Karl Christian Planck

This article or section needs to be revised. Details should be given on the talk page. Please help to improve it , and then remove this flag.

Karl Christian Planck

Karl Christian Planck (born January 17, 1819 in Stuttgart , † June 7, 1880 in Winnenden ) was a German natural philosopher and representative of pure realism .

Planck is one of the philosophers who opposed the currents of positivism , materialism and Darwinism that were current at the time . Although he recognized the achievements of the natural sciences, he tried to integrate them into a system in which human society is guided by ethical standards and the scientific and technical advances are not used for inhumane purposes. His theories found little recognition. He was also denied an academic career, which he had always striven for.

Life

Karl Christian Planck was born on January 17, 1819, the son of a court chamber auditor. He spent the first years of his life in Stuttgart and the then still rural Stammheim . Then in 1824 he came to Großbottwar to see grandfather Megenhardt, who gave him his first lessons, and from there to complete his primary school. In 1830 his father got a job in Blaubeuren , where he was prepared for the exams for the evangelical-theological seminary in the local Latin school. But already in 1832 there was a new separation from his parents when he entered the Schönthal seminar, which he left four years later as one of the best graduates.

Karl Christian Planck studied theology at the University of Tübingen from 1836 as a scholarship holder of the Evangelical Monastery of Tübingen until his first exam in 1840, without taking up the usual vicariate. Here in 1839 he worked on a challenging task on the “unity of the historical and the ideal Christ”. The following year he received his doctorate in philosophy on the subject of The Peoples of Modern Times . In addition, he published scientific essays in the “Hallische Jahrbücher” and the “Berliner Jahrbücher für Wissenschaftlichenkritik”. In the following two years until 1842 he made a journey that took him via Heidelberg, Bonn and Göttingen to Berlin and Dresden. In Berlin he heard lectures from Wilhelm Vatke and met the theologian Philipp Konrad Marheinecke (1780–1846). He then occupied himself with selected art studies in Dresden and returned from there to Blaubeuren.

When he returned home, in May 1842 he became the administrator of the second parish office in Blaubeuren. Sermon texts and theological publications have been preserved from this period. His first philosophical works were created during his time at the Tübingen Abbey. In the autumn of 1843, Planck was appointed to the Maulbronn seminar as a repetitionist , and in August 1844 to the Tübingen monastery in the same function. During this time he published several articles in Zeller's theological yearbooks. In Tübingen, the advocate of the Hegelian School Ferdinand Christian Baur (1792-1860) had a great influence on him. In the monastery he gave theological lectures as a private lecturer in philosophy and completed his habilitation in March 1848 at the university. In September he became the successor to the abbey librarian Albert Schwegler (1819–1858). His lectures, which he held until 1852, mainly concerned topics of theoretical and practical philosophy, the philosophy of religion and art mythology.

In addition to his lecture work and his duties as a monastery librarian, Planck dealt scientifically with the existing theological system and the development of philosophy. As a result, his main work “Die Weltalter” appeared in 1850 with the first part “Theological system of pure realism” and a year later part 2 “The realm of idealism or the history of philosophy”. His aim was to achieve a blissful improvement in the world on the path of radical changes in religious consciousness, the state and society. The result, so his wish, could then be a universal spiritual and civic rebirth of the human being. However, the form of representation he chose in the work was very difficult to understand, it was rather repulsive to the reader and was therefore hardly attractive. Building on these ideas, his “Catechism of Law or Fundamentals of a New Formation of Society and the State” appeared in 1852 in which he again took up numerous suggestions.

However, since there was no prospect of a full professorship for Karl Christian Planck, he also studied classical philology and in 1855 became a high school teacher in Ulm . But in this work he found no inner satisfaction. That is why in 1869 he was given the teaching of philosophical propaedeutics and German literary history in the upper classes and he therefore moved to Blaubeuren in the same position, before finally being appointed Ephorus in Maulbronn in 1879 . During this time he continued his scientific studies and the publication of writings intensively. He represented his natural-philosophical views in the work “Basic features of genetic natural science” published in 1862 and in the work “Basic lines of a science of nature” in 1864. He was deeply shaken by the events of the Prussian-Austrian war in 1866 and then directed violent accusations against Otto from Bismarck . In the programmatic publication “Southern Germany and the German Nation-State” he then summarized his assessment of the events again.

From around 1870 a clear break began to emerge in Karl Christian Planck, which was increasingly expressed in his work results, forms of representation and behavior. First of all, in his publication “Law and aim of modern art development in comparison with the ancient one” in 1870, he repeated many of the discussions about the nature of art that had already been made in earlier writings. In the following year he also reached into “Soul and Spirit or Origin. Essence and Forms of Activity of the Psychological and Spiritual Organization ”revives its old natural-philosophical and anthropological views with extensive repetitions and arguments, but without providing new ideas. The cumbersome form of representation, already known from earlier works, has been further encapsulated and sometimes leaves the impression that it is no longer about the clarity of formulating a knowledge, but rather about stubbornly sticking to individual statements he made years ago. This culminated in a statement from 1871 that he considered himself the “national messiah” of the German people. This is expressed in a very special way in his most vehement criticism of Darwinism, which he accused of being untruthful and flat. But did not even notice that the basis and knowledge of science in this field and at that time had already developed significantly.

Uninterrupted zeal for work, the publication of further works and articles in various magazines characterized his further working style. For example, at the secular celebration of the University of Tübingen in 1877, he wrote the text: “Aim and Law of Development of Ancient Philosophy”. In the same year he again expressed his critical stance on existing science with the text "Logical Causal Law and Natural Purposeful Activity, for the Critique of All Kantian and Post-Kantian Conceptual Reversals". In 1879 he went on a long-planned study trip to Naples. Shortly after his return in autumn, a nervous disease broke out that made him completely unable to work. He then asked to be removed from office. With deep depression and mutually spontaneous fixed ideas he was admitted to the Winnenthal Castle Psychiatry Clinic to treat his condition .

Karl Christian Planck was married to Auguste nee Wagner. The marriage resulted in 7 children. The fourth child, Mathilde Planck (1861–1955), was born in 1861, the daughter and later advocate of women's and peace positions .

He spent the last weeks of his life in the Winnenthal asylum . He died here on June 7, 1880 and was buried in the grave of the Planck family in the Prague cemetery in Stuttgart .

plant

The first thing to note about Planck's written works is that they are physically difficult to access in the reading rooms of large libraries. At the time of their publication, the editions were very small with one exception. The Catechism of Law was printed by Planck at its own expense and then had to be turned into waste as a slow- moving !

Planck is justifiably accused in scientific circles of making extensive explanations, but hardly documenting his sources in detail. He probably assumed that his readers would participate in the canon of Weimar Classicism and the philosophy of German idealism to the same extent as himself (see the overviews in Schlosser). In addition, at least Jean Paul Richter , David Friedrich Strauss , Carl Gustav Carus , Justinus Kerner and Planck's affiliation to the Tübingen School (with Ferdinand Christian Baur ) should be emphasized in order to be able to follow Planck's lines of thought to a large extent.

Obviously from his lecture scripts Planck developed his basic ideas and presented them to the public from 1849 in Die Weltalter . The philosophical system that he developed in this work, however, met with very little public interest. In the following years he made further efforts to make his train of thought public. This is how the books Catechism of Law (1852), Basics of a Science of Nature , Soul and Spirit (1871) and numerous other writings were written. But this later work rather suggests that hardly any new ideas were added, but that he nevertheless tried to defend the old positions with even greater emphasis and increasingly violent polemics. Especially then, using the example of his attacks on Darwinism and the development of a scientific doctrine that was completely contrary to his own, the impression remains that he is trying hard to oppose reality. A year after Planck's death, his friend Karl Reinhold von Köstlin published a German will in which his main ideas were once again made clear.

In addition to the writings already mentioned, Planck also wrote anthropology and psychology on a scientific basis (1874), Bismarck: Southern Germany and the German National State (1872) and Logical Causal Law and Natural Expediency (1874). In 1843, together with Albert Schwegler and Eduard Zeller, he founded the contemporary year books , which appeared as the organ of Swabian Hegelianism .

Effect on contemporaries and later generations

In the early years Planck went public with a ready-made universal concept, which he essentially did not change until his death. In order not to be misunderstood, he often adds an abundance of lines of argument, which makes it very cumbersome. Although there are exceptions to this, as his psychogram of Jean Paul shows. This work is easy to understand and gives today's readers very good access to this writer. Apart from a few friends and students, Planck was ignored during his lifetime, although traces can be traced to the French and Scandinavian-speaking areas (e.g. to Jules Correvon or Harald Høffding ). The entries in the encyclopedias almost entirely conceal the social revolutionary aspects of his work. Johannes Heinßen insinuates that Planck was very much part of the educated middle class canon towards the end of the 19th century.

From today's perspective, Karl Christian Planck can be seen as a visionary who was only properly recognized later by later generations. This is mainly because he assumes that parts of an original whole will gradually become independent, but that they will always remain connected to one another. As a philosopher of history and religion, he sees the original human being as one who wills with nature. As soon as thinking becomes independent, an otherworldly will is perceived behind nature - religion emerges, which develops over several steps, culminating in Jesus, who discovers the beyond in himself. Due to the expectation of a “new earth”, however, Jesus and his followers failed to take care of the legal development of the gospel.

Planck may have been Fichte's sentence as an incentive: "It is the determination of the state to first give everyone their own, first use them in their property and only then protect them." Planck directly translated this sentence into the maxim that the land belongs to everyone, and that everyone must have their share of it for their own livelihood. This is the consistent concern of Planck as a legal philosopher, as it is expressed in his catechism of law or basic features of a new formation of society and the state right at the beginning: “Everyone has a natural right to the soil from which he Must draw resources for his existence; Every person has the legal claim that for his work in the human community he will also receive what he needs as a person, that he can physically and spiritually develop what he is called to do as a person. ” The goal is a worldwide society that integrates all hereafter hopes into this world in order to regain the original unity. In his will of a German Planck elevates these ideas to a "Gospel of humanity - the goal and the completion".

With the distinction between gainful employment and professional activity, Planck anticipates Fritjof Bergmann's concept of the “new job” . Finally, attac and the initiatives for an unconditional basic income could recognize each other in his writings. Unfortunately, Karl Christian Planck was also a very precise prophet. As an all-German patriot, he fought for many years against the Prussian-militarist unification of small Germany. During the Franco-German war in 1870 he wrote on page IX of his foreword to soul and spirit : “... (the) military-violent form of unification (...) pushes (...) completely towards the last, most comprehensive and bloodiest fight , to the east and west, to the south and north at the same time ” . When Planck became aware of Planck through his father Otto Ludwig Umfrid , the "peacemaker" Otto Umfrid tried to keep this legacy alive together with his daughter Mathilde Planck , for example with his brochure Völkerevangelium shortly before the First World War .

Adolf Baumeister tried to popularize the nature and religion philosopher Planck, just like Mathilde Planck , who tried to develop his legal philosophy into old age. A biography of Karl Christian Planck was only written and published by his daughter Mathilde in 1950.

Honors

Planck's grave in the Pragfriedhof Stuttgart

A senior citizens' foundation in Blaubeuren is named after Karl Christian Planck . A commemorative plaque is attached to Planck's first residence (1854–1860) in Ulm in the then disreputable fishing district, between two blue arms across from the Zum Wilden Mann house . The inscription on the small memorial (see illustration) reads: "Pure selfless, light work is in its origin everything in selflessly light will and work of the general order is also your goal, oh man"

Proof of quotation

1. ^ Carl von Prantl, Carl Christian Planck, General German Biography, 1888 in: http://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd11859480X.html
2. ^ Mathilde Planck: Karl Christian Planck . Frommanns, Stuttgart 1950
3. ↑ from: Closed Trading State , Book 1, Chapter 1

Works

• The peoples of Europe , 1840 (dissertation, whereabouts unknown)
• Europe and the Orient , (in Hallische Jahrbücher, No. 283–286), 1840
• The principle of Ebionitism , 1843
• Ecclesiastical and national Reformation , (in contemporary year books, p. 488 ff), 1845
• The Origin of Mosaism , (in Zeller's Theological Yearbooks, volumes 3–4), 1845
• Judaism and early Christianity , (in Zeller's Theological Yearbooks, vol. 2-4), 1847
• Die Weltalter , Zu-Guttenberg bookstore, Tübingen:
  • Part 1: System of Pure Realism , 1850
  • Part 2: The Empire of Idealism or the History of Philosophy , 1851
• The basics of the concept of salvation , (in Zeller's Theological Yearbooks, no.1), 1851
• Catechism of Law , 1852
• Christianity and the legal tasks of the present , (in Zeller's Theological Yearbooks, p. 469 ff.), 1852
• About the true positive meaning of the legal term , (in Allgemeine Monatsschrift für Wissenschaft und Literatur, p. 907 ff), 1852
• The social question on German soil , (in Deutsches Museum, No. 15-17), 1854
• Russia and the fear of the Russians , 1854
• The bureaucratic state according to its starting point and goal , (in Deutsche Vierteljahresschrift, III.), 1857
• The church of our day and its position on the tasks of the present , (in Deutsches Museum, No. 40 f), 1857
• On the current teaching issue , (in Deutsche Vierteljahresschrift, III.), 1859
• Germany and Napoleonism , 1860
• Industrial Germany as a transition from humanistic to free bourgeois and national (in border messengers). October 1861
• Basics of Genetic Science , 1862
• Basics of a Science of Nature , 1864
• Six lectures on the legal and civil tasks of the German nation , given to the citizens of Ulm in 1866
• Bismarck , 1866
• Jean Paul's Poetry in the Light of Our National Development , 1867, 2013 new edition, ISBN 978-3-942594-57-8
• Southern Germany and the German Nation-State , 1868
• Parmenides , Volume 10 of Plato's Selected Works - Introduction and Translation, 1868
• Basic features of the organic view of nature , 1869
• Law and aim of the modern development of art in comparison with the ancient one , 1870
• Soul and spirit or origin, essence and form of activity of the psychic and spiritual organization , 1871
• Truth and Flatness of Darwinism. A memorial stone on the history of today's German science . Beck, Nördlingen 1872
• Outline of logic as a critical introduction to science , 1873
• Scientific anthropology and psychology , 1874
• Manchesterism and the German profession , (in Tübinger Zeitschrift für Staatswissenschaft, p. 304 ff), 1875
• Logical law of causation and natural expediency. On the criticism of all Kantian and post-Kantian reversals of terms , 1877
• The aim and law of evolution of ancient philosophy , 1877
• The need in the realm , (in Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 252 ff). 1878
• Testament of a German. Philosophy of Nature and Humanity , ed. v. Karl Reinhold Köstlin. Fues, Tübingen 1881
• German future . Selected political writings, ed. v. Mathilde Planck. Three masks, Munich 1925

literature

• Otto Ludwig Umfrid : Karl Planck. Whose works and work. Dedicated to his students and friends in memory of the Eternal One . Fues, Tübingen 1881.
• Adolf Baumeister: The treatment of the revelation in Karl Planck . Karl Braun, Schwäbisch Hall 1886.
• Schmidt: Karl Christian Planck's ideal of life , in: Lectures of the Philosophical Society , Berlin 1896.
• Rudolf Steiner: in Welt- und Lebensanschauung in the nineteenth century , volume 2. Cronbach, Berlin 1900; from 1914 as The Riddles of Philosophy . Rudolf Steiner Verlag (GA 18), Dornach 9 A. 1985; Pp. 350f and 366-370 in the paperback edition, Dornach 1985, ISBN 3-7274-6105-5 .
• Rudolf Eisler: Karl Christian Planck in: Philosophenlexikon , Vienna 1911.
• Rudolf Steiner: in From the human riddle . Philosophisch-Anthroposophischer Verlag, Berlin 1916; Steiner (GA 20), Dornach 5 A. 1984; especially pp. 70–79 in the paperback edition, Dornach 1984, ISBN 3-7274-6380-5 .
• Mathilde Planck: The professional state. According to the legal theory of Karl Chr. Planck . Diederichs, Jena 1918.
• Reinhold Planck: The legal term Karl Chr. Plancks (= Diss. Tübingen 1921). Winnenden 1922.
• Gerhard von dem Borne: Karl Christian Planck's anthropology on the basis of his logic of pure thought . Inaugural dissertation, Jena 1929.
• Reinhold Planck: Karl Chr. Planck and National Socialism . Ludwigsburg 1933 (?) (A senile ingratiation of the son to the new rulers; not yet listed in the DNB catalog , but there are 8 pages offprint in Fraktur with age-appropriate patina, also matches the correspondence between Baumeister - Rosenberg, listed by Rayhrer; the cousin Erwin Planck (son of Max Planck), on the other hand, was a resistance fighter and was executed in 1945. The original document and two copies with annotations have been processed in the DNB since January 31, 2008.)
• Hermann Ruelius: Karl Christian Planck and the German renewal movement after 1870 . Dissertation, Frankfurt am Main 1938.
• Mathilde Planck: The invisible realm . Mayer, Stuttgart 1946.
• Adolf Baumeister: Karl Christian Planck's “Pure Realism” , published posthumously by Friedrich Waaser . Frommanns, Stuttgart 1947.
• Mathilde Planck: About the meaning of life . Hess, Ulm 1947.
• Werner Ziegenfuß / Gertrud Jung: Karl Christian Planck in: Philosophenlexikon , Berlin 1949.
• Mathilde Planck: Karl Christian Planck . Frommanns, Stuttgart 1950.
• Otto Heuschele: Geisteserbe from Swabia , pp. 195–208; Berufsordnung (1879), p. 249; Memorial plaque . Steinkopf, Stuttgart 1980, ISBN 3-7984-0504-2 .
• Klara Nestle: (Ed.) Karl Christian Planck. Philosopher, prophet and role model (1819 to 1880) . Vaas, Ulm 1980, ISBN 3-88360-020-2 .
• Horst Dieter Schlosser: dtv atlas of German literature , Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-423-03219-7 .
• Annemarie Rayhrer: Karl Christian Planck 1819–1880. Bibliography . Württemberg State Library, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-88282-015-2 .
• Andreas Wechsler: Karl Christian Planck and his question about the meaning of the “consciousness of Jesus” for the development of early Christianity in: Geschistorbild und Apostelstreit , pp. 67–70. de Gruyter, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-11-013399-7 .
• Johannes Heinßen: in historicism and cultural criticism. Studies on German historical culture in the late 19th century . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2003, ISBN 3-525-35193-3 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Karl Christian Planck in the catalog of the German National Library
• Short biography
• Carl von Prantl:  Planck, Karl Christian . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 26, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1888, pp. 228-231.