Old Fritz versus German Literature: This time, it's personal!

[selenak]

Friedrich famously did not have time for German literature in any way or form, which didn't stop him from publishing a pamphlet against it in his old age. Because it's a small German nobility world, one of his more favored relations, great nephew Carl-August of Weimar - the reception for whom in 1786 would be the last public court appearance by Fritz in his life -, would, of course, become the patron of the most famous German writers of all time, Goethe and Schiller, and preside over the Golden Age of German literature. Which started in the last two decades of Friedrich' s life, and overlaped with his sunset years in a more or less amusing way, which prompted these summaries.

In fairness, Carl August had the opposite of Fritz' childhood. His father died when he was still a baby. His mother, Anna Amalie (a niece of Fritz, she was the daughter of sister Charlotte, Duchess of Braunschweig, the one whom FW imagined running his household thriftily in his retirement fantasy), became regent (as in, real regent, that abhorrence to Prussian monarchs, a woman with actual political power - over a small duchy, true, but still, she was boss), and being a lady fond of culture and patronage made young Carl August's main teacher Wieland, one of the most famous German poets in the generation pre Goethe. (Anna Amalia: not sharing the tastes of Uncle Fritz. When he published his anti German literature pamphlet, she founded a journal devoted to German literature, and contributed essays herself. The big library in Weimar, one of the most beautiful in Germany, is named after her. When it burned some years ago, there was great distress, and instant pledges of renovation.) More about her involvement in a moment.

First, let me sum up the relationship between Carl August and Goethe throughout their lives:


Be the Voltaire to my Fritz!

Young Carl August: *turns 18, becomes ruling Duke of Weimar, does Peter III one better by not writing fanboy letter but making fanboy appearance in Frankfurt at ten years older Goethe's place* OMG! You're totally my idol! Best young writer in Germany! Be the Voltaire to my Fritz! Come to Weimar with me!

Goethe at 28: *has achieved early literary stardom with Götz von Berlichingen (play which will be notoriously hated by Fritz in writing) and The Sorrows of Young Werther, but is kind of over Sturm und Drang and at any rate hates the prospect of being a lawyer in Frankfurt to support himself, books not earning their writer money in the 18th century* You know… what the hell, why not. But I'm thinking less Voltaire and more Richelieu.

Consequence: early wild period, in which the young duke and no longer quite as young Goethe hit the taverns, towns and mountains in the tiny dukedom and go as far as having foursomes together, followed by sober period of Goethe becoming the most important minister in Carl August's cabinet.

Rest of the cabinet, all nobles: But! He's a writer from Hesse with not an ounce of noble blood!"

Carl August: Shut up, he's the greatest genius alive, I just know it! And fine, now he's von Goethe, now will you obey and work with him!)

Goethe: *is not writing much (though there are some bits, including some of his most famous poems) for the next decade, as he really throws himself 100% into governing*

Goethe, after a decade *has burnout*: Okay, if I'm continuing like this, I'll never be able to be foremost a writer again. Off to Italy in secret now! Sorry, Carl August. See you in two years!

Weimar: Is indignant.

Carl August: You just don't understand him. I'll continue to pay him his salary as a minister and hope I'll see him again.

Goethe, two years later: Back from Italy. I've rediscovered myself as a writer, so I won't be able to go back co-governing with you, but I'll remain in the cabinet as one of the ministers and devote two thirds to writing, a third of my time to politics from now on. That still okay with you?

Carl August: YOU'RE BACK! Sure, whatever you want. But my favourite mistress must get the lead role in your next drama.

Goethe: ...Okay.

So that was the type of relationship they had. In their official correspondance, it's "your highness" and Sie all the way, but we have enough witnesses to know that during the first wild frat boy time, it was a mutual du, and likely in later years when they were alone, it was "Hans" (for Goethe, who was Johann Wolfgang) and "Carl" still. And yes, verily, Carl August was a more sensible fellow in how to handle a poet bff than great-uncle Fritz. Mind you: he's not kidding in my summary when bringing up his favourite mistress getting leading roles. Since one of Goethe's tasks was running the Weimar theatre, the fact the female star was literally in bed with the Duke sometimes caused friction, since her NOT getting the best parts was a strict no. When, a few decades down the line, he wanted a change of theatre director but didn't want to tell Goethe outright, he instead insisted a funny dog should be put on stage. This was it for Goethe, as Carl August knew it would be, and old Johann Wolfgang resigned from that post. (BTW I always thought that was where Tom Stoppard got the bit with the dog in "Shakespeare in love" from.)

Generally, they handled each other's private lives well. Which was a big issue since when Goethe returned from Italy, he returned not just with erotic poetry in his luggage but with, none too long after his arrival, moving in with a local girl who worked at the manufacturary for artificial flowers (not quite working class as we understand it today, but definitely not middle class, let alone noble), Christiane Vulpius. The scandal here wasn't that they had sex but that they lived together, in the same house, sans marriage, with illegitimate children (all of whom but one died, and the surviving son was named August after CA)... for the next eighteeen years. And then they married. This was a big big scandal in stuffy little Weimar, both the living together (as opposed to the usual rich man has sex with the lower classes, moves on thing) and the eventual marriage, and if Carl August hadn't provided cover and withstood all demands to hand down an ultimatum to Goethe along the lines of "get rid of the low born slut or lose my patronage", who knows what would have happened. Once Christiane was officially Frau von Goethe, Carl August shocked the Weimar society by dancing with her at a court ball, which, together with Schopenhauer's mother Johanna offering a cup of tea ("if Goethe gives her his name, I can offer her tea") signalled the official acceptance of the quondam Demoiselle Vulpius in Weimar society. Which never stopped bitching about her until she died, sad to say, but Carl August was a champ throughout in this matter.

Actual quotes:

From old Goethe about him to Eckermann, his secretary. (Who like Henri de Catt wrote memoirs.) (Bear in mind Goethe is also being discreet. No stories about foursomes to Eckermann.)

"He was eighteen when I came to Weimar, but his buds already showed what the later tree wold be like. He became intensely close to me, and was interested in all I did, which built our relationship. He sat entire evenings with me in deep conversations on topics of nature and art and other good things. We often were up till late in the night, and it wasn't unusual to fall asleep together on my couch. Fifty years we've been together now, and it it wouldn't be surprising if we've achieved something in all this time. It was like a good vintage when it still was fermenting. We rode on parforce horses over hedges, ditches and through rivers, exhausted ourselves up and down mountains, camped outside under the sky, or next to a fireplace in the woods; that was what he loved to do."

Also in his old age, Goethe wrote this poem for Carl August. My translation doesn't always manage the hexameter, but here we are:

German original:

Klein ist unter den Fürsten Germaniens freilich der meine;
Kurz und schmal ist sein Land, mäßig nur, was er vermag.
Aber so wende nach innen, so wende nach außen die Kräfte
Jeder; da wär' es ein Fest, Deutscher mit Deutschen zu sein.
Doch was priesest du ihn, den Taten und Werke verkünden?
Und bestochen erschien deine Verehrung vielleicht;
Denn mir hat er gegeben, was Große selten gewähren,
Neigung, Muße, Vertrau'n, Felder und Garten und Haus.
Niemand braucht' ich zu danken als ihm, und manches bedurft' ich,
Der ich mich auf den Erwerb schlecht, als ein Dichter, verstand.
Hat mich Europa gelobt, was hat mir Europa gegeben?
Nichts! Ich habe, wie schwer! meine Gedichte bezahlt.
Deutschland ahmte mich nach, und Frankreich mochte mich lesen.
England! freundlich empfingst du den zerrütteten Gast.
Doch was fördert es mich, daß auch sogar der Chinese
Malet mit ängstlicher Hand Werthern und Lotten auf Glas?
Niemals frug ein Kaiser nach mir, es hat sich kein König
Um mich bekümmert, und er war mir August und Mäcen.

English translation:

"Small among the princes of Germany is mine,
tiny and short his country, moderate is what he can do
But if anyone would use their power within and without
as he does, then it would be a treat to be German with Germans.
Yet what do you praise him, whom his deeds and works can describe?
Your veneration could appear bribed.
For he gave me what princes rarely provide
Affection, leisure, trust, grounds and a garden and my home.
I never was obliged to anyone for it but him, and I needed a lot,
who as a poet was bad at making a living.
If Europe praised me, what did Europe provide?
Nothing. For my poems I paid heavy fines.
Germany imitated me, and France enjoyed reading my books.
England! You were a kind host to this messed up guest.
But what did it help that even the Chinese
painted with trembling hands images of Werther and Lotte on glass?
No emperor took me in, nor did a king ever care.
He was my Augustus and Maecenas in one.


So far, so poetical. Now, a few months ago, I found an essay by Katharina Mommsen speculating why on earth Old Fritz in his last years bothered to fire off his anti-German Literature tirade; and he didn't do so casually, he wrote it for publication, had it translated into German in manuscript, so it was published simultanously in French and German. It was important for him that it appeared. And the answer to this question, as per Katharina M., is to be found in exactly this Carl August/Goethe relationship.


Wherein Goethe corrupts Friedrich's great nephew

We know from Fritz' reader, Henri de Catt's successor, that he got the idea to go public with "De La Literature Allemande" after his sisters Amalie and Charlotte showed up and evidently must have said something complimentary about German literature. (Quelle horreur!) What I hadn't so far bothered to check when looking at the date as that this wasn't before but after Goethe had already moved to the court of Charlotte's daughter Anna Amalia and become bff with Fritz' great nephew Carl August. What I also hadn't known was that for all that he'd been a Fritz fan as a boy, Goethe tongue-in-cheek did a version of Aristophanes' "The Birds" for the Weimar court in which the eagle (the emblem of Prussia) is mildly spoofed and made fun off. Also, apparantly Fritz had been complimentary about teen Carl August and had hoped his great nephew would take to the military life. This, otoh, was really not was Carl August's mother Anna Amalia wanted.

So this ensued.

Anna Amalia: I'm hearing rumblings about some war about the Bavarian succession. Carl August already says he wants to go and is starry eyed about serving with Uncle Fritz. Now I'm honoring my Hohenzollern blood, but really, no. However, I'm not so naive to assume he'd listen if I told him to be careful and stay at home. Mr. Goethe, you've gotten over Fritz fanboying, have you? Advise me, how do we stop Carl August from joining the Prussian army without me coming across as a nagging Mom or you as a fun killer?

Goethe: Here's my cunning plan: I'm off with your son to Berlin, where the Great King is not, but your uncle Heinrich is. Now maybe I've been listening to the wrong gossip, but methinks your uncle Heinrich has something to say about what serving with his brother is like, and considering he's renowned as a hero himself...

Anna Amalia: I knew there was a reason why I didn't make a fuss about you and Carl August hanging out all the time.

Heinrich: Has a lot to say.

Goethe: *is not two faced at all as he uses his one and only trip to Berlin to also visit Sanssouci like a tourist*

(Actual quote from a Goethe letter: "I was in Berlin in the spring ... We were there a few days and I just had a glimpse like the child in (one) beautiful rarities box. But you know how I live in looking; there were a thousand lights on me. And I got quite close to old Fritz, since I had a look at his home turf, his gold, silver, marble, monkeys, parrots and torn curtains, and I heard his own dogs bark.")

Carl August: Dear Uncle Fritz, I've reconsidered. Am not joining the army after all. My duchy needs me. Also, I've got a court of the muses to attend to with a Voltaire of my own, by which I mean my bff JWG, the author of Werther and "Götz von Berlichingen". He's just the coolest!

Fritz: *has just gotten MT's peace offer via Catherine and knows there won't be any actual battles in this war, but is still pissed off as he returns*

Anna Amalia: *writes* Dear Mom, maybe you should check on Uncle Fritz, I don't know, could be he's annoyed with us? Weimar is way too close to Prussia for me not to feel uncomfortable about that. I don't know, maybe take Aunt Amalie with you and distract him with some literature talk?

Charlotte: Eh, why not.

Fritz: *going back to bookwriting about how the German language is awful, German literature is horrible and the one young German writer he mentions by name has written this horrid play Götz which just shows his utter lack of talent ensues*

German writers, 99% of whom have been Fritz fanboys after the 7-years-war: *facepalm*

Wieland: Good lord, what's gotten into the old man? I mean, we already knew he hasn't updated his literary taste since he was 16, but doesn't he have something better to do? What on earth brought this on?

Goethe: I couldn't possibly say.

mildred_of_midgard: Didn't he trash talk Shakespeare (since you mentioned Shakespeare in another comment) in that same pamphlet, or at least around the same time? IIRC, "Shakespeare at least had the excuse that culture hadn't been invented in England yet, but now we have Germans imitating Shakespeare when they could be imitating my favorite 17th century French dramatists, and that's just inexcusable. Discuss! [It had been five minutes since I last said or did something controversial, I was having withdrawal symptoms and produced this pamphlet. Sorry not sorry.]"

selenak:
Yes, the Shakespeare trash talking was in the same pamphlet, alright. Here's what one of the young Turk Sturm und Drang writers, Herder, replied, according to Katharina Mommsen's essay I have this latest intel from:

"Does one have to step forward and exclaim: great man, be silent! You have no idea what you're talking about; you're making yourself ridiculous in the eyes of your fellow citizens and contemporaries; go and scrub your warrior's armor so it doesn't rust, and continue to leave the dust on the books you should have bothered to read first; shame on you, go away!"

(Btw, today's resarch according to the essay knows that in fact a substantial amount of De La Literature Allemande is based on an unpublished pamphlet Fritz drafted during his time in Rheinsberg...thirty years earlier. And as he confessed to Gottsched when he was in his forties, he hadn't read a German book since he was 18. I doubt he'd read any since meeting Gottsched, though presumably someone told him what Götz von Berlichingen was about and that it was blatantly inspired by Shakespeare. That he dusted off this unpublished thing and added a few more insults, though, really speaks for a need to be controversial again. *g*)

*"your fellow citizens": truly, the French Revolution is only a mere nine more years away. I doubt anyone in Fritz' youth would have dared to call him a "fellow citizen". ("Mitbürger")

** Also fun is Wieland calling Fritz "den aufgeblasensten aller deutschen Michel" ("the most bloated of German Michaels") in response. "Der deutsche Michel", "German Michael", was a symbolic figure like Uncle Sam later for the US or John Bull for England. He's usually depicted as a sleepyhead with a cap. (Remember, this was before Prussia took over the rest of the German states and we got the collective reputation of being military tough guys; the Michel was the opposite of that.) Is being called bloated or being referred to as the most German of Germans the worse insult for Fritz? Discuss.


Finally, just for kicks and parallels, here's Scottish Diarist James Boswell's transcript from meeting Voltaire when he (Boswell) was grandtouring Europe. Building up to a perfect punchline:


So about Shakespare and the King of Prussia, Monsieur de Voltaire...

VOLTAIRE: Shakespeare has often two good lines, never six. A madman, by G-d, a buffoon at Bartholommew Fair. No play of his own, all old stories.
Chess. “I shall lose, by G-d, by all the saints in Paradise. Ah, here I am risind on a black ram, like a whore as I am. –
Falstaff from the Spaniards.
BOSWELL: I’ll tell you why we admire Shakespeare.
VOLTAIRE: Because you have no taste.
BOSWELL: But, Sir –
VOLTAIRE: Et penitus toto divisos orbe Britannos – all Europe is against you. So you are wrong.
BOSWELL: But this is because we have the most grand imagination.
VOLTAIRE: The most wild.
(…)
BOSWELL: What do you think of our comedy?
VOLTAIRE: A great deal of wit, a great deal of plot, and a great deal of bawdy-houses. (…)
BOSWELL: Johnson is a most orthodox man, but very learned; has much genius and much worth.
VOLTAIRE: He is then a dog. A superstitious dog. No worthy man was ever superstitious.
BOSWELL: He said the King of Prussia wrote like your footboy.
VOLTAIRE. He is a sensible man.

Comments

[mildred_of_midgard]

Perfect timing! I was just about to ask if you were planning to do the Goethe write-up so I could link to it from my Voltaire write-up. :D

"He is a sensible man."

I still laugh over this every time I think of it. It's one of the better punchlines I've seen, and the buildup definitely pays off.