The Story of My Life
GA 28
Chapter XXI
[ 1 ] Through the liberal politician of whom I have spoken I became acquainted with the owner of a book-shop. This book business had seen better days than those it was passing through during my stay in Weimar. This was still true when the shop belonged to the father of the young man whom I came to know as the owner. The important thing for me was the fact that this book-shop published a paper which carried sketchy articles dealing with contemporary spiritual life and whatever was then appearing in the fields of poetry, science, and art. This paper also was in a decline; its circulation had fallen off. But it afforded me the opportunity to write about much which then lay within the scope of my thinking or had a relation to this. Although the numerous essays and book reviews which I thus wrote were read by very few, it was an important thing to me to have a paper in which I could publish whatever I pleased to write. There was a stimulus in this which bore fruit later, when I edited the Magazin für Literatur and was therefore compelled to share intensely in thought and feeling in contemporary spiritual life.
[ 2 ] In this way Weimar became for me the place to which my thoughts had often to turn back in later years. The narrow limits within which my life had been restricted in Vienna were now expanded, and I had spiritual and human experiences the results of which appeared later on.
[ 3 ] Most important of all, however, were the relationships with men which were then formed.
When in later years I have recalled to memory Weimar and my life there, my mental gaze has often been directed to a house which had become dear to me in very special measure.
[ 4 ] I became acquainted with the actor Neuffer while he was still engaged at the Weimar theatre. I appreciated in him at first his earnest and austere conception of his profession. Into his judgment concerning the art of the stage he allowed nothing of the dilettante to enter. This was satisfying for the reason that people are not always aware that dramatic art must fulfil genuinely artistic requirements in the same way as does, for instance, music.
[ 5 ] Neuffer married the sister of the pianist and composer Bernhard Stavenhagen. I was introduced into his home. One was in this way received at the same time in friendly fashion in the home of the parents of Frau Neuffer and Bernhard Stavenhagen. Frau Neuffer is a woman who radiates a spiritual atmosphere over everything about her. Her sentiments, deeply rooted in the soul, shone with wonderful beauty in the free and informal talk in which one shared while in her home. She brought forward whatever she had to say thoughtfully and yet graciously. Every moment that I spent with the Neuffers I had the feeling: “Frau Neuffer strives to reach truth in all the relationships of life in a way that is very rare.”
[ 6 ] That I was welcomed there was evidenced in the most varied incidents. I will choose one example.
[ 7 ] One Christmas Eve Herr Neuffer came to my home, and – as I was not in – left the request that I must without fail come to his home for the ceremony of Christmas gifts. This was not easy, for in Weimar I always had to share in several such festivities. But I managed somehow to do this. Then I found, beside the gifts for the children, a special Christmas gift for me all nicely wrapped up, the value of which can be seen only from its history.
[ 8 ] I had been one day in the studio of a sculptor. The sculptor wanted to show me his work. Very little that I saw there interested me. Only a single bust which lay out of sight in a corner attracted my attention. It was a bust of Hegel. In the studio, which belonged to the home of an old lady very prominent in Weimar, there was to be seen every possible sort of sculpture. Sculptors always rented the room for only a short time; and each tenant would leave there many things which he did not care to take with him. But there were also some things which had lain there for a long time unobserved, such as the Hegel bust.
[ 9 ] The interest I had conceived in this bust led from that time on to my mentioning it here or there. So this happened once also in the Neuffer home; there also I added a casual remark to the effect that I should like to have the bust in my possession.
[ 10 ] Then on the following Christmas Eve it was given to me as a present at Neuffer's. At lunch on the following day, to which I was invited, Neuffer told how he had procured the bust.
[ 1 ] He first went to the lady to whom the studio belonged. He told her that some one had seen the bust in her studio, and that it would have a special value for him if he could procure it. The lady said that such things had been in her house for a long time past, but whether a “Hegel” bust was there – as to that she knew nothing. She appeared quite willing, however, to guide Neuffer around in order that he might look for it. Everything was “thoroughly searched”; not the most hidden corner was left uninspected; nowhere was the Hegel bust discovered. Neuffer was quite sad, for there had been something very satisfying to him in the thought of giving me pleasure by means of the Hegel bust. He was already standing at the door with the lady. The maid-servant came along. She heard the words of Neuffer's: “Yes, it is a pity that we have not found the Hegel bust!” “Hegel!” interjected the maid: “Is this perhaps that head with the tip of the nose broken off which is under my bed in the servant's room?” Forthwith the final act of the expedition was carried out, and Neuffer actually succeeded in procuring the bust; before Christmas there was still time to supplement the defective nose.
[ 12 ] So it was that I came by the Hegel bust which is one of the few things that later accompanied me to many different places. I always liked to look again and again at this head of Hegel (by Wassmann, the year 1826) when I was deeply immersed in the world of Hegel's ideas. And this, as a matter of fact, happened very often. This countenance, whose features are the most human expression of the purest thought, constitutes a life-companion wielding a manifold influence.
[ 13 ] So it was with the Neuffers. They spared no pains when they wished to give someone pleasure by means of something that had a special relation to him. The children that came one by one into the Neuffer home had a model mother. Frau Neuffer brought them up less by what she did than by what she is – by her whole being. I had the happiness of being godfather to one of the sons. Every visit to this house was the occasion of an inner satisfaction. I was privileged to make such visits also in later years after I had left Weimar but returned to and fro to deliver lectures. Unfortunately this has not been possible now for a long while. It thus happens that I have not been able to see the Neuffers during the years in which a painful fate has broken in upon them; for this family is one of those most sorely put to the test by the World War.
[ 14 ] A charming personality was the father of Frau Neuffer, the elder Stavenhagen. Before this time he had been engaged in a practical occupation, but he had then settled down to rest. He now lived wholly in the contents of the library he had acquired for himself; and it was a thoroughly congenial picture to others – the way in which he lived there. Nothing self-satisfied or top-lofty had entered into the lovable old man, but rather something that revealed in every word the sincere craving for knowledge.
[ 15 ] The relationships in Weimar were then of such a character that souls which felt elsewhere unsatisfied would turn up here. So it was with those who made a permanent home there, but so also with those who loved to come again and again as visitors. One had this feeling about many persons: “Visits to Weimar are different for them from visits to other places.”
[ 16 ] I had this feeling in a very special way about the Danish poet, Rudolf Schmidt. He came first for the production of his play, Der verwandelte König.1The King Transformed. During this very first visit I made his acquaintance. Later, however, he appeared on many occasions which brought visitors from elsewhere to Weimar. The fine figure of a man with those wavy locks was often among these visitors. The way in which a man “is” in Weimar had in it something that drew his soul. He was a very sharply marked personality. In philosophy he was an adherent of Rasmus Nielson. Through this man, who derived his thought from Hegel, Rudolf Schmidt had the most beautiful understanding of the German idealistic philosophy. And if Schmidt's opinions were thus clearly stamped on the positive side, they were no less so on the negative. Thus he became biting, satirical, utterly adverse when he spoke of Georg Brandes. There was something artistic in seeing a person revealing an entire expansive field of experience poured out before you in his antipathy. Upon me these revelations could never make any impression except an artistic one; for I had read much from Georg Brandes. I had been especially interested in what he had written, in a manner rich in spiritual wealth and out of a wide range of observations and knowledge, about the spiritual currents of the European peoples. But what Rudolf Schmidt brought forward was subjectively honest, and because of the character of the poet himself it was really captivating.
At length I came to feel the deepest and most heartfelt love for Rudolf Schmidt; I rejoiced on the days when he came to Weimar. It was interesting to hear him talk about his northern homeland, and to perceive what significant capacities had sprung up in him from the fountain-head of his northern experiences. It was no less interesting to talk with him about Goethe, Schiller, Byron. Then he spoke very differently from Georg Brandes. The latter is always in his judgments the international personality, but in Rudolf Schmidt there spoke the Dane. For this very reason he talked about many things and in many connections in a more interesting way than Georg Brandes.
[ 17 ] During the latter part of my stay in Weimar, I became an intimate friend of Conrad Ansorge and his brother-in-law, von Crompton. Conrad Ansorge later developed in a brilliant way his great artistic powers. Here I need speak only of what he was to me in a beautiful friendship at the close of the 'nineties, and how he then impressed me.
[ 18] The wives of Ansorge and von Crompton were sisters. Because of this relationship, our gatherings took place either at von Crompton's home or at the hotel Russischer Hof.
[ 19 ] Ansorge was an energetically artistic man. He was active both as pianist and as composer. During the time of our Weimar acquaintance he set to music poems of Nietzsche and of Dehmel. It was always a delightful occasion when the friends who were gradually drawn into the Ansorge-Crompton circle were permitted to hear a new composition.
[ 20 ] To this group belonged also a Weimar editor, Paul Böhler. He edited the Deutschland, which had a more independent existence side by side with the official journal, the Weimarische Zeitung. Many other Weimar friends besides these appeared in this circle: Fresenius, Heitmüller, Fritz Koegel, too, and others. When Otto Erich Hartleben came to Weimar, he also always appeared in this circle, after it had been formed.
[ 21 ] Conrad Ansorge had grown out of the Liszt circle. Indeed, I speak nothing but the truth when I assert that he considered himself one of the pupils of the master who understood him in an artistic sense most truly of all. But it was through Conrad Ansorge that what had come in living form from Liszt was brought before one's mind in the most beautiful way.
[ 22 ] For everything musical which came from Ansorge arose out of an entirely original, individual human being. This humanity in him might be inspired by Liszt, but what was delightful in it was its originality. I express these things just as I then experienced them; how I was afterward related to them or am now related is not here under discussion.
[ 23 ] Through Liszt, Ansorge had once at an earlier period been bound to Weimar; at the time of which I am here speaking, his soul was freed from this state of belonging to Weimar. Indeed, the characteristic of this Ansorge-Crompton circle was that it was in a very different relationship to Weimar from that of the great majority of persons of whom I have hitherto been able to state that they came into close touch with me.
[ 24 ] Those persons were at Weimar in the way I have described in the preceding chapter. The interests of this circle reached outward from Weimar, and so it came about that at the time when my Weimar work was ended and I had to think about leaving the city of Goethe, I had formed the friendship of persons for whom the life in Weimar was not especially characteristic. In a certain sense one “lived oneself” out of Weimar while among these friends.
[ 25 ] Ansorge, who felt that Weimar put fetters upon his artistic development, moved at nearly the same time as I did to Berlin. Paul Böhler, although editor of the most widely read paper in Weimar, did not write in the contemporary “spirit of Weimar,” but expressed many a sharp criticism, drawn from a broader range of view, against that spirit. It was he who always raised his voice when dealing with this theme to place in the true light what was born of opportunism and littleness of soul. And in this way it happened that, just at the time when he was a member of this circle, he lost his place.
[ 26] Von Crompton was the most lovable personality one could imagine. In his house the circle passed the most delightful hours. Frau von Crompton was there the central figure, a richly spiritual and gracious personality like sunlight to those who were privileged to be about her.
[ 27 ] The whole group stood, so to speak, in the sign of Nietzsche. They looked upon Nietzsche's view as possessing greater interest than all others; they surrendered themselves to that mood of soul which manifested itself in Nietzsche, considering it as representing in a certain way the flowering of a genuine and free humanity. In both these aspects von Crompton especially was a representative of the Nietzsche followers in the 'nineties. My own attitude toward Nietzsche did not change at all within this circle. But the fact that I was the one who was questioned when any one wished to know something about Nietzsche brought it about that the relation in which the others stood to Nietzsche was assumed to be my own relation also.
[ 28 ] But I must say that this circle looked up in a more understanding fashion to that which Nietzsche believed that he knew, and that they sought to express in their lives what lay in the Nietzsche ideals of life with greater understanding than was present in many other cases where Superman and Beyond Good and Evil did not always bring forth the most satisfying blossoms.
[ 29 ] For me the circle was important because of a strong and vital energy that bore one along with it. On the other hand, however, I found there the most responsive understanding for everything which I thought it possible to introduce into this circle.
[ 30 ] The evenings, made brilliant by Ansorge's musical compositions, its hours filled with interesting talk about Nietzsche in which all shared, when far-reaching and weighty questions concerning the world and life formed, so to speak, a satisfying converse, – these evenings were, indeed, something to which I can look back with contentment as having given a beautiful character to the last part of my stay at Weimar.
[ 31 ] Since everything which had a living expression in this circle was derived from a direct and serious artistic experience and sought to permeate itself with a world-conception which held to the true human being as its central point, one could not cherish any sense of dissatisfaction if there was manifested something opposed to the Weimar of that time. The tone was different from that which I had experienced previously in the Olden circle. There much irony found expression; one looked upon Weimar also as “human, all too human” as one would have seen other places if one had been in these. In the Ansorge-Crompton circle there was present rather --I mean to say – the earnest feeling: “How can the evolution of German culture progress further if a place like Weimar does so little to fulfil its foreordained tasks?”
[ 32 ] Against the background of this social intercourse my book Goethe's World-Conception came into being, with which I ended my work at Weimar. Some time ago, when I was preparing a new edition of this book, I sensed in the way in which I then shaped my thoughts for the volume an echo of the inner nature of the friendly gatherings of the circle I have here described.
[ 33 ] In this book there is somewhat more of the personal than would have been the case had there not re-vibrated in my mind while I was writing it what had over and over resounded in this circle with strong and avowed enthusiasm about the “nature of Personality.” It is the only one of my books of which I would say just this. All of them I can assert to have been personally experienced in the truest sense of the word; not, however, in this way, when one's own personality so strongly enters into the experiences of the personalities about one.
[ 34 ] But this concerns only the general bearing of the book. The philosophy of Goethe, as revealed in relation to the realm of nature, is there set forth as this had already been done in my Goethe writings of the 'eighties. Only in regard to details my views had been broadened, deepened, or confirmed by manuscripts first discovered among the Goethe archives.
[ 35 ] In everything which I have published in connection with Goethe the thing that I have striven to do has been to set Goethe's “world-conception” before the world in its content and its tendency. From this was to appear, as a result, how that in Goethe which is comprehensive and spiritually penetrating into the thing leads to detailed discoveries in the most varied fields of nature. I was not concerned to point out these single discoveries as such, but to show that they were the flowers of the plant of a spiritual view of nature.
[ 36 ] To characterize this view of nature as a part of what Goethe gave to the world – such was my purpose in writing descriptions of this portion of Goethe's work as a thinker and researcher. But I aimed at the same objective in arranging Goethe's papers in the two editions in which I collaborated, that in Kürschner's Deutsche National-Literatur and, also the Weimar Sophie edition. I never considered it a task which could fall to my lot because of the entire work of Goethe to bring to light what Goethe had achieved as botanist, zoologist, geologist, colour-theorist, in the manner in which one passes judgment upon such an achievement before the forum of competent scientists. Moreover, it seemed to me inappropriate to do anything in this direction while arranging the papers for the two editions.
[ 37 ] So that part also of the writings of Goethe which I edited for the Weimar edition became nothing more than a document for the world-conception of Goethe as revealed in his researches in nature. How this world-conception cast its special light upon things botanical, geological, etc., this must be brought to the fore. It has been felt, for instance, that I ought to have arranged the geological-mineralogical writings differently in order that “Goethe's relationship to geology” might be seen from the contents of these. But it is only necessary to read what I said about the arrangement of the writings of Goethe in this field in the introductions to my publications in Kürschner's Deutsche National-Literatur, and there could be no doubt that I would never have agreed to the point of view urged by my critics. In Weimar this could have been known when the editing was entrusted to me. For in the Kürschner edition everything had already appeared which had become fixed in my point of view before the idea had ever arisen of entrusting to me a task in Weimar. The task was entrusted to me with full knowledge of this circumstance. I will by no means deny that what I have done in many single details in working up the Weimar edition may be pointed out as “errors” by specialists. This may be rightly maintained. But the thing ought not to be so presented as if the nature of the edition rested upon my competence or lack of competence, and not upon my fundamental postulates. Especially should this not be done by those who admit that they possess no organ for perceiving what I have maintained in regard to Goethe. When the question concerns individual errors of fact here and there, I might point out to those who criticize me in this respect many much worse errors in the papers I wrote as a student in the Higher Technical Institute. I have made it very clear in this account of the course of my life that, even in childhood, I lived in the spiritual world as in that which was self-evident to me, but that I had to strive earnestly for everything which pertained to a knowledge of the outer world. For this reason I am a man slow in development as to all the aspects of the physical world. The results of this fact appear in details of my Goethe editions.
Chapter XXI
[ 1 ] Durch den freisinnigen Politiker, von dem ich gesprochen habe, wurde ich mit dem Inhaber einer Buchhandlung bekannt. Dieses Büchergeschäft hatte einst bessere Tage gesehen, als diejenigen waren, die es in meiner weimarischen Zeit erlebte. Das war noch unter dem Vater des jungen Mannes der Fall, den ich als Inhaber kennen lernte. Für mich war wichtig, daß diese Buchhandlung ein Blatt herausgab, das übersichtliche Artikel über das zeitgenössische Geistesleben und Besprechungen über die erscheinenden dichterischen, wissenschaftlichen, künstlerischen Erscheinungen brachte. Auch dieses Blatt war im Verfall. Es hatte seine Verbreitung verloren. Mir aber bot es die Gelegenheit, über vieles zu schreiben, was damals in meinem geistigen Horizont lag, oder in diesen eintrat. Obgleich die zahlreichen Aufsätze und Bücherbesprechungen, die ich so schrieb, nur von Wenigen gelesen wurden, war mir die Möglichkeit angenehm, ein Blatt zur Verfügung zu haben, das von mir druckte, was ich wollte. Es lag da eine Anregung, die dann später fruchtbar wurde, als ich das «Magazin für Literatur» herausgab, und ich dadurch verpflichtet war, intensiv mit dem zeitgenössischen Geistesleben mitzudenken und mitzufühlen.
[ 2 ] So ward für mich Weimar der Ort, an den ich im späteren Leben oft zurücksinnen mußte. Denn die Enge, in der ich in Wien gezwungen war zu leben, erweiterte sich; und es wurde Geistiges und Menschliches erlebt, das in seinen Folgen später sich zeigte.
[ 3 ] Von allem das Bedeutsamste waren aber doch die Verhältnisse zu Menschen, die geknüpft wurden. Da wurde doch immer wieder, wenn ich in späteren Jahren mir Weimar und mein dortiges Leben vor die Seele rückte, der geistige Blick auf ein Haus geworfen, das mir ganz besonders lieb geworden war.
[ 4 ] Ich lernte den Schauspieler Neuffer, noch während er am Weimarischen Theater tätig war, kennen. Ich schätzte zunächst an ihm die ernste, strenge Auffassung seines Berufes. Er ließ in seinem Urteile über Bühnenkunst nichts Dilettantisches durchgehen. Das war deshalb wohltuend, weil man sich nicht immer bewußt ist, daß die Schauspielkunst in ähnlicher Art sachlich-künstlerische Vorbedingungen erfüllen muß wie z. B. die Musik.
[ 5 ] Neuffer verheiratete sich mit der Schwester des Pianisten und Komponisten Bernhard Stavenhagen. Ich wurde in sein Haus eingeführt. Damit war man zugleich in das Haus der Eltern Frau Neuffers und Bernhard Stavenhagens freundschaftlich aufgenommen. Frau Neuffer ist eine Frau, die eine Atmosphäre von Geistigkeit über alles ausstrahlt, das in ihrer Umgebung ist. Ihre in tiefen Seelengebieten wurzelnden Meinungen leuchteten wunderschön auf alles, was in zwangloser Art gesprochen wurde, wenn man im Hause war. Sie brachte, was sie zu sagen hatte, bedächtig, und doch graziös vor. Und ich harte jeden Augenblick, den ich bei Neuffers zubrachte, das Gefühl: Frau Neuffer strebt nach Wahrheit in allen Lebensbeziehungen in einer seltenen Art.
[ 6 ] Daß man mich da gerne hatte, konnte ich aus den verschiedensten Vorkommnissen sehen. Ich möchte Eines herausgreifen.
[ 7 ] An einem Weihnachtsabend erschien bei mir Herr Neuffer und ließ, da ich nicht zu Hause war, die Aufforderung zurück: ich müsse unbedingt zur Weihnachtsbescherung zu ihm kommen. - Das war nicht leicht, denn ich hatte in Weimar immer mehrere solche Festlichkeiten mitzumachen. Aber ich ermöglichte es. Und so fand ich denn, neben den Geschenken für die Kinder, schön aufgebaut ein besonderes Weihnachtsgeschenk für mich, dessen Wert nur aus seiner Geschichte hervorgehen kann.
[ 8 ] Ich wurde eines Tages in ein Bildhaueratelier geführt. Ein Bildhauer wollte mir seine Arbeiten zeigen. Mich interessierte im Grunde recht wenig, was ich da sah. Nur eine einzige Büste, die verloren in einer Ecke lag, zog meine Aufmerksamkeit auf sich. Es war eine Hegelbüste. In dem Atelier, das zur Wohnung einer älteren, in Weimar sehr angesehenen Dame gehörte, fand sich alles mögliche Bildhauerische. Bildhauer mieteten den Raum immer für kurze Zeit; es blieb in ihm manches liegen, was ein Mieter nicht mitnehmen wollte. Es waren aber auch Dinge darinnen, die seit alter Zeit unbeachtet da lagerten, wie jene Hegelbüste.
[ 9 ] Das Interesse, das ich dieser Büste zugewendet hatte, bewirkte immerhin, daß ich da oder dort davon sprach. Und so auch einmal im Hause Neuffer; und ich habe da wohl eine leise Andeutung hinzugefügt, daß ich die Büste gerne in meinem Besitze hätte.
[ 10 ] Und am nächsten Weihnachtsabend ward sie mir als Geschenk bei Neuffer gegeben. - Am nächsten Mittag, zu dem ich eingeladen war, erzählte Neuffer, wie er sich die Büste verschafft harte.
[ 11 ] Er ging zunächst zu der Dame, der das Atelier gehörte. Er sprach ihr davon, daß jemand die Büste in ihrem Atelier gesehen habe, und daß es für ihn besonders wertvoll wäre, wenn er sie erwerben könnte. Die Dame sagte: Ja, solche Dinge seien seit alten Zeiten in ihrem Hause; ob aber gerade ein «Hegel» da sei, davon wisse sie nichts. Sie zeigte sich aber ganz bereitwillig, Neuffer herumzuführen, damit er nachsehen könne. - Es wurde alles «durchforscht», nicht die verborgenste Ecke wurde unberücksichtigt gelassen; die Hegelbüste fand sich nirgends. Neuffer war recht traurig, denn für ihn harte der Gedanke etwas tief Befriedigendes, mir mit der Hegelbüste eine Freude zu machen. - Da stand er denn schon an der Türe mit der Dame. Das Dienstmädchen kam hinzu. Es hörte gerade noch die Worte Neuffers: «Ja, schade, daß wir die Hegelbüste nicht gefunden haben.» «Hegel», warf das Mädchen ein, «ist das vielleicht der Kopf mit der abgebrochenen Nasenspitze, der in der Dienstbotenstube unter meinem Bette liegt?» - Sofort wurde der letzte Akt der Expedition arrangiert Neuffer konnte die Büste wirklich erwerben; bis Weihnachten war gerade noch Zeit, die fehlende Nasenspitze zu ergänzen.
[ 12 ] Und so kam ich denn zu der Hegelbüste, die zu dem Wenigen gehört, was mich dann an viele Orte begleitete. Ich sah immer wieder gerne nach diesem Hegelkopfe (von Wichmann aus dem Jahre 1826) hin, wenn ich mich in Hegels Gedankenwelt vertiefte. Und das geschah wirklich recht oft. Die Züge des Antlitzes, die menschlichster Ausdruck des reinsten Denkens sind, bilden einen vielwirkenden Lebensbegleiter.
[ 13 ] So war es bei Neuffers. Sie waren unermüdlich, wenn sie es dahin bringen wollten, jemand mit etwas zu erfreuen, das besonders mit seinem Wesen zusammenhing. Die Kinder, die sich allmählich im Neuffer'schen Hause einfanden, harten eine musterhafte Mutter. Frau Neuffer erzog weniger durch das, was sie tat, sondern durch das, was sie ist, durch ihr ganzes Wesen. Ich hatte die Freude, Taufpate bei einem der Söhne sein zu dürfen. Jeder Besuch in diesem Hause war mir ein Quell innerer Befriedigung. Ich durfte solche Besuche auch noch in späteren Jahren machen, als ich von Weimar fort war, und ab und zu zu Vorträgen hinkam. Leider ist das nun lange nicht mehr der Fall gewesen. Und so habe ich denn Neuffers nicht sehen können in den Jahren, in denen ein schmerzliches Schicksal über sie hereingebrochen ist. Denn diese Familie gehört zu denjenigen, die durch den Weltkrieg am meisten geprüft worden sind.
[ 14 ] Eine reizvolle Persönlichkeit war der Vater der Frau Neuffer, der alte Stavenhagen. Er hatte sich wohl vorher in einem praktischen Berufe betätigt, dann aber zur Ruhe gesetzt. Nun lebte er ganz in dem Inhalte einer Bibliothek, die er sich angeschafft hatte. Und es stellte sich vor Anderen in durchaus sympathischer Art dar, wie er darin lebte. Es war nichts Selbstgefälliges oder Erkenntnis-Hochmütiges in den lieben alten Herrn eingezogen, sondern etwas, das eher in jedem Worte den ehrlichen Wissensdurst erkennen ließ.
[ 15 ] So waren damals wirklich die Verhältnisse in Weimar noch in der Art, daß die Seelen, die an andern Orten sich wenig befriedigt fühlten, sich da einfanden. So war es mit denen, die dauernd da ein Heim bauten, so aber auch mit solchen, die immer wieder gerne zum Besuch kamen. Man fühlte Vielen an: Weimarische Besuche sind ihnen etwas anderes als solche an andern Orten.
[ 16 ] Ich habe das ganz besonders empfunden bei dem dänischen Dichter Rudolf Schmidt. Er kam zuerst zu der Aufführung seines Dramas «Der verwandelte König». Schon bei diesem Besuche wurde ich mit ihm bekannt. Dann aber stellte er sich bei vielen Gelegenheiten ein, bei denen Weimar auswärtige Besucher sah. Der schöngebaute Mann mit dem wallenden Lockenkopf war oft unter diesen Besuchern. Die Art, wie man in Weimar «ist», hatte etwas Anziehendes für seine Seele. Er war eine Persönlichkeit von schärfster Prägung. In der Philosophie war er ein Anhänger Rasmus Nielsens. Durch diesen, der von Hegel ausgegangen war, harte Rudolf Schmidt das schönste Verständnis für die deutsche idealistische Philosophie. Und waren so Schmidts Urteile nach dem Positiven hin deutlich geprägt, sie waren es nicht minder nach dem Negativen. So wurde er beißend, satirisch, ganz vernichtend, wenn er auf Georg Brandes zu sprechen kam. Es hatte etwas Künstlerisches, wie da jemand ein ganzes, breites, in Antipathie ergossenes Empfindungsgebiet offenbarte. Auf mich konnten diese Offenbarungen keinen anderen als einen künstlerischen Eindruck machen. Denn ich harte vieles von Georg Brandes gelesen. Mich hatte besonders interessiert, was er aus einem immerhin weiten Umkreis der Beobachtung und des Wissens über die Geistesströmungen der europäischen Völker in geistreicher Art geschildert hat. -Aber, was Rudolf Schmidt vorbrachte, war subjektiv ehrlich, und wegen des Charakters dieses Dichters wirklich fesselnd. - Ich gewann schließlich Rudolf Schmidt im tiefsten Herzen lieb; ich freute mich der Tage, an denen er nach Weimar kam. Es war interessant, ihn reden zu hören von seiner nordischen Heimat, und zu sehen, welch bedeutende Fähigkeiten in ihm gerade aus dem Grundquell nordischen Empfindens erwachsen waren. Es war nicht minder interessant, mit ihm über Goethe, Schiller, Byron zu sprechen. Da sprach er wirklich anders als Georg Brandes. Dieser ist überall in seinem Urteil die internationale Persönlichkeit; in Rudolf Schmidt sprach über alles der Däne. Aber eben deshalb sprach er über vieles und in vieler Beziehung doch interessanter als Georg Brandes.
[ 17 ] In meiner letzten Weimarer Zeit wurde ich nahe befreundet mit Conrad Ansorge und seinem Schwager von Crompton. Conrad Ansorge hat später in einer glänzenden Art seine große Künstlerschaft entfaltet Ich habe hier nur von dem zu sprechen, was er mir in einer schönen Freundschaft Ende der neunziger Jahre war, und wie er damals vor mir stand.
[ 18 ] Die Frauen Ansorges und von Cromptons waren Schwestern. Die Verhältnisse brachten es mit sich, daß unser Zusammensein entweder im Hause von Cromptons oder im Hotel «Russischer Hof» sich abspielte.
[ 19 ] Ansorge war ein energisch künstlerischer Mensch. Er wirkte als Pianist und Komponist. In der Zeit unserer weimarischen Bekanntschaft komponierte er Nietzsche'sche und Dehmel'sche Dichtungen. Es war immer ein Festereignis, wenn die Freunde, die allmählich in den Ansorge-Crompton-Kreis hereingezogen wurden, eine neue Komposition hören durften.
[ 20 ] Zu diesem Kreise gehörte auch ein weimarischer Redakteur, Paul Böhler. Er redigierte die Zeitung «Deutschland», die neben der amtlichen «Weimarischen Zeitung» ein mehr unabhängiges Dasein führte. Es erschienen manche andere weimarische Freunde auch in diesem
[ 21 ] Kreise: Fresenius, Heitmüller, auch Fritz Koegel u. a. Wenn Otto Erich Hartleben in Weimar auftauchte, so erschien er stets auch, als dieser Kreis gebildet war, in ihm.
[ 22 ] Conrad Ansorge ist aus dem Liszt-Kreise herausgewachsen. Ja, ich sage wohl nichts, was neben der Wirklichkeit einhergeht, wenn ich behaupte: er bekannte sich als einen der Liszt-Schüler, die dem Meister künstlerisch am treuesten anhingen. Aber man bekam gerade durch Conrad Ansorge das, was von Liszt fortlebte, in der allerschönsten Art vor die Seele gestellt. Denn bei Ansorge war alles Musikalische, das von ihm kam, aus dem Quell einer ganz ursprünglichen, individuellen Menschlichkeit herausstammend. Diese Menschlichkeit mochte von Liszt angeregt worden sein; das Reizvolle an ihr war aber ihre Ursprünglichkeit. Ich spreche diese Dinge so aus, wie ich sie damals erlebte; wie ich später zu ihnen stand oder heute zu ihnen stehe, kommt hier nicht in Betracht.
[ 23 ] Durch Liszt hing Ansorge einmal in früherer Zeit mit Weimar zusammen; in der Zeit, von der ich hier spreche, war er seelisch aus dieser Zusammengehörigkeit herausgelöst. Und das war das Eigentümliche dieses Ansorge-Crompton-Kreises, daß er zu Weimar ganz anders stand als weitaus die meisten Persönlichkeiten, von denen ich bisher schildern konnte, daß sie mir nahetraten.
[ 24 ] Diese Persönlichkeiten waren in Weimar auf die Art, wie ich dies im vorigen Abschnitt beschrieben habe. Dieser Kreis strebte mit seinen Interessen aus Weimar hinaus. Und so ist es gekommen, daß ich in der Zeit, als meine Weimarer Arbeit beendet war und ich daran denken mußte, die Goethestadt zu verlassen, befreundet wurde mit Menschen, für die das Leben in Weimar nichts besonders Charakteristisches war. Man lebte sich in einem gewissen Sinne mit diesen Freunden aus Weimar heraus.
[ 25 ] Ansorge, der Weimar als eine Fessel für seine künstlerische Entfaltung fühlte, übersiedelte ja ungefähr gleichzeitig mit mir nach Berlin. Paul Böhler, obwohl Redakteur der gelesensten weimarischen Zeitung, schrieb nicht aus dem damaligen «Weimarischen Geist» heraus, sondern übte von weiterem Gesichtskreise manche herbe Kritik an diesem Geiste. Er war derjenige, der auch immer seine Stimme erhob, wenn es sich darum handelte, das ins rechte Licht zu rücken, was von Opportunität und Kleingeisterei eingegeben war. Und so kam es denn, daß er gerade in der Zeit, als er in dem geschilderten Kreis war, seine Stelle verlor.
[ 26 ] Von Crompton lebte sich als die denkbar liebenswürdigste Persönlichkeit aus. In seinem Hause konnte der Kreis die schönsten Stunden verleben. Da war dann im Mittelpunkte Frau von Crompton, eine geistvoll-graziöse Persönlichkeit, die sonnenhaft auf diejenigen wirkte, die in ihrer Umgebung sein durften.
[ 27 ] Der ganze Kreis stand sozusagen im Zeichen Nietzsches. Man betrachtete die Lebensauffassung Nietzsches als dasjenige, was von allergrößtem Interesse ist; man gab sich der Seelenverfassung, die sich in Nietzsche geoffenbart hatte, als derjenigen hin, die gewissermaßen eine Blüte des echten und freien Menschentums darstellte. Nach diesen beiden Richtungen hin war besonders von Crompton ein Repräsentant der Nietzsche-Bekenner der neunziger Jahre. Mein eigenes Verhältnis zu Nietzsche änderte sich innerhalb dieses Kreises nicht. Da ich aber derjenige war, den man fragte, wenn man über Nietzsche etwas wissen wollte, so projizierte man die Art, wie man sich selbst an Nietzsche hielt, auch in mein Verhältnis zu ihm hinein.
[ 28 ] Aber es muß gesagt werden, daß gerade dieser Kreis in verständnisvoller Art zu dem aufsah, was Nietzsche zu erkennen vermeinte, daß er auch verständnisvoller darzuleben versuchte, was in Nietzsches Lebens-Idealen lag, als dies von manchen andern Seiten geschah, wo das «Übermenschenturn» und das «Jenseits von Gut und Böse» nicht immer die erfreulichsten Blüten trieben.
[ 29 ] Für mich war der Kreis bedeutsam durch eine starke, mitreißende Energie, die in ihm lebte. Auf der andern Seite aber fand ich das entgegenkommendste Verständnis für alles dasjenige, was ich in dem Kreise glaubte vorbringen zu können.
[ 30 ] Die Abende, an denen Ansorges Musikleistungen glänzten und alle Teilnehmer interessierende Gespräche über Nietzsche Stunden füllten, in denen weittragende, schwerwiegende Fragen über Welt und Leben eine sozusagen angenehme Unterhaltung bildeten, waren schon etwas, an das ich mit Befriedigung als auf etwas zurückblicken kann, das meine letzte weimarische Zeit verschönt hat.
[ 31 ] Weil in diesem Kreise alles, was in ihm sich darlebte, aus einem unmittelbaren und ernsten künstlerischen Empfinden stammte und sich durchdringen wollte mit einer Weltanschauung, die sich an den echten Menschen als ihren Mittelpunkt hielt, konnte man keine unangenehmen Gefühle hegen, wenn zum Vorschein kam, was gegen das damalige Weimar einzuwenden war. Der Ton war dabei ein wesentlich anderer als ich ihn früher im Olden'schen Kreise erlebt hatte. Da war viel Ironie im Spiele; man sah auch Weimar als «menschlichallzumenschlich» an, wie man andere Orte angesehen hätte, wenn man an ihnen gewesen wäre. Im Ansorge-Crompton-Kreise war - ich möchte sagen - mehr die ernste Empfindung vorhanden: wie soll es mit der deutschen Kulturentwickelung weitergehen, wenn ein Ort wie Weimar so wenig seine ihm vorgezeichneten Aufgaben erfüllt?
[ 32 ] Auf dem Hintergrunde dieses geselligen Verkehres entstand mein Buch «Goethes Weltanschauung», mit dem ich meine weimarische Tätigkeit abschloß. Ich fühlte, als ich vor einiger Zeit eine Neuauflage dieses Buches besorgte, an der Art, wie ich damals in Weimar meine Gedanken für das Buch formte, nachklingen die innere Gestaltung der freundschaftlichen Zusammenkünfte des geschilderten Kreises.
[ 33 ] Dieses Buch hat etwas weniger Unpersönliches, als es bekommen hätte, wenn nicht bei seinem Niederschreiben in meiner Seele nachvibriert hätte, was in diesem Kreise mit Begeisterung bekenntnismäßig und energisch über das «Wesen der Persönlichkeit» immer wieder erklungen hatte. Es ist das einzige meiner Bücher, von dem ich gerade dieses zu sagen habe. Als persönlich im echtesten Sinne des Wortes erlebt, darf ich sie alle bezeichnen; nicht aber auf diese Art, wo die eigene Persönlichkeit so stark das Wesen der Persönlichkeiten der Umgebung miterlebt.
[ 34 ] Doch bezieht sich dieses nur auf die allgemeine Haltung des Buches. Die in bezug auf das Gebiet der Natur sich offenbarende «Weltanschauung Goethes» kommt ja doch so zur Darstellung, wie das schon in meinen Goetheschriften der achtziger Jahre der Fall war. Nur über Einzelnes sind durch die erst im Goethe-Archiv aufgefundenen Handschriften meine Anschauungen erweitert, vertieft, oder befestigt worden.
[ 35 ] In allem, was ich im Zusammenhange mit Goethe gearbeitet habe, kam es mir darauf an, Inhalt und Richtung seiner «Weltanschauung» vor die Welt hinzustellen. Dadurch sollte sich ergeben, wie das Umfassende und geistig in die Dinge Eindringende des Goethe'schen Forschens und Denkens zu Einzelentdeckungen auf den besonderen Naturgebieten gekommen ist. Mir kam es nicht darauf an, auf diese Einzelentdeckungen als solche zu verweisen, sondern darauf, daß sie Blüten waren an der Pflanze einer geistgemäßen Naturanschauung.
[ 36 ] Diese Naturanschauung zu charakterisieren als einen Teil dessen, was Goethe der Welt gegeben hat, schrieb ich Darstellungen dieses Teiles der Goethe'schen Gedanken- und Forschungsarbeit. Aber nach dem gleichen Ziele strebte ich auch durch die Anordnung der Goetheschen Aufsätze in den beiden Ausgaben, an denen ich mitgearbeitet habe, derjenigen in «Kürschners Deutscher National-Literatur» und auch der Weimarischen SophienAusgabe. Ich betrachtete es niemals als eine Aufgabe, die für mich aus Goethes ganzem Wirken folgen könnte, anschaulich zu machen, was Goethe als Botaniker, als Zoologe, als Geologe, als Farbentheoretiker in der Art geleistet hat, wie man eine solche Leistung vor dem Forum der geltenden Wissenschaft beurteilt. - Dafür etwas zu tun, schien mir auch unangemessen bei der Anordnung der Aufsätze für die Ausgaben.
[ 37 ] Und so ist denn auch der Teil der Goethe-Schriften, den ich für die Weimarische Ausgabe herausgegeben habe, nichts anderes geworden als ein Dokument für Goethes in seiner Naturforschung sich offenbarende Weltanschauung. Wie diese Weltanschauung im Botanischen, Geologischen usw. ihre besonderen Lichter wirft, das sollte zur Geltung kommen. (Man hat z. B. gefunden, daß ich die geologisch-mineralogischen Schriften hätte anders anordnen sollen, damit man «Goethes Verhältnis zur Geologie» aus dem Inhalte ersehen könne. Man brauchte nur zu lesen, was ich über die Anordnung der Goethe'schen Schriften auf diesem Gebiete in den Einleitungen zu meinen Ausgaben in «Kürschners Deutscher National-Literatur» gesagt habe, und man könnte gar nicht daran zweifeln, daß ich mich auf die von meinen Kritikern geforderten Gesichtspunkte nie eingelassen hätte. In Weimar konnte man das wissen, als man mir die Herausgabe übertrug. Denn in der Kürschnerschen Ausgabe war bereits alles erschienen, was meine Gesichtspunkte festgestellt harte, bevor man daran dachte, mir in Weimar eine Arbeit zu übertragen. Und man hat sie mir mit vollem Bewußtsein dieser Umstände übertragen. Ich werde nie in Abrede stellen, daß, was ich bei Bearbeitung der Weimarischen Ausgabe in manchem Einzelnen gemacht habe, als Fehler von «Fachleuten» bezeichnet werden kann. Diese mag man richtigstellen. Aber man sollte nicht die Sache so darstellen, als ob die Gestalt der Ausgabe nicht von meinen Grundsätzen, sondern von meinem Können oder Nichtkönnen herrührte. Insbesondere sollte dieses nicht geschehen von einer Seite her, die zugibt, daß sie kein Organ hat zur Auffassung dessen, was ich in bezug auf Goethe dargestellt habe. Wenn es sich um einzelne sachliche Fehler da oder dort handelte, so könnte ich meine diesbezüglichen Kritiker auf noch viel Schlimmeres verweisen, auf meine Aufsätze, die ich als Oberrealschüler geschrieben habe. Ich habe es durch diese Darstellung meines Lebenslaufes doch wohl bemerklich gemacht, daß ich schon als Kind in der geistigen Welt als in der mir selbstverständlichen lebte, daß ich mir aber alles schwer erobern mußte, was sich auf das Erkennen der Außenwelt bezieht. Dadurch bin ich für dieses auf allen Gebieten ein spät sich entwickelnder Mensch gewesen. Und die Folgen davon tragen Einzelheiten meiner Goethe-Ausgaben.)
Chapter XXI
[ 1 ] I became acquainted with the owner of a bookshop through the liberal politician I mentioned earlier. This bookshop had once seen better days than the ones it experienced during my time in Weimar. This was still the case under the father of the young man I got to know as the owner. It was important for me that this bookshop published a newspaper that brought clear articles about contemporary intellectual life and reviews of the poetic, scientific and artistic publications that appeared. This journal was also in decline. It had lost its circulation. But it gave me the opportunity to write about many things that were within my intellectual horizon at the time, or that were entering it. Although the numerous essays and book reviews that I wrote were only read by a few people, I was pleased to have a paper that printed what I wanted. There was a stimulus there that later became fruitful when I published the "Magazin für Literatur", which obliged me to think and feel intensively about contemporary intellectual life.
[ 2 ] So Weimar became the place for me to which I often had to return in later life. For the narrowness in which I was forced to live in Vienna expanded; and I experienced spiritual and human things that later became apparent in their consequences.
[ 3 ] Of all things, however, the most significant were the relationships that were forged with people. Time and again, when in later years I brought Weimar and my life there to mind, I would cast my spiritual gaze on a house that had become particularly dear to me.
[ 4 ] I got to know the actor Neuffer while he was still working at the Weimar Theater. I initially appreciated his serious, strict approach to his profession. He allowed nothing dilettantish to pass in his judgment of stagecraft. That was pleasant, because one is not always aware that the art of acting has to fulfill objective-artistic preconditions in a similar way to music, for example.
[ 5 ] Neuffer married the sister of the pianist and composer Bernhard Stavenhagen. I was introduced to his house. At the same time, we became friends in the home of Mrs. Neuffer's parents and Bernhard Stavenhagen. Mrs. Neuffer is a woman who radiates an atmosphere of spirituality over everything around her. Her opinions, rooted in the depths of the soul, shone beautifully on everything that was said in a casual way when one was in the house. She delivered what she had to say thoughtfully, yet gracefully. And every moment I spent with the Neuffers, I had the feeling that Mrs. Neuffer strives for truth in all aspects of life in a rare way.
[ 6 ] I could see from various incidents that they liked me there. I would like to pick out one thing.
[ 7 ] One Christmas Eve, Mr. Neuffer came to see me and, as I wasn't at home, left a note saying that I absolutely had to come to him for Christmas presents. - It wasn't easy, because I always had to attend several such festivities in Weimar. But I made it possible. And so, in addition to the presents for the children, I found a special Christmas present for myself, the value of which can only be determined by its history.
[ 8 ] One day, I was taken to a sculptor's studio. A sculptor wanted to show me his work. I wasn't really interested in what I saw. Only one single bust, lying forlornly in a corner, caught my attention. It was a bust of a hedgehog. The studio, which belonged to the apartment of an elderly lady who was very well respected in Weimar, contained all kinds of sculptures. Sculptors always rented the room for short periods of time; many things were left in it that a tenant didn't want to take with them. But there were also things in there that had been lying there unnoticed for ages, like that hay bust.
[ 9 ] The interest I had shown in this bust always led to me talking about it here and there. And so it was once at the Neuffer house; and I must have added a quiet hint that I would like to have the bust in my possession.
[ 10 ] And the next Christmas Eve it was given to me as a present at Neuffer. - The next lunchtime, to which I was invited, Neuffer told me how he had obtained the bust.
[ 11 ] He first went to the lady who owned the studio. He told her that someone had seen the bust in her studio and that it would be particularly valuable to him if he could acquire it. The lady said that yes, such things had been in her house since time immemorial, but she knew nothing about whether there was a "Hegel" there. However, she was quite willing to show Neuffer around so that he could have a look. - Everything was "searched", not the most hidden corner was left unconsidered; the Hegel bust was nowhere to be found. Neuffer was quite sad, because the thought of making me happy with the hay bust was deeply satisfying for him. - He was already standing at the door with the lady. The maid came in. She could just hear Neuffer's words: "Yes, it's a pity we didn't find the Hegel bust." "Hegel," the girl interjected, "is that perhaps the head with the broken tip of the nose that lies under my bed in the servants' quarters?" - The final act of the expedition was arranged immediately Neuffer was actually able to acquire the bust; there was just enough time before Christmas to add the missing tip of the nose.
[ 12 ] And so I came to the Hegel bust, which was one of the few things that accompanied me to many places. I always liked to look at this Hegel head (by Wichmann from 1826) when I immersed myself in Hegel's world of thought. And that really happened quite often. The features of the countenance, which are the most human expression of the purest thought, form a much-effective life companion.
[ 13 ] So it was with Neuffers. They were tireless when they wanted to please someone with something that was particularly related to their nature. The children who gradually arrived at the Neuffer home were raised by an exemplary mother. Mrs. Neuffer educated not so much by what she did, but by what she was, by her whole being. I had the pleasure of being godfather to one of her sons. Every visit to this house was a source of inner satisfaction for me. I was still able to make such visits in later years, when I was away from Weimar and occasionally went there to give lectures. Unfortunately, this has not been the case for a long time now. And so I was unable to see the Neuffers during the years in which a painful fate befell them. Because this family is one of those who were tested the most by the world war.
[ 14 ] Mrs. Neuffer's father, the old Stavenhagen, was a charming personality. He had probably previously worked in a practical profession, but then retired. Now he lived entirely in the contents of a library he had acquired. And the way he lived in it presented itself to others in a thoroughly likeable way. There was nothing smug or knowledge-haughty about the dear old gentleman, but rather something that revealed an honest thirst for knowledge in every word.
[ 15 ] So the conditions in Weimar at that time were really still such that souls who felt little satisfied elsewhere found themselves there. It was the same with those who built a permanent home there, but also with those who liked to visit again and again. Many people felt that way: Weimar visits are something different to them than visits to other places.
[ 16 ] I felt this particularly with the Danish poet Rudolf Schmidt. He first came to the performance of his drama "The Transformed King". I became acquainted with him during this visit. But then he appeared on many occasions when Weimar saw visitors from abroad. The beautifully built man with the flowing head of curls was often among these visitors. The way people "are" in Weimar had something attractive for his soul. He was a personality of the sharpest character. In philosophy, he was a follower of Rasmus Nielsen. It was through him, who had started out from Hegel, that Rudolf Schmidt acquired the most beautiful understanding of German idealist philosophy. And if Schmidt's judgments were clearly shaped towards the positive, they were no less so towards the negative. He became biting, satirical, quite scathing when he spoke of Georg Brandes. There was something artistic about the way in which someone revealed a whole, broad, antipathetic range of feelings. These revelations could not have made anything other than an artistic impression on me. Because I had read a lot of Georg Brandes. I was particularly interested in what he had described in an ingenious way from an at least wide circle of observation and knowledge about the intellectual currents of the European peoples. -Everything that Rudolf Schmidt presented was subjectively honest and, because of the character of this poet, really captivating. - I finally came to love Rudolf Schmidt in my heart; I looked forward to the days when he came to Weimar. It was interesting to hear him talk about his Nordic homeland, and to see what important abilities had grown in him from the very source of Nordic feeling. It was no less interesting to talk to him about Goethe, Schiller and Byron. He really spoke differently from Georg Brandes. The latter is everywhere the international personality in his judgment; in Rudolf Schmidt the Dane spoke about everything. But that is precisely why he spoke about many things and in many ways more interestingly than Georg Brandes.
[ 17 ] In my last years in Weimar, I became close friends with Conrad Ansorge and his brother-in-law von Crompton. Conrad Ansorge later developed his great artistry in a brilliant way I have only to speak here of what he was to me in a beautiful friendship at the end of the nineties, and how he stood before me then.
[ 18 ] The Ansorges and von Crompton women were sisters. Circumstances meant that our get-togethers took place either in the Cromptons' house or in the "Russischer Hof" hotel.
[ 19 ] Ansorge was an energetic and artistic person. He worked as a pianist and composer. During our acquaintance in Weimar, he composed Nietzschean and Dehmelian poetry. It was always a festive event when the friends, who were gradually drawn into the Ansorge-Crompton circle, were allowed to hear a new composition.
[ 20 ] An editor from Weimar, Paul Böhler, also belonged to this circle. He edited the newspaper "Deutschland", which led a more independent existence alongside the official "Weimarische Zeitung". Many other Weimar friends also appeared in this
[ 21 ] Circles: Fresenius, Heitmüller, also Fritz Koegel et al. When Otto Erich Hartleben appeared in Weimar, he always appeared in it too, when this circle was formed.
[ 22 ] Conrad Ansorge grew out of the Liszt circle. Yes, I am not saying anything that is beside the point when I say that he was one of Liszt's pupils who was artistically most faithful to the master. But it was precisely through Conrad Ansorge that what lived on from Liszt was presented to the soul in the most beautiful way. For with Ansorge, everything musical that came from him stemmed from the source of a completely original, individual humanity. This humanity may have been inspired by Liszt, but the charming thing about it was its originality. I am expressing these things as I experienced them at the time; how I felt about them later or how I feel about them today is not relevant here.
[ 23 ] Through Liszt, Ansorge was once connected to Weimar in earlier times; at the time I am talking about here, he was mentally detached from this connection. And that was the peculiarity of this Ansorge-Crompton circle, that he had a completely different relationship to Weimar than by far most of the personalities that I have been able to describe so far as being close to me.
[ 24 ] These personalities were in Weimar in the way I described in the previous section. This circle strove with its interests out of Weimar. And so it came about that when my Weimar work was finished and I had to think about leaving the city of Goethe, I became friends with people for whom life in Weimar was nothing particularly characteristic. In a certain sense, one lived out of Weimar with these friends.
[ 25 ] Ansorge, who felt that Weimar was a constraint on his artistic development, moved to Berlin at about the same time as I did. Paul Böhler, although editor of the most widely read Weimar newspaper, did not write out of the "Weimar spirit" of the time, but criticized this spirit harshly from a wider perspective. He was the one who always raised his voice when it came to putting into perspective what was inspired by opportunism and small-mindedness. And so it happened that he lost his job at the very time he was in the circle described above.
[ 26 ] Von Crompton was the most amiable personality imaginable. In his house the circle could spend the most beautiful hours. At the center was Mrs. von Crompton, a witty and graceful personality who had a sunny effect on those who were allowed to be around her.
[ 27 ] The whole circle was, so to speak, under the sign of Nietzsche. Nietzsche's view of life was considered to be of the greatest interest; the state of mind that had revealed itself in Nietzsche was considered to be that which represented, so to speak, a flowering of genuine and free humanity. In these two directions, von Crompton in particular was a representative of the Nietzsche connoisseurs of the nineties. My own relationship to Nietzsche did not change within this circle. But since I was the one people asked when they wanted to know something about Nietzsche, they projected the way they held themselves to Nietzsche into my relationship with him.
[ 28 ] But it must be said that it was precisely this circle that looked up to what Nietzsche thought he recognized in an understanding way, that it also tried to live out what lay in Nietzsche's ideals of life in a more understanding way than was done by some other sides, where the "superman turn" and the "beyond good and evil" did not always blossom in the most pleasing way.
[ 29 ] For me, the circle was significant because of the strong, stirring energy that lived in it. On the other hand, I found the most accommodating understanding for everything I thought I could put forward in the circle.
[ 30 ] The evenings in which Ansorge's musical performances shone and conversations about Nietzsche that interested all participants filled hours, in which far-reaching, serious questions about the world and life formed a pleasant conversation, so to speak, were already something that I can look back on with satisfaction as something that embellished my last Weimar time.
[ 31 ] Because everything that took place in this circle stemmed from a direct and serious artistic feeling and wanted to permeate itself with a world view that held on to real people as its center, one could not harbor any unpleasant feelings when it came to light what was objectionable about Weimar at the time. The tone was very different from what I had previously experienced in Olden's circle. There was a lot of irony involved; people saw Weimar as "humanly all too human", just as they would have seen other places if they had been there. In the Ansorge-Crompton circle, there was - I would like to say - more of a serious feeling: how should German cultural development continue if a place like Weimar fulfills so little of its designated tasks?
[ 32 ] In the background of this social intercourse, I wrote my book "Goethe's World View", with which I concluded my Weimar activities. When I ordered a new edition of this book some time ago, I felt that the way in which I formed my thoughts for the book in Weimar at the time echoed the inner organization of the friendly gatherings of the circle described.
[ 33 ] This book has something less impersonal about it than it would have had if it had not resonated in my soul while I was writing it, which had resounded again and again in this circle with enthusiasm, confession and energy about the "essence of personality". It is the only one of my books of which I have this to say. I can describe them all as personally experienced in the truest sense of the word; but not in this way, where one's own personality so strongly experiences the essence of the personalities around it.
[ 34 ] However, this only refers to the general attitude of the book. Goethe's "Weltanschauung", which reveals itself in relation to the field of nature, is presented in the same way as it was in my Goethe writings of the eighties. My views have only been broadened, deepened or strengthened in individual respects by the manuscripts first discovered in the Goethe Archive.
[ 35 ] In everything that I have worked on in connection with Goethe, it was important to me to present the content and direction of his "Weltanschauung" to the world. This was intended to show how the comprehensive and spiritually penetrating nature of Goethe's research and thinking led to individual discoveries in particular areas of nature. It was not important for me to refer to these individual discoveries as such, but rather to the fact that they were blossoms on the plant of a spiritual view of nature.
[ 36 ] To characterize this view of nature as a part of what Goethe gave to the world, I wrote descriptions of this part of Goethe's thought and research work. But I also strove for the same goal through the arrangement of Goethe's essays in the two editions I worked on, the one in "Kürschners Deutscher National-Literatur" and also the Weimar Sophien edition. I never regarded it as a task that could follow for me from Goethe's entire work to illustrate what Goethe achieved as a botanist, as a zoologist, as a geologist, as a color theorist in the way that one judges such an achievement before the forum of current science. - To do something for this also seemed to me inappropriate in the arrangement of the essays for the editions.
[ 37 ] And so the part of Goethe's writings that I edited for the Weimar edition has become nothing other than a document of Goethe's world view as revealed in his research into nature. How this world view casts its particular light in the botanical, geological, etc., should come to the fore. (One has found, for example, that I should have arranged the geological-mineralogical writings differently so that one could see "Goethe's relationship to geology" from the content. One only had to read what I said about the arrangement of Goethe's writings in this field in the introductions to my editions in "Kürschners Deutscher National-Literatur", and one could have no doubt that I would never have accepted the points of view demanded by my critics. They knew this in Weimar when they entrusted me with the editing. For everything that established my points of view had already appeared in Kürschner's edition before they thought of assigning me a work in Weimar. And it was assigned to me with full awareness of these circumstances. I will never deny that what I did in some details when editing the Weimar edition can be described as mistakes made by "experts". These may be corrected. But one should not present the matter as if the shape of the edition did not stem from my principles, but from my ability or inability. In particular, this should not be done from a side which admits that it has no means of understanding what I have presented in relation to Goethe. If it were a question of individual factual errors here or there, I could refer my critics in this respect to much worse things, to the essays I wrote as a high school student. In this account of my life, I have made it clear that even as a child I lived in the spiritual world as something I took for granted, but that I had to work hard to conquer everything that relates to recognizing the outside world. As a result, I was a late developer for this in all areas. And the consequences of this are reflected in the details of my Goethe editions.