Faith and Love or The King and Queen

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Faith and Love or The King and Queen is a collection of fragments by the early romantic Novalis .

The compilation of short text passages and aphorisms was printed for the first time in 1798, in the July issue of the second volume of the yearbooks of the Prussian monarchy under the government of Friedrich Wilhelm III. , ed. v. FE Rambach. Novalis wrote the text on the occasion of a major political (and social) event in Prussia: in the spring of 1798, King Friedrich Wilhelm III. and his wife, Princess Luise von Mecklenburg-Strelitz took over the reign of the kingdom.

However, it is difficult to classify it in the political context of the time it was written, because the entire internal argumentation is more aesthetic than political. On the other hand, there is a conservative doctrine according to which “political writings” are primarily a direct political expression of the author's will and much less a literary product with primarily aesthetic demands. His own opinion on the entire work is particularly evident from a note to Friedrich Schlegel on May 11, 1798: It cannot be read without faith and love.

content

The content is nevertheless critical and polemical. For this reason, the text also fell victim to the relentless Prussian censorship. At this point in time the author, obeying almost one of many intellectual fashions, was Republican. He knows about the different reactions to revolutionary activities and about daily events as well as their discussion among the educated. All of these influences of modern ideas can be read from exemplary text passages:

No state has been administered as a factory more than Prussia since Frederick William the First Death . As necessary as such a machinistic administration may be for the physical health, strengthening, and agility of the state, if the state is merely treated in this way, it essentially perishes .

and:

The king and queen protect the monarchy more than 200,000 men .

The state-philosophical writing, which reflects the intensive examination of Herder's historical philosophy and its predecessors - ( Hobbes' Leviathan , Freiherr Christian von Wolff , Kant , Hugo Grotius , Mandeville , Hélvetius - and with more extensive writings of the Enlightenment ), is suitable for the Prussian monarchy defend. The marriage of King Friedrich Wilhelm III. and his wife Luise was regarded as an exemplary marriage, not least as a model for the subjects. Novalis used this institutionalized love as a basic scheme for a "disinterested love" which - turning its back on egoism - can lead to a stabilization of a community, including a state. He interprets the connection between the two as a sign of impending peace, political and social stability. Herder's family concept is expanded considerably and experiences a contextualization with people, with all of humanity. The young writer thus joins the tradition of utopia since the Enlightenment and subjects the state to critical reflection with a view to the 'best state of all conceivable states'.

However, Novalis does not exceed this level; he does not paint a utopian state. The utopia literally remains a “place that does not exist”, an ideal that one can and should only approach, but which one can never achieve: “ The best of the former French monarchs had set himself up, his subjects so wealthy to make sure that everyone could bring a ripped chicken to his table every Sunday. But wouldn't the government be preferable, under which the farmer would rather eat a piece of moldy bread than roast in another, and thank God warmly for the good fortune of being born in this country? ”The quote makes clear the sharp rejection of those concepts who want to found the state on self-interest or welfare. According to the ideas of the early romantics , a state can only be legitimized by a new orientation towards ideas (in the Kantian sense) .

literature

  • Lothar Pikulik: Romanticism as inadequacies in normality: Using the example of Tiecks, Hoffmanns, Eichendorffs , Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt / Main 1979
  • Lothar Pikulik: Early Romanticism: Epoch - Works - Effect , Beck, Munich 1992 (= work books literary history) ISBN 3-406-36787-9 .
  • Herbert Uerlings: Friedrich von Hardenberg, called Novalis: Werk und Forschung , Metzler, Stuttgart 1991 ISBN 3-476-00779-0 .