The star of the covenant

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Stefan George
portrait by Reinhold Lepsius

Der Stern des Bund is the title of a cyclical volume of poetry by Stefan George published in 1914 .

Compared to the multifaceted Seventh Ring , the poet returns to uniformity in language, structure and theme and presents his most homogeneous work with exactly a thousand verses, which can be regarded as the peak of his formal will.

Mostly renouncing melody and rhyme and sometimes working with incantations, George appears with the apodictic claim of the admonisher and seer, who proclaims time-critical doctrines and sets standards for his companions. Thus, the star of the covenant forms the constitution and the educational program of the George Circle .

content

Maximilian Kronberger

The volume brings together 100 poems that are not divided into stanzas, have no headings and are presented in a strictly ordered form: the entrance with nine fourteen-line lines is followed by three books , each with 30 poems, the length of which is between seven and fourteen lines and of which every tenth is rhymed. The hundredth poem is a final chorus that was performed at George's funeral.

In solemn, exalted paratactic language, the poet professes his mission to act as mediator between God and humanity . If he had idealized the student Maximilian Kronberger in the Seventh Ring , raised him to the god Maximin and in this way created the basis for the myth of the same name , he now celebrates him with the first poem as Lord of the Turning : “You always start us and end and middle / On your path down below · Lord of the Turn · / Our price pushes up to your star. "

The second poem illuminates Nietzsche's thoughts on the relationship between the Apollonian and Dionysian, which he explored in the birth of tragedy . The contradiction - “torment of twoness” - between intoxication and brightness, feeling and understanding is canceled out in Maximin's “double beauty” as “one at the same time and another” .

In the first book, George first describes his path from the earliest beginnings to the certainty of being chosen, turns to the excesses of his time by castigating their belief in progress - "The holy plague must pull tens of thousands" - and in the end praises his former companions .

In the second book, the novices are introduced to the mysteries , which is made up of dialogues in the first twenty poems . In this intimate conversation situation, which is reminiscent of the dialogue between poet and angel in the carpet of life and the songs of dream and death , the student confesses, for example, that he is not “capable enough for the ordination” and is comforted by the master. The conversation revolves around issues of puberty and eros, which is celebrated at the end. While the younger overcomes his doubts, the older also undergoes a change and is dependent on his pupil.

In the third book, George turns to the internal relationship of the community in order to determine how we interact with one another. In this way he established the relationship to the nobility as well as to socialists and women. The circle should be closed from the outside - “Here the gate closes. sends the unprepared away. "- while its interior is strengthened by ritual incantations:

Whoever walked around
the flame Stay satellite of the flame! No matter
how it wanders and circles:
wherever you seem to reach it,
it never strays too far from its destination.
Only when his view is lost. His
own glimmer deceives him:
if he lacks the middle law,
he drifts into space.

background

According to George's own account, the work was initially intended for “friends of the narrower district”. The "rushing world events" (meaning the First World War ) would have made "the minds of the other layers receptive to a book that could have remained a secret for years."

In the Star of the Covenant , the original title of which was to be Songs to the Sacred Host , George formulated his educational program for an elite that was defined by the veneration for the master and the friendship between an elder and a younger. After the Seventh Ring , the educational role of his poetry became more and more important to him. So he now directed his poems more often to individual friends in order to give them measures and to find out about the status of their development.

But if someone wanted to recognize himself in the verses, George taught him that the person sung about was less important than the work and the fellowship and that he should not look for specific people or himself. Since the individual experiences were part of the common sphere and people and names were viewed as the property of the circle, the member should immerse himself in the poems, search for higher truths and internalize the values ​​and norms of the circle.

While in the poems of the Seventh Ring the distance between the poet and the formed God remains visible, the identification in the Star of the Covenant goes so far that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish the voices. When the poet speaks, one thinks to hear the God using a human mouth.

reception

The star of the covenant is one of the poet's controversial works.

Claude David spoke of the unadorned and seeming negligence of the cycle, of its liturgical monotony, the renunciation of preciousness and pathos. Striking are prayer , meditation and magical incantations, which reduce the language to its core. By preserving the essentials and getting rid of all ornamentation, she is pure poetry.

Friedrich Gundolf on a photograph by Jacob Hilsdorf .

The apologetic admirer Friedrich Gundolf rated George's historical task as a “rebirth of the German language and poetry” and placed him next to Friedrich Nietzsche by referring to them as the “only two people” “who, beyond this entire age ... speak up discharged in order to fulfill their historical vocation of renewal ... "

The star of the covenant contained the ethics that had shown in George's previous works “as the face of life, in the Seventh Ring as the world face”. He does not give any specific rules, but “magical wishes and slogans of his will or visions of rise and fall which effectively represent order.” If in the multi-colored Seventh Ring “the appearance of the mediator himself is celebrated”, the penetration is accomplished in the Star of the Covenant which is why it is colorless and unattractive. The divine figure of Maximine is "the beginning, end and middle of this work, no longer as a loved one, but as the rapt lord of the turning point." The work repeats the magic of the year of the soul on a higher level . "The magic and creation words, which have long been hollow," had "regained violence, substance and form through George: beauty, greatness, man, people and God." Man has been able to dispose of himself for centuries and has lost himself, George was able to do it in his simple form Founding the origin: In the "godlike, shapely BEING."

For Michael Titzmann, the cycle is one of George's most questionable works, as many of the texts are little more than irrationalist ideology . When George spoke almost regretfully in the preface of the breadth of reception of the star , he accepted that the validity claim would be reduced to a small group. The submitted time criticism thus becomes a self-contradiction, since it does not seek to reach people. One should not confuse this type of group esotericism with the legitimate obscurity of modern poetry, as expressed, for example, in the poetry of Georg Trakl . On the one hand, George postulates secrets that need to be kept, on the other hand, he speaks them. The religious-mystical context contributes to the stylization of the lyrical ego of the prophet, who often seems to be confused with his God.

Thomas Karlauf sees in the Stern des Bund the "monstrous attempt to explain pederasty with pedagogical zeal to the highest spiritual form of existence." Whoever did not want to see this circumstance, "had to consider the thousand verses as incommensurable" or, as Walter Benjamin is quoted, for “the choreographic arrangement of the St. Vitus Dance.” George had pursued a successful strategy when he went public to choose it as “the safest protection”. Only a few dared to ask what the effort was made for and what the difference between "consecrated" and "non-consecrated" was. The “open secret” has made a decisive contribution to the formation of the elite. Elsewhere Karlauf describes that the elite idea within the George circle was based on a tacit agreement on the nature of educational eros: the love for the younger, beautiful members had to be of a platonic nature. Due to the lack of evidence, one can only speculate about the extent to which sexual acts have occurred in individual cases.

To Martin Buber, the cycle seemed “as if a secret order” wanted to have its “rule in dark and meaningful words” printed and sold. If the secret does not belong in the “ears of the market”, one should not talk about it. One should not give orders to close the gate and "take the key out of the keyhole so that they can look in from outside."

literature

Text output

  • Stefan George: The star of the covenant . Edited by Ute Oelmann. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1993 (= Complete Works in 18 Volumes, Volume VIII; currently authoritative edition).
  • Stefan George: Der Stern des Bundes In: Stefan George, works, edition in two volumes. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1984 pp. 345-394
  • Stefan George: The star of the covenant . Georg Bondi, Berlin 1914.

Secondary literature

  • Bernd Johannsen: Realm of the Spirit. Stefan George and Secret Germany , Verlag Dr. Hut, Munich 2008
  • Thomas Karlauf: Stefan George. The discovery of charisma , Karl-Blessing-Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 3-89667-151-0
  • Hansjürgen Linke: The cultic in poetry Stefan Georges and his school , Helmut Küpper, Munich and Düsseldorf 1960
  • Manfred Riedel : Secret Germany. Stefan George and the Stauffenberg brothers , Böhlau Verlag, Cologne 2006

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thomas Karlauf, Stefan George. The discovery of charisma , Karl-Blessing-Verlag, Munich 2007, p. 390
  2. ↑ The star of the covenant. In: Gero von Wilpert , Lexikon der Weltliteratur , pp. 1246–1247
  3. ^ Herbert A. and Elisabeth Frenzel , Dates of German Poetry , Countercurrents to Naturalism, Stefan George, Der Stern des Bundes, Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 1990, p. 521
  4. ↑ Stefan George, Der Stern des Bund. In: Stefan George, works. Edition in two volumes , Klett-Cotta, Volume I, Stuttgart 1984, p. 350
  5. ↑ Manfred Riedel, Secret Germany. Stefan George and the Stauffenberg brothers , Böhlau Verlag, Cologne 2006, p. 152
  6. ↑ Stefan George, Der Stern des Bund. In: Stefan George, works. Edition in two volumes , Klett-Cotta, Volume I, Stuttgart 1984, p. 382
  7. ^ Stefan George, preface to Volume VIII of the Complete Edition. In: Stefan George, works. Edition in two volumes , Klett-Cotta, Volume I, Stuttgart 1984, p. 347
  8. ↑ a b Thomas Karlauf, Stefan George. The discovery of charisma , Karl-Blessing-Verlag, Munich 2007, p. 389
  9. ^ Hansjürgen Linke, The cultic in poetry by Stefan Georges and his school , Helmut Küpper, Munich and Düsseldorf 1960, p. 131
  10. ^ Friedrich Gundolf, George , Second Edition, Georg Bondi Verlag, Berlin 1921, p. 1
  11. ^ Friedrich Gundolf, George , Second Edition, Georg Bondi Verlag, Berlin 1921, p. 2
  12. ↑ Friedrich Gundolf, George, Der Stern des Bundes , Second Edition, Georg-Bondi-Verlag, Berlin 1921, p. 247
  13. ^ Friedrich Gundolf, George , Second Edition, Georg Bondi Verlag, Berlin 1921, p. 245
  14. ^ Friedrich Gundolf, George , Second Edition, Georg Bondi Verlag, Berlin 1921, p. 269
  15. ↑ Michael Titzmann: The star of the federal government. In: Kindlers Neues Literatur-Lexikon , Vol. 6, Kindler, Munich, 1989, p. 232
  16. ↑ Thomas Karlauf, Stefan George. The discovery of charisma , Karl-Blessing-Verlag, Munich 2007, p. 394
  17. ↑ Thomas Karlauf, Stefan George. The discovery of charisma , Karl-Blessing-Verlag, Munich 2007, p. 388
  18. ↑ Quoted from: Thomas Karlauf, Stefan George. The discovery of charisma , Karl-Blessing-Verlag, Munich 2007, p. 395