enlightnment and rise of historicism

8/10/2019 Enlightnment and Rise of Historicism

1/27

TheEnlightenment

and

theRise

of

Historicism

n

German

hought

HELEN P. LIEBEL

A

WELL-KNOWN

FEATURE of the

European

Enlightenmentas

its

renascent

nterestn

classicalantiquity.n

Germany

t was

pre-

ciselythe

more

sophisticated

tudy f

Greek

and

Roman

culture

which

ookplace

n the

ighteenth

entury

hat esulted

n

the

revolu-

tionary

hanges n the

Western iew of

history

whichcontinue

o

shape

historicalnd

political

ormulations

n

both sidesof the At-

lantic.The

philosophical iew

ofhistory

hich

was thus

produced

two enturiesgoiscalledhistoricism.'

In

German,

heterm,

Historismus, f

which

historicism

s a

translation, as

popularized

fter

1839 by

romantic

iberals ike

Rudolfvon

Haym, nd

acceptedby

conservative erman

historians

to describe

heir

asic

assumption

hat ndividual

vents

aveto be

seen nthe

ontext f a wider,

niversal istorical

evelopment,nd

the

facts

f

historyxplained n

terms

f

fundamental

oncepts, uch

as

that

f

the

developmentf

the

modem tate, r

of

freedom. s an

attitudewhichdominatedmore than one discipline n nineteenth-

century

ermany,t assumed

hat

the true tudy

f any

discipline

(linguistics,

conomics,

iterature)

ad to be

historicaln its

orienta-

tion.

By

assuming

development, owever,

ll

thinkersho

adopted

a

historical

rame

freference

or

heirworkdid

not also

necessarily

assume

progress.

he

Germans

nparticular

ssumed he

validity f

eternal

deas

which,

n

some

metaphysicalr

theological

ense,

manifesthemselves

n all

ages.

Though ootedn theGerman nlightenment'sevival fPlatonic

idealism,

istoricism

as

equally

the

product f

theeighteenth

en-

tury'suristic

nterest

n

the

Roman

aw

traditionsf

theHoly

Roman

Empire,

nd

of

Germany's

ugustinian

heological

eritage.t

also

merged

lmost

mperceptibly

ith

he

lowly

eveloping

ationalism

1

See

Note

on

the

Term

Historicism,'

p. 383.

359

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2/27

360

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY

STUDIES

of a new

species of humanist

istorians,

ike Ranke and

Niebuhr,

whoseworkwasfoundedn the iteraryevival f theRococoera.

The

eighteenth-centuryindwas not yet

evolutionary

n

its

ap-

proach o

history.

nstead

t

sharedwith

lassical

authors concern

for

idacticismnd

educationalmodels.

For

theGermans

hismeant

adopting

he

ttitudes

f

Tacitus,

favorite

uthor f

eighteenth-

s

well as

nineteenth-century

riters.

he

son-in-law

f

Agricola,

Ro-

man

governor f

Britain,

e

belonged

o a

school of historians

ho

had

survived

he

fallof

the

Roman

Republic

nd

under

he nfluence

ofthat ventwrote species fhistoryalculated otransmithighly

tarnished

mage

of the

mperors.

his was

strangelyopular

n

Ger-

many

where

he

princes

f

the

empire,

ven

Frederick

he

Great,

identified

ithRoman

senatorsnd were

uspicious f the

Habsburg

tendency

o

wish

o centralizemperial

uthority. he moral

philos-

ophy

f

Tacitus, oo,

suited he

pietism

f

the

eighteenth

entury o

a

very

high degree.

For

Tacitus

revered

he

simplevirtues

f

the

German ribesmen

ho were

ettled n the

other ide of the

Roman

Limes,a line ofpalisadefortstrungcrossGermany ndAustria.

However

naccurate

n his

classificationf

them e

might

ave been,

for

most

f

the

nvading

ribes

ame centuries

ater, nd

from arther

north, acitus'

Germania

remained

cherishedworkfor German

writers

ho,

ike

Ranke and even

Nietzsche,

ontinued o

believe n

the ame

implemanly

irtues

escribed yTacitus.

Another

mportant

tream

nfluencinghe

eighteenth-centuryev-

olution

n

thoughtnd

givingmpetus

o

the

ater iseof

evolutionary

ideas, ies in theAugustinian eritage temming rom heGerman

medieval

historians.

he chief of

these

was

Otto of Freising,2

2

Of

course

this

does not mean

that

the

work

of

Otto of

Freising

ominated

eighteenth-century

hought. he

general

lan

of

salvation,

ssumed n

his

work,

id

produce

continuing

nfluence,

owever,n both

Catholic

nd Protestant

ermany.

In the

first

lace, his

ife

of

Frederick

arbarossa

emained

major

source

forthe

history

f the

Holy

Roman

Empire,which

ll

jurists

tudied.

n

the

econd, tto

had

been t the

monastery

f

Kloster

Neuburg

utside

Vienna

before

moving

o

Freising.

It was in

that

monastery

hat

t.

Leopold,

the

founder f

the

Habsburg

ynastyn

Austria,was buried, nd it was there hat n 1181,as a result f theFreising n-

fluence,

huge

enamel ltar

depicting he

same

kind

of

Heilsgeschichte

s

Otto's

Two

Citieswas

produced,

riginally

o

decorate

eopold's

omb.

The

monastery

as

rebuilt

y Charles

VI,

father

f

Maria

Theresia,

who

intended

o

make

his

palace

there he

center f

his

empire,

esigned

ccording o

Habsburg

mysticism

ith

windows

acing

ach

section

fhis

kingdom,

nd the

Danube

flowing

y

beyond

the

gates

below.

His idea

clearly ested

n the

remains

n

the

crypt

nderneath,

and

was related

o

the

meaning

f the

ltar. am

indebted

o

Canon

Floridus

Rorig,

the archivist

t

Kloster

Neuburg,

or

his

explanation

f

the

altar and

the

historical

informationbout

he

monastery.



3/27

HISTORICISM

IN

GERMAN

THOUGHT

361

twelfth-century

avarian

bishop

with

royal

connections-he

was

a

halfbrother f Conrad II and the uncleof Frederick arbarossa.

Otto's

work,

writtenn a

Latin

style urprisinglyure

for heMiddle

Ages and

indicative

f

a

high

evel

of classical

scholarshipong

be-

fore heRenaissance, eveloped he

Christian hemes

f

St.

Augus-

tine'sCity f God.Otto'sHistory fTwoStates orCities)

remains

monument

f,Gothic

istory-writing.

t shows

much

greater eeling

forhistoricalvolution hanAugustine's

ifth-centuryheological

x-

plication, etperpetuateshetraditional hristian

iew. God

oper-

atesthrough istory nd thestory f the Roman andHolyRoman

Empires

earswitness

o

it.

The

Christian lan

of

salvation

emains

manifest, continuing

heme rom lassical

ntiquity

o

Hegel. And,

despite

is

new

emphasis

n

secularism,

his

was

apparently

lso

the

belief

f

Ranke.

Although

he

general pproachof European

historians emained

very imilar, nd thekind

of

history ritten y Germans id

not dif-

fermuchfrom

hat

f

French, nglish,

r other

uropean

annalists

ofroyalreigns, great hangedid occurduring heEnlightenment.

And the

ontributions

f

Germanhistorical riters

f

the ighteenth

and early

nineteenthenturies

ame on two evels

imultaneously-

in method,

nd n

philosophy,

f

history.

The development

f

method ad to

do

with

stablishingulesfor

appraising

nd

udging

ocuments

ritically,

nd for

xpunging rom

consideration

f

hemwhatever

olklore,uperstition,

nd

mythology

might

make their

alidity

ictional ather

han

ctual. n some ways

this nvolved German enascence fancientearning nd was pos-

sible

only

when

volving

ttitudeso

powerpolitics

ast

off

he heo-

logical

aura of

theReformationnd

emerged

s the raison

d'etat

of

Frederick

he

Great.

t was then hat

he

Enlightenmentra could

identify

ts aims and

motives

with

hose

of

the

politicalheroes of

Greece

and Rome.

The secularoutlook

f the

classical

writers

as

demonstrated

n some

highly olished,

ritical

istorical

riting e-

ginning

with

Thucydides' ourth-century

.C.

account

of

the Pelo-

ponnesianwars. The urbane, ophisticatednderstandingf high

politics

o characteristicf the ncients

ad

been

unknownn medi-

eval

Europe.

The medievalattitude

oward

historical

ealitywas

naive

at

best. With

few

exceptions,

uch writers

f

history s then

existed

elieved

virtually

verything

hey

heard

or

read.

Yet

on

the

highest

evel

the traditions

f the ancientswere

translated

nto a

Christian

olitical

nd

religious deology

hat

ncluded

oncepts

f



4/27

362

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY

STUDIES

just

rule, golden

ge

of

peace,

the

rightfulnd

continuinguthority

oftheRomanpope, fear of thedevil, and supremacy f imperial

power.3t

was

the onceptualization

equired

or he

ransmission

f

legal

traditions

nd

the

study

f law

in

schools

of

higher

earning

which

inally id

bring bout herevival f

sophisticated

istory.

Although ources were viewed

more

critically,

he

writers

e-

mained

unequipped

n

the

inguisticreparation

ecessary

or

scer-

taining

nd organizingn

accurate

ext.

or theBible

they

ad

only

theLatin

Vulgate dition.

he

establishmentfthe

ext f

the

Greek

New Testament remained for Renaissance humanists-notably

Erasmus.

Only

n the ixteenth

entury

id

new

ways

of

editing

ex-

tualmaterial

make t

possible

o

studyhe

originalmeaning

f

Chris-

tian

ources.

he Reformation

nd

ts

uccess,

ndeed

he

very

ature

ofReformation

isputes,

made t

necessary

o

study

riginal

ources.

The

winning

f

adherents

epended

n

claims

of

being bleto inter-

pret heBible more

orrectly

han he

established hurch

had, until

then,

een able

to do.

Thisconscious rive ogobacktothe ources ed, nGermany,o

new definitions

f

scholarly urpose.

ourcesof all

kinds

were sys-

tematically

ollected,

ven

as

early

s

the ixteenth

nd seventeenth

centuries.

f course

Renaissance

humanists

ad done this

kind of

thing

n

taly

ome

centuries

efore;

etrarch

pent

he

better

artof

his ife

doing

t.But

Germany

emainedmore

pastoral han

ven he

Italy

f

the

Middle

Ages.

Any

tudent

f

architecture

ust

otice, s

he travels

rom

he

Mediterraneano

Germany,

hat

the

buildings

aresmaller, rovincial,ven backwoods ditions fwhatwas built

in

a farmore

affluent

outhern

ociety

t the

same

time.

Certainly

ItalianRenaissance

rosperitypread

o the

North.

ven the

declin-

ing

Hanseatic

apital

t

Lubeck had

Italian

handcarved orches nd

balustrades

long

the

municipalquare,

s

did

many

booming ree

city

n the Bavarian

plain.

Yet

the

deas

were slow

n coming, he

identificationith ncient

uthors

ven

more o.

Like the talians f

the

trecento,

uattrocento,nd

cinquecento,

he

Germanswerepro-

foundlynfluencedythe secularconsciousness ftheGreeks nd

Romans,

but

not until he

eighteenth

entury. nd

it was

not until

the

end

of

that

ighteenth

entury

hat

Aristotle's

olitics

was trans-

3

Ernest

ernheim,

ittelalterliche

eitanschauungen

n

hrem

influss

uf

Politik

und

Geschichtsschreibung

Tubingen,-918;

rep.

Aalen,

1964),pp.

10-50,

0-97,97-

109; also

Walther

ammers,

d., Geschichtsdenkennd

Geschichtsbild

m

Mittelal-

ter

Darmstadt,

961).



5/27

HISTORICISM IN GERMAN THOUGHT

363

lated ntoGerman,4lthough

ermanhad been the anguage

f

uni-

versitynstructionornearly century.

If

we can defineRenaissance

humanism

s an

involvement

ith

the tudy f ancient uthors, s

well as a psychologicaldentifica-

tion

with hepolitical nd ethical iews

f

such

writers,

hen

we

can-

not speak of

a NorthEuropean

Renaissanceuntil he

ntellectuals

north f theAlps too found uch an

involvement.t

seems

trange

that hey ound

t difficulto achieve uchfull

dentificationntil he

eighteenth

entury,

ut this

wouldseem to have

been the case.

For

despite he nfluencefAristotle n Germanpolitical conomy-

cameralism-mostpoliticalwriters

ontinued o stress heimpor-

tanceofChristian thics nd

mprovementf themedievalmodesof

domains

dministration.eit vonSeckendorif,he eading

German

political conomist

f the end

of

the seventeenthentury

ho

was

stillwidely

ead during heeighteenth, ade muchof these

hemes.

Not

onlydid he

write history fLutheranism,ut he

entitled is

political

works

The Christian tateand The Prince'sState.

Others

likeHermanConringweremore nvolved n the egaltraditions f

the mpire

nd drewheavily n

Aristotelianrainingnlogical anal-

ysis, ut did

not dentify ith heancients.5

The

Christian, specially he

Protestant,motif emained

trong

even

n theGermanEnlightenment

f the early ighteenth

entury.

Leibniz still ried o reuniteWestern

hristianity,nd

although is

pupil ChristianWolff ocused his

attention n

mathematics nd

logic,he insisted n an unreasonable

ersonal thic-he was

firmly

convinced hat oituswas meantonlyfor he begetting fchildren

and

had but

one son. Thomasiuswas a morecomplete igure

f the

Enlightenment,

nd

his

nfluence

ontributedo

wiping

ut thebelief

in

witchcraft

nd the devil among

the educatedcommoners

f

the

century.

he

young

men

of he

day,

ike

the

urist

J.J.

Reinhard,

elt

a

sudden

release,

liberation

rom

uperstition.

et Frederick he

Great,

hehero of

many

of

them,

ought

ard to free

himself

rom

4

ManfredRiedel, Aristotles-Traditionm Ausgangdes 18. Jahrhunderts.ur

ersten bersetzung

er Politik' urchJohannGeorgSchlosser, lteuropa

nd die

ModerneGesellschaft.

estchriftur

OttoBrunner,

d.

Alexander ergengruen

nd

Ludwig eike Gottingen,

963), pp. 314 ff.

5

Seckendorff

nd the entire

ameralist

raditionre

describedn some

detail n

thefollowing

orks:GustavMarchet, tudien

iberEntwicklunger Verwaltungs-

lehre

n

Deutschland

on

der

zweiten

&ifte

es

17.

bis

zum

Ende des 18. Jahrhun-

derts Munich, 885);

Axel Nielsen,

Die

Entstehung

er deutschen ameralwissen-

schaft m

17. Jahrhundert,r. Gustav Bargum Jena,

1911); Albion Small,

The

Cameralists,

he ioneers

f

German

ocial

Polity Chicago,

909).



6/27

364

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY STUDIES

theharsh eliefs

f

a semi-psychotic

ather

ho nearly xecuted

im

fordisobedienceotheking's, nd, as itwere,God'sword. n Fred-

erick hestoical hemes

f

the ancientsmerge

ide

by side

with n

interestn historical

nes.

He

is

a Roman

Caesar

at heart

nd

yet

c-

cepts

he deals

of ust rule

whichhe

learnedfrom hilosophes

nd

received hrough

he Augustinian

eritage.

n

contrast, oseph

I,

also educated

n natural

aw philosophy,

ried o establish

n

ethics

of

government

asedon Cicero,

nd

n the nd defied

nd

overturned

almost ll

the

historical

ights

nd traditions

f the

Austrian

rov-

incesduring isreign.6

Despite

all Enlightenment

nfluence,

herewas

something

bout

the toicism

f

Germany's

nlightened

espots

hat hared hevalues

of

pietism,

he

evangelical

movement

hich

ppeared s

therival

of

the

Enlightenment

n Germany.

heenlightened

argrave

f

Baden,

CharlesFrederick,

or

xample,

ontinued

o

believeand act in

ac-

cordance

withhis

simplepietist

aith.

ven Kant,

who

more

than

anyone

lse

epitomized

ight

eason,

never

ostthetraces

f

a pietist

upbringing.n fact,t tooktheFrenchRevolutiono shaketheGer-

manmind

oose from uchevangelical

ommitments,

nd,

even o,

t

never

ompletely

scaped

these

theological redilections.

ntil the

Bastille ell,

heRomanand

Greek

ttitudes

f which

Germany

ad

become

conscious

through

he

translated

writings

f Machiavelli

werereceived

with fficialismay.

rinces

were till aised

o regard

the Florentine

s

an

enemy,

is doctrines s anathema.After

ll,

Frederick

he

Great

wrote

his

Anti-Machiavel

s

late

as

1740,

the

veryyearhe succeeded othethrone ndbegana reignnotedfor ts

conspicuously

Machiavellian

practice

of

higher olitics.

However,

we must ote hat

rederick

id notpoison

his

enemies

s the talians

had. He was

nota Borgia.

Frederick ttempted

o

be a

historiande

mon

emps

nstead.

Calvinist, gnostic,

minor

omposer,

hisPrussian

king7

on-

6

The only

biographical

ketch

f Johann akob

Reinhard

vailable

n English

s

in Helen

P. Liebel,

Enlightened

ureaucracy

ersus

Enlightened

espotism n

Baden,1750-1792 (Philadelphia, 965), pp 54ff. he early ighteenth-centuryn-

lightenment

n

Germany

s treated

y

Hans M.

Wolff,

ie

Weltanschauunger

deutschen

ufklirung

n

geschichtlicher

ntwicklungBerne,

949). On

Thomasius

seeMax

Fleischmann,

d.,

Chr.

Thomasius

eben

und Lebenswerk.

bhandlungen

und Aufsatze

Halle,

1931);

Werner rauendienst,

hristian

Wolff

ls Staatsdenker

(Berlin,

1927)

describes

is successor.

or

a

philosophical

escription

f

both

see

Max Wundt,

ie deutsche chulphilosophie

m Zeitalter

erAufklarung

Tilbingen,

1945; rep.

Hildesheim,964),

pp.

19

ff.,

22

ff.



7/27

HISTORICISM IN

GERMAN THOUGHT 365

tinuedowrite type fhistory

ery imilar o that fVoltaire,whom

he houndedfromhis courtforhaving lost caste by stooping o

quarrel

with

Jew.Frederick f

coursewas the author

f

religious

toleration

n his

realm, nd did much o encourage ewish radesmen,

some

of

t exploitativen hispart, ut as a German ristocrat e re-

mained

he

victim

f

ancient otions

f tatus: s a

Brahmin

e could

not

accept anyone

he had classified

s

of lowercaste thanhimself.

His

assessment

f historicalmaterialwas

just as uncritical. is

sole

purpose

s a historianwas to communicate he achievements

f a

glorious eign, nd one could be witty nd quite iteratendoing his

and

yet

emain nnocent

f

all

techniques

f historical

riticism.

It was

early

n

theeighteenth

entury

hat

questions

f

historical

method

egan

to be discussed.None of what

followed

would have

been possible

f

modern

echniques

f

collecting

nd

assessing

ocu-

mentshad not

been

worked ut in

seventeenth-centuryrance. In-

deed,

t

was two Frenchmen

ho

made the

subsequent

German

de-

velopmentsossible:

Mabillonand

Bayle.8

The

former,

hefather f

diplomatics-the cientifictudy fdocuments-wasespeciallym-

portant.The latter,Pierre

Bayle, manifested scepticism hat

changedmen'shabits f mind.

Yet therewere lso native raditions.

Samuel

Pufendorf,

he

great olitical

heorist,

nded

his

ife

s a

his-

torian

f his

times. wo

centuries

eforeRanke he

wrote

o a friend

that historianmust bove all else

love truth. eibniz, oo, was a

historian, oweverpedantic,

nd served the cause by promoting

greater rofessionalismn thatdiscipline. ven though is attempt

to establish n imperial ollegeofhistoryn 1687 failed, t was his

intellectualtimulus nd

his

influence

n Frederick's

randmother,

Queen Sophie Charlotte

f

Prussia,

whichresultedn

the

establish-

ment

f

he

PrussianAcademy

f

Sciences.9

7On

Frederick

he most definitive

iography s

still

that of Reinhold

Koser,

Geschichteriedrich es

Grossen,

vols. (Stuttgart,889; rep.

Darmstadt, 963).

Otherworks

n

Frederick

nclude:

Gerhard

Ritter,

riedrich er Grossen

Heidel-

berg,1936);

Pierre

Gaxotte,

rederick he

Great, rans.R. A. Bell

(London,1941);

G. P. Gooch, Frederick heGreat: The Ruler, theWriter, heMan (New York,1947).

8

On

Mabillon nd

Bayle

ee

Ernst

Bernheim,ehrbuch

erhistorischen

ethode

undder

GeschichtsphilosophieLeipzig, 908;rep.New

York,1967),

, 223ff.

9

On

Pufendorf

ee

Leonard

Krieger,

he

Politics

of

Discretion.

ufendorf

nd

the

Acceptance f

NaturalLaw

(Chicago,1965); on Leibnizand

the Baroque

En-

lightenment

n

Prussia

ee

Carl

Hinrichs,

reussen

ls historisches

roblem

Berlin,

1963),pp.

295

ff., 05

ff.,

53 ff.

he

role playedby the German

cademies s

also



8/27

366 EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY STUDIES

In the eighteenthentury here ppeared host of

minorwriters

whocompiledmulti-volumeollections fdocumentsndwhowrote

handbooks n historicalmethod. ince the problem

f

the age

was

then argely matter f eliminatinghe vestigial eudalism

n the

German

egal system,herevision f aw

codes

and

the

ystematiza-

tion

of

existingaws accompanied eformsn the administration

f

justice nd economy. he newwaysof studying istory

nd

the

clar-

ity chieved rom tudy

f

well-compiled

ocumentsn

proper

hron-

ologicalarray roduced moremodern istorical erspective.

hat

so muchofGerman aw was Roman, and that o muchRoman aw

was studied s a prerequisiteo receiving license opractice, ro-

duced

new

debates boutthedesirability

f

ridding

Germany

f

Ro-

man

norms, r, lternatively,

f

throwing

ut

the

ustomary

aws

and

keeping

heRoman

systems.

n

Germany

he

study

f aw

was

thus

wedded

to the

Pandects nd

Institutes

f

the ater

Roman empire.

TheEnlightenmentdealofsimplicityndnatural

aw

preferredhe

TwelveTables

of

theRoman

Republic

or

some

systemike

t. Thus

problems fRomanhistory emainedn theforefrontfdiscussion.

Almost ll juristswere amateurhistorians. oman

history ecame

the ndispensabledjunct oall juristic tudywhatsoever,

nd what-

ever

could

be accurately scertained boutthe ancientRomanswas

considered ital for

understanding erman daptations f Roman

Law. Historical ruthwas, however, ounded n historicalmethod.

The

historian ad to describe learly nd honestly hat he ruth as

-and this

was

dependent n separating

actfrom

iction,

s well

as

fromartisan ttitudesfboth hewriternd his ource. ,

Christian

homasius 1655-1728), often

alled

the Enlighten-

ment

ersonified -at

east

n

Germany-brought

n

Enlightenment

critical

ense

o the

writing

f

egal history.

ike Pufendorf is

con-

cern

was

with

easonable ruth. or the reform-oriented

ighteenth

century

e

taught

hat

egal

historians ere to searchfor

evidence

that

ontemporary

awswere imitedn

time,

hat

hey

xisted

elative

to their

ra.

A

host

f

urists ollowed

is

ead, among

hemGabriel

Schweder, Tiubingen rofessor hointerpretedheconstitutional

relations f

theGerman mpire rom ositive ources n egalhistory.

describedn AndreasKraus,Vernunftnd

Geschichte,ie Bedeutung er deutschen

Akademien

urdieEntwicklunger

Geschichtswissenschaftm spaten 8. Jahrhun-

dert

Freiburg, 963),pp.

206 ff.

10

Bernheim,

ehrbuch, , 223 ff.;Roderich onStintzing,

eschichte er deut-

schen

Rechtswissenschaft

Munich,

880-1910), p. 228-528.



9/27

HISTORICISM IN GERMAN THOUGHT 367

More mportant as his student, ohann akob

Moser

1701-1785),

the father fGerman onstitutionalaw.11

Objectivityn particular ecame a significant

alue

forwriters f

history r at least egal history.nspired y Schweder,Moser,

who

was himself till mostdevoutProtestant, ent

out

of his

way

to

place national nity bove religious trife.t

was the

pecial

need

of

German onstitutionalaw

at

that ime

o

provide

oran

objective

interpretation

f

thefundamentalights f

Protestants

nd

Catholics

within he mpire. he newly enlightened urists ought nterpreta-

tionsofconstitutionalawwhichwouldbridge eligious ifferences

and

create uniformaw for

he

mpire.

Moser

praised chweder

or

his objectivityn writingboutGerman onstitutionalaw;

his works

couldbe used at both Protestant nd Catholic universities.

oser

emphasized hat scientificmpartialitynon-partisanship)

as

at-

tainedbecause

theauthor

ad

digested

is

sources

more horoughly

and had not

just

constructed

ogical systems. ndeed,

he had di-

vorcedhistory romtsearlier

natural

aw presuppositions.

ence-

forthtsexplication oulddepend n a study ftheevolutionfhis-

torical

nstitutions

s these could

be documented

romhistorical

sources.Historical ositivism

as

thus heproduct

f

Enlightenment

schools f

urisprudence.

Moser

himself ompiled

nnumerable olumes

f documents nd

wrote ver 300 extensive ccounts

f

German aw, economics, nd

public ffairs,s well as pietist ymns nd an importantutobiogra-

phy.Yet it was themassiveness fhisworks ather han heir nalyt-

icalqualitywhichmade himfamous.n factMoser's ompilations f

the aws

of

so

manyof the over threehundred overeign tates f

pre-NapoleonicGermany re often he chief source for the early

modem

constitution

f the

empire.

he

method e used, also, curi-

ouslyresembles hatdevelopedby modem historians,ince he filed

his

material nder ubject eadings nd kept cards.

As Moser

was himself n extremely ious Protestant, is con-

sciencebrought im nto onflict ithCharlesEugene,the Catholic

dukeofhisnativeWuirttemberg,ndthis n spite f Moser's ife-long

11

On Thomasius

ee

F. A. G.

Tholuck,

Geschichte es

Rationalismus

Berlin,

1865;

rep.

Aalen, 1970), p.

107;

Stintzing,p. 71

ff.;

HeinrichRilping, ie

Natur-

rechtslehrees

Christian

homasius

nd hre

Fortbildung

n der

Thomasius

chule

(Bonn, 1968).

On

Schweder nd

Moser see

Dr. Erwin

Schombs,

Das

Staatsrecht

Johann akob

Mosers

1701-1785)

Berlin, 968),pp.

98

ff.; lso Stintzing,

. 401

ff.,

has a section

n Moser.



10/27

368

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY

STUDIES

effortso

bring

boutreligious oleration.

fter career

s a

success-

ful officialn manyofthe smaller tates fGermany, e had been

called

home o Wiirttemberg,

here

he till

ery

owerful

rotestant

Estates

regularly

mployed

wo

egal

counselors

o assist n

drawing

up

programs,

o provide

iaison

with he ducal administration,

nd

to defend

he rights

f

the Estates.

As a result

f

the

Seven

Years'

War,

thereigning

uke attempted

o

suppress

heEstates, evy

axes

unilaterally,

nd enlarge

his

army and

his absolutist

power.

Moser's

taunch

pposition

edto his

arrestn

July 759, and

a cruel

imprisonmentntil1764. Deprivedof outdoorexercise, ufficient

fuel n winter,

nd all

writing

material,

e developed routine

f

Bible-reading

nd

prayerwhich

kept

him sane.His

compulsive

er-

sonality

ound n outlet

n writing

ymnsn the

margins

f

the

Bible

and scratching

hem

n the plaster

walls of

his cell with

pair

of

candle-trimming

hears.12

The modern

volutionary

iew

of

society,

f history,

as born

while

Moser

was n prison,

uringhe

motional

rauma f

theSeven

Years' War. Techniques lone had been insufficient.bjectiveas

legal

history ight

ave become,

he

policies

followedworked n

op-

positeways.

Frederick's

ose

as

the

econd

GustavusAdolphus,

is

use

of

the

religious

heme n

his war propaganda,

ended

o

awaken

partisan

ervor hroughout

ermany.

he positive

aw of

the early

eighteenth

entury

as not

respected

nd

therisinggeneration

f

jurists,

tatesmen,

nd

writers

f

Germany's

Golden Age,

of

the

Sturm

nd

Drang,

of the

iterary

enaissance f Goethe nd Schil-

ler, oughtnoutlet or ersonal xpression.ersonality,hefreedom

to

develop t,

o

develop

rt, nd

to

describe

hehuman pirit

n his-

tory

owbecame

hemain

nterest

f

a new

generation.

ut

of

t was

born hemodem

ttitude

o

history.

The mid-century

riter ho contributed ore

than

any other

o

developing

he

wakening

onsciousness

f

Goethe's eneration,

as

Johann

Joachim

Winckelmann

1717-1768).

The son

of

a shoe-

maker

nd

grandson

f clothmaker,

e had

worked iswaythrough

12

Moser's

very ersonal

ccount

s rich

n

psychological

ontent.

ee his Lebens-

Geschichte

ohann akobMosers,

von ihme

elbstbeschrieben1st ed., Offenbach,

1768; 3rdrev. d.,

Frankfurt

nd

Leipzig,

1777-83).A recent

iographys

Reinhard

Rurup,Johann

acobMoser,

Pietismus

nd

Reform

Wiesbaden, 965), which

has

an

extensive

ibliography.



11/27

HISTORICISM IN

GERMAN THOUGHT

369

schooldespite

he

bitterestoverty.

is

interest

n art and

history

emerged utofthehodge-podge f German nlightenmentoncern

with

moralphilosophy,

ith

edagogy, ith

reating

pure

German

style, ith

evivinghe

knowledge

f

Greek

iterature-in

hort,

ith

using peech

nd literatureo

develop n

educated

person.

Certainly

the

tudy

f

anguage

s

an arthas

always

been

related

o the

tudy

of

history. ven

Mabillon

was

concernedwith

racing

he

evolution

of

the

Romance

anguages n his

study f

documents.'3 inckelmann

went o

school

ust s a new

Renaissance

ppeared

n

Germany,

or

thestudy fGreek iterature,oweverwelldeveloped tmay have

been

n

the ixteenth

entury,ad

been

destroyeduring

he

Thirty

Years'

Warand

only

revived uring he

early

ighteenth. s

late

as

1747

Winckelmann,n

avid

book collector,

ould not

find nyedi-

tions

of

Sophocles n

Germany.

hucydideswas

knownonly n

a

1731English

dition, olybius

n a 1670

edition.'4

For

years

Winckelmann

orkedwithCount

Heinrich

onBiunau,

a

Saxon

diplomat

escendedfrom

twelfth-centuryoble

family,

whohad a Frondistnterestndefendinghefreedomf theknights

of

the

mpire. he

origin f mperial

aw in the

arliest istory

f the

German

ribes nd

in

that

f the

Saxon

emperors as hischief

on-

cern.

His

work

waswidely

dmired, y Lessing

mong

thers.While

preparing work

n the

Frankish ing

Chlodowig,

lunau mployed

Winckelmann

o

aid him

n hisresearch

nd writing.

nfortunately

the

book

was never

published

nd the

manuscript as

lost.

The in-

sights athered,

owever,wereto help

Winckelmannn

developing

a genetic onception fhistorynd art.FromReichhistorie inckel-

mann

urned

o

a

study

f

Dresden rt

collections.

is

first

ook,

n

art

history,

stablished is

reputation.

e then n 1755

left or

Rome

where

e

settlednd

systematicallyroduced is

works f art

history,

among hegreatest

f

theeighteenth

entury.

is majorwork,

His-

13

Jean

Mabillon,

Histoire

es Contestationsur a

diplomatiquevec

l'analyse e

cet

ouvrage

Paris,

1708).

14

Thefollowingiographical aterials basedprimarilyn the tandard ork n

Winckelmann,

ow

revised,

arl

Justi,

Winckelmann

nd

eine

Zeitgenossen, vols.

(1st

ed.,

Cologne,

1866-1872;

ev.

Cologne,

1956),

and also

on

Leo

Balet,

Die Ver-

burgerlichunger

Deutschen

Kunst,

Literatur

nd

Musik im

18.

Jahrhundert

(Strassburg,

936),

pp.

432 ff.

ee

the

reprint,

ohann

Wolfgang

oethe,

Winckel-

mann

und

ein

Jahrhundert

n

Briefen

nd

Aufsdtzen,

d.

Helmut

Holtzhauer Leip-

zig,

1969),

nd the

new

biography

y

Wolfgang

eppman,

Winckelmann:

ather f

Archaeology

nd

Art

Historyin

press,

971).



12/27

370 EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY STUDIES

tory f theArt of Antiquity, 764, a profuselyllustrated

ntroduc-

tionto the art treasuresfRome, created new attitudeohistory

overnight.

he

identificationith he ncientswhichhad been

ack-

ing n Germany

as

madepossible hroughhe mage

f

hepast

con-

veyed y

ts rt.

Like

Pufendorf efore him and Ranke in the next century,

Winckelmann elieved hat he greatestaw of history as, indeed,

truth. true

endering

f

thepast was important.

he

wrong deas,

thewrongpictures ransmittedy an excessive ocus on wars,the

supernatural,he glorificationf conquesthad to be excised.The

fullness

f

ife,

he

variety f whathad been done, the goodness

f

truly umanitarianulers ad to be emphasized. nder he nfluence

ofEnglishWhigs, e believed hathistory as the tory ffreedom-

an

early ind

f

Whighistory-andpatriotsikeTacitus, allust, nd

Cicero

were

his

heroes.During heSevenYears' War he condemned

Prussia

s

a

land oppressed y thegreatest nowndespotismn

his-

tory. he love of country ould notbe replaced y ove of service o

a king.Artcould only flourishn a freeenvironment. rt was a

growing hing nd resulted rom variety f causes, none of them

supernatural,oneof hem he esult fcompulsion.

Elimination

f the

supernatural ow became the characteristic

way

of

writing

rt

history,

ven

hough erman hilosophy

f

history

continued

o include

old theological trains.Relationshipsn time

and space stretchedlongtheperimeter

f

many ges. Always here

was

the

growth

f

related

actors,

mesh fsocial

and political, ven

ofeconomic orces.Andthesediscoveries ererootednthefactual

material

ulledfrom

newly ritical eading

f

the ources. he act,

die

Tat,

said

Goethe's

aust,

was thebasis of

ife,

notthe

word, s

the

Gospel

of

St.

John ad

it,

In the

beginning

as

the

Word. Yet

even

the activism

f

a

Faustian ifewas

a history hichwas in the

end

found

nthe ources.

The

assembling

f

facts nd the

description

f

events nterms f a

wide

nexus

of human

relationships

s

not

yethistory.

or

Aristotle

history as,likepoetry,n artof mitation. ermanwritersf the

eighteenthentury

reated

ewforms or

ranslating

uman

motions

into

poetic

drama.

What

s

real,must,

fter

ll,

be

life-like. nd

nar-

rative

annot e

life-like

nless t mitates motionswhich re

really

expressed.

he

philosophy

f

drama,

he

philosophy

f aesthetics f

Goethe

nd

Schiller,

nd of their riend

erder,

husbecame ndis-



13/27

HISTORICISM

IN GERMAN THOUGHT

371

pensable n

assistinghehistoriano

bring

ismundane

ource

mate-

rial o ife.

Schiller

aught istory

t

the

University

f

Jena,

fter

aving led

his

native

Wiirttembergo escape the

hreatenedersecution

f

Duke

Charles

Eugene,

who had

censored

is

play,

The

Robbers.

Both

he

and

Goethe sed

historicalhemesn

theirworks, chiller

more

delib-

eratelyhan

Goethe.

Actually chiller eveloped hemes

n

a Shake-

spearian einand

did so consistently,

hile

Goethe's nterestsaried

more

throughoutis life.

Only one of

his firstworks, he

famous

GoetzvonBerlichingen,robust layfilledwith bscenities, as in-

tended o

glorifyhebattle f

thefree

nights ftheempire o

main-

tain

heir reedom

gainst

ixteenth-centurymperial

uthority.

chil-

ler

far more

systematicallyttacked tyranny n his

Maria

Stuart, on

Carlos, nd

Wilhelm ell. And more

han

Goethe

he had

a

coherent heme

n all ofthem: he

national

trugglef the

English,

Swiss, nd

other

eople, or reedom.'5

While

neither oethenor

Schiller ad

anyrealcritical ense bout

the use ofsourcematerial,heyneverthelessreated tradition f

poetic

geniuswhichmade

virtually

very hilosophical omment f

theirs

law unto

heir ineteenth-century

dmirers.

oethe special-

ly

becamethegreatheroof

educatedGermans or

henext wo

cen-

turies,

with he

result hat ll his

Platonic deas

about ifewere ac-

cepted

uncritically uring the era of

his

grandsons.Life, con-

ceived

as

theproductof

organic

development, as the

themeof

Goethe's

work. t was

also the ultimate

eality

which ll the great

Germanhistorians ftheBismarck ra sought o reproduce.n the

end,

life

became moreor less the

theme f

heroichistorynd so

tended

o

diminish nycritical ense

for

nterpretinghepresent.

What

was the

meaning f ife? n the

view of German

historianst

15

Balet, p.

152 f.,

ccusedGoethe

f

panderingo

despotismnd

praised chiller

forhis

opposition.

oethewas perhaps

etter

rotectednd

less likely o

stickhis

neck

utoncehe

did get

good ob, but

beneath

he urface e

remainedympathetic

to theriseofWhigLiberalism,specially fter 815.The standardGoethebiogra-phies nclude:A. Bielschowsky,oethe, einLebenundseineWerke, vols. rev.

ed.,Munich,

921-23),

. W.

Bode,

Goethes eben

1749-1798]

vols. Berlin, 922-

27).

On

Schiller

ee: K.

Berger,

chiller.

ein Leben

und seine

Werke, vols.

12-13

ed.,

Munich,

1921-23;

Fr.

Schiitt,

Geschichtliche

arstellungen u

Friedrich

v.

Schillers ramatischen

Werken

Carlsruhe,

930);

J.

Schmidt,

chiller

und seine

Zeitgenossen.ine Gabe

fur

den 10.

November

859

(Leipzig,1859); A.

Streicher,

Schillers lucht von

Stuttgart

nd

Aufenthaltn

Mannheimvon

1782

bis 1785

(Vienna, 902).



14/27

372

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY

STUDIES

was

essentiallynd

deeply

dialectical atlher

han

ogical.

t

involved

philosophicalystemsatherhan mpirical nesorpragmatic rin-

ciples

of

politics. 6

The

origins

f

German

hilosophy f

history

erive

rom

Germa-

ny's

ultural

enaissance f

the ast

decades

ofthe

ighteenth

entury.

The two

philosophers ho

worked

utthebasic

principles

fthe

new

kind

of

thought

were

Johann

Gottfried erder

1744-1803)

and

Wilhelm on

Humboldt

1767-1835).

The first as

an East Prussian

theology

tudent

ho

migrated

o

Frankfurt-am-Main,

herehe

fell

in with group fyoungiterati hichncluded heyoungGoethe f

his

pre-Werther

ays.

Certainly he

groupdid

not

center

n

Goethe,

whowas

only

minor

member

roughtn

by

his

future

rother-in-

law,

Johann

Georg

Schlosser

1739-1799),

a

Frankfurt

atrician

and

occasional

poet.

Schlosser

was at

thattime

translating

oetry

from ll

the

anguages

f

Western

urope

and

wrote

in

English)

n

extensive erse

ritique f

Alexander

ope,

entitled

nti-Pope.Al-

though e

was

considered

ighly

mportantn

his

ownage,

Schlosser

hastosome xtent eenforgotten,argely ecauseofGoethe's amn-

ing

comments

bout

him n

his

memoirs,

ichtung

und

Wahrheit.

Later a

leading

Baden

official

nd

reformer,

noted

critic

f

the

16

In

this

ay

theroots

f

romanticism,

f

course.

Goethe

reated he

major

prob-

lemsof

the

historians,

ndividuality,

evelopment,

nd

the

question

f

achievement

(or

success).

He

was

interested

n

findinghe

changing

eality

f

thereal

world

nd

had

a

biological

iewof

change.

Not

that

which

had

been,

notthe

static

ast,

but

das

ewig

Werdende,

he

eternally

merging

becoming)

was the

object

of

hisre-

flections. s a pantheist ho latermodified isviews,Goethewas opposed o the

Enlightenment's

tilitarian

mphasis n

progress.

e

looked

for

life

n

Nature nd

in

human

ction;

ll

life

was

somehow

ied

together.

ee

Engel-Janosi,

p.

29-33.

Friedrich

Meinecke,

ie

Entstehung

es

Historismus

2nd

ed.,

Leipzig,

1946),

pp.

469-613,

lso

describes

Goethe's

rganic

world-view

n this

way,

and

Engel-Janosi

probably

erived is

description

rom

Meinecke.

he

importance

f

aesthetics

nd

of

the

problem f

reconstructing

he

living

eality,

ot

only the

visible

one

of

Renaissance

rt,

but

that

f

human

motions,

annot e

overemphasized

hen

deal-

ing

with

Goethe

and

the

historians

f

the

modern

choolwho

were

nfluenced

y

these

views,

hrough

Wilhelm

on

Humboldt,

chelling,

nd

Ranke.

Even

Ranke's

nineteenth-century

ditor, .

Dove,

pointed

ut

that

Ranke's

objectivity

s

a his-

torian

nly

meant

universalityfempathy,fMitempfinden.he reconstructionfthepsychologicallementsnhuman ehaviorwasofforemost

oncern

o

dramatists

and

historians

like.

See Erich

Rothacker,

inleitung

n

die

Geisteswissenschaften

(2nd

ed.,

Tubingen,

930),p.

40,

fn. 1.

Later,

ther

hilosophers,

.g.,

Nietzsche,

nd

in

history,

ilthey,

evelopedn

diverse

ways

what

came

to

be known

s

Lebens-

philosophie.

istory

was founded n

the

psychology

f

human

understanding

c-

cording

o

Dilthey,

theme

others ollowed

s

well.

See

Hans-Georg

Gadamer,

Wahrheit

ndMethode

2nd

ed.,

Tiubingen,

965),

pp.

218

ff.;

Georg

Misch, ebens-

philosophie

nd

Phdnomenologie.

ine

Auseinandersetzung

er

Diltheyschen

ich-

tung

mit

Heidegger

nd

Husserl

3rd

d.,

Darmstadt,

967).



15/27

HISTORICISM IN GERMAN

THOUGHT

373

Prussian

aw

reforms,

nd

emotionally

n

opponent

f Kant

during

the 1790s, this sensitive nd charmingman who wooed and won

Goethe's

ister

ornelia

which

he

brother, erhaps

ecause of

sup-

pressedncestuous eelings,

ould not

forgive)

as

later

forerunner

of German

Whiggery.

s a student f aw reform e was also

a

pi-

oneer

of historicismnd tookthe

evolutionarypproach

oevaluat-

ing nstitutions,

viewwhich ater

became common

n the

so-called

Whig nterpretation

f

history.'7

Partly

n imitation

f his

brother-in-law,

oethe

ought mploy-

ment n the ervice f an enlightenedrince nd found heDuke of

Weimar ttractive. erder ollowed

im

o

his

Saxon

Shangri-la,

ut

behavedmore

seriously

han

Goethe,

who

had

treated he Weimar

court s a romp, aid Du to princes, nd&kissedhedukeupon the

lips.'8Herder ose n the anks fthe lergy, nd eventuallyecamea

Protestantishop superintendent),sing

his

office o

foster is in-

terests

n

anguage, hilosophy,

nd education.

9

As

a philosopher, erder ncorporatedn hiswork he oncerns f

the earlierEnlightenment.t was he who became consciousof the

new

maturity

n

historical hilosophy. ike an adult mbarrassed y

his

childhood, hemore dvanced ge was ashamed f thehistory f

less

civilized imes.Man's earliesthistory ad been determined y

religion, hich eterminedhekinds f documents nypeoplechose

to use as a

vehicle f xpression. en followed radition. ationswere

characterizedy basic concepts niqueto them. n thebeginning f

historyman's anguagewas poetic,even mythological.20n conse-

quenceofthesebeliefs,Herder ttemptedo write history f iter-

ature, nda work n the volutionarytages f anguage.True to his

time,

he

was

impressed y Winckelmann'srthistories,nd he also

plunged ntothe problems f Reichhistorie, hichwas then till

17

The mostrecent nd highly evised

nterpretationf J. G.

Schlosser,

is con-

tributiono belles ettres,nd his controversial

elationship ithGoethe are sum-

marized n Liebel,Baden, p. 69 ff. hestandard iographys byhis grandson, lfred

Nicolovius, ohannGeorgSchlossers ebenund iterarisches irkenBonn,1844).See also Ernst eutler, ssaysumGoetheLeipzig,1941), , 127 ff. chlosser's nti-

Pope was composed n English n 1766 and read by the Frankfurtntellectuals

n-

cluding

oethe

efore

t

appeared

n

German

n 1776.See Liebel,Baden,p. 73,

n.

23.

18W. H.

Bruford, ulture nd

Society

n Classical

Weimar,

775-1806

Cam-

bridge, 962), pp. 53 ff.

19

Biographicalurveys f Herder's ife nd work re to be found n Bruford,p.

184-235, 08 ff.,s well s

in

Meinecke,p. 378-468.

20

Johann ottfried

erder,

ur

Philosophie

er

Geschichte, vols., Berlin-Ost,

1952), ,

102-103.



16/27

374

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY

STUDIES

matter f

tracing

medieval

ynasties

nd

sorting

he

talianfrom

he

German tories. hehistoryf ivilization,hen ecomingecularized

and

highly

opular

under

hename

of universal

istory ),

as

also

his

concern.

erder's istorical

modelwas

not

unlike

urs.

Beginning

in

the

East,

the

tory

overs

he

rise

nd

fall

of

empires,

s well

as

the

contributionso

trade

of

thePhoenicians.

No

longer

s

it

Freising's

justification

f

Christianity.21

Herder'smost

poch-making

ork,

however,

was

written

uring

the

1780s,

the

heyday

fthe

philosophical

nd

iterary

enaissance

n

Germany. ecent cholars onsider his heGermanEnlightenment

proper, nd

theera

of

Thomasius,

which oincides

with he

English

and

French

Enlightenments,

s

early

Enlightenment.

n

any

case,

the

exchange

f

deas with

Goethe nd the

ong

train

f

writers

ho

visited

Weimar, he

Spinozist

ontroversies

f

the

eighties,he

cien-

tific

dvances

f

he

ge,

and the

mergence

f

Kantian

hilosophy

ll

played

role n

shaping

Herder's wn

deas

Toward

Philosophy

f

the

History

f

Man.22

The workwas a sketch f theevolution f theworld,not from

the

first

ays

of

Genesis,but

from

he

beginnings

f

the

planet

as

eighteenth-century

cience

aw

it,

from

he

gaseous

mass.

The

mod-

ern

part

f

he

history,

he

descriptionf

the

rigins

f

Europeanpeo-

ples,

northern

nd

southern,

he

observations

n

the

character f

nations,

n the

ransitory

ature

fall

human

nstitutions-thesere

a

potpourri

f

Age

of

Reason

thinking.

erder

mphasized

hat

his-

torywas

more

han

barren

narrative;

t

was,

in

fact,

cience. t

told

the ruthboutwhat ctually xisted,boutwhat sindeed eal nthe

here

nd

now.

t

was not

nd

must

ot

be

speculation

bout

the

hid-

den

designs

f

Fate.

The

crucial

word n

thetitle

f

this

work

was

ideas,

deen.

The

concept sto

be

understood

n

terms

fa

philosophy

extending

ack

to

Plato,

however

much

t

may

have

been

modified y

European

thinkers

fterward.

t

does

not

mean

that

deas

constitute

an

ultimate

eality

nd

that

therefore

nly

some

sortof

dialectical

isms

ought

obe

studied

y

historians,

lthough

t

can

mean

very

nearly hat. n modern erminology,deen referso ideas as model

concepts

of

such

things

s

national

character,

he

state,

religion,

culture.

Herder's

philosophy

f

ideas

was

picked up

by

Wilhelm

von

21

Ibid., ,

95ff.,

52

ff.,

09

ff.,

62

ff.,

35

ff.,

tc.

22

bid.,

I,

contains

hefull

ext.



17/27


18/27

376

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY

STUDIES

constructioii

f the

tory

f the

origins

f theRomanstatebased

on

existingourcematerial.t hadofcourse aken enturieso editthe

documentary

aterial ntil

t

could

be used

n this

way.

Niebuhr

was

conscious

f

how

much

he

owed to the

development

f

classical

phil-

ology

fter

650,

and to

the

new critical

ditions

f Cicero. Yet

he

washardly hat

we

would

all

objective.

n thefirst

lace,

his

nterest

was primarilyolitical. olitics nd

history

ere

nseparable.

n

this

he was

perhaps

nfluenced

y

Montesquieu

nd the

eadingpolitical

theorists

f

the

Enlightenment

n France

and

taly.

There

was

also

a

nativeGerman radition elated o thestudy f jurisprudencend

legalhistory.

he

Germans ad after ll been

preoccupied

with

on-

stitutional

evelopmentver ince he

Peace

of

Westphalia.And for

Niebuhr

oo, all historical vents

presupposed

knowledge

f the

constitutionnd laws

of

the

nation

under

study.

These

alone

em-

bodied

ts

thos

nd

made

plain

what

henational haracter

as.

Herder, oo,

had of course

been

interested

n

national haracter

and

the

German

ntellectuals ere, n the

whole,

wakened

o

these

concerns uring heNapoleonic ra when heywereon thedefensive

and

hard

put

to

regain

heir

ndependence.

et

the nterest

n

an

ethos,

r

the haracteristic

oralityf

a

nation, oes

back

at least

to

early

ighteenth-century

idacticism,

o

the

numerous

Patriotic o-

cieties,

o the

German

daptations f Addison

nd Steele's

middle-

class

homilies.

edagogy,

ietism,nd

moral

hilosophy-Sittenlehre

-were

theprimary

oncerns f

eighteenth-century

ntellectuals.o-

hann

Georg

chlosser as

so

well

known

or is

famedwork n

moral

philosophy hatMoser's publicist on, Karl von Moser, even re-

marked hat

e would

rather

avewritten

chlosser's

ittenlehrehan

Montesquieu's

pirit fLaws.25

And the

nterestn the

development

of

society

s

an

ethical ntity

emained

strong heme

f German

philosophy f

history,ven

during he

nineteenth

entury.26t

was

not

entirely

ost

ight

f

until he

Bismarckian

nification

ompletely

changed

he

value

systemf

German

historiansnd

produced

uch

extremely

ationalistic

ypes as

Treitschke,

Marcks,

Lenz, and

others.27

Interest

n

national

history

nd the

developmentf

national har-

acter

also

became dominant n

European and

American

history-

25

On

Schlosseree

Liebel,Baden,

3.

26Cf.

Johann

Gustav

Droysen,

Historik.

Vorlesungen

iber

Enzyklopidieund

Methodologie

er

Geschichte

rep.,

armstadt,

958).

27

Hans-Heinz

rill,Die Ranke

Renaissance

Max

Lenz

und

Erich

Marcks

Berlin,

1962),

describes

his

evelopment

n

some

detail.



19/27

HISTORICISM IN

GERMAN THOUGHT

377

writing

hroughout

he

nineteenth

entury.

nd it

s

an

attitude

hat

grew utofEnlightenmentegalhistory ith ts nterestnnational

institutions,

ndout

of

the

earlier

nlightenment's

nterestn

peda-

gogy

nd

moral

philosophy.

he

assumptions

n

which

t

rests

have

been

widely

bsorbed

by

the West.

One cannot

magine

Herbert

Butterfield's

hig

nterpetation

f

History

r

thework

fmost

f

the

standard

merican,

ritish,

nd

Canadian historians

ithout

t.

WhileNiebuhr

rought

he

eighteenth

entury's

iscovery

f

na-

tional

historynto he

mainstreamf

European

historical

riting,

is

objectivity ascoloredby German esthetic ttitudes.hese were

connected

with

he

emotionalismf

German

pietism, ith he

early

romanticism

f the

Sturm

nd

Drang in

literature,

nd

withthe

mimesis

estheticsf

Aristotle hich

Winckelmann

ad

popularized.

Like

many

pietist,

Niebuhr n

fact

recommended

hat

historians

view

vents

with

bleeding

r

rejoicing eart,

hat hey

e

moved

by

justice nd

njustice,

y

wisdom

r

folly, y

coming r

departing

greatness. 28

This sbynomeans obe understoods support or lderdidactic

history.t

means

implyhatf

he

esthetic

heory

f

empathy

s also

made

part

f

any

writer's

eneral

hilosophy f

history,e

can

never

leave

human

motions

ut of

account.

Truly

bjective

istorys

not

possible

nless he

force f

human

motions

s

portrayed

n ts

vents.

If

one

is

going

o

tell

the

truth

bout

human

ctsone

cannot

gnore

the

value

of

human

motionn

history.

Yet it

s

not

Niebuhr ut

Leopoldvon

Ranke

1795-1 886)29

who

isconsideredhe ctualfounderfmodemhistory-writing.lthough

greatly

nfluenced

y

Niebuhr, e

was

also the

product f

that

ame

staunch

utheran

eligious

ackground

hichhad

played

o

import-

ant

a role

n the

German

nlightenment.

he

classical

revival f

the

28

Barthold

eorg

Niebuhr,

History f

Rome,

excerpt

n

Fritz

tern, d.,

Vari-

eties f

History

New

York,

1956),

p. 54.

The

translation,

y

Professor

tern,

s

from

the

preface

f

the

second

dition.

here s

little

vailable

on

or

about

Niebuhr n

English.

29

On

Ranke see

Aira

Kemilainen,

ie

Historische

endungder Deutschen nLeopoldvonRanke'sGeschichtsdenkenHelsinki,1968) which s basedon an ex-

amination

f

manuscripts

nd diaries

not

previously

onsidered.

ecent

standard

works

based

on

the

material

vailable

earlier

nclude:

T.

H.

von

Laue,

Leopold

Ranke. The

Formative

ears

(Princeton,

950);

Rudolf

Vierhaus,

Ranke

und

die

Soziale Welt

Muinster/W.,

957);

Iggers,

German

onception

f

History,p.

63

ff.,

and The

mage

of

Ranke n

America

nd

German

Historical

hought,

istory

nd

Theory,

I

(1962),

17-40;

Carl

Hinrichs,

anke und

die

Geschichtstheologie

er

Goethezeit

Frankfurt

.

M.,

1954).

Of

the

older

works

he

best

monograph

s

Wa-

han

Nalbandian,

Leopold

von

Rankes

Bildungsjahre

nd

Geschichtsauffassung

(Leipzig,

1902).



20/27

378

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY

STUDIES

eighteenth

entury oo,

havingreached

ts

apogee,

was now

intro-

ducedtoRanke n hissecondarychooling. omanheroicismooka

contemporaryorm

s the

newspapers

f the

dayprinted

ong

ac-

counts

f

Napoleon's

German

ampaigns.

anke,

whose

wn

nclina-

tions

an to

poetry nd

drama,

bsorbed

very

etail

nd

went

with

other chool

boys

o

view he

battle

f

Auerstadt

earhishome

own.

Resurgent

German

nationalism,

he

tremendous

istorical

mpor-

tance of

Napoleon,

and

the

emotion-laden

mages

of

the

past

con-

jured

up by the

many

fineworks

of

art

n

local art

galleries

gave

Ranke'sschoolyears n eclat theEnlightenmentad lacked.Yet he

never oughtn

thewars

nd

only urned o

history

uch

ater,

when

he was

well

ntohis

university

tudies.80

After

ome

years s

a

secondary

chool

eacher

nd then s

Dozent

at Berlin

University,anke was

able

to use a

government

tipend o

travel o

Vienna,where

e was

ableto

visit

rederickon

Gentz,

Met-

ternich's

istorian-secretary,

uite

often. ere,

under

he

nfluencef

the

efugeesrom

he

Balkanshe

wrote is

famous

istory

fthe erv-

ian Revolt,which s still classic. Thenhe wenton to unlockthe

mysteries

f

taly

nd of

the

Venetian

rchives. he

trip

o Italywas

as

significant

orRanke

as it

hadbeen

forGoethe

nd for

Winckel-

mann

efore im.

Although e was

the

firstistorian

fter

oltaire o

analyze

hisown

civilization,e

viewed t

through

oman

eyes.Taci-

tus

hapedhis

style; o

did his

Christian

elief n all

the

peculiarities

of

Protestant

dealism.

et he

rejected he

ighteenth

entury'sidac-

ticism.

Although

manyhad

done

so, Ranke

refused

oviewthe

his-

torian's ffices judgment fthepast.His sole nterest as inshow-

ingwhat

had

actually

appened,

npleasant

s it might

ave

been,

wie

es

eigentlich

ewesen.''3l

The

essential

meaning fthis

newcredo, n

keepingwith he

rising

concern

or

itizenship

nd the

burgher's

ewfound

umanitariannd

30

The idea

that

Ranke

had not

been

much

ffected

y

the

political

movements

f

his

boyhood

ppears o

be

false,

espite

he

rgumentf

Carl

Hinrichs,

.g.,

Frisian

historian

ith

somewhat

omantic

tylewho

argues

n this

wayin his

Leopold

vonRanke,1795-1886, n Preussen ls Historischesroblem, d. GerhardOeste-

reich

Berlin,

1964)

pp.

319 ff.

ee

also his

Ranke

und

Geschichtstheologie

er

Goethezeit.

t

is

perhaps

because he

emphasizes

he

mportance

f

Ranke's theo-

logical

nterests

hat he

political

nes

appear

undervalued. ut

for

the

German f

this

ra

religious

ervor,

senseof

mission,

n

interest

n

the

significance

f

great

historical

vents,

nd

nationalismll

went

hand

n

hand.

See

Aira

Kemilainen's

x-

cellent

Auffassungen

iber

ie

Sendung

es

Deutschen

Volkes

um

die

Wende

es

18.

und

19.

Jahrhunderts,

nnales

Academiae

Scientiarum

ennicae, er.

B,

tom. 101

(Helsinki,

956).

31

Ranke,

immtliche

Werke,

d.

Alfred

ove

(Leipzig,

1867-1890),

vols.

33/34,

p.

vii.



21/27

HISTORICISM

IN

GERMAN

THOUGHT

379

political

nterests,

asto write

kind f

history

hichwas

not

of-

ficial istory,hich idnotbow o a compulsionoflattereigning

princes

r erve s a

defense

or

despised

egime.

he

historian

as

not

o

write osuit

partisan

ine,

r

foreign

olicy

bjectives,

r

n

fear f

reprisal

rretaliation

yMetternich's

olice

ensors. e

was

toeducate

man oa

higherevel f

humanityy

teaching

imnot

o

deceive

imself,

o

accept

istory

nd

events s

they

ctually

ere,

had

been, nd

would

e.

Unlike

modem

hilosophers

f ocial

cience,

anke

wasnot

pri-

marilynterestednwritingvalue-freeistory.hesupremeawof

the

historianasto

present

acts

s

strictly

s

possible,

contingent

and

unattractive

hough

his

may e. 32

Yetthe

ctual

omposition

f

the

arrativeas

to

focus n

whatwas

mportant

t

themoment

hat

it

became

mportant.

anke id

not elieve

nstartingis

description

with

general

istory

f

all

political

nstitutions

n

Europe,but

in

presenting

he

detailed

vents

ccuringn

each

nation

when t

emerged

nto

he

unlight

f

history,.e., ssumed

role n

the nter-

nationalcene. ikeHegel,whom eotherwisepposed, anke e-

lieved

hat ot ll

peoples

xperienced

he

volutionarytages f

his-

tory.

nly hose

n

whom

he

ight

f

civilization

honewere o

be

described.

nd his

electionould

ot,

f

ourse,

resupposevalue-

free

istory.33

How

then, ere

mportant

vents o

be

isolated, nown,

nd

de-

scribed?What

riteriaould he

historianse to

guide im

hrough

the

welter

f

detail?

Ranke's

ystem,hich

uilt n

Wilhelm on

Humboldt'snd lsoonSchelling'sidentityhilosophy,rovided

patternf

conceptual

nalysis hich

ave

him

superiorool

for

grouping,

rranging,

nd

nterpreting

assive

uantitiesf

critically

sorted

exts.

Man,

he

believed,

s

knowable

y

historynd

through

philosophy.is

aimwas

o

combinehe

alues f

both.

hilosophys

rationalnd

deductive

nd

history

mpiricalnd

nductive.et

t s

through

he ationalnd

deductive

ystem

f

philosophyhat ne

can

unlock he

workings

f

he

reaterpiritual

eality

hich

lonemakes

the tudyfhistory eaningful.orRanke, he deasor

deen

of

Humboldt

epresent

he

endency

f

ny ge

of

man.

Without

deen,

32

Ranke,Histories

f

the

Latin and Germanic

ations

from

494-1514 3rd ed.,

Leipzig, 885),pp. v-viii.

Cited

from tern's

ranslationnhis

Varieties,

. 57.)

33

As

a

resultwe

have

the

many

tandard

multi-volume

istories f

Europe tress-

ing either oreign

ffairs

r

the

preponderance f a

major power,

e.g., Sagnac's

Peuples

et Civilisations

eries,

r the

many

general

uropean

nd

worldhistories,

e.g.,

Historia

Mundi.



22/27


23/27

HISTORICISM

IN

GERMAN

THOUGHT

381

thedrives

fhuman onsciousness

or ulfillment.n thishe

also dif-

fers romHegel,whoreduced ll ideational orces o theworkingf

God's

one absolute

pirit

n

theworld.35

Of courseRanke's

use of deas is hermeneutical;

e uses them

o

explain,

o

givemeaning

o historicalvents.

However

bjective,.e.,

non-partisan,

is

approachmay

havebeen,

his

use

of

a

hermeneutical

system

whichdepended

on isolating he

values found

n

the doc-

uments

nd

combining

hemwith

is

own n order o

define he

mean-

ing

of

eventswas hardly

alue-free.

ertainly

istorical ecords x-

press entiments hich an be seenas driving orces, nd certainly

Ranke

foundwhathe wanted n terms

ftheProtestant

thic, espect

formonarchical

overnmentnd interest

n the developmentf na-

tional

tateswhich

made

up

his

personal

ode

of

meanings. owever,

the

ystem

ad

merit.t provided way

of

mastering

uge mounts f

material

nd

making ense fwhat hey ontained. e

had his theme

and

he

stuck

o

t.36

In keeping

with hecharacteristic

orce f nineteenth-centuryis-

tory, ationalism, hichRanke clearly ecognized orwhat t was,87

he devoted whole eries

f

works

o theriseof modern

reat ower

states rom he

ixteenth

entury-Germany,ngland,

Prussia. t is

thiskindof

approach

which

till ets

he

theme f modern

istorical

35

Cf.

Nalbandian, p.

49

ff.;

ee

also

Hegel,

The

Philosophy f

History,

d.

C. J.

Friedrich,

rans. .

Sibree

New

York,

1956).

See also the

discussionn

the

previous

footnote.

36

On current

rends

n

hermeneuticsee

Richard

.

Palmer,

Hermeneutics.nter-

pretationheoryn Schleiermacher,ilthey,Heidegger,nd Gadamer Evanston,

Ill., 1969),which

describes

oth

Heidegger's

nd

Gadamer's

disagreement ith he

approach

fRanke

nd

Dilthey pp.

176

ff.).

37

Ranke'sview

of

nationalism as

highly

ragmatic.

n

the

ight

f

the

German

case

he

noted

n

his

Politisches

esprach, 836,

SW,

49/50,326), that

nationali-

ties ould

become

tates,

ut

hat tates

were

eldom

omposed

olely

f

nationalities.

(See

the ntire

nalysis

f

Ranke'sview

of

nationalism,

erman

nationalism,

nd the

mission

f theGermans t various

tages

f

their

evelopment

n

Kemiliainen,anke,

pp. 79-180.)Despitehis

universalism,

anke

understoodhe

mportancef

national-

ismfor

he

nineteenth

entury.

or

the

Germans,

who had

a

cosmopolitan

enseof

mission

n

the

eighteenth

entury,

ationalism nd

universalism ere

thus

melted

down n the oncept fGermany'seadershipfmankindibid.,p. 180). (See also

Ranke's

iscourses

ith

Maximillian

I

in the

Epochen,

.

165.) National

overeignty,

he

agreed

with he

king

here,

ended

owards

he

developmentf

nationalities.

ut

he

doubted

hat ll

European

nationali

enlightnment and rise of historicism

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