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Cultural Age-Groups in German Thought
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
… das Geheimnis der Kontemporaneität, welches Geheimnis mich zu beschäftigen nie aufhört, sowohl im Leben als in der Arbeit; denn es ist eigentlich der Schlüssel zum geistigen Dasein, sofern es zugleich menschliches Dasein ist.—Hofmannsthal.
Since positivism, with its cut-and-dry concepts of schools and influences has more and more lost its hold on literary criticism, a wide search for new methodological principles has become a distinctive feature of German endeavors. Their name is legion, their enumeration not pertinent. Suffice it to recall Nadler's regional theory, which, when used with discretion, appears as one of the most fruitful contributions. If Nadler bases his groupings on affinities of space, the Generationsprinzip or Altersgruppenprinzip proceeds similarly in terms of time. It has of late claimed increasing attention in Germany, but only very recently begun to attract interest in this country. On the following pages I shall attempt to discuss critically the more important German contributions to this methodological problem.
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- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1936
References
1 Carossa, “Erinnerung an Hofmannsthal,” Neue Rundschau (Nov., 1929).
2 It is to be expected that the near future will produce literary criticism from an anthropological, racial point of view. As a matter of fact, it is already under way; cf. Nadler's essay “Rassenkunde—Volkskunde—Stammeskunde” in Dichtung und Volkstum (formerly Euphorion), xxxv, 1. I see no reason why such approach should be regarded as illegitimate as long as the principle is not ridden to death. This remark applies to all these attempts at finding principles of structural synthesis; only in this particular case objectivity is for obvious reasons in special jeopardy.
3 Germanic Review, viii (1933), 219 ff.
4 In view of Dilthey this statement is open to doubt.
5 Appendix ii to Benvenuto Cellini.
6 Gesammelte Schriften, Vol. v (Leipzig and Berlin, 1924).
7 Cf. Wölfflin's thesis (frequently referred to by Pinder, vide infra): “Not all is possible at all times.”
8 Dilthey mentions Kleist and Arnim.
9 Ottokar Lorenz, Die Geschichtswissenschaft in Hauptrichtungen und Aufgaben, 2 vols. (Berlin, 1886 and 1891).
10 Fourth century: Constantine; 7th: Gregory the Great; 10th: beginnings of the Cluniac movement; 13th: rise of mendicant orders; 16th: rise of Jesuits.—A similar cyclic theory he gleans from Schmoller's investigations regarding population movements in Europe, 1200, 1500, 1800 marking the beginnings of periods of rapid increase.
11 In this connection he approvingly mentions Scherer's famous 600-year cycles in German literature.
12 Gustav Rümelin, “Über den Begriff und die Dauer einer Generation,” Reden und Aufsätze, vol. i, Freiburg i.B., 1875.
13 By investigating pedigrees, he finds the span between the father and the eldest son in middle-class families of Württemberg to be 30–32, that between the father and the average of his sons 35–36 years. In the leading European dynasties (primogeniture!) the generational span is between 32 and 34 years. In the female line the span is always shorter, women marrying at an earlier age.
14 Incidentally, Lorenz occasionally seems to slip from the century as a conglomeration of three generations into the century of the Christian era, years x01 to (x plus 1)00. In another case of unclear thinking he says: “… wer vom Charakter des 18. Jahrhunderts spricht, der hat eine ganz deutliche Empfindung, dass das politische Leben, die Kunst, die Literatur in den drei Generationen desselben eine Familienähnlichkeit erkennen lässt. In den Ideen dieses Jahrhunderts mögen auf- und absteigende Linien erkennbar sein, aber im ganzen zeigt sich ein vollkommener Unterschied von alledem, was das 17., 16. oder 15. Jahrhundert auszeichnet.”
15 Alfred Lorenz, Abendländische Musikgeschichte im Rhythmus der Generationen: Eine Anregung, Berlin, 1928.
16 Cf. such families—ancestors or descendants—as those of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner. How far in these cases heredity was enhanced by environmental factors I shall not venture to discuss.
17 From this erroneous argumentation the author, incidentally, deduces a conclusion, which, taken by itself, deserves some thought. He says: “Daraus folgt, dass ein Kunststil desto stabiler sein wird, je grösser die Masse des Volkes ist, die sich daran beteiligt, d.h. je kunstverständiger die Allgemeinheit ist. Starker Wechsel der Stilrichtungen darf also nicht als ein Zeichen grosser Kunstsinnigkeit der Zeit angesehen werden, wie man wohl häufig annimmt. Im Gegenteil hat gerade die Interesselosigkeit der Massen am Kunstleben und die Beteiligung von nur wenigen an seiner Fortentwicklung eine Zerfahrenheit der Stile zur notwendigen Folge.”
18 Is this a logical causal deduction? And whence this arbitrary starting-point?
19 I am not quarreling with Lorenz's actual periodization of musical history, the merits of which I am not in a position to judge.
20 In Jahrluch für Soziologie, i (1925).
21 As a matter of fact, the only thing that the members of Joel's list have in common is that somewhere in the course of their earthly existence, though at entirely different age-levels, they pass the magic figure with the two zeros. Among others we find: Christ (1–30), Luther (1483–1546), Shakespeare (1564–1616), Louis XIV (1638–1715). Of course these cases are in no way parallel. And after all, we simply have to consult insurance statistics to see that life expectancy for individuals that have attained physical maturity is well over fifty—which means that the majority of such individuals at some time or other pass the century mark.
22 Cf. Hans von Müller, Zehn Generationen deutscher Dichter und Denker (Berlin, 1928), Introduction.
23 Dresden, 1909.
24 For America compare the violent break in mores shown in books like Lindsey's Revolt of Modern Youth. Yet the generational polarities in America are very different from those in Germany.
25 Classification according to first editions also runs into difficulties as soon as magazine articles, publications within collections, and joint-authorship are involved (Müller).
26 I.e. 30 June, 1730!
27 One part of this age-group loosens and overcomes dogmatic rationalism and classicism, the other positively prepares the coming liberation, Sturm und Drang.
28 Again it is to be admitted that Müller presents this arrangement tentatively, “unter ausdrücklichem Vorbehalt späterer Änderungen,” and with considerable reserve throughout.
29 As in my paper orally presented December, 1933, before the Modern Language Association (Germanic Section).
30 In Ermatinger's Philosophie der Literaturwissenschaft, Berlin, 1930.
31 (1) “Kunstgeschichte nach Generationen,” in Zwischen Philosophie und Kunst [Festschrift für Volkelt], Leipzig, 1926; (2) Das Problem der Generation in der Kunstgeschichte Europas, Berlin, 1st ed., 1926; 2nd ed. (enlarged), 1928.
32 Heavy diagonals might represent, from left to right, the lives of e.g. Klopstock, Goethe, and Friedrich Schlegel. The vertical of 1800 would cut them all, but at different points of their developments.
33 Pinder quotes as examples Monet and Cézanne, Uhde and Gauguin. A very striking example from German literature would be the “Neue Sachlichkeit” with its “idealistic” and its “radical” wing; cf. my essay on “Expressionism and Post-Expressionism in German Lyrics,” Germanic Review, viii (1934). Of this literary generation Klaus Mann says: “Glauben wir uns über die Richtung auch noch im Unklaren zu sein—verbindend ist auch die Richtungslosigkeit, wir sind eine Generation, und sei es, dass uns nur unsere Verwirrtheit vereine. Ist uns sogar das Ziel noch nicht gemeinsam, das uns erst zur Gemenschaft weihen könnte, so ist es doch das Suchen nach einem Ziel.”—Epilogue to his and W. Fehse's Anthologie jüngster Lyrik, i (Hamburg, 1927).
34 Possibly race, possibly also psycho-physical type in the sense of Kretschmer's Körperbau und Charakter.
35 “Seltsamer (oder sehr natürlicher?) Weise spielt das, was wir ein Menschenalter nennen, eine geheimnisvolle Rolle, halb oder ganz gemessen.”
36 Leibl, he says, in the 16th century would have been not only a great, but also a happy painter.
37 “Das Gesetz, wonach sie angetreten. …”
38 “Fast fühlt man sich versucht, vom Problem der Geburtszeiten aus auch noch das viel geheimnisvollere und schwierigere der Todeszeiten aufdämmern zu sehen. … Aber hier beginnt die Gefahrenzone des Mystischen.”
39 (1) Die Wesensbestimmung der deutschen Romantik (Leipzig, 1926), Chapter ii: Generation; (2) “Die literarischen Generationen,” in Ermatinger's Philosophie der Literaturwissenschaft (Berlin, 1930); the latter also as separate print under the above title.
40 E.g., 1564: Shakespeare, Marlowe, Hardy, Heinrich Julius von Braunschweig; 1632: Locke, Spinoza; 1685: Bach, Händel, Veracini, Scarlatti. The year 1813 is eminently productive not only for literature (Wagner, Hebbel, Ludwig, Büchner), but also for music (Wagner, Verdi), and finally also significant through the metaphysical radicalism of Hebbel and Kierkegaard.
41 Metabiology would appear to be an appropriate word for Pinder.
42 Sturm und Drang—Hamann, Klopstock, Rousseau—Shakespeare.
43 Contemporary with the German Neo-Romantic age-group born around 1875: still, Thomas Mann—already, Barlach, Stramm, Lasker-Schüler (Petersen).
44 Examples for Romanticism (according to Petersen): Tieck and A. W. Schlegel, who here even appear as leaders. “In der Vereinsamung des Alters … sanken sie auch in ihre angeborene Gleichgewichtslage zurück.”
45 The truth of this classification does not depend on the somewhat unfortunate example that Petersen uses: Thesis—Enlightenment; antithesis—Storm and Stress; synthesis—Classicism; intensification (of the anti-rationalistic elements of Classicism)—Romanticism. Do the antithesis and the synthesis represent different age-groups?
46 “Das Problem der Generationen,” Kölner Vierteljahrshefte für Soziologie, vii (1928).
47 The origin of such units is frequently to be found in definite groups of personal associates. Thus Mannheim traces nineteenth-century German conservatism back to the “Christlich-teutsche Tischgesellschaft.” From our literary view-point we may add the Romantic circles of Jena and Heidelberg; the most striking example, however, is perhaps the Steglitz “Urwandervogel” as the fountainhead of the German Youth Movement.
48 “Dieselbe Jugend, die an derselben historisch-aktuellen Problematik orientiert ist, lebt in einem Generationszusammenhang; diejenigen Gruppen, die innerhalb desselben Generationszusammenhanges in jeweils verschiedener Weise diese Erlebnisse verarbeiten, bilden jeweils verschiedene Generationseinheiten im Rahmen desselben Generationszusammenhanges.”
49 Of course Romanticism did not start out as a traditionalistic movement. But it had developed into one by the time it reached the political sphere.
50 The development of such Generationseinheiten is, according to Mannheim, determined largely by sociological factors. And it is the existence of a peculiar “freischwebende Literatenschicht” which over-simplifies the picture of any given Generationszusammenhang, because this sociologically (relatively) detached (and at the same time vociferous) group tends to throw in its weight with any rising new ideology, giving the latter the semblance of a more absolute preponderance than it may objectively claim. “Dies bedeutet, soziologisch gesehen, … nur soviel, dass, durch Zeitverhältnisse begünstigt, bald an einem Pol, bald am andern eine Generationseinheitsbildung möglich wird, was stets die schwankenden mittleren Schichten, in erster Linie die zeitgenössische Literatenschicht, anzieht. Daraus ergibt sich aber, dass der sozial fest verankerte Mensch … primär mit jener Strömung ringt, die in seinem Lebenskreise dominiert, der freischwebende Literat aber (zu welchem Seelentyp er auch gehören mag) hauptsächlich mit der zeitgenössischen Dominante zu ringen hat.”
51 Cf. a significant utterance of Carossa's with which this paper closes.
52 El tema de nuestro tiempo; German edition: Die Aufgabe unserer Zeit, tr. by Helene Weyl (Zürich, 1928).—Ortega is probably the most enthusiastic champion of our problem outside of Germany. I quote: “Die Variationen der vitalen Reizbarkeit, die in der Historie entscheidend werden, stellen sich unter der Form der Generationen dar. Eine Generation ist weder eine Handvoll hervorragender Menschen”—as it was for Dilthey—“noch schlechthin eine Masse; sie ist ein neuer, in sich geschlossener sozialer Körper mit seiner eigenen erlauchten Minderheit und seiner eigenen Masse, der mit vorgegebener vitaler Geschwindigkeit und Richtung in den Kreis des Daseins hineingeschleudert ist. Die Generation, diese dynamische Verschmelzung von Masse und Individuum, ist der wichtigste Begriff der Geschichte und gleichsam die Angel, in der sie sich dreht.”
53 This, we know, is a problem by itself.
54 “Das Problem der Generation in der Literaturwissenschaft.”
55 Spranger, Lebensformen, Halle, 1st ed., 1914; numerous later editions.
56 The following are his more important contributions: (1) “Die Auseinandersetzung des deutschen Geistes mit der französischen Aufklärung (1732–1832),” Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift, i (1923); (2) “Generation als Jugendgemeinschaft,” in Geist und Gesellschaft [Festschrift für Breysig], i (Breslau, 1927); (3) “Die Davoser Hochschulvorträge und das Problem der Generation in der Geistesgeschichte,” Zeitschrift für französischen und englischen Unterricht (1929); (4) Die Generation als Jugendreihe und ihr Kampf um die Denkform (Leipzig, 1930); (5) Jugendreihen des deutschen Menschen 1733–1933 (Leipzig, 1934).
57 I do not pretend to checkup on this statement or to investigate whether there is possibly a tendency to develop myopia as one approaches one's own age.
58 According to Wechssler there is one intermission (1734–1740) in which no definite age-group coagulates.
59 Hans Leisegang, Denkformen (Berlin, 1928).
60 Pinder makes the same point.
61 In other places Wechssler takes a more international view. His rhapsodic emotionalism frequently makes it difficult to pin him down to very precise definitions.
62 In some places Wechssler seems to assume that the leader tends to antedate his Jugendreihe chronologically. In his latest book he speaks of the “nachgeborene Jugendreihe.” Pinder takes issue with Wechssler on this point (preface to the second edition of his book), accusing him of thus falsifying the strict concept of the age-group.
63 Petersen would reply: “Geburtslage ist gleiche Entfernung von den Generationserlebnissen.” And it can be measured.
64 Here again Pinder disagrees. It is not a question of consciousness. Often there is none such from the beginning. The generational entelechy is the point, and this does not depend on generational consciousness. Wechssler's partisanship for Youth, Pinder asserts, warps his insight into the problem. Many age-groups made their characteristic contribution long after they had outgrown youth.
65 Emil Utitz, “Zur Philosophie der Jugend,” Kantstudien, xxxv (1930) says: “… die Ergibigkeit des Generationsproblems erweist sich nur, insoweit es aufgenommen wird in die Fülle historischer Begriffsbildung. Saugt es diese in sich auf, so wird es durch die Überlastung zerdrückt. Und das Ergebnis ist: ein neuer unkritischer Dogmatismus.”
66 In closing, I should call attention to two German publications dealing with our problem that I did not discuss in this paper. Richard Alewyn, “Das Problem der Generation in der Geschichte,” Zeitschrift für deutsche Bildung (1929), gives a short critical, on the whole negative, and not particularly pertinent review of the various approaches to the problem. Walter Scheidt, Lebensgesetze der Kultur: Biologische Betrachtungen zum “Problem der Generation” in der Geistesgeschichte (Berlin, 1929), speaks, as indicated by the title, from the biologist's view-point; here I do not feel competent to enter into a discussion. In France there has been a lively discussion of the historical concept “generation” ever since Comte. The outstanding contribution seems to be Mentré, Les générations sociales (Paris, 1920—reprint). A summary of the French, largely positivistic, point of view may be found in Mannheim's essay.—Contributions postdating 1934 have not been taken into account in this article.