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

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,1112130,00.html

Kant Serves as Cultural Bridge

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 Greatat Sanssouci, Potsdam

Sanssouci PalacePotsdam

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 rationalism2. 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 Enlightenmentb. Gender and the Enlightenmentc. Race and the Enlightenmentd. 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?