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Georg Herwegh and the Aesthetics of German Unification

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2008

William J. Brazill
William J. Brazill
Affiliation:
Michigan State University
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Extract

Georg Herwech was preeminently the German political poet of the 1840's. With youthful arrogance and unstable talent he burst onto the literary and political stage in 1841 with the publication of his Gedichte eines Lebendigen. The contagious excitement generated by this work showed that he both touched and epitomized the revolutionary aspirations of Germany's intellectuals. Gottfried Keller described the immediate impact of Herwegh's work on him: “The new tone struck me like a trumpet blast which suddenly arouses a large camp of the people's army.” And his reaction was typical: Herwegh was feted by literary circles and political coteries impatient for the revolution that his poetry impelled. When the revolution did come in 1848, Herwegh led a battalion into battle, only to flee precipitately in defeat. But the poet outlived his reputation. He spent most of the years after 1848 in exile, growing increasingly estranged from Germany, his infrequent later poetry never equalling the vigor of his first verse. He had lived for revolution, and when that revolution failed he passed the rest of his life in futile and impotent grasping for the past or some imagined future. “They were like the court clock at Versailles, which pointed to one hour, the hour at which the King died,” wrote Alexander Herzen, describing the empty lives of the exiled revolutionaries of 1848 like Herwegh. “And like the clock, they had not been wound up since the death of Louis XVI.”

Type
Articles
Information
Central European History , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , June 1972 , pp. 99 - 126
Copyright
Copyright © Conference Group for Central European History of the American Historical Association 1972

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References

1. Keller, Gottfried, “Autobiographien und Tagebücher,” Sāmtliche Werke (Bern, 1947), XXI, 19.Google Scholar

2. Herzen, Alexander, My Past and Thoughts, trans. Constance, Garnett (New York, 1925), IV, 167–68.Google Scholar

3. Heine, Heinrich, “Atta Troll, Vorrede,” Werke und Briefe, ed. Hans, Kaufmann (Berlin, 1961–1964), I, 344. Hereafter cited as Heine.Google Scholar

4. Herwegh, Georg, “Aufruf,” Werke, ed. Hermann, Tardel (Berlin and Leipzig, n.d.), I, 38. Hereafter cited as Herwegh. The poem was written in 1841; hereafter the date for each quotation from Herwegh's work will be given in parentheses at the end of the footnote.Google Scholar

5. “An George Herwegh,” Heine, II, 336.

6. “Die Audienz,” ibid., II, 243. See also I, 329–30.

7. For a complete discussion of this episode, see Carr, E. H., The Romantic Exiles (Harmondsworth, Middlesex, 1949), pp. 56–60;Google ScholarLegge, J. G., Rhyme and Revolution in Germany (London, 1918), pp. 360–65;Google Scholar and Valentin, Veit, Geschichte der deutschen Revolution 1848–49 (Berlin, 1930), I, 486–504.Google Scholar

8. “Simplicissimus I,” Heine, II, 372–75.

9. “Die Siegestrunken,” Herwegh, III, 133 (1871).

10. “Der schlimmste Feind,” ibid., III, 132 (1871).

11. Herwegh, Marcel, Au Banquet des Dieux (Paris, 1932), p. 88.Google Scholar

12. See, for example, Kohn, Hans, The Mind of Germany (New York, 1960), pp. 173–75.Google Scholar

13. “Dichter und Staat,” Herwegh, II, 38 (1839).

14. ibid.

15. “Literatur und Volk,” ibid., II, 47 (1839).

16. For a full discussion of the meaning of “freedom” to German intellectuals in this period, see Krieger, Leonard, The German Idea of Freedom (Boston, 1957), pp. 275–397.Google Scholar

17. “Seinem Ludwig Feuerbach,” Herwegh, III, 155 (1872).

18. For a discussion of the Young Hegelians, see Löwith, Karl, ed., Die Hegelsche Linke (Stuttgart, 1962);Google ScholarGebhardt, Julian, Politik und Eschatologie: Studien zur Geschichte der Hegelschen Schule in den Jahren 1830–1840 (Munich, 1963);Google Scholar and Brazill, William J., The Young Hegelians (New Haven, 1970).Google Scholar

19. “Ludwig Feuerbach,” Herwegh, I, 138 (1843).

20. “Literatur und Volk,” ibid., II, 42 (1839).

21. “Der Mangel politischer Bildung bei den deutschen Literaten,” ibid., II, 62 (1839).

22. “Sonett XXI,” ibid., I, 76 (1840).

23. “Wer ist frei?”, ibid., I, 25 (1841).

24. Schiller, , “Der Antritt des neuen Jahrhunderts,” Werke, ed. Bellermann, Ludwig (Leipzig and Vienna, 1895), I, 265.Google Scholar

25. “Die Eine und ganze Freiheit!”, Einundzwanzig Boden aus der Schweiz (Zurich and Winterthur, 1843), p. 92.Google Scholar

26. Letter from Herwegh to his wife, Oct. 30, 1847, in 1848. Briefe von und an Georg Herwegh, ed. Marcel, Herwegh (Paris, Leipzig, and Munich, 1896), p. 38.Google Scholar

27. “Unsern Künstlern,” Herwegh, I, 81 (1840).

28. “Jean Paul,” ibid., II, 97 (1839).

29. “ An die deutsche Jugend,” ibid., I, 99 (1841).

30. “Eine demokratische Verirrung,” ibid., II, 68 (1839).

31. For the influence of Feuerbach on Herwegh, see Lévy, Albert, La philosophie de Feuerbach et son influence sur la littérature allemande (Paris, 1904), pp. 430–43.Google Scholar

32. Hegel, , Vorlesungen über die Philosophie der Geschichte, ed. Eduard, Gans, Werke (Berlin, 1848), IX, 22. Hereafter cited as Hegel.Google Scholar

33. “Literatur und Volk,” Herwegh, II, 45 (1839).

34. Feuerbach, Ludwig, Gedanken über Tod und Unsterblichkeit (Leipzig, 1876), p. 146.Google Scholar

35. Hegel, IX, 493.

36. Burckhardt, Jacob, Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien, ed. Walter, Goetz (Leipzig, 1928), p. 1.Google Scholar

37. Herwegh, I, XV (1840).

38. “Sonett XX,” ibid., I, 75 (1840).

39. Ruge, Arnold, Politische Bilder aus der Zeit (Leipzig, 1847), p. 113.Google Scholar

40. Hegel, IX, 128.

41. “An die deutschen Dichter,” Herwegh, I, 49 (1840).

42. Hegel, IX, 493.

43. See n. 22, above.

44. “Eröffnung,” Herwegh, II, 22 (1839).

45. “Dichter und Staat,” ibid., II, 38–39 (1839).

46. “Wer ist frei?”, ibid., I, 26 (1841). “Die böse Zwei” refers both to abstract dualism and to Austria and Prussia.

47. “Eine demokratische Verirrung,” ibid., II, 67 (1839).

48. “Sonett, Mai 1843,” ibid., III, 150 (1843).

49. “Literatur und Aristokratie,” ibid., II, 39 (1839).

50. “Literatur und Volk,” ibid., II, 48 (1839).

51. “Die neue Literatur,” ibid., II, 27 (1839).

52. “Eröffnung,” ibid., II, 21 (1839).

53. “Deutschlands Unglück,” ibid., II, 163 (1840).

54. “Eine demokratische Verirrung,” ibid., II, 67 (1839).

55. ibid., II, 68 (1839).

56. ibid., II, 67 (1839).

57. “Eröffnung,” ibid., II, 21–22 (1839).

58. “Literatur und Volk,” ibid., II, 45 (1839).

59. “Dichter und Staat,” ibid., II, 37 (1839).

60. “Ultimatum an die Kleinen,” ibid., III, 108 (1866).

61. “Vive la République!”, ibid., 1, 45–46 (1840).

62. “Kein Preussen und kein Österreich,” ibid., III, 34 (1848).

63. “Dilemma,” ibid., III, 135 (1872).