Pandaemonium germanicum

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Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz

Pandämonium Germanikum is a scenic sketch in three acts by Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz , which - created in 1775 - was only published by Friedrich Campe in Nuremberg in 1819.

Lenz, "a young budding genius from Courland ", describes himself as a "copycat" of "Hn. Goethe ”and railed against the literary scene and the critics in the succession of his gods, heroes and Wieland . This pamphlet can be read as an early apotheotic speech on Goethe.

title

Voit translates Pandaemonium Germanikum with "Temple of the German demigods". Lenz thus ambiguously describes a place where both the "poets he mocked and" the "poets he adored" stay. In his literary satire, the author lets Goethe, himself, Hagedorn , Gellert , Gleim , Wieland , Jakobi , Lessing , Klopstock and Herder and Sophie von La Roche appear. Foreigners also appear on the stage: Lafontaine , Moliere , Rousseau , Rabelais , Scarron and Shakespeare . The staff is completed with names that are less well known today: Weisse , Liscow , Rabener , Klotz , Chaulieu , Chapelle , Schmidt and Michaelis.

content

With light feet and effortlessly, Goethe climbs "a steep mountain" - the mountain of the muses. He was "born here" (PG I, 1 H1, p.12). Lenz, who moved into the above If the phalanx of German sons of the muses would like to push, the conqueror of this Parnassus can only follow the conqueror with difficulty, he "crawls on all fours" (PG I, 1 H1, p.10). Once at the top, both poets look down on the imitators, onlookers, philistines, art judges, reviewers and journalists. “All those grimacing faces” want, but cannot climb the mountain; slide off. The godlike Goethe is supposed to lead the human spring. By climbing the summit, Lenz is able to act poetically.

Then upstairs, in the “Temple of Fame”, Hagedorn strolls around and meets Lafontaine, Moliere and Rousseau. The plot is consistently clownish: Gellert is found. This "weeps bitter tears". Wieland, whose "harsh judgments" Lenz had "hit hard", comes off badly in satire. Goethe "pulls him by the hair". An influential critic complains: Lessing "once gave him a punch under the ribs". The song writer Michaelis fears that he will eventually have to “die without judgment”. Lessing reprimands Weisse about "imitating the French" and "Greeks". Finally, the young Lenz makes a fool of himself again in front of the gathered luminaries Wieland, Klopstock, Herder and Lessing. Goethe, on the other hand, is allowed to play the sensible.

Additional considerations

The ascent of the mountain described in the first act can be related to the talent and works of the writers. Goethe reached the top with ease, Lenz, on the other hand, had to make an effort and looked like a primate, as he moved on all fours. Goethe is portrayed as an original genius who has to lead Lenz.

Lenz describes the concept of genius as follows: The genius becomes the leading genius through emulating congenialists. Contemporaries who have missed their human purpose distort the divine creation.

Although Lenz contests the ecclesiastical authority, he describes the pastor as "beating his hands and feet from the pulpit" (PG II, 4 H1, p.44), he demands an unbroken focus on a Christian God and describes orthodoxy as anti-cultural Narrow-mindedness. He sees the poet as a proclaimer of biblical and Christian truth and calls for the work of the Passion story for a contemporary drama: “Don't you suspect the high tragic of today? [...] The sufferings of Greek heroes are civil for us, the sufferings of ours should approach a misunderstood and tolerant deity. [...] Give them all the deep, foresighted, space and time penetrating whiteness of the Bible, give them all the effectiveness, fire and passion of Homer's demigods and your heroes stand there with spirit and body. I want to experience the time! ”(PG II, 6 H1, p.56).

Lenz does not see a moral end as a concern of poetic poetry, but he assumes that the recipient can be influenced morally by emotional affecting.

Written tradition

The sketchy literary satire has come down to us in two manuscripts from Lenz's own hand and a copy.

The older version (H1) was written in the period from May to mid-July of 1775. Today it is in the Berlin State Library of Prussian Cultural Heritage (SPK) . This version was revised in early summer until mid-July of the same year. This revision (H2) is in the Jagiellonska Library in Kraków. A complete copy can be found in the library of the Weimar Classic Foundation .

On the handwritten versions there is a note in the margin “Will not be printed”. Lenz probably wanted to avoid the publication of the sketch, since the attacks on Wieland in the work provoked displeasure in Goethe and Lenz wanted to avoid a quarrel between himself and Goethe. In 1993 M. Luserke and C. Weiß published a reliable edition of both manuscripts with a footnote apparatus and a short report on the history of printing.

reception

  • Goethe most likely encouraged Lenz to adopt a conception of art during his meeting in Strasbourg in the early summer of 1775, which Lenz expresses in this satire.
  • "Shakespeare, Lessing, Klopstock, Herder and the two youngest representatives of the new literary movement, Goethe and Lenz", oppose the "flirting rococo poets" and the "advocates of French taste". Lenz poses "in the temple of fame as the champion of a new drama".

literature

source
  • Pandaemonium Germanicum. A sketch. In: Friedrich Voit (ed.): Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz: Works . Reclam, Stuttgart 1992 (1998 edition), ISBN 3-15-008755-4 , pp. 237-261. (With notes p. 493–504 and an afterword p. 559–604)
expenditure
  • Pandaemonium germanicum. A sketch. In: Helmut Richter (ed.): Lenz: Works in one volume . 4th edition. Aufbau-Verlag Berlin / Weimar 1986, pp. 237–265. (Introduction by Rosalinde Gothe. Notes pp. 387–416)
Secondary literature
  • Gero von Wilpert : Lexicon of world literature. German Authors A - Z . Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-520-83704-8 , p. 386.
  • Brita Hempel: The straight look in a helical world: Skepticism of interpretation and the hope of salvation at JMR Lenz. Winter, Heidelberg 2003.
  • Matthias Luserke-Jaqui : Lenz Studies: History of Literature, Works, Topics. Röhrig, St. Ingbert 2001.
  • Takeshi Imamura: Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz: his dramatic technique and its development. Röhrig, St. Ingbert 1996.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In the source the Latin title was Germanized.
  2. ↑ Source, p. 493, 18. Zvu
  3. ↑ The author quotes Schubart . According to Voit, in the source, p. 495, 4. Zvo
  4. ↑ Voit in the source, p. 592, 9. Zvu
  5. ↑ Source, p. 493, 7th Zvu
  6. ↑ In the comments in the Helmut Richter edition (ed.), P. 399, footnote 237
  7. ↑ All - including the following personalities - named in the order of their appearance.
  8. ↑ Voit in the source, p.501, 1. Zvu: Christian Heinrich Schmid (1746-1800) critic
  9. ↑ Voit in der Quelle, p.502, 5. Zvo: Johann Benjamin Michaelis (1746–1772): Anacreontics , Singspiel Writers
  10. ↑ Source, p. 494, 1. Zvo
  11. ↑ Voit in the source, p. 572, 4. Zvo
  12. ↑ Source, p. 256, 7th Zvu: this refers to Christian Heinrich Schmid (1746–1800), see Voit in der Quelle, p. 501, 2nd Zvu
  13. ↑ In the annotations of the edition Helmut Richter (ed.), P. 399, 2. Zvo
  14. ↑ Voit in der Quelle, p. 592, 13. Zvu
  15. ↑ Voit in the source, p. 592, 2nd Zvu