Humanism in Germany

Horst RUDIGER: Wesen und Wandlung des Humanismus. Pp. 316. Hamburg: Hoffmann und Campe, 1937. Boards. THE scope of this work would be more clearly conveyed if the words ' in Deutschland' were added to the title: for of the nine representatives of humanism discussed in it only three, Cicero, Petrarch, and Erasmus, are not German, and even in dealing with these three the author has his eye chiefly on their relation to German culture. But this limitation makes the book more instructive, for it gives an insight into the influence of humanism in Germany which few in this country possess. The author's method is to study his subject in typical representatives. Cicero appears first, for the idea of humanism, i.e. for his purpose a culture (' Bildung') modelled in part on ideas derived from an earlier civilization, appears first among the later Romans, of whom Cicero is the natural representative. The account of humanism in Cicero is clear and interesting, but the attempt to account for his influence on philosophical and theological grounds seems superfluous, for there is no other Latin author who furnishes such material for the humanist. And there is a curious statement here, to which the author recurs later in the book: that Cicero's idea of Nature was derived not from wild nature, but from the civilized landscape of the Campagna. It is more than doubtful whether natura as a philosophical term would suggest to Cicero, any more than <j>van<; to Aristotle, a landscape of any kind. In the next chapter the author is chiefly concerned to show that there was no humanism in the Middle Ages, since such study of the Classics as existed was directed to the service of the Church. The humanism of the early Renaissance, here represented by Petrarch, was, we are told, too much Romanized by its origin in Italy, and too much concerned with the direct imitation of classical models, to be fruitful in that form in Germany. Ulrich von Hutten, the author thinks, saw this and sought to adapt it to German needs, but he was before his time. The study of the Classics, though introduced, remained for long alien and unfruitful. Martin Opitz marks the next stage. He succeeded in rendering the German language, hitherto regarded as vulgar, an adequate vehicle for dignified expression, especially in poetry; but his contribution is merely to language, not to ideas, and he is followed by a period in which French influence is supreme. Winckelmann at last breaks through the Italian and French tradition, which regards the Classics, and especially the Romans, chiefly as models of style. Going back to the Greeks he discovered in them a source of ideas, and arrived through them at a genuinely humanistic and pagan philosophy of life—Erasmus, we gather in the chapter devoted to him, had in spite of his talents been too Christian to be altogether a humanist. Winckelmann's concern however is with Art, and it was left for later writers to apply his ideas to other subjects. W. von Humboldt accordingly expands them into that ideal of humanism as the allround development of man's powers which was of wide influence in the nineteenth century. His weakness is that his theories are based on an idealized picture of Greece, which did not survive scientific scrutiny. The next writer mentioned, Jacob Burckhardt, repairs that defect, for his ideas are based on wide knowledge and in themselves stimulating and acute; but they were not adequate to maintain the claims of humanism in a world increasingly materialistic. By about 1900 humanism as based on the Classics appeared, we gather, to be moribund in Germany. It has since been revived by what is here called the ' Third Humanism'. It differs from the earlier forms by making the Greek conception of Paideia the central point of its teaching, by welcoming the aid of ' Philologie' more than before, and (a significant difference) by acknowledging the importance of the State.