About Germany

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De l'Allemagne (London, 1813)

About Germany ( De l'Allemagne ) is a book by the French author Anne Louise Germaine de Staël (1766–1817) in which she relates German and French cultures to one another. It had a major impact on the French public's image of neighboring German-speaking countries.

Conditions of origin

Germaine de Staël ran a literary salon in Paris , through which and whose visitors she had great influence in the Napoleonic period. She was banned from the capital by Napoleon Bonaparte and used this in 1803/1804 and later in 1807/1808 as an occasion for winter trips to Germany and Austria . She hardly spoke any German , but in Benjamin Constant she had a linguistic companion. She met numerous important writers and scientists in Weimar , Berlin and also in Vienna .

structure

The work has four parts: In the first part, About Germany and the customs of the Germans , it deals with general characteristics of the South and North Germans ; in the long, second part, she presents literary figures and their works in detail; there are two brief outlines on philosophy and religion .

Publication history

In 1810 the censorship corrections were made and the first edition of 10,000 copies, which was unusually high for the time, was printed. Because of the Germanophilia, Napoléon's Police Minister General Savary ordered the destruction of all copies already printed, including the manuscript, on September 24, 1810. Madame de Staël had to leave France at short notice.

In May 1812 she traveled from her Coppet Palace in Switzerland without permission via Austria to St. Petersburg and, after Napoléon's attack on Russia, to neutral Sweden. In the spring of 1813 she reached London. With the proofs saved in France, De l'Allemagne and the English translation Germany were printed in London in 1813 . Within a few weeks, 70,000 copies were sold across Europe.

The book appeared three years later and a few weeks before Napoléon's defeat in the Battle of Leipzig , in 1814 in Germany and subsequently in other European countries. Further editions appeared every three to four years until the end of the 19th century.

reception

In France

The comparative statements in the book were often read and quoted in the 19th century , but rarely received in the 20th and 21st centuries .

In Über Deutschland , Germaine de Staël succeeded in making German literature, especially that of the Weimar Classic , known in France. German philosophy, such as Immanuel Kant , Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel , were also presented to the French readership.

In Germany and Austria

The book was generally judged to be too superficial and too subjective . On the one hand, she was accused of incorrectly classifying many personally experienced situations due to her ignorance of German. On the other hand, that they make a hasty judgment z. B. educated about the architecture , sculpture and music of that time without visiting the then famous artists and their works. Some well-known personalities that Madame de Staël got to know, such as Friedrich Schiller , Johann Wolfgang von Goethe or Wilhelm von Humboldt , saw the writer's talents, but denied her a good ability to observe.

Critics believe that Germaine de Staël's image of Germany was shaped too much from the perspective of August Wilhelm Schlegel , who accompanied them for years.

The picture about the Germans of Madame de Staël

The author presents her prejudices and gives her first impressions. As she puts it: “A peculiar silence and closeness” between people and nature “initially squeezes your heart.” She is surprised that you, the famous woman in Paris , do not know her in Frankfurt am Main . She outlines the situation and her self-imposed task of conveying something to her compatriots about her eastern neighbor: "The spiritual Germany is almost unknown in France." Without further ado, she characterizes Germany as an area whose "nature offers little". The language also takes a lot of getting used to, as it puts the verb at the end, unlike French, and leaves the listener in the dark for a long time in long sentences: "The meaning of the German periods [often only becomes clear at the end."

They criticized human nature at its interlocutors: "In France we studied the people in Germany the books" and criticized the property of Germans, their behavior by authorities to be dictated to. The author perceives the way of life of the Germans as "couch potato". She positively characterizes singing and making music together: “Almost everyone knows music.” De Staël has a good impression of German university cities : “Every science is better cultivated here than anywhere else.” Also the “love of solitude” and lust she is struck by the use of titles.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Maike Albath: Germaine de Staël: The woman who stood up to Napoleon. Deutschlandfunk Kultur, July 14, 2017, accessed on May 22, 2020 (German).
  2. ↑ a b Ruth Jung: Calendar sheet from September 24, 2010. Deutschlandfunk Kultur, September 24, 2010, accessed on May 22, 2020 (German).
  3. ↑ a b Eckart Kleßmann: She explained to us. Zeit online, June 2, 2010, accessed on July 16, 2017 (German).
  4. ↑ Germaine de Staël: De l'Allemagne London, 1813, online at HathiTrust .
  5. ↑ Germaine de Staël: Germany London, 1813, online at HathiTrust .
  6. ^ Germaine de Staël: About Germany Berlin, 1814, online at HathiTrust .
  7. ^ Anne Louise Germaine de Staël: About Germany. After the translation by Robert Habs; edited and introduced by Sigrid Metken, Reclam, Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 978-3-15-019092-0 , p. 53f.
  8. ↑ Eckart Klessmann: She explained to us. zeit.de, June 8, 2010, accessed December 5, 2014
  9. ↑ About Germany. Edition cited, p. 49.
  10. ↑ About Germany. P. 75
  11. ↑ About Germany. P. 107.
  12. ↑ About Germany. P. 112
  13. ↑ About Germany. P. 67.
  14. ↑ About Germany. P. 63.
  15. ↑ About Germany. P. 60.
  16. ↑ About Germany. P. 66.
  17. ↑ About Germany. P. 103.
  18. ↑ About Germany. P. 100.