History of the Middle Ages
GA 51
18 October 1904, Berlin
Translator Unknown
I. Celts, Teutons, and Slavs
Goethe has said that the best thing about History is the enthusiasm it arouses, leading to encouragement to like deeds. In a certain sense all knowledge and all understanding have their true value only when they emerge into life. In History, it is necessary to look very far back in order to find the causes of later developments. Just as, to understand individual branches of external evolution—for instance, in building of bridges and roads—we must cling to the fact that these are the fruits of achievements in individual sciences, such as Mathematics and Physics, so also we see everywhere in actual History the fruits of earlier happenings. What comes to expression in our lifetime has its origin in far back ages.
We are now going to study a section of time, upon which many do not care to look back, a time which they would prefer to delete from History as “the dark Middle Ages.” And yet in it we are facing an important section of History—barbaric peoples, knowing nothing of Civilisation and Art, appear on the arena. These tribes, pressed back by the Mongols from their dwelling-place in the Russia of to-day, pushed on far towards the west. We will follow the struggles and destinies of these peoples; then our path will lead us on to the discovery of America, to that point of time at which the Middle Ages merge into the modern epoch, to the time of the great discoveries, when that invention took place which probably had the deepest significance of all, the invention of Printing; the time in which Copernicus gave us a new picture of the world. This evolution led mankind from the folk-migrations to the discoveries of the modern age.
It is much more difficult to point out, in History, the relation between cause and effect, than it is in Chemistry or Physics; for cause and effect often lie far apart.
Not until to-day have men regarded mutual tolerance for the various confessions of faith, as a requisite condition of culture. Yet, as early as the 3rd century before Christ, there existed in India a reciprocal respect and tolerance for the most diverse faiths, as a monument of King Asoka proves. The Christian feeling which sprang up later, in the Roman Empire, shed its influence over the whole of the Middle Ages; but its origin lay neither in the Roman Empire nor in Germania, but in a closed order of the little Jewish race the Essenes. Before we can understand what influence the Middle Ages have upon us, we must first grasp what it is that flows to us from them. An eminent Roman writer, Tacitus, has preserved for us in his Germania, a picture of that race which settled in the Germany of to-day. He describes them as separate tribes, similar in speech, and, though regarding themselves as different races, yet appearing very much alike to the outsider. He found out what was common to them all and gave them the general name of Germani.
Now if we examine the folk-soul of these Germanic tribesmen, we are confronted by the difference between them and the Greeks and Romans. In the construction of their soul-qualities, there is an important chronological difference. Greek culture with its incomparable Art, marks a particular point in human evolution. We saw that before the conquest by the invading Hellenes, there was in Greece a very ancient race, something like the later Germani; these were the Pelasgi, who lived in a community of freedom. After the immigration of the Hellenes, we find two strata of population, victors and vanquished, the contrast of free and unfree. From the folk-migrations and the conquests sprang Greek authority. Hence it follows that only a small section of the population had any share in the assets of culture. Another result was the low value set upon work; even artistic work was considered unworthy of the free Greek citizen. It was through this contempt for work that Greece went under. This culture of the Greeks, unrivalled in many points; was a culture only possible among conquerors. The Roman Empire is a history of continual conquests; when it could conquer nothing more, it went to pieces.
The distinguishing Germanic characteristic impressed itself, in all its component parts, before conquest, and did not allow itself to be subjugated by contact with other races. Its evloution stood firm in face of conflict.
Thus we see the development of the folk-spirit completed in the Greeks after, in the Romans during and in the Germanic before, the great historical struggles. If we are to study their characteristics, we must distinguish more accurately these racial groups in Central Europe. Three races come under consideration. In Spain, France, Ireland and Southern Germany, we find, first of all the ancient race of Celts. They were driven from their original dwelling-place by the Germani. Then came the Slavs, from the East, and forced the German tribes farther back. Thus we find in the Germani, hemmed in by the other two races, a strong intermingling of Celts and Slavonic blood. And this mixture of the Celtic and Slavonic element, influenced the whole culture of the Middle Ages.
When we look back into the far past we see a great and remarkable culture of the ancient Celts. Even to this day the Celtic blood shows itself as active, energetic, mentally alert, inclined to revolutionary impulses. To the Celtic race we owe magnificent poems, songs and scientific ideas. It was the Celts who gave the stimulus for the legends elaborated by German poets in the Middle Ages—Roland, Tristan, Parsifal, etc. This remarkable race has almost disappeared, either pressed farther westward, or amalgamated with the Germanic.
The outstanding features of the Germanic character are courage, the roaming spirit, and a strong feeling for Nature. In it are developed the domestic and martial virtues, practical efficiency and activity directed to useful ends. Hunting and cattle-rearing formed the chief occupations of the Germani; they had only a few simple poems, derived from older races. In its fundamental qualities, the Germanic character remained as it was in the age of barbarism. Within the Germanic element rise the driving forces of a contrasted evolution. A noticeable change took place during the Middle Ages. Greece had developed its sublime Art, Rome its life of Rights, and the concept of the state. The simple Germanic conception of law was based on quite different premises. In Rome, judgment was given on a basis of property-relationships, especially with reference to land or realty. The complicated ideas of justice in the Roman State were derived from the endeavor to bring harmony between the free citizen and the land-owner. All the contention between plebians and patricians, the fighting of the Gracchi, even the party-struggles of the later Republic, were struggles for the rights of the free citizen as opposed to those who gained possession of power because they were in possession of land. Nominally, equal rights in the State pertained to every Roman citizen. Yes, even in the later epoch of the Empire, every emperor possessed nominal rights in the State, because he united in his person, the rights of all free citizens, and exercised them in their stead.
Such factitious ideas were alien to the simple Germanic conception of justice. The special value of free citizenship met with no legal recognition. What evolved from these points of view was club-law, the right of the stronger; he was the mightiest who could make his right felt by force. To begin with, it was physical strength which asserted itself; then everyone must submit and adapt himself to the stronger. The fruit, however, of what was prepared in the Germanic age, appeared later as the right of the free personality, conditioned by nothing but self-acquired proficiency. This is clearly marked in the founding of the Cities. This development of the cities, which took place in the 11th century throughout the whole of Western Europe, presents a significant phenomenon. Whence did they arise? They were founded by those who, feeling themselves oppressed by the land-owners, sought a place where they could enjoy, undisturbed, what they owed to their own activity, to their personal activity. The free citizen of ancient Rome relied upon his title; his rights depended upon it. In the Middle Ages, the title of citizen was of no value; only that counted, which a man acquired for himself. The struggles for independence and freedom which the princes and knights carried on, were merely the expression of a struggle for free personality. It was not like this either in ancient Greece or in ancient Rome. It was a significant transition stage.
Why then did people gather together in the Cities? The reason was, in the first place, a material consideration; they wished to be free from oppression, in order to direct their activity to what was useful, to material gain.
And it was from this city-culture—but not from these new foundations—that there arose in Italy, on the scene of an ancient dying civilisation, the mighty poet-personality of the Middle Ages—Dante. In the Germanic cities, the first inventions were practical: the compass, gunpowder, and finally, the fruit-bearing event of the invention of printing. All this, which led to a complete transformation of conditioins, was born out of the practical achievements of man. At first sight, that may seem very far-fetched, but—as already emphasised—cause and effect in History lie far asunder. An example may illustrate this.
In 1846, Franz Palecky, the Czech historian, referred to the reform movement of the Middle Ages, in his work on the Czech race in the 15th century. Long before the so-called Reformation, this movement was tentatively considering a re-organisation of the Church. Dealing with the Hussite movement most sympathetically, Polacky, who had himself taken an active part in the Revolution of 1848, called particular attention to these currents. In a quite original way, he pointed out in them what had been developed in the days of city-culture. It is a common property of the Celtic, Germanic and Slavonic tribes. If we study the sagas and songs of these peoples, we understand it. They are distinguished form the sagas of ancient Greece and Rome in that they depict what the human heart can suffer, and what redeems it.
This is the feeling for tragedy. Among the Greeks and Romans, the hero of the story was he who was externally victorious, not he, who maintained his soul in uprightness. The heart of the people was always with him who was outwardly favoured by fortune. It was different with the Germanic peoples. The heart of the Germanic and Slavonic races beat for the heroes who externally failed, but whose souls stood firm. They lived in the soul, in the spirit. Heroes like Siegfried or Roland, or the king's son Mark, were extolled in the poems of these races. It is not to the external victories of these heroes, but ih their courage in suffering and failure, their unbowed spirit, that homage is paid. Everything gives place to the rectitude of spirit and soul. In the Imperium Romanum we see courage and consciousness of justice flourishing; in Greece we see Art; but with the Germani, it is the life of the soul that confronts us. They had no images of their gods; no splendid statues, such as the Greeks had. Their souls worked out the images of their gods; deep within their hearts they formed their God.
From this tendency of the races sprang, too, the thought of reformation. To be themselves collaborators in what faith was to be—that is what these people desired. A hundred years before Luther, Wycliffe had introduced a reform movement in England. The folk-spirit demanded that men should take the Bible into their own hands. From this spirit the Huss movement also arose. As far back as the early Middle Ages there were already preliminary efforts in this direction. The Emperor Henry II, of Saxon lineage, who was later canonised by the Catholic Church, demanded an ecclesia non romana. Militz, the inadequately appreciated savant, wrote his book on Antichrist, while pining in a prison in Prague. That which came to light in such demands and movements—the emancipation from external coercion, the spiritual deepening—was claimed by Palacky for the Slavs: he sees the thought of human kindness, as expressed by Herder, represented in the Fraternal Fellowship, developed on Bohemian soil. It lies deep in the nature of the Germanic races to regard an untrammelled organisation as the ideal.
It was neither after, nor during, conquest, that the Germanic character was formed; but the quality which marked it before this time, was maintained throughout this stage, and eventually developed to these ideals. The thought of freedom was evolved during the Middle Ages in spite of all the counter-currents which gave this period the name of “the dark Middle Ages.” If to many to-day the Middle Ages appear as a gloomy epoch, yet it was in the Middle Ages that that was developed which later, the poets sought, namely, the consciousness of freedom, a consciousness for which the 18th century fought bitterly, and with which the struggles of the present day are concerned.
We must free ourselves from the state of coercion which many are still bound to-day, though the consciousness that, as regards the feeling of freedom, all men are equal, has spread more and more. Men have grasped that by right no man can be a slave or a bondsman. To-day man feels himself free by right. But another form of unfreedom, material unfreedom, has persisted. In ancient Greece, the oppressed, the vanquished, the slaves, were unfree. Unfree in ancient Rome were those who had no claim to citizenship, no share in the State. In the Middle Ages men were made unfree by physical force. None of these forms could be maintained; economic unfreedom alone persists.
More and more clearly has the striving for complete freedom of personality shown itself. The ancient Greek valued distinction or race; the Roman, distinction of person; modern man attaches value to capitalism, to a show of wealth. Thus evolution points to the fall of more and more of those barriers which shut the personality off from the outside. Then the ground becomes free for the new ideal. History teaches us that the free man acquires a new value from out the spirit. The man who fulfils the ideal will be he who is freed from all these forms of oppression, he who, released from earthly gravity, can direct his gaze upwards. Only then will Hegel's words become wholly true: “History is the progress of humanity to consciousness of freedom.”
Erster Vortrag
Goethe hat gesagt, das Beste in der Geschichte wäre der Enthusiasmus, den sie errege, der dazu führe, zu gleichen Taten zu ermuntern. In gewissem tieferem Sinne kann alles Wissen und alle Erkenntnis erst den rechten Wert erhalten, wenn es ins Leben hinaustritt. Es ist nötig, bei der Geschichte weit zurückzugreifen, um die Ursachen der späteren Entwickelung zu finden. Wie wir, um einzelne Zweige der äußeren Entwickelung der menschlichen Kultur zu verstehen, zum Beispiel beim Brücken- und Wegebau, daran festhalten müssen, daß dies die Früchte der Errungenschaften in den einzelnen Wissenschaften, der Physik und der Mathematik sind, so sehen wir auch in der eigentlichen Geschichte überall die Früchte der früheren Geschehnisse. In ferne Zeiten greift das zurück, was in unserem Leben zum Ausdruck kommt.
Wir haben die Anfänge der Kultur, ihre Entwickelung im Griechen- und Römertum verfolgt. In dieser Geschichtsbetrachtung nähern wir uns der Gegenwart. Wir gehen jetzt daran, einen Zeitabschnitt zu betrachten, auf den viele nicht gerne zurückblicken, den sie als finsteres Mittelalter am liebsten auslöschen möchten aus der Geschichte. Und doch stehen wir da vor einem wichtigen Abschnitt der Geschichte: es treten auf den Schauplatz der Geschichte barbarische Völker, die nichts wissen von Gesittung und Kunst. Diese Völkerstämme werden durch mongolische Völker aus ihrem Wohnsitz im heutigen Rußland verdrängt und rücken weit nach Westen vor. Wir werden die Kämpfe und Schicksale dieser Völker verfolgen; dann wird uns unser Weg weiterführen bis zur Entdeckung Amerikas, bis zu jenem Zeitpunkt, wo sich Mittelalter und Neuzeit zusammenschließen, bis zur Zeit der großen Erfindungen und Entdeckungen, wo jene Erfindung geschah, die wohl die tiefgehendste Bedeutung hatte, die Erfindung der Buchdruckerkunst; jene Zeit, in der Kopernikus uns ein neues Weltbild gab. Diese Entwickelung des Menschen hat von der Völkerwanderung bis zu den Entdeckungen der Neuzeit geführt.
Es ist in der Geschichte weit schwerer, den Zusammenhang zwischen Ursache und Wirkung nachzuweisen, als in der Chemie und Physik; denn oft liegen Ursache und Wirkung weit auseinander.
Heute erst erachtet man die Duldung verschiedenartiger Bekenntnisse untereinander für eine Forderung, die notwendig sei als eine Kulturbedingung. Und doch bestand bereits im 3. Jahrhundert vor Christo in Indien eine derartige gegenseitige Achtung und Duldung der verschiedensten Glaubensbekenntnisse, wie dies ein Denkstein des Königs Asoka beweist. Die im späteren römischen Reich auftauchende christliche Gesinnung hat ihre Wirkung über das ganze Mittelalter geäußert; ihre Ursachen liegen aber weder im Römerreich noch in Germanien, sondern in einer verschollenen Sekte des kleinen jüdischen Volkes in Palästina: bei den Essäern. Bei dem verhältnismäßig großen Programm kann jetzt nicht jeder Zeitpunkt ausführlich behandelt werden. Es muß gewissermaßen erst eine Kohlezeichnung entworfen werden, deren Linien dann weiter auszuführen sind. Wir müssen zunächst begreifen, was uns aus diesem Mittelalter zuströmt, wenn wir verstehen wollen, welche Wirkung diese Zeit für uns haben muß. Ein hervorragender römischer Schriftsteller, Tacitus, hat uns in seiner «Germania» ein Bild jener Stämme aufbewahrt, die sich in dem heutigen Deutschland niedergelassen hatten. Er schildert sie als einzelne Stämme, gleich durch ihre Sprache; und während sie sich selbst als verschiedene Völker betrachteten, erschienen sie ihm, dem Außenstehenden, sehr ähnlich. Er fand das Gemeinsame heraus und gab ihnen den gemeinsamen Namen Germanen.
Wenn wir nun die Volksseele dieser germanischen Völkerschaften prüfen, tritt uns der Unterschied zwischen ihnen und den Griechen und Römern entgegen. Bei der Bildung dieser seelischen Eigenschaften handelt es sich um einen wichtigen Zeitunterschied. Die griechische Kultur mit ihrer unvergleichlichen Kunst bestimmt einen besonderen Punkt in der Menschheitsentwickelung. Wir sahen dort vor der Eroberung durch die später eindringenden Hellenen ein uraltes Volk, ungefähr gleich den späteren Germanen, die Pelasger, die in einer Gemeinschaft von freien Menschen lebten. Dann nach der Einwanderung der Hellenen fanden wir die zwei Bevölkerungsschichten, Eroberer und Eroberte, diesen Gegensatz von Freien und Unfreien. Aus der Völkerwanderung und der Eroberung ging die griechische Herrschaft hervor. Hieraus ergibt sich, daß nur ein kleiner Teil der Bevölkerung teil hatte an den Gütern der Kultur. Es ergibt sich ferner daraus die niedrige Wertung der Arbeit; selbst die künstlerische war des freien griechischen Bürgers unwürdig. Griechenland ging unter an dieser Geringschätzung der Arbeit. Diese in vielen Punkten unerreichte Kultur der Griechen war eine Kultur, die nur möglich war unter Eroberern. Der römische Charakter bildete sich während der Eroberung; die Geschichte des Römerreiches ist eine Geschichte von fortwährenden Eroberungen; als es nichts mehr erobern konnte, ging es zugrunde.
Der germanische Charakter prägte sich in allen seinen wesentlichen Bestandteilen vor der Eroberung aus, und er hat sich von den Berührungen mit anderen Völkern nicht unterjochen lassen. Seine Entwickelung stand fest vor dem Kampf. So sehen wir die Bildung des Volksgeistes sich vollziehen bei den Griechen nach, bei den Römern während und bei den Germanen vor den großen geschichtlichen Kämpfen. Wollen wir diese Charakterzüge betrachten, so werden wir diese Völkergruppen in Mitteleuropa genauer unterscheiden müssen. Drei Völker kommen in Betracht. In Spanien, Frankreich, Irland und Süddeutschland finden wir zunächst das alte Volk der Kelten. Es wird aus dem größten Teil seiner Wohnsitze durch die Germanen vertrieben. Von Osten her rücken die Slawen nach und drängen die Germanen weiter. So finden wir bei den Germanen, die von den beiden anderen Völkern umgeben sind, eine starke Vermischung mit keltischem und slawischem Blut. Auch auf die ganze Kultur des Mittelalters wirkt diese Mischung des germanischen mit dem keltischen und slawischen Element.
Wenn man in ferne Zeiten zurückgeht, so zeigt sich uns eine große merkwürdige Kultur der alten Kelten. Rührig, energisch, geistig angeregt, zu revolutionären Impulsen geneigt — so zeigt sich auch noch in späteren Zeiten das keltische Blut. Großartige Dichtungen, Gesänge, Wissenschaftsvorstellungen verdankt man dem keltischen Volke. Zu den Sagen, die im späteren Mittelalter von den deutschen Dichtern bearbeitet wurden — Roland, Tristan, Parzival und so weiter —, haben die Kelten die Anregung gegeben. Dieses merkwürdige Volk ist fast verschwunden, nachdem es immer weiter nach Westen verdrängt wurde oder sich mit den Germanen vermischte.
Der germanische Charakter zeigt als Hauptmerkmale Tapferkeit, Wanderlust, ein starkes Naturgefühl. In ihm entwickeln sich die häuslichen und kriegerischen Tugenden, die praktische Tüchtigkeit, die auf das Nützliche gerichtete Tätigkeit. Die Hauptbeschäftigungen der Germanen bilden Jagd und Viehzucht. Wenige einfache Dichtungen, die von einem älteren Volke übernommen sind, haben die Germanen. Der germanische Charakter bleibt in seinen Grundeigenschaften erhalten aus barbarischer Urzeit. Innerhalb des germanischen Elementes entstehen die treibenden Kräfte entgegengesetzter Entwickelung. Eine merkwürdige Wandlung vollzieht sich innerhalb des Mittelalters. Griechenland hatte seine hohe Kunst, Rom hatte sein Rechtsleben und den Staatsbegriff ausgebildet. Die einfachen Rechtsanschauungen der Germanen gingen von ganz anderen Voraussetzungen aus. In Rom waren die Besitzverhältnisse, besonders in bezug auf Grund und Boden, das Ausschlaggebende. Die komplizierten Rechtsbegriffe des römischen Staates gehen hervor aus dem Bestreben, Einklang zu bringen zwischen den freien Bürgern und den Besitzern des Bodens. Alle die Kämpfe zwischen den Plebejern und Patriziern, die Kämpfe der Gracchen, selbst die Parteikämpfe der späteren Republik, waren Kämpfe für das Recht des freien Bürgers gegenüber den durch den Grundbesitz auch im Besitze der Macht Befindlichen. Formell stand jedem römischen Bürger das gleiche Recht auf den Staat zu. Ja, selbst in den späteren Zeiten des Kaisertums besaßen nominell die Kaiser das Recht an den Staat, indem sie das Recht aller freien Bürger in ihrer Person vereinigten und es an ihrer Stelle ausübten.
Den einfachen Rechtsanschauungen der Germanen waren solche kunstvolle Begriffe fremd. Der besondere Wert des freien Bürgers kam zu keiner rechtlichen Anerkennung. Was sich aus diesen Anschauungen heraus entwickelte, war das Faustrecht, das Recht des Stärkeren; der war der Mächtige, der sein Recht durch seine Kraft geltend machen konnte. Zunächst war es die physische Kraft, die sich behauptete; da mußte sich jeder fügen und fügte sich auch dem Stärkeren. Die Frucht dessen aber, was sich im germanischen Zeitalter vorbereitet hatte, tritt später hervor als das Recht der freien, durch nichts als durch die selbsterworbene Tüchtigkeit bedingten Persönlichkeit. Es prägt sich dies aus in der Städtegründung. Diese Kultur der Städte, die sich im 11. Jahrhundert im ganzen westlichen Europa vollzieht, stellt eine bedeutsame Erscheinung dar. Woraus waren sie entstanden? Daraus, daß die, welche sich bedrückt fühlten von ihren Grundherren, eine Stätte suchten, wo sie das, was sie ihrer Tätigkeit, ihrer persönlichen Geschicklichkeit verdankten, ungestört genießen konnten. Der freie Bürger des alten Rom fußte auf einem Titel. Wer ihn hatte, hatte dadurch das Recht. Im Mittelalter galt nicht ein Titel des Bürgers, sondern nur das, was man sich erwarb. In den Kämpfen, die die Städte mit den Fürsten und Rittern um ihre Freiheit und Unabhängigkeit führten, drückt sich nichts anderes aus als der Kampf der freien Persönlichkeit. So war es nicht im alten Griechenland, nicht im alten Rom. Das war ein bedeutsames Übergangsstadium.
Was war denn der Grund, daß sich die Leute in den Städten zusammenfanden? Das materielle Interesse war es zunächst, das Freiseinwollen von den Bedrückungen; so zeigte sich auch zunächst die Tätigkeit auf den Nutzen, auf den materiellen Erwerb gerichtet.
Auch aus der Städtekultur — aber nicht aus diesen neuen Begründungen — in Italien, auf dem Schauplatz einer alten absterbenden Kultur, geht die gewaltige Dichterpersönlichkeit des Mittelalters, Dante hervor. In den germanischen Städten entstehen zunächst praktische Erfindungen: der Kompaß, das Schießpulver, bis zu dem bedeutsamen Ereignis der Erfindung der Buchdruckerkunst. Alles dies, was hinüberführt in eine völlige Umgestaltung der Verhältnisse, war herausgeboren aus dem, was man praktisch errungen hatte. Das mag auf den ersten Blick sehr weit hergeholt erscheinen, aber, wie schon betont, liegen in der Geschichte Ursache und Wirkung weit auseinander. Möge dies ein Beispiel erläutern:
Franz Palacký, der tschechische Historiker, hat im Jahre 1846 in seinem Werke über das tschechische Volk im 15. Jahrhundert auf die Reformbewegung des Mittelalters hingewiesen, auf diese Bewegungen, die lange vor der sogenannten Reformation die Gedanken einer Neugestaltung der Kirche versuchten. Besonders an der hussitischen Bewegung, die Palacký, der selber an der Revolution 1848 tätigen Anteil nahm, mit großer Sympathie behandelte, macht er auf die Strömungen aufmerksam. Er charakterisiert in ihnen in ganz eigentümlicher Weise, was sich in den Herzen ausgebildet hat in der Städtekultur. Es ist eine den keltischen, germanischen und slawischen Stämmen gemeinsame Eigenschaft. Wir verstehen sie, wenn wir die Sagen und Lieder dieser Völker betrachten. Von alten griechischen und römischen Sagen unterscheiden sie sich dadurch, daß sie schildern, was das Menschenherz leiden kann und was es erlöst.
Es ist dies der Sinn für das Tragische. Bei dem griechischen und römischen Volk war derjenige der Held der Sage, der äußerlich siegte, nicht der, welcher seine Seele aufrecht erhielt. Immer war das Herz des Volkes bei denjenigen, die äußerlich vom Glück begünstigt waren. Anders bei den germanischen Völkern. Für die Helden, die äußerlich untergehen, aber die Seele aufrecht erhalten, schlägt das Herz der germanischen und slawischen Völker. Sie leben in der Seele, im Geiste. Helden wie Siegfried und Roland oder der Königssohn Marko werden in der Dichtung dieser Völker gefeiert. Nicht der äußere Sieg dieser Helden, sondern ihr Mut im Leiden und Untergang, ihr ungebeugter Geist wird gefeiert. Alles tritt zurück vor. dem Rechte des Geistes und der Seele. Im Imperium Romanum sehen wir die Tapferkeit, das Rechtsbewußtsein, in Griechenland die Kunst blühen; das Leben der Seele tritt uns bei den Germanen entgegen. Sie hatten keine Bilder ihrer Götter; nicht wie bei den Griechen treten uns herrliche Bilder ihrer Göttergestalten plastisch entgegen. Ihre Seele hat gearbeitet an den Bildern ihrer Götter, tief im Innern des Gemütes bildete der Deutsche sich seinen Gott.
Aus dieser Volksanlage entsprang auch der reformatorische Gedanke. Selbst mittätig sein an dem, was sein Glaube sein sollte, das verlangten diese Völker. Hundert Jahre vor Luther hatte Wichf in England eine reformatorische Bewegung eingeleitet. Der Volksgeist fordert, selbst die Bibel in die Hand zu nehmen. Aus diesem Geiste stammte auch die hussitische Bewegung. Schon im frühen Mittelalter waren Ansätze in dieser Richtung vorhanden. Kaiser Heinrich II. aus sächsischem Geschlecht, dem die katholische Kirche später den Namen «der Heilige» gegeben hat, forderte eine «ecclesia non romana». Militsch, der nicht genug gewürdigte Gelehrte, der im Kerker von Prag schmachtete, schrieb sein Buch über den Antichrist. Die römische Kirche mit ihrer äußeren Organisation war ihm der Antichrist. Das, was in solchen Forderungen und Bewegungen zutage trat, die Loslösung vom äußeren Zwang, die innerliche Vertiefung, das nimmt Palacký für das slawische Volk in Anspruch; den Gedanken der Humanität wie ihn Herder ausgesprochen hat, er sieht ihn dargestellt in den Brüdergemeinden wie sie auf böhmischem Boden sich entwickelten. Tief in unserem Volk liegt es, eine zwanglose Organisation als Ideal zu betrachten.
Nicht nach, nicht während der Eroberung bildete es seinen Volkscharakter, sondern der Zug, der vor dieser Zeit in ihm lag, hat sich durch dieses Stadium hindurch erhalten und zu diesem Ideale endlich sich entwickelt. Der Freiheitsgedanke bildet sich während des Mittelalters aus, trotz all der Unterdrückung, trotz all der Gegenströmungen, die das ausmachen, was man das dunkle Mittelalter nennt. Mag auch vielen das Mittelalter heute als eine finstere Zeit erscheinen, so hat sich doch im Mittelalter das entwickelt, was später die Dichter suchten: das Freiheitsbewußtsein, für welches das 18. Jahrhundert kaum mehr als die Definition fand, um das man im 19. Jahrhundert erbittert kämpfte, und welchem das Ringen der Gegenwart gilt.
Freimachen müssen wir uns von den Zwangsverhältnissen, in denen auch heute noch die Menschen gebunden sind. Das Bewußtsein, daß der Mensch dem Menschen in bezug auf das Freiheitsgefühl gleich sei, hat sich immer mehr verbreitet. Das haben die Menschen begriffen, daß rechtlich ein Mensch nicht Sklave, nicht Höriger sein könne. Rechtlich fühlt sich der Mensch heute frei. Aber eine andere Form der Unfreiheit hat sich noch erhalten, die materielle. Unfrei war im alten Griechenland der Unterdrückte, der Überwundene, der Sklave. Unfrei war im alten Rom der nicht zum Bürgertum Gehörende, der keinen Teil an dem Staate hatte. Im Mittelalter waren die Menschen unfrei durch die physische Gewalt. Alle diese Formen haben sich nicht erhalten können, erhalten hat sich nur die ökonomische Unfreiheit.
Immer deutlicher gibt sich das Bestreben nach voller Befreiung der Persönlichkeit kund. Der alte Grieche legte Wert auf die Vornehmheit der Rasse, der Römer auf die Vornehmheit der Person. Bei dem Germanen lag der Wert in der Kraft und Stärke der Person. Der moderne Mensch legt Wert auf den Kapitalismus, auf den Schein des Besitzes. So weist uns die Entwickelung darauf hin, daß immer mehr die Schranken fallen, die von außen die Persönlichkeit hemmen. Dann wird der Boden frei sein für das neue Ideal. Daß der freie Mensch aus dem Geist heraus einen neuen Wert erhält, lehrt uns die Geschichte. Der idealerfüllte Mensch wird derjenige sein, der befreit ist von all diesen Formen der Unterdrückung, der gelöst von der Erdenschwere, seinen Blick aufwärts richten kann. Dann erst wird das Wort Hegels zur vollen Wahrheit werden: Die Geschichte ist der Fortschritt der Menschheit zum Bewußtsein der Freiheit!
First lecture
Goethe said that the best thing about history is the enthusiasm it arouses, which encourages people to do the same. In a deeper sense, all knowledge and insight can only attain its true value when it is put into practice. It is necessary to look far back in history to find the causes of later developments. Just as we must bear in mind that individual branches of the external development of human culture, such as bridge and road construction, are the fruits of achievements in the individual sciences of physics and mathematics, so too do we see the fruits of earlier events everywhere in history itself. What is expressed in our lives goes back to distant times.
We have traced the beginnings of culture and its development in Greece and Rome. In this view of history, we are approaching the present. We are now going to look at a period of time that many people do not like to look back on, which they would prefer to erase from history as the Dark Ages. And yet we are faced with an important period in history: barbarian peoples who know nothing of manners and art enter the stage of history. These tribes are driven out of their homes in present-day Russia by Mongolian peoples and advance far to the west. We will follow the struggles and fates of these peoples; then our journey will continue to the discovery of America, to the point where the Middle Ages and the modern era converge, to the time of great inventions and discoveries, when the invention that probably had the most profound significance took place: the invention of printing. the time when Copernicus gave us a new world view. This development of humankind led from the migration of peoples to the discoveries of the modern era.
In history, it is much more difficult to prove the connection between cause and effect than in chemistry and physics, because cause and effect are often far apart.
Only today is the tolerance of different beliefs considered a necessary requirement for a culture. And yet, as early as the 3rd century BC, there was such mutual respect and tolerance of different beliefs in India, as evidenced by a memorial stone of King Asoka. The Christian sentiment that emerged in the later Roman Empire had an impact throughout the Middle Ages; however, its origins lie neither in the Roman Empire nor in Germania, but in a lost sect of the small Jewish people in Palestine: the Essenes. Given the relatively large scope of the program, it is not possible to deal with every point in detail at this time. First, a rough sketch must be drawn up, the lines of which can then be further elaborated. We must first understand what flows to us from this Middle Ages if we want to comprehend the impact this period must have on us. An outstanding Roman writer, Tacitus, has preserved for us in his “Germania” a picture of those tribes that had settled in what is now Germany. He describes them as individual tribes, similar in their language; and while they considered themselves to be different peoples, they appeared very similar to him, the outsider. He discovered what they had in common and gave them the common name of Germanic peoples.
If we now examine the folk-soul of these Germanic peoples, we are struck by the difference between them and the Greeks and Romans. There is an important difference in time in the formation of these psychological characteristics. Greek culture, with its incomparable art, marks a special point in human development. Before the conquest by the Hellenes, who invaded later, we saw an ancient people, roughly equivalent to the later Germanic tribes, the Pelasgians, who lived in a community of free people. Then, after the immigration of the Hellenes, we found two classes of people, conquerors and conquered, this contrast between free and unfree. Greek rule emerged from the migration of peoples and the conquest. This meant that only a small part of the population shared in the benefits of culture. It also resulted in a low valuation of work; even artistic work was considered unworthy of free Greek citizens. Greece perished because of this contempt for work. The Greek culture, unmatched in many respects, was a culture that was only possible under conquerors. The Roman character was formed during the conquest; the history of the Roman Empire is a history of continuous conquests; when there was nothing left to conquer, it perished.
The Germanic character was formed in all its essential components before the conquest, and it did not allow itself to be subjugated by contact with other peoples. Its development was firmly established before the struggle. Thus, we see the formation of the national spirit taking place among the Greeks before, among the Romans during, and among the Germanic peoples before the great historical struggles. If we want to examine these character traits, we will have to distinguish more precisely between these ethnic groups in Central Europe. Three peoples come into consideration. In Spain, France, Ireland, and southern Germany, we first find the ancient Celtic people. They were driven out of most of their settlements by the Germanic peoples. From the east, the Slavs advanced and pushed the Germanic peoples further. Thus, among the Germanic peoples, who were surrounded by the other two peoples, we find a strong mixture of Celtic and Slavic blood. This mixture of Germanic, Celtic, and Slavic elements also had an impact on the entire culture of the Middle Ages.
If we go back to distant times, we see a great and remarkable culture of the ancient Celts. Active, energetic, intellectually stimulated, inclined to revolutionary impulses—this is how Celtic blood still manifests itself in later times. We owe magnificent poetry, songs, and scientific ideas to the Celtic people. The Celts provided the inspiration for the legends that were adapted by German poets in the late Middle Ages — Roland, Tristan, Parzival, and so on. This remarkable people has almost disappeared, having been pushed further and further west or mixed with the Germanic peoples.
The main characteristics of the Germanic character are bravery, wanderlust, and a strong feeling for nature. It developed domestic and warlike virtues, practical skills, and an activity focused on usefulness. The main occupations of the Germanic peoples were hunting and cattle breeding. The Germanic peoples had few simple poems, which were adopted from an older people. The Germanic character has retained its basic characteristics from barbaric times. Within the Germanic element, the driving forces of opposing developments arise. A remarkable transformation takes place during the Middle Ages. Greece had developed its high art, Rome had developed its legal system and concept of the state. The simple legal views of the Germanic peoples were based on completely different premises. In Rome, property relations, especially with regard to land, were the decisive factor. The complicated legal concepts of the Roman state arose from the desire to bring harmony between the free citizens and the owners of the land. All the struggles between the plebeians and patricians, the struggles of the Gracchi, even the party struggles of the later Republic, were struggles for the rights of free citizens against those who, through their land ownership, also held power. Formally, every Roman citizen had the same rights to the state. Yes, even in the later times of the empire, the emperors nominally possessed the right to the state, uniting the rights of all free citizens in their person and exercising them in their place.
Such sophisticated concepts were foreign to the simple legal views of the Germanic peoples. The special value of the free citizen was not legally recognized. What developed from these views was the law of the jungle, the right of the stronger; the powerful were those who could assert their rights through their strength. At first, it was physical strength that prevailed; everyone had to submit and did submit to the stronger. However, the fruit of what had been prepared in the Germanic age later emerged as the right of the free personality, conditioned by nothing other than self-acquired competence. This is reflected in the founding of cities. This culture of cities, which took place throughout Western Europe in the 11th century, represents a significant phenomenon. What gave rise to them? The fact that those who felt oppressed by their landlords sought a place where they could enjoy the fruits of their labor and personal skills undisturbed. The free citizen of ancient Rome was based on a title. Those who had it had the right. In the Middle Ages, it was not a citizen's title that counted, but only what one had acquired. The struggles that the cities waged with princes and knights for their freedom and independence expressed nothing other than the struggle of free personalities. This was not the case in ancient Greece or ancient Rome. It was a significant transitional stage.What was the reason that people gathered in cities? Initially, it was material interests, the desire to be free from oppression; thus, activity was initially directed toward utility, toward material gain.
The powerful poetic personality of the Middle Ages, Dante, also emerged from urban culture—but not from these new foundations—in Italy, the scene of an ancient dying culture. In the Germanic cities, practical inventions first arose: the compass, gunpowder, and even the significant event of the invention of the printing press. All of this, which led to a complete transformation of conditions, was born out of what had been achieved in practical terms. At first glance, this may seem far-fetched, but, as already emphasized, cause and effect are far apart in history. Let this example illustrate:
In 1846, in his work on the Czech people in the 15th century, the Czech historian Franz Palacký referred to the reform movements of the Middle Ages, movements that long before the so-called Reformation attempted to reform the Church. He draws attention to these currents, particularly in the Hussite movement, which Palacký, who himself took an active part in the 1848 revolution, treated with great sympathy. He characterizes in them, in a very peculiar way, what has developed in the hearts of urban culture. It is a characteristic common to the Celtic, Germanic, and Slavic tribes. We understand it when we consider the legends and songs of these peoples. They differ from ancient Greek and Roman legends in that they describe what the human heart can suffer and what can redeem it.
This is the sense of the tragic. For the Greek and Roman peoples, the hero of the legend was the one who triumphed outwardly, not the one who kept his soul upright. The heart of the people was always with those who were outwardly favored by fortune. It was different with the Germanic peoples. The hearts of the Germanic and Slavic peoples beat for heroes who perish outwardly but maintain their souls. They live in the soul, in the spirit. Heroes such as Siegfried and Roland or the king's son Marko are celebrated in the poetry of these peoples. It is not the outward victory of these heroes that is celebrated, but their courage in suffering and death, their unbroken spirit. Everything takes a back seat to the rights of the spirit and the soul. In the Roman Empire, we see bravery and a sense of justice; in Greece, art flourishes; in the Germanic peoples, we encounter the life of the soul. They had no images of their gods; unlike the Greeks, we are not confronted with magnificent, vivid images of their deities. Their souls worked on the images of their gods; deep within their hearts, the Germans formed their own gods.
The Reformation idea also sprang from this national disposition. These peoples demanded to be actively involved in what their faith should be. A hundred years before Luther, Wycliffe had initiated a Reformation movement in England. The spirit of the people demands that they take the Bible into their own hands. The Hussite movement also arose from this spirit. There were already signs of this trend in the early Middle Ages. Emperor Henry II, a Saxon of noble birth, whom the Catholic Church later named “the Saint,” called for an “ecclesia non romana.” Militsch, the underappreciated scholar who languished in a Prague dungeon, wrote his book about the Antichrist. To him, the Roman Church with its external organization was the Antichrist. Palacký claims for the Slavic people what came to light in such demands and movements: the detachment from external constraints, the inner deepening. He sees the idea of humanity as expressed by Herder represented in the Brethren communities that developed on Bohemian soil. It is deeply ingrained in our people to regard a non-coercive organization as an ideal.
It was not after or during the conquest that its national character was formed, but rather the trait that lay within it before that time was preserved throughout this stage and finally developed into this ideal. The idea of freedom developed during the Middle Ages, despite all the oppression and all the countercurrents that make up what is called the Dark Ages. Although many today may view the Middle Ages as a dark period, it was during this time that poets later sought to develop: the consciousness of freedom, for which the 18th century could hardly find a definition, for which the 19th century fought bitterly, and for which the present day continues to struggle.
We must free ourselves from the coercive conditions in which people are still bound today. The awareness that all people are equal in terms of their sense of freedom has become increasingly widespread. People have understood that, legally speaking, no human being can be a slave or a serf. Legally, people today feel free. But another form of bondage has survived: material bondage. In ancient Greece, the oppressed, the defeated, the slaves were unfree. In ancient Rome, those who did not belong to the bourgeoisie, who had no part in the state, were unfree. In the Middle Ages, people were unfree through physical violence. None of these forms have survived; only economic bondage has survived.
The desire for complete liberation of the personality is becoming increasingly apparent. The ancient Greeks valued the nobility of the race, the Romans the nobility of the person. For the Germanic peoples, value lay in the power and strength of the person. Modern man values capitalism, the appearance of possession. Thus, development shows us that the barriers that inhibit the personality from outside are increasingly falling away. Then the ground will be clear for the new ideal. History teaches us that the free man receives a new value from the spirit. The ideal-filled person will be the one who is freed from all these forms of oppression, who is detached from the heaviness of the earth and can turn his gaze upward. Only then will Hegel's words become the full truth: History is the progress of humanity toward the consciousness of freedom!