Resignation (Friedrich Schiller)

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Resignation is a poem by Friedrich Schiller . He published it in Thalia magazine in 1786 . A version shortened by two stanzas is contained in volume 1 of his poems from 1800 . The work, known as “Eine Phantasie”, depicts the argument between the soul of a deceased and eternity . In this, the soul demands from eternity something in return for the privations it has suffered during its lifetime, but only gets the answer that anyone who has renounced worldly enjoyment for faith must stick to this decision forever:What one knocked out of the minute does not return forever.

Content of the poem

The poem begins with the speech of the soul, which first describes its situation at the transition ( on the Schauerbrücke ) to eternity and addresses this as a retaliator with whom it wants to take account . She lists what she sacrificed to the child of the gods, truth, during her lifetime : the joys of youth and the beloved woman. Then she quotes, in anticipation of the negative answer, as it were, the arguments with which the sneering world rejected these sacrifices while she was still alive: The debt is to the dead and gods are only an appearance that will expire, and eternity and immortality Delusional fever that arises from one's own fear of conscience because no corpse has yet risen from the crypt to testify to it. But because the soul has fearlessly trusted in the oath of gods, it finally demands its reward from the rewarder.

An invisible genius gives the answer to the soul, placing the hope of such an eternal reward on an equal footing with the enjoyment one can have during one's lifetime, and declares that both are mutually exclusive: whoever broke one of these flowers would desire the other sister Not. Hope (and the belief mentioned in the same breath) does not include fulfillment in the hereafter, rather it is in itself an alternative to enjoyment in life. The answering genius prefers neither.

Position in theological discourse

The term " resignation " chosen as the title found its way into the German educational language through Halle Pietism and its translation work. Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten , whose Ethica Immanuel Kant put his moral philosophy lectures based, added the concept of philosophical one ethics.

The pair of terms hope and enjoyment comes from the Spinoza dispute of the 18th century, with "enjoyment" referring to the atheistic - materialistic position of Epicureanism . At that time, this position was contrasted with the Christian worldview (keyword "hope") and prompted Christian opponents of this position to adopt the motto hope versus pleasure , to which the soul is attached in the poem. It is converted by the responding genius into the motto hope and enjoyment , which wants to reconcile the opposing alternatives of the Spinoza dispute in terms of tolerance , but presupposes immanence because both alternatives are limited to this world and there is no second life in the hereafter.

This tolerance is modeled on the presumed equation of all theistic religions in Lessing's ring parable , but goes beyond this because here the religious hope of the beyond is equated with the atheistic enjoyment of this world.

The poem was published in the second issue of Thalia magazine, which, in addition to the optimistic Ode to Joy, also contained the similarly pessimistic free spirit of passion (immediately before resignation ). In order to soften the provocative effect of the last two poems, Schiller added (at the request of the censor ) a footnote according to which the “surge of passion should not be understood [as] a philosophical system” or “the poet's creed”. However, this explanation is precisely not applicable to resignation , because instead of a "surge of passion" there is the sober tone of a plea as in a court hearing, and the final sentence has the character of a court judgment and is therefore more binding than a philosophical or belief system.

Meanings of "resignation"

Although the title "Resignation" no longer appears in the poem itself, two meanings of this word always resonated with contemporary readers:

  • Resignation in the canonical sense describes the task of a parish or a benefice
  • Resignation in theological or mystical sense refers to the self-sacrifice and submission to the divine will (as late medieval translation of Middle High German gelatenheit , serenity ).

The soul in the poem speaks of the theological resignation which it has exercised and for which it is now demanding something in return. In this speech, which Schiller puts into the mouth of the soul and thus also of his pious contemporaries, the renunciation during lifetime reveals itself as one side of a trade, the other side of which is the reward in eternity, which means an exchange of goods in this world for goods in the other and which should ultimately serve the selfish soul to the advantage. Schiller contrasts this with (ecclesiastical) legal resignation without consideration, and the verdict of his poem is that theological resignation, like legal resignation, does not in fact entail any consideration.

This exposure of piety as selfish action is a result of psychology at the time of the late Enlightenment ; B. the psychology of religion by David Hume ( The Natural History of Religion , 1757).

literature

  • Schiller's works. National edition. Volume 2I, pp. 401-403. Weimar: Hermann Böhlaus Nachf. 1943ff.
  • Wolfgang Riedel: Interpretation of the poem in: Interpretations. Poems by Friedrich Schiller , p. 48ff. Edited by Norbert Oellers. Stuttgart: Reclam 1996, ISBN 3-15-009473-9
  • Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Pictures from his life , p. 201ff. Edited by Eberhard Bethge. Munich: Chr. Kaiser 1986, ISBN 3-459-01613-2
  • Matthias Laarmann: Art. Resignation , in: J. Ritter / K. Founder / G. Gabriel (Grsg.): Historical Dictionary of Philosophy, Vol. 9 (1992), Sp. 909-916.
  • Matthias Laarmann: Art. Resignation. II. Mysticism. , in: Lexikon des Mittelalters, Vol. 7 (1995), Col. 758 (new early documents).

Web links

Wikisource: Resignation  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. Thomas von Kempen : Imitatio Christi. Book III, chap. 37: De pura et integra resignatione sui ad obtinendam cordis libertatem