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History of the Middle Ages
GA 51

25 October 1904, Berlin

Translator Unknown

II. Persians, Franks, and Goths

The picture of Central Europe has altered fundamentally between, say, the year 1 and the 6th century A.D. This change involves a complete replacement of the peoples who lived on the Weichsel, the Oder and the Elbe, by others; hence it is very difficult for us to picture those races, to learn anything about their customs and way of living. We must find a way of our own to form such a picture. Tacitus, in his Germania, gives descriptions of the country at that time. No other records have been preserved to us of those days, and we must enlist the help of the North Germanic legends to complete the account. What Tacitus says about these races is very significant, in contrast to the Roman conception of the conditions of those days. In the opinion of Tacitus, these peoples were the original inhabitants of that land, for he cannot imagine that any other races would be able to get on in that inhospitable regiion. He mentions the tribes which dwell on the Rhine, the Lippe, the Weser, the Danube and in Brandenburg; these alone are known to him. He tells of characteristic features in them, and on account of their similarity groups them together under the name Germani. They, however, felt themselves to be different tribes, and the struggles with the Romans, they were called may different names, of which only a few, such as the Suevi, Longobards, Frisians, etc. have been preserved to later days

They were descended originally from one, Tuisco, to whom they pay divine homage, expressing it in songs of battle. Tuisco's son was Mannus, after whose three sons they named their chief tribes: the Ingavones, Istavones and Herminones If we compare this information of Tacitus' with the myths of another Aryan race, we find in Sanscrit, the sacred language of the Hindus, the same disignation Manu, for their supreme leader. This indicates a tribal relationship. Indeed, we can follow like deities in all the Indo-Germanic tribes. Thus Tacitus relates that the hero of Greek legend, Hercules, was also honoured by the Germani, bearing among them the name of Irmin. We know that there existed among the southern Indo-Germanic tribes a legend which found artistic elaboration in Greece: The story of Odysseus. Tacitus found, in the neighbourhood of the Rhine, a place of worship dedicated to Odysseus and his farther Laertes. So we see that the culture of the Germani at this epoch was akin to the culture we meet with in Greece in the 8th and 9th centuries B.C. Thus in Greece we see later the development of a culture which in Germany has remained stationary at a lower level.

All this points to an original relationship between these races. The peoples who lived, later in Germany, Greece and Russia, probably had their earlier homeland north of the Black Sea. From there one tribe wandered to Greece, another to Rome, and a third towards the west; the original culture of all these peoples was maintained in this form by the Germani, and further developed by the Celts. Tacitus tells us nothing of the manners and customs of that remarkable race. By the songs and sagas collected later in Iceland, in the Prose Edda and the Poetic Edda, we must conclude that what that race produced, persisted there. Tacitus tells us further of the customs of the Germans in their tribal assemblies, which, however, we must picture as deliberations of very small communities. To these assemblies came all the warriors of that province; the consultations were carried on to the accompaniment of beer and mead, and we are told that the old Germans made their resolutions when drunk in the evening, but revised them next morning when they were sober, and not until then were the decisions valid. As we learn from the Iliad, the same custom existed among the Persians. So we must conclude that there was an original Aryan stem, and hence a relationship between all these races.

Among the Germanic races in the north, a great similarity is specially evident in the characteristic forms of their religion, which do, indeed, fundamentally resemble those of the south, and yet show a much greater conformity with those of the Persians. According to the northern Germani, there were originally two kingdoms, separated from each other by an abyss: a kingdom of fire, Muspelheim, and a kingdom of ice, Niflheim. The sparks which flew over from Muspelheim, gave rise, in the abyss, to the first race of giants, of whom Ymir was the most outstanding. Then arose the Cow, Audhumbe, which was overlaid by the ice, and brought forth a mighty human form. From this human form sprang the Gods: Woten, Wile and We, whose names mean Reason, Will and Kindness. This second race of Gods was called Asen. Its descent was traced to the first race of giants.

Here too there occurs an important connection between the languages, for Asuras, the name of the Persian gods, suggests the sound Asen, again indicating a relationship connecting all these races. We find another important indication in an ancient Persian formula or poem of exorcism, which has come down to us. It points to changes in the mind of the race, to ancient Gods, deposed and supplanted by others. The service of the Devas was forsworn, the service of the Asuras confirmed. Here appears similarity to the giants, who were overcome by the Asen.

Moreover, the North Germanic legend tells how the three Gods found an ash and an alder on the seashore, and from them created the human race. The Persian myth, too, makes the human race come forth from a tree. We find echoes of these myths among the Jews, in the story of the Tree of Life in Paradise. Thus we see, from Persia to Scandinavia, by way of Palestine, traces of similar mythical ideas.

So we have proved a common fundamental character among certain races. At the same time there are again differences between a southern and a northern branch of the common main stock. To the southern branch belong the Greeks, Latins, and Hindus; to the northern, the Persian and Germaninc tribes. Let us see then what sort of races we have to do with in Germany now. As they confront us, we are bound to believe that they have traits of character which the Greeks and Italians have long cast off, and indeed, the Greeks after, the Romans during the conquest of their empire; whereas these northern peoples developed their essential characteristics and qualities before that conquest. They were the original, unpolished qualities, which these races had preserved. They had not experienced that transition-stage, through which, in the meanwhile, the southern races had passed. Hence we have to do here with the clash of a race which has remained conservative, against one which, although related to it, has attained a greater height of culture.

At the time of the rise of Christianity, which was to acquire so great a significance for them, described by the Greeks in the works of Homer. They had not cooperated in the advance of culture and civilisation which lay between. In the first centuries A.D., Tacitus describes the Germani of the borderlands of the Danube, the Rhine and the Lippe. These races were characterised by the roving instinct, love of liberty, and delight in hunting and war. Domestic matters lay in the hands of women. Here we meet with a civilisation and a form of society which had long disappeared from among the Greeks, and could only be preserved where the several members of a tribe were still bound to one another by blood relationships. Hence teh many tribes. In those who were conscious of their derivation from the same family—for they were regularised families, not hordes—tribal kinship was evolved from the separate families. Thus the wars which they waged were almost always against foreign blood.

Towards the end of the 4th, and during the 5th century, we see all these races compelled to change their places of abode, and to seek new ones.

The epoch of the folk migrations had begun. The Huns broke in and therewith knowledge faded from among the peoples living in the east—the Gepids, etc., and above all, the Goths. This race, divided into the Ostrogoths and the Visigoths, had already accepted Christianity. It is a race of special importance for us, just because of the way it apprehended Christianity. Whereas the Franks, who later spread Christianity from west to east, thrust it upon other races with force, the Goths were full of tolerance. The high level of culture which they had already attained is vouched for by the circumstances that we owe to a Gothic bishop, Ulfias or Wulfila, the first translation of the Bible, the so-called Silver Codex, which is preserved in Upsula.

These Goths, whose civilisation came from the east, held a different form of Christianity from those whose conversion issued later from the west. They were not like the Franks who, in the days of Charlemagne, thrust Christianity upon the Saxons by force of arms. (All these eastern Germanic tribes professed the Arian belief, a point of view which, at the Council of Nicea, was declared heretical and persecuted by the supporters of Athanasius).

The Arian Christians maintained that God dwells in the bosom of every man. Hence the Goths believed in the deification of man, as Christ, Who had gone before, showed to men. This viewpoint was allied with a deep cultivation of feeling. The Goths had the greatest possible tolerance for every other form of religion. No compromise was possible between two Christian creeds which were so different from each other. As absolute tolerance was a characteristic of these Goths; it never occurred to them to force a belief on anyone else; thus we are at once confronted with the difference in the way Charlemagne and Clovis, supporters of the Athanasian profession of faith, exploited Christianity for political purposes.

The Arians saw in Christ a man highly developed above all other men, but a man among men. Their Christ belonged to humanity and dwelt in the human breast. The Christ of the Athanasian Christians is God Himself, throned high above men.

Athanasiaus won the victory, and the evolution of culture was essentially influenced by it.

The Germani were hemmed in on all sides by foreign races; in the south and west by the Romans and Gauls (Celto-Germanic tribes); while from the east new encroachments of peoples continually took place. The first Christian Germanic tribes had neer known anything but absolute tolerance; the Christian Franks brought in a compulsory Christianity. This led to a change of temperament. On the evolution of this section of the Germani depended essentially the further evolution of culture. A radical change of legal conditions had gradually come about.

To a certain extent calm and fixity set in with the end of the fifth century. Through continual reinforcements from the east, larger tribal communities had been formed from the above mentioned tribes, who were for ever attacking one another, and of whom even the names (Chatten, Frisians, etc.) have only in a few cases been preserved. Through the loosening of the old blood bonds, another motive for clinging together was created. In place of the blood bond, appeared the bond which allied a man with the ground and soil that he tilled.

The connection together of tribes became equivalent to their connection with places. The village community arose. It was no longer the consciousness of blood relationship, but the connection with the soil that bound several members together. This led to a metamorphosis of the conditions of property.

Originally all property was held in common and private property acquired prominence. Still, everything which could be common property (forest, pasturage, water, etc.) remained so, for the time being. Then an intermediate stage grew up between common and private property, the so-called “hide” of land. The use of this half-private, half-common property served as a basis to determine the so-called free inhabitants of the hide, the community; and in those early days, almost all the dwellers within these bounds were free.

This stands in stark contrast to actual private property: weapons, household utensils, garments, gardens, cattle, etc., everything which the individual has personally acquired. This limitation is expressed in the fact that private property is closely bound up with the personality of the possessor That is why a dead man had his weapons, horses, dogs, etc. buried with him in his grave. It is an echo of this ancient custom when, even today, at the funeral of a prince, his orders, crown, etc. are carried after him, and his horse is led behind.

With the Chinese, too, a race which in many ways shows similarity with the ancient Germani, a dead man has the objects which belonged to him personally, buried with him, a condition carried out today, at any rate with paper models.

Thus we see the transition from the tribal, to the village community, which has developed from certain relationships, from this we understand further metamorphoses. We understand why Tacitus does not speak of the Asen, but of Tuisco and his son Mannus. He speaks of races which have not yet reached to a higher level of culture. Other races came from the north, and brought with them ideas which they developed there. These fitted in to the higher stages of culture which had meantime been reached. How far does a man get with the ideas that confront us in Tuisco or Mannus? He remains with the human being, does not go beyond himself. It would have been useless to introduce the service of Wotan to these tribes. The service of Wotan goes out into the universal; man seeks his origin in the bosom of Nature. It was only in the later stage of civilisation that man could rise to this religious level. When he has settled down, he understands his connection with Nature. Thus we have seen how the primitive culture of the southern Germani was influenced from the north, and how, in the meantime, high civilisations had developed among related races in the south.

We shall see further on, under what conditions the southern culture was spread among the Germani. An interesting survey is presented to us there; the deep-seated kinship of different races. We see the external influences which alter the character. Cause and effect become clear to us.

And so we learn to understand the present from the past. Eternal variability governs not only Nature, but History. How could we face the future with confident courage, if we did not know that the present also changes, that we can shape it to our liking, that here too the poet's words hold good?

The old gives way, Time alters all;
And new life blossoms from the ruins.

Zweiter Vortrag

Gründlich verändert hat sich das Bild Mitteleuropas von der Zeit etwa vom Jahre 1 bis zum 6. Jahrhundert n.Chr. Diese Änderung bedeutet einen vollständigen Ersatz der Völker, die an der Weichsel, Oder und Elbe gelebt haben, durch andere, und daher ist es sehr schwer, sich ein Bild dieser Völker zu machen, über ihre Sitten, über ihre Lebensart etwas zu erfahren. Man muß zu einer eigenartigen Methode greifen, um ein Bild jener Völker zu finden. In den Beschreibungen des Tacitus in der Germania ergibt sich uns ein Bild der damaligen Gegend. Urkunden sind uns sonst aus jener Zeit nicht aufbewahrt, und wir müssen die Sagen der nördlichen Germanen heranziehen, um unsere Vorstellungen zu ergänzen. Etwas sehr Bezeichnendes für die Anschauungen des Römers damaligen Verhältnissen gegenüber ist es, was Tacitus über diese Völker sagt. Er ist der Meinung, sie seien die Urbewohner jenes Landes, denn er kann sich nicht vorstellen, daß in diese unwirtlichen Gegenden andere Völker sich hätten wenden können. Er nennt jene Völkerstämme, die am Rhein, an der Lippe, an der Weser, an der Donau und in Brandenburg wohnen; nur diese sind ihm bekannt. Von ihnen erzählt er eigentümliche Züge, sie faßt er zusammen ihrer Gleichartigkeit halber mit dem Namen Germanen. Sie selbst fühlten sich als viele verschiedene Stämme und werden bei den Kämpfen mit den Römern mit den mannigfachsten Namen genannt, von denen sich nur wenige in den späteren Zeiten erhalten haben, wie die Sueven, Langobarden, Chatten, Friesen und so weiter.

Sie leiten sich ursprünglich her von einem Tuisto, dem sie göttliche Verehrung zollen, die sie durch Kriegsgesänge zum Ausdruck bringen. Der Sohn des Tuisto war Mannus, nach dessen drei Söhnen sie ihre Hauptstämme benennen: Ingwäonen, Istwäonen und Herminonen. Wenn wir diese Mitteilung des Tacitus mit den Mythen eines anderen arischen Volkes vergleichen, so finden wir auch hier in der heiligen Sprache der Inder im Sanskrit die gleiche Bezeichnung Manu für übermenschliche Führer. Das weist uns auf eine Stammesverwandtschaft, ja, wir können die gleichen Gottheiten verfolgen bei all den indogermanischen Völkerschaften. So erzählt Tacitus, daß der Held der griechischen Sage, Herkules, auch von den Germanen verehrt wurde und bei ihnen den Namen Irmin führte. Wir wissen, daß bei den südlichen indogermanischen Stämmen eine Sage lebte, welche in Griechenland eine künstlerische Ausgestaltung fand: Die Sage von Odysseus. Tacitus fand in der Nähe des Rheins eine Kultusstätte, die dem Odysseus und seinem Vater Laertes geweiht war. Wir sehen also, daß die Kultur der Germanen um diese Zeit verwandt war mit der Kultur, die wir im 8. und 9. Jahrhundert v.Chr. in Griechenland antreffen. So sehen wir in Griechenland später die Ausbildung einer Kultur, die in Deutschland auf niedrigerer Stufe stehengeblieben ist.

All das weist auf eine ursprüngliche Verwandtschaft. Jene Völker, die später in Deutschland, Griechenland, Rußland wohnten, hatten wahrscheinlich ihre frühere Heimat nördlich vom Schwarzen Meer. Von dort wanderte ein Stamm nach Griechenland, ein Stamm nach Rom, ein dritter nach Westen. Die ursprüngliche Kultur aller dieser Völker hat sich in dieser Form bei den Germanen erhalten, weiter ausgebildet wurde sie bei den Kelten. Nichts erzählt uns Tacitus von den Sitten und Gebräuchen dieses merkwürdigen Volkes. An die Sagen und Lieder, die in der älteren und jüngeren Edda später in Island zusammengefaßt wurden, müssen wir uns halten, dort lebt, was jenes Volk hervorgebracht hat. Tacitus erzählt uns weiter von den Gebräuchen der Deutschen bei ihren Volksversammlungen, die wir uns aber nur als Beratungen sehr kleiner Gemeinden vorzustellen haben. Zu diesen versammelten sich alle Männer des Gaues, die Beratungen wurden bei Bier und Met gepflogen, und nun wird erzählt, daß die alten Deutschen trunken des Abends ihre Beschlüsse faßten, diese aber wurden am nächsten Morgen, wenn jene wieder nüchtern waren, revidiert und hatten erst dann Gültigkeit. Wie wir aus den Scholien zur Ilias erfahren, bestand bei den Persern dieselbe Sitte. Auf einen Urstamm der Arier müssen wir also schließen, auf eine Verwandtschaft aller dieser Völker.

Besonders große Ähnlichkeit zeigt sich bei den nördlicher wohnenden germanischen Völkern in eigentümlichen Religionsformen, die zwar in dem Grundcharakter denjenigen der südlichen ähnlich sind, aber doch eine weit größere Übereinstimmung mit denjenigen der Perser zeigen. Nach der Anschauung der nördlichen Germanen bestanden ursprünglich zwei Reiche, die durch einen Abgrund voneinander getrennt waren, ein Reich des Feuers, Muspelheim, und ein Reich des Eises, Niflheim. Durch die Funken, die von Muspelheim herüberflogen, entstand in dem Abgrund das erste Geschlecht der Riesen, von denen Ymir der hervorragendste war. Dann entstand eine Kuh, Audhumbla, die beleckt das Eis, und aus ihm hervor entsteht eine starke menschliche Gestalt. Von dieser stammen die Götter Wotan, Wili und We, deren Namen Vernunft, Willen und Gemüt bedeuten. Dieses zweite Göttergeschlecht hieß Asen. Ihr Ursprung wurde von dem älteren der Riesen abgeleitet.

Auch hier ergibt sich ein wichtiger sprachlicher Zusammenhang, denn die Götter der Perser wurden beinahe gleichlautend Asuras genannt, was gleichfalls auf eine über alle diese Völker hingehende Verwandtschaft deutet. Ein weiterer wichtiger Hinweis findet sich in einer alten persischen Beschwörungsformel oder Beschwörungsdichtung, die uns überliefert ist. Sie weist auf Wandlungen des Volksgemütes hin, auf alte Götter, die abgesetzt und von anderen verdrängt worden sind. Abgeschworen wird der Dienst der Devas, beschworen der Dienst der Asuras. Es tritt hier die Ähnlichkeit der Devas mit den Riesen hervor, die von den Asen bezwungen wurden.

Ferner erzählt die nordgermanische Sage, wie die drei Götter am Meeresstrande eine Esche und eine Erle fanden und aus ihnen das Menschengeschlecht erschaffen haben. Auch die persische Mythe läßt das Menschengeschlecht aus einem Baume hervorgehen. Bei den Juden finden wir Anklänge an diesen Mythus in der Erzählung vom Baume des Lebens im Garten des Paradieses. So sehen wir von Persien über Palästina hinüber nach Skandinavien Spuren der gleichen mythischen Vorstellungen.

So haben wir damit bei gewissen Völkern einen gemeinsamen Grundcharakter nachgewiesen. Dabei ergeben sich wiederum Unterschiede zwischen einem südlicheren und einem nördlicheren Zweige des gemeinsamen Hauptstammes. Zu dem südlichen gehören die Griechen, Lateiner und Inder, zu dem nördlicheren die Perser und Germanen. Sehen wir also, mit was für Völkern wir es in Deutschland jetzt zu tun haben. Sie treten uns so entgegen, daß wir wohl glauben müssen, sie haben sich Charakterzüge bewahrt, die die Griechen und Italer schon längst abgestreift hatten, und zwar die Griechen nach, die Römer während der Eroberung ihres Reiches; während diese nördlichen Völker ihre wesentlichen Charakterzüge und Eigenschaften vor jener Eroberung ausgebildet hatten. Urwüchsige Eigenschaften waren es, die diese Völker sich bewahrt hatten. Sie waren nicht durch jene Zwischenstufe hindurchgegangen, die jene südlicheren Völker inzwischen durchgemacht hatten. Wir haben es also hier mit einem Zusammenstoß eines konservativ gebliebenen, mit einem verwandten, aber zur Kulturhöhe gelangten Volke zu tun.

Zur Zeit der Entstehung des Christentums, das so große Bedeutung für sie erlangen sollte, standen die Germanen auf jener Kulturstufe, wie wir sie von den Griechen bei Homer geschildert finden. Den Fortschritt in der Kultur und Gesittung, der dazwischen liegt, hatten sie nicht mitgemacht. In dem ersten Jahrhundert n.Chr. schildert Tacitus die Germanen der Grenzländer an der Donau, am Rhein und an der Lippe. Diese Völker zeichnen sich durch Wanderlust, Freiheitsliebe, sowie Jagd- und Kriegslust aus. Die häuslichen Angelegenheiten lagen in den Händen der Frauen. Nun tritt uns hier eine Gesittung entgegen und eine Gestaltung der Gesellschaft, die bei den Griechen längst entschwunden war, die sich nur dort erhalten konnte, wo die einzelnen Glieder eines Stammes noch durch Blutsverwandtschaften aneinander gebunden waren. Daher die vielen Stämme. Bei ihnen, die ihrer Abstammung von der gleichen Familie sich bewußt waren — denn geregelte Familien, keine Horden waren es —, entwickelte sich aus den einzelnen Familien die Stammesverwandtschaft. Daher waren auch die Kriege, die sie führten, fast stets Kriege gegen Blutsfremde.

Gegen Ende des 4. und im 5. Jahrhundert sehen wir nun alle diese Völker gezwungen, ihre Wohnsitze zu wechseln und sich neue zu suchen.

Die Epoche der Völkerwanderung hatte begonnen. Die Hunnen brechen herein. Damit dämmert auf die Kenntnis der Völker, die weiter nach Osten wohnen, der Alanen, der Gepiden und so weiter und vor allem der Goten. Dieses Volk, das sich in West- und Ostgoten teilte, hatte bereits das Christentum angenommen. Es ist dieses Volk für uns von besonderer Wichtigkeit durch die Art seiner Auffassung des Christentums. Während das Volk, das später das Christentum von Westen nach Osten ausbreitete, die Franken, es mit Gewalt den übrigen Völkern aufzwang, waren die Goten voller Toleranz. Für die hohe Kulturstufe, die sie schon erreicht hatten, spricht der Umstand, daß wir einem Bischof der Goten, Ulfilas oder Wulfila, die erste Bibelübersetzung verdanken, den sogenannten silbernen Kodex, der in Uppsala aufbewahrt wird.

Diese Goten, deren Christianisierung von Osten her geschehen war, waren nicht solche Christen wie diejenigen, deren Bekehrung später vom Westen aus erfolgte; nicht wie die Franken, die zur Zeit Karls des Großen mit Waffengewalt den Sachsen das Christentum aufdrängten. Sie waren nicht athanasische, sondern arianische Christen. All diese Östlichen germanischen Völkerstämme bekannten sich zu dem arianischen Glauben, einer Anschauung, die auf dem Konzil von Nicäa von den Anhängern des Athanasius für ketzerisch erklärt und verfolgt wurde.

Die arianischen Christen nahmen an, daß der Gott in jeder Menschenbrust wohne. Daher glaubten die Goten an eine Vergöttlichung des Menschen, wie Christus, der ihnen vorangegangen sei, sie den Menschen gezeigt hatte. Diese Anschauung war verknüpft mit einer tiefen Bildung des Gemütes. Die Goten waren von größter Duldsamkeit gegen jede andere religiöse Anschauung. Zwischen zwei christlichen Religionen, die voneinander so verschieden waren, war keine Verständigung möglich. War die absolute Toleranz eine Eigenschaft dieser Goten, fiel es ihnen nicht ein, einem anderen einen Glauben aufzuzwingen, so tritt uns hierin schon der Unterschied entgegen von der Art und Weise, wie zum Beispiel bei Karl dem Großen und Chlodwig, den Anhängern des athanasischen Glaubensbekenntnisses, das Christentum zu politischen Zwecken ausgebeutet wurde.

Die Arianer sahen in Christus einen Menschen, hochentwickelt über alle anderen Menschen zwar, aber Mensch unter Menschen. Ihr Christus gehörte zu den Menschen und wohnte in des Menschen Brust. Der Christus der athanasischen Christen ist Gott selbst, der hoch über den Menschen thronte.

Athanasius hat gesiegt, dadurch ist die Kulturentwickelung wesentlich beeinflußt worden.

Die Germanen waren rings eingezwängt von fremden Völkern: im Süden und Westen von den Römern und Galliern — kelto-germanischen Völkerschaften —, während von Osten her fortwährend neue Völkerzuschübe stattfanden. Die ersten christlichen Germanenstämme hatten nichts anderes gekannt als absolute Toleranz, die FrankenChristen brachten ein aufgezwungenes Christentum. Das führte zu einer Änderung der ganzen Gemütsart. An der Entwickelung dieses Teiles der Germanen hängt nun im wesentlichen die Fortentwickelung der Kultur.

Eine tiefgreifende Änderung der Rechtsverhältnisse hatte sich allmählich vollzogen. Einigermaßen tritt Ruhe und Seßhaftigkeit mit dem Ende des 5. Jahrhunderts ein. Durch die fortgesetzten Nachschübe von Osten haben sich aus den früher genannten, fortwährend untereinandergerüttelten Völkerschaften, von denen sich nur wenige selbst den Namen bewahrt haben — Chatten und Friesen und so weiter — größere Völkergemeinschaften gebildet. Durch die Auflösung der alten Blutsverbände war ein anderes Motiv der Zusammengehörigkeit geschaffen. An die Stelle des Blutes trat das Band, welches den Menschen verknüpft mit dem Grund und Boden, den er bebaut.

Stammeszusammengehörigkeit wurde gleichbedeutend mit Lokalzusammengehörigkeit. Es entstand die Dorfgemeinde. Nicht mehr das Bewußtsein der Blutsgemeinschaft, sondern die Zusammengehörigkeit mit dem Boden band die einzelnen Glieder der Gemeinde untereinander. Es führte dies zu einer Umgestaltung der Eigentumsverhältnisse.

Ursprünglich war alles Gemeineigentum gewesen. Jetzt tritt die Scheidung zwischen Gemeineigentum und Privateigentum hervor. Doch ist vorerst noch alles Gemeineigentum, was Gemeineigentum sein kann, Wald, Weide, Wasser und so weiter. Es bildete sich dann eine Zwischenstufe zwischen dem Gemein- und Privatbesitz, die sogenannte Hufe. Die Benutzung dieses halb privaten, halb gemeinsamen Eigentums unterlag dem Beschlusse der gesamten freien Bewohner einer sogenannten Hufe, einer Gemeinde, und in jenen früheren Zeiten waren fast alle Bewohner der Gemarkung frei.

Das steht in schroffem Gegensatz zum eigentlichen Privateigentum: Waffen, Geräten, Gewändern, Gärten, Vieh und so weiter, allem, was sich der einzelne persönlich erworben hatte. Dieser begrenzte Charakter drückte sich darin aus, daß das Privateigentum mit der Person des Besitzers eng verbunden war. Man gab daher dem Toten seine Waffen, Pferde, Hunde und so weiter mit ins Grab. Ein Anklang an diesen alten Gebrauch ist es, wenn noch heute beim Begräbnis eines Fürsten ihm Orden, Krone und so weiter nachgetragen, sowie sein Pferd nachgeführt wird.

Auch bei einem Volke, das in mancher Weise Ähnlichkeit mit den alten Germanen aufweist, bei den Chinesen, gibt man den Toten die Gegenstände, die ihm persönlich gehörten, mit ins Grab, wobei man sich heute allerdings mit Papiermodellen begnügt.

So sehen wir also, was sich aus bestimmten Verhältnissen herausgebildet hatte: Übergang von der Stammeszur Dorfgemeinschaft. Wir begreifen damit weitere UmwandJungen. Wir verstehen, warum Tacitus nicht von den Asen spricht, sondern von Tuisto und seinem Sohne Mannus. Er spricht von Völkern, die noch nicht zu der Dorfgemeinschaft gekommen sind. Die Asengötter gehören einer höheren Kulturstufe an. Andere Völker kamen von Norden und brachten Vorstellungen mit, die sich dort entwickelt hatten. Die paßten nun für die inzwischen erreichte höhere Kulturstufe. Wie weit geht der Mensch mit Vorstellungen, wie sie uns in Tuisto, in Mannus entgegentreten? Er bleibt beim Menschen, geht nicht über sich selbst hinaus. Es wäre etwas Fruchtloses gewesen, bei diesen Stämmen den Wotansdienst einzuführen. Der Wotansdienst geht bis in das Universum; der Mensch sucht seinen Ursprung im Schoße der Natur. Erst auf dieser späteren Kulturstufe konnte sich der Mensch zu diesen Religionsvorstellungen erheben. Er ist seßhaft geworden, daher versteht er den Zusammenhang mit der Natur. So haben wir gesehen, wie die primitive Kultur der südlicheren Germanen von Norden beeinflußt wird, und wie unterdessen im Süden bei verwandten Völkern sich hohe Kulturen entwickelt hatten.

Wir werden weiterhin sehen, unter welchen Bedingungen die südlichen Kulturen sich über die Germanen ergießen werden. Eine interessante Übersicht bietet sich uns dar, eine tiefgehende ursprüngliche Verwandtschaft der verschiedenen Völker, ein innerer Zusammenhang, der ihr Wesen bestimmt. Wir sehen dann äußere Einflüsse, die den Charakter ändern. So stellen sich uns Ursache und Wirkung dar.

Aus der Vergangenheit können wir so die Gegenwart verstehen lernen. Ewige Wandelbarkeit beherrscht nicht nur die Natur, sondern auch die Geschichte. Wie könnten wir getrosten Mutes in die Zukunft blicken, wenn wir nicht wüßten, daß auch die Gegenwart sich ändert, daß wir sie in unserem Sinne gestalten können, daß auch hier das Dichterwort sich erfüllt:

Das Alte stürzt, es ändert sich die Zeit,
und neues Leben blüht aus den Ruinen.

Second lecture

The picture of Central Europe changed dramatically between approximately the 1st and 6th centuries AD. This change meant that the peoples who lived on the Vistula, Oder, and Elbe rivers were completely replaced by others, making it very difficult to form a picture of these peoples and learn anything about their customs and way of life. One must resort to a peculiar method to find a picture of those peoples. Tacitus' descriptions in Germania give us a picture of the region at that time. No other documents from that period have been preserved, and we must draw on the legends of the northern Germanic peoples to supplement our mental images. Tacitus' comments on these peoples are very revealing of the Romans' views on the circumstances of the time. He believes that they are the original inhabitants of that land, because he cannot form a mental image of how other peoples could have settled in these inhospitable regions. He names the tribes that live on the Rhine, the Lippe, the Weser, the Danube, and in Brandenburg; these are the only ones he knows. He recounts their peculiar characteristics and, because of their similarity, summarises them under the name Germanic peoples. They themselves felt that they were many different tribes and, in their battles with the Romans, were given a wide variety of names, only a few of which have survived to later times, such as the Suevi, Langobardi, Chatti, Frisii and so on.

They originally derive from a Tuisto, to whom they pay divine worship, which they express through war songs. Tuisto's son was Mannus, after whose three sons they name their main tribes: Ingvaeones, Istvaeones, and Hermione. If we compare this account by Tacitus with the myths of another Aryan people, we find the same designation Manu for superhuman leaders in the sacred language of the Indians, Sanskrit. This points to a tribal relationship; indeed, we can trace the same deities among all the Indo-European peoples. Tacitus tells us that the hero of Greek legend, Hercules, was also worshipped by the Germanic peoples and was known to them as Irmin. We know that the southern Indo-European tribes had a legend that found artistic expression in Greece: the legend of Odysseus. Tacitus found a place of worship near the Rhine that was dedicated to Odysseus and his father Laertes. We can therefore see that the culture of the Germanic peoples at this time was related to the culture we find in Greece in the 8th and 9th centuries BC. We thus see the development in Greece of a culture that remained at a lower level in Germany.

All this points to an original kinship. Those peoples who later lived in Germany, Greece, and Russia probably had their former homeland north of the Black Sea. From there, one tribe migrated to Greece, another to Rome, and a third to the west. The original culture of all these peoples has been preserved in this form among the Germanic peoples and was further developed among the Celts. Tacitus tells us nothing about the customs and traditions of this remarkable people. We must rely on the legends and songs that were later compiled in Iceland in the Elder and Younger Edda, where the legacy of this people lives on. Tacitus also tells us about the customs of the Germans at their popular assemblies, which we can only imagine as deliberations of very small communities. All the men of the district gathered for these meetings, which were conducted over beer and mead, and it is said that the ancient Germans made their decisions in the evening while drunk, but these were revised the next morning when they were sober again, and only then did they become valid. As we learn from the scholia to the Iliad, the Persians had the same custom. We must therefore conclude that there was a primordial tribe of Aryans, a kinship between all these peoples.

A particularly strong similarity can be seen among the Germanic peoples living in the north in their peculiar forms of religion, which, although similar in basic character to those of the south, show far greater agreement with those of the Persians. According to the beliefs of the northern Germanic peoples, there were originally two realms separated by an abyss: a realm of fire, Muspelheim, and a realm of ice, Niflheim. The sparks that flew over from Muspelheim gave rise to the first race of giants in the abyss, of whom Ymir was the most prominent. Then a cow, Audhumbla, came into being, who licked the ice, and from it emerged a strong human figure. From this figure came the gods Wotan, Wili, and We, whose names mean reason, will, and mind. This second race of gods was called the Aesir. Their origin was derived from the older of the giants.

Here, too, there is an important linguistic connection, for the gods of the Persians were called Asuras, which is almost identical in sound, also indicating a kinship between all these peoples. Another important clue can be found in an ancient Persian incantation or incantatory poem that has been handed down to us. It points to changes in the mood of the people, to ancient gods who have been deposed and supplanted by others. The service of the Devas is renounced, and the service of the Asuras is invoked. Here, the similarity of the Devas to the giants who were defeated by the Aesir becomes apparent.

Furthermore, the North Germanic saga tells how the three gods found an ash tree and an alder tree on the seashore and created the human race from them. The Persian myth also has the human race emerging from a tree. Among the Jews, we find echoes of this myth in the story of the tree of life in the Garden of Eden. Thus, from Persia to Palestine to Scandinavia, we see traces of the same mythical mental images.

We have thus demonstrated a common basic character among certain peoples. However, there are differences between the southern and northern branches of the common main stem. The southern branch includes the Greeks, Latins, and Indians, while the northern branch includes the Persians and Germanic peoples. Let us now consider the peoples we are dealing with in Germany. They appear to us in such a way that we must believe they have retained character traits that the Greeks and Italians had long since shed, namely the Greeks after the conquest of their empire and the Romans during it, while these northern peoples had developed their essential character traits and qualities before that conquest. These peoples had preserved their original characteristics. They had not gone through the intermediate stage that the more southern peoples had undergone in the meantime. We are therefore dealing here with a clash between a people that had remained conservative and a related people that had attained a high level of culture.

At the time of the emergence of Christianity, which was to become so important to them, the Germanic peoples were at the same stage of culture as we find described by Homer in relation to the Greeks. They had not participated in the progress in culture and civilization that had taken place in the meantime. In the first century AD, Tacitus describes the Germanic peoples of the borderlands on the Danube, Rhine, and Lippe rivers. These peoples are characterized by a love of travel, freedom, hunting, and war. Domestic affairs were in the hands of the women. Here we encounter a way of life and a form of society that had long since disappeared among the Greeks, which could only survive where the individual members of a tribe were still bound together by blood ties. Hence the many tribes. Among them, who were aware of their descent from the same family—for they were organized families, not hordes—tribal kinship developed from the individual families. Therefore, the wars they waged were almost always wars against those who were not related by blood.

Towards the end of the 4th and in the 5th century, we now see all these peoples forced to change their places of residence and seek new ones.

The era of migration had begun. The Huns invaded. This dawned on the peoples living further east, the Alans, the Gepids, and so on, and above all the Goths. This people, which was divided into Visigoths and Ostrogoths, had already converted to Christianity. This people is of particular importance to us because of its understanding of Christianity. While the people who later spread Christianity from west to east, the Franks, imposed it on other peoples by force, the Goths were full of tolerance. The high level of culture they had already achieved is evidenced by the fact that we owe the first translation of the Bible, the so-called Silver Codex, which is kept in Uppsala, to a bishop of the Goths, Ulfilas or Wulfila.

These Goths, whose Christianization had come from the east, were not Christians like those whose conversion later came from the west; not like the Franks, who imposed Christianity on the Saxons by force of arms during the time of Charlemagne. They were not Athanasian Christians, but Arian Christians. All these Eastern Germanic tribes professed the Arian faith, a belief that was declared heretical and persecuted by the followers of Athanasius at the Council of Nicaea.

The Arian Christians believed that God dwelled in every human breast. Therefore, the Goths believed in the deification of man, as Christ, who had gone before them, had shown them. This view was linked to a deep education of the mind. The Goths were extremely tolerant of all other religious views. No understanding was possible between two Christian religions that were so different from each other. If absolute tolerance was a characteristic of these Goths, it did not occur to them to impose a belief on others, so here we already see the difference from the way in which, for example, Charlemagne and Clovis, followers of the Athanasian creed, exploited Christianity for political purposes.

The Arians saw Christ as a human being, highly developed above all other humans, but still a human among humans. Their Christ belonged to the human race and dwelt in the hearts of humans. The Christ of the Athanasian Christians is God himself, enthroned high above humans.

Athanasius prevailed, which had a significant influence on cultural development.

The Germanic tribes were surrounded by foreign peoples: in the south and west by the Romans and Gauls—Celtic-Germanic peoples—while new waves of peoples continually arrived from the east. The first Christian Germanic tribes had known nothing but absolute tolerance, but the Frankish Christians brought with them an imposed Christianity. This led to a change in the entire mindset. The further development of culture now essentially depends on the development of this part of the Germanic peoples.

A profound change in legal relations had gradually taken place. A degree of calm and settlement set in at the end of the 5th century. The continued influx of people from the east led to the formation of larger communities from the previously mentioned peoples, who were constantly at war with each other and of whom only a few have retained their names—the Chatti, the Frisians, and so on. The dissolution of the old blood ties created a different motive for solidarity. Blood ties were replaced by the bond that connects people to the land they cultivate.

Tribal solidarity became synonymous with local solidarity. The village community emerged. It was no longer the consciousness of blood ties, but solidarity with the land that bound the individual members of the community together. This led to a restructuring of property relations.

Originally, everything had been common property. Now the distinction between common property and private property became apparent. However, for the time being, everything that could be common property remained common property: forests, pastures, water, and so on. An intermediate stage between common and private property then developed, known as the “Hufe” (common land). The use of this semi-private, semi-communal property was subject to the decision of all the free inhabitants of a so-called Hufe, a community, and in those earlier times, almost all the inhabitants of the district were free.

This stands in stark contrast to actual private property: weapons, tools, clothing, gardens, livestock, and so on, everything that the individual had acquired personally. This limited character was expressed in the fact that private property was closely linked to the person of the owner. Therefore, the dead were given their weapons, horses, dogs, and so on to take with them to the grave. An echo of this old custom can be seen today when, at the funeral of a prince, his orders, crown, and so on are carried after him, as well as his horse.

Even among a people who in many ways resemble the ancient Germanic tribes, the Chinese, the dead are given the objects that belonged to them personally to take with them to the grave, although today they are content with paper models.

So we see what had developed from certain circumstances: the transition from tribal to village communities. This helps us understand further transformations. We understand why Tacitus does not speak of the Aesir, but of Tuisto and his son Mannus. He speaks of peoples who have not yet formed village communities. The Aesir gods belong to a higher level of culture. Other peoples came from the north and brought with them mental images that had developed there. These mental images were now appropriate for the higher level of culture that had been reached in the meantime. How far does man go with mental images such as those we encounter in Tuisto and Mannus? He remains with man, does not go beyond himself. It would have been fruitless to introduce the worship of Wotan to these tribes. The worship of Wotan extends into the universe; humans seek their origins in the bosom of nature. Only at this later stage of culture could humans rise to these religious ideas. They have become settled, so they understand the connection with nature. Thus we have seen how the primitive culture of the southern Germanic peoples was influenced by the north, and how, meanwhile, advanced cultures had developed among related peoples in the south.

We will continue to see under what conditions the southern cultures will spread over the Germanic peoples. An interesting overview presents itself to us, a deep-rooted original kinship between the different peoples, an inner connection that determines their essence. We then see external influences that change their character. Thus, cause and effect present themselves to us.

From the past, we can thus learn to understand the present. Eternal changeability dominates not only nature, but also history. How could we look to the future with confidence if we did not know that the present is also changing, that we can shape it in our own image, that here too the poet's words are fulfilled:

The old is falling, times are changing,
and new life is blossoming from the ruins.