Spirits that owed him submission
Now shall at my call awaken.
I his cell invaded;
I have learned the spell!
I’ll do—spirit-aided—
Miracles as well!
Goethe: Der Zauberlehrling
For twenty years now the “Magician’s apprentice” (Zauberlehrling) has been trying his experiments in Austria. The old master who knew how to exercise and to exorcise the spirits has gone; constitution, parliamentarianism, the fundamental law of the state, have become mere documents, and the unbridled spirits are up to their mad tricks. And now, since it has resulted as all who were not hiding their heads in the sand saw that it would result, the cry of dismay echoes through the land:
Lord, the need’s immense!
Those I called—the spirits—