The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-09-11
Marx on Goethe


Mr.. 95, November %, 1e47, on the &C.
easlon of review Of Kari oruen's
"on Goethe from the Human Stand
point" Darmstadt, 1886. The article
was later reprinted In an article by
NJ. kriegel: Marx as a Journalist, in
Die Zukunft IN. Harden), 1901, TX,
10; and still later In Max Gruenwald's
Goethe und Die Arbeiter." Dresden,
1912.-A. LIZ
NATURALLY, we cannot speak at
great length here about Goethe
himself. We only draw attention 10
one point. Goethe in his works, con-
ducts himself in twofold manner to-
wards the German society of his time.
Now he is hostile to it; he seeks to
escape what to him is repulsive, as in
Iphegenia and, in general, during the
Italian Journey. He rebels against
it as Goetz, Prometheus and Faust,
and pours forth his bitterest derision
upon it as Mephistopheles. Now, on
the contrary, he is on friendly terms
with 1t, accommodates himself to it
as In the majority of the "Tame
xenia" and many prose works, ex-
tolls it as in the ~Maskenzuegen," in
deed, defends it against the empress
ing historical movement as particu-
larly in all the works where he comes
, to speak of the French Revolution. It
is not merely individual aspects OF
German life that Goethe recognizes as
against others to which he is adverse;
it is continuous struggle within him
between the gifted poet whom the mis-
ere of his environment disgusts and
the cautious child of the Frankfurt
counsellor, respective Weimar privy
counsellor, who sees himself forced
to conclude an armistice with 1t and
to accustom himself to it. Thus
Goethe is now colossal, now a petty,
now defiant, mocking, world-disdain-
ing genius, now a considerate, con-
tented, narrow philistine. Even
Goethe was unable to overcome the
German misere; on the contrary, it
overcomes him, and this victory of
the misere over the greatest German
is the best proof that it canwneEer
be overcome from within."% Goethe
was too universal, of too active a ma
ture, too much of the flesh, to look
for deliverance from the misere In a
Schilleresque flight to the Kantian
ideal; he was too keen not to see that
this fight ultimately reduced itself to
an exchange of the fat for the super
abundant misere. His temperament,
his powers, his entire spiritual dispo-
sition, directed him to the practical
life, and the practical Life which he
met with was miserable.
In this dilemma-to live in a sphere
of life which he had to disdain and
still to be chained to this sphere as
the only one in which he could partici-
pate-in this dilemma Goethe contin-
uously found himself, and the older
he became the more the mighty poet,
de querree lasse,*" withdrew behind
the insignificant Weimar minister We
do not reproach Goethe for not being
liberal, la Boerne and Mcneil, but
for the fact that at times he could
also be philistine; not for being in
capable of enthusiasm for German
freedom, but for sacrificing his more
correct esthetic sense, which broke
through here and there, TO a common
philistine timidity before all great,
contemporary historical movements;
not for being a courtier, but for the
fact that he could carry on the most
insignificant affairs and menus plai.
sirsS$* OF one Of the most 'insignif-
cant German courts with a solemn Sc
robustness at a time when a Napoleon
was cleansing the great Augean stable
of Germany. We reproach neither
from the moral nor the party point Of
view, but, at the most, from an es-
thetic and historical point OF view;
we measure Goethe neither by A moral