Écrasez l'infâme

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«Écrasez l'infâme! »

Écrasez l'infâme! (Abbreviation: Écrelinf ! , French: 'Crush the infamous!', 'Crush the wicked!') Is Voltaire's anti-religious, anti-clerical battle and rallying cry , the emblematic identification mark of the "Patriarch of Ferney ", like Frederick II the pioneer of Enlightenment apostrophized .

Voltaire understood the inquisitorial “alliance of throne and altar”, the amalgamation of “dogma and sword” , by the infamous, the vile, the disgraceful that had to be smashed . Voltairians condemned the Catholic Church, revelation religions - which they equated with superstition - the absolutist power system , fanaticism, intolerance, censorship , persecution , killing of dissidents, barbaric punishments, torture and cruel arbitrariness as “infamous” . Thus the Protestant was as Jean Calas as a victim of a judicial murder in 1762 in Toulouse whacked . The “Calas Affair” became known throughout Europe thanks to Voltaire , who campaigned for his posthumous rehabilitation in a journalistic way, including the text Traité sur la tolérance (1763) . A famous example of religiously motivated judicial murders in Voltaire's century is the case of the Chevalier de la Barre . His case became known throughout Europe because Voltaire had successfully campaigned for his rehabilitation.

Voltaire was an important intellectual pioneer of the French Revolution . Since 1760 he used to sign his correspondence to trustworthy comrades-in-arms in the fight against the infamous with this appeal. Voltaire's signature “écrasez l'infâme” becomes a beacon of the pre-revolutionary campaign of the Enlightenment campaigners for freedom of expression , freedom of speech and publication, tolerance and humanity.

This committed struggle of the enlighteners , be they radical enlighteners or moderate reformers, created the intellectual foundations for the French Revolution and culminated - just ten years after Voltaire's death - in the Declaration of Human and Civil Rights of August 26, 1789.

Voltaire is firmly anchored in the collective memory of the French as a pioneer of secularism and as the archetype of the committed writer :

Jean-Jacques Rousseau n'écrit que pour écrire, et moi, j'écris pour agir .

"Jean-Jacques Rousseau only writes to write and I write to act."

- Voltaire's letter to M. Vernes of April 25, 1767

Through be the public opinion evocative intervention in spectacular criminal processes of his time, as in the affairs Jean Calas , Sirven , Chevalier de la Barre , Lieutenant General Lally-Tollendal , Gaillard Tollendal de Morival, Morangiés and Montbailly was Voltaire into a major reformer of criminal justice :

“Mes chers frères, il est avéré que les juges toulousains ont roué le plus innocent des hommes. Jamais depuis le jour de la Saint-Barthélémy rien n'a tant déshonoré la nature humaine. Criez, et qu'on crie! "

"My dear brothers, it is proven that the Toulouse judge the most innocent of all people whacked have. Never since Bartholomew's Night has human nature been so dishonored. Scream, you have to scream! "

- Voltaire : letter to E.-N. Damilaville, 4 avril 1762

The one dictum become slogan "Ecrasez infâme" is quoted worldwide in French, followed by translations in the local language. Here is an example from English:

"Voltaire even coined what we would now call a campaign slogan, Écrasez l'infâme, which translates roughly as Crush the despicable , where 'l'infâme' stands for superstition, intolerance or irrational behavior of any kind."

"Voltaire coined the motto for his campaign:" Écrasez l'infâme ", roughly translated Crush the despicable ( Destroy the despicable ), where" l'infâme "stands for superstition, intolerance or irrational behavior of any kind."

- Nicholas Cronk : The Cambridge Companion to Voltaire, Introduction, p. 6

Origin and meaning of the battle cry

" Écrelinf , c'est-à-dire écrasez l'infâme . Les érudits ne sont pas d'accord sur la signification de ce cri de guerre. "

“ Écrelinf , that is écrasez l'infâme . The scholars do not agree on the meaning of this battle cry. "

Theodore Besterman reports in his Voltaire biography that it was Frederick II of Prussia who invented the symbolic use of the word l'infâme . In his letter to Voltaire of May 18, 1750 (Besterman D8304), Friedrich wrote of the "infâme superstition" ( of the infamous superstition ). Voltaire picked up on this use of the word infâme and created the motto Écrasez l'infâme , the famous formula that caused a sensation and which he repeated from then on. Following the example of the consul Cato (around 200 BC), who ended each of his speeches before the Roman Senate with the stereotypical slogan “ Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam ” .

Voltaire signs "écrasez l'infâme" - letter to D'Alembert dated September 28, 1763

“Brother Thi (e) riot vous embrasse. Je finis toutes mes lettres par dire: Écr. l'inf…, comme Caton disait toujours: Tel est mon avis, et, qu'on ruine Carthage. "

“[Gun] brother Thi (e) riot greets you. I end all my letters with «Écr. l'inf »... just like Cato always said: I am of the opinion that Carthago must be destroyed."

- Voltaire's letter to Damilaville dated June 26, 1762

The formula écrasez l'infâme is read for the first time in a letter from Voltaire of May 7 or 8, 1761 to D'Alembert:

" Écrasez l'infâme , sans pourtant risquer de tomber comme Samson sous les ruines du temple qu'il demolit". "

“ Écraser l'infâme , but without, like Samson , getting under the ruins of the temple that he tore down. (Order D8988) "

The signature écrlinf is found for the first time in Voltaire's letter of May 23, 1763 to Damilaville.

Voltaire did not leave a clear definition of his motto écrasez l'infâme , so that one has to deduce its meaning from the use of the word infâme . In his extensive correspondence one often finds the following collocations : "infâme superstition" (disgraceful superstition), "infâmes préjugés" (ill-intentioned prejudices), "infâme persécution" (shameful persecution), "infâme fanatisme" (infamous fanaticism) ... those used here attributively Word.

Écrasez l'infâme - quotations from later authors

Title page of the poem Queen Mab by Shelley , 1813.
In capitals: ECRASEZ L'INFAME!

The English romantic Percy Bysshe Shelley takes up the motto Écrasez l'infâme! in his poem Queen Mab (1813) - a revolutionary, anti-religious utopia  - and thus joins Voltaire's campaign against the “infamous” religion.

Manuscript of Nietzsche's Ecce homo

Even Nietzsche uses this voltairianischen battle cry in his campaign against the " Christian slave morality ". So his autobiographical work Ecce homo ends with “Écrasez l'infâme!”, Nietzsche's concern with the annihilation and overcoming of the “good [...] benevolent, benevolent”, with the annihilation of “the so-called“ moral world order ””.

“Finally - it is the most terrible thing - in the concept of the good person, taking the side of everything weak, sick, miscarriages, self-suffering, everything that is supposed to perish - the law of selection crossed, an ideal made the contradiction against the proud and well-off, against the jealous, against the future-conscious, future-guaranteeing man - this is now called the evil one ... And all of this was believed as morality! - Écrasez l'infâme! - - "

- Nietzsche : Ecce homo. How to become what you are.

Current use

Je suis Voltaire / Charlie - I am Voltaire / Charlie - cover of the magazine of the XI. Paris arrondissements Le Onzième en mouvement , February / March 2015.

After the Islamist terrorist attacks on the cartoonists of Charlie Hebdo and on the Parisian concert hall Bataclan in 2015, the name Voltaire is on everyone's lips again. You can see demonstration signs with the slogan Nous sommes Voltaire ( We are Voltaire ), a new écrasez l'infâme , so to speak, in the age of fundamentalist terror:

“The name Voltaire is on everyone's lips. There is talk of 'esprit voltairien', which inspired illustrators such as Charb , Cabu and Tignous . France is called the land of Voltaire and Cabu, and at the funeral of Tignous, Justice Minister Christiane Taubira spoke of 'France as the land of Voltaire and disrespect'. "

The effectiveness of the warning call 'We are Voltaire' is evident in the book market: Voltaire's Traité sur la Tolérance (On Tolerance) from 1763 became a bestseller in 2015.

The French website Voltairiopolis , which reports on censorship and other restrictions on freedom of expression and freedom of the press worldwide, also uses Voltaire's catchphrase Écrasons l'infâme! as a motto.

Philippe Val, editor-in-chief of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo from 2004 to 2009, had the twelve Danish Mohammed cartoons reprinted in February 2005 and was therefore sued by the Council of French Muslims. He reports on the polemics that sparked off the reprint in his book, the title of which alludes to the Enlightenment campaign against fanaticism and for tolerance: "Come back, Voltaire, you have gone mad" ( Reviens, Voltaire, ils sont devenus fous ).

The often quoted bon mot :

“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
Je ne suis pas d'accord avec ce que vous dites, mais je me battrai jusqu'au bout pour que vous puissiez le dire. "

" I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend your right to say it until death."

- SGTallentyre : The Friends of Voltaire, 1906

which is often used to describe the principle of freedom of expression and which is attributed to Voltaire, but cannot be found in his writings, expresses most concisely what Voltaire's trademark écrlinf also stands for in the 21st century. The slogan is directed against all fanatics who oppose the principle of tolerance , the timeless concern of the Enlightenment.

“Craignons toujours les excès où conduit le fanatisme. Qu'on laisse ce monstre en liberté, qu'on cesse de couper ses griffes et de briser ses dents, que la raison si souvent persécutée se taise, on verra les mêmes horreurs qu'aux siècles passés; le germe subsiste: si vous ne l'étouffez pas, il couvrira la terre. "

“Let us always fear the violence that fanaticism leads to. If we give this monster its freedom, if we stop cutting its claws and breaking its teeth, if the so often pursued reason is silent, we will experience the same horrors as in past centuries. The germ remains: if you do not suffocate it, it will cover the earth. "

- Voltaire : Avis au Public sur les parricides imputés aux Calas et aux Sirven

literature

German speaking

English speaking

  • Theodore Besterman: Voltaire . 3rd expanded edition. Blackwell, Oxford 1976, ISBN 0-631-17060-X .
  • Nicholas Cronk (Editor Director of the Voltaire Foundation ): The Cambridge Companion to Voltaire . Cambridge University Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-521-61495-5 , excerpts online , google.books.
  • J. Fang: Écrasez L'Infame !: Against All Religious Wars , Athena Press 2004, ISBN 978-1-932077-75-9 .

French speaking

Web links

German speaking

French speaking

  • Slogan: Écrasons l'infâme : «  Voltairopolis  ». Observatory on freedom of the press and freedom of expression - (Voltaire: «Ecr. L'Inf.» Comprenez: Ecrasons l'Infâme, c'est-à-dire le fanatisme, acteur enragé de toutes les intolérances).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ As of 1763 contracted Voltaire his signature "Ecrasez infâme" and used the cryptic Sigel "Écrlinf", "ECR. l'inf. ”or just the initials“ ET ”. See: Jean Marie Goulemot, André Magnan, Didier Massea: Inventaire Voltaire . Gallimard (Quarto) Paris 1995, ISBN 978-2-07-073757-4 . Keywords: "Écrelinf" p. 456 and "Infâme (L ')"
  2. ↑ "Écrasez l'infâme": The dictionaries Le Grand Robert and Trésor de la langue française interpret "l'infâme" as a neologism of Voltaire, as a masculine noun of neutral value: "l'infâme": German: "the infame" (see: Jean Golemot: Inventaire Voltaire , op.cit. p. 71.). In the relevant German-language secondary literature one can find various translation variants: "Destroy the shameful!" [Sic!] (Manfred Geier, op. Cit., P. 117), Zerschmettert die Infame! (Theodore Besterman, op.cit., P. 455), “Crushes, trespasses, destroys the impudent, wicked, disgraceful” ( Georg Holmsten , op.cit, p.118) or “Eradicate the vile [superstition]! "( Duden online :" Keyword Voltaire against the Catholic Church. ")
  3. ^ Günter R. Schmidt: Voltaire's Critique of Christianity , in: Faith, Freedom, Dictatorship in Europe and the USA . Festschrift for Gerhard Besier for his 60th birthday, ISBN 978-3-525-35089-8
  4. ↑ Jakob Burkhardt: The Age of Frederick the Great . Beck, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-406-63178-8 , p. 232, The Patriarch of Ferney, as Frederick the Great called Voltaire , google books
  5. ^ A b André Glucksmann : Voltaire: Counterattack - Voltaire contre-attaque . Editions Robert Laffont, Paris 2014, ISBN 2-221-14623-9 , extracts from the translation into German
  6. ^ Jean Marie Goulemot, André Magnan, Didier Massea: Inventaire Voltaire . Gallimard (Quarto) Paris 1995, ISBN 978-2-07-073757-4 . Keywords: “Écrelinf” p. 456 and “Infâme (L ')” p. 715.
  7. ↑ SGTallentyre presented in her book The Friends of Voltaire . Smith Elder & Co., London 1906; the biographies of ten important fellow campaigners of Voltaire:
    1  D'Alembert , 2  Diderot , 3  Galiani , 4  Vauvenargues , 5  D'Holbach , 6  Grimm , 7  Helvétius , 9  Beaumarchais and 10  Condorcet . In his brief biography of Voltaire (op.cit), the Romanist Jürgen von Stackelberg introduces the six most important recipients of Voltaire's extensive correspondence, who, as multipliers , known as brothers in arms , spread the enlightenment ideas: 1 Voltaire's niece and lover Madame Denis , 2 his college friend Nicolas Claude Thi (e) riot, 3  Count Charles-Augustin de Ferriol d'Argental , 4  D'Alembert , 5  Madame du Deffand : the Marquise runs a famous literary salon in Paris, 6 the Tsarina Catherine the Great .
  8. ^ Jürgen von Stackelberg: Voltaire , CH Beck Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-406-53602-1 , reading sample. ( Memento from January 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF)
  9. ↑ Voltaire to M. Vernes April 25, 1767, Letter 5053 , Œuvres Complètes de Voltaire, Édition Beuchot, Volume LXIV, Correspondence Volume XIV
  10. ↑ a b ECR. L'INF… Voltaire est Charlie . In: Le Parisien , October 23, 2015
  11. ↑ Ethel Groffier: Criez et qu'on crie !: Voltaire et la justice pénale . Presses Université Laval 2011, ISBN 978-2-7637-9371-9
  12. ↑ Écrasons l'infâme ( Memento of January 11, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  13. ↑ Nicholas Cronk (Ed.), Director of the Voltaire Foundation : The Cambridge Companion to Voltaire . Cambridge University Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-521-61495-5 , excerpts online , google.books.
  14. ↑ Louis Moland: Œuvres complètes de Voltaire , Volume 12, 1837, p. 864, footnote 1 ÉCRLINF and Robert von Nostitz-Rieneck: The Triumvirate of Enlightenment. Second article. In: Journal of Catholic Theology , Vol. 24, No. 3 (1900), pp. 482-509, jstor.org
  15. ^ Theodore Besterman : Voltaire . (German). Winkler Verlag Munich, 1971, translated from English by Siegfried Schmitz, p. 340
  16. ^ Letter 119 , Voltaire to D'Alembert , of September 28, 1763, Œuvres complètes de Voltaire, Volume 51, Edition Kehl 1822. Voltaire's signature (see manuscript) is not reproduced in this Kehler print edition.
  17. ↑ Nicolas Claude Thiriot, 1697-1772, brother Thiriot called, was a Parisian college friend of Voltaire.
  18. ^ Voltaire to M. Damilaville, July 26, 1762 . In: Œuvres Complètes de Voltaire, correspondance générale . Volume VI. Bazouge-Pigoreau Paris 1832.
  19. ↑ René Pomeau : La Religion de Voltaire . Paris 1969, new revised edition, Nizet, 1995, ISBN 2-7078-0331-6 , p. 334 and undne libert.pdf ( Memento of January 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  20. ^ André Magnan: Penser l'infâme . (PDF) In: Cahiers Voltaire , 13, Société Voltaire et Center international d'étude du XVIIIe siècle, Ferney-Voltaire 2014, ISBN 978-2-84559-112-7 . René Pomeau : La Religion de Voltaire , Paris 1969, new revised edition, Nizet, 1995, ISBN 2-7078-0331-6 , Chapter III - Delenda Carthago, pp. 314-335.
  21. ↑ Queen Mab - A Philosophical Poem (in 9 parts)
  22. ↑ Roberto Martínez Sanchiño: Notes of a multiple. On Friedrich Nietzsche's Poetology of the Self , p. 334.
  23. ^ Nietzsche: Ecce homo (EH). How to become what you are. - Why I am a Destiny , Section 8. Final sentence
  24. ^ Daniel Cohn-Bendit : Obituary André Glucksmann. In: Die Zeit , No. 46/2015
  25. ↑ a b Écrasons l'infâme! - Observatoire des atteintes à la liberté d'expression ( Memento of January 2, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), observation website on the curtailment of freedom of the press and freedom of expression
  26. ^ Eduard Kaeser: Nous sommes Voltaire . In: journal21.ch, May 12, 2015
  27. ↑ Christiane Taubira: En France, pays de Voltaire et de l'irrévérence, on a le droit de se moquer de toutes les religions . In: La Croix , January 15, 2015
  28. ↑ Joachim Kahl : VOLTAIRE - learning from an old master of the European tolerance idea . Marburg 2007, lecture text. (PDF)
  29. ↑ Wolf Lepenies : We are Voltaire . In: Die Welt , February 9, 2015 and a 250-year-old campaign for tolerance: Voltaire storms bestseller lists . Spiegel Online , January 28, 2015
  30. ↑ Philippe Val: Reviens, Voltaire, ils sont fous devenus . Grasset, Paris 2008, ISBN 978-2-246-72211-3 , book review (French) , Christophe Barbier, in: L'Express 22/10/2008; see also Wolf Lepenies : We are Voltaire . In: Die Welt , February 9, 2015
  31. ↑ SGTallentyre : The Friends of Voltaire , London 1906. The quote comes from a biography of the ten friends of Voltaire by the English author SGTallentyre : The Friends of Voltaire . Smith Elder & Co., London 1906, p. 199
  32. ↑ What Voltaire Didn'T Say ... ( Memento from May 21, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF)
  33. ↑ Declaration of the principles of tolerance . The Declaration of the Principles of Tolerance was adopted at the 28th General Conference (Paris, October 25 to November 16, 1995) by the member states of UNESCO.
  34. ↑ Section: Des suites de l'esprit de parti et du fanatisme , Œuvres Complètes de Voltaire, tome cinquième, Mélanges historiques, Firmin Didot frères Paris 1863
  35. ^ François Bondy : Word from the highest Voltairologist . In: Die Zeit , No. 9/72; Besterman's Voltaire Biography Review