Gervinus on Goethe

Alert Bay, B.C.

I am still working my way through Peter Goßens' study of 19th-century discussions among German literati concerning Goethe's concept of world literature. Last time I quote Wolfgang Menzel's exceedingly dismissive reaction to Goethe, but for the most part one comes away with the impression of Goethe's centrality and, indeed, of adulation toward him.  Goßens introduces some scholars whom one has heard of in passing (if one is a scholar of German literature, that is), but whom one has never read. One of these is Georg Gottfried Gervinus (1805-1871), a historian and liberal politician. The Wikipedia entry on Gervinus list a slew of publications, including his edition of the Goethe-Schiller correspondence. The following is a quote from that edition, which gives an idea of the Goethe cult in the mid-19th century:

Er hat der Sonne einer neuen Weltweisheit, noch ehe sie aufging, sehnsüchtig entgegen geblickt, und ihre ersten Strahlen begierig eingesogen; er säumt nicht, die wirklich aufgegangene froh zu begrüßen, und die Mitwelt auf sie hinzuweisen, daß sie es ist, die er verkündigt hat, obgleich er zugleich unbefangen zu bekennen sich nicht scheut, daß von dem allzurasch eindringenden Licht sein Auge geblendet ist  und sich von diesem weg, nach dem farbigen Bogen auf dunklem Grunde wenden muß.

The pictures here (click to enlarge) are from Alert Bay, which we visited last week, an island a ferry ride away. It was once the home of a thriving First Nations community, traces of which are in the population of the island and in the cultural center we visited as well as the cemetery with its totems.

At the Alert Bay cultural center

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