Lawless society in Berlin

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Menu card of the lawless society with coat of arms on the occasion of the 100th anniversary in 1909

The lawless society in Berlin is a society club whose members were prominent personalities of the intellectual, artistic and military elite of their respective time and which was founded on November 4, 1809 in Berlin. The society that still exists today sees itself as the "bearer of tradition, culture and science".

history

In the Age of Enlightenment - especially in the Late Enlightenment - Berlin saw the establishment of debating clubs, reading circles, and discussion and social groups:

  • Monday Club (1749–1936 / 45)
  • Berlin Wednesday Society , also: Society of Friends of the Enlightenment (1783–1798)
  • Feßler Wednesday Society , also: Feßler Reading Society
  • Wednesday Literary Society (1795–1806).

On August 3, 1806, Karl vom Stein zum Altenstein , Johann Friedrich Gottlieb Delbrück , Johann Albrecht Friedrich von Eichhorn , Ernst Ludwig Heim , Heinrich Menu von Minutoli , Karl Asmund Rudolphi and others established the first lawless society . This existed in its essence until 1914, but was called Lawless Society No. 1 from 1809 and Casual Society from 1826 in order to differentiate itself in name from the now actual and better known and still existing new lawless society .

This second group, called the Lawless Society of Berlin , was founded on November 4, 1809, among others by the philologist Philipp Buttmann and the astronomer Christian Ludwig Ideler and initially consisted of 14 members. It saw itself as the intellectual center of the Berlin Enlightenment and resembled a literary or learned society without imposing their structures and obligations. Apparently there was no connection between the two lawless societies, except that in the early days some members belonged to both societies at the same time. One can rather say that the Berlin Greek Society Graeca had connections to the Lawless Society in Berlin , an illustrious group that was also founded by Philipp Buttmann in 1804, existed until the time of the Second World War and was primarily devoted to reading Greek writers. Likewise, the Lawless Society of Berlin benefited in 1817 from the "incorporation" of a large part of the members of the parliamentary Pairsschub and unofficially called itself the lawless society Belle Alliance . The society had its heyday in the middle to the end of the 19th century. At this point in time there were also several ideal, thematic and personal overlaps with the exclusive men's club in Berlin .

The society was founded with the claim to get along without statutes and regulations, apart from rules for the admission of its members and a chairman, who appropriately referred to himself as the "master". The members, the number of which fluctuated between 40 and 70 in the following years, belonged mainly to the enlightened political, cultural and later increasingly to the military elite. It was possible to introduce new guests who were entered in the log book and were initially selected by a group of 13, in later years only six carefully selected preselectors. This circle of pre-selectors, which Buttmann also referred to as “Electors” or “Electors”, formed a so-called “Welfare Committee”, and they ultimately decided on the new entry after the latter had recognized the “lawlessness” by signature. A rejection had no effect, you could be reintroduced as a "guest" every time. Likewise, there were usually no resignations because they are formally not possible due to the lack of rules. Only a temporary or permanent absence was and is possible.

The members met for their discussion rounds, including an extensive and exclusive meal in the form of a round table, usually every two weeks on the respective Saturday for their meetings, initially in the Kempers restaurant on Kemperplatz , later in the English House in Mohrenstrasse , in the Hotel Savoy , in the main building of the club of Berlin in the Jägerstraße or in the Schlosshotel Steglitz ( Gutshaus Steglitz ) and at many other places. There was no set agenda and the log book, which is not generally accessible, only shows the names of the participants. Only on the anniversary of the foundation did a member give a lecture on a freely chosen topic.

In the course of its 200-year existence, the club has become a reflection of German history and its elites in terms of both content and personnel. In this traditional and Prussian , certainly in a certain sense monarchistic , but otherwise politically largely nationally liberal to neutral association, it has come about to this day despite some content-related and thematic differences among its members or through obligations due to their sometimes high positions in politics and the military neither lead to signs of disintegration nor to compelling political dependencies.

Zwingherrren (chairman)

Significant members (selection)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Excerpts from the lecture list of the lawless society

literature

  • Andreas Arndt , Wolfgang Virmond: Hegel and the "lawless society". A newly found document. Hegel-Studien, Vol. 20, 1985, ISSN  0073-1587 , pp. 113-116.
  • The lawless society in Berlin. Founded on November 4, 1809. Festschrift for the 150th anniversary. Lawless Society, Berlin 1959.
  • Walther Boeckh: Ernst Moritz Arndt and his Berlin circle of friends from the “lawless” and “Greek society”. Journal of the Association for the History of Berlin, Vol. 54, 1937, ZDB -ID 3635-3 , pp. 83–86, digitized version (PDF; 6.87 MB) .
  • The lawless society in Berlin. Festschrift for the 100th anniversary. 1809-1909. Borussia, Berlin 1909.
  • Clemens August Carl Klenze : Ph. Buttmann and the outlaws. November 4 / December 5, 1834. Instead of handwriting for members of the lawless society. Printed by Reimer, Berlin 1834, also as a Google book .
  • Karl-Hermann Leukert: Outlaw for life. Oldest Berlin men's club. In: Berliner Zeitung of August 2, 2013.

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