Herder's conception of "das Volk"

by Georgiana Rose Simpson

Both the word Volk and the various ideas for which it stands are old and are to be found among many peoples. The parent tongue, the Indo-European, seems to have had a form which meant “full,” “many.” The “many” easily became the “common,” so that the “many” as opposed to the “few” was parallel with the “common,” “vulgar” as opposed to the “upper classes,” the “aristocracy.” This meaning seems to have been a fundamental one in both ancient and modern times.

The shift in meaning of the Germanic word Volk, which extends the sense to that of “nation,” has been more general and more permanent in German than in English. It is with these two main conceptions, that is Volk, the common people, and Volk, nation, that we are concerned in this study of Herder. Many examples of Herder’s use of the term Volk show that he makes the word an exact synonym for nation. In many other examples it is used as an equivalent term for nation. In both of these uses “nation” with Herder means those bound together only by the same laws and customs whether related by consanguinity or not.

But Herder frequently makes Volk stand more specifically for those who are of the same blood, and in that sense identifies it with “race.” We have seen that these are common uses of the term Volk and the idea conveyed by it, uses which occur in many languages and among many civilized peoples.

Now Herder, while using the term Volk in the commonly accepted sense of nation, has always firmly in mind certain attributes and powers which characterize groups as such. They have power to rule; they have power to express themselves in peculiar ways; they have Nationalgeist. This Nationalgeist in the final analysis is the outgrowth of physical and social environment and conforms to the dictates of these in all its peculiarities.

In exercising their powers and general spirit, they act as an entity according to Herder’s conception. He makes the group a single being, an individual. In Herder’s day when ideas of nationalism had no definite shape, this added sense of the meaning of nation meant clearly that he was a forerunner in the realm of philosophy, and gave to Herder’s conception of Volk, even in this commonly used sense, a unique place. Individuality, personality, distinguished nations just as these traits mark out human beings.

Herder makes use of the term Volk in a second sense. Here he means a group within a civilized nation which forms the mass below the aristocracy and the governing class. This use likewise is to be found in all languages of civilized peoples.

But Herder is emphatic in noting that this group has not been affected by expurgating and eliminating influences to the fullest extent to which these have operated. It has therefore been more thoroughly the product of natural environment. In the proportion to which innate tendencies have not been checked and warped, individual traits have had free development. Therefore spontaneous personality characterizes this group to a higher degree than it does the more cultured. Here Herder makes prominent his philosophy that unhampered nature is the most potent force in the development of this spontaneous personality.

In his collection of Volkslieder, Herder does not confine himself to those which are marked by primitivism, but includes also many selections of polished literary form. But these all submit to a classification which takes into account the true expression of universal and fundamental feelings common to all humanity. Here Herder’s mind is fixed on that power which the group has to express itself, to express that which is fundamental and therefore to show forth its personality.

Ossian’s people and the Ancient Hebrews are products of an environment which is most effective in shaping Herder’s ideal Volk: namely, nature unaltered by the hand of man. As a result of such rough, crude surroundings, these peoples have developed into simple, harmonious beings, and possess all the elements which Herder considers essential in man’s nature. He finds they are natural because they are primitive, and they possess superior traits because they are natural. They have the power to give expression to their personality and have exercised this power in a marked way in their unique literatures. The individuality of each group is sharply defined in the songs of each.

Now how does Herder arrive at the requirements to which he makes his Volk conform?