Germany from the Earliest Period, Volume 4

by Wolfgang Menzel

This was in a manner also the finale of the German notes that so strangely resounded in that Gallic time; the restoration suppressed every further outburst of patriotism, and the patriotic spirit that had begun to breathe forth in verse once more gave place to cosmopolitism and Gallicism. The lyric school, founded by Ludwig Uhland, alone preserved a German spirit and a connection with the ancient Minnelieder of Swabia.

The new cosmopolitic tendency of the poetry of these times is chiefly due to the influence exercised by Goethe. The quick comprehension and ready adoption of every novelty is a faculty of, not a fault in, the German character, and alone becomes reprehensible when the German, forgetful of himself and of his own peculiar characteristics, adopts a medley of foreign incongruities and falsifies whatever ought to be preserved special and true. Goethe and his school, however, not content with imitating singly the style of every nation and of every period, have interwoven the most diverse strains, antique and romantic, old German and modern French, Grecian and Chinese, in one and the same poem. This unnatural style, itself destructive of the very peculiarity at which it aims, has infected both modern poetry and modern art; the architect intermixes the Grecian and the Gothic in his creations, while the painter seeks to unite the styles of the Flemish and Italian schools in his productions, and the poet those of Persia, Scandinavia, and Spain, in his strains.—Those are indeed deserving of gratitude who have comprehended and preserved the character peculiar to the productions of foreign art, in which the brothers Friedrich and August Wilhelm Schlegel have been so eminently successful. Hammer and, after him, Ruckert have also opened the Eastern world to our view. Count Platen, on the other hand, hung fluctuating between the antique Persian and German.—Cosmopolitism was greatly strengthened by the historical romances in vogue in England, descriptive of olden time, and which found innumerable imitators in Germany. They were, at all events, thus far beneficial; they led us from the parlor into the world.

But no sooner was genuine German taste neglected for that of foreign nations than Gallomania revived; all were compelled to pay homage to the spirit and the tone prevalent throughout Europe. The witty aristocratic médisance and grim spirit of rebellion emulating each other in France, were, in Germany, represented by Prince Piichler, the most spirituel drawing-room satirist, and by the Jew, Börne, the most spirited Jacobin of the day. The open infidelity again demonstrated in France, also led to its introduction into Germany by the Jew, Heine, while the immoral romances with which that country was deluged speedily became known to us through the medium of the translations and imitations of "Young Germany," and were incredibly increased by our literary industry; all the lying memoirs, in which the French falsify history, view Napoleon as a demigod, and treat the enthusiasm with which the Germans were animated in 1813 with derision, were also diligently translated. This tendency to view everything German with French eyes and to ridicule German honor and German manners was especially promoted by the light literature, and numerous journals of the day, and was, in the universities, in close connection with the anti-christian tendency of the school of Hegel.—The late Catholic reaction, too exclusively political, has as yet exercised no influence over the literary world, and would scarcely succeed in gaining any, being less German than Roman.

While German poetry follows so false a course, it naturally follows that art also must be deprived of its natural character. Architecture has, it is true, abandoned the periwig style of France, but the purer antique or Byzantine taste to which it has returned is generally insipidly simple, while the attempts at Gothic and Moorish are truly miserable. A more elevated feeling than the present generation (which, in Goethe's manner, delights in trifling alternately with every style, or is completely enslaved by the modes imposed by France) is fitted to comprehend, is requisite for the revival of German or Gothic architecture. Still it may be, as is hoped, that the intention to complete the building of the Cologne cathedral will not be entirely without a beneficial influence.

The art of painting aspires far more energetically toward national emancipation. In the present century, the modern French style affecting the antique presented a complete contrast with the German romantic school, which, in harmony with the simultaneous romantic reaction in the poetical world, returned to the sacred simplicity of the ancient German and Italian masters. Overbeck was in this our greatest master. Since this period, the two great schools at Munich and Dusseldorf, founded by Peter Cornelius, and whose greatest masters are Peter Hesz, Bendemann, Lessing, Kaulbach, etc., have sought a middle path, and with earnest zeal well and skilfully opposed the too narrow imitation of, and the medley of style produced by the study of, the numerous old masters on the one hand, and, on the other, the search for effect, that Gallic innovation so generally in vogue. Were the church again to require pictures, or the state to employ the pencil of the patriot artist in recording the great deeds of past or present times or in the adornment of public edifices, painting would be elevated to its proper sphere.—Germany has also produced many celebrated engravers, among whom Muller holds precedence. Lithography, now an art of so much importance, was invented by the Bavarian, Senefelder. The art of painting on glass has also been revived.

In music, the Germans have retained their ancient fame. After Mozart, Beethoven, Weber, etc., have gained immense celebrity as composers. Still, much that is unnatural, affected, bizarre and licentious has crept into the compositions of the German masters, more particularly in the operas, owing to the imitation of the modern Italian and French composers. A popular reaction has, however, again taken place, and, as before, in choral music, by means of the "singing clubs," which become more and more general among the people.

The stage has most deeply degenerated. At the commencement of the present century, its mimic scenes afforded a species of consolation for the sad realities of life, and formed the Lethe in whose waters oblivion was gladly sought. The public afterward became so practical in its tastes, so sober in its desires, that neither the spirit of the actor nor the coquetry of the actress had power to attract an audience. The taste and love for art were superseded by criticism and low intrigues, the theatre became a mere political engine, intended to divert the thoughts of the population, of the great cities from the discussion of topics dangerous to the state by the all-engrossing charms of actresses and ballet-dancers.

The Germans, although much more practical in the present than in the past century, are still far from having freed themselves from the unjust, unfitting, and inconvenient situation into which they have fallen as time and events rolled on.

A mutual understanding in regard to the external position of the German in reference to the Slavonian nation has scarcely begun to dawn upon us. Scarcely have we become sensible to the ignominious restrictions imposed upon German commerce by the prohibitory regulations of Russia, by the customs levied in the Sound, on the Elbe, and Rhine. Scarcely has the policy that made such immense concessions to Russian diplomacy, and scarcely has the party spirit that looked for salvation for Germany from France, yielded to a more elevated feeling of self-respect. And yet, whoever should say to the people of Alsace, Switzerland, and Holland, "Ye are Germans," would reap but derision and insult. Germany is on the point of being once more divided into Catholic and Protestant Germany, and no one can explain how the German Customs' Union is to extend to the German Ocean, on account of the restrictions mutually imposed by the Germans. Could we but view ourselves as the great nation we in reality are, attain to a consciousness of the immeasurable strength we in reality possess, and make use of it in order to satisfy our wants, the Germans would be thoroughly a practical nation, instead of lying like a dead lion among the nations of Europe, and unresistingly suffering them to mock, tread underfoot, nay, deprive him of his limbs, as though he were a miserable, helpless worm.

More, far more has been done for the better regulation of the internal economy of Germany than for her external protection and power. The reforms suited to the age, commenced by the philosophical princes and ministers of the past century, have been carried on by Prussia in her hour of need, by constitutional Germany by constitutional means. Everywhere have the public administration been better regulated, despotism been restrained by laws, financial affairs been settled even under the heavy pressure of the national debts. Commerce, manufactural industry, and agriculture have been greatly promoted by the Customs' Union, by government aid and model institutions, by the improvements in the post-offices, by the laying of roads and railways. The public burdens and public debts, nevertheless, still remain disproportionately heavy on account of the enormous military force which the great states are compelled to maintain for the preservation of their authority, and on account of the polyarchical state of Germany, which renders the maintenance of an enormous number of courts, governments, general staffs and chambers necessary.