Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Reorientations around Goethe
- Reorientations around Goethe II
- Special Section on Goethe's Narrative Events edited by Fritz Breithaupt
- Book Reviews
- Walter Hinderer and Alexander Rosenbaum, eds. Herzog Bernhard von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach: Das Tagebuch der Reise durch Nord-Amerika in den Jahren 1825 und 1826. Stiftung für Romantikforschung LX. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2017. 912 pp.
- Carl Wilhelm Frölich. On Man and His Circumstances. Translated by Edward T. Larkin. Oxford: Peter Lang, 2017. 244 pp.
- Lutherbibliothek 2017: Dokumentation von literarischen Lutherbildern zwischen 1517 und 2017 in fünf Reihen. Dresden: Neisse, 2017–ongoing.
- Heiner Boehncke, Hans Sarkowicz, and Joachim Seng. Monsieur Göthé: Goethes unbekannter Großvater. Berlin: Die Andere Bibliothek, 2017. 478 pp.
- Eva Geulen. Aus dem Leben der Form: Goethes Morphologie und die Nager. Berlin: August, 2016. 160 pp.
- Karl S. Guthke. Goethes Reise nach Spanisch-Amerika: Weltbewohnen in Weimar. Göttingen: Wallstein, 2016. 79 pp.
- Joseph D. O'Neil. Figures of Natality: Reading the Political in the Age of Goethe. New York: Bloomsbury, 2017. 312 pp.
- Martin Jörg Schäfer. Das Theater der Erziehung: Goethes “pädagogische Provinz” und die Vorgeschichten der Theatralisierung von Bildung. Bielefeld: transcript, 2016. 308 pp.
- David E. Wellbery. Goethes Faust I: Reflexion der tragischen Form. Munich: Carl Friedrich von Siemens Stiftung, 2016. 102 pp.
- Beate Allert, ed. Herder: From Cognition to Cultural Science. Heidelberg: Synchron, 2016. 459 pp.
- Vance Byrd. A Pedagogy of Observation: Nineteenth-Century Panoramas, German Literature, and Reading Culture. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press, 2017, 218 pp., 18 illustrations, 8 color plates.
- Stefani Engelstein. Sibling Action: The Genealogical Structure of Modernity. New York: Columbia University Press, 2017. 373 pp.
- Julia Freytag, Inge Stephan, and Hans-Gerd Winter, eds. J. M. R. Lenz-Handbuch. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2017. 759 pp.
- Claudia Lillge, Thorsten Unger, and Björn Weyand, eds. Arbeit und Müßiggang in der Romantik. Paderborn: Fink, 2017. 494 pp.
- Asko Nivala. The Romantic Idea of the Golden Age in Friedrich Schlegel's Philosophy of History. New York: Routledge, 2017. viii + 273 pp.
- Larry H. Peer and Christopher R. Clason, eds. Romantic Rapports: New Essays on Romanticism across the Disciplines. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2017. ix + 180 pp.
- Heather I. Sullivan and Caroline Schaumann, eds. German Ecocriticism in the Anthropocene. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. 348 pp.
- Chad Wellmon. Organizing Enlightenment: Information Overload and the Invention of the Modern Research University. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015. 353 pp.
Walter Hinderer and Alexander Rosenbaum, eds. Herzog Bernhard von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach: Das Tagebuch der Reise durch Nord-Amerika in den Jahren 1825 und 1826. Stiftung für Romantikforschung LX. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2017. 912 pp.
from Book Reviews
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 June 2019
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Reorientations around Goethe
- Reorientations around Goethe II
- Special Section on Goethe's Narrative Events edited by Fritz Breithaupt
- Book Reviews
- Walter Hinderer and Alexander Rosenbaum, eds. Herzog Bernhard von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach: Das Tagebuch der Reise durch Nord-Amerika in den Jahren 1825 und 1826. Stiftung für Romantikforschung LX. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2017. 912 pp.
- Carl Wilhelm Frölich. On Man and His Circumstances. Translated by Edward T. Larkin. Oxford: Peter Lang, 2017. 244 pp.
- Lutherbibliothek 2017: Dokumentation von literarischen Lutherbildern zwischen 1517 und 2017 in fünf Reihen. Dresden: Neisse, 2017–ongoing.
- Heiner Boehncke, Hans Sarkowicz, and Joachim Seng. Monsieur Göthé: Goethes unbekannter Großvater. Berlin: Die Andere Bibliothek, 2017. 478 pp.
- Eva Geulen. Aus dem Leben der Form: Goethes Morphologie und die Nager. Berlin: August, 2016. 160 pp.
- Karl S. Guthke. Goethes Reise nach Spanisch-Amerika: Weltbewohnen in Weimar. Göttingen: Wallstein, 2016. 79 pp.
- Joseph D. O'Neil. Figures of Natality: Reading the Political in the Age of Goethe. New York: Bloomsbury, 2017. 312 pp.
- Martin Jörg Schäfer. Das Theater der Erziehung: Goethes “pädagogische Provinz” und die Vorgeschichten der Theatralisierung von Bildung. Bielefeld: transcript, 2016. 308 pp.
- David E. Wellbery. Goethes Faust I: Reflexion der tragischen Form. Munich: Carl Friedrich von Siemens Stiftung, 2016. 102 pp.
- Beate Allert, ed. Herder: From Cognition to Cultural Science. Heidelberg: Synchron, 2016. 459 pp.
- Vance Byrd. A Pedagogy of Observation: Nineteenth-Century Panoramas, German Literature, and Reading Culture. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press, 2017, 218 pp., 18 illustrations, 8 color plates.
- Stefani Engelstein. Sibling Action: The Genealogical Structure of Modernity. New York: Columbia University Press, 2017. 373 pp.
- Julia Freytag, Inge Stephan, and Hans-Gerd Winter, eds. J. M. R. Lenz-Handbuch. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2017. 759 pp.
- Claudia Lillge, Thorsten Unger, and Björn Weyand, eds. Arbeit und Müßiggang in der Romantik. Paderborn: Fink, 2017. 494 pp.
- Asko Nivala. The Romantic Idea of the Golden Age in Friedrich Schlegel's Philosophy of History. New York: Routledge, 2017. viii + 273 pp.
- Larry H. Peer and Christopher R. Clason, eds. Romantic Rapports: New Essays on Romanticism across the Disciplines. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2017. ix + 180 pp.
- Heather I. Sullivan and Caroline Schaumann, eds. German Ecocriticism in the Anthropocene. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. 348 pp.
- Chad Wellmon. Organizing Enlightenment: Information Overload and the Invention of the Modern Research University. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015. 353 pp.
Summary
What was life in the United States like in the 1820s? A keen observer at the time compared the area around the Capitol in Washington DC with the vegetable fields surrounding Weimar and pondered: “Der Plan nach welchem Washington angelegt werden soll ist coloßal und wird nie ausgeführt werden; nach ihm könnte es eine Bevölkerung von einer Million Menschen faßen, während es jetzt gegen 13000 nur enthalten soll und schwerlich mehr bekommen wird.” (300; November 2, 1825; Italics here and throughout are original.)
We now have a splendid edition of one of the most detailed, visually minded and multiperspective accounts of North America in the early nineteenth century. Bernhard von Weimar (1792–1862), second son of Carl August Duke of Saxe- Weimar and officer in the Dutch army—who had fought in the Battle of Waterloo and, after the Congress of Vienna, became colonel of a regiment in the service of the Dutch king—had long wished to travel to the country of which Goethe famously wrote in Zahme Xenien, “Amerika, du hast es besser / Als unser Continent, das alte, / Hast keine verfallene Schlösser / Und keine Basalte.” He does find “ein sonderbares Stück Basalt, einem Menschenprofil ähnlich” on one of his first days in Boston (117; July 31, 1825). He notes in his entry dated July 26, 1825 about approaching Boston, that his arrival in the United States—he abbreviates “V. St.”—was one of the favorite memories of his life, and full of enthusiasm he calls the fight for independence “[die] heilsamste[] Revolution die je gewesen war” (121). He shares Goethe's sentiment when, about to depart, he names the United States “dieses glückliche Land” and Europe “veraltet[] und morsch[]” (628; June 16, 1826). He felt proud about covering “eine Distanz von 7135 Meilen” (630) and meeting his goal of careful reporting.
On most days of his sojourn in the US from July 1825 to June 1826, Prince Bernhard must have spent several hours with pen and paper. He filled more than a thousand pages with his observations and reflections, with his own family and Goethe's circle in mind, and he also added many drawings and sketches.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Goethe Yearbook 26Publications of the Goethe Society of North America, pp. 301 - 303Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2019