History 332:  German History

History 332 – GERMAN HISTORY – September 27, 2004 

HEGEL AND HEINE  

I.                   A German Renaissance: 1750 – 1850

A.    The Enlightenment:

1.      30 Years War & frustration with organized religion

2.      Huge prestige of science

3.      KANT: think for yourself!  Freedom!  Think freely in PUBLIC

4.      LESSING:  change the PUBLIC – from enforced thought to freedom of conscience;  public art/ theater as key way to change public

B.     Romanticism

1.      Frustration with Science

2.      Rediscovery of mystery, emotion, intuition

3.      Schlegels; Novalis, Friedrich

C.    Giants:

1.      Goethe – Schiller – Beethoven

2.      “Enlightenment” figures (freedom!) with strongly “romantic” qualities (mystery, rebellion, emotion)

D.    TURMOIL!

1.      French Revolution – enthusiasm for “liberty” – but horror at the Terror

2.      French invasion & occupation!

3.      War of “Liberation” against the French

E.     THE PUBLIC both caused and was caused by this renaissance

1.      isolation made communication difficult

2.      growth of “public” – Rise of Prussia; Rise of Austria; search for alternative to existing religions

3.      Kantian demand for right to speak one’s own opinion in public

4.      Sudden BURST! of art, literature, political conversation

5.      WHO IS IN THIS “PUBLIC”?

(a)    Herder – need for shared culture; rights of cultural minorities

(b)   Fichte – “we” German-speaking people have right to self-determination!

                     

II.                G. W. F. Hegel (1770-1831): MACRO-COSMIC Speculation – what is Reality?  Does Reality change?  What is the State?  What is the Mind?    

A.    “Reality” = GEIST

1.      Physical “reality” comes & goes – what is Eternal is Spirit/Geist

2.      “IDEALISM” (Mind/spirit is at the heart of “reality”)

B.     GEIST actively shapes the world

1.      individual human minds shape their own worlds

2.      collective human minds shape the PUBLIC and the STATE; the STATE as the expression of collective Geist)

3.      ZEITGEIST – each era has its own “spiritual character”

4.      ABSOLUTER GEIST – ABSOLUTE MIND (God?) – works itself out through human history

C.    GEIST works in mysterious ways!

1.      Linear movement: a… b… c…

2.      DIALECTICAL MOVEMENT:

Thesis vs. Anti-thesis

            == SYNTHESIS

D.    DIALECTICAL CHANGE is built to reality

E.     Cosmic Optimism – “Absoluter Geist” is actively shaping Reality  

 

III.               H. Heine (1797-1856): MICRO-COSMIC observation: individual lives; falling in love; oddities of daily life

A.    Jewish background; conversion to Christianity; sense of being an “outsider”

B.     Journalism, poetry, fairy tales

C.    Not “dialectics” but “irony” – don’t worry about Cosmic Geist!;  instead, look for web of surprises in everyday life

D.    German Patriot: defends right of “we the people” to enjoy freedom!  Liberal-Nationalism

E.     German Critic: attacks Authoritarian rulers; attacks religious bigots; attacks “us” v. “them” mentalities

F.     Flight to Paris; homesick for Germany  

IV.              Hegel & Heine – two German types

A.    Hegel – try to understand the Cosmic picture!

1.      “Right Hegelians” – political conservatives defend the “way things are” as “coming from God”

2.      “Left Hegelians” – KARL MARX – call for total change in the way things are

B.     Heine – outsider, exile, critic but homesick; look to your own life & relationships;  be aware of irony, paradox, & surprise; reject all “Systems” & “Ideologies;” above all, be a free person!