HIST 2509
A History of Germany
Lecture 6-1
The German Enlightenment
Announcements
1) test results
-we’re aiming to return them October
25th or 27th
-TA office hours tba then
Immanuel Kant
Sapere Aude!
(dare to know!)
Prussian coat of arms
Prussian coat of arms
Brandenburg-Prussia
Kant Serves as Cultural Bridge
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,1112130,00.html
Today’s Main Themes
• What are the features of the German
Enlightenment?
• Who are its practitioners?
• What conditions give rise to it?
• Draw backs?
• What accounts for its different impact in the
German lands?
I. Why the 18th Century?
a) Culture up to now: closed and private
-most people: (townfolk and peasants) local
-aristocracy: international court culture
Voltaire
French
philosophe
and guest of
Frederick
the Great
at Sanssouci,
Potsdam
Sanssouci
Palace
Potsdam
The Prussian
Versailles
I. Why the 18th Century?
b) wealth accumulation and age of
discovery
-the Atlantic system of trade
-bureaucracy and education, new networks
-slow emergence of literate middle class
II. Innovations
a) rise of print culture
-more books, magazines, newspapers
-new social role for reading: public and
private
-correspondence -- “A Republic of Letters”
-new institutions (bookshops, lending
libraries, readings circles, coffeehouses,
salons)
-professional associations, political groups
Sadly no WiFi here
-- an 18th Century Coffeehouse
Jewish Salons
Berlinische
Monatsschrift
(Berlin
Monthly)
1783-1811
Henriette Herz
II. Innovations
b) “openness” of literary sphere (Öffentlichkeit)
-culture of reading and writing “accessible” to all
-limitations in practice: economic and educational
c) connection to state-building
-enlightened absolutism -- der alte Fritz
-rise of universities, bureaucracy, statecraft
-capitalism and colonialism
III. But What is Enlightenment?
(Aufklärung)
a) Main characteristics
-critical use of reason to better humankind
-belief in progress, some religious toleration
-broad European movement with many different components
and proponents
b) Intellectual origins
-pietism (Philip Spener (1635-1705), August Hermann
Francke (1663-1727), Univcrsity of Halle
-rationalism (Christian Wolff (1679-1754)
III. But What is Enlightenment?
(Aufklärung)
-religious toleration (Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
(1729-1781)
1. Combines pietism and rationalism
2. Connected to Jewish Enlightenment
(Haskala)
3. Nathan the Wise and Moses Mendelssohn
III. But What is Enlightenment?
(Aufklärung)
Immanual Kant (1724-1804)
-”What is Enlightenment?” (1784)
-critical philosophy
-reason over passion
IV. Enlightenment and Its Limits
a. Jews and the Enlightenment
b. Gender and the Enlightenment
c. Race and the Enlightenment
d. Separation of Macht (power) and Geist (spirit)
IV. Enlightenment and Its Limits
a. Jews and the Enlightenment
-cultural assimilation, reform Judaism, German vs. yiddish
-Moses Mendelsohn: “adopt the mores and the constitution of
the land in which you have settled, but keep the faith of
your fathers”
-translation of Torah into German
-Judaism as religion based on rule of law and reason
Emancipation in the Air?
-Christian Wilhelm Dohm, Prussian privy war
counselor
- “On the Civic Improvement of the Jews”
(1781)
- Joseph II of Austria “Patent of Tolerance”
(1782)
-still distrust: see Kant’s “nation of cheaters”
b) gender and the Enlightenment
-quest to discover the essence of human soul
-women ruled by passion, men by reason
-despite some exceptions -- separate spheres
c) race and the Enlightenment
-the quest to explain difference
-slow rise of biology and taxonomy
-Kant, 1775 “On the Different Races of Man”
-self betterment -- who is capable, who isn’t?