentimental attachment to a national tradition characteristic of more cultural nationalism—all g o back in the last analysis to some form of sentiment or feeling. Theoretically, nationalist doctrine almost invariably falls back on intuition and a vague mystical sense. The mere task of determining the constitution and territorial extent of a given nationality is one that can hardly be determined by processes of logical reasoning. " When does asocial group or a community become a n a t i o n ? " asks A l f r e d Zimmern. 1 " T h e objection is a real one, and I admit the difficulty of framing a clean-cut definition. N o one can 1

Nationality

and Government

(London, 1918), p. 84. 33

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

say why it is that Wales is a nation and Yorkshire which is more populous and about as large, is not, although it has plenty of corporate feeling." A rationalist writer like J. M . Robertson for instance considers the whole problem of nationality as a figment of the imagination.' But nationalists from the earliest times up to Barres and the most recent apostles o f German nationalism draw a mystic halo around la patrie or the Vaterland and envelop the concept of nationality with a garb of vague and nebulous emotional mysticism.* Still more evident is this non-rational factor in the practical propagation of nationalist doctrine. The appeal for patriotism and devotion to the national cause, whatever the cause may be, is never in terms of cold logic, never based on hard facts; its purpose is to stir, to arouse and to inflame the emotions, and with the subject raised to an intense state of national passion and ecstasy, it is quite an easy matter to convince him of the particular idea in question. So close is the relationship between nationalism and emotionalism both in the historical evolution of nationalism as well as in its contemporary manifestations that one wonders whether nationalism could ever have become the potent force it is to-day had not the way been prepared by the special fostering of antirational emotionalism. The intellectual climate conducive to the growth of a spirit of nationalism has always drawn upon irrationalism, anti-intellectualism and emotional mysticism. In Germany the preparation was in a large measure supplied by the Pietist movement. 4 All the opposition to rationalism 2

Robertson, J. M., The Evolution

lish Politics

of States:

An Introduction

to

Eng-

(London, 1912).

3 Especially evident is this characteristic in the most recent aspects of German nationalism. W o r k s on nationalist doctrine as well as propaganda are full of references to Meister Eckart, to Paracelsus, to Jakob B o h m e and other mystics of German literature. 4

It is interesting to note an analogous instance in the relation of

ENTHUSIASM

AND

IRRATIONALEM

found its first expression in the religious field. Later under the impact of the Enlightenment and the ensuing secularization of social life, the emotions and energies engendered in the sphere of religion became transferred to the field of human relations and found their natural outlet and form in the nationalist movement. It has long been a custom of writers to trace all currents of thought and politics in eighteenth-century Germany to French influence. Not only has this been done in the case of the Aufklärung but also with the emotionalist currents of eighteenth-century Germany. One writer 5 has gone so far as to deny any originality at all to the Germans and has claimed that all German culture and tradition is borrowed from the French. Exaggerated as this claim may be in the case of the writers of the Enlightenment, it certainly merits no serious consideration in connection with the growth of the sentimental tradition in Germany. Rousseau is cited as the source and sole inspiration of German Sturm und Drang as well as of German Romanticism. Feeling, emotionalism, the revolt against reason—all of these characteristics of the Sturm und Drang as well as of the Romantic Movement are traced to the genius of Geneva. Undeniable is, of course, the tremendous vogue and influence of Rousseau in Germany. Hamann, Herder, Lavater, Schleiermacher and others all pay their homage to him. A closer study of German intellectual history in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, however, reveals the development and growth of an independent movement, marked by these same characteristics, which is evident long before the advent of Rousseau. Chassidism to the g r o w t h of the Jewish national movement and the study of the influence of Methodism, Quakerism, etc. in England and Jansenism in France on the respective nationalist movements would no doubt yield f r u i t f u l results. * Reynaud, M . L., Histoire magne

( P a r i s , 1914).

générale

de l'influence

française

en

Alle-

36

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

Foreign influences, if any at all at this time, were rather English than French. However, the ultimate origins of these intellectual currents are not of significance here. It is extremely doubtful whether such ultimate unitary origins can be found for any intellectual movement. All that is important here is to point out that throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there developed in Germany a movement which emphasized the emotional as opposed to the rational and which stressed the importance of enthusiasm and ecstasy. This movement first took form in the shape of Pietism. Pietist influence and development can be clearly seen through the writings of the precursors of the movement like Arndt, Scriver, Miiller and Grossgebauer, and on through Spener, Francke, Zinzendorf, the Mosers, Hamann, Lavater and Herder to Schleiermacher and Novalis in the early nineteenth century. There is a continuity of thought and tradition in all these writers which makes it possible to interpret this phase of German thought not as borrowed from France but as developing independently in Germany for over two centuries. Rousseau indeed served to strengthen the movement and to arouse it to greater intensity but he is not responsible for its origins. It is the development of this aspect of Pietism to which we must now turn. W i t h the passing of the heroic days of the Lutheran revolt German Protestantism became frozen into a standardized orthodoxy. German religious life and thought presented a picture of endless disputations on matters of dogma, a new sort of scholasticism and sickly heresy-hunting. 8 The rule of the mind was dominant. Logic, pedantry and ostentatiousness of learning predominated. There was no place left for any outlet for the emotions. Religious life was dry and pedantic. The chief stress was on the reine Lehre, the true See Petersen, P., Geschichte dcr aristotrfischen Plv.losophie in Deutschland (Leipzig, 1921). 8

ENTHUSIASM

AND

IRRATIONAL1SM

unadulterated doctrine or dogma. Aberrations from the true doctrine were considered to be chiefly errors in logical reasoning and were to be answered and cured only by means of instruments of logic. This stiff formalism was developed to such a degree that numerous Protestant converts returned to Catholicism to find a more sympathetic outlet for their emotional religious feelings. The clergy considered themselves as the holy guardians of this true dogma. They were " the organs of God on earth, the eyes of the church and the shield of the faith." 7 Formalism was exhibited in many fields. Prayer, that most individual and most emotional of religious practices was almost completely ignored. The sermon and the theological disputation held first attention. The sermon was used not to awaken any inner religious reaction in the hearts of the listeners, nor to arouse them to a sense of guilt or struggle with sin, nor to bring them to a state of exalted blessedness. It was used as a vehicle for the play of rhetoric, for the exhibition of so-called learning. Thus one preacher begins his sermon with the first Punic War and another in Wernigerode in 1605, taking as his text the verse from Matthew X ¡30, " But the very hairs of your head are all numbered," delivers a sermon on: ( 1 ) the origin, style, form and natural position of our hair; ( 2 ) the correct care of man's hair; ( 3 ) the reminiscences, reminder, warning, and comfort to be derived from the hair; (4) how to take care of the hair in a good Christian fashion and how to make use of it.8 " The sermon is for most preachers," wrote Theophilus Grossgebauer, " an oration or an artificial, rhetorical speech pieced together from the Bible; one paragraph after another, the preacher dare not 7 Frank, Gustav, Gcschichte der protestantischen (Leipzig, 1862-1905), vol. i, p. 241. 8

Theologie,

4 vols.

Cited in Tholuck, A., Vorgeschichte des Rationalismus, 2 vols. (Halle, 1853-62), vol. ii, p. 136.

38

PIETISM AND GERMAN NATIONALISM

stop at one thing, he must rush on to pile up more and more (it is peculiar that there are such inquisitive people). He must adorn each detail, altogether taking up an hour or an hour and a half, and he concludes only with this. And this is supposed to be the planting of the words of truth in our hearts." 9 The esteem in which an individual was held and the praises which he received were based not on his high-mindedness, his piety or his moral character. Of much greater weight was his devotion to the true doctrine, to the " reine Lehre." A funeral sermon of the time, praising the deceased, reads, " He never missed a service, always came first and left last, diligently attended to the holy sacrament and was a diligent reader of the Holy Scriptures." 10 Johann Christian Koenig, theologian, made this confession on his deathbed in 1664: " Dear father confessor, since I perceive that our beloved God desires to take me from this world, I therefore confess that I remain faithful only to the unchangeable Augsburg Confession, live and die with it, that I have ordered my life in accordance with it and that I died an enemy of all that smacks of novelty and syncretism." 1 1 This show of learning found its outlet even more in theological disputation. It was here that empty scholasticism found its most fruitful soil. The whole educational system was built around the disputation. Ever since Luther's time, the energies of those interested in religion had been absorbed by theological disputations. As Herder put it, " Every leaf of the tree of life was so dissected and anatomised that the 8

Grossgebauer, Theophilus, p. 24.

Drei geistliche Schriften

10

Tholuck, op. ci/., vol. n, p. 203.

11

Ibid., p. 303.

(Frankfurt, 1682),

ENTHUSIASM

ANt)

IRRATIONALISM

dryads wept for mercy." 1 1 The disputation, originally intended to instill the desire for " L e h r e Reinheit," soon became a vehicle for mere ostentation. An illustration of such useless display of learning is the following argument of a Lutheran theologian: " I f there is no time, there is no night; when it isn't night, it must be day; if there is day, there must be time; therefore if there is no time, there is time." 81 These disputations were very often void of any sense of decorum or politeness. They were marked by coarseness of expression, insults and slander. A typical example is that of the chancellor of the University of Tübingen who disputed in Wittenberg in 1581. After making a few controversial remarks and reading a few paragraphs from Luther he directed the following words to his opponent cum tarda et gravi pronuntiatione, " Hear, you sow, you dog, you fool or whoever you are, you thick-headed mule ;"' he closed his book and asked his opponent whether he had anything more to say. The latter could but answer that he was satisfied.14 It would be grossly misleading to suggest that these intellectual currents remained altogether unopposed. There always were individuals who could not endure the burden of this sort of orthodoxy and expressed their protests in various ways. Kaspar Schwenkfeld (1489-1561) early attacked the Lutheran church for lack of feeling. " They " [the Lutherans], he declared, "reject spiritual feeling and the inner experience of God's grace which Luther makes necessary for salvation." " Even the orthodox theologian, Johann Gerhard (1582-1637), in his Meditationes Sacrae (1606) like12 Quoted in Tholuck, A., Der Geist des lutherischen Theologen Wittenbergs im Verlaufe des 17. Jahrhunderts (Hamburg, 1853), p. 247. 1S

Tholuck, Vorgeschichte, vol. i, p. 178.

14

Ibid., vol. i, p. 244.

i» Quoted in Tholuck, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 202.

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

wise declared that the aim of theology is not bare theory nor subtle learning but rather better living and that the learned scholastic is not the sum total and end of the Christian religion. Mystics like Valentin Weigel (1533-1588) and Jakob Böhme also opposed the reign of mere understanding and set up instead a test of inner and more practical Christian life. Böhme denounced the learned clergy " who swagger and make a show of themselves in the pulpit with their big curls and their costly robes just like noblemen in their s o f t garments at the courts of k i n g s . " 1 8 Preachers like H . Müller (d. 1676) and Chr. Scriver (d. 1692) attempted to liberate the sermons from their logical schematism and rhetorical elaborations and to substitute more simple and popular presentations which would come freely from the heart. T h e most important precursor o f the Pietist movement, however, was Johann Arndt ( 1 5 5 5 - 1 6 2 1 ) , the author of the famous Vom wahren Christentum. T o the " Lehre Reinheit," stressed so much by the orthodox clergy, Arndt added the " Lebens-Heiligkeit ". He denounced the pedantry, the disputations and the externalism of his contemporaries. He writes his book " to lead away the 'souls of the students and preachers from the controversial and quarrel-seeking theology which has again become a theologia scholastica, . . . to take them from mere learning and theory to a real practise of faith and piety." 1T He calls for an inner experience of religious life. " For in us is the Temple of God, in us the true service of God, in us the real house of prayer both in spirit and in reality. There is the school of the Holy Ghost, there is in the workshop of the Holy Trinity." 18 The true 16

Frank, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 119.

Quoted in Gobel, Max, Geschichte des christlichen Lebens in der rheinisch-westphälischen evangelischen Kirche, 3 vols. (Coblenz, 1849-60), vol. ii, p. 482. 17

18

Ibid., p. 483.

ENTHUSIASM

AND

IRRATION

ALISM

faith, he says, is " a feeling, sensation and actual conviction of . . . God's grace, solace and power." 19 Possessing at least the germs of all the ideas later spread by Pieti§m, these men nevertheless failed of any decided influence on the religious life of their own day. They voiced primarily ^ d i v i d u a l protests. There was no organized movement that kept hammering away and spreading such ideas. They were largely the yearnings and deprecations of individuals, lonely souls whose ideas were later taken up, elaborated and developed, and spread throughout Germany by the far more organized movement known as Pietism. Pietism was, of course, not of one variety. The Pietism of its founder, Spener, was not altogether identical with that of the Halle school of Francke and Lange nor like the Württemberg type of Bengel and Oetinger. None of these was identical with that of the Herrnhuter or with the worldly Pietism of Hamann and Lavater, of Novalis and Schleiermacher. But whatever their differences on particular points of doctrine, whatever their difference in mental make-up and psychological approach, they all were one in stressing the need of enthusiasm, in arousing the emotional as opposed to the intellectual, and in depending more on intuition than on the rational sense. The first point of attack of the Pietist leaders was directed against the orthodox stress on theology. Spener in his Pia Desideria, which was the opening gun in the specifically Pietist movement, made this stress on theology the chief target of his assault on orthodoxy. Bengel declared that saintliness and not learning must be the first and last rule for all theologians. Theology perse is but an empty shell. " A small quantity of living faith," declared Francke, 20 is to be valued 19

Quoted in Arnold, Gottfried, Unpartheyische Kirchen- und KetserHistorie (Schafihausen, 1740), p. 603. 20 Idea studiosi theologae, in Pädagogische Schriften, ed. by G. Kramer (Langensalza, 1885).

PIETISM

42

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

more highly than a hundredweight of mere historical knowledge and a drop of true love more than a whole sea of knowledge of all secrets." " Our aim," he said, " must be not to build up scientia but rather to arouse the conscientia." 21 Duttenhofer, an opponent of the Pietists, writing at the close of the eighteenth century, thus characterized them: " B y Pietism I understand merely that kind or sort of subjective Christianity which places on devout, pious feeling and on external devout forms and customs much more emphasis than they intrinsically merit." 22 A n d Mahrholz, writing in the twentieth century, defines Pietism as " an energetic reaction against the mechanization and intellectualization of the Protestant church and a reversion to the tradition of German mysticism of Eckehart, a tradition that never was completely broken off." 24 Prayer naturally was stressed as one of the important elements in true religion. Francke suggested group prayer as a means of making the prayipg more enthusiastic." T h e Württemberg Pietist, Heddinger, declared that " in prayer one must not be ashamed and must stamp, shout and beat." 25 Perhaps one of the most beautiful instances of the place of prayer in the life o f an individual is the case of Beata Sturm recorded by Ritschl. Her days and nights were spent in prayer. Once [relates her biographer] she desired so strongly a certain matter, which was for the common good, that she thought she "

Ibid.

Duttenhofer, M. C. Fr., Freymüthige und Orthodoxie (Halle, 1787), P- vi. 22

Untersitchungen über

Pietismus

J S Mahrholz, Werner, Deutsche Selbstbekenntnisse, Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Selbstbiographie von der Mystik bis sum Pietismus (Berlin, 1919), p. 143. 2*

Predigten und Träctlein, 4 vols. (Halle, 1723), vol. ii, p. 99.

" Ritsehl, op. cit., vol. iii, p. 26.

ENTHUSIASM

AND

IRRATIONALISM

must, if only for the sake of the honor of God, succeed in evoking it by prayer. With the most extraordinary union of individual humility with infinite faith in the divine mercy, she thus pleaded before God: " I am only an evil woman; but having once promised something I desire to fulfill my promise; Thou, however, art the exalted God, Thou canst not lie; Thou hast promised us that when we shall call upon Thee in our need, Thou wilt heed us. Thou hast told us that it is pleasant and good unto Thee when we pray unto Thee for all mankind; remember then these words, our heart holds them out before Thee. Wilt Thou not recognize them as Thine own? If they are Thy words, show them, deliver them, so that others too may learn to trust in them." 26 Enthusiasm in prayer, enthusiasm in service, enthusiasm in the sermon, enthusiasm in all relations both of man and God and of man and man, all came to play a dominant role in the life and the writings of the Pietists. Their works are full of such terms as Feuer, brennen, Herzensfreudigkeit, Geist and the like. 27 " Just as a drunkard becomes full of wine, so must the congregation become filled with spirit," declared Grossgebauer. 28 " Students of theology, and teachers and preachers all the more," declared an anonymous Pietist writer, " should be possessed of such spiritual powers that whosoever sees them, hears them or comes in contact with them should perceive their exciting devotion and joy and recognize them as guardians and burning lights. They must have the fire of the Holy Spirit within them. Their heart must burn and live so that they pursue their study of theology with the power of the Holy Spirit and build the walls of Ibid., p. 23. See Schuler, P. H., Geschichte der Veränderung des im Predigen, 4 vols. (Halle, 1792-99), vol. ii, pp. 97-98. 21

28

Drei geistliche Schriften,

p. 101.

Geschmackes

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

Jerusalem." 29 The sermon, cold and rational, pedantic and dry in the mouths of the orthodox preachers, now becomes the means of arousing the passions of the congregation and of raising the audience to a pitch of ecstasy. " The sermons must be delivered with most ardent zeal ( z e l o ardentissimo). . . . The words must be fire and flames, even the explanation of doctrine must be full of spirit so that it reaches the heart of the listener, stirs it and moves it so that he will meditate over his prayers." 80 " No one should be like a bald and barren tree. If he has no fire and no desire to save souls he is good for nothing." 81 And this zeal must be displayed in relations not only with God, but also with man. Furthermore this state of enthusiasm is one that is to be kept in a constant state of high pitch. " Just as a fire goes out when it is not continually fed; just as hot water cools if it is not standing on the fire; just as a clock remains still if it is not wound, so our spirits too, even though once made warm by God, inflamed and set going, yet must always and daily be inflamed anew. . . ." 82 " The heart must burn," declared Zinzendorf, and the same idea was expressed much later by Novalis when he said, " The preacher must first strive to arouse enthusiasm, for this is the element of religion."" " Without enthusiasm," wrote Karl Friedrich von Moser, " nothing great nor extraordinary is ever accomplished." 54 The influence of Pietist language can even be seen in the writings of Goethe. Conrad Burdach cites the following 29

Sammlung auserlesener (Frankfurt, 1734), p. 921. 30

Materien

Bau

des

Reichs

Gottes

Ibid., p. 922.

81

Ibid., p. 923.

32

Ibid., p. 925.

33 Fragmente, in Sämtliche Werke, (Munich, 1924), vol. iv, p. 156. 34

sum

Reliquien

(Frankfurt, 1766), p. 67.

ed. by Ernst Kamnitzer, 4 vois.

ENTHUSIASM

AND

IRRATIONALISM

Pietist words and phrases adopted by Goethe: fühlen, Gefühl, dunkel, lallen, still, Stille, Einfalt, rein, Reinheit, dumpf, Dumpfheit, heilig, Mittelpunkt, der Wanderer, Fülle, Raupen und Puppenstand, Wiedergeburt, golden, goldig, Atem, atmen." Closely connected with the emphasis on feeling was the tendency to a more imaginative, sensuous and passionate form of expression. Duttenhofer criticised the sermons of the Pietists and said that they were listened to mostly because "they bring more pathos, more life and emotion-in their speech and they know more than others how to entertain their hearers with sensual images." " A remarkable continuity of this tendency is revealed in the secularized literature of Hamann. Hamann combined in the most striking way a feeling of enthusiastic religiosity and spirituality with a sensuality and grossness of expression that often borders on salaciousness. " Nature," he wrote, " works through the senses and the passions." " Passion alone gives to abstractions, as well as to hypotheses, hands, feet and wings; to pictures and drawings, spirit, life and tongue." " The most characteristic experience and central point in the life of a Pietist was the Wiedergeburt or the regeneration. This Wiedergeburt became the most dominant motif in the life of the individual. It was called " the basis upon which all Christianity stood. If one is without it he can no longer be called a Christian." 38 It was an experience that changed and completely recreated the individual, influenced the whole subsequent course of his life and became the point of refer8 5 " Faust und M o s e s " , in K g . preussische Akademie der schaften, Sitzungsberichte ( 1 9 1 2 ) , p. 742.

36

Op. cit., p. 43-

87

In Gildemeister, C. H., Johann

Norden 88

Leben

und Schriften,

Georg

Hamanns

Wissen-

des Magus

in

6 vols. (Gotha, 1 8 6 3 - 7 5 ) , vol. iv, pp. 94-95.

Francke, A. H., Sonn- Fest- und Apostel-Tags

2 vols. (Halle, 1 7 4 6 ) , vol. ii, p. 6.

Predigten,

8th ed.,

¿ß

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

ence for all of his future activities.1"' The autobiographies of Pietist writers from Spener and Francke to Heinrich Jung-Stilling are full of accounts and descriptions of the Wiedergeburt. One of the most interesting accounts is that given by J . G. Hamann of his own rebirth during his stay in London in 1758. 4 0 This stay in London marked the turning point in Hamann's career. L e f t in poverty and misery, he struggled on for some time. Here he not only endured material hardships but his whole inner life underwent a complete revolution. He felt himself in an intellectual abyss and in this spirit he was led to find solace in the Bible. The record of Hamann's rebirth, of his conversion, is one of the most human documents of its kind. It is not only interesting in itself but it reveals more than any other writing of Hamann the inner nature of his personality. To have a friend who could give me a key to my heart, to be the guide to my labyrinth—that was a dream that I often had without really understanding and fully comprehending the meaning of it. God be praised! I found this friend in my heart. He crept gently into it when I most felt the void, the gloominess, the barrenness within me. . . . I turned to the reading of the Bible and the more I read of it, the newer it seemed to me, the more divinely I experienced its content and its influence. I forgot all my other books, I felt ashamed at having compared any of them to the Book of God, to have placed any of them beside it, yea, even to have preferred any of them to it. I discovered the unity of God's will in the salvation of Jesus Christ, that all history, all miracles, all commands and works 39 See the study by W. Wendland, " Die pietistische Bekehrung ", in Zeitschrift fur Kirchengeschichtc, vol. xxxviii (1920), pp. 193-228. 40 Accounts of such experiences are found in almost every Pietist autobiography. Special collections of these experiences are Gerber, Ch., Historia der Wiedergebohrenen in Sachsen, 4 vols. (Dresden, 1735-37) and the earlier collection of Reitz.

ENTHUSIASM

AND 1RRATI0N ALISM

of God converge towards this central point which moves the soul of man out of slavery, serfdom, blindness, foolishness, and the death of sin, to the highest point of fortune, to the most exalted blessedness, and to the acceptance of such excellence the greatness of which, when revealed to us, strikes us even more than our own unworthiness. I recognized my own sins in the history of the Jewish people, I read the story of my own life, and thanked the L o r d for his patience with this people, f o r nothing except such an example could have justified me in my similar hope. . . . With these observations which appeared mystical to me, I read in the evening of the 3 1 s t of March the fifth chapter of the book of Deuteronomy. I fell into deep meditation, thought of Abel of whom God said, " the earth has opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood " . . . . I felt my heart beat strongly, f r o m its depths I heard a voice sighing and moaning, a voice like that of the blood of the slain brother who wanted to avenge his blood. . . . Then I suddenly felt my heart swell, I burst forth into tears—and no longer could I—no longer could I conceal from my God that I committed the murder, that I was the slayer of his own native son. T h e spirit of God went on, despite my own weakness, despite the long resistance that I set up against his testimony, and his sympathy went on to reveal to me more and more the secret of his divine love and the happiness in the belief in our gracious and only salvation. . . . M y health and my life, I repeat, is but a miracle and a sign that God had not despaired of my improvement and of my future usefulness in his service. M y son, Give me your heart! Here it is, my L o r d . Y o u have deserved it, blind as it was, hard, rocklike, distorted and obdurate. Cleanse it, create it anew and let it be the workshop of your kind spirit. It had so often deceived me when in my own hands, that I cannot recognize it as my own anymore. It is a Leviathan, which you alone can tame—only inhabited by you can it enjoy rest, comfort and blessedness. 41 41Schriften, pp. 2 1 2 - 1 4 .

ed. by Friedrich Roth, 8 vols.

(Berlin, 1 8 2 1 ) , vol. i,

48

PIETISM

AND GERMAN

NATIONALISM

The effects of Hamann's experience are evident in a letter to his brother shortly thereafter. " I live, now," he wrote, " with joy and a light heart. . . . Since I discovered God's word as the cure, as the wine which alone can make our hearts joyous and our countenances a beam, as the bread which strengthens the heart of Man, I am no longer either an enemy of humans, or a hypochondriac, or prone to accuse my brethren, or an Ishmael in this divine world. The evil in the world which formerly was a source of irritation to me, is now a masterpiece of Godly wisdom in my eyes, the command of our Redeemer." *2 This idea of complete individual regeneration was converted in the later period into the idea of a national regeneration. The national Wiedergeburt of Fichte's Reden and of the Prussian War of Liberation is but a transfer of an idea from the realm of religious experience to that of political and national activity. The close psychological connection between the Wiedergeburt and patriotic ecstasy can be seen in an account of an analogous nature given by C. F . Andrews: the waking dream of a young nationalist Hindu student, stimulated by the news of a Japanese victory in the war against Russia. The vision of his own country came to him in an almost objective form. She seemed to rise in front of him like a sad and desolate mother, claiming his love. The face which he saw was very beautiful, but indescribably sorrowful. It was so real to hinj that for months afterwards he could shut his eyes and recall it. . . . What happened to him, as far as one could judge from his story, was something analogous to the experience described in religious language as conversion. With overwhelming force he heard the call to give himself up for his motherland. He couLd think of nothing else. Night and day the vision was before him.'43 42

In Gildemeister, op. cit., vol. i, p. 140.

43

The Renaissance

in India (London, 1914), pp. 20-21.

ENTHUSIASM

AND

IRRATIONALISM

49

It is but natural that with the growth of such a state of mind as that associated with the IViedergeburt there should also come the consciousness of a sense of struggle with sin.*4 Emphasis on struggle with sin is apparent all through the records and autobiographies of Pietist individuals. And with the sense of struggle came a certain stress on sacrifice and even on the heroic. Francke in a sermon to the Dessau Regiment in 1720 said, " I speak to you in the name of the true warrior, Jesus Christ our Savior, the King of Kings." 45 Similarly an effort was made to transform religion into a more inward experience. Spener was at one in this with all succeeding leaders of the movement. Francke recalled that " faith dwells in the innermost and most secret recesses of the heart and in the spirit of man." 49 Gottfried Arnold, perhaps more than any other, stressed the point. The doctrine of " Christ within us " instead of " Christ for us " was most strikingly emphasized in his writings. " Man shall find the Temple, whose shadow he had long been searching for outside of himself, within himself and after he has become a living Temple of God, his soul, bearing God within him, no longer carries any desire for church assemblies." 47 The whole aim of Arnold's desires, of his writings and of his life was to experience within himself his " sweet Lord and the Christ incarnated in human flesh." Repeatedly he spoke and sang of " eating Christ" or " that we eat Christ and he eats us," and even on his death bed he exclaimed " I eat God in every bite of bread." An interesting parallel could be drawn between such a stress on inner religion and a similar stress in most theories of nationalism. The Enlight44

See Arndt, Vom wahren ch. xvi.

Christcntum,

8th ed. (Halle, 1744), book i,

45

Predigtcn

49

Sonn- Fcst- und Apostel

47

Quoted in Gobel, M a x , op. cit., vol. iii, p. 717.

1 tnd Tr'dctlein, vol. iii, pp. 75-76. Tags Predigtcn,

vol. i, p. 310.

5°

PIETISM

AND GERMAN

NATIONALISM

enment or the rationalists conceived of the state or the group as something existing for the individual, as something external to him and without any relationship to him other than utilitarian. Nationalism, however, appears with this mystical idea of an inner relationship—of some sort of mystical union inherent in all the members of the group which binds them together by force of inner necessity and not merely by accident or for utilitarian motives. Just as Christ is within us, according to Arnold, so, according to the nationalist, is nationality within us. Stress on feeling and on a more inward experience of religious^ sentiment went hand in hand with a strong doubt and even disparagement of the powers of reason. Feeling, intuition and revelation—all were necessary because human reason in itself is insufficient and impotent to fathom the deeper underlying problems of human destiny. Two distinct movements are visible in this attack on reason. Before the full development of the rationalist movement, the anti-intellectualist attack was directed against the learned theologians and scholastics, the defenders of the Schultheologie. With the growth of rationalism and free thought, Pietist writers had to wage war on two fronts, against the orthodox theologians who built their orthodoxy on the syllogism and on scholastic theology, and on the other hand against the radical rationalists who built their new religious systems on the sole basis of human reason and intellect. Gottfried Arnold quotes an older writer on the distinction between the Schultheologie and the mystical theology. Scholastic theology requires human diligence and research and can be mastered by only a few, namely the learned; the mystical on the other hand can be reached by all, at all times and in all places. The former is speculative, the latter practical; the first rests chiefly on understanding, the other on will; one is subservient to deceit, arrogance and curiosity, the other goes on

ENTHUSIASM

AND

IRRATIONALISM

artlessly and securely and seeks nothing but God. Scholastic theology influences one naturally through concepts and syllogisms, mystical theology supernaturally in a clear and simple understanding; one comes through long study, the other through gifts infused by the Holy Spirit. One does not transcend the bounds of human speculation, the other stretches out into the infinite and reaches out above all measure of human comprehension. One is long, toilsome and heavy, the other is short, simple and easy to comprehend.48 Spener and Francke themselves were not inclined to mysticism. The former, although revealing mystical leanings in his youthful Soliloquia, was on the whole too sane and practical a person to indulge in any flights of fantasy. Francke, likewise, was foreign in spirit to any mystical trend. But both Spener and Francke continually attacked the stress placed on mere learning and thus helped to inaugurate the assault on the reign of reason. Their followers, not to speak of the more extreme Separatists and Chiliasts, introduced more and more of the mystical alternative. This tendency can be observed more in ascetic than in theological books. The works of Johann Porst (1698-1728) are particularly characteristic. At the Pietist conventicles, inaugurated by Spener, instead of reading the easier portions of the Bible, they chose sections such as the revelation of St. John and mystical works by Bengel, Oetinger, Hahn, etc., which lent themselves to all sorts of mystical Schwärmerei,49 Their critics accused them of appealing to the imagination, through all sorts of imagery, figures of speech and the like, instead of setting forth the truth in really clear and plain speech.50 48 Historie und Beschreibung der mystischen Theologie; oder geheimen Cottesgelehrthcit, 2nd ed. (Leipzig, 1738), pp. 27-28. 49

Duttenhof er, op. cit.

60

Ibid., p. 45.

PIETISM

52

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

In their arguments with the free thinkers, the Pietists denied the possibility of basing everything on reason. Revelation, faith and intuition are of supreme importance. " W i t h mere instruments of reason," declared Bogatzky, " we cannot meet the powers of darkness and unbelief. They are mere straw tools." 51 And Jung-Stilling much later declared that " if reason is supreme over revelation, then we don't need revelation. If revelation stands above reason, then those theologians who seek to r e f o r m revelation according to reason are working against God and thus f o r evil." 52 These ideas were fully developed in the Herzensreligion of Zinzendorf and the H e r r n h u t e r and in the irrationality of Hamann. " H e who wishes to comprehend God with his mind," declared Zinzendorf, " he becomes an atheist." 5 3 " The chief source of misunderstanding in all religion is that people imagine they can go to heaven by means of all sorts of entêtements, Kopfwissenschaft and ideas, patched together either f r o m conversation, books or one's own thoughts." 64 " All the essential theology can be written with large characters on one octavo sheet." 55 Zinzendorf, in this connection, distinguished between V erst and (understanding) and Vernunft (reason). Verstand is the bon sens which God gave to all human beings with which to judge all essential questions. Whatever is read, learned, ably handled and explained with the understanding, is called sophia, wisdom. A philosopher is a man who makes proper use of his understanding. . . . Vernunft is, according 51

Evangclische

Vbung

des wahren

Christentums,

2 vols. ( H a l l e , 1750),

vol. ii, p. 729. Q u o t e d in R i t s c h l , vol. i, pp. 530-37. 53

Zinzendorf

1 9 2 5 ) , p. 16. 54

Ibid., p. 43-

55

Ibid., p. 46.

ueber

Glauben

und Lcbcn,

ed. b y O t t o H e r p e l

(Berlin,

ENTHUSIASM

AND

IRRAT10NAL1SM

to my view, the utilization of understanding only to create difficult problems. O n e hundred are solved, then "fifty new ones are added. T w e n t y - f i v e of these are explained and in the mean time thirty more have been found. A f t e r a while one is involved in fifty difficulties a f e w of which remain incapable of solution. A n d even if only t w o such unsolved problems remain, they are, unfortunately, sufficient to prevent the soul f r o m entering into the state of the faithful. A n d when the soul comes before its Judge, H e will ask it, " W h a t have y o u accomplished in the w o r l d ? Did y o u have faith in your last h o u r s ? " " N o ! " " D i d I not hold faith before y o u ? " . . . . If a soul frankly denies this and dares tell the Saviour to his f a c e " Y o u never held out your faith before me," then I would not despair of such a soul being saved. But if it answers in this wise, " Y o u have o f t e n held your faith before m e ! B u t I had too much understanding! " " O h , " the Saviour will say, " have y o u not yet learned to speak? Y o u have too much Vernunft (reason). Y o u r understanding was not to blame. Y o u r reason ( V e r n u n f t ) led you astray." D o not let yourselves be misled, m y dear friends, by identifying Verstand and Vernunft, and calling the love of skepticism and the courage of doubt a love of wisdom and t r u t h — f o r they are merely aids to faithlessness and fickleness in all your ways. M a y God protect all men in whom there is one good spark from the doctrine which now is the great doctrine of the world, for it leads directly to perdition. 58 I t is a religion o f the heart, as opposed t o a religion o f the mind, that is t o be supreme.

" Our Saviour,"

continued

Z i n z e n d o r f , " has declared that the small, the children, believe in H i m ( M a t t h . 1 8 : 6 ) : F r o m w h i c h w e can well see that f a i t h h a s its seat not in speculation, n o t in t h o u g h t but in the h e a r t ; it is a l i g h t in the h e a r t "

"

S u c h irrationalism w a s f o u n d in an unusually h i g h degree 56

Ibid., p. 43-

"

I b i d . , p. 34.

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

in the life and writings of Johann Georg Hamann. This most paradoxical character of the Sturm und Drang period, a heap of contradictions, a bundle of inconsistencies, was the sun around whom such satellites as Herder, Goethe, Lavater, Jacobi and all the other precursors of the Romantic movement grouped themselves. Even in his own day he was considered the supreme pontiff of a new sect that had arisen in opposition to the school of the Berliners, as the rationalists were called. Sophisticated to the highest degree, he was at the same time most childlike in his naivete; deeply religious and mystical by nature, he was at the same time the enemy of all dogmatic and formal religion. Hamann's influence is not directly evident. It was more personal than through his writings. As one writer puts it " he was the ferment that set the tough mass of our literature brewing once more : who, however, like true leaven went up with the ferment and lives only in his consequences." 53 Hamann it was who took on this idea of irrationality first in religion and then applied it to other forms of human activity. It was he who influenced the Romantic conception of genius and of poetry and literature as the product of an irrational divinely inspired force. But his point of departure in all this was his Pietist background, the religious views which he shared in a great measure with all of the earlier Pietists already mentioned. " Reason," said Hamann, " is holy, right and good. Through it, however, comes nothing but the recognition of excessive sinful ignorance." 59 It urges us to find something else to fill its place and this is faith. " Was reason given to us to make us wise? " he asks. " Just as little as the law was given to the Jews to make them just: rather to convince us of the opposite, how irrational our 68 Minor, J., Johann Georg Hamann in setner Bedeutung und Drang Periode ( F r a n k f u r t , 1 8 8 1 ) , p. 3.

Gildemeister, op. cit., vol. iv, p. 103.

für die

Sturm

ENTHUSIASM

AND

IRRATIONALISM

reason is, and that our errors will be increased through reason, as sins were increased through the L a w . " 40 Religion has more in it than mere evidences of the senses and of reason. Hamann never wearied of attacking the writers and philosophers of the Enlightenment for their views on religion. In his review of Robinet's De la nature he commented ironically, " T h e modesty of the author to allow nothing of the God o f the Christians to become known, belongs to that superior fancy of this ' enlightened ' century where the denial of the Christian name is a sine qua non without which one dare not aspire to the title of world sage." 51 " T o err is human, but our infallible philosophers aspire to a more than human authority and in this way fall into a transcendent ignorance which its worshipers absorb just like the excrement of the great L a m a . " 62 " All that the philosophers prate about God and nature," he said, " appears to me as distasteful and disgusting as the twaddle of menials about their lords in the fish and meat market." 88 He was especially bitter against the gospel o f natural religion. " Natural religion," he declared, in speaking of Hume, " is for me what natural language is, a veritable absurdity, an ens rationis." 84 " T h e Attic philosopher, Hume, considers faith necessary when he eats an egg and drinks a glass of water. If he needs faith in eating and drinking why does he deny his own principle when he passes judgment upon things more lofty than sensual eating and drinking? " 85 Similar ideas can be found in the writings of Hamann's contemporary Johann Kaspar Lavater. Lavater who was a e° Ibid. 91

Ibid., pp. 93-94-

82

Ibid., pp. 96-97.

83

Ibid.

** Ibid., vol. i, p. 321. 65

Ibid., vol. iv, p. 104.

56

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

powerful influence on Herder, to whom Goethe looked back with admiration even in his old age, who preached to thousands of people coming from all parts of Europe and who thus came to be known as " the prophet of Zurich," based his whole philosophy of life on intuition and feeling. " All existence, all life is immediate feeling—the most certain and undemonstrable. . . . All mathematical certainty is always reduced to a feeling of intuition." 68 " Intuition," he wrote in another place, " ( w h a t the French call coup d'oeil) is the greatest, simplest, most inexhaustible gift a mortal can receive from heaven: W h o has that has all; and who has it not has little of what constitutes the good and the great." 67 Much more like Hamann in this respect and also strongly reminiscent of Gottfried Arnold was Schleiermacher. Both Schleiermacher and Hamann were conscious of a tendency to dissipate their energies and interests over a wide field and of an inability to concentrate on one field of activity. " It is my nature," said Hamann, " to do all or nothing—mediocrity is my antipathy." 68 And to his friend Lindner he wrote, " I pray and work, like a Christian, like a pilgrim, like a soldier in time of peace. My lot is neither for a merchant, a statesman, nor a man of the world. I am nothing and in time of need I can be everything." 89 Schleiermacher too felt it impossible for him to adjust himself to one field of activity. " I will not suffer myself to be pinned down," he wrote. " It is useless to hope I should ever seriously devote myself to some one thing. They say that when I have succeeded in gaining a certain view of things, my M Handbibliothek iii, p. 229.

fur

Freundc,

24 vols. (Winterthur, 1790-93), vol.

®7 Aphorisms

on Man, 4th ed., tr. by Henry Fuseli (Boston, 1790), p. 70.

®8 Schriften,

vol. vi, p. 184.

69

Schriften,

vol. i, p. 363.

ENTHUSIASM

AND

IRRATIONALISM

mind hastens on in its usual, restless, superficial fashion to other objects. Would that they leave me in peace, understanding that it is my destiny, that I must not devote myself to science, because I am set for the development of myself." 70 Schleiermacher thus like Hamann turned inward to himself for peace and consolation. T h e noblest expression of these sentiments was reached in his Monologen and especially in the first section, On Reflection. " Only in his innermost activity, wherein his true nature abides, is [the individual] free, and in contemplating it, I feel myself to be upon the holy ground of Freedom, far from every debasing limitation. I must fix my eyes upon my true self, if each moment is not to slip away as merely so much time, instead of being grasped as an element of Eternity and transmuted into a higher and freer life." 71 " A s often," he continues, " as I turn my gaze inward upon my inmost self, I am at once within the domain of eternity. I behold the spirit's action which no world can change and no time can destroy but which itself creates both world, and time." 72 H o w reminiscent of Gottfried Arnold! For despite Schleiermacher's later absorption in critical philosophy, his Pietist tradition always remained part of him. H e always remained convinced that the innermost life of man must be lived in feeling. " Everything that belongs to the true life of man and which is an ever animating and effective stimulus for him," he wrote in his Reden iiber die Religion, " must come from the innermost essence of his organisation." " T h e essence of religion," he declared, " is neither thought nor action but rather intuition and feeling." 78 70Monologen,

tr. by H. L. Friess (New York, 1926), p. 40.

71

Ibid., p. 16.

72

Ibid., p. 22.

73

Vbcr die Religion, ed. Otto Braun (Leipzig, 1920), p. 36.

58

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

Quotations of this nature could be multiplied from Novalis and others of the Romanticists. For by this time these ideas had become widespread throughout the intellectual classes of Germany. What was once a revolutionary reaction of a minority was now the dominant trend of thought. But sufficient material has been brought together to show the development of two marked tendencies, one the exaltation of enthusiasm, feeling, intensity of emotional response, and side by side with it a growing tendency to turn away from reason as the guiding principle of existence to the worship of a mystical sort of intuition. To the latter was due in great measure the development of that attitude of mind visible in such later writers as Adam Miiller, Hegel, Savigny etc. who developed the idea of the nation as a mystical unity. It is to this state of mind that may in great measure be attributed the possibility of masses of people becoming imbued with the irrational attitude towards nationality. It is this feeling or intuition which gives reality to the mystical bond uniting the people of a given nationality, which makes their entire life and interests to become identified with the nationality and which makes them feel that this nationality does not exist merely for their own utility, but that their own life is inconceivable without it. All of which cannot be explained on merely rational grounds. 74 The other tendency—the stressing of enthusiasm—became transferred, in the W a r of Liberation, to the national sphere. Under the impact of the rationalist movement which placed the value of religion on a much lower level; as a result of the humanization of the Christian religion (a phenomenon 74

Even just recently, long after German nationalism has become a fact, Paul Joachimsen in " Epochen des deutschen Nationalbewusstseins," in Zeitwende, vol. vi (1930), pp. 97-109, declares, " W e cannot show the nation as a concrete tangible unity to any man who does not want to see it."

ENTHUSIASM

AND

IRRATIONALISM

•which will be discussed in greater detail later), whereby Christianity became directed more towards the relations between man and his neighbor and man and society instead of being concerned chiefly with matters of dogma or even salvation ; as a result of these developments the individual found less of an outlet for his emotions in the religious sphere and the enthusiasm once poured forth in prayer and in sermons was now transferred to the nation. The patriotic literature of 1 8 1 3 is full of the same sort of sentiment, as that of the earlier more strictly religious literature. The spirit too is still religious but it has now become combined with that of the nation. The nation has taken the place of the church. The Wiedergeburt of the Pietist has become the national regeneration of Fichte. Fichte's Reden an die deutsche Nation is full of such Pietist expressions as Brennpunkt, Flamme, lebendige Kraft, entzünden, etc., which undoubtedly found their way into his vocabulary both through the general penetration of Pietist influence and through the more specific contacts he had with Lavater." As one surveys the patriotic lyrics of Arndt or Körner or Schenkendorf one immediately notices the similarity of expressions and spirit between them and Pietist writings. Schenkendorf's Te deum nach der Schlacht is an imitation of a Lutheran hymn. The war is a holy war. And Arndt calls out—" Auf denn, redlicher Deutscher! Bete täglich zu Gott, dass er dir das Herz mit Stärke fülle und deine Seelle entflamme mit Zuversicht und Mut."76 And Glut, entflammen, feuerdig, Herzen, entbrannen, all these words so common in Pietist literature from its inception are the most characteristic in Körner's patriotic poems. Körner's Lied zur feierlichen Einsegnung des preussischen Freicorps and his Mein Vaterland may be cited 15 See Gelpcke, E., Fichte und die Gedankenwelt des Sturm und Drang (Leipzig, 1928). 78

Staat und Vaterland, ed. by Ernst Müsebeck (Munich, 1921), p. 14.

PIETISM

6o

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

as revealing a religious enthusiasm used and applied to the stirring of national f e e l i n g . " " W i r treten hier in Gottes Haus

77

M i t frommem Muth zusammen. Uns r u f t die Pflicht zum K a m p f hinaus, Und alle Herzen

flammen.

Denn was uns mahnt zu Sieg und Schlacht, H a t Gott j a selber a n g e f a c h t : D e m Herrn allein die E h r e ! " E s bricht der freche Uebermuth D e r Tyrannei zusammen; E s soll der Freiheit heil'ge Gluth In allen Herzen flammen. D r u m frisch in K a m p f e s Ungestüm Gott ist mit uns, und wir mit ihm! D e m Herrn allein die E h r e ! in Sämtliche pp. 65-66.

Werke,

ed. by K a r l S t r e c k f u s , 4 vols. (Berlin, 1867), vol. i,

Mein Vaterland " W o ist des Sänger's V a t e r l a n d ? — W o edler Geister Funken sprühten, W o K r ä n z e f ü r das Schöne blühten, W o starke Herzen freudig glühten, F ü r alles heilige entbrannt: D a w a r mein Vaterland. W e n r u f t des Sänger's V a t e r l a n d ? E s r u f t nach dem verstummten Göttern Mit der V e r z w e i f l u n g Donnerwettern, N a c h seiner Freiheit, seinen Rettern, N a c h der Vergeltung, Rächerhand: Den r u f t mein V a t e r l a n d ! W a s will des Sänger's V a t e r l a n d ? Die Knechte will es niederschlagen, Den Bluthund aus den Grenzen jagen Und frei die freien Söhne tragen Oder frei sie betten unter'm S a n d : Das will mein Vaterland 1 in IVcrke,

vol. i, pp. 63-64.

See further Grommaire, 1800-1815 (Paris, 1 9 1 1 ) .

G., La

littérature

patriotique

en

Allemagne

ENTHUSIASM

AND IRRATIONALISM

6l

Pietism thus supplied a new element to German intellectual and psychological consciousness which had been lacking. Pietism brought into German life the important element of enthusiasm. The secular thought and literature of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Germany was marked by an almost complete absence of this element. It came forth in sudden outburst in the Sturm und Drang and flooded German intellectual life in the Romantic movement. But it did not come from nowhere. Quietly and unobservedly it was working its way into German consciousness through Pietism. Religion still dominated the entire life of most individuals and here enthusiasm found its outlet. With the spread of Pietism throughout Germany and with its permeation of German intellectual life through its enormous influence on education and the school system 78 this irrational, inward, mystical form of enthusiasm became no longer restricted to the limited spheres of official Pietist circles but was diffused far and wide through all classes and groups. And this element of enthusiasm supplied the fertile soil for the development of a national movement. It provided the mentality and psychological state which made possible the rise and the spread of nationalist doctrines. The Enlightenment served to secularize life; it released the energies and the forces hitherto restricted to religion and directed them to the problems of human affairs. The German nationalist of the early nineteenth century was the " enlightened " Pietist, the religious enthusiast who found a new outlet for his emotionalism in the worship of the fatherland. The feeling of dependence which Schleiermacher in his Der Cliristliche Glaube and Novalis in his religious poems stressed as the most essential characteristic of Christianity, the feeling of the utter helplessness and weakness of man without God, this feeling 78

See Chapter V .

62

PIETISM

AND GERMAN

NATIONALISM

now became the feeling of dependence which an individual possesses as a member of a nationality.

F o r those who still

remained religious, like Schleiermacher and Novalis, C h r i s tianity and nationalism became identical; f o r others in w h o m the process of secularization proceeded more rapidly, nationalism became the new religion worshipped with the same intensity and enthusiasm as that hitherto applied to Christianity.

C H A P T E R II INDIVIDUALITY AND INDIVIDUALISM " Wie mit dem einzelnen Menschen, so mit der ganzen Nation."—Wilhelm von Humboldt.

To the casual observer nationalism and individualism seem to be at the opposite poles of thought with an unbridgeable gap between them. Yet there is an inherent connection between the two; not a mere casual connection but a necessary, inward relationship. To use a bit of Hegelian dialectic we might even say that they are contradictory and hence inconceivable one without the other. The growth of a political philosophy of nationalism would hardly be possible without the previous growth of an intense spirit of individualism. " The development of nationalism is but the growth of individual freedom writ large." 1 As we look back into history we see nationalism and individualism always appearing together. What there was of national feeling in ancient times appeared among the people most noted for their individualism, the Greeks. With the Middle Ages came the decline both of the spirit of individualism and that of nationalism. The individualism of the Renaissance ushered in the modern national state. Both individualism and nationalism were characteristic of the Lutheran revolt in Germany and, when the fresh and swift rushing fountains opened up by Luther became frozen into a rigid orthodoxy, both were crushed. Finally in the birth of the Romantic movement and the modern development of nationalism both ideas burst 1 Review of Hammerton's Universal Supplement, January 30, 1930.

History

in London Times

Literary 63

64

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

f o r t h side by side, with equal intensity and equal vigor.

The

whole character o f the modern period is a subjective one. Into a w o r l d governed b y a universal order and conceived o f as an organic whole, came the idea of multiplicity, of variation, and this meant multiplicity o f both individual and nationality.

T h e individuality o f a national group could only

be recognized a f t e r a recognition of the principle o f individuality itself.

T h i s connection between individuality and

nationalism has been beautifully expressed by the GermanA m e r i c a n political theorist, Francis Lieber.

In a letter to

S u m n e r he w r i t e s : " It is the general anxiety of man to be an individual and to individualize everything around him. T o be drowned in undefined generality makes him restless, unhappy.

Hence, also, a reason for love of country.

We

m u s t single out one country, f r o m a m o n g all countries of the globe, to call ours.

T h e sound, ' M y country,' is so

delicious,—' my

' my

rescued

from

home,' vague

humanity reflected."

garden ',—because

generality,

stabilitated,

we

we

feel

see

our

2

I t is not possible f o r us to go into the relation of the Protestant revolt to subjectivism and individuality.

Suffice it

merely to point out how the importance of the individual was stressed b y Luther.

" W h o can receive and procure

for

another," he asks, " that divine promise which requires the f a i t h o f every specific i n d i v i d u a l ? " 3

" D r i v e n by great

desires and vehement longings which fed on instinct and feeling, not on intelligence," says a recent Catholic philosopher,

" possessed by the passions,

loosing the

tempest

around him, breaking every obstacle and all ' e x t e r n a l ' discipline ; but h a v i n g within him a heart full of contradictions 2 The Life and Letters of Francis Lieber, ed. by Thomas Perry (Boston, 1882), p. 121. 3 Quoted in Cassirer, E., Freiheit p. 18.

Sergeant

und Form, 2nd ed. (Berlin, 1918),

INDIVIDUALITY

AND

INDIVIDUALISM

and discordant cries; seeing life, before Nietzsche, as essentially tragic, Luther is the very type of modern individualism." * " And thus in the person of Luther and in his doctrine, we are present—and that on the level of the spirit and religious life—at the Advent of the Self." 5 With the stagnation of the early Protestant movement there developed a formal orthodoxy, especially within the Lutheran Church, which was most hostile to all expressions of individuality and freedom. The symbolical books were set up as final and indubitable authorities on all matters of religious life. Thus, for example, the members of the Wittenberg faculty declared, " We believe, admit and teach that the symbolical books possess the force of divinely revealed and binding truth not only in matters of doctrine but in all affairs." 6 The strict adherence to the symbolical books of the Lutheran church was imposed in the universities upon all officials of all faculties, even upon the dancing and fencing instructors. The slightest deviation was sufficient to brand one as a heretic and to serve to arouse bitter controversy and conflict. This imposition of authority crushing all attempts at individual expression was accompanied by rigid mechanization of education and of life in general, and an intensification of rigid class divisions and distinctions with strict uniformity within each class. The members of the church were divided into three classes: the princely, the priestly and the lay; and each class had its definite sphere of activity. In the universities, rules for behavior were prescribed and in many places the clothing of the students and faculty were prescribed even up to the kind of cloth and the price per yard. Religious individualism began to assert itself anew in the * Maritain, Jacques, Three 8

Ibid., p. 18.

e

Tholuck, Vorgeschichte,

Reformers vol. ii, p. 78.

(London, 1928), p. 27.

66

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

field of religious poetry. In the Kirchenlied, especially in the work of Paul Gerhardt, the subjective note again burst forth in full strength. Gerhardt, whose hymns like real folk songs were sung by millions for over 200 years, filled his poems with a truly individual character. Instead of the Kirche as the object of his lyrics, as was the case with most of his predecessors, he was concerned with expressing his own personal emotions and his own personal relations to his Maker. Sixteen of his 130 songs begin with Ich and sixty are concerned with God and his own heart.7 Accompanying the Pietist movement was an increased development of the individual character of religious feeling. Pietism liberated the individual from the dogmatic burden and turned him towards his inner self. The basic Protestant tendency that the individual, released from all external means of salvation and from being bound by a firm church organization, should find his personal relationship to God in his own self, achieved in Pietism its most characteristic expression and its highest development. While it is true that later some forms of Pietism also became formalized and stiff, yet, in its earlier phases it was marked by a general feeling of freedom and release—a freedom echoed in such a poem as the following by Gottfried Arnold: Die Hoffnung soll mir nimmer fehlen, Dass mir ein Frühling wieder grünt, Und mir mit frischen Rosen dient. Ich will nicht mehr die Stadt erwählen Und überall gebunden stehen. Ich weiss noch endlich frei zu sein Und in das freie Feld hinein Mit dem, was ich erwählt, zu gehen. Ich gehe zur Freiheit auf güldenen Stufen Das Echo soll jetzo entgegen mir rufen.® 7

See Petrich, Hermann, Paul Gerhardt (Gütersloh, 1914).

•Cited in Seeberg, E., Gottfried Arnold (Meerane, 1923), p. 5.

INDIVIDUALITY

AND INDIVIDUALISM

67

Arnold in his Ketzergeschichte does not repose truth in the church but rather in the individual and personal lives of the quiet and solitary souls of all nations and sects who unknown follow the life of Jesus. Pietism emphasized anew the individual relationship to God and the Lutheran concept of the general priesthood. It attempted to break down the hard and fast distinction between the lay and the priestly classes. Each individual, even a layman, could come into direct and immediate relationship with his Maker. Spener's " spiritual priesthood " was the possession of each individual. Not only the clergy but " all Christians without distinction of old or young, man or woman, slave or freeman " were such spiritual priests.® Individualism in religion was particularly stressed among the Moravian brethren. Zinzendorf considered religion a matter for each individual heart and conscience. The basic idea of the Herrnhuter, according to Zinzendorf, was that each member was to say " I am a part of the body of Christ." In confession one should not say " w e " but rather " I believe." The difference between the Herrnhuter and all other sects was, according to its founder, precisely this principle: " that every individual experiences the Saviour himself and does not merely repeat what he has heard from his neighbor or from a few important individuals." 10 " The community of Christendom on earth is based on the principle that every soul knows in whom it believes. Only out of this personal experience is communion, the community of the holy, created." 11 " Do not believe, brethren," he declared, " that * See Spener's Geistliches Priestenthum in Hauptschriften, ed. by Paul Grünberg (Gotha, 1889). See also Göbel, op. cit., vol. ii, pp. 618-25. 10 Uttenderfer, Otto, Zinzendorfs Weltbetrachtung (Berlin, 1929), p. 30S. 11 Becker, Bernhard, Zinzendorf und sein Christentum in Verhältnis sum Kirchlichen und religiösen Leben seiner Zeit, 2nd ed. (Leipzig, 1900), p. 17.

68

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

the hair of all people can be cut through one comb, therefore make a profounder study of human character." 12 Zinzendorf recognized individuality not only in religion and in personal character but also in nationalities. In his instructions to the various Herrnhut emissaries to foreign lands he warned them not to treat all the peoples alike. He urged them to study the individual national character of each group and to try to understand its peculiarities. He cautioned them against trying to force German ways of thinking and acting upon alien peoples and thus tending to an identification of Christianity with Germanism. But together with emphasis on individuality came an equal emphasis on community of feeling, on Gemeinschaft and Gemeingeist. The very personal individual differences, that are to be allowed free play, become blended and harmonized in a larger entity,—a religion, a family, a nationality— which is permeated by a feeling of sympathy and Gemeingeist. Although individually engaged to belong entirely to Jesus, the Herrnhuter bound themselves together in community of spirit and aims, renouncing self-love and self-will. " The different elements of the Brüdergemeinde," said Zinzendorf, " were held together by a feeling of sympathy." 15 A condition was created where " no one ruled, but rather where all were willingly dependent on the spirit of the community regulated according to the written rule and the application of the constitution." 14 " God has created us for Gemeinschaft," said Zinzendorf, and " without Gemeinschaft there is no Christianity." 15 The problem becomes somewhat complicated when we consider the so-called Separatists, or those who carried in12

Ibid., p. 22.

13

Herpel, op. cit., p. 99.

11

Ibid., p. 100.

15

Uttendörfer, Zinsendorfs

Weltbctrachhmg,

p. 310.

INDIVIDUALITY

AND

INDIVIDUALISM

6g

dividualism to an extreme. But even among the Separatists there was only one faction that aimed at a hermit-like life without any feeling or obligation to a society of any sort. T o the majority of them as well as to the Pietists who officially remained within the church, the strong feeling o f individualism was definitely associated with a strong group feeling which found expression in new forms of social organization, like the collegia pietatis o f Spener, the Butlarische Rote, the Eller community, and the societies of the Moravians. This association of individualism with community of feeling which was emphasized by Zinzendorf was carried on by Herder and developed fully in Romanticism. One of the most interesting ways in which the stress on individuality exhibited itself was in the development of autobiography. In fact Pietism is best studied not in the learned theological works but rather in the biographical and moralistic works. A n d these are almost wholly made up of records of the spiritual experiences of various types of Christian souls. The searching of one's soul, introspection and the recognition of one's own sins through such a process constituted one of the elements most stressed by the fathers of Pietism. Each individual, said Francke, " should inquire diligently into the state of his Christian feeling to see whether he may really, through the overwhelming greatness and power of the Lord, rise from his natural state to a state of grace and as such be accepted as a beloved child of God." 18 The Wiedergeburt and its lasting influence on the individual's life also seemed to necessitate the preservation of a clear record of such an important event It thus became increasingly the custom for the followers of Pietism to keep diaries and journals recording very minutely all details of their existence, their psychological experiences and the development 16

Predigten und Tractiein, vol. i, p. 78.

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

7° of their religious life. Thus we have the large collections of Pietist diaries and autobiographies running from the simple records of humble peasants and servants to the more elaborate works of more distinguished and learned men. T h e enormous later development of autobiography and biography in Germany was in no small measure related to these phases of the Pietist m o v e m e n t " Illustrations of such works are the autobiographical records of Spener, Francke, Breithaupt, Petersen and Spangenberg in the earlier period, the more moralistic and psychological records of the second generation like Haller and Geliert, the introspective, moody, restless and passionate confessions of Hamann, Lavater, Jung-Stilling and Braecker, and culminating in that most serene and exalted series o f meditations found in Schleiermacher's Monologen. Towards the middle of the eighteenth century Pietist writers were forced to divert their attack from orthodox Lutheranism and direct it more against the growing rationalism of the Enlightenment. For just as orthodoxy was allied with rigid absolutism, which as Droysen has already pointed out, made the orthodox clergy the strongest supporters of particularism and Klein-Staaterei, so on the other hand the Enlightenment was characterized by a rationalistic universalism and an equally rigid formalism. Leibnitz's concept of individuality, of the monad as a unique entity in itself, and of the non-existence of two identical entities anywhere, became transformed by Wolff and the other leaders of German rationalist thought into a doctrine of the essential sameness of man everywhere. 18 It was a doctrine of individualism, it is true, but individualism without individuality. Individuals were alike, reacted to the same sort of stimuli, and were equally influenced by and subject to a 1 7 F o r a discussion of this influence of Pietism see especially, Mahrholz, W . , Deutsche Selbstbekenntnisse (Berlin, 1919). 18

See Cassirer, E., Die Philosophie

der Aufklärung

(Tübingen, 1932).

INDIVIDUALITY

AND

INDIVIDUALISM

rational analysis. In religion this feeling found expression in the form of natural religion, which was presumed to be common to all peoples and nations; and in the field of political theory it found an outlet in the desire for a universal monarchy. It was this sort of individualism which was responsible for the great vogue of imitation. There was imitation in literature and imitation in politics. Constitutions drafted on popular rational principles were deemed applicable anywhere and everywhere irrespective of the peculiar and unique conditions of a given country. T h e use of foreign officials in Prussia, in Russia, and other European states was but another indication of the rationalist ignoring of the importance of individuality. It was against these tendencies of the Enlightenment that the great figures of the Sturm und Drang, Herder, Hamann and Lavater, and Romanticists like Schleiermacher and Novalis contended. " Our individuality must show itself in every period and at every point," declared Hamann.1® A n d because of this he, and with him Herder, raised the battle cry against the prevalence of imitation in German literature. Originality became their slogan. " I f they desire to make it as hard for us to be original as to become copies," wrote Hamann, " then what else is their intention but to convert us into mules?." 20 A similar reaction lay behind Hamann's glorification of the unique individual or genius, and prompted Lavater's study of physiognomy. Natural religion, idealized by the Enlightenment, was for these " enlightened" Pietists an abomination. Although common elements in all religions were recognized, the emphasis was put not on the points in common but rather on the differences, on the unique and individual aspects of each religion. For as Lavater put it, " every man has his own 19

Gildemeister, op. cit., vol. iv, p. 7.

20

Schriften,

vol. ii, p. 197.

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

religion just as he has his own face, and every one has his own God just as he has his own individuality." 21 " Universal language, universal monarchy, universal religion, universal medicine, under present conditions and before the advent of the Great Unifier, are, for me, synonymous with human failings and presumptuousness." 22 T h e best expression of these sentiments is, however, found in Schleiermacher's Monologen. Schleiermacher who more than any other writer of the Romantic period reveals the deep impress of Pietist ideas, who even in later life called himself a " Pietist of a higher order," in a section of his Monologen unequalled for its sheer beauty and for its matchless combination of inner turbulence of spirit and serene resignation and repose, confesses his disillusionment with rationalist philosophy of the Enlightenment. For a long time I too [he says] was content with the discovery of a universal reason: I worshipped the one essential being as the highest, and so believed there is but a single right way of acting in every situation, that the conduct of all men should be alike, each differing from the other only by reason of his place and station in the world. I thought humanity revealed itself as varied only in the manifold diversity of outward acts, that man himself, the individual was not a being uniquely fashioned, but of one substance and everywhere the same.23 For the rationalist there was one idea of man and one idea of reason. Every religion, every individual and every state would be made to conform to that pattern. In the first case it expressed itself in the belief in natural religion, in the 21 Antworten auf wichtige und würdige Fragen und Briefe guter Menschen, 2 vols. (Berlin, 1790), vol. i, p. 66. 22

Ausgewählte

Schriften,

vol. i, p. 22. " Ed. Friess, p. 30.

weiser

und

ed. by J. K . Orelli, 9 vols. (Zürich, 1841-44),

INDIVIDUALITY

AND

INDIVIDUALISM

second it was a universal cosmopolitanism, and finally in the political sense it found expression in the desire for a universal state. All of these ideas are rejected by Schleiermacher. He battles for particular religions in his Reden über die Religion; he takes up the cudgels for the individual in his Monologen and finally in his patriotic sermons he pleads the cause of nationalism. The underlying idea is always that the basic feeling of infinite and living nature has its intrinsic multiplicity and individuality." Religion, according to Schleiermacher, is to be discovered only in the religions, that is to say in various particular religions. So much every one can see, that no one can possess Religion as a whole, for man is finite and religion is infinite; but you certainly perceive that it cannot be broken up into fragments among men, each one possessing only so much as he can comprehend, but rather that it organizes itself into presentations, differentiated among themselves . . . you may call these variations, stages or phases of religion; but you must admit that wherever there are such divisions there is individuality. Every infinite force that divides and becomes differentiated, reveals itself in characteristic and various forms. . . . If you want to have not only a general conception of Religion, and it would be unworthy of you to content yourselves merely with such incomplete knowledge; if you want to grasp the idea of religion as a factor in the infinite and progressive development of the World Spirit, then you must give up the vain and empty desire for one religion.25 " It is only these positive religions that present the definite forms through which infinite religion becomes realized in the finite. Natural religion can make no claim to be anything like this, for it is only a vague, paltry and povertystricken idea that in itself can really never exist. Only in 21

Über die Religion, p. 36. "Ibid., p. 151.

74

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

those [positive religions] is there a true development of religiosity." 28 " Just as no person can come into existence without at the same time and through the same act being placed in a world, in a definite order o f objects and in a definite category, so in the same way a religious person cannot arrive at his individuality without through the same act positing to himself some definite form o f religion." " In the Monologen of 1800 the same idea is applied to the individual. A f t e r the confession of his previous rationalist sympathies " there then dawned upon me," he says, " what is now my highest intuition. I saw clearly that each human element is meant to represent humanity in his own way, combining its elements uniquely so that it may reveal itself in every mode, and all that can issue from its womb be made actual in the fulness of unending space and time." 28 In the Monologen and in the Brouillon of 1805 and in the political sermons of 1806 we see the doctrine of individuality fully applied to nationalities and states. " Where find," asks Schleiermacher, " the individual character each state should have, and the acts that reveal it? T h e present generation is so far from even suspecting what this side of humanity signifies, that it dreams of reorganizing the state as it does of human ideals in general; each whether he lives in one of the old or new states could pour all into his own mould, like some sage who lays down a model for the future in his works, and hopes that one day all mankind will venerate it as the symbol of its salvation." 28 Just as every religion expresses a particular idea of religion in its universal sense, just as every individual expresses a particular side of humanity, so every nationality expresses an individual idea of culM

Ibid., p. 162.

" Ibid., p. 169. M

Ed. Friess, p. 31.

*« Ibid., p. 59.

INDIVIDUALITY

AND

INDIVIDUALISM

ture to which the activity o f the individual is related like the parts to an organic whole. " Every people is appointed to present a particular side o f the divine image." 80 " God has pointed out to every people its particular mission on earth and has breathed into it its particular spirit, in order that in this way He may be glorified by each one through its particular mode." 31 A n d once a people has arrived at a high stage of development, " it is disgraceful for it to embrace within it anything alien to it, no matter how excellent that may be in itself, for its particular character it has received from God Himself." 32 F o r Schleiermacher all reality, and thus also all historical phenomena, are individual. N o purely conceptual abstraction has historical reality; natural law is nothing and natural religion a shadow. 88 W e thus see how the concept of individuality and uniqueness (found, it is true, also in Leibniz) developed among the Pietist writers and continued to be applied to secular fields until it gave birth to the concept of an individual and unique nationality which has its own either innate or historical traditions and its own distinctive character. It was a concept of nationality not merely as a mechanical sum of individuals but rather as a large organism in which every single individual both in the past and in the present constitutes an essentially conditioning element. It was an idea which germinated outside the general stream of " enlightened " thought in Germany and did not come into full play until the Pietist undercurrents had come to the surface in the form of Sturm und Drang and Romanticism. 84 30

Predigten, vol. i, p. 364.

81

Ibid.

82

Predigten, vol. iv, p. 75.

83

See his Der Christliche

Glaube, note to paragraph 10.

Interesting in this connection is the work of Erich Jensch, Die Entfaltung des Subjektivismus von der Aufklärung sur Romantik, no. 6 of Königsberger deutsche Forschungen (Königsberg, 1929). 81

CHAPTER

III

T H E O N E AND THE M A N Y " A c h wie gross ist's, wenn ein jedes D i n g in seiner A r t lobet seinen Schöpfer."—Zinsendorf. " W e r sich nicht selbst anschaut, nie w i r d er das Ganze begreifen. W e r nicht das Ganze gesucht, findet wohl nimmer sich selbst."—Schleiermacher. " W e n n da alles ein T o n wäre, würde es nicht lieblich klingen, da aber verschiedene T ö n e sind, und selbige nur rechtgebraucht und zusammengesetzt werden, so geben sie eine desto angenehmere Harmonie."—Bogatzky.

PROFESSOR Carlton Hayes has very admirably pointed o u t 1 the distinction between an incipient nationalism and one that is full grown and matured. The first, still full of idealism, striving to gain the world's sympathy, feels it must make a case for itself before the tribunal of world opinion. Its leaders all speak in the name of humanity. T h e fulfilment of their national aspirations is proclaimed as not only necessary for their own salvation but as essential for the general welfare of mankind. Each nationality has a specific contribution to make to world civilization, and human society as a whole is richer and more colorful if composed of various national contributions. The early leaders of the great national movements of the 19th century all spoke with the utmost sympathy and veneration for the nationality of others. Herder and Schleiermacher in Germany, Mazzini in Italy, 1 " T w o Varieties of Nationalism: Original and D e r i v e d " in Association of H i s t o r y Teachers of the Middle States and Maryland, Pro ceedings, no. x x v i (1928), pp. 71-8376

THE

ONE

AND

THE

MANY

77

Palacky in Bohemia, Hess and Achad Ha-am among the Jews, looked upon themselves not only as leaders of their own respective national movements but as apostles of the national principle per se, which meant the recognition of its validity for others as well as for themselves. The central problem for all these early nationalists was the relation of humanity (the one) to nationalities (the many) ; it was the problem of unity and multiplicity. It is only when a national movement has triumphed and become crystalized that there is talk of national domination, of national superiority and supremacy. " Herder," says Professor Hayes, 2 " like the gentle dew from Heaven, has fallen upon both the just and the unjust. After Francis Lieber there was Treitschke; after J. S. Mill, Homer Lea ; after Laveleye, Barrés ; after Mazzini, Mussolini. Only the nineteenth century separates Herder from the Great World War of the Nations "—and from the National Socialism of Hitler, we may add. This idea of unity and multiplicity was one that occupied thinking minds long before the beginnings of nationalist theorizing. It was one of the major problems of Leibnitz's philosophic system. But it was developed particularly in the religious thought of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Pietist writers in relation to the problem of the variety of religions and sects. A necessary corollary to the increasing recognition of the value of individuality was the realization that the establishment of one's own uniqueness and individuality involved also the recognition of the individuality of others. This idea was made the basis of much of the argumentation for religious toleration, and it is this line of thought applied to the relations between various religious dominations which came to be applied to the subject of nationality and the relations between peoples. 2 " Contributions of Herder to tha doctrine of Nationalism " in The American Historical Review, vol. xxxii (1937), p. 736.

78

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

In studying the question of religious toleration in Germany a distinction must be made between the practical and theoretical aspects of the problem. Practically, in a land where religious divisions and conflicts raged bitterly for almost three centuries, and where religious dissension was one of the chief factors in maintaining disunity, it was of the utmost consequence to develop a toleration of one another's religious beliefs before national solidarity could even be thought of. A united Germany is inconceivable with the persistence of the religious polemics of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These polemics were not merely of an intellectual nature. They penetrated deeply into the social and political life of the people and proved an inseparable barrier to the formation of a common national spirit. Hence in order fully to understand the rise of nationalism in Germany one must analyze thoroughly the achievement of religious harmony in the country. In the achievement of this practical form of toleration both the Enlightenment and the Pietist movements worked hand in hand. Both had a share in its development. Thomasius, the father of the German Enlightenment, cooperated with Spener and Francke, the fathers of Pietism, in attacking the combined powers of absolutism and orthodoxy. 3 Lutheran orthodoxy was the chief support of the particularism of the petty German states. In the Empire the existence of the Lutheran Church rested on its recognition by the imperial power. This relationship of 3 Some writers have even claimed a direct influence of Pietism on Thomasius. " In addition to Pufendorf," says Masur, " Locke and Gottfried Arnold, Gracian and Spener, rationalists and mystics, have in a colorful admixture exercised their influence on him," Masur, G. ( " Naturrecht und Kirche," in Historische Zeitschrift, vol. cxlviii ( ! 9 3 3 ) > P- 47- See also Seeberg, E., " Chr. Thomasius und Gottfried Arnold," in New KircMiche Zeitschrift, vol. x x x i (1920), pp. 337-58 and Kayser, R., " Thomasius und der Pietismus," in Hamburg Wilhelmsgymnasium, Jahrbuch (1909).

THE

ONE

AND

THE

MANY

79

state and church was also carried over to the local states. Thus both in the empire and in the particular states any transgression against the church was considered also a transgression against the state. It was as natural for the ruling classes to maintain the prevailing theology as it was for the orthodox clergy to support the ruling power. On the other hand, both the Enlightenment and the Pietist movement, as reactions against the status quo, tended to be hostile to absolutism as well as to orthodoxy. A n d in their attacks, both the Aufklärer and the Pietists worked for the principle of religious toleration. A division between temporal and spiritual powers had been recognized by Martin Luther and Melanchthon. The temporal ruler's power, according to both of these Protestant reformers, was limited to the body and the material elements in society. The reigning prince should have no control over the beliefs of his subjects. " Just as no one can go to Hell or to Heaven for me," said Martin Luther, " so can no one believe or not believe for me, and so can no one open or close Heaven or Hell for me, and so can no one drive me to either belief of disbelief." * The peace of Westphalia, however, with its recognition of the principle of cujus regio ejus religio, and the growing absolutism of the princes increased the power of the ruler in matters of belief as well as in temporal matters. Pietism in its attack on this absolutism represented thus, in a sense, a return to Luther's early principles. A n d in its open attack on the control of religious opinion Pietism represented a courageous assertion of individualism against absolutism, in decided contrast to the fawning servility of the orthodox clergy. Spener did not hesitate to express his disapproval of the meddling of the regent in spiritual * See Perthes, Clemens Theodor, Das deutsche Revolution (Gotha, 1845), pp. 214-216.

Staatsleben

vor der

8o

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

matters. " The power of the ruler," he declared, " extends particularly over earthly things and over the external man, and in these matters all are subject to him, but conscience itself and the inner man remain free, and so the ruler has no power over them and where he attempts to use such power . . . God is greatly offended, and in such cases the subjects are not bound to obey him." 5 In fact Spener is so much repelled by the thought of the state interfering in the inner affairs of the church that he terms fortunate that community which lives under a ruler of another faith, even though it be under a heathen ruler. There, at least, the church will not be hampered by the intrusion and intervention of the reigning prince." The radical Pietist Dippel declared that a Christian as such is not a subject of a temporal power. He is so only ex iure pacti. T h e temporal ruler cannot therefore assume the function of the " archbishop of Christ's realm " and attempt to regulate internal church affairs. 7 During the latter half of the seventeenth century when the memory of the ravages of the religious wars and dissensions was still fresh in the minds of the Germans, the desire for religious toleration was simply a yearning for peace. People grew wearied of the endless conflicts. It was a practical necessity for them to find some means of preserving peace among the conflicting sects. This simple desire for tranquility found expression in a very mild form in such a plea as that made by Walch in the introduction to his edition of the Historische und theologische Einleitung in die vornehmsten Religions-Streitigkeiten for a more decorous and well mannered sort of disputation between religious opponents. The same idea in a much more drastic form is 8

Spener, Evangelische

8

Spener, Letste

Glaubenslehre

theologische

Bedenken,

( F r a n k f u r t , 1 7 1 7 ) , p. 1323. 3 vols. ( H a l l e , 1721), vol. iii,

p. 91 et seq. 7

See Ritsehl, A., Geschichte

des Pietismus,

vol. ii, p. 327.

THE ONE AND THE

MANY

81

found in Gottfried Arnold's introduction to the second volume of his Ketzergeschichte. " My chief purpose in this as well as in my other writings," declared Arnold, " is to pursue peace and in this way, as far as I am able with the grace of God, prevent any provocation towards dispute and scholastic wrangling. Nor am I anymore inclined or disposed to intervene, in any way, in the present controversies or defend any one party." The desire for religious peace had already found strong expression in the Syncretist movement headed by Georg Calixt ( 1 5 8 6 - 1 6 5 6 ) . Calixt was the son of a Silesian clergyman and was educated at the University of Helmstadt where the humanist traditions of Erasmus and Melanchthon still prevailed. He became engrossed in classical studies and more especially in the study of the early church. He traveled extensively and then in 16x4 became professor of theology at the University of Helmstadt. Living in the midst of the period of the religious wars he became imbued with the desire to find a practical common meeting-ground for the various factions. The fundamentals upon which all Christians could unite were to be sought in the oldest apostolic records. Upon these grounds all confessions could meet and find peace in mutual love. Calixt proclaimed the equal rights of all confessions. Lutheranism, although perhaps the purest of all confessions, still has no right to brand the others as heresies. It is important to bear in mind, in this connection, that when Protestants of those days talked of religious toleration they very seldom included Catholics. Thus, although Calixt speaks of the equal rights of all confessions, he hastens to make a reservation that " some such fundamental doctrines as the all powerfulness of the pope as the vicar of Christ are so erroneous and so dangerous that one ought to avoid any association with people who espouse such delusions." But as for the conflicting Protestant sects, love

82

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GERMAN

NATIONALISM

is to take the place of hate. Helmstadt became the center of the Syncretist movement and it soon found followers in the Universities of Altdorf, Königsberg, Renteln, Kiel and Jena. 8 Syncretism, however, found favor only among small circles of statesmen and scholars. It was left for the Pietist movement to bring these ideas more effectively into the minds of the people. Pietism emphasized particularly the primitive Christian concept of love. Brotherly love was to be the guiding principle not only in respect of like-minded individuals and friends but also in respect of those different and hostile as well. Spener defined his attitude towards unbelievers in his catechism. One is to look with averseness on unbelievers in regard to their sinful doctrines but not in regard to their persons.® " To tolerate adherents of another religion," he wrote in another place, " is not only not opposed to universal love nor to the duties of the regent but is far more so in accord with both." 10 " Where one sees a fellow Christian filled with sincere love of God, he is to deal kindly with him even though he is of another church, i. e. in all matters outside of pure church matters." 11 An anonymous writer, quoted by Gottfried Arnold, said, " My Christian love extends to all people in general, especially to those who pursue diligently the virtues and commands of God and Christ, be they called heathens, Turks, Jews or Christians." 12 And Arnold himself declared: " J u s t as our heavenly Father is benevolent to the wicked as well as to the pious, so are we, 8 F o r Calixt and the Syncretist movement see especially, Henke, E . L . T . H., Georg Calixtus und seine Zeit, 2 vols. (Halle, 1853-56). 9

Spener, Einfaltige 1677), no. 181.

Erklärung

der

Christlichen Lehr

10

Letzte theologische Bedenken, vol. ii, p. 127.

11

Theologische Bedenken, vol. iv, p. 70 et seq.

11

Ketzergeschichte, vol. iii, p. 953.

(Frankfurt,

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83

too, obliged . . . to exhibit Christian love not only to the pious, to our friends and fellow religionists but also to the Godless and to those that are our enemies." 18 Arnold distinguished between three kinds of love: ( 1 ) general, which is all-inclusive; ( 2 ) brotherly, which is extended to those of common faith; and ( 3 ) particular, which is devoted to an individual. These varieties of love are, however, not antagonistic or mutually exclusive. O n the other hand, " the true universal love for all mankind is but a sign of the existence of brptherly love . . . just as brotherly love emanates from the love of God." 14 Practical political reasons of state soon also began to play a more important role in stimulating the sentiment for religious toleration. Even a person as far removed from questions of politics as Gottfried Arnold lamented the fact that every state makes its own confession and thus stresses disunity. 15 Conring took pains to assure his readers that the toleration of all sorts of heresies did not necessarily undermine the state. H e cited Holland, Poland and Turkey as examples. Where the break-up of a state did occur, he maintained, it was non tarn ex dissensu quam ex negata dissentiendi libertate,18 Even according to Thomasius this was the chief reason for toleration. T h e primary purpose of the state was to preserve order and peace. It was therefore within the province of the state to prevent religious wrang13

Das Leben der Gläubigen,

2nd ed. ( H a l l e , 1732), p. 1015.

1* Das eheliche und unverehelichte Leben der ersten Christen, 2nd ed. (Leipzig, 1732), pp. 247-49. A nice comparison could be drawn between these three kinds of love and the similar interpretations of the relationship between individual, nationality and humanity developed by later writers like Herder and Schleiermacher. 15

Ketzergeschichte,

vol. ii, p. 803.

1 4 Quoted in T h o l u c k , Vorgeschichte, vol. ii, pt. ii, p. 35. P u f e n d o r f ' s idea of toleration. See Masur, op. cit.

T h i s is also

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lings and rivalries as a means of insuring peace.17 Some of the German princes came to realize that their power was more secure when based on the principle of religious toleration rather than on a despotic control of conscience. Thus Karl Ludwig of the Palatinate earned for his country the wide recognition as " the land where all religions are tolerated." The most ambitious effort of the kind, was that of the state of Brandenburg where, although the majority of the population was Lutheran, the Elector himself belonged to the Reformed Church. The struggle between the antagonistic religious factions was particularly severe in this state and with the movement under the Great Elector toward the creation of a unified political state came the constant attempt to mediate between the religious factions. In this way Brandenburg became the leader in the furthering of religious toleration, church unity, and Christian freedom of conscience.18 Not only were the members of the Reformed Church tolerated but even Mennonites, Socinians, Quakers, Waldensians and Huguenots were protected. Numerous attempts were made to bring together the Reformed and Lutheran Churches of Brandenburg but nothing was accomplished along these lines until the nineteenth century. Several edicts of toleration were issued, directed chiefly against the Lutherans and forbidding them to abuse members of the Reformed Church. Slanderous books were suppressed and sermons were carefully watched. The Elector, although despairing of the possibility of effecting harmony, looked upon the situation chiefly as civilem concordiam in conversatione politica. 17

Masur, op. cit., pp. 41-45.

1 8 See Landwehr, H u g o , " Die kirchlichen Zustände der M a r k unter dem grossen K u r f ü r s t e n , " in Forschungen zur brandenburgischen uiui preussiseken Geschichte, vol. i (1888), pp. 181-284 and Die Kirchenpolitik des grossen Kurfürsten (Berlin, 1894).

THE

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85

It is interesting at this point to note the attitude of the Lutheran writers towards the Catholics. During the early part of the seventeenth century when the struggles with the Calvinists were particularly bitter, the hostility towards the Catholics was not so great. In fact a certain feeling of respect towards the Catholic Church still persisted. Hatred of the Calvinists was in many cases much stronger than hatred of the Catholics. This can be seen by the title of such a pamphlet as that of Leyser, Warum wir lieber mit den Papisten als mit den Calvinsten Gemeinschaft und vertraulichen Umgang haben sollen. The steady loyalty towards the Catholic emperor was largely based on this reverential feeling. " It is sad indeed," wrote the Lutheran theologian, Gerhard, in 1620, " that we must defend with our arms the religion of those whom we attack in our writings." 19 The early Pietists, nevertheless, were on the whole quite suspicious of the Catholics. Religious toleration, as indicated above, meant for them, toleration only of the Protestant sects. The possibility of granting equal rights to Catholics was far removed from the minds of most of them. Gottfried Arnold, it is true, went so far as to concede the existence of good elements in Catholicism 20 but Spener and Francke never went that far. Spener complained against the great use of force by the Pope and the Catholic clergy. He attacked their attempt to dictate in matters of belief, assailed their prohibition of the reading of the Scriptures and derided them for their neglect of justification by faith. Catholic religious teaching, he believed, had become corrupted by elaborate ceremonial. Never did he suggest the possibility of the reunion of Protestantism with Catholicism. Not only did he combat the practice of mixed marriages but he even considered it sinful to attend Catholic services or to listen to 18

See Toluck, Vorgeschichte, vol. ii, p. 45.

20

Das Leben der Gläubigen, 2nd ed. (Halle, 1 7 3 2 ) , p. 2.

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Catholic music. Protestants, declared Spener, have the right to withhold equal political rights from Catholics because the Catholic clergy is dependent on a foreign prince, the Pope. They form a state within a state. Protestants, on the other hand, under the rule of a Catholic prince are entitled to all political rights since their allegiance can never be called in question. 21 A much more tolerant attitude towards Catholics began to appear with Zinzendorf. Zinzendorf traveled a great deal in France. He came into contact with many prominent Catholics like Cardinal Noailles. 22 As a result of these personal relations as well as by reason of his general theoretical views on the variety of religions, he came to adopt a much more sympathetic attitude towards the Catholic Church. " I have, in my own way," he wrote, " cherished and greatly esteemed all those of the Catholic religion who love Jesus . . . and I would deem myself most unfortunate if any honest Catholic and lover of Jesus considered me a stranger because of the difference between our principles." 23 This more tolerant attitude towards Catholicism was also manifested in other currents of the Pietist movement. In fact orthodox opponents of the Pietists often attacked them as standing too close to the Catholics. The Sturm und Drang and the Romantic movement, with their revival of medievalism, brought about such a marked change of attitude towards the Catholic Church that many conversions to Catholicism occurred among the leaders of the movement. In all discussion which we have so far outlined concerning religious toleration, no great differences are discernible be21

Theologische

Bedenken,

vol. iv, p. 470.

22

Sec Spangenberg, A . G., The Life pp. 17-23. 23

Theologische pp. 105-06.

und dahin einschlagende

of Zinzendorf Bedencken

(London, 1838), (Büdingen, 1742),

THE ONE AND THE

MANY

87

tween the various opponents of established absolutism and orthodoxy. The ideas and feelings thus far described may, for the most part, be said to be common to both Pietism and the Enlightenment. By the middle of the eighteenth century, however, a difference of approach to the whole problem became apparent, which was not only most significant in itself, but most crucial for the whole question of the origins of modern nationalism. The full development of the Enlightenment brought about a general attack upon organized religion. This hostility towards organized religion coloured the attitude of the rationalists of the eighteenth century towards the question of religious toleration. The variations in belief and the multiplicity of religious groups appeared to be an evil which would disappear when reason reigned upon the earth. Those wholly skeptical in their religious views considered all religious groups as equally worthless. One was as bad as another and hence there .was no rational ground for preferring one to another or for giving one the power of control over others. With the spread of " enlightenment" they would all inevitably pass out of existence. The various religions were to be ignored rather than made the objects of a struggle for power. Some " enlightened " persons, on the other hand, had a more positive attitude towards religion, and championed what they called " natural religion." Wholly in accord with their atomistic, rationalist and antihistorical approach to all social phenomena, they viewed man as essentially the same in all places and at all times. There was a set of religious ideas, common to all peoples and all groups, which constituted natural religion. Everything else was mere superstition that had grown up in the course of time through man's ignorance and through medievalism. As soon as man became " enlightened " he would discard these so-called superstitions. Toleration, as a result, was to

88

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be practiced only in so far as it recognized this common element in all religions and as a means of hastening the coming of the reign of natural reason. There was no attempt to see any real justification for differences as such, for variety, for multiplicity. Toleration, for them, signified what the word literally means—indulgence, sufferance." A wholly different attitude was revealed in the mystical and Pietist stream of thought which we have been tracing. The emphasis of these writers was on the multiplicity and the variety of religious groups. The existence of differences in belief was not only recognized but justified and praised. Variations in religious faith were recognized not as a necessary evil but as a condition which enhances the glory of God and of nature. The principle of variety so fundamental to any theory of nationalism was here apprehended and carried to its logical conclusions. T h e first clear expression of this principle of multiplicity is found in the writings and addresses of Count Zinzendorf. Zinzendorf's recognition of the need for toleration was based not on the idea of a common set of religious principles. He acknowledged the uniqueness of each group. " Every religion," he declared, " contains a divine thought that cannot be preserved through any other religion." " " No single religion is in possession of the whole truth. It must take the best of the other religions to its aid if it wants to have 21 This is the v i e w criticized by B u r k e in his Reflections when he writes, " W e hear these new teachers continually boasting of their spirit of toleration. T h a t those persons should tolerate all opinions, w h o think none to be of estimation, is a matter of small merit. Equal neglect is not impartial kindness. T h e species of benevolence, which arises f r o m contempt, is no true charity." (Works, London, 1854-57, vol. ii, p. 4 2 1 ) . T h e best treatment of this question is found in Cassirer, E., Die Philosophie der Aufklärung (Berlin, 1932), ch. ii.

" Die Brüder,

ed. by Otto U t t e n d ö r f e r and W a l t h e r Schmidt, 3rd ed.

(Herrnhut, 1922), p. 146.

THE

ONE

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THE

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MANY

28

the whole." " There is not one single Christian sect," he said in another place, " which cannot put one to shame in respect of one thing or another, and f r o m which one cannot receive some sort of instruction." 27 Zinzendorf develops this idea of religious differentiation in describing the leading characteristics of each religion. The Catholics, he says, " exhibit a sort of bashfulness towards the Saviour which is peculiarly humble, tender and contrite, after the manner of Abigail and Mary Magdalene, and which springs from the monarchical ideas of their religion. . . . Certain Lutherans, free and bold in spirit, and bringing the message of Divine Grace to all, are well adapted to the preaching of the Gospel. And the Calvinists with their considerateness, circumspection and accuracy can seem to correct the expressions of previously arisen heresies." 28 In another place he attributes to the Catholic church " a humbleness of spirit, an equal amount of emphasis upon the name of God and Jesus and a deep respect for the invisible church " ; to the Reformed church " the doctrine of predestination and precision of reasoning which is especially useful for avoiding difficult responsibilities for the minds without hearts " ; to the Lutheran, the doctrine of " God's general mercy and true comfort from the sacraments for all his people unless they expressly refuse to be saved " ; to the Quakers, " freedom of conscience for all." 29 " God is a god of order," said Zinzendorf. " But this must not be understood in the sense that the same order exists everywhere. A situation like this would much rather be called disorder. If all religion and all religious organi28 27

Ibid.

Zinzendorf 1925), P- 108. 28 29

ueber Glauben und Lcben, ed. by Otto Herpel (Berlin,

Ibid., p. 107.

Barbysche Sammlungen alter und neuer Lehr, Lehren (Barbv, 1760), vol. ii, pp. 215-16.

Principia,

Sitten,

9°

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

zation were everywhere the same; if people were to be treated everywhere in the same way, were obliged to wear the same sort of clothing everywhere, what a confusion would result in view of the differences in land, in nationality and in climate? " 80 S o outspoken was Zinzendorf in his views on this question that he was violently attacked by his opponents on just this score. " He makes a hodge-podge of all religions," complained one antagonist. " W h e n he maintains that one can be saved in all religions he appears to me to be like an illtempered tailor who makes a coat out of many thousands of shreds." 31 W h a t is significant here is not the particular characteristic that Zinzendorf ascribed to each of the religious groups. T h e important thing is the very fact that he attempted to allow for differences and to recognize them as valuable and beneficial to humanity. W i t h Zinzendorf it was not toleration merely for peace and quiet, it was not toleration for reasons of state, it was not the toleration of Frederick the Great and the people of the Enlightenment who attempted to bring about a levelling process that should eventually wipe out all differences. It was a genuine attempt to harmonize the ideal of a universal all-pervading religious spirit with a variety of individual manifestations; a variety which, according to him, adds to rather than detracts from the glory of religion. A n d this idea was original with Zinzendorf. It appears already in his first address in 1725. " Nature," he says in this address, " is full of a variety of creatures of different inclinations. T h e same is true in spiritual matters." 82 A n d it is an idea that pervades all his work 80

Uttendörfer, O., Zinsendorfs

IVeltbetrachtung

(Berlin, 1929), p. 79.

Ausführliche historische und theologische Nachricht von der Herrenhutischen Brüderschaft (Frankfurt, 1743), p. 191. 81

81

Uttendörfer, Zinzendorfs

Weltbetrachtung,

p. 19.

THE ONE AND THE MANY

91

throughout his life recurring over and over again in different words. I n Zinzendorf too we find the germs o f a theory national religions.

modified according to the disposition o f the people." " is a wonderful

of

" Religions," he said, " are national and sign o f

" It

God's wisdom t o have divided

religions according to the various provinces, regions and climates in the same way as nations are divided according to languages." "

T h e necessity for national religions, accord-

ing to Zinzendorf, arose with the beginning o f mass conversions to Christianity.

National religions represent a gain

f o r Christianity in that they prevent the erection o f an ecclesiastical absolutism.

And they are likewise necessary to

preserve the happiness and originality o f peoples.

the

individual

T h e particular form o f Christianity accepted is

the one best adapted t o the nature o f a given group.

Chris-

tianity, i f it wants to win the various peoples o f the earth, must embrace within it various confessions. vidual, too, national religion is a necessity.

F o r the indiH i s surround-

ings and environment influence his religious ideas and render him peculiarly suited to a particular faith.

" T h e English

religion," wrote Zinzendorf, " is adapted to the English air, and the Catholic religion to the Spanish and Portuguese. T h e French atmosphere, not being adapted to either o f these two has given rise to the ecclesia gallicana,

a mixture o f

Catholicism and Calvinism which allows for more freedom than in any other Catholic land.

Protestantism is more

suitable for Germany and especially for the northern countries,

hence its predominance

in these l a n d s . " 8 5

underlying basis o f the revealing power of

" The

Christianity

expressed in this multiplicity, is the fact that every religion 34 85

Ibid., p. 80. Ibid., p. 107. Ibid., p. 79.

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PIETISM

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NATIONALISM

represents a particular religious quality. A particular treasure is planted in each, one has to reach for it in the lowest depths at times, yet if one only uses the right divining rod he certainly will find it. . . ." 36 T h e idea of multiplicity of religions became part of the intellectual current of the latter part of the eighteenth century. It is found in Hamann 87 and in Lavater; it is found in Herder, 38 and it is found in Schleiermacher. Lavater recognized no single church as the only true one. " The true church is the aggregate of all people possessed of Christ." 39 But there are and must be as many religions as there are human organizations. 40 The paths to the only t r u t h — C h r i s t — a r e many and different, 41 and they are wholly 3 6 See Becker, Bernhard, Zinzendorf und sein Christentum in Verhältnis zum kirchlichen und religiösen Leben seiner Zeit, 2nd ed. (Leipzig, 1900), pp. 168-70; Herpel, op. cit., pp. 48, 106-107. 37

Schriften,

vol. iv, p. 282.

38 Herder's best treatment of this subject is found in his Ueber National Religionen published in his Adrastea. Here he definitely states his belief in the maintenance of national religions. " Do not nations differ in everything," he says, " in poetry, in physiognomy and tastes, in usages, customs and languages? M u s t not religion, w h i c h partakes of all these, also differ among nations ? " W e find traces in Herder of a sort of regret that Christianity has superseded the older Germanic religions. T h e above mentioned dialogue begins with the reading of a conversation between Ossian and St. P a t r i c k on the relative merits of the old Gaelic and the new Christian religion. T h e n comes the f o l l o w i n g comment by W i n i f r e d . " This poetical dialogue expresses the feeling of all nations f r o m which the religion of their fathers has been torn. W i t h that they lost their spirit and character, yes, I might say, their language, their heart, their country, and their history." Werke, ed. by B . Suphan, vol. x x i v , p. 38 et seq. 39

Handbibliothek

für Freunde,

24 vols. (Winterthur, 1790-93), vol. iii,

pp. 24-25. 40 Antworten auf wichtige 1790), vol. ii, p. 204. 41

Handbibliothek,

und wiirdige

vol. viii, p. 274.

Fragen

2 vols.

(Berlin,

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93

dependent on the peculiarities of a given group. " If there are organizations," wrote Lavater, " that can become more faithful and kindlier through Protestantism, to those I would say ' Be and remain Protestants.' And if there are organizations, characters and temperaments that may become more faithful and kindlier through Catholicism rather than through the colder, simpler and freer Protestantism, should I attempt to proseltytize them? And so also with Mennonites, Moravians, Mystics." 42 " Thirteen guilds," he declares, " thirteen cantons represent a firmer organism than all combined in one, and four gospels are better than one harmony." 43 Susanna Katherina von Klettenburg, the " schöne Seele " immortalized by Goethe, the disciple of Lavater, enthusiastic admirer of Zinzendorf and friend of Friedrich Carl von Moser, in whom all the currents of Pietism seem to be represented, expressed the same idea in a letter to Moser. " There are different kinds of Christianity," she said. " Every Evangelical Christian has his own which is like a fountain. The manifoldness of the fountain is to be hailed and not lamented even though a chemical investigation would reveal many great differences." ** Identical thoughts are found in the writings of Friedrich Schleiermacher. In fact, were one to read some of these passages without being aware that they were by Schleiermacher one could just as easily ascribe them to either Zinzendorf or Lavater. Schleiermacher's most profound and philosophical interpretation of the matter is in the fourth address of his Reden über die Religion. Monatsblatt für Freunde (i794)> vol. vi, p. 69. See also Ausgewählte Serif ten, ed. by J. K. Orelli, 9 vols. (Zurich, 1841-44), vol. ii, p. 85. 43

Antworten

44

Die schöne Seele, ed. by Heinrich Funk (Leipzig, 1911), p. 14.

. . . , vol. i, p. 313.

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PIETISM

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NATIONALISM

W e have thus traced the development of the idea of multiplicity and variety in Pietist thought. It was used at first primarily as an apology for the coexistence side by side of different religious sects and orders. But the idea soon came to permeate not only the religious thought of these sects but every aspect of social life. It was the basis for the strong feeling of individuality discussed in the last chapter and it came soon to be applied to national groups and the state. As a general philosophic principle it has best been expressed by Lavater. " Man," he said, " has an increasing striving towards multiplicity and towards unity." " Human nature feels the need particularly of an extremely manifold, inexhaustible, millionfold enjoyable One." 45 It became thus a problem of harmonizing the one with the many. The cosmopolitan ideal of the Enlightenment which looked upon cosmic unity as an abstract, essentially formal sort of universalism, gave way to a concrete universalism varied and differentiated in its parts. A very popular figure of speech was used in much of the literature of the late eighteenth century to represent this idea. The world was likened to a garden full of many differently colored and scented flowers. There is a wide variety here and yet all blend into one harmonious beautiful bouquet. For to Lavater, " A unity without manifoldness and divisibility is . . . inconceivable and impossible of realization. It has no point of contact for us. W e have no use for mere unity as such." 46 " He only sees well who sees the whole in the parts and the parts in the whole. I know but three classes of men, those who see the whole, those who see the part and those who see both together." 47 45

Antworten

...,

vol. i, p. 73.

Ibid., p. 78. 47

Aphorisms

on Man, tr. by Henry Fuseli, 4th ed. (Boston, 1790), p. 71.

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95

The transference of this idea to the sphere of politics and nationalism is best revealed in the works of Johann Jakob Moser and his son Friedrich Carl. Both father and son were distinguished political scientists and the elder Moser is often referred to as the father of German public law. They were also, however, deeply interested in religious problems. They belonged to the Pietist tradition, wrote numerous confessional and theological treatises and they clearly displayed some of the leading ideas that we have associated with Spener, Francke and Zinzendorf. It is this peculiar combination of deep religious interest with the preoccupation in matters of state and law which throws much light on that stage of the evolution of German nationalist ideology when ideas of religion were transferred to the state and national group." In the writings of the elder Moser we find the same sort of approach towards religious toleration as we found in the earlier Pietists: the striving for peace, the application of the principle of brotherly love, the desire to preserve the unity of the state. He recognized no differences between the Lutherans and the Calvinists except on matters of exegetical interpretations." He even opposed proselytizing. " I f the 48

An illustration of the use of this idea in the later fully developed nationalism of the War of Liberation is found in Ernst Moritz Arndt. " Tell these wiseacres who are inflated by the darkness of their stupidity," he says, " that I have never wanted what they call one people and one religion. That is an invention of their fools and simpletons. I wanted peoples; that is why I created a variety of languages, customs and instincts in humanity. I wanted religions; that is why I created different kinds of climate; lands which arc hot and cold, rich and poor, laborious and easy. In this way, man, my own likeness, reflects and mirrors the variety of images in nature and I see in him all the aspects of my own being as in a great mirror of the variegated and immeasurable whole. Multiplicity is my world and endlessness is my delight." (Stoat und Vaterland, ed. by Ernst Musebeck, Munich, 1921, p. 5). " Lebensgeschichte,

3rd ed. (Frankfurt, 1777), p. 40.

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PIETISM

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loving God can be tolerant, then so can I. Whenever I see truth and righteousness I respect it. Everything else I leave to the Judge of all Flesh, for I know that on the great judgment day one will not be asked ' Were you Lutheran, Reformed, Catholic, Herrnhuter, etc ? ' but rather ' were you converted or not! a child of God or of the devil? ' " 50 The idea of a need of variety and multiplicity is still not present, but there is, however, the definite application of the above principles to the realm of politics. " I f Christ says ' Love your enemies,' " said Moser, " it is to be applied not only to individuals but also to whole peoples. For either they are not Christians or else they must adapt themselves also to follow this command of Christ's. There is, therefore, also a divine international law." 51 The younger Moser introduced into his argument for religious toleration the additional all-important realization of the essential need for the existence of differences. " W e honor the good in every religious group," he says," for we know that sects and factions must exist in order that the truth may thus become all the more evident and revealed." 52 He developed this need for variety not only for religious groups, but for all social groups and for nations as well. " Every rank and class of civilized human society develops more and more, according to its particular aims, a peculiar art of understanding, thinking, feeling, and mode of action both within itself and towards others. It sows the seeds of these ideas among its members and the whole organic combination of these modes and ideas is characterized as spirit. The art of thought and action of whole 50 51

Ibid., p. 47.

See Fröhlich, Marianne, J. J. Moser in seinem Rationalismus und Pietismus (Vienna, 1925), p. 62.

Verhältnis

zum

52 Ledderhose, K . F., Aus dem Leben und den Schriften des Ministers Freiherrn Friedrich Karl von Moser (Heidelberg, 1871), p. 39.

THE

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nations is called national spirit. The good side of national spirit is patriotism and love of fatherland, its evil side is national pride, national hate, etc." M Thus recognizing the need for particularity and differences, he opposed the policy of " enlightened " philosophes of drawing up model constitutions to be universally applicable and their efforts in behalf of the erection of a universal world-state. For, said he, " just as there is no one sort of climate, so is there no universal complete model for the art of government. A long fur coat from head to foot might be proper for Petersburg, but in Naples it will only cause suffocation." 54 The application of the principle of individuality and of differentiation, germinating in the works of F. C. Moser, found fuller expression in the writings of Novalis and Schleiermacher. Just as we have seen them attack the atomic individualism as well as the natural religion so characteristic of the Enlightenment, so they opposed with equal strength the ideals of cosmopolitanism and a universal state. A nationality, too, just like a person, possesses a unique individuality. A s Novalis put it " A people is like a child, an individual pedagogic problem. This or that people, just like this or that child, has its particular talent." 55 There is no such thing as a state in the general abstract sense. There is only a particular state with its own unique peculiarities. 58 Just as every religious group was found to express a particular aspect of the divine power, so according to Schleiermacher is " every people, through its peculiar institutions and through its position in the world, appointed to express a particular phase of the divine image, just as likewise each one 63

Mannichfaltigkeiten

(Zurich, 1796), p. 187.

" Ledderhose, F. K. von Moser, p. 66. 55

Fragmente, ed. by E. Kamnitzer (Dresden, 1929), no. 1474.

56

Schleiermacher, Werke, pt. iii, vol. ii, p. 239.

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

strives in its own way and in its own peculiar field to subdue the brutality of nature and strengthen the reign of reason." " He attacked the philosophes of the day who spoke of an ideal form or pattern by which they sought to fashion all states and which they set down as a pattern for all eternity and for all mankind. Schleiermacher was the preacher as well as the political philosopher, and nationality for him was not merely a concept of man but a divine institution dictated by the principles of Christianity. Schleiermacher was the first great political preacher of Germany. And just as in more recent times all sorts of current doctrines dictated by the exigencies of the moment have been traced back to the eternal truth of Christianity, so Schleiermacher too in the heroic days from 1806 to 1 8 1 3 in a long series of patriotic sermons linked up the idea of nationality with Christian doctrine and morality. He denounced cosmopolitanism and declared that Christianity commands attachment to the nation.58 Civic organizations based on the principle of nationality rest on the gregarious nature of man and on the mystical peculiarities of mode of life and of language; they thus belong to the essential and most permanent arrangements in the house of God precisely because of their differentiation. There is no such thing as a world-state. He who does not partake of these ideas suffers in two ways. He destroys his relation to God as well as to his fellow man. He who does not give the proper evaluation to the fatherland " always remains an alien in this house of God. . . . He does not realize that every people through its peculiar organization and status represents a peculiar aspect of divinity. He sees only fragments and detail." " To serve mankind is noble. But this is 67

Predigten, vol. i, p. 223.

68

See the sermon of August 24, 1806 in Predigten, vol. i, p. 220 et seq.

THE

ONE AND

THE

MANY

99

possible only when one is convinced of the value of one's own people." A union for common welfare under definite laws is found everywhere in the higher stages of human society. For man cannot accomplish everything by himself. There must be a union of strength. But a union of this kind must consist of members that understand each other and have much in common. Hence it cannot embrace the whole human race but must find expression rather in various nationalities. The assertion of individual or national uniqueness did not, according to these thinkers, necessarily involve any negation of or opposition to the individuality of others. On the other hand it was all the more an aid to a truer appreciation of all existing unique characters. " In order to render it more easy to recognize myself," said Hamann, " my own self is made visible in my neighbor just as in a mirror. Just as the image of my face is reflected in the water so is my ego mirrored in every neighbor." 59 And Schleiermacher in his Monologen wrote: Whenever I notice an aptitude for individuality, inasmuch as love and sensitiveness, its highest guarantees, are present, there I also find an object for my love. I would have my love embrace every unique self, from the unsophisticated youth in whom freedom is but beginning to germinate, to the ripest and most finished type of man. . . . His unique being and its relation to humanity is the object of my quest. I love him in the measure that I find and understand this individuality, but I can give him proof thereof only in proportion to his understanding of my own true self.80 Schleiermacher went on to develop the relation of the individual to humanity and the whole organic conception of 69

Gildemeister, vol. iv, pp. 109-10.

" P . 46.

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

society that was so characteristic of the Romantic philosophy. H e who does not see himself, he declared, will never comprehend the whole and he who does not search for the whole will never find himself. It is for this reason that the virtue of friendship was so strongly stressed by the Romanticists. " Everything I do," said Schleiermacher, " I like to do in the company of others; even while engaged in meditation, in contemplation, or in the assimilation of anything new, I need the presence of some loved one, so that the inner event may immediately be communicated and I may forthwith make my own account with the world through the sweet and easy mediation of friendship." 51 I feel that communion with mankind augments my own powers in every moment of my life. Each of us plies his own particular trade, completing the work of someone whom he never knew, or preparing the way for another who in turn will scarcely recognize how much he owes to him. Thus the work of humanity is promoted throughout the world; everyone feels the influence of others as part of his own life; by the ingenious mechanism of this community the slightest movement of each individual is conducted like an electric spark through a long chain of a thousand living links, greatly amplifying its final effect: all are as it were members of a great organism, and whatever they may have done severally is instantaneously consummated as its work.82 Schleiermacher took cognizance of the possibility of the accusation being made that the stimulation of national feeling may lead to chauvinism and narrowness. But he was confident that actually the reverse effect will result. True patriotism and national feeling will conduce to peace among nations. 81

Ibid., p. 37.

92

Ibid., pp. 51-52.

THE

ONE

AND

THE

MANY

IOI

I know that accusations will be made [he said] that patriotism makes for narrow partisanship, more prejudice against other nations and contempt for those belonging to them. But is not that rather the deficiency of the people rather than the fault of the thing itself? Would we charge the failings of the lovers to the weakness of love itself? . . . Let us rather all the more affirm that he who is not imbued with the worth of his own people and clings to it with love, will not value these things in another. . . . And he who is not enlightened with the calling of his own people, knows not the mission characteristic of other peoples.63 It is very much like the indulgent thought of Herder when he writes, " Ministers might deceive each other, political machines might be set against each other until one destroys the other. N o t so with fatherlands. They lie peacefully side by side and aid each other as families. It is the grossest barbarity of human speech to speak of fatherlands in bloody battle with each other." M 63

Predigten, vol. i, p. 228.

64

Briefe

zur Beförderung

der Humanität, 5th Sammlung, no. 57.

CHAPTER

IV

T H E COMMON MAN " Das elende Bettelkind, das sich ziehen lässt, ist Gott ebenso teuer als ein Prinz."—Gottfried Arnold.

THE rise of every nationalist movement has been accompanied by an increased interest in folk songs, folk tales and other aspects of folk-lore. Percy's Reliques in England, Burns' Scottish ballads, the collections of Herder, Tieck and the Grimms in Germany, of Dobrowsky and Hanka among the Czechs and of Vuk Karadzic among the Serbs are all but illustrations of a universal phenomenon which reveals the close interconnection between the interest in folk-lore and the rise of nationalism. The interest in folk-lore is a symbol of the interest in the folk—in the common people, and this interest in the common people is one of the important factors in the growth of a philosophy of nationalism. The common man is the lowest common denominator of the national group. Lowly as he may be, he still possesses, by virtue of his membership in the national group, something in common with the highest nobility. Nationalist philosophy, by its very nature, implies an ideal which transcends class distinctions. There is something in every member of a given national group which gives him the privilege of being called of the same nationality as all the other members of that group. In fact, very often in the history of national movements it happens that the lower classes, more than others, are made the bearers of the national tradition. Where there has been a period of imitation and assimilation 102

THE

COMMON

MAN

103

preceding the rise of a nationalist movement, the lower classes have been held up as the true embodiment of the national spirit. F o r they, more than others, did not become contaminated with an alien culture and tradition. They preserved the national tradition, national customs, national symbols, in all their purity. In them as a result, the folk soul found its true reflection. 1 One must not confuse this interest in the common man with the struggle for political democracy. W h i l e it might be quite appropriate to label the incipient national movements of the latter part of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries as revolutionary and while very often the national movement is allied with the struggle against autocracy, yet the two are not always necessarily connected. A l l we are concerned with here is the interest in the common man and his traditions without entering into the question of the struggle for his political rights. In this connection it is also in place to call attention to the relations of this interest in the common man to the revived interest in feudal society with its romance and chivalry. Both of these movements are part of the revived interest in the middle ages and as such represent important elements in the rise of nationalism. But one turns to the middle ages of the humble folk, the other to the middle ages of the fighting class. One is the more democratic strain in the nationalistic movement and the more humanitarian, the other the more aristocratic, the more chauvinistic and more militant. One 1 It is interesting to note in this connection the v a r y i n g uses of the terms Nation and Volk. A s Meinecke well points out in his Weltbürgertum und Nationalstaat, 7th ed. ( M u n i c h , 1928), p. 24, the term Nation had a much more aristocratic content than the term Volk. T h e latter r e f e r r e d more to the lower classes. B u t it is significant that as the interest in the common man g r e w and with it the development of a theory of nationalism, Volk came to supersede Nation and Volksgeist took the place of the older term Nationalgeist.

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

is represented by Herder, the other by Sir Walter Scott or the French nationalist writers of the period of reaction. 2 This interest in the common man expressed itself in various forms. A l o n g with the interest in folk-lore came an increased interest in the welfare of the lower classes, revealed in the organization of philanthropic enterprises, a strong emphasis on the common and popular language and a strong movement for popular education. In addition there was, as has already been mentioned, a decided tendency to break down class distinctions. There also came an increased sense of the dignity of man as man. The religious idea of the divine origin of man came into full play and expressed itself in increased independence and self-assertion towards the ruling class. Language and education will be taken up later; here we shall be concerned solely with the question of the increased interest in the common man and all its other manifestations. Germany of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was characterized by the most rigid kind of class distinctions. The concept of Stände permeated all political and social relations. In the Lutheran church this was expressed in the doctrine of the three classes, the princely, the priestly and the lay, with each class possessing its own definite sphere of activity. Emphasis was constantly placed on the need for keeping these class distinctions as clear as possible. Demands were made to separate the children of the burgher classes in the schools from those of the noble and knightly classes; protests were made against the common participation of all classes in religious observances, and it was even held disreputable for an aristocratic child to be baptized with the 2 See Borries, K . , Die Romantik und die Geschichte (Berlin, 1925), Stadelmann, R., " Grundformen der Mittelalterauffassung von Herder bis Ranke," in Vierteljahrschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte, vol. ix ( 1 9 3 1 ) , pp. 45-88 and Salomon, Gottfried, Das Mittelalter als Ideal in der Romantik (Munich, 1922).

THE COMMON MAN

105

same water as were the common children. Neither the orthodox churchmen nor the philosophers of the Enlightenment were interested in overcoming this gap between the classes. The orthodox [says Biedermann] were very slightly concerned with the people. They demanded that the people come to them and humble themselves before their high priestly dignity at their sermons, in confession and at the altar; but they disdained to go to the people and inquire into their religious and moral needs and bring them instruction, comfort and edification at their own hearth in the bosom of their family. They looked down upon the lower classes and even upon the unlearned middle class while they only too often bowed slavishly before the upper classes.* With their emphasis on the true doctrine, on learning, on Latin and on disputation they had little to offer to the lower classes and by their cringing servility to the upper classes they only worked all the more for the widening of the gap between the various elements of the population. The attitude of the Enlightenment was hardly different Although its theoretical aim was to spread light and learning among the ignorant, although it purported to be interested in the increase of the general welfare of the community, nevertheless in its ripened form it was based almost too exclusively on foreign patterns and was too intellectual for the great mass of the people. Above all, the philosophes were so eager for a chance to set their schemes of social reform in operation that they too fell in reverence before the first prince or noble who evinced the slightest sympathy with their ideas. The philosophers of the Enlightenment, by their utilitarian and more mechanical approach to the question of national feeling and allegiance, tended, in fact, to emphasize class distinctions. Thus Christian Garve declared it to be more s

Deutschland tm achtsehnten Jahrhundert, 2d

1880), vol. ii, part i, p. 328.

ed., 2 vols.

(Leipzig,

I06

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

important to study the character of the various classes within a nation than to preoccupy one's self with a study of national character. There is such a similarity in manners and customs [he wrote] among all the great cities of Europe that were one suddenly transferred from the society of one to that of another, it would seem merely as if he had gone from one house in the same place to another. Between the customs of the nobles, burghers and peasants, in France as well as in Silesia, there is a gulf, which strikes any one's eye as soon as he goes from one class to another.4 The only group that made any real effort to get closer to the lower classes and thus bring them into vital contact with the other social groups were the preachers and writers of the Pietist tradition. It has already been shown how they turned the emphasis from learning to good living and how they stressed feeling more than intellect. This in itself made Pietist religion more appealing to the lower classes than either the " reine Lehre " of the orthodox or the rationalistic free thought of the writers of the Enlightenment. A person like Balthasar Schuppius ( 1 6 1 0 - 1 6 6 1 ) , who was often char* Garve, Christian, " Uber den Charakter der Bauern und ihr V e r hältnis gegen die Gutsherren und gegen die Regierung," in Sämtliche Werke, vol. v, p. 709. T h e utilitarian and mechanistic approach of the philosophes of the Enlightenment is revealed in Frederick the Great's Briefe über die Vaterlandsliebe. " Can one really love his fatherland," asks Frederick. " Is not this so-called love merely an invention of some philosopher or pedantic law-giver? H o w should one love his people? H o w can one sacrifice himself for the w e l f a r e of some province in our monarchy, if he has never seen it? T h i s all reduces itself f o r me to the question how one can give his passionate and enthusiastic love to something which he does not know." H i s answer to these questions is that love of fatherland is not something spiritual and emotional but is based only on the actual material w e l f a r e w h i c h individuals derive f r o m their state. ( S e e Cassirer, E., Freiheit und Form, 2d ed., Berlin, 1918, p. 500).

THE

COMMON

MAN

IO7

acterized as a "hot-headed German mouth but honest heart," 5 was attacked by the Wittenberg school (the home of strict orthodoxy) for introducing into his sermons all sorts of popular fables, facetious, satirical tales and ludicrous stories in order to attract his hearers. But Schuppius unlike most of his contemporaries was convinced of the necessity of making an immediate appeal to the lower classes as well as caring for their welfare. In fact, before the time of Arndt the religious literature supposedly created for the masses resembled more closely the works of the learned orthodox and had very little of the folk character evident in the works of Arndt and the Pietists. Earlier works like the Praxis vitae aeternae of Philipp Nicolai, the Praxis conscientiarum of Georg Decker, the Meditationes eucharisticae of Johann Stemann, Epitome credendorum of Nikolaus Hunnius, the Praxis devotionis of Justus Gesenius, Thesaurus salutis orthodoxus of Gottfried Olearius present a decided contrast to later titles such as Vom alten und neuen Menschen of Friedrich Dame, Vorgeschmack der göttlichen Güte of Joachim Lutkemann, Frauenzimmers Gebetbuch of Philip von Zessen, Brandopfer der Gläubigen and Inbrünstigkeit eines gläubigen Christen by Georg Pintius.8 Pietism entered into more intimate contact with the daily home and family life of the lay class. It stressed the importance of participation of the lay class in religious life, broke down the pompous wall that the orthodox clergy had built around themselves and developed a sense of self-dignity and self-esteem in the laity. It accepted and stressed more forcefully the idea of equality before God and made this principle a factor in the social and religious life of Pietist communities. Man as man, as " created in the image of God," has a 8 Beck, Hermann, Die religiose Volksliteratur der evangelischen Deutschlands (Gotha, 1891), p. 147. 6

Kirche

The best discussion of religious folk literature is in Beck, op. cit.

jo8

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

sanctity about him that gives him a certain dignity and self esteem. A s Gottfried Arnold expressed it, " the most forlorn beggar boy . . . it just as precious to God as a prince." All are equal before Jesus. For " He is meek. He is gracious. He is humble of heart. A beggar has just as much right to Him as an emperor. If the emperor reflects and says: I cling to the Lord Jesus, He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords for ever and ever, the beggar says: I cling to the Lord Jesus: He had nothing to rest his head on." 7 It is this attitude which brought the Pietists closer to the common folk and made them in turn bring the various classes closer together and help create that sense of common bond and common destiny which later expressed itself in the form of a nationalist philosophy. Pietism was perhaps the greatest cementing force in eighteenth-century Germany, torn, as it was, by religious controversies and rigid class distinctions and barriers. In their literature, in their social relations and in their church organization, Pietists exhibited this interest in the lower classes and this tendency to promote greater social unity. The preface to one of the most widely read Pietist tracts, Christian Gerber's Historia der Wiedergebohrenen in Sachsen (1725-37), makes it quite plain that rank or class is of no particular consequence as far as regeneration is concerned. How many biographies of nobles and other famous men has not this century brought forth? [asks the author in his preface]. But [he continues] why should only the aristocracy and the learned have the honor of remaining in blessed memory, particularly since they have already left a memorial through their writings or through their deeds? Is one to find the wondrous works of God revealed onlv in the lines of the learned and notable men? Oh, no! One finds such also 7 Zinzendorf,

Amerikaner Reden, 2 vols. (Büdingen, 1746), vol. ii, p. 90.

THE

COMMON

MAN

109

among the ignorant, the lowly and the humble folk. The Lord has his chosen ones also among these and keeps his watch over them: for to him rank is of no significance. A n d so the book, in addition to stories o f the spiritual struggles of people of the higher classes and of clergymen, includes accounts of such persons as a servant girl, a poor widow, a burgher of Freiburg, the w i f e o f a merchant, a poor girl of the lower classes, a peasant's son, and a maid servant. Another work similar to Gerber's, Johann Heinrich Reitz's Historie der Wiedergebohrenen, 4th ed. (Itzstein, 1 7 1 7 ) , devotes a whole first part to accounts of the conversions of either altogether illiterate or semi-illiterate people; a n d J. J . M o s e r ' s Altes

und Neues

aus dent Reich

Gottes

(Frankfurt, 1733-35) is likewise made up of the religious experiences of peasants, artisans, soldiers, maid servants and the like. It is true that Pietists never openly declared themselves in favor of official abrogation of class distinctions. Certainly the earlier Pietists hesitated greatly at taking such a bold step. For it must constantly be borne in mind that although Pietism brought about far-reaching changes in the social and religious life of Germany it never assumed any revolutionary character. In fact its leaders always went out of their way to point out and give assurance of the respectability and obedient character of the movement. Thus we find Spener declaring that " God had, in his wisdom, separated the classes in certain orders—some to be rulers, others, subjects, some lords, others servants and so forth. These differences are not merely in name, but they carry with them certain offices and responsibilities." 8 Despite their official acceptance of class distinctions, however, they did, in actual practice, contribute greatly to do away with them. T h e constant criti8

Theologische

Bedenken,

3 vols. ( H a l l e , 1 7 1 2 ) , vol. ii, p. 221.

PIETISM

IIO

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

cism levelled at them by their opponents is a witness to this fact. O n e of the most frequent and recurrent attacks against the Pietists was because of their failure to pay attention t o differences in class. Duttenhoffer reports that one of the two chief objections to the Pietists was based on their attention t o the teaching of the ignorant.® O n e of the charges against Theodor Untereyck—the father of Pietism in Bremen—was that he set up private assemblies in which he allowed a maid and a man servant to participate with him in the Holy Communion. 1 0 Carpzov described with a great deal of disgust the " undignified " behaviour of Spener in Saxony. There came with him [he says] a disrespectable entourage which was noticeable immediately upon his arrival. H e paid visits to every one, not only to the royal ministers . . . , but to all the preachers and burghers in the city wherever he chanced to go. . . . He started a girls' school in his house and taught small children the catechism—a chief court preacher of the elector with a children's school that even a village school master could handle! He places himself (in Leipzig) on Sunday in the gallery of the church of St. Thomas where, it is true, honest people stand, but not people of his class.11 And Carpzov further criticised the Pietists for allowing servants to sit at the same tables with their masters." T h i s intermingling of classes was carried farthest among the Moravian Brethren. The name Hermhutische Briider by which they preferred to be known was significant. T h e 9

Duttenhofer, op. cit., p. 7.

10

Veeck, O., " D i e Anfänge des Pietismus in Bremen", in

für Kirchengeschickte, 11

Zeitschrift

vol. x x v ( 1 9 0 4 ) , p. 293.

Carpzov, J . B., Ausführliche Beschreibung des Unfugs welchen die Pietisten zu Halberstadt im Monat Dezember 1692 und die heilige Weyhnachtsseit gestiftet (no place of pub., 1693), pp. 14-15. 12

Ibid., p. 55.

THE

COMMON

MAN

III

members greeted each other in no other fashion than " lieber Bruder " or " liebe Schwester." A visitor to one of their communities thus described their relations, especially as regards the intermingling of noble and commoner: The common folk in Herrnhut alter their manners and become much more courteous than is common in their class. This is due to the fact that they live in most intimate communion with great ladies and lords. . . . For although there are not very many of the noble class in Herrnhut, yet there are in Lausitz and Silesia various esteemed families, also of the nobility, who seek out the Herrnhut Community and often perform here their religious services. The most humble person has freedom and must address even the Count and his wife as dear brother, dear sister. He can say " I am a child of God as well as you. I have the high privilege of being a Christian and I flatter myself more with this fact than with the worldly rank of Count. The world with all its titles is but rubbish for me, not so dear brother, dear sister! If we are children of God then one is as good as another." 1 5 The organization and constitution of the Pietist communities all bear witness first of all to the strong hold of the new movement upon the lower classes and secondly to the greater feeling of equality present among them. A perusal, for example, of the list of elders of the organization of the Brethren in 1 7 2 7 and their occupation yields the following: Christian David, carpenter; George Nitschman, carpenter; Melchior Nitschman, weaver; Chr. Hoffmann, Augustus and Jacob Meiser, cutters; David Nitschman, carpenter; Andrew Beyer, John Nitschman and David Nitschmann, shoemakers; David Quitt and Francis Kuhnel, weavers." One of Zin14

Ausführliche historische und theologische Nachricht von der Herrenhutherischen Brüderschaft von einem Liebhaber der reine Gottseligkeit

(Frankfurt, 1743), PP- 93-9414

Bost, A., History of the Bohemian and Moravian Brethren, t r . f r o m

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

zendorf's most intimate associates was Martin Dober, by profession a potter. At five o'clock in the morning, it is related, he was conducting the early morning service in Herrnhut and at nine he was sitting barefoot at his potter's table where he might receive the most distinguished visitors. 15 Both Ritschl and Drews, I think, are quite wrong in denying to Pietism any far-reaching influence among the great masses of people. Like French Free Masonry, Pietism had a double influence. I t acted as a strong bond of union in bringing together members of the various classes and by its particular influence among the ruling classes and royal courts it became a real directing influence on the art and practice of government. 18 The institution which most effectively worked for the changes in social structure indicated above was that of the private gatherings, known variously as the collegia pietatis, conventicle or ecclesiola. This institution owed its great spread and influence mainly to the activity of Spener. It has long been a subject of controversy as to how original the idea was with Spener." There undoubtedly were private gatherings before Spener such as those of Heinrich Mueller, those of Pastor Martin Moller in Görlitz and especially those of Jean Labadie. But it was Spener who made it the central the French, 2nd ed. (London, 1838). A more detailed discussion is found in Otto Uttendörfer's Alt-Herrnhut, 2 vols. (Herrnhut, 1925-26). 15

Uttendörfer, O., Zinsendorf's

Weltbetrachtung,

pp. 213, 270.

18

For the influence of Pietism on the nobility see especially the older study by F. W. Barthold, " Die Erweckten in protestantischen Deutschland während des Ausgangs des 17. und der ersten Hälfte des 18. Jahrhunderts ; besonders die frommen Grafenhöfe," in Raumers Historisches Taschenbuch (Leipzig, 1852-1853), pp. 129-320 and pp. 169-390, and the more recent doctoral dissertation by Hans Walter Erbe, Zinzendorf und der fromme hohe Adel seiner Zeit (Leipzig, 1928). 17

For a discussion of this problem see especially Göbel, op. cit., Ritschl, op. cit., especially vol. ii, p. 138-41 and Schmidt, K. D., " Labadie und Spener," in Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte, vol. xlvi (1927), pp. 566-83.

THE

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MAN

113

institution o f Pietist religious organization and life. In his Pia Desideria he called for the establishment of ecclesiolae in ecclesia. Filled as he was with the desire to r e f o r m the existing evil conditions in the church and convinced that this could only be brought about by the active cooperation of all three classes, he developed the idea of the collegia pietatis as one of the means to achieve his desired end. These meetings, he said, " were not to be separatist conventicles but lather so arranged that through them and from them, as a cue, piety would spread in ever wider circles just as no coal can continue to glow without enflaming other coals beside it." From this time on the conventicle became the most characteristic institution of Pietist communities. It was the first step to organize such meetings wherever Pietism gained adherents and struck root and it also became the target for most of the criticism and attacks by the enemies and opponents of the new movement. A t these meetings people of all professions, regardless of rank or trade, were brought together: students, jurists, doctors, merchants, artisans, and women as well as men. Master and servant knelt together in prayer. The meeting was usually opened by a prayer, then there was either a repetition of the Sunday sermon or a discussion of some section of a devotional book, and then reading from the Bible. Although women were present they were usually separated from the men and seldom took part in the discussion. 18 The self-esteem developed in the lower classes, which played so important a role in the development of a theory as well as of a consciousness of nationality, is admirably illustrated in the persons of Johann Jakob Moser and his son Freidrich Carl. Both father and son were deeply religious and steeped in the Pietist tradition and both never ceased stressing and emphasizing the dignity of the Christian man 18

See Griinberg, P., Philipp Jakob Spcner, 3 vols, (Gottingen, 1893).

PIETISM

AND GERMAN

NATIONALISM

as a Christian. In their own lives as well as in their works they exhibited this characteristic to a most marked degree. The father tells of how he was kept waiting for a long time in the ante-room of the Duke of Württemberg. Highly incensed at this he remarked to one of the officials, " A Christian should always, no matter where he is, appear undaunted and without fear." 17 " Towards great lords and ministers," he declared, " I have rather too much than too little boldness." 20 His principle, he said, was: " I sing the song of him whose bread I eat; but right is always right with me and wrong is wrong even though it may strike at my lords or principals. For that reason I never allowed myself, in my service of lord or land, to be intimidated by discussion, by commands or by threats to defend anything that I considered either unjust or exaggerated." 2 1 And his son, Friedrich Carl, complained bitterly of the humiliations to which non-nobles were subjected. " A Christian is honored at the courts just as much as a bell on the tower; one hears it but preferably from afar." 22 How different this attitude is from that of most of the tiny literary and scholarly satellites who revolved around the court or the ruler. Or how different even from the attitude of an intellectual figure of such giant stature as Leibnitz. Leibnitz too was filled with a keen desire to reform Germany and bring about unification, but he attempted to reform it from above through his own individual activity. National self-esteem could not be brought about in such a way. It had to be developed among 18

Lebensgeschichte,

20

Ibid., vol. ii, p. 65.

21

Ibid., vol. ii, p. 67.

3rd ed. (Frankfurt, 1777), vol. ii, p. 8.

Ledderhose, K. F., Aus dem Leben und den Schriften des Ministers Freiherrn Friedrich Karl von Moser (Heidelberg, 1871), p. 21. See also Freie Worte aus der Zeit des Absolutismus des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts, ed. by Paul Hornel (Munich, 1912), pp. 53-5422

THE COMMON MAN

"5

a great mass of the population and especially among the lower middle class. And this increase of self-esteem and national pride, as revealed so boldly in the case of the Mosers, was brought about chiefly through Pietist influences. Imitation of foreigners, of course, has always been one of the chief obstacles to the development of national self esteem. Much has already been written concerning the wide extent of French influence in Germany during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It was an influence which found expression in all forms and activities of social life, especially among the upper classes. It was an influence which worked, however, chiefly through forms of imitation. Unlike the English influences at work in German life, which acted deeply, subtly and often unconsciously and thus helped mould and fashion thought and institutions, the French influence was characterized by a conscious and slavish imitation which was, perhaps, the most important single deterrent to the development of a spirit of German nationalism. Pietists in many ways worked to counteract this influence. They preached vehemently against the luxury and extravagance which the nobles copied from the court of France. They attacked the absolutism of German rulers patterned after the model of Louis X I V . And it is a revealing fact that the external symbol of orthodoxy, the wig, imported from France, concerning which it was said, " t h e more orthodox one wanted to be, the more cloudlike his wig," was immediately discarded by Spener and other Pietists. The interest of the Pietists in the lower classes also found expression in their efforts to establish philanthropic institutions to take care of and educate the poor. August Hermann Francke is the most important figure in this movement. No one hardly bothers [complained Francke] about the poor widows and orphans and about the needy and forsaken in general. God has indeed commanded us to do so but it is

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

generally taken for granted that each person has merely himself to look a f t e r ; each one for himself and God for all. He who is up remains up and he who is down is down. Here and there a few old hospitals and poorhouses still stand . . . he who wants to get into such a place must buy his way in. Capital is accumulated instead of being spent usefully for the poor. There is no supervision of these institutions and horrible inefficiency is the result. The regulations for the poor serve the tendency to free the rich from troublesome beggars rather than to liberate the poor from poverty. . . . Thousands of poor children are allowed to go wild, great numbers of adult beggars wander through the country without any one's considering the harmful consequences of the disorder, immorality, complete absence of education and discipline and the resulting idleness which mark their existence. 23 A s a result of the work of institutions which he established, he w r o t e : Many poor orphans for whose education nobody was in the least concerned, and who otherwise of necessity had been drawn away into numberless disorders and most heinous sins, have been withheld from the dangerous courses which a begger's life might have exposed them to and put under good discipline and instructed in the word of God. Whereby in time they may become good Christians; and profitable subjects, which without question must contribute to the general good of the kingdom. 24 Many boys of good natural parts and endowments [he went on to say] by reason of which they might be made fit for great undertakings, lying hitherto buried under the rubbish of ignorance, for want of education, because of their parents' poverty, or otherwise, and whose pregnant genius would enable them to become great instruments of mischief to their country, are now sought out and educated for the common benefit; to which they may sometimes prove useful by promoting the good 23 24

Quoted in Zum Gedächtnis A. H. Fratickes (Halle, 1927), pp. 38-39.

Pielas

Hallensis (London, 1705), pp. 98-99.

THE

COMMON

MAN

II7

and advantage whether of church or state, which is the thing that deserves the applause of every one.25 Francke also had a definite political reason for the establishment of such institutions. " This may put sovereign magistrates," he declared, " in good hopes, that from such and the like endeavors, may proceed the best and most faithful subjects fitted for their service, who also may prove instrumental in due time in retrieving others from their vicious course of life." 29 In 1709 King Frederick I of Prussia called Francke to Berlin to advise him in the establishment of new charitable institutions, particularly a new orphan's home. It was under Francke's influence also that Frederick William I established in 1 7 2 2 an orphan home for the children of his soldiers so that in time they might be brought up for the sincere and best interests of himself, his successors and his country. Institutions modeled after Francke's were established in Königsberg, Stettin, Stargard, Bunzlau, Züllichau, Bielefeld, Saalfeld, Greiz, Langendorf, Wernigerode, Stolberg, Teschen, Glaucha bei Oels, öttingen, Wiesbaden, Bayreuth, etc.27 Charity organizations of other kinds and periodicals devoted to this end were established in many parts of Germany—although the followers of the Enlightenment were also active in this respect.28 A much more subtle yet very important element in this aspect of the development of modern nationalism was the humanization of religion. It is the thesis of this book that many of the psychological attitudes and emotional responses 25

Ibid., p. 99.

26

Ibid., p. 100.

27

See Tholuck, A., Geschichte des Rationalismus (Berlin, 1865), p. 90 and Batteiger, Jacob, Der Pietismus in Bayreuth (Berlin, 1903), Historische Studien, no. 38. 28

See Biedermann, op. cit., vol. i, pp. 395-418, also Mahling, D. t " A . H. Francke und die innere Mission", in Zum Gedachtniss A. H. Franckes.

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dominant in the religious sphere were eventually transferred to the national group. This transference was made possible by t w o facts: the secularization of society, and the greater emphasis in religion itself upon the human rather than upon the divine. T h e first factor was, no doubt, due more to the spread of rationalism and free thinking than to anything else. W i t h religion relegated to a position as but one of the factors in society instead of the all-embracing and dominant factor, it was but natural for men to seek some other entity as an outlet for those emotions formerly attached to the church. Pietism, by its emphasis on practical piety, on charity, on the dignity o f man, on the need of social reform, turned the attention of its followers to the practical problems of everyday life. Religion and religious doctrine were brought into intimate relation with questions of social and political nature, and the same intellectual and psychological attitudes were applied in both categories. A most patent evidence of Pietists' emphasis on the human elements in religion is their treatment of Jesus. It was always the human rather than the divine character of Jesus that was stressed. Nowhere was this more evident than in the case of Zinzendorf and the Moravians. Their whole theology as well as ritual was dominated by the idea of the human Jesus. The Christian community, said Zinzendorf, in order to enjoy communion with Christ must not only keep alive in their memory the agonies o f Jesus but also the whole course of his historical life as a Redeemer from his birth until his return to the heavenly existence. " I believe," he said, " that our Saviour himself spoke broad dialect. He may perhaps have used many peasants' phrases in which we now seek to find something totally different since we do not understand the idioms of the apprentice boys of Nazareth." 29 Quoted in Franck, G., Geschichte der protesiantischcn 4 vols. (Leipzig, 1862-1905), vol. ii, p. 201.

Theologie,

THE

COMMON

MAN

119

Zinzendorf went so far as to instruct his missionaries to primitive peoples to speak nothing of God but only of Christ.' 0 He told them that " Christ in his stay on earth was but a poor being who experienced all the frailities of human nature; and he could not therefore say that he suffered as a God, that God himself had died." " Lavater puts it even more clearly, " To the right of the Almighty sits the man Jesus—a man reigns over the world of man! We are dealing with a man who was in God's image, assumed the form of man—and through his suffering made his way to that of an immortal, divine and God-like man." " We have one aim, [he wrote in another place] to become and to develop better men—that means basically fit and presentable. If you can do this without Christ, do it!— If you can do it without God, do it!— If you can do it alone, why another? No matter with what you can do it—let this medium be your God! " And this medium soon became humanity, and then the nation. " In order to see the world and have religion," declared Schleiermacher, " man must first have found humanity." " 80

Wohleb, Leo, " Beiträge zur Geschichte Zinzendorfs und der Brüdergemeine", in Zeilschrift für Kirchengeschichte, vol. xlvii (1928), p. 67. 31

Ibid., pp. 67-68.

32

Christliches Wochenblatt für die gegenwärtige Zeit, 2 vols. (Zurich, 1798), vol. i, p. 72. 83

Antworten auf wichtige und würdige Fragen, 2 vols. (Berlin, 1790), vol. i, p. 101. 34

Über die Religion, ed. Braun, p. 57.

PIETISM

AND GERMAN

NATIONALISM

Humanity, as Schleiermacher expressed it elsewhere, became together with morality the intermediary and only element capable of being conceived between the transcendent entities of God and nature. Pietism, thus combining with the general rationalist attack upon religion, helped to create a void in the minds and hearts of men, which in turn was filled by the national group. All the fervor, enthusiasm, excitement and zealous allegiance hitherto accorded to religion and the church came now to be showered upon the new god of the modern world—the nation state. Nationalism came first to be identified with Christianity and presently even to supersede it as a religion of modern man.

PART II

CHAPTER V EDUCATION " Erziehung ist ein Verhältnis der Generationen unter sich."—Schleiermacher.

IN reply to the question whether or not schooling is useful f o r children of the lower classes, the French priest, Von Gap, writing in the eighteenth century, said: Your children were at school; they have learned to read and to write. . . . Do they use the plow any better? . . . Do those who attended school visit the public houses less frequently? . . . After investigating and considering all the details of this matter I have arrived at the conviction—and my colleagues agree with me in this matter—that the majority of those who are bad Christians are found precisely among those who have attended school, and that on the other hand, those that are pious and pure of heart and exhibit the noblest of Christian ideals can neither read nor write. 1 This statement expresses perfectly the attitude of the orthodox clergy in Germany as well as in France during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and is almost equally representative of the opinion of large groups among the "enlightened." The Pietist interest and preoccupation with the education of the common man was in striking contrast. And the enormous contribution of Pietism to popular education was, together with the other factors discussed in the previous 1 Quoted in Groethuysen, B., Die Entstehung der bürgerlichen Weltvnd Lebensanschauung in Frankreich, 2 vols. (Halle, 1927-30), vol. i, pp. 12-13. 123

124

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chapters, one of the significant stimulants to the rise and growth of German nationalism and national spirit. For, preoccupation with education is one of the most important aspects of the development of a national movement. The continuity of national tradition is the very stuff out of which an ideology of nationalism is constructed. Leaders and theorists of nationalism as well as professional patriots and " hundred per centers " are, therefore, always vitally interested in the state and progress of education. A perusal of such surveys of the historical evolution of modern national movements as those of C. J . H. Hayes 2 or Hans Kohn 3 reveals the fact that every modern national movement has invariably been preceded and accompanied by a national cultural renaissance in which popular education played an enormous role. Schleiermacher, Vater Jahn und Hardenberg in Germany, Grundtvig in Denmark and the whole line of educational reformers in France from Condorcet to Guizot and Cousin and from Ferry to Buisson are but a few illustrations of the close interrelation between nationalism and education.4 Fascist educational policy in Italy and its friction with the church as well as the hysterical concern of our hundred-percent Americans over the penetration of radicalism and " alien influences " into our own educational institutions are but additional evidences of this interconnection.5 Every inci2 Essays in Nationalism (New York, 192s) and Historical of Modern Nationalism (New York, 1931).

Evolution

8 A History of Nationalism in the East, tr. from the German by M. M. Green (London, 1929). 4

See Reisner, E. H., Nationalism York, 1929). 5

and Education

since 1789

(New

The preservation and accentuation of the nationalist spirit in France through the text books used in the school system is clearly brought out in C. J . H. Hayes's book, France, A Nation of Patriots (New York, 1930). Similar phenomena are also brought out in the series edited by Charles Merriam on Making Citizens.

EDUCATION

125

pient national movement is anxious to assume control and direction of education, as in the case of India. Every threatened national movement is deeply concerned over the future of its education, as with the Jews in the Diaspora. The minorities problem of to-day is, in addition to all its other complexities, further complicated by the struggle over educational policy in the schools for the minority populations. For every national movement derives its hope from the degree of success with which it is enabled to enthuse the young with its national aspirations and every national movement senses its doom with the breakdown and stagnation of its educational program. Within the educational system the most important element for the development of nationalism is the public school. The public school provides the basis for community of feeling and community of tradition. The public school is the bearer of that common set of ideals, traditions, customs and usages which are prevalent among all elements and classes of the national group and which constitute the core of the national ideology. " It is without doubt," says a modern writer, " the endeavor of every generation in the stream of cultural life to transmit, through education, to the future generations its spiritual goods in a form determined by economic and social relations. It is the public school which transmits to the succeeding generations the cultural values common to the whole nationality." 8 It is an undisputed fact that education in general and German education in particular are enormously indebted to the Pietist movement and the Pietist leaders. But the development of national education in Germany owes particular acknowledgment to the Pietist movement. It is no mere coincidence that General Bliicher, before the battle of Leipzig in 1813, established his headquarters at the house 8

H.

Scherer

in Rein's Encyclopadisches

2nd ed., vol. i x (1909), P- 739-

Handbuch

der

Pddagogik,

126

PIETISM

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NATIONALISM

of the great grandson of Francke, then Chancellor of the University of Halle, and that during the battle the buildings of the Franckesche Stiftungen were used as hospitals for wounded soldiers.7 The connection between Pietism and Prussian regeneration was more than accidental. Martin Luther early exhibited a great interest in education. 8 His insistence on individualism and independence of judgment of all Christians in matters of belief and their duty to study the Scriptures made it necessary for him to advocate the extension of educational facilities even for the common people. He even appealed to the princes and magistrates to make education compulsory. But as with many other elements in Luther's teaching, when the Reformation in the hands of the princes became more political than religious and when a new orthodoxy grew up within Protestantism itself, the earlier teachings of Luther were forgotten. The aristocratic and bureaucratic tendencies came to the fore. A mechanistic conception of education and training was evolved in place of the freer and more spontaneous development characteristic of Luther's earlier pedagogic views. All of the characteristics of the Lutheran orthodoxy described in preceding chapters were revealed in its attitude towards education. Not being interested in the common people in general, the orthodox felt no particular urge to work for the development of better educational facilities for the common folk. Schools degenerated, the schoolmaster became an object of opprobrium and a target for all sorts of practical jokes. Even the instruction of future ministers 7

See Niemeyer, August Hermann, Grundsätze der Erziehung und des Unterrichts, edited with a biography of Niemeyer by W . Rein, 2 vols. (Langensalza, 1882-84). 8

For Luther's educational views see Schmid, K. A., Geschichte der Erziehung, vol. ii (1889), pt. ii; Keferstein, Horst, in Rein's Encyclopadisches Handbuch der Pädagogik, vol. v (1906), pp. 694-701; and Monroe's Cyclopaedia of Education, vol. iv (1913), pp. 94-95-

EDUCATION

127

degenerated until the lower offices in the clerical profession were filled with men of little or no education and of low intellectual calibre. T h e character o f the education administered was also determined by the general outlook of the Lutheran orthodox clergy. It was mechanistic and formal, schematic and dry. It placed most emphasis on the grammatical study of the ancient languages. In this respect it was but continuing the tradition of the humanists. Linguistic perfection was the important end and all other subjects were subordinated to and utilized for acquiring a correct and elaborately developed Latin style. W i t h this came a methodology that was based almost exclusively on imitation as well as a stress on useless disputation and polemic and the futile use of syllogistic logic. Both the Enlightenment and Pietism reacted against this formal and rigid orthodox system of education. Jdst as the Enlightenment and Pietism shared an hostility toward confessional dogmatism, just as they both advocated religious toleration, so were they both active in behalf of popular education founded on a more simple, practical and realistic basis. Nowhere was the close interconnection between Pietism and the Enlightenment better revealed than in the founding of the University of Halle.® The University of Halle was created by two men, August Hermann Francke, one of the fathers of the Pietist movement, and Christian Thomasius, the herald of the German Enlightenment. Even in Leipzig when Francke was being persecuted for his collegium philobiblicum he found a staunch defender in Thomasius. And although divisions later rose between them, the firm foundation upon which the University of Halle came to rest is attributable in a large measure to the cooperative efforts of the two men. A ditty current in 18th century Germany, • See especially Schräder, W., Geschichte zu Halle, 2 vols. (Berlin, 1894).

der Friedrichs

Universität

128

PIETISM

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NATIONALISM

" he who goes to Halle returns either Pietist or Atheist," is indicative of the close interrelation of the Enlightenment and Pietism. 10 It would thus be quite erroneous to attribute any exclusive importance to the Pietist movement for the development o f education in Germany; even for the development of popular education. Tne interest of Frederick the Great in popular education, has, it is true, been seriously questioned by recent students. 11 But the work of Basedow and the Philanthropists, of Friedrich Rochow, the friend of Nicolai and Mendelssohn, all disciples of the Enlightenment; the work of these men on behalf of popular education is undisputed. Rochow, in his Handbuch in katechistischer Form für Lehrer, die aufklären wollen und dürfen ( 1 7 8 3 ) , pointed out the need for one school and one mode of instruction for the entire youth, of whatever class they might be, and whatever vocation they might pursue in the future. There was to be one and the same plan of instruction for the future craftsman, farmer, laborer, artist or scholar. 12 Great also was the influence of the Enlightenment in breaking down the dominance of the classical and linguistic tradition with its overemphasis on the study of Latin rhetoric. Although these two movements were united in their opposition to Lutheran orthodoxy, and although the Enlightenment also contributed to the development of popular educa1 0 It is also revealed, f o r example, in the attack by the anti-Pietist Johann Friedrich Meyer " against Thomasius and the H a l l e theology." See Schräder, op. ext., vol. i, p. 197. 11

See Vollmer, F., Die Preussische

dem Grossen

Volksschulpolitik

unter

Friedrich

(Berlin, 1918).

1 2 See Rochow, F . E., Ausgewählte pädagogische Schriften, ed. with Introduction by J. Gänsen (Padeborn, 1894), p. 28; also Gerlach, Otto, Die Idee der Nationalerziehung in der Geschichte der preussischen Volksschule, vol. i, Die Nationalerziehung im 18. Jahrhundert dargestellt in ihrem Hauptvertreter Rochow (Langensalza, 1932).

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tion, there was, however, a fundamental difference between these two intellectual currents which is vital for the understanding of the nationalist implications of the problem. The men of the Enlightenment approached the problem of popular education as one of uplift, of philanthropy, of raising large elements of the population from the crude conditions of barbarism. They came armed with the force of reason. Reason, they thought, would be strong enough to convert the ignorant, crude peasant into a useful citizen. There was no feeling of sympathy for the plain folk as they were, no recognition of any values inherent in them as they were. They were to be " enlightened," that is uplifted and changed into beings different from what they had previously been. Combined with this also was a fear of providing too much learning to the masses. The leaders of the Enlightenment were too closely allied with the absolutist power of the princes to advocate any such thing as equal educational opportunities for all. Their aim was primarily utilitarian; that the state should derive a greater benefit and usefulness from its inhabitants. But education was not to be used to break down class distinctions. Julius von Massow, one of the important educational administrators of Prussia, said, " Whatever raises him [the pupil] above the sphere of his class and his future calling, is useless to him, and such knowledge only makes him unhappy and dissatisfied." 1 3 The Pietists, on the other hand, came to the masses not from above but with a genuine inner sympathy for them. The unadorned natural simplicity and emotionalism of the 13

See Heubaura, A., " D i e Geschichte des ersten preussischen Schulgesetzentwurfs (1798-1807)," in Monatschrift für höhere Schulen, vol. i (1902), p. 307. See also " D i e Reformbestrebungen unter dem preussischen Minister Julius von Massow 1798-1807 auf dem Gebiete des höheren Bildungswesen," by the same author in Gesellschaft für deutsche Erziehungs- und Schulgeschichte, Mitteilungen, vol. xiv (1904), pp. 186225.

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plain folk coincided and harmonized beautifully with the fervid, emotional and inward religion which Pietism preached. The Pietists, to put it in a somewhat exaggerated form, sought to bring out, to clear out from under a mass o f overgrowth, the natural qualities of the human being. The movement thus had far deeper popular roots than the Enlightenment. Its emphasis on the vernacular was much stronger, its adherence to national tradition and national custom much closer. The " enlightened " pedagogues reduced the emphasis on Latin but they substituted a strong emphasis on the study of French. Thus in the new type of educational institution that came into vogue in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 14 the so-called Ritterakadernie for the education of young noblemen according to the latest fashion and for the preparation of noble children for state and administrative careers, the Latin education was decreased but French on the other hand became the official language. Even in the lower schools the study of French was introduced. 15 The appeal to the pupil in the schools of the Enlightenment also was mainly a rational one. There was little appeal to the imagination, to sentiment or to emotion. A good illustration of this is Iselin's plan of religious instruction. " In the first stage God is to be pictured as the best father and greatest benefactor. Later he is to be presented as the wise and just ruler of the universe who grants to every sentient being such a portion of happiness as he contributes to the perfection of the world and to the happiness of other humans, 1 4 The first Rifterakademien were founded at the close of the sixteenth century (1575 by Frederick III of the Palatinate, 1598 by Frederick of Wiirttemberg, 1599 by Moritz of Hessen) but they did not become widely popular until the middle of the seventeenth century. 1 5 See Journal von und für Deutschland, vol. i (1784), p. 123; see also Miaskowski, August von, I soak Iselin (Basel, 1875).

EDUCATION

and in so far as he enters into the purpose of God and becomes an instrument to further it." T h i s is to be contrasted with the Pietist emphasis on Jesus the saviour, the sufferer, the human hero, and on the feeling of dependence on him—all making a direct appeal to the heart and feelings of the pupil. The educational ideal of the Enlightenment was cosmopolitan in its general character. Basedow openly declared, " W e are philanthropists or cosmopolitans. The sovereignty of Russia or Denmark is, in our doctrines and judgments, not considered inferior to the freedom of Switzerland." 16 His work on practical philosophy was to be " a cosmopolitan book suitable alike for every nation, form of government or church." 17 Niemeyer, although a grandson of Francke and in the Halle tradition, yet more a represenative of the Enlightenment than of the Pietist tradition, declared in his section on Vaterlandsliebe that " the highest development of morality engenders, in relation to other people, a cosmopolitan sense, which embraces in a sympathetic and loving manner the totality of all rational beings." 14 Despite occasional references and allusions to patriotism, to love of fatherland, even to the development of a national culture, the deeper irrational, emotional strains so characteristic o f developed nationalism are notably absent. For the beginnings of those strains one must rather look to the Pietist religious tradition. Interest in the educational development of the lower classes was already evident in some of the forerunners of the Pietist movement. Men like Johann Valentin Andreae (15861684), J. Balthasar Schuppius ( 1 6 1 0 - 6 1 ) , and Theophilus l e See Gnuchtel, E., I. Iselin und sein Verhältnis sum (Leipsic, 1907), p. 47.

Philontropinismus

"Ibid. 18 Grundsätze der Erziehung und des Unterrichts, 2 vols. (Langensalza, 1882-84), vol. i, p. 218.

ed. by W . Rein,

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Grossgebauer (1626 or 1627-61) displayed a great interest in popular education and wrote and worked for the advancement of educational facilities and methods. Andreae devoted a great portion of his Reipublicae christianopolitanae descriptio (Strassbourg, 1619, Leipzig, 1706, tr. by F. E . Held, N e w Y o r k , 1 9 1 6 ) to a discussion of the education of children, and his work resulted " in agitation for better educational systems both on the continent and in England." Schuppius never wearied of hurling ironical darts at the orthodox pedagogues and their stress on Latin studies. He asked, " W h y should I not be able to learn how to know, love and honor God in the German language as well as in the Latin? Of what use is the Latin language in upper G e r m a n y ? " 1 9 Grossgebauer deplored the lack of schools and the indifference to children's education. 20 He demanded that new schools be erected, " not schools in which Cicero and V i r g i l shall be dominant, but rather schools in the cities, county towns and villages in which the girls as well as boys, men and maid servants, shall be instructed by God-fearing pious men and women." 21 All of these writers also stressed the benefit that was to be derived for the general welfare of the community from activity of this sort. A more permanent influence on German educational development was brought about by Duke Ernst the Pious, called " the pedagogue among the princes and the prince of the pedagogues." 22 Ernst I called the Pious, Duke of SaxeGotha and Altenburg, was born in 1601 and reigned from 1640 until his death in 1674. His youth was not a happy 19

Quoted in Ziegler, Theobald, Geschichte

der

Padagogik,

2nd ed.

(Munich, 1904), p. 138. 20

See Drei Geistliche

21

Ibid., p. 28.

22

D r . Eberhard in American

PP. 576-83.

Schriften

( F r a n k f u r t , 1682), p. 24.

Journal

of Education,

vol. xx

(1870),

EDUCATION

133

one. His father died when he was four years old and his mother when he was sixteen. In 1607 and again in 1612 a great plague ravaged his land. From his early youth, as a result, his life was characterized by a strong desire for religious piety. Prevented by troublous times from traveling, he later considered it one of the greatest of God's blessings to have been obliged " to stay in his own dominions; for he had thereby preserved his innocence, unstained with crimes practiced in other countries without control, which he could not even think of without horror." M His greatest importance lies in his work on behalf of common education and he has as a result been called the father of the German common school. His chief aim in education was piety and purity of morals. In 1641 he ordered a Kirchen und Landesvisitation. In 1642 he collaborated with Andreas Reyher in working out a plan for the reform of schools. The Schulordnung or Schulmethode issued the same year provided that children over five years of age should be sent to school; that they must not leave before they knew German, arithmetic, the singing of chorals and the Lutheran catechism. A series of German school texts was produced, twenty new school houses were built, a more humane and liberal method of instruction was introduced dispensing with the use of corporal punishment, provision was made for the instruction of teachers as well as for the improver™ nt of their material condition, and attempts were even made at adult education. It was to the court of this duke that August Hermann Francke was brought as a child when his father entered the service of the duke. Here Francke was inspired with his educational ideas 2 3 J. T . Philipps, The History of the two brothers Ernst the Pious and Bernard the Great (London, 1740), p. 28. F o r the life of E r n s t the Pious see also, Gelbke, J. H., Herzog Ernst der Erste, 3 vols. ( 1 8 1 0 ) . F o r his educational w o r k see Schmid, K . A . , Geschichte der Erziehung, vol. iv (1896), pp. 1-74 and the above mentioned article by D r . Eberhard.

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which later made him one of the foremost educators in Germany. The Pietist movement with its general interest in the lower classes, with its desire to combat both the Latin orthodoxy and the à la mode Enlightenment, was from its inception under Spener deeply concerned with educational reform and its spread. Spener, although not an organizer like Francke, recognized that the condition of society is dependent on the kind of education the youth receives." Francke, Lange, Anton, Breithaupt, Hecker are but a few of the more important Halle pedagogues; Bengel, Oetinger and Flattich in Württemberg carried on a wide educational activity ; Zinzendorf was influenced in his educational ideal by Spener, who acted as his sponsor at baptism, and by Francke whose Halle Paedogogium he attended for six years and at whose house he took his meals while there. Hamann,25 Herder and Schleiermacher of the later offshoots of Pietism similarly devoted much of their attention to both theoretical and practical problems of education. Practical achievements of Pietist education were represented by the institutions at Halle under the direction of August Hermann Francke and by the educational institutions of the Moravian Brethren inspired by Count Zinzendorf. Francke combined with his general philanthropic work, described in a previous chapter, a genius for the organization of educational institutions. A mere glance at the list of projects he had in mind will indicate the extent of his interest and preoccupation in this work. He at one time or another contemplated establishing the following institutions : ( i ) a school for the education of sons of nobles ; ( 2 ) one for noble girls; ( 3 ) a separate institute for Silesian children; 21 25

Theologische Bedenken, vol. i, p. 707.

See Seiler, Karl, J. G. Hamanns Bedeutung für die Pädagogik (Leipzig, 190s).

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(4) a pädagogium for children coming from afar who would be supported by their parents; ( 5 ) a special pädagogium for the teaching of reading, writing, Latin, French and economics to prepare the student for the position of secretary or assistant to a nobleman, merchant, or some other administrative post; (6) a school for burgher children, not as expensive as 4; (7) another school for burgher children to train them for handicrafts; (8) a school for burgher girls with instruction in reading, writing, catechism, New Testament, choral singing; (9) an orphan house; ( 1 0 ) a school for the selected orphans of 9; ( n ) an institution for six special students of 1 0 ; ( 1 2 ) another school for handicraft training; ( 1 3 ) a school for orphan girls; ( 1 4 ) six tables with free board and for poor students; ( 1 5 ) one table with half cost free for the orphans trained in the pädagogium; ( 1 6 ) a school for older burghers who had never learned to read or write; ( 1 7 ) a school in which the poor would receive one hour's instruction a day; ( 1 8 ) a school in which strangers, beggars and the like would receive two hours instruction daily; ( 1 9 ) a school for poor boys; (20) a school for poor girls ; ( 2 1 ) a special school in which children coming to Holy Communion would receive one hour's instruction daily. Francke naturally never realized all of his ambitions. But starting in 1695 with an orphans' school established with the capital of four thalers and sixteen groschen, he laid the basis for a whole series of institutions which to this day, under the name of the Franckesche Stiftungen, occupy one of the most important places in German educational life. Out of the Armenschule came later a Bürgerschule. In 1695 also was laid the basis for the royal Pädagogium. This also started on a small scale with three small children whom Francke took with him to Halle to be educated by him, but it soon developed to an importance of first magnitude where many of the intellectual leaders of Germany were educated. In the

136

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same year ( 1 6 9 5 ), he also started the German school, in 1697 he established the Latin School, in 1701 the Gynäceum for girls and in 1 7 1 4 the Ostindische Missionsanstalt. In addition to these institutions Francke laid the foundations for teachers' training schools by his seminarium praeceptorum and his seminarium selectum praeceptorum. His orphan homes too were distinguished by the fact that he not only cared for the physical wants of the children but placed the chief emphasis on a Christian education and a thorough schooling both for the boys and for the girls. A t the time of Francke's death there were 2207 pupils in all his institutions and 167 male teachers and 8 female teachers. T h e educational institutions of the Moravian brethren never attained to the position of influence that the Francke schools did. N o r did their sphere of activity extend far beyond the members of their own religious group. In 1723 an Armenschule was started in Berthelsdorff and also a girls school. In 1725 an Adlige Schule was found in Herrnhut but was converted into an orphanage in 1727. A Pädagogium was started in 1726 but was disbanded the next year. The orphanage also took care of the instruction of poor children other than orphans. W i t h the increased importance of Herrnhut as a religious center the orphanage became more famous and children sought admittance from far and wide. O n September 1, 1738 it had 78 boys between the ages of 4 and 20 and 53 girls between 4 and 19 years old. W h e n the center of Moravian activity shifted to Wetterau the educational institutions followed. The orphanage was completely given up in 1748. A t Wetterau were established a nursery, a school for boys, a school for girls, a Pädagogium and a seminary which was later transferred to Barby. The educational activities of the Moravians expanded greatly during the latter part of the century but this goes beyond the scope of our inquiry and we cannot deal with it here.

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The most significant achievement of Pietist education was the influence it exercised on the development of the Prussian public-school system.24 Francke and the Pietists aroused an interest in the organization of public schools and the personal example of Francke was particularly stimulating. A s a result largely of his influence, wealthy citizens and reigning princes became interested in the establishment of public schools. The most notable instance is that of Frederick William I of Prussia, who has been called the " father of the Prussian public school system." 27 By the edict of September 26, 1717, Frederick William decreed compulsory education for children between the ages of five and twelve, and about 2,000 new schools were set up. Under threat of penalties, all children were to be sent to school daily during the winter. During the summer, when they might be needed at home, they were to attend school once or twice a week " s o as not to forget completely what they had learned during the winter." In 1732 Frederick William gave his royal sanction to the first Prussian teachers' seminary established by the Pietist Schinmeyer at Stettin. Another established at Kloster Bergen by Steinmetz received royal sanction in 1735. Both of these institutions were definitely modeled after Francke's Seminarium praeceptorum. The military school established by Frederick William I was patterned after the Halle Waisenhaus and was the first school to bring together children of all religious denominations. The only difference in instruction for the various faiths was in the teaching of the catechism. " If burghers and peasants," says Ranke, " were subjected to human civilization and culture in Brandenburg earlier and more so than elsewhere, it was as a result of the basis laid by 2 6 See Eckstein, Die Gestoltung Pietismus (Leipzig, 1867).

der Volksschule

durch den

2 1 T h e best treatment of this problem is in V o l l m e r , F., Wilhelm I. und die Volksschule (Gottingen, 1909).

Frankeschen Friedrich

!ß8

PIETISM

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NATIONALISM

Frederick William I." 2 8 It was upon the achievements of Frederick William I that the later Prussian school system was built. Thus, together with the obligation of universal military service and the general liability to taxation which had already been established by the Great Elector, Frederick William I established, in the words of Treitschke, " the threefold group of general civic duties by which the people of Prussia have been trained in an active love for the fatherland." M The educational activities o f Frederick the Great have generally been overrated. 30 " Enlightened " as Frederick pretended to be, he had no personal interest in the " enlightenment " of the lower classes. " Le vulgaire ne mérite pas d'être éclairé," 31 is a typical expression of Frederick's sentiments in the matter. In a conversation with Zedlitz in 1779 he said : It is a good thing that the schoolmasters in the country teach the youngsters religion and morals. They must not stop doing so, so that these people will maintain their religion and not turn Catholic. The Evangelical faith is the best faith and is far superior to the Catholic. For this reason the schoolmasters must take pains to keep these folks attached to their religion and train them so that they will not steal and kill. . . . It is enough for the people in the country to learn only a little reading and writing. If they know too much, they flock to the cities, wish to become secretaries or the like. Therefore the instruction in the country must be planned so that they only receive that which is most essential for them, but which is 28

Zwölf Bücher Preussische

Geschichte, Gesamtausgabe, vol. ii, p. 205.

Treitschke, H. von, History of Gertnony in the Nineteenth tr. by Eden and Cedar Paul (New York, 1915), vol. i, p. 46.

Century,

See Vollmer, F., Die preussische dem Grossen (Berlin, 1928).

Friedrich

28

30

81

Quoted in Vollmer, op. cit., p. 296.

Volksschulpolitik

unter

EDUCATION

139

designed to keep them in their villages and not to influence them to leave.'1 After the close of the Seven Years War Frederick revealed a greater interest in the reforms of elementary schools. Although Hecker ascribed this interest to pious motives it is probably more correct to assume with Vollmer that during the course of the war Frederick saw the need for better non-commissioned officers who could read and write and were acquainted with the rudiments of arithmetic. For these military reasons he wanted to improve the education of the lower classes. The actual form and content of Frederick's most important educational edicts were, however, strongly influenced by Pietism, and were in a large measure the work of the Pietist Hecker, a disciple of Francke. The Landesschulordnung of 1754 for Minden and Ravensburg, calling for the education of children between seven and fourteen years of age, reveals its Pietist character in its insistence upon instruction in the catechism and in its specific recommendation of Spener's catechism. The Generallandschulreglement of 1763 has been proven to be largely the work of Hecker. It shows a strong religious tone and provides for the retention of the control of education in the hands of the church. This law which remained for a long time the regulator of the Prussian school system is full of the spirit of Francke and includes even entire sentences from his pedagogic works.83 Significant for the relations of education to the development of nationalism and national spirit are also some of the principles of educational theory and practice which were stressed by Pietist educators. In Pietist education, first of all, emphasis was placed not on the training of the intellect 82 33

Ibid., p. 316.

See also Otto, August, August Hermann Francke, 2 vols. (Halle, 1902-04), especially vol. ii on his pedagogic significance.

PIETISM

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NATIONALISM

but rather on that of the heart and especially of the will. A correspondent writing of the Halle Padagogium in 1784 says " The school concerns itself with the hearts of its pupils." 84 Francke's most original contribution to pedagogic theory is considered by all historians of education to be his introduction of the principle of the education of the will. Education for him was essentially the influencing of the will; Christian education essentially the determination of the will to live according to the will of God. He believed that the will influenced understanding and not understanding the will." " Mere understanding not directed by a good heart," said Flattich, another Pietist educator, " makes one haughty and works for danger, perversity and harm." a° Zinzendorf too emphasized the need for the appeal to the heart and emotions of the child rather than to his reason. He advocated a more natural kind of education marked by less rigor and less discipline. He urged the method of love and freedom rather than of forceful coercion of the child. He also marked an advance over the Halle tradition in his emphasis upon the right of the child to freedom, to joy and to play. " The discovery of childlikeness and childlike joy is one of the most important pedagogic contributions of Zinzendorf." 37 Pietists furthermore gave greater emphasis to the practical in education. Christianity for them consisted not of knowledge but of deeds. " Knowledge is not enough," said Spener, " Christianity consists much more of activity." *8 And it is this emphasis on the practical in religious matters that made the Pietists stress the practical in education. It is 84

Journal

von und fur Deutschland,

vol. iii, p. 69.

35

The same idea in a much clearer formulation is found in the second of Fichte's Rcden. 33

Schmid, Geschichtc der Erziehung,

37

Uttendorfer, O., Die Padagogik

33

pia Desideria,

vol. iv, p. 332. Zinzendorfs,

p. 91.

ed. Paul Grunberg (Gotha, 1889), p. 73.

EDUCATION

141

this which accounts for the fact that Francke made the first detailed plans for a Realschule and that the first such school was actually established by his disciple, J. J. Hecker. Side by side with that went a greater attention to the education of girls. Mystical and semi-mystical movements always seem to attract women; and perhaps for this reason these movements accord to woman greater prestige and attention. There are numerous famous women in the annals of Pietism and this is reflected in the Pietists' interest in the education of girls. The feeling of Gemeinschaft was also stressed in the educational institutions of the Pietists. This was especially evident in the group organizations of the schools of Zinzendorf. Even traces of national patriotism are discernible in the contents of instruction in the Halle schools. In the study of geography Germany and Palestine occupied the most prominent place—although it is true that in the teaching of history there was no mention of specific German history, instruction being confined to merely Biblical and Universal history. In the matter of language there was considerable variety in the several Francke institutions. The more advanced schools stressed Latin and French after the orthodox fashion but in the more elementary schools German was the only language taught. The study of the German language was far more widespread in the Pietist schools outside of Halle. The anti-French influence of Pietist education is revealed in the introduction by Francke to his translation of Fenelon's tract on girls' education. When distinguished people these days [he wrote] seek to train their children in the best manner, they find for them a French mademoiselle. It is indeed not to be denied that this nation has more skill in the external education of youth than the Germans; and if one can only get such (teachers) who likewise have the fear of God in their hearts, there is none better

PIETISM

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NATIONALISM

for the proper education of the young. On the other hand discerning people will not deny that this nation is the one which has contributed most to the development of vanity among the Germans . . . and has caused them to guide all their activity according to the plaire

au

monde.*9

Pietism not only supplied important models for educational institutions and new pedagogic principles but also provided the country with teachers and administrators who spread the new educational ideas into all parts of Germany. Moreover Pietism gave a new dignity and a new prestige to the very position of teacher. B y its continual stress on the need for the development of a higher type of clergy, together with its emphasis on the educational duties of the clergy, it raised the level of the schoolmaster f a r above what it had been under the reign of orthodoxy. These aspects of Pietism account for the fact that among the important pedagogues of 18th century Germany so many were eithet^ directly or indirectly followers of the Pietist movement. Mention has already been made of the role of Francke in the founding of the University of Halle. The role of the University of Halle in the first stages of German nationalism may be compared with that of the University of Berlin in the period of the War of Liberation. Halle was the center of all the important intellectual currents, and in Halle most of the important Prussian officials were educated. It is therefore most significant to point out the strong Pietist tradition that persisted in the university. In the early days, in addition to Francke, the Halle faculty counted among its members such important Pietist leaders as Joachim Justus Breithaupt, Paul Anton, Johann Franz Buddeus, J . H. Michaelis, Joachim Lange, Johann Daniel Herrnschmied, Francke's son, Gotthilf August Francke, Johann Jakob s

» Schriften tiber Ersiehung (Leipzig, no date), p. 45.

und

Unterricht,

ed. by Karl

Richter

EDUCATION

143

Rambach and Johann Anastasius Freylinghausen. Later came such other Pietists as J . L . Zimmermann, J . G. Knapp, B. G. Gausewitz and J . L . Schulze. Under Baumgarten and Semler, the rationalist element began to dominate in the university but even then it was infused with a good deal of Pietist tradition which lasted well down to the end of the eighteenth century. In the field of lower education the influence of Pietist teachers was even greater. 40 In Württemberg the educational reform of 1 7 2 9 came as a result of Pietist influence. The same is true of the reforms in Baden between 1749 and 1768. Johann Christoph Schinmeyer, a pupil of Francke, was actively engaged in the organization of schools and orphan institutions in Stettin; Georg Gottlieb Fuhrmann, also a Halle pupil, was active in Berlin; the Hesse-Darmstadt ordinance of 1 7 3 3 was the work of the Pietist Johann Jakob Rambach; in Holstein education was furthered by the two pupils of Francke, Peter Hansen and Georg Johannes Conradi; in the Rhineland we find the important figure of Johann Heinrich Zopf, one of the first pioneers of Pietism and one who exerted strong influence on Hecker. Of particular significance was the Pietist influence in Königsberg, the home of Kant and the intellectual home of Herder. Königsberg, in the words of Benno Erdmann, " was during the period between 1 7 3 0 and 1740 a completely Pietist city; however, a Pietist city of that mild character which did not oppose the fresh currents of the new spirit so long as they did not immediately and violently intrude into the dominant intellectual tradition." 41 On February 1 , 1699, Gehr, who had spent a 40 See Heubaum, A., Geschichte des deutschen Bildungswesens seit der Mitte des 17. Jahrhunderts, vol. i (Berlin, 1905), and article on " V o l k s schule," by H. Scherer in Rein's Encyclopddisches Handbuch der Pädagogik, vol. ix (1909), pp. 739-70. 41

Martin Knutzen und seine Zeit (Leipzig, 1876), pp. 34-35.

PIETISM

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NATIONALISM

long time with Francke in Halle, opened a class for poor children in Königsberg. In 1701 he enlarged it to include a Latin school and in 1703 he named it the Collegium Fridericianum. This school was the chief model of the Halle school and stood in the same relation to the University of Königsberg as did the Francke schools to the University of Halle. Gehr was succeeded in turn by the Pietists Heinrich Lysius, Georg Friedrich Rogall and Franz Albert Schulz. Schulz, who represented the attempt once more to harmonize the Pietist and rationalist traditions, played a particularly important role in the educational history of Königsberg. He was chiefly responsible for the principia regulativa of July 30, 1736 which provided for the financial support of the lower schools and which was the basis for the subsequent educational attempts of Siivern. Schulz was also the teacher of Trescho, who was Herder's teacher, and of Martin Knutzen, who was Kant's teacher. All these instances of Pietist educational activity indicate the wide penetration of Pietist influence into the intellectual life of Germany. This was responsible not only for the organization and advancement of education but also for the propagation of those Pietist doctrines that we have shown to be essential for and implicit in the political philosophy of nationalism. A n elaborated theory of national education is not found until we come to the writings of Friedrich Schleiermacher. Questions of intellectual influence are usually difficult to gauge and to estimate. Y e t it is not at all unlikely that Schleiermacher's training at the Moravian Pädagogium at Niesky, at the Brüderuniversität in Barby and even his years at the University of Halle, which by that time belonged more to the Enlightenment than to the Pietist tradition, were of considerable influence in shaping his educational views along some of the lines laid down by the earlier Pietist writers. B y his own admission, he declared himself a " Pietist of a

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145

higher order " and in his writings one finds innumerable similarities to doctrines and views found in Spener, Francke and Zinzendorf. Schleiermacher displayed the same general interest in the education of the great masses as found among the earlier Pietists. In a lecture on Frederick the Great delivered before the Prussian Academy of Sciences on January 24, 1821 he declared, " Through popular education the masses are raised up from their dullness and uncivilized state; each individual is fashioned into a living and independently active part of the whole and even if each one turns these more developed spiritual powers chiefly to his own well-being the general welfare will in this way most surely be strengthened." 42 N o educational author in Germany has so decisively combated the rationalist views on education as did Schleiermacher. During the close of the eighteenth century there was much discussion of the subject of national education among the German followers of the Enlightenment. But just as with the use of the word " national " in other connections, it was far from the concept of national education as developed later in the nineteenth century. A s used by these writers it meant, generally speaking, a greater intervention by the state in matters o f education. It paid no attention, however, to the content of a national education. The idea of a class education still dominated most of these writings as did the idea of a general cosmopolitan and universally applicable system of education. The system of Massow, the famous Prussian minister of education, was definitely based on this sort of class stratification. The plan was advanced for a kind of school in which the lower grades would supply the lower classes with their educational needs, the middle grades the middle classes, and the upper grades 42

Vol. xxvi of Collected

Works, p. 45.

I46

PIETISM

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NATIONALISM

the higher classes. Schleiermacher attacked both this class system of education and its cosmopolitan tendencies. In a review of Zöllner's Ideen über Nationalerziehung in 1805 he pointed out that mere uniform organization cannot produce a Gemeingeist but that this can only be achieved by arousing in the growing generation an active, civic and patriotic Gemeinsinn. Just as he attacked the rationalist concept of a general religion, of a universal state and of a general culture so he never wearied of attacking the rationalist ideal of a general kind of education equally applicable to all peoples. " Is there an universally applicable pedagogy? " he asks. " I deny it," he says, " just as I do for the state and for philosophy." " " A universally applicable system of education amounts to the same thing as an ideal universal state and explains all positive and historic factors as accidental." 4* Like Francke, Schleiermacher also emphasized the education of the will. " T h e remoulding of the will," he said, " which is the central point of all existence, the constant presence of that which previously moved the spirit only as the force of words, external and transitory but more as the spirit of God, that is the new birth." 45 Schleiermacher similarly emphasized attention to the individual factors in education. But he did not set up an antithesis between social and individual education, for, as Natorp well points out, " the next society ( G e m e i n s c h a f t ) in which the individual adapts his life is in itself an individual one, only of a higher degree." 48 Even more significant is the emphasis Schleiermacher placed on education as the factor establishing continuity in the 43

In Zur Pädagogik,

41

Ibid., p. 679.

vol. xxxiii of his Collected Works, p. 587.

Quoted in Keferstein, H. ( Schleiermacher (Jena, 1889), p. 137. 45

als P'ddagog, 2nd ed.

4« Natorp, Paul, " Schleiermacher und die Volkserziehung," in Schleiermacher der Philosoph des Glaubens (Berlin, 1910), p. 61.

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national cultural heritage. Much of this will be clarified by later discussion, but it all is summarized in his statement that " education is a relationship of generations to each other, in which one (generation) teaches and another is taught." 47 Schleiermacher's educational views varied somewhat in His relation to the changing political and social conditions. German patriotism was much more intense and patent in his lectures during the years of the Napoleonic W a r s and the Prussian W a r of Liberation, but the main principles are fairly constant throughout his writings. H e insisted on the fact that there is no inherent connection between the state and education and admitted of a pluralism as regards the general aim of education. " Education," he s a i d , — " in the narrower sense completed when the time arrives f o r independent activity to replace the influence of others—should deliver up the individual f o r common participation in the state, in the church, in general free social intercourse and in knowledge or learning." 48 I n his lectures of 1 8 2 0 - 2 1 he thus summarized his views on the aim of education: There are two chief tasks for education. The first is to draw out the personal characteristics of the individual; this task is positive in character. The second is to make man qualified for society. This second task is subdivided into various forms; political education has the double tendency, to cause one to become rooted in one's nationality and in its customs and manners; scientific education has as its realm the participation of the individual in general knowledge; the third is religious.'49 Since his theory of education was based on an anti-rationalist conception of the impossibility of drawing up a plan of 47

Vol. x x v i of Collected

48

Works,

p. 231.

" Erziehungslehre," in vol. x x x i i i of Collected Works, p. 40. In the Lectures of 1814 and 1820-21 " l a n g u a g e " is used in place of knowledge or learning. "Ibid.,

p. 101, footnote.

148

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NATIONALISM

education suitable for all peoples and all times, Schleiermacher developed the idea of a truly national system of education. He linked this up in a great measure with his conception of language as the basis of culture and thus he claimed that " every educational theory, in order that it may be applied, can be firmly established only within the limits of a single nationality." 50 The most important characteristic of this national education is the development among the young generation of a common feeling and common spirit (Gemeingefiihl or Gemeinsinn)This for Schleiermacher is the most important element of a nationality. It transcends the bounds of statehood and governmental authority. " In the beginning," he said, " authority is everything and the common feeling is nil. At the end the common feeling is everything and authority is nothing. Thus the course of education is a gradual diminution of authority and a gradual increase of common feeling." 52 The task of education is, therefore, " to organize a common life for the youth in which common feeling can be aroused and developed." S3 It is for this reason that Schleiermacher opposed strenuously the sending of children abroad to receive their instruction in a. foreign land. " Where real national differences exist," he said, " the striving for foreign education is an aberration. . . . In every foreign institution a different Gemeingeist is reflected and the pupil, whose moral and spiritual development should proceed always in relation to his subsequent particular civic activity, will become imbued with an alien instead of a native spirit." 54 This is not so serious if done later in 50

Ibid., p. 31.

51

This is defined by Schleiermacher as that which " denotes the definite relation of individuals to one another, particularly as concerns civic conditions" (vol. xxxiii, p. 534). 52

Vol. xxxiii, p. 220.

63

Ibid., p. 221.

" Ibid., p. 538.

EDUCATION

149

life. A n exception is also made in the case of a land like Germany where the individual states, although distinct as regards particular internal adaptations and separated as a result of certain historical factors, are nevertheless united by a common folk spirit and language even though national spirit and territorial sovereignty do not run parallel to each other. " In Germany the task is not to let the particular political structure of the individual state influence the type of education. T h e common spirit is not to be developed in the schools in relation to the peculiarities of the state in itself and in respect to the civic relations " but rather to be related to the general national spirit of the whole of G e r m a n y . " I n order to achieve this common spirit several things are essential. One is the establishment of a system of education which transcends class differences. T h e common spirit is one that is superior to and over and above the attachment of an individual to either his social or economic class. This, the basic principle of the subsequent public school, was particularly stressed by Schleiermacher. " T h e first principle," he wrote, " is that the subjects of instruction . . . shall in all essentials be entirely the same f o r the youth of the higher and the lower classes." 58 T h e other important element in the development of the common spirit is language. The question of the relation of language to nationalism will be taken up in greater detail later. Suffice it here to point out that Schleiermacher, like so many other philosophers of nationalism, believed that national culture finds its unique and peculiar expression in the national language. Only one language is firmly implanted in an individual. Only to one does he belong entirely, no matter how many he learns subsequently. . . . Thought is a very general and significant 55

Ibid., pp. 538-39.

56

Lectures of 1820-21, vol. xxxiii, p. 381 and p. 67.

PIETISM

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NATIONALISM

operation but is performed only through the agency of languages and all thought has its natural place only in that language in which it is thought out. . . . For every language is a particular mode of thought and what is cogitated in one language can never be repeated in the same way in another. . . . Language, thus, just like the church or the state, is an expression of a peculiar life and contains within it and develops through it a common body of knowledge.67 " The system of individual actions is expressed in language as is the system of perception: it is just in this respect that differences are most strongly revealed and national character stands out most clearly." 58 The teaching of foreign languages to young children hence serves no useful purpose and only tends to confound them. The teaching of a foreign language to younger children only hinders them from mastering their mother tongue. It results in " foreign accent, lack of fluency, perhaps even the inability to think in it and finally in national betrayal." 59 Extremely interesting for Schleiermacher's theory of nationalism and its relation to education is his theory of the place of the state in education. His most elaborate treatment of this is found in his great address, Vber denBeruf des Staates zur Erziehung, delivered on December 22, 1 8 1 4 . Schleiermacher's general view is that under ordinary conditions the state should have as little to do with education as possible. " State and education are two concepts that in themselves do not coincide; for the state is a relationship of adult individuals to each other and in this concept there is no reference to the origin of these adults. Education is a relationship of generations to each other in that one teaches 57

Ibid., pp. 702-703.

58

Ibid.,

p. 326.

,9

Ibid.,

pp. 634-655.

It is to be noted that the stress on language in

these lectures of 1 8 1 3 is stronger than in those of 1826.

EDUCATION and a n o t h e r is taught.

S o education can v e r y well be c o n -

ceived o f without the state and prior t o i t . "

" W h e n it is

40

said t h a t education is essentially the natural expression o f the s e l f - p r e s e r v a t i v e instinct o f a society, this is m e a n t t o r e f e r t o the m o r a l and spiritual basis o f education.

W h a t is active

here is the instinct o f s e l f - p r e s e r v a t i o n o f the people aside f r o m t h e i r constitution and the instinct o f s e l f - p r e s e r v a t i o n o f the state and the g o v e r n m e n t . " Under should

certain conditions

take

a hand

in

81

however,

educational

the state does matters.

Thus,

and for

example, when one state is f o r m e d out o f m a n y states, a f t e r the first shocks are o v e r every local group looks for the return to its own peculiar existence and the participation in the greater unity is conceived only in its external relations. T h e old customs and forms of life assert their rights whenever they are not limited by this external force. Education with its roots in custom continues, with only few deviations, to reproduce the old particularly limited life of the local group without embracing within it the unity of the greater whole. T h e state is thus far only externally a unit; organically it is j u s t as little a unit as the aristocratic state. It is only a composite agglomeration. A long time may elapse, especially under ordinary political relations, and these various parts of the state may form only an aggregate and display among themselves just as much jealousy as against individual parts of other similar states. . . . Sooner or later, however, a time will come when the government, will feel it necessary to fashion this aggregate into a true unity, actively developing in each organic part the feeling of the whole and subordinating to it the feeling of local consciousness so that the love for the group or for the province will not be opposed to the love of the fatherland and the nationality. . . . It thus begins to assume the task of education and to influence it in eo

Vol. xxvi, p. 231.

81

Ibid., pp. 237-38.

PIETISM

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NATIONALISM

such a positive way as to bring together more closely the separate parts so that they attain a feeling of their identity with the whole. . . . This must be the work of the government . . . and the state can not, under these circumstances, leave education in the hands of the church which in its desire to unite mankind in a higher spiritual unity makes its point of departure from the personal feeling of the individual and the most universal feeling of man's nature without taking a decisive part in the formation of a greater national unity. 62 All other motives beside the development of national spirit are contrary to the natural development of a people. And once this purpose is accomplished, education is to be restored to the people and to the scientific organizations. T h e more public life there is among a people, the more passive a government will be in matters pertaining to education. " T h e more this kind of public life is absent, however, and the greater the multiplicity and passivity of the masses, the more the government must take an immediate hand in education." 63 There can hardly be any doubt that the situation in Germany at the time was in Schleiermacher's mind when he pronounced these words. 62

Ibid., pp. 244-45.

63

Vol. xxxiii, pp. 190-91 and pp. 526-30.

CHAPTER

VI

N A T I O N A L LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE " In der Sprache jedes Volkes finden wir die Geschichte desselben."—Hamann. " W e r in einer fremden Sprache schreibt, der muss seine Denkungsart, wie ein Liebhaber zu bequemen wissen. W e r in seiner Muttersprache schreibt, hat das Hausrecht eines Ehemannes, falls er dessen mächtig ist."—Hamann.

IN the literature on nationalism and national character language has usually been stressed as the most important of the primary factors of nationality. Whether or not this primacy is deserved is, for our purposes, immaterial. It is undeniable, however, that common speech is and has been one of the strongest bonds in linking together the members of a given national group. T h e development of every national movement has brought with it the attempt either to reestablish an ancient so-called national tongue or to purify an existing national language of its foreign elements and spread its use far and wide among the masses. In more recent times, the Irish national movement has been accompanied by the attempted revival of old Gaelic; the Jewish nationalist movement brought with it the struggle between two national languages, Hebrew and Y i d d i s h ; Lithuanian was revived in the newly created Lithuania, and in most countries created out of the former Russian and Hapsburg empires the struggle is still going on to wipe out the remaining traces of Hungarian, Russian and German linguistic influences. A Catalan nationalist addressing a group of students in 1925 made the following statement : " Under the present conditions in Catalonia, how often 153

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are we not forced to use an idiom that is not ours! The bad Catalan is he who in using it feels neither pain nor shame. But there is a way of speaking Castilian which can redeem us. It consists of hanging a bell on it which the professors must hear. If you do that the Spanish text books and lectures can do you no harm." 1 In Turkey the dictator Mustapha Kemal declared before the National Assembly in November 1932 that the reestablishment of a pure Turkish language was one of the major governmental tasks. Side by side with the propagation of the national language has usually been the development of philosophical speculation and theorizing concerning the national character of the particular language and concerning the general nature of language as the typical expression of national genius. This has usually been accompanied also by a strong emphasis on national literature. Literature, it is contended, must be the expression of the folk soul or of the national character.2 In the history of the German national movement all of these manifestations are evident. There was first the great movement to displace the predominance of the learned language, Latin and of the aristocratic language, French, with that of the national language, German. Then followed a period of penetrating analysis of the problems of speech and national language beginning with the Pietist Hamann, then carried on, under his stimulus, by Herder, and finding its highest development in the later Romanticists.' The effort to bring 1

Quoted in Vossler, K., The Spirit (London, 1932), p. 159-

of

Language

in

Civilisation

2

These same tendencies are clearly manifested in present-day Germany by the attempts to purify the German language and literature of all socalled " Jewish" and alien influences. See the writings of Georg Schmidt-Rohr, Wilhelm Stapel, Alfred Rosenberg and the most recent works of Eugen Kiihnemann. 3 It is both amusing and at the same time amazing to see a sane and thorough scholar like Karl Vossler go completely amiss in his discussion of

NATIONAL

LANGUAGE

AND

LITERATURE

155

into being a truly national German literature free from the imitation of French and classical models which had been so dominant during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries accompanied these developments. It will be our aim here to point out what contributions Pietism and Pietist writers made to these three currents in German culture of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Although it is generally recognized that Luther contributed greatly to the spread and development of the German language, it is undoubtedly true also that the combination of German national language. V o s s l e r ascribes nationalism in language only to the Italians, the French, and the Slavs. T h e Germans, he says, have nothing of this idea. " W e can express this epigrammatically," he says in his Spirit of Language in Civilisation, tr. by O s c a r O e s e r (London, 1932), by saying that the Romance nations are men of speech, the Germans men of things. T h e f o r m e r are a l w a y s inclined to overestimate language. T h e y believe they can bring about events through the power of language, w h i c h can in reality be brought about only by deeds. T h e r e f o r e they cultivate their language, measure the value of a culture by the power and polish of its language, seek and find the highest education in the education of language. T o them it is given t o use words like la liberté, la gloire, la victoire, la justice so effectively, and to express them with such a wealth of sound and meaning, that merely by speaking their names, they proclaim to the whole world and to themselves that they are the possessors of these things. T h e German, however, will allow only deeds, thoughts and feelings to have validity ; and w h e n he meets these riches of f a c t in the dandified clothing of words, he easily becomes suspicious. H e believes that if the will is strong, the thought pure and deep, the feeling true, language will only spoil everything. H e will modestly hide the finest emotion, or w h a t is worse, will clothe it in a confusion of complicated rhetoric until it is unintelligible or unpalatable to others, so that he may find it again all the more deeply within h i m s e l f " (pp. 127-128). The contents of this chapter will, I feel, provide ample evidence that the Germans too are men of speech. If in place of the French words cited by P r o f e s s o r Vossler, w e place G e r m a n words like Geist, Herz, Schicksal, Macht, Kultur, Heimat, Schmcrz and scores of others, w e too may say that the Germans " merely speaking their names, proclaim to the whole world and to themselves that they are the possessors of these things ". T h i s is but another of those instances so common in literature on nationalism where it is the other nation, not one's own that is guilty of the sin.

1-6

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

German humanism and the work of the post-Lutheran reformers tended largely in the direction of preserving the supremacy of Latin among the learned classes. In theological disputation, in education, and in general culture during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Latin was preferred to German. T h e dictum lingua latina potissimum docti ab indoctis discriminantur, was but an expression of this spirit. In the schools most of the subjects were taught in Latin; great pains were taken to develop a mastery of Latin speech and Latin style. The pupils were even obliged to use Latin in their general everyday affairs. T h e Kirchenordnung in Pomerania of 1535, renewed in 1690, commanded the preceptors to speak only Latin with their pupils and not German, and the pupils themselves, under threat of Severe penalties, were to speak only Latin in school, in church and in every other place.* Special guards were appointed to watch that no German was spoken even at play. The F r a n k f u r t school ordinance of 1654 likewise decreed penalties for anyone who did not use Latin. The Oldenburg ordinance, renewed in 1703, decreed that " all pupils of the first class should speak Latin in the school, out of the school, in church and in all other places; those acting contrary to this should, if they belong to the t w o upper classes, be punished with multa pecuniaria; if they belong to the third, should receive the rod." 5 Until the end of the seventeenth century all university lectures were delivered exclusively in Latin. A t the University of Rostock student discourses before the Senate were to be delivered only in Latin. In many places where German was taught, it was only through the medium of Latin textbooks. Latin was the mother tongue for most of the intellectual classes. Thus Georg Calixt praised Erich I in these words, * See Schmidt, Julian, Geschichte des geistigen Lcbens in Deutschland, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1862-64), vol. i, p. 168, and Tholuck, Vorgeschichte, vol. i , P. 1736

Tholuck, op. cit., vol. i, p. 174.

NATIONAL

LANGUAGE

AND

LITERATURE

IS 7

" latinam una cum vernacula simul cum lacte hauserat materno, neque cittus coepit balbutire, quam latine loqui." 4 And even as late as the end of the eighteenth century we find from Karl Philip Moritz's description of his own education that most of the time was spent on learning Latin. Latin, says Moritz, was " the only subject in which any one could win honor or approval, for the whole order of places was determined by the success in Latin." " Within a year," he continues, " Anton made so much progress that he wrote Latin without a single error, and in fact expressed himself more correctly in Latin than in German: for in Latin he knew where he had to put the accusative and dative, whereas in German he had never reflected that mich is accusative and mir dative and that it is necessary to decline and conjugate German as well as Latin." T The long predominance of Latin among the learned classes was accompanied, in its later phases, by the rise of a strong French influence. The traditional view has been that this French influence set in with the reign of Louis XIV. Others have attributed it to the introduction of Calvinism into Germany and the later infiltration of many Huguenots. No matter what the causes were, however, it is a well known fact that French influence assumed enormous proportions from the middle of the seventeenth century up to the close of the eighteenth century and that it was particularly potent among the aristocratic and ruling classes.8 From the stand8

Ibid.

7

Moritz, K. P., Anton Reiser, tr. by P. E. Matheson (Oxford, 1926), p. 135. 8

Even as late as 1784 a German travelling in Hecklingen, where a French architect had just been chosen to build the church, complained as follows: " In many parts of Germany, especially where the rulers received their training under the guidance of French court masters, there still prevails that prejudiced opinion which recognizes as beautiful and good only that which comes from France. Just as they import bag-

158

PIETISM

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point of language it meant that French became the language of the aristocracy even to a greater extent than Latin among the learned classes. It is a truism that the great national hero of Germany, Frederick the Great, spoke and wrote almost exclusively in French and could hardly express himself in good German. H e brought over from France many of his officials and governmental servants who diffused French throughout the governmental structure of the land. " A l l edicts and ordinances," complained a writer in 1784, " all executive and judicial citations are sent to the German peasant in the French language and the peasants must oftentimes run miles and miles in order to have a lawyer translate these." 9 Educational institutions soon adapted their program to meet the demand for French instruction. In the schools for the upper classes the study of French became the most important subject of instruction. The custom of sending young nobles abroad for their education also came into vogue. A n d when they returned they were completely imbued with " gallomania." T h e famous preacher J. B. Schuppius continually poked fun at these returning Franco-Germans. He satirically advised those who wished to gain favor in the eyes of such returning young men, to throw into their conversation many French words and talk, for example, in this fashion, " Monsieur, als ein braver Cavalier thu mir doch die plaisir, und visitir mich auf meinem Logier; ich will ihn mit Poculiren nicht importuniren, sondern ihn dimittiren, sobald er mirs wird imperiren." 10 Such a style of German actually wigs, ribbons, powder and perfumes f r o m this land, so they also introduce their dancing masters, court masters, architects and God knows what other kind of masters." Journal von und für Deutschland, vol. ii (1784), p. 13. 9

Ibid., p. 371.

10

See Oelze, E., Balthasar

Schuppe

(no place, 1862), p. 207.

NATIONAL

LANGUAGE

AND

LITERATURE

159

came into use among large groups of the population. " Gallant " literature of the eighteenth century was almost all in this sort of German. Many preachers of the orthodox clergy, who relied for their support on the ruling classes, introduced French idioms and phrases into their sermons. It was one of the great services of Pietism and the Pietists that they helped to counteract the influences of both Latin and French in the interest of the German language. The Pietists, in view of their greater interest in the common man and in view of their aim to bring religion closer to the spirit of the masses and make it more understandable to them, naturally were forced into the position of advocates of German. Opposed equally to the learned orthodoxy and to the gallant aristocracy, they became the bearers and defenders of the German speech during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It is of course just as erroneous to maintain that Pietists were completely free from Latin and French influences as it is to say that no one but the Pietists insisted on the use of German. Indeed, Pietists like Bengel stressed the use of Latin, 1 1 and Francke in his Halle schools provided for instruction in both French and Latin. O n the other hand, the services of many of the leaders of the German Enlightenment, such as Christian W o l f f and Christian T h o m asius, in spreading the German language, must be given due recognition. W h a t should be stressed, however, is the fact that Pietist influence on the spread of the use o f German was a more direct and logical outcome of Pietist doctrine and of the character of Pietism as a religion essentially of the middle and lower classes. This intimate connection is clearly illustrated in the following extracts from the writings of 1 1 In a letter to the father of one of his pupils Bengel wrote, " Latin conversation is most useful for the mastery of the language," although it is significant too that he added, " yet, I advise not to carry it too far." See Burk, J. C. F., J, A. Bengels Leben und Wirken (Stuttgart, 1831), p. 56.

160

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Gottfried Arnold. In the preface to his Ketzergeschichte he wrote, " This has all been written in our language in order that not only learned scholars, but also others, outside the schools, who have much wisdom and experience of God, might together judge and learn something from this work. If one did not wish to pay heed to general usefulness one could have followed the common path of the scholarly world and adorned one's work with all sorts of citations and showy phrases in the learned tongue. This too is easily done but it would have been more harmful than useful." Arnold, for the same reasons, likewise attacked the use of Latin in religious services. He spoke of many places where they still had Latin vespers and where " the common man understands nothing of all this and sits idly with his mouth wide open." 12 H e assailed those rulers who insisted that their preachers say mass in Latin and he quoted with a good deal of resentment the Brunswick church ordinance of 1543 which declared that Latin must be preserved in some form in the public service and which branded all those who want to do away with this as ignoramuses and fanatics. 18 It has already been shown that the Pietist movement was intimately connected with the mystic strain in German theology and literature before the time of Spener. In tracing the spread of the use of German we likewise find many forerunners of the Pietists who similarly stressed the importance of the use of German as against both Latin and French. E v e n Paracelsus found it necessary to make the plea, " Because I am alone, because I am new, because I am German, do not on that account look down upon my works." 14 Paracelsus also delivered lectures on medicine 12

Kctsergeschichte,

vol. ii, p. 732.

«Ibid. 14

Quoted

1918), p. 36.

in Cassirer,

Ernst, Freiheit

und Form,

2nd ed.

(Berlin,

NATIONAL

LANGUAGE

AND

LITERATURE

ifa

and surgery in German. Most of the later mystics used German as their medium. Schuppius, who has been called a forerunner of Spener, 15 has already been quoted in connection with attacks on the use of French. H e followed up these attacks with strong exhortation for the use of German. " W h y , " he asked, " can one not determine what is right or wrong through the German language as well as through the Latin ? I maintain that one can cure a sick person in German just as well as in Greek or Arabic." 18 He deplored the excessive study of Latin and concluded with the prayer, " O h that God would send a man who would not set up new schools in our fatherland, the German nation, but who would rather change and make better the already existing ones." 1T Important also were such organizations as the Fruchtbringende Gesselschaft organized by L u d w i g of AnnaltKöthen in Weimar in 1617, which attempted to reform and purify German of its alien elements. M a n y individual writers contributed to this movement. Johann Wilhelm Lauenberg ( 1 5 9 1 - 1 6 5 9 ) , a satirist, attacked the d la mode culture in his works written in low German. Philip von Zessen (1619-89) strove to purify the German language and used generic German words in place of the Latin. The Geschichte Philanders von Sittewald of Hans Michael Moscherosch (1601-69) is a satire on the ä la mode period but is itself full of foreign words and phrases. Daniel M o r h o f , in 1682, published his Unterricht von deutscher Sprache und Poesie deren Ursprung, Fortgang und Lehrsätze in which he made the claim that the German language is older than the Latin or the Greek. More important than all of these was perhaps Martin Opitz ( 1 5 9 7 - 1 6 3 9 ) , but 15

See Vial, Alexander, J. B. Schuppius, ein Vorläufer Speners (Mainz,

1857). 16

Oelze, op. cit., pp. 63-64.

" Ibid.

162

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NATIONAUSM

Opitz with all his services to German language and literature was undoubtedly one of the inspirers of the imitation of foreign works that followed him. Similarly J. Christoph Gottsched (1700-66) in his Beiträge zur kritischen Histoire der deutschen Sprache, Poesie und Beredsamkeit (1732) made a strong plea for the purification and development of the German language. But he too, like Opitz, despite all his pleading, contributed greatly to the introduction of French forms into both the language and the literature of his time. More patriotic than all of these was the Simplicissmus when he declared : I seek to bring forth a German hero who needs no soldiers and still shall reform the whole world . . . who shall go from city to city, apportion to each one its territory to be ruled in peace. He shall take two of the wisest and most learned men of each city in Germany and establish a parliament of these; unite all the cities firmly together, do away with serfdom and all sorts of customs duties, excises, tributes, rents throughout Germany and establish such institutions as will make all compulsory services, watch duty, contributions, money payments and wars unknown, to the end that life will be more blessed than even in the fields of Elysium. . . . Then I will banish completely the Greek language and have only German spoken. . . . 1S Mention has already been made of the interest of Thomasius and Wolff in the use of German. Wolff said, " I have discovered that our mother tongue is much better adapted to scientific work than the Latin and that one can say things in pure German which sound barbaric in Latin." 19 Thomasius deplored the ri ft between the clergy and the lay classes 1 8 Grimmelshausen, J. H. C., Simplicissmus, bk. iii, ch. iv. For all these currents see, Francke, Kuno, Kulturwerte der deutschen Literatur, 3 vols. (Berlin, 1910-28), vol. ii. See also Ergang, R. R., Herder and the Foundations of German Nationalism (New York, 1931), pp. 140-48. 18

Quoted in Schmidt, Julian, op. cit., p. 381.

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LANGUAGE

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LITERATURE

163

and attributed it mainly to the exclusiveness of the learned language. Thomasius was also important for the spread of university lectures in German. He startled the learned world of Leipzig by posting the program of one of his lectures in German and delivering the lecture on November 10, 1687, in German. 20 A later Aufklärer, Friedrich Zöllner, in his Ideen über National Erziehung (Berlin 1804), emphasized common speech as one of the strong bonds linking all Germans and urged that German be taught in all the schools in order to develop national spirit. He even proposed that German should gradually supplant Polish and Lithuanian in those German territories where they were in use. 21 From all these citations, it is quite clear that there were movements and men both beside and before the Pietists who worked for the spread of German language and literature. But there is one outstanding difference. The members of the Fruchtbringende Gesselschaft and all the other writers mentioned, including leaders of the Enlightenment, while they worked for the use of German, looked down upon the mass of people who were the bearers of this language. They showed no interest in folk literature, folk songs or folk tales. They looked for their literary inspiration elsewhere, either to the ancient classics or to the French. In the Pietist movement, on the other hand, we have the combination which is so essential for the development of nationalism, an interest in the national language combined with a real interest in the lower classes and their folk culture. It is this combination which made Pietism so important for the development both 2 0 See Hodermann, Richard, " Universitätsvorlesungen in deutscher Sprache," in Zeitschrift des allgemeinen deutschen Sprachvereins, Beiheft viii (1895), pp. 99-1 IS2 1 It is interesting to note, however, that Zöllner came f r o m a Pietist f a m i l y and received his early education in Pietist schools. Later in l i f e he revolted against the narrowness of his Pietist surroundings and became an Aufklärer. See Allgemeine deutsche Biographie.

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AND GERMAN

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o f the German language and o f a national German literature, and which in turn makes it so important in the history of German nationalism. The German language was cultivated by the Pietists in their educational institutions, in their sermons, and in their more scientific works. They continued the tradition o f the earlier mystics and the reforming preachers like Johann Arndt, Chr. Scriver, Lütkemann, Schuppius and others. T h e German language was for most of them the exclusive medium of expression both in the school and in the church. This attitude we find in all the leading Pietists, in Spener, Francke and Gottfried Arnold, in southern Pietists like Johann Friedrich Flattich, in Zinzendorf and the Herrnhuter, in later Pietists like J . J . Moser, and in the " enlightened " Pietists like Lavater, Hamann, Herder and Schleiermacher. Philipp Jakob Spener, the father of Pietism, was attacked by the orthodox clergy for conducting the examinations of his pupils in German instead of Latin. This was his reply: W e examine those who are to serve as preachers and for this reason it is necessary for me to know, not how accomplished this individual is in Latin conversation, but rather how well grounded he is in the knowledge of Christianity and how well equipped he is to discourse on spiritual matters. I spare these people therefore this burden so that they need not, while speaking, concentrate on the question of style and worry about it but that they may rather, speaking in their own mother tongue, give heed only to the ideas concerned. In that way one is better able to judge how far their knowledge extends. I am also especially interested to inform myself how adept they are in discoursing on religious matters in their mother tongue, for throughout their life they will preach in German and not in Latin. I assure you, from first-hand experience, that oftentimes it is harder for them to express themselves in German

NATIONAL

LANGUAGE

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165

than in Latin, the language in which they were trained at school. This reminds me that my blessed preceptor, Dr. Dannhauer, urged also that German disputations be held at the universities, not for the sake of those who do not understand Latin, but rather so that the students should become accustomed to discourse on spiritual matters in German fluently and with ease. . . . In general I do not understand the authoritative position of Latin and why all colloquia and examina must be conducted in Latin . . . for the reverence which the Roman church pays to this language in its divine service moves me but little.22 Francke, although in a sense closer to the older academic tradition than Spener, further illustrates the close connection between the study of German and the spread of Pietist religion among the lower classes. Children, he wrote in his Wie die Kinder zu wahrer Gottseligkeit und christlicher Klugheit anzuführen sind, " are to be taught Christian doctrine in the German language and from German books, for otherwise they become easily displeased with Christianity and they do not have so much respect for the teaching since they repeat only words without any understanding." 28 Children are to be taught to read and write German first, and only when they can do this well should they be taught Latin. At the University of Halle, where Francke's influence soon became predominant, all the lectures, with the exception of Breithaupt's, were given in German. It must be added, however, that Francke, in view of his close relations with the academic world and in view of the fact that his school served the needs of the upper class, made many concessions both to French and to Latin. Gottfried Arnold's attitude can be illustrated by his mock23 Letzte 308-309.

theologische

Bedenken,

3 vols. (Halle, 1721), vol. iii, pp.

23 Schriften über Erziehung und Unterricht, ed. by K. Richter (Leipzig, n. d.), pp. 77-78-

j 66

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

ery of the Latin strain in the Protestant reformation. He poked fun at the humanists of those days who changed German names into Latin. " The most humble village preacher, scribe or magistrate did not retain his German name. It must needs be either Greek or Latin, no matter how forced it was. For this reason Philip Schwarzerd called himself Melanchthon, David Kochoff had to become Chytraeus, Johann Hausleuchter—Oecolampadius, Mathäus Richter— Judex, Buchmann—Bibliander, etc." 24 And in the preface to his Wahre Abbildung des inwendigen Christentums, 3rd ed. (Leipzig, 1 7 3 3 ) , he stated, among the reasons for publishing the book, that for many years he had been studying the works of the old church fathers and had found there a wealth of real inner Christian feeling which was out of the reach of the common people—hence he decided " to set forth the collected sayings of the Church fathers in our common language." Johann Friedrich Flattich ( 1 7 1 3 - 9 7 ) , who may be called the Francke of Württemberg, illustrates the same trend in southern Germany. " It is important," he maintained, " that young men be properly trained in their mother tongue. . . . I am forced to devote much time with many of them on all sorts of stories in order that they may learn German and understand the significance of the German words. To translate stories, write German verse, read German books and discuss them with others, all these serve to teach young men their mother tongue. For it is one thing to understand kitchen German and another to understand good German." 25 In West Germany Heinrich Horch (1652-1729) may be cited as an example of a Pietist preacher who together with his attempts to bring about a religious reawakening attacked 24 25

Ketsergeschichte, vol. ii, p. 714.

See Ledderhose, K. F., Leben und Schriften des M. Johann Friedrich Flattich (Heidelberg, 1856), p. 87.

NATIONAL

LANGUAGE

AND

LITERATURE

167

the pedantry o f the schools and demanded that instruction be given in German. 2 * Johann Jakob Moser is an illustration of a Pietist who turned his Pietist zeal into the channels of general scholarly work. His scientific work was permeated with a strong Pietistic tone and a passionate German patriotism. He concerned himself with Germany, he said because, " ( 1 ) The history of our German empire had a particular influence on the history of all other Christian states; ( 2 ) because Germany is the home of the Reformation and in later times of the Zinzendorf movement; and finally ( 3 ) because it appears that Germany and its evangelical church have in many respects a particular distinction in the history of the reign o f Jesus on earth." 27 Moser, like all the previous Pietists, was imbued with a love for the German language. His great works in international law he wrote in German. " Since I write f o r Germans," he said, " I therefore prepared my book in the German language." 28 Moser fought for the rights of the German language in judicial affairs. He even wrote a book Von dem Recht der deutschen Sprache devoted to the subject. He studied the history of the use of the German language in legal affairs and perceived an intimate connection between the old German liberties and the German language. Moser's attempt to relate the old German liberties with the German language was a foreshadowing of the next stage in the development of the idea o f a national language. B y the middle of the eighteenth century the use of German was pretty well established. The battle had already been won. 28 See Barthold, F. W., Die Erweckten land, p. 227.

im protestantischen

2 i See Fröhlich, Marianne, /. /. Moser in seinem Rationalismus und Pietismus (Vienna, 1925), p. 124. 28

Lebensgeschichte,

Deutsch-

Verhältnis

3rd ed. (Frankfurt, 1777), vol. i, p. 86.

sum

X68

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

Pietism, along with other contributing factors, had paved the way. The spread of the language was now followed by the development of a whole literature on the theory of language. The origin and nature of language became a very live question during the latter part of the eighteenth century. And with general speculation o n language, came the linking up of language with national character, the formulation of a theory of language as an inner expression of folk character and folk soul. To this theorizing Pietists and persons influenced by Pietists made the largest contribution. It was Hamann, the Pietist, whose theory of language was most intimately bound up with his religious Pietism, who strongly influenced Herder. And it was Herder, the more " enlightened " and humanitarian Pietist, who permeated not only German thought, but that of Central and Eastern Europe, with these nationalist linguistic doctrines. 29 And the same ideas are found in Lavater, in Schleiermacher and in Novalis. The identification of nationality with language is already found in the works of Friedrich Carl von Moser. In the introduction to his Patriotisches Archiv he wrote, " This work is only for Germany and for all places where the German tongue reigns; for this reason the northern kingdoms, Russia, Denmark and Sweden, and all of Switzerland are also not excluded." But the real founder of the theory of national language was Johann Georg Hamann. This Magus of the North, like Demosthenes, was born with a defect in speech. But unlike the case of the great Attic orator, Hamann's compensation expressed itself not in public speaking but in preoccupation with the theory of speech and of language. Language became his all-absorbing subject of study. " With me," he said, " neither physics nor theo29 See Ergang, R. R., op. cit., Fischel, A., Der Panslawismus Weltkrieg (Stuttgart, 1919), and Murko, M. D., Deutsche auf die Anfänge der böhmischen Romantik (Graz, 1897).

bis zum Einflüsse

NATIONAL

LANGUAGE

AND

LITERATURE

logy is all important. It is rather language, the mother of reason and revelation, its alpha and omega. Language is the double-edged sword for all truth and falsehood." 3 0 " Even if I were as eloquent as Demosthenes," he wrote to Herder, " I would but repeat three times one single w o r d : Reason is language, Xoyo«. I gnaw on this marrow of the bone and will gnaw myself to death on it." 81 The question of language, tradition and experience, he wrote again to Herder, " is my pet idea, the egg over which I brood—my one and all." 32 For Hamann, language was something religious, something divine. His whole theory of language was coloured by a religious tone. Language, like creation, was to him a great mystery, an unsolved riddle explained only through divine origin. He speaks of the " sacrament of language," 3 3 and his whole theory was inspired by the idea of the Xoyos. According to U n g e r , " this fact is explained by his London experience during which he was strongly preoccupied with the Bible.35 To the Pietist too, the W o r d was the bearer of the inner, hidden, and mysterious side of divine life. It was for this reason that Pietists paid so much attention to the use of words tending to produce a strongly inspired state of mind. " The Holy Scriptures," wrote Hamann, " should constitute our dictionary and our grammar. All concepts and expressions of Christians should be based on them and should be constituted and compiled out of them." 36 In con30

Gildemeister, op. cit., vol. iv, p. 166.

31

Schriften,

32

Ibid., p. 292.

33

Gildemeister, op. cit., vol. iv, p. 158.

vol. vii, p. 1 5 1 .

31

Unger, R., Hamanns Denkens (Munich, 1905). 35

See ch. i.

36

Schriften,

vol. i, p. 121.

Sprachtheorie

im

Zusammenhange

seines

170

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

trast to Herder, who insisted on the human institution of speech, Hamann was the exponent of divine origin. Human speech is divine in the same sense as all created things are in the last analysis of divine origin. The prime source of language, too, is God himself, insofar as He has revealed himself in the Logos. Only insofar as language has been adapted to the physical and spiritual organization of man may language be called a human creation. The origin of language may be called " natural and human just as the origin of all our acts, accomplishments and arts." It is " human insofar as it is natural for man in general to learn from God." " Just like all learning, language is not mere invention but rather a reminiscence." 37 " To speak is to translate from an Angelic speech into a human speech." 38 Language is the expression of the inner character of an individual. " It is the only expression of the heart and of the soul which reveals and communicates our innermost." 39 " The unseen essence of our soul reveals itself through words —just as Creation was a speech which extended from one end of the heavens to the other." 40 But language is also the innermost expression of the soul of a people. Just as language is an expression of the physical, psychic and intellectual character of an individual, so does it bear the stamp of the modes of thought and even the physical characteristics of a national group. If our ideas [said Hamann] are determined according to the aspect of the soul, and the latter, according to many, is determined by the physical constitution, the same can be applied to the body of a whole people. The forms of speech will corre37

Ibid., vol. iv, pp. 47-48.

38

Ibid., vol. ii, p. 263.

38

Gildemeister, vol. iv, p. 158.

"> Schriften, vol. i, p. 449.

NATIONAL

LANGUAGE

AND

LITERATURE

spond to the tendencies of their mode of thought. Every people reveals the latter through the nature, form, rules and customs of its speech, just as much as through the external culture and the exhibition of public activity. T h e dialect of the Ionians has been compared to their dress, and the legalism of the Jewish people, so patent during the time of the divine visitation, is fully revealed in their language. 41 Since the art of thinking is based on sense impressions and the resulting sensations and emotions, the roots of h u m a n speech must also be related to the organs of our emotions. " Just as nature bestows a characteristic eye color or f o r m upon a people, so also has she given us hardly noticeable modifications

o f tongue and lips."

42

It is this conception o f

language, finally, which finds expression in one of H a m a n n ' s most eloquent e p i g r a m s — " H e

w h o writes in a

foreign

tongue, must, like a lover, k n o w h o w to adapt his mode o f thought.

H e w h o writes in his mother tongue is like a

married man, master in his o w n house."

43

" T h e love o f

one's fatherland," he wrote elsewhere, " is naturally dependent on its parties honteuses, the mother c h u r c h . "

44

namely the mother tongue and

T h e idea so popular a m o n g later

writers that f o r e i g n languages should be used as an aid to the understanding of

one's o w n native speech is

already in H a m a n n ' s Lebenslauf

found

written in 1758.

The learning of foreign languages [he wrote] should serve as an aid to a better understanding of one's mother tongue, to the development of a richness of thoughts and a capacity to analyze them, compare them, note their differences; in short, to convert what appears to be a mere exercise of memory into a prepara41

Ibid., vol. ii, pp. 121-22.

42

Ibid., vol. ii, pp. 122-23.

43

Ibid., p. 130.

44

Ibid., vol. iv, p. 21.

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

tion and development of all the intellectual powers and higher, more important, more difficult and more spiritual powers. The absence of this approach makes language instruction so difficult, so dry, so annoying, so empty, and so useless. What relation and what connection have children who are to become housefathers, shepherds, artisans etc., yes, who are children, what have they to do with the deeds of Greek and Roman heroes, with foreign peoples, customs etc. ? 4 5 The development, refinement and spread of these ideas of language and nationality was mainly the work of Johann Gottfried Herder. Herder's role in the development of a philosophy of nationalism has until recently been entirely overlooked. The works of Carlton J. H. Hayes and his students have, however, revealed Herder's contributions to this phase of nationalist ideology and the work of Alfred Fischel has brilliantly traced the influence of Herder in Central and Eastern Europe. But Herder, by his own admission, was enormously indebted to the influence of Hamann. It was Hamann who gave the first impetus to the penetrating study of language. But just like all of Hamann's other works, this too was fragmentary; sparkling, brilliant chips, here and there profound intuitive insights, but never an elaborately finished theory. This task was left to Herder and more so to the later Romanticists, the Schlegels and the Grimms. Stronger still was the Pietist influence on the development of a national German literature in contrast to the a la mode literature of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and especially to that of Gottsched and his followers. From the Kirchenlied through to Goethe there flows a continuous strain of Pietist religious enthusiasm that set moving and kept enriching the literary currents of the period. The Kirchenlied and Paul Gerhardt, according to Scherer, mark 45

Ibid., vol. i, pp. i5SM5o.

NATIONAL

LANGUAGE

AND

LITERATURE

the beginning of the modern German lyric poetry.49 S. G. Lange and Pyra stand beside Bodmer and the Swiss Group as the leaders of the revolt against the dominance of the Gottsched tradition.47 Klopstock, born in the separatist center, Quedlinburg, called " the poet of religion and fatherland " by the Margrave of Baden,48 mockingly dubbed by the rationalist Schönaich as " the seer, the new evangelist, the dreamer . . . the theologian, the divine St. Klopstock," 49 and author of the great Pietist epic, Der Messias, was in turn deeply indebted to Pyra and Lange. 50 Wieland too came out of a Pietist home and was educated in the Pietist 48 Gerhardt's poetry, says Scherer, is " the beginning of that incomparable modern German lyric, the greatest pride of our modern poetry. What Gerhardt began in the religious sphere, Goethe completed in the secular; and it is no mere accident when he reechoes the words of Gerhardt, ' W i e lange soll ich jammersvoll mein Brot mit Tränen e s s e n ? ' " (Geschichte der deutschen Literatur, ed. by Heinz Amelung, Berlin, 1931, pp. 378-379). See also in greater detail Paul Gerhardt, by Herman Petrich (Gütersloh, 1914). 47 Immanuel Jakob Pyra (1715-44), strongly influenced by his Pietist mother, received his early training at a Pietist school and went in 1734 to the University of Halle where he studied under Lange, the disciple of Francke, and where he became fast friends with the son of the latter, Samuel Gotthold Lange. Both were active in the Gesellschaft zur Beförderung der deutschen Sprache, Poesie und Beredsamkeit founded by Lange about 1735. The group became the sponsors of rhymeless poetry. Both Pyra and Lange are responsible for the famous Thyrsis uttd Damons freundschaftliche Lieder which appeared in 1745. Pyra's theory of poetry is developed in his Tempel der wahren Dichtkunst (i737). The only adequate treatment of Pyra is still the old work of Gustav W'anieck, Immanuel Pyra und sein Einfiuss auf die deutsche Literatur des 18. Jahrhunderts (Leipsic, 1882). 48 Briefe von und an Klopstock, 1867), p. 257.

ed. by J. M. Lappenberg (Brunswick,

49 Schönaich, Christoph Otto, in the dedication of his Die Aesthetic in einer Nuss, new ed. by Albert Köster (Berlin, 1900).

ganze

50 Klopstock even unconsciously imitated grammatical and stylistic peculiarities of the Halle school of P y r a and Lange. See Muncker,

174

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

school of Kloster Bergen. The Sturm und, Drang movement is inconceivable without that religious enthusiast and mystic Johann Georg Hamann who in turn so powerfully reacted on Herder. Novalis came into German literature out of the world of Zinzendorf and the Herrnhuter. 51 The great Goethe, finally, was closely bound up with a world in which were active such Pietist influences as that of Gottfried Arnold, the " schöne S e e l e " Suzanna von Klettenburg, Lavater, Hamann and Herder. 52 It is therefore no exagFranz, FT. Gottlieb Klopstock, 2nd ed. (Berlin, 1900), especially pp. 59-60, 88-89. The great epic which appeared in the middle of the 18th century and which inaugurated a new epoch in German literature, Klopstock's Messias, has rightly been described by Paul Kluckhohn as " a Pietist epic." " Klopstock's odes, his Messias both as to content and as to form are inconceivable without Spener, Francke, Pyra and Lange." (Nadler, J., Literaturgeschichte der deutschen Stämme und Landschaften, vol. ii, 3rd ed., Regensburg, 1931, p. 440). See also Unger, R., Hamann und die Aufklärung, 2nd ed. (Jena, 1925), vol. i, p. 79. 5 1 Novalis' parents stood close to the Herrnhuter and he was educated by a Herrnhut preacher. Among the books he read most were the Bible, Zinzendorf and Lavater. See his life by Justi in Sämmtliche Schriften, ed. by C. Kamnitzer, vol. i, pp. 6 and 25. See also, Novalis und der Pietismus by Johann R. Thierstein (Bern, 1910). 62 The Pietist house doctor Cordatens had great influence in Goethe's family and Goethe's mother was a member of a Pietist circle. Of particular significance in his early life was the Pietist lady, Suzanna von Klettenburg. In the letters of this lady one sees the close interconnection of many Pietist threads. She is in correspondance with F. C. von Moser and Lavater; in her library were found works of Tauler, J. Arndt, Spener, Rambach, Zinzendorf, J. J. von Moser, Bogatzky, Steinhof er, F. C. von Moser, Lavater and F. C. Oetinger. (See Die schöne Seele, ed. by Heinrich Funk (Leipzig, 1911) ; see also Goethe's Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahren). Under her influence Goethe delved into Pietist and mystical literature. Especially profound was his reaction to Gottfried Arnold's Ketzergeschichte. (See Dichtung und Wahrheit, pt. ii, bk. viii). See also Burdach, Conrad, " F a u s t und Moses," in Preuss. Akademie der Wissenschaften, Sitzungsberichte (1912), pp. 358-403, 627-59, 736-89. For Goethe's relations with Lavater see especially Goethe und Lavater; Briefe und Tagebücher, ed. by H. Funk (Weimar, 1901). See also Goethe's Briefe an E. Th. Langen, ed. by Paul Zimmermann (Wolfenbüttel, 1922).

NATIONAL

LANGUAGE

AND

LITERATURE

geration when Burdach says, " The artistic form and the inner spirit of German poetry and language which came with the eighteenth century is rooted in the religious stirring up of the emotions and the imagination." M More outspoken is Josef Nadler when he says of Pietism: It penetrated under four different aspects among four different localities in Germany. The more penetrating philosophical movement came forth in the Northeast, in Prussia. Here it made peace with its one-time enemy, the Aufklärung, and influenced the youth (and the whole life of one) of the pathfinding thinkers, Kant, Hamann and Herder. The artistic tendency stimulated the Saxons in the North to the great creation of a Christian idealism. As a pure religious faith, Pietism spread far and wide in the South in Swabia, and as negation and as contradiction it influenced the poetry of Wieland. As a form of pure power of inward life it penetrated into the Frankish lands of the West. Each of these four creative forces has, in its way, furthered most fruitfully the literary development.51 Pietist influence contributed greatly to the development of an attitude of religious enthusiasm in respect of art and literature. The Kunstfrömmigkeit of Wackenroder, who called his work " Kunst Andacht," as well as that of the later Romanticists, and their attitude towards art as a work of 63 54

Burdach, G , op. cit., p. 741.

Nadler, J., op. cit., vol. iii, p. 99. See also Unger, R., Hamann und die Aufklärung, vol. i, pp. 78-80. Albert Köster says that it was the service of Pietism to have permeated German life and literature with Empfindsamkeit (Die deutsche Literatur der Aufklärungszeit, Heidelberg, 1925, ch. iv). Schönaich in his Aestethik in einer Nuss comments as follows on the word " Empfindung." " What is one, when he is all 'Empfindung'? A Herrenhuter" (p. 104). Ernst Gelpcke in his Fichte und die Gedankenwelt des Sturm und Drang traces the intimate connection of Fichte with Lavater and attributes to it the pathos and passion which characterizes the work of Fichte in contrast to that of Kant. See especially pp. 261-270.

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

God, granted by Him to humans and finding its true inspiration in religion, is already found in the Tetnpel der wahren Dichtkunst of Immanuel Pyra. Pyra's chief axiom was that true poetry is exclusively religious poetry and, above all, Christian religious poetry. Poetry was for him a " heavenly fire " whose content as well as aim was the Christian religion. Like the enthusiasm which is necessary for religion, so must there be enthusiasm for poetry. " The poet," said Pyra, " must so inflame the imagination and the emotions that the reader will be thrown into a passion of ecstasy." " Poetic enthusiasm is that condition of the spirit in which it is overcome by the fire of the imaginative powers and the emotions." 65 A n d Klopstock but reechoed the same idea when he placed religion and poetry side by side in their aim to stir the heart and the imagination 56 and when he declared, " The poet should imitate religion just as he should imitate nature." 57 " The true poet," said Lavater, " is a prophet. He reveals, sets forth and makes clear such things as no eye had clearly seen before, as no ear had yet distinctly heard and as had not yet patently been revealed in any human heart." 68 " The essence of poetry and prophecy is to speak out truth clearly and with enthusiasm and to bring unseen things before the senses. Poets and prophets are both spurred on by enthusiasm." 59 The Sturm und Drang movement with its irrationalist, anti-philosophic and anti-speculative tendencies received its most important and most immediate impulse 65

See Wanieck, op. cit.

56

Samtliche

IVerke

(Leipzig, 1854-55), vol. x, pp. 234-38.

" Ibid., p. 235. 58

Ausgewahltc Schriften, 44), vol. ii, p. 145. 58

Ibid., p. 146.

ed. by J. K. Orelli, 9 vols. (Zurich, 1841-

NATIONAL

LANGUAGE

AND

LITERATURE

from the Christian religion. 90 Hamann, says K o r f , " is the first significant and epochal example o f the return of an ' enlightened ' individual into the bosom of the Christian religion. H e is the first of those emigrants of the Aufklärung in whose spirit, above all, that rejuvenation of Christianity took place which later in the Romantic movement became so historically significant." 81 With this religious enthusiasm in literature came the turn towards the inner self. Literature became subjective. It was the great age of lyric poetry, the age in which Hamann proclaimed poetry as " the mother tongue of the human race." 82 T h e battle-cries of the Sturm und Drang for originality and Volkstümlichkeit were essentially the outgrowth and expression of these tendencies. A poet stirred by the fire of enthusiasm, bent on giving expression to the passions that sway his innermost being, striving to find his own selfrealization in words, such an individual cannot be imitative, he cannot rely on foreign models and foreign forms. Whatever he produces must be an expression of his own individual, hence original, being. For him poetry can no longer be an accomplishment which one masters by learning and practicing rules. This concept of poetry, dominant in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, had been in line with the imitative character of most German literature of that period. It was built either on French or on ancient classical models. Opitz declared that it was useless for any one to attempt to become a poet unless he mastered the ancient Latin and Greek literature and learned the proper forms from them. The absence of this attitude was what distinguished the Kirchenlied and the revolt against it came forth in the Sturm und Drang. It 60 See K o r f , H., Der Geist der Goethe Zeit, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1923-1925), vol. i, pp. 103-105. 61

Ibid., p. 105.

M.Schriftcn, vol. ii, p. 258.

I78

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

found expression in the cult of " genius," and with the characteristic transference of individual characters to national characters came the idea not only of an individual genius but of a national genius." Originality in national literature 8 3 T h e theory of the genius received its first elaboration in the writings of Hamann. T h e religious character of the idea is particularly patent in Hamann. Genius is not created. It is inspired, inner and spontaneous like the living religious faith. T h e genius is that individual w h o rises above the mass of humanity through the possession of a divine mystical endowment. " W h a t compensates in H o m e r f o r the ignorance of those aesthetic rules pointed out by Aristotle, and what takes the place of the lack of acquaintance or violation of these critical norms in S h a k e s speare ? " asks Hamann. " Genius is the sole reply. Socrates could have Tacked k n o w l e d g e ; but he had a genius on whose knowledge he could depend w h o m he loved and revered as his God, which was of greater consequence t o him than all the rational understanding of the Egyptians and the Greeks, in whose voice he had faith and through whose breath . . . the inane understanding of a Socrates as well as the womb of a pure virgin could be made f r u i t f u l " ( S c h r i f t e n , vol. ii, p. 38). T h e genius is the individual w h o creates what no one else can make. Lavater, w r i t ing to Goethe, thus distinguished genius f r o m talent. H e can imagine himself, he wrote, learning to be able to reproduce any w o r k of talent but never that of a genius. " Talent makes with facility and ease w h a t thousands of others can make only with extreme pains and caution. I t makes with lightness and gracefulness what others can make only correctly and properly. Genius makes w h a t no one else can make. . . . Genius inspires a reverence, arouses a feeling that is akin to that of worship. It is an immediately present, or a rapidly transitory divinity that one may look at only f r o m b e h i n d " (Goethe und Lavater, p. 130). A n d genius, said Hamann, must be rooted in folk life. F o r every people has its own national genius. H e spoke of " Le genie de I'Allemagne " and protested against the attempt to f o r c e it into alien moulds. H i s Glosse Phillipique ( 1 7 6 1 ) is a biting satire on the coryphaei of the French literature of his day. " T h e reproach," he w r o t e to his brother (Jan. 9, 1760) " that once was made against the Greeks that they betrayed the arts and made them common and profane, can now be levelled against France. France w e must thank f o r the fact that it is no longer an art to write dialogues, comedies, tragedies and everything that one wants " ( S c h r i f t e n , vol. iii, p. 6.) It is f o r this reason that he was so enthusiastic about Klopstock's Gelehrtenrepublik and his Lutheran " L a m m f r o m m i g k e i t " (Schriften, vol. iv, pp. 426-27). In this w o r k K l o p s t o c k too gave most clear and outspoken expression to his hostility

NATIONAL

LANGUAGE

AND

LITERATURE

became the cry. It was the age of the turning away from French models to those of England and so only because England was considered closer to the Germanic spirit. It was the age of the enthusiasm for Ossian and Shakespeare in Germany; an enthusiasm which went so far as to declare with Novalis that the German Shakespeare was superior to the English. It was the age of the rediscovery of the old Germanic folk literature started by Klopstock, carried on by Herder and pursued so diligently by the brothers Grimm. It was the age of the formation of a national German literature.*4 to imitation. In the Gelehrtenrepublik, only he who is independent in thought and only seldom imitates is the free m a n ; he who apes others is the slave. H e who writes in Latin, outside of the well known exceptional cases, shall be banished f r o m the country until he writes something in German. The same is true f o r him who writes in another modern language. Penalties are provided f o r exaggerated reverence f o r antiquity or foreign culture, and all those who claim superiority for a foreign republic of letters, who influence German princes to think little of the German genius and culture and those who claim that the Greeks can never be surpassed are to be guilty of high treason. Hamann's admiration for Luther as the expression of the German genius is the same as Wackenroder's adoration of Dürer as the " real national painter " whose " blood was not Italian blood " and hence who would not have remained himself had he tried to follow Italian models. (See Wackenroder's Werke und Briefe, ed. by Friedrich von den Leyen, 2 vols. [Jena, 1910], vol. i, p. 60.) 01

For Schleiermacher even science has its national traits for " science depends essentially on language and therefore if it is not in the political sense patriotic, it is at least volkstümlich.'' (Collected Works, vol. xxvi, P. 58.)

C H A P T E R VII CHRISTIAN

PATRIOTISM

" Sein Vaterland muss man niemals vergessen; keine schönere Krankheit in meinen Augen als das Heimweh." —Hamann. " Es sollte Staats verkündiger, Prediger des Patriotismus geben." —Novalis.

IT is not the purpose of this study to identify Pietism and nationalism. Nor is it our purpose to ascribe the rise of German nationalism solely to the influence of Pietism and Pietist enthusiasm. Nationalism is too great and all-embracing a movement to have been the product of any single current or historical factor. All we have attempted to show is that, on the one hand, certain ideas and psychological attitudes, either originated or popularized by Pietism and Pietist writers, contributed to the psychological and intellectual background which made possible the development of a theory of nationalism in Germany and, on the other hand, that many of the Pietist preachers and writers or those who were subject to their influence and indoctrination took an active part in the formation and development of certain institutions which have become identified with modern nationalism. It is, however, interesting to inquire as to what manifestations of nationalism and national spirit were evidenced within the Pietist movement itself during the course of the period we have been investigating. How did these various Pietist writers, whose work contributed so much to lay the basis for the later development of nationalism in Germany, themselves 180

CHRISTIAN

PATRIOTISM

I8I

react to questions of German patriotism and German nationalism and above all to the political implications of these problems? It is to this question that we shall now devote our attention. The early leaders of Pietism—Spener, Francke, Arnold and the others—gave but little evidence of any strong German national feeling. They were pretty much indifferent to political affairs in general. Spener betrayed no emotional reaction to the occupation of his own birthplace, in 1681, by the armies of Louis X I V of France. H e viewed it merely as a visitation by God upon those classes who had forsaken the true evangelical faith. There are no expressions of German patriotism in any of the writings of either Francke or Gottfried Arnold. Politically they shared the views common to their age; of obedience and loyalty to the ruling house or dynasty of the particular local state in which they happened to reside. Much more German feeling is found in Zinzendorf. He speaks with pride of the German nation as " an original nation and mother of many others in Europe," 1 although he also deprecates exaggerated German patriotism. 2 It was not until the middle period of Pietist development that there were evidences of the transfer of emotionalism from the purely religious to the patriotic sphere. The patriotic Prussian poetry of U z , Gleim and Klopstock harked back to the Tempel der Dichtkunst of Immanuel Pyra, who called upon the poets to sing to the Hohenzollerns. 3 Hamann was the author of that famous motto, " One must never forget one's fatherland; there is no more beautiful sickness 1

Uttendörfer, O., Zinsendorfs

Weltbetrachtung

(Berlin, 1929), pp.

46-47. 2

Ibid., pp. 47 and 42-43.

See Wanieck, Gustav, Immanuel Pyra und sein Einfluss auf deutsche Literatur des 18. Jahrhunderts (Leipzig, 1882), p. 163. 3

die

182

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

than home sickness." * His patriotism, however, was Prussian rather than German and was combined with the " enlightened " concept of world citizenship. H e explained his patriotic feeling, in his usual paradoxical way, as " composed of just as much love of fatherland as hate." 5 In applying to the Prussian government for a passport in 1765 he wrote, " I shall never allow the devotion of the Prussian to the interests and commands of his immortal Majesty to cool in this breast. Even in strange lands, I shall, to the end of my days, never forget to proclaim the glory of the Prussian heroes and the still greater glory of the Prussian disabled soldiers." 8 But the most that can be said of Hamann is that he possessed local patriotism and felt a certain emotional attachment to the place where he was born and bred. H e had no feeling, however, for the wider German nationalism. " I scarcely have any desire to be a German," he wrote to Scheffner. " Without much heralding I announce that I am nothing more nor less than an East Prussian." 7 A n d in writing to Herder concerning the latter's Kritische Wälder he said, " Y o u pride yourself on being a German and are ashamed of being a Prussian, which is ten times better." 8 A s he grew older, he apparently became more sympathetic toward the cosmopolitanism of the Enlightenment. In 1787 he wrote to Jacobi, " I never had any special feeling for Prussia. I loved my fatherland more as a duty and an obligation. The earth is the Lord's, and in this sense I am a citizen of the world." 9 1

Gildemeister, vol. iv, p. 215.

5

Schriften,

vol. vii, p. 224.

6

Schriften,

vol. iii, p. 334.

7

Ibid., vol. vii, p. 159.

8

Ibid., vol. iii, p. 393.

• Gildemeister, vol. v, p. 539.

CHRISTIAN

PATRIOTISM

183

T h e influence of Pietism on the development of patriotism and national spirit is first seen in the coming into use towards the middle of the eighteenth century of such terms as Christian patriot and Christian patriotism, and the continual juxtaposition in current literature o f " Christianity " and " fatherland," " religion " and " patriotism." 10 A typical example of such a " Christian patriot " was the Pietist statesman and public servant, Friedrich Carl Moser. 1 1 Moser's numerous works on German liberties, on national spirit and patriotism, as well as his huge collection of patriotic extracts from German literature in his Patriotisches Archiv and Neues Patriotisches Archiv, provide a veritable storehouse of expressions of German national feeling in the eighteenth century. In his eulogy on his father, " An J. J. Mosers Urne," he said: Hier liegt ein Christ und Patriot Der Wahrheit treu, bis in den Tod Mit Licht und Recht in seiner Hand Stritt er für Gott und Vaterland. 11 T h e true Christian, he believed, is identical with the true 1 0 See the article " Gedanken eines christlichen P a t r i o t e n " , in Der teutsche Merkur, vol. ii ( W e i m a r , 1779), pp. 53-80. T h e novelty of the term Christian patriot is indicated in the author's first question, " A Christian patriot—Christian patriotism—what is meant by these modem expressions ? " p. 53. See also " D e r Christ der beste P a t r i o t , " in Moser's Neues Patriotisches Archiv, vol. i ( 1 7 9 2 ) , pp. 567-68. 1 1 Ritschl, in his Geschichte des Pietismus, looks upon the two Mosers as representing deviations f r o m the Pietist tradition in that they combined their Pietist Christianity with active participation in public affairs. T h i s v i e w is the result of Ritschl's narrow theological v i e w s of religious history. H e looks upon religious l i f e only f r o m the standpoint of that w h i c h is confined within the church and he has failed completely to take into account the penetration of Pietism into secular l i f e and its combination with other conflicting currents and movements. 12

Patriotisches

Archiv,

vol. v, p. 556.

184

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

13

patriot. " T o improve one's self and others is the wish and aspiration of every Christian, every patriot and of every faithful citizen and is the general concern of every true friend of humanity." 14 He pitied the individual who does not possess such a feeling of patriotism. " Woe unto him," he declared, " who is no patriot; who is indifferent to the land to which he owes his sustenance and his daily existence; who does not do all in his power to improve the welfare of his fatherland." 1 5 He was interested in inquiring into the spirit or character of each nation. He believed that each national group possessed a distinctive body of characteristics, although he admitted that national characteristics were more deeply rooted in some nations than in others. 16 But his main interest was in arousing the Germans to the consciousness of their own national destiny. We too are a people [he wrote in his Von dem deutschen National Geist ( 1 7 6 5 ) ] of one name and one language, under one common ruler and one constitution, subject to the same body of law which determines our rights and our duties, united in one common great interest in freedom and joined for this important purpose in a national assembly which is several hundred years old. We are, in inner might and strength, the first empire in Europe. . . . But despite all this our political 13 Just as there is a free thinker in religion so is there, according to Moser, a political freethinker (Staats-Freygeist). A Staats-Freygeist he defined as " a ruler, minister, judge or councillor who measures his duties to the fatherland solely according to their relation to his own personal interests." (See his "Patriotische Gedanken von den StaatsFreygeisterei," in Gesammelte moralische und politische Schriften, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Frankfurt, 1766-68, vol. i, p. 126.) 14

Der Herr und der Diener (Frankfurt, 1756), p. 2. 15 16

Mannichfaltigkeiten,

See Reliquien pp. 191-52.

geschildert

mit

patriotischer

Freyheit

2 vols. (Zurich, 1796), vol. ii, p. 23.

(Frankfurt, 1766), pp. 81-82 and

Mannichfaltigkeiten,

CHRISTIAN

PATRIOTISM

I85

Constitution has been a puzzle for centuries, we have been the spoil of our neighbors, the subject of their ridicule, unique in the history of the world, divided among ourselves, impotent as a result of our divisions, strong enough to bring injury upon ourselves but powerless to save ourselves, insensitive to the honor of our name, indifferent to the dignity of the law, jealous of our ruler, mistrustful of each other . . . a great and at the same time despised people, a nation capable of enjoying happiness but actually in a most sorry state.17 " W e do not know ourselves any more; we are estranged from each other; our spirit has departed from us." 18 T h e reasons for this condition he found in the lack of any real instruction in German law and political science, in the religious divisions and in particularist and separatist thinking. " W e must know ourselves again," he continued, " W e must believe in our fatherland just as we believe in one Christian C h u r c h . " 1 9 He attacked the French influence and even thought of writing a book called Von der französischen Influenza which was to be " a pragmatic presentation of all the results brought about by the influence of French principles, literature, morals and customs on German princes, princesses and ministers, on the education and development of the youth and on the government of land and people." 20 H e attacked the practise of bringing in foreigners for official positions and urged that special attention be paid to the education of the youth. 21 He pinned his hopes for the German future on the Empire and on Austria and hoped for the revival of the grandeur of the medieval empire. The connection between religion and patriotism was even 17

P p . 5-6.

18

Ibid., p. 10.

19

Ibid., pp. 75-76.

20

Patriotisches

21

S e e Der Herr und der Diener,

Archiv,

vol. vi, p. 407. p. 224.

j86

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

more strongly revealed in the life and writings of the preacher Lavater, although in his case it was Swiss patriotism rather than Prussian or German.22 Like Schleiermacher after him, Lavater used his pulpit to thunder accusations against French tyranny during the wars of the Revolution. Even before the Revolution, however, he had published his Schweizerlieder (1767, 2d ed. Zurich 1788), which is a series of poems extolling the ancient Swiss virtues, the Swiss landscape and Swiss heroes such as Albrecht von Zurich and William Tell. The general patriotic tenor of the volume can be illustrated by a few extracts. O Schweiz, du Heldenvaterland! Sey nie mehr deiner Väter Schand, Und halt das neu geknüpfte Band Der Einigkeit mit treuer Hand Dann ist in dieser Welt kein Land Dir gleich, du Heldenvaterland. Again, in another song reminding us of the later enthusiastic outbursts of Arndt and Körner: Die kriegrische Trompete tönt Und ruft uns hier ins Feld Wo sich der Feind; der stolz uns höhnt, Zu den Kanonen stellt. Vereinigt, Schweizer, Herz und Hand! Und lasst den Feind nicht ein! Soll Freyheit uns, soll Vaterland Nicht ewig theuer seyn? *

*

*

2 2 The patriotism of Swiss Germans for Switzerland during the eighteenth century is analagous to Prussian, Saxon or Bavarian patriotism and should not be taken as being in conflict with or opposed to the more comprehensive German patriotism.

CHRISTIAN

PATRIOTISM

187

Dein, Vaterland, ist unser Herz! Und über dich nur Gott! Zu bitten ist für dich kein Schmerz Und schön für dich der Tod. There was, in Lavater, however, a vague consciousness of something more than mere local patriotism. There are traces o f a growing feeling that there is a common bond of likemindedness among the people of one nation. This idea was expressed in the section on patriotism of his long poem, Das menschliche Hers, dedicated to Charlotte, Queen of Great Britain. Im Herzen keimt des Vaterlandes Liebe, Der grosse Sinn für's hoechste Wohl der Bürger: Bedürfniss, das nichts will, als Freyheit aller Und moeglichsten Genuss des Eidelebens, In der Vereinigung mit Gleichgesinnten! Der edle Sinn macht Tausende zu Einem! Der Eine wird sein Vater, Bruder, Sohn, Wird Herzensfreund, und Bräutigam und Braut, Er lebt im Ganzen nur; und übersiehet Den Theil im Ganzen nicht; der Einzelste Ist heilig ihm, als Theil des grossen Ganzen." W h e n the French Revolution broke out, Lavater hailed it as the dawn of popular freedom, but later the deeds of violence and the treatment of the religious denominations made him indignant. In 1798 the French army entered Zurich and proceeded to force freedom down the throats of the Swiss. Lavater here showed his intense Swiss patriotism. H e preached from his pulpit against the intrusion of the French and published in English, French and German the following open letter addressed to the French Directory. 23

Handbibliothek

für Freunde (Winterthur, 1790-93), vol. i, pp. 177-78.

188

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

R E M O N S T R A N C E ADDRESSED TO T H E E X E C U T I V E D I R E C T O R Y OF T H E F R E N C H REPUBLIC A G A I N S T THE INVASION OF

SWITZERLAND

London and Dublin, 1798 Addressed to Citizen Reubell, President of the Directory. A l l the inhabitants of Helvetia, not deceived by juggling phrases, calculated to deceive all, can entertain but one opinion. T h e terrorist power, whose iron hand bends down their neck to the trumpet sounds of liberty, may stifle their voice, yet they entertain but one opinion—that the French nation, which waged war for several years against the most powerful nations, for the professed purpose that no foreign power should interfere in its domestic concerns, cannot derive the least right either from preponderance of power, or success in war, to interfere in our domestic concerns. It may suit the convenience of the great nation that we should form one indivisible Republik; the best and wisest Swiss may deem this measure highly advantageous for Switzerland, the idea was grand and beautiful; but the French had no right on its being carried into effect, and by insisting on it in a threatening tone, and with arms in their hands they acted as tyrants. P o w e r does not constitute right . . . a hundred thousand armed men cannot convince the understanding that a thing unjust is just. France had no right but the tyrant's right of superior force, to penetrate into Helvetia, for the pretended purpose of subverting aristocracy. T h e subversion of aristocracy might indeed have proved highly beneficial, might have met the ardent wishes of many noble minded Swiss, but is the highwayman, who murders my oppressor, no highwayman? Frenchmen, ye came into Switzerland as robbers, as tyrants, ye waged war against a country which never offended you. . . . Y o u talk of nothing but liberty, but every one of your actions strove to enslave us. Can you deny it? All your words were orders, all your counsels were mandates, of a despot. W e were

CHRISTIAN

PATRIOTISM

189

never thus commanded, when, according to your false assertion, we were slaves. Such blind implicit obedience was never demanded from us, as.it is now exercised, when by your assertion, we are free. . . . The constitution which you forced upon us, appears to me . . . a masterpiece of human wisdom, a monument of profound policy. In my opinion nothing more sublime can be devised for civilized men. I admire this constitution, but detest the means by which its acceptance was demanded, exacted, extorted. This is unworthy of thee, great nation. . . . Liberty in front of every decree; and on the same page, " The General-in-chief commands as follows, under such and such penalties." Lavater protested against the exaction of three billion francs and continued: Great nation, Agents of the matchless people, you had the matchless impudence, relying on your superiority in arms, by vaunting menaces, to force your constitution upon the free, democratik cantons, cantons which centuries before France thought of democracy, were more democratik than your colossal Republik can be. . . . You who are never at a loss for an ingenious turn, to throw the delusive cloak of virtue around the horrors of tyranny, and stamp most enormous despotism with the name of freedom: never can you find an excuse for this savage atrocity, which brands with perpetual infamy, your revolution—your directors, if they ordered it,—your generals, if they committed it unordered,—your nation, if it grants no redress—. How will you dare to appear yet among men? To lift up your eyes and open your lips, to pronounce the word— Liberty ? H e concluded then with the following: Do not, great nation, incur the contempt of all future ages; silence these crying acts of injustice by virtuous atonements. Be not the scourge of nations, the tyrant of humanity, the oppressor of freemen, the bloodsucker of Zurich. Be what

jgo

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

thou wouldst appear, our friend, our benefactor, and deserve to rule our hearts. J. C. L A V A T E R , Rector Zurich, ioth of May, 1798 First year of Helvetic Slavery. A s a result of this stand, Lavater was banished to Basel in 1799. H e was able to return again to Zurich in the fall of the same year, but when the French soldiers reentered the city, one of them came to Lavater demanding wine from him, and after receiving it, shot Lavater through the breast. It was this wound which ultimately caused his death in 1801. The greatest of all the Christian patriots was Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher. Schleiermacher is the clearest example of the " enlightened P i e t i s t " who has become the German patriot and nationalist. Although deeply influenced by the thought of the Enlightenment, by the critical philosophy of Kant, by the profound study of ancient Greek philosophy and by the contemporary activity of the brothers Schlegel and the salons of the Jewish women of Berlin, Schleiermacher retained all through his life the fundamental impress stamped upon him by the Pietism of Herrnhut He was descended from a family of long and deeply religious tradition. His grandfather, Daniel Schleiermacher, was a follower of the enthusiast Eller and his father was also a preacher. The religious tradition on his mother's side was equally as strong. 2 * Schleiermacher's own religious trend was revealed in his earliest years. " In my eleventh year," he records, " I spent several sleepless nights in consequence of not being able to come to a satisfactory conclusion concerning the mutual relations between the sufferings of Christ and the punishment for which these sufferings were a sub2 4 See and ii.

Dilthey,

W . , Leben

Schleiermachers

(Berlin,

1870), chs. i

CHRISTIAN

stitute."

25

PATRIOTISM

191

H e received his y o u t h f u l education in the M o r a -

v i a n schools o f N i e s k y and B a r b y where he became filled w i t h t h e ideas o f the H e r r n h u t e r and especially with the ideas o f Zinzendorf.

A l t h o u g h he finally found this atmosphere too

n a r r o w and limited, and broke a w a y to study at the then m o r e rationalist U n i v e r s i t y o f Halle, the Pietist influence in its more general nature l e f t its impress on the whole subsequent development of his t h o u g h t and career.

W r i t i n g to his

friend Reimer in 1802 concerning the days spent w i t h the M o r a v i a n s , he s a i d : There is no place which has remained so impressed upon my memory all through my spiritual development from my first awakening up to the point I have now reached. Here for the first time there appeared to me the consciousness of the relation of man to a higher world, . . . here there first developed that mystical predisposition that is so essential to m e ; that which amid all the stress of skepticism saved me and preserved me. A t that time it sprouted forth, now it has developed and I may say that after all I have now again become a Moravian, only of a higher order. 26 It was this mystical predisposition w h i c h g a v e f o r m to Schleiermacher's t h o u g h t and which was the common element in all the Pietist currents w e have traced.

It is this intuitive

enthusiasm, too, which links Schleiermacher to the stream of thought we have been considering and which provided the basis

H i s theory

of

individuality, which is at the basis of his philosophy

for his subsequent patriotic career.

of

nationalism, is likewise but a direct continuation of Zinzend o r f s principle of individuality.

" M o r a v i a n of a higher

25 Life of Schleiermacher as Unfolded in his Autobiography and Letters, ed. by Fredericka Rowan, 2 vols. (London, i860), vol. i, p. 6. 26 A us Schleiermachers Leben in Brie fen, ed. by W . Dilthey, 4 vols. (Berlrn, 1858-63), vol. i, pp. 308-09.

PIETISM

AND GERMAN

NATIONALISM

o r d e r " is o n l y another n a m e f o r w h a t w e h a v e called " enlightened P i e t i s t " Although

Schleiermacher's

theory

of

nationalism

was

a l r e a d y implicit in his earlier w o r k s , his practical p a t r i o t i s m f o u n d no outlet until P r u s s i a n participation in the N a p o l e o n i c wars.

H e shared w i t h m a n y o f the G e r m a n

intellectuals

their a d m i r a t i o n a n d e n t h u s i a s m f o r the F r e n c h R e v o l u t i o n w h e n it first broke out.

B u t , as in the case o f L a v a t e r , the

e x e c u t i o n o f K i n g L o u i s a n d the subsequent t e r r o r turned him against France.

I n a letter to his f a t h e r , dated F e b r u -

a r y 14, 1 7 9 3 , he w r o t e : I do not know how it has happened that up to the present moment I have not written to you on these subjects; now h o w ever they occupy my mind too much to pass them over in silence. Being accustomed openly to communicate to y o u all m y thoughts, I am not afraid of confessing that upon the whole I heartily sympathize with the French Revolution; although as you will know f r o m my character without my telling you, I do not of course approve of all the human passions and exaggerated ideas that have been mixed up with it . . . nor am I seized by the unhappy folly of either wishing to imitate it or of desiring the whole world to be remodelled according to its standard. I have honestly and impartially loved the Revolution, but this last act has filled my whole soul with sorrow, as I consider the good king quite innocent, and I utterly abhor every kind of barbarity. 27 I n 1804 S c h l e i e r m a c h e r w a s called to the U n i v e r s i t y o f H a l l e as p r o f e s s o r o f t h e o l o g y a n d public preacher.

Here,

his patriotism developed into the m o s t ardent and enthusiastic activity.

H e r e , he really b e g a n the career w h i c h earned

f o r h i m the title o f the " first g r e a t political preacher o f the G e r m a n s since the time o f L u t h e r . "

B y n o w his hostil-

ity to the F r e n c h a n d t o N a p o l e o n in particular, w a s f u l l y 27

Rowan, op. cit., vol. i, p. 109.

CHRISTIAN

PATRIOTISM

193

aroused. A few months before the battle of Jena he wrote to Charlotte von Kathen: Remember that the individual cannot stand, cannot save himself, if that in which each and all of us are rooted—German freedom and German feeling—be lost; and it is these that are threatened. Would you desire to be spared any danger, any suffering, at the cost of the conviction of having delivered over future generations to base servitude, and of having exposed them to be inoculated with the despicable sentiments of an utterly corrupted people? Believe me, sooner or later a great and universal struggle must ensue, the objects of which will be as much our sentiments, our religion, and our mental culture, as our outward liberty and worldly goods, a struggle which must be carried on, not by kings and their hired armies, but by the nations and their kings together—a struggle which will unite sovereign and people by a more beautiful bond than has existed for centuries and in which every one—every one without exception—must take the great part that the common weal imposes upon him.28 And to Eleanor von Willich he wrote that he exults in the war against the tyrant and is delighted with the courageous spirit prevailing among the troops and the people.2® After Jena the French army came to Halle and the University was closed. Schleiermacher was particularly disturbed by the prospect of Halle falling to the French as a permanent possession and determined never to remain there in that eventuality. " I f the town falls to the share of a French prince," he declared, " I for my part will not abide in it, as long as there is anywhere a Prussian hole into which I can retire." 30 He declared himself ready to die the death of a martyr if Napoleon attacked the Protestant faith. What 28

Ibid., vol. ii, p. 55-

29

Ibid., p. 62.

30

Ibid., p. 65.

194

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

he feared came to pass as a result of the Peace of Tilsit; Halle was lost, and in 1808 he came to Berlin. Here he remained until his death in 1834. B y royal appointment he was made preacher in the Dreifaltigkeit Kirche and after the establishment of the University of Berlin, in which he took an important part, he was appointed professor of theology and philosophy. In Berlin he reached the climax of his career as the political preacher of Germany. All through those days of gathering strength until the final achievement of victory in 1 8 1 5 he fought from the pulpit as the armies fought in the field of battle. " We also, the preachers of peace," he said, " if we have not seized sword, have at least had recourse to the telling battery of words, and have from the holy altar called the people to battle to share in the life and death struggle." 31 " I envy each one," he declared, " who has the good fortune to be a political person in any sense of the word. Unfortunately I can do nothing for the regeneration but preach." 32 He addressed the troops before they departed for the front, he aroused the enthusiasm of the people at home and in 1 8 1 3 together with Fichte he participated regularly in military training and drill. " There was no one like him," says Steffens, " who so raised and regulated the feelings of the inhabitants; Berlin became something different through him. His powerful, fresh, always courageous spirit was like a brave army in this sad period." 33 His political sermons during these years attracted thousands of people and imbued them with his own firm conviction in the ultimate triumph of their fatherland. " Never can I come to the point," he wrote to Henrietta von Willich in 1808, 81

Ibid., p. 202.

82

Quoted in Reinhard, J., " Friedrich Schleiermacher als deutscher Patriot," in Neue Jahrbiicher fur Padagogik, vol. iv (1899), pp. 345-60. 83 Dilthey, Wilhelm, " Schleiermachers politische Gesinnung und Wirksamkeit," in Preussische Jahrbiicher, vol. x (1862), p. 250.

CHRISTIAN

PATRIOTISM

195

" where I should despair of the fatherland. I have unbounded faith in it. I know too clearly that it is a chosen instrument and people of God. It is possible that all our efforts are in vain and that hard and oppressive times are before u s — b u t the fatherland will surely emerge in a short time in full glory." " A medical student of the time thus recorded his impressions of Schleiermacher's sermons: " One is amazed at the courage of Schleiermacher and how, by the most penetrating words, he reminds his hearers of their fatherland and their king and how he calls upon each one who is able, to further the happiness of the land and to work for its good. H e always closes his prayer with such sentiments and on each occasion he speaks so convincingly that all become enflamed and no eye can hide its tears." 85 W h a t is this but the zelo ardentissimo of the earlier Pietists? During the period between the peace of Tilsit and 1 8 1 3 — the period when the government was hampered from carrying on any reorganization by the presence of French troops in various parts of the land and by the political subordination of Prussia to Napoleon—nationalist agitation had to be carried on through secret societies. Schleiermacher joined such an organization of Prussian patriots in Berlin in 1808. This society was particularly active in trying to induce the government to join in a coalition with England and Russia while Napoleon was away in Spain. There were no receptions, no heads, no formalities, no statutes, no insignia, and no documents in this organization. The members were allied only by their love of the fatherland and their mutual trust in one another. On behalf of this organization Schleiermacher went on many secret missions, coming into active contact with Baron vom Stein, Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and all the other leaders of the Prussian regeneration. He also main34

Aus Schleiermachers Leben in Briefen, v o l .

35

R e i n h a r d , op. ci!., p. 355.

ii ( B e r l i n , i 8 6 0 ) , p. 196.

ige

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

tained an active correspondence all during this time, but since this correspondence was watched and opened by the censor a secret code was adopted. Political affairs were discussed in agricultural terms and the important individuals were called by pseudonyms. Frederick William I I I was always spoken of as Quednow, Stein as Christ, Gneisenau as Kail, Scharnhorst as Mansfield, and Napoleon as " the dear man." This period of Schleiermacher's life is still to be examined and an investigation of his influence on Baron vom Stein would yield very f r u i t f u l results. Stein was deeply impressed with the work of Schleiermacher. He found in him both inspiration and support. W h e n in 1808, fleeing f r o m the French and hastening to the border alone on a sleigh, Stein carried but one book with him, a collection of Schleiermacher's political sermons. Later, during the time when Stein wanted to carry out his great reforms, he found one of his greatest supporters in Schleiermacher, who devoted his sermons to an exposition of the policies of Stein and the need f o r their adoption. A f t e r the peace of 1 8 1 5 Schleiermacher settled down to his duties in the University of Berlin and in the Dreifaltigkeit Kirche. He was called upon to serve in many official capacities; he was associated in the direction of poor relief, and he served with Humboldt in the establishment of schools a f t e r the model of Pestalozzi. During the period of the Reaction and the Carlsbad decrees, he was watched carefully by spies and his church was also carefully observed, for he was a follower of the more liberal school of thought. T o w a r d s the end of his life, however, he was in good standing with the government and in 1 8 3 1 the Prussian K i n g bestowed upon him the Order of the Red Eagle. Although Schleiermacher's patriotic activities did not commence until the period of the W a r of Liberation, the beginnings of his philosophy of nationalism are found much

CHRISTIAN

PATRIOTISM

197

earlier. His theory of nationalism was thus a result of inner development rather than a mere reaction to external events. For a brief period of his life Schleiermacher was almost completely dominated by the rationalism of the the Enlightenment and the cosmopolitanism of Kant. It was the period immediately following his departure from the Moravian school and his coming to Halle. During this time the universal was uppermost in his thought as opposed to the particular: humanity rather than nationality. His Christmas sermon of 1792, Von der Theilnahme des guten Menschen an dem wahren Wohl der Menschheit38 breathes this general cosmopolitan spirit of the Enlightenment. Even here he admitted the nobility of sentiment in the attachment men feel to " the land in which they were born and bred, for the nationality (Volk) among whom they live and to whose protection they owe the enjoyment of their welfare." 87 But this feeling is not of as high order as the feeling for the welfare of all humanity, since it is, in a sense, but the expression of a reaction to one's o w n personal well being. Toward the end of the century, however, a change took place. The temporary charm of rationalism lost its spell and Schleiermacher turned towards the more inward, intuitive and individualistic view of life which was so characteristic of his fully developed system of thought. Already in 1795 in his sermon, Anregung zum Danke gegen Gott wegen der Wohltat des wiedergeschenkten Friedens, he spoke of Germany as " our great fatherland." 38 But the full expression of the change is not 86

Predigten,

87

vol. vii, pp. 117-34.

Ibid., p. 121.

Ibid., p. 345. It is interesting to note that in one of his earlier sermons, Schleiermacher speaks of his " small f a t h e r l a n d " (kleines Vaterland) and here he uses the expression "grosses Vaterland" for Germany. It may be that he applied the former expression to Prussia and the latter to Germany. T h e r e is no clear indication, however, as to what his use of " small fatherland " referred. 38

I98

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

evident until the appearance of the Reden and the Monologen. Beginning with these works and proceeding through his sermons and his systematic works on ethics and political philosophy, Schleiermacher developed a clearly elaborated political philosophy of nationalism. Just as Schleiermacher's enthusiasm was at the basis of his patriotic activity, so this theory of nationalism was based on the principle of individuality—the principle which, we have seen, links him with the tradition of Herrnhut and Pietism. 89 Humanity reveals itself in the particular and the individual; the person is the smallest form of this individuality and the nationality is the largest. 40 Nationality is thus also the expression of individuality. For individuality, to Schleiermacher, is inextricably connected with the principle of Gemeinschaft. The personality of an individual is realized and made evident only when it is placed alongside of other individuals. " The individuality of the single person," he declared, " does not stand in immediate opposition to universality, but is deeply rooted in greater individualities." 41 " Man is social through and through," he maintained in one of his great sermons of 1806, " and so constituted that he can never stand alone. We would have to live on in a dreamy inactivity if we should feel satisfied merely with what we alone could accomplish. For even if we look carefully into what is our most personal being we will always find it related to the forces of others. For this reason we always feel the twofold need of winning and drawing in others for our activity and at the same time also joining with others and 89

For the influence of Zinzendorf on this aspect of Schleiermacher's thought see particularly Eck, S., Über die Herkunft des Indtvidualitätsgedankens bei Schleiermacher (Giessen, 1908). 40

See Ausgewählte

p. 605. 41

Ibid., p. 166.

Werke, ed. by Otto Braun, vol. ii (Leipzig, 1913),

CHRISTIAN

PATRIOTISM

contributing our activity to theirs."

42

199

T h e greater individ-

ualities are the family, the church, and above them all the national group. Here alone [in the nationality] can you make yourself completely understood; here you can turn to a common feeling and to common ideas; for your ideas are welcomed by your brothers because they are the same as their own. Here you can make your plans, if they are really expression of the good and the beautiful, a matter of common concern, for they appear to the others just as they do to you. . . . Here you can work, in word and deed, with all your energy for the good. Y o u can call upon the innate similarity of thought, on the inherited tradition of common ancestors, revered by all, on the significance of the laws to which all are subject and to a thousand institutions loved and valued by all, which enter into the lives of all, express their common spirit and serve the common end and which embody all your aims and aspirations. 48 " H o w little worthy of respect," said he, " is the man w h o roams about hither and thither without the anchor of national ideal and love of fatherland; h o w dull is the friendship that rests merely upon personal similarities in disposition and tendencies, and not upon the feeling of a greater common unity f o r whose sake one can offer up his l i f e ; how the greatest source of pride is lost by the woman that cannot feel that she also bore children f o r her fatherland and brought them up f o r it, that her house and all the petty things that fill up most o f her time belong to a greater whole and take their place in the union of her people."

44

Already in his

Mono-

logen of 1800 he glorified the spirit of individual sacrifice f o r the sake of the larger totality. 42

Predigten, vol. i, p. 230.

48

Ibid., p. 230.

44

Ibid., pp. 228-29.

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

Where is the devotion to this new existence that man has conceived [he asked] a will to sacrifice the old individual soul rather than lose the state, a readiness to set one's life at stake rather than see the fatherland perish? Where is foresight keeping close watch lest the country be seduced and its spirit corrupted? Where find the individual character each state should have and the acts that reveal it? The present generation is so far from even suspecting what this side of humanity signifies, that it dreams of reorganizing the state as it does of human ideas in general; each, whether he lives in one of the old or new states, would pour all into his own mould, like some sage who lays down a model for the future in his works and hopes that one day all mankind will venerate it as the symbol of its salvation. They all believe that the best of states is one that gives least evidence of its existence and that permits the need for which it exists to be least in evidence also. 45 Although, as we shall soon see, Schleiermacher's nationalism was based primarily on ideas of culture, he went beyond earlier writers such as Herder in bringing together this cultural nationalism with political nationalism. His ideal f o r m of political organization is the national state where political unity coincides with cultural unity. H e distinguished three stages in the development of the state. The first is the primitive state where we find but a grouping together of several related families. I n this patriarchal form of state there is a sort of organic identity with common customs and a resemblance of family character. But it possesses no living unity and no individuality. T h e next stage is the transition state where there is a definite and organized government but not yet national in scope. I t is something like the Greek citystate. The third and the highest type is the Volksstaat. Wherever he uses state for nationality, Schleiermacher means this Volksstaat. This type of state tends to identify 45

Soliloquies,

ed. Friess, p. 59.

CHRISTIAN

PATRIOTISM

201

itself with the nationality and embrace it as its political structure. It represents the stage of full consciousness of national unity and relationship. The purpose of this form of state is " to preserve the consciousness of the unity of the whole people as a true and natural unity and to express this idea in all forms of life." This form of state may arise in two different ways. It may come into being as a result of a representative assembly of all the local states meeting and creating a " republic of a higher order." The great danger in this method is the fear lest the representatives will lose sight of the national ideal and be guided solely by the individual interests of the states which they represent. The second way is through a monarchic agency. This is better than the former. The monarchic power will oppose the provincial interests and create a unity of the whole. The king is the " Einheit and Allheit in which resides the idea of the State." Thus the state of the highest order is in essence monarchic. The monarch to take the lead in this unification is to be not the ruler of a small province but is much rather to be one who already has under his rule a considerable portion of the nationality. The territory on which the people live, the nationality and the state all come to be identified. " The state is the identity of people and land." 49 Even before Schelling, Schleiermacher advanced the organismic theory of the state. He attacked his contemporaries who looked upon the state as a machine. The state was for him the most exalted and supreme work of art. Every national state is " an organic, planetary work of art," 47 possessed of a character of absolute common spirit which is based on a particular idea of culture. The activity of all the 49

F o r the development of these ideas see above all the " Brouillon zur E t h i k " of 1805-1806 in Ausgewählte Werke, vol. ii, p. 139 et seq. and the Lehre vom Staat in the Collected Works, vol. x x x i i . 47

Ausgewählte

Werke, vol. ii, p. 149.

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

individuals is related to this idea of culture like the parts of an organic whole. Man's ties to the state are therefore not the result of utilitarian need but of inner desire and love and a consciousness of the innate common existence and of the indestructible common spirit The basis of the national state is therefore cultural. Culture embraces national customs, national education and national character. But the foundation of all national culture is the national language. Language reveals the individuality of the national group. The ideas, concepts, ethical and philosophic principles of a nation can find their true expression only in its own national language.4" Language is thus also the foundation of national education. Even wars are conceived by Schleiermacher to be the outcome of the tendency to identify linguistic borders with political borders. Schleiermacher also recognized most of the other factors of national peculiarity stressed by later writers. His attitude towards race is somewhat uncertain. Holstein suggests that the influence of his brother-in-law Ernst Moritz Arndt, was responsible for Schleiermacher's early emphasis on race as a factor in nationality. In his outlines on ethics of 1805-06 and 1 8 1 2 - 1 3 he speaks of the identity of racial origin as the beginning of the national state and of physiognomy as the external representation of national peculiarity. On the other hand he is less decisive in his later Lehre vom Stoat in which he allows for either common racial origin or chance grouping as the beginning of a national group which finally becomes a national state only through the development of common language and common customs. Tradition is also emphasized as an important element in national life. We have already seen how this idea was developed in connection with national education. In his two sermons Ueber die rechte Verehrung gegen das einheimische ** Ibid, especially pp. 167-69.

See also ch. v.

CHRISTIAN

Grosse aus einer früheren

PATRIOTISM

203

Zeit, delivered on January 24, 1808

and Das Verfahren des Erlösers in seinem Gespräche mit der Samariterin,

delivered in 1 8 1 4 , Schleiermacher makes an

eloquent plea f o r traditionalism. W h a t a blessing it is for a people [says he] to possess in its home and surroundings, in its customs and its usages and in its whole way of life that which has come down from ancient times. . . . W h e n a people respects reverently and preserves faithfully what has survived from the earliest past through the stream of time . . . when it concerns itself with the sources of its constitutions and customs, preserves the knowledge of its antiquities and, although it looks ahead, yet always continues to cherish faithfully the memory of the old, such a nation is provided with a glorious foundation for a serious and worthy life. 48 A t the same time he attacks those individuals w h o desire to reconstruct in its entirety a glorious period of the past and w h o maintain that were we to f o l l o w closely the w a y s of some great leader in the past our troubles would be overcome. This, he says, is foolish.

T h e r e is never such a thing as a

return to the past in human a f f a i r s ; nothing can ever happen as it did once before.

T h e w o r l d moves on.

B u t despite

change, despite movement, there are certain lasting and permanent values which are continuous t h r o u g h history and these represent the body o f tradition that is to be revered as a national heritage. 5 0

T h e r e is nothing more disgraceful than

when a people " foolishly discards the lasting elements of its institutions together with the transitory and, either because it was misled or because o f c o w a r d l y fear, voluntarily assumes an alien f o r m . "

" L e t us all the m o r e , " he continues,

" honor the deceased ancestors and heroes of our country 49

Predigten,

i0Ibid.,

vol. i, p. 394.

pp. 358-64.

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

and the history and institutions of our past, so that every subsequent innovation should be continuous with the spirit and inner essence of these and that we thus remain one with them and truly prove ourselves to be their descendants and progeny." With his recognition of territory as an important element in national life Schleiermacher passes over f r o m the realm of cultural nationalism to that of political nationalism. The national group for its complete realization must have a unity of land organized politically into a national state. T h e state is the identity of people and territory and there are as many states as there are territories (Bodenhexten). A people's land is an integral part of its national group life, hence the feeling that it was robbed comes to a people f r o m whom territory has been taken. There is therefore no hope of eternal peace until all men are united into states and each state is nationally organized. 61 In his attitude towards the question of German unification Schleiermacher stood on the platform of ultimate German union through the agency of Prussia. Prussia, being the strongest and most nationally minded of the German states, was to serve as the rallying point f o r all other states. He did not, however, look towards the creation of a highly centralized state. J u s t as in education he believed that once national solidarity was attained education would be restored to the family and to the Academy which he proposed should be created, just as he insisted that the church remain an autonomous institution within the national state, so did he regard it as necessary to allow f o r regionalism and local differences within the individual states of Germany. T h e clearest formulation of this part of his political credo is found in his letter to Friedrich Schlegel dated March 22, 1 8 1 3 . Schlegel 51

Ausgewählte Werke, vol. ii, p. 343 and p. 147 and Lehre vom Staat in Collected Works, vol. x x x i i , p. 1 1 .

CHRISTIAN

PATRIOTISM

205

h a d accused 'Schleiermacher o f f o s t e r i n g local d i v i s i o n s in place o f one G e r m a n patriotism.

T o which Schleiermacher

replied: I am not at all opposed to the idea of there being S a x o n s and Brandenburgers, Austrians and Prussians. T h e differences in descent as well as the traces of the old individual political organizations, which do not always exactly coincide, are too strongly impressed on the Germans for any one to desire to destroy them. O n l y that they should not dominate over the greater national unity and not allow the people on that account to become once again a loose iroXvxouravq and thereby arrive at the brink of the abyss. T h e r e f o r e it is my greatest desire that a f t e r our liberation there shall arise one true German empire, p o w e r f u l and representative of the entire German people before the outside world. In its internal constitution, however, it should allow a great deal of freedom to the individual states and their rulers and allow them to develop and g o v e r n themselves according to their o w n peculiar characteristics. 5 2 O n the question o f the relations between states a n d h u m a n ity S c h l e i e r m a c h e r closely approached the v i e w s o f

Herder.

H e rejected completely the notion o f a w o r l d state.

Human-

ity is best served by the existence o f n u m e r o u s states a n d there is no contradiction b e t w e e n the individuality o f national states a n d the ideal o f

a universal

humanity.

fatherland does not m a k e one short-sighted.

Love

of

O n t h e con-

trary, he w h o loves his o w n people will also r e c o g n i z e the calling o f

other nations.

Schleiermacher

recognized

that

peoples in their early s t a g e s are m o r e isolated a n d n a r r o w in their national v i e w s . ensure

national

T h i s is also a necessary p r o t e c t i o n to

consolidation.

But

further

brings w i t h it a wider f e e l i n g o f h u m a n i t y .

development I n his educa-

tional w r i t i n g s he stressed the need o f so t r a i n i n g the y o u n g g e n e r a t i o n that " the a d h e r e n c e to the nationality should not 52

Briefe,

vol. iii, pp. 428-29.

2o6

PIETISM

AND

GERMAN

NATIONALISM

develop into hostility against all outside this g r o u p . " " Free communication with free interchange of ideas and the study of foreign languages will eventually work for the creation of a spirit of harmony and understanding among the various national states." In this way Schleiermacher brought together the universalist ideal of the Enlightenment with the new ideal of modern nationalism and individualism. H i s nationalism and his patriotism sprang from a multitude of sources and influences but at the base was that religious enthusiasm, emotionalism and mystic individualism which ties him with the tradition o f Spener, Francke, Zinzendorf, Hamann and Lavater and which finds in him the clearest expression of that long process of secularization whereby ideas, attitudes and psychological predispositions became transferred from the religion of Christian Pietism to the religion of German nationalism. BS

Collected Works, vol. xxxiii, p. 31.

" Ibid., pp. 198-200.

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I I I . GENERAL H A N D BOOKS

Allgemeine deutsche Biographie. Cyclopedia of Education, edited by Paul Monroe. Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences. Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, edited by James Hastings. Encyklopädisches Handbuch der Pädagogik, 2d ed. by W . Rein. Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 2d ed. by H . Gunkel and L. Zacharnack. Rcalencyclopädie für protestantische Theologie und Kirchc, 3d ed. The New Schaff-Hersog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge.

INDEX Absolutism, 79-80 Andreae, 131-32 A n t o n , 17, 18 A r n d t , E . M., 59, 95, 202 A r n d t , ]., 13, 40-41 A r n o l d , G o t t f r i e d , 12, 18-21, 49, 50, 66-67, 81, 82, 83, 85, 108, 160, 165-66, 174 Autobiography, Development of, 69-70 B a s e d o w , 131 Bengel, 21, 159 Blake, 28 Boehme, 13, 34, 40 B r e i t h a u p t , 13, 18, 126 Buddeus, 17 B u n y a n , 27 B u r k e , 88 Butlerische Rote, 69 Calixt, 81 Canstein, 15 C a r p z o v , 110 Catholicism, 81, 85-86 Chassidism, 35 Class divisions, 65, 104-06, 109-13, 149 Collegium F r i d e r i c i a n u t n , 144 C o m m u n i t y feeling, 68, 100, 141, 146, 148-49, 198 C o n r i n g , 83 C o n r a d i , 143 Cosmopolitanism, 73, 131 Cow per, 28 D e m o c r a c y , 103 Dippel, 80 Disputations, theological, 36, 38-39 D u t t e n h o f e r , 42, 45 E c k e h a r t , 34, 42 Education, 26, 123-52, 202 E l l e r Community, 69 E m o t i o n a l i s m , 25-26, 27, 175-77

33-62,

E n l i g h t e n m e n t , 26, 50, 55, 61, 7071, 72, 78, 79, 87-88, 97, 105-06, 127-31, 145, 163, 206 E r n s t t h e P i o u s , 132-33 F i c h t e , 48, 59, 175 F l a t t i c h , 140, 166 F o l k - l o r e , 102-03, 179 F r a n c k e , 14, 17-18, 42, 49, 51, 69, 85, I I 5 - I 7 , 127, 133-36, 139, 14043, 165 F r e d e r i c k I, 1 1 7 F r e d e r i c k t h e G r e a t , 106, 128, 13839 F r e d e r i c k W i l l i a m I, 117, 137-38 F r e n c h influences, 115, 141-42, 15759. 177, 185 F u h r m a n n , 143 G a r ve, 105-06 G e h r , 143-44 Genius, 178-79 G e r b e r , 108-09 G e r h a r d , 39-40, 85 G e r h a r d t , 13, 66, 172-73 Gichtel, 13 Goethe, 44, 56, 174 G o t t s c h e d , 162, 172 G r i m m , 172, 179 G r o s s g e b a u e r , 13, 37, 43, 132 H a m a n n , 27, 28, 45-48, 54-55, 71, 92, 99, 154, 168-72, 174, 177, 17879, 181-82 H a n s e n , 143 H a y e s , 76, 77, 124. 172 H e c k e r , 139, 141 H e d d i n g e r , 42 H e g e l . 58 H e r d e r , 38-39, 56, 71, 92, 101, 104, 144, 154, 168, 172, 179, 205 H e r r n s c h m i d , 18 H i n c k e l m a n n , 17 H o r b i u s , 17 H o r c h , 166 H u m e , 55 225

226

INDEX

Imitation, 71, 115, 155. 177, 179 Individuality, 26, 63-75, '98 Irrationalism, 34-35. 5°"58 Iselin, 130-31 Jansenism, 13, 35 Jung-Stilling, 14, 52 Kant, 144 Karl Ludwig of the Palatinate, 84 Kirchenlied, 66, 172, 177 Klettenburg, 93, 174 Klopstock, 27, 173-74, 176, 178-79, 181 Knutzen, 144 Koenig, 38 Kohn, Hans, 124 Körner, 59 Krummacher, 14 Labadie, 15, 1 1 2 Lange, Joachim, 18, 21 Lange, S . G„ 173 Language, 141, 149-50, 153-55. 16872, 202, 206; Latin, 154, 156-57, 160, 179; French, 154, 158-59; German, 26, 154, 159-67, 179 Lavater, 14, 27, 55-58', 71, 92-93, 94, 119, 174, 176, 178, 186-90 Law, William, 27, 28 Leibnitz, 70, 75, 77, 114 Lessing, 24 Lieber, 64 Literature, 59-60, 172-79 Luther, 64-65, 79, 126, 155-56 Lutheran orthodoxy, 13, 65, 78-79, 105, 126-27 Mahrholz, 42 Massow, 129, 145 Mediaevalism, 103-04 Meinecke, 103 Melanchthon, 79 Methodism, 13, 27, 35 Michaelis, 18 Milton, John, 27 Moravian Brethren, 22-25, 67-68, 110-12, 136. See also Zinzendorf Moritz, 157 Moser, F . C„ 27, 44, 95, 96-97, 1 1 3 14, 183-85 Moser, J . J., 21, 27, 95-96, 109, 1 1 3 14, 167 Müller, Adam, 58 Müller, H., 40 Mysticism, 34, 51

Nationality and Nationalism, 25-29, 48, 58-62, 74-75. 76-77. 98-101, 102-03, 119-20, 124-25, 152, 15355, 170-72, 180-81, 196-206 National Religions, 91-92 Natural religion, 55, 71-72, 73 Niemeyer, 131 Novalis, 27, 28, 44, 61, 62, 97, 174, 179 Oetinger, 21 Opitz, 161-62, 177 Ossian, 179 Paracelsus, 34, 160-61 Patriotism, 181-206 Pfaff, 21 Philanthropic activities, 1 1 5 - 1 1 7 Porst, 51 Prayer, 37, 42-43 Private Assemblies, 16, 17, 51, 69, 112-13 Public schools, 125, 137-38 Pyra, 27, 173, 176, 181 Quakers, 27, 35 Quietism, 13 Rambach, 143 Reitz, 109 Rochow, 128 Romanticism, 35, 58, 61, 63-64, 69, 75, 86, 100, 154, 172, 175-76 Rousseau, 35-36 Sagittarius, 17 Savigny, 58 Schade, 17 Schenkendorf, 59 Schinmeyer, 143 Schlatter, 14 Schlegel, 172, 204-05 Schleiermacher, 11, 12, 27, 56-57, 61, 62, 72-75. 93, 97-101, 119-20, 144-52, 179, 190-206 Schulz, 144 Schuppius, 13, 106-07, 131-32, 158, 161 Schwenkfeld, 39 Scott, Walter, 104 Scriver, 13, 40 Separatists, 68-69 Sermons, 16, 37 Shakespeare, 179 Simplicissimus, 162

INDEX Spener, 15-17, 19, 20, 2 1 , 49, 51, 67, 79-80, 82, 85-86, n o , 1 1 2 - 1 3 , 134. 140, 164-65, 181 State, 150-52, 200-02, 204 Sturm, 42 Syncretism, 81-82 Theology, 41-42 Thomasius, 18, 21, 78, 83, 127, 159, 162-63 Toleration, 78-93 Tradition, 202-04 Trescho, 144 University of Halle, 127-28, 142-43 Unterevck, n o

227

Vossler, 154-55 Wackenroder, 175, 179 Walch, 80 Weigel, 13, 40 Wesley, 27 Whitefield, 27 Wiedergeburt, 16, 45-49, 59, 69 Wieland, 173 Winkler, 17 Wolff, 70, 159, 162 Zinzendorf, 22-25, 27, 44, 52-53, 6768, 86, 89-92, 118-19, 134, 140, 181 Zöllner, 163 Zopf, 143