Society of Free Men

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The literary society of the free men in Jena , which was occasionally called the Litterary Society , was a student union that was founded under the impression and influence of the philosophies of Carl Leonhard Reinhold and in particular Johann Gottlieb Fichte and in which students from all faculties and country teams become members could.

history

The Bund was strongly influenced by the ideas of the French Revolution and rejected feudal-medieval customs, as represented by the more or less secret student orders, e.g. B. Duels, from. The basis of the covenant was a lecture by Fichte on the determination of the scholar ; the members wanted to “form a representative of better humanity [...]” through reflection (founding member Smidt).

The founding meeting with ten founding members took place on June 1, 1794. Fichte is also said to have contributed to the legislative constitution , which was revised several times; however, he only attended a meeting of the Society once, on September 17, 1794.

They met on Wednesday evenings, with eight to twelve members usually represented. During the time of its existence the society consisted of a total of approx. 50 members. At the meetings, the members regularly gave lectures, the titles of which are preserved in the Society's minutes book (but not the wording); titles are represented such as B. On the influence of the university on German culture . The authorities viewed this association with skepticism because they feared revolutionary efforts that did not come from the group.

As early as 1796 at the latest, the members noticed a stagnation in the life of the society, among other things because some of the earlier members had already left Jena for professional reasons. The company quietly dissolved: the last entry in the log book dates from March 6, 1799. It is the time when Fichte had to leave Jena because of the atheism dispute .

The after-effects of the society were considerable, as many members continued to maintain contact with one another and they co-founded or influenced similar societies elsewhere, namely in Göttingen , Bremen and Oldenburg , and former members also wanted to found a similar society in Bern . The society of free men played an important role for some members who later became quite well known, both as a network of relationships and as the spiritual basis of their later work. This is especially true for Johann Friedrich Herbart , one of the founders of modern pedagogy and psychology : Both the joint examination of Fichte's teaching in the literary society and the friendship with the later Bremen councilor and mayor Johann Smidt became important for his life.

Founding members

Other members among others

literature

  • Felicitas Marwinski: "Truly, the company is bold ..." From the history of the Literary Society of Free Men from 1794/99 in Jena. Jena and Erlangen 1992, ISBN 3-925978-09-7 .
  • Paul Raabe : The protocol book of the Society of Free Men in Jena 1794–1799. In: Festgabe for Eduard Berend on his 75th birthday on December 5, 1958. Weimar 1959, pp. 336–383. ( [2] ).
  • Ernst Zunker:  Casimir Ulrich Boehlendorff and the Pomeranian friends from the society of free men and in the sphere of influence of Holderlin . In: Society for Pomeranian History and Archeology (Hrsg): Baltic studies . New series, Vol. 60, NG Elwert, Marburg 1974, pp. 101-126 ( digitized version ).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Michael Franz : A letter about Hölderlin's friend Muhrbeck and his philosophical ideas [1]
  2. ↑ a b c d e f https://books.google.de/books?id=ZB5DSDSDGokC&pg=PA304&lpg=PA304&dq=Fischer+%22Gesellschaft+der+frei+M%C3%A4nner%22&source=bl&ots=fNIhlbB9Zf&sig=t6TzE8 = en & sa = X & ved = 2ahUKEwisob6puqzfAhUD26wKHVZmCJMQ6AEwCHoECDYQAQ # v = onepage & q = Fischer% 20% 22Gesellschaft% 20der% 20frei% 20M% C3% A4nner% 22 & f = false
  3. ↑ a b http://dspace.unitus.it/bitstream/2067/1087/1/gpasqua_tesid.pdf
  4. ↑ Hans-Joachim Heerde: The audience of physics. Wallstein Verlag, 2006, ISBN 978-3-8353-0015-6 , p. 501 ( limited preview in Google book search).