Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle (born December 4, 1795 in Ecclefechan , Dumfries and Galloway , † February 5, 1881 in London ) was a Scottish essayist and historian who was very influential in Victorian Great Britain .
life and work
Carlyle was born the son of a wealthy farmer. In his birthplace in Ecclefechan a museum is set up. He attended the University of Edinburgh at the age of 14 and, since he found no satisfaction in theology, devoted himself here to studying mathematics and languages, v. a. the German language and literature.
After completing his studies, he found himself compelled to accept poorly paid teaching positions, first in Scotland and then in London, until a marriage, which, however, led to a marriage of convenience, enabled him to do so, initially on a small estate in Scotland, but since 1833 in Chelsea near London to devote himself entirely to literature. In addition to several translations of mathematical works, he had worked on Sir David Brewster's Edinburgh Encyclopaedia and the Edinburgh Review since 1823 , in particular published essays on Montesquieu , Montaigne , Nelson , the older and younger Pitt and on Goethe's Faust .
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Modern German literature took him completely captive at the time, and no one more than Carlyle contributed to imparting its knowledge to the English. In the space of a few years he published a translation of Goethe's Wilhelm Meister : William Meister's Apprenticeship (Edinb. 1825, 3 vols.), A biography of Schiller : Life of Schiller, an Examination of His Works (London 1825) and a selection of translations from Goethe , Fouqué , Tieck , Musäus , Jean Paul , Hoffmann a . a. with critical and biographical introductions under the title German Romance (Edinb. 1827, 4 vol.) as well as a large number of smaller essays, e.g. B. on Werner , Novalis , Goethe's correspondence with Schiller , Heine , the Nibelungenlied, etc., which are later combined with others in the collection of his essays (5 vols.).
In 1826 he married Jane Welsh , whom he had known from his friend Edward Irving since 1821 . For forty years the marriage was marked by mutual inspiration and love, but also by constant intellectual disputes.
Carlyle had come into contact with Goethe through his writings; an exchange of letters between the two was established, and Goethe himself took over the introduction to the German translation of the Schiller biography published in Frankfurt in 1830. The next major text by Carlyle, which was first published in Fraser's Magazine , is entitled Sartor resartus, or Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdroeckh (German von Fischer, Leipzig 1882); it evidently arose under the influence of Jean Paul and turns with ruthless severity against what he considered to be the ailments of the time. Carlyle's first extensive historical work, his history of the French Revolution ( The French Revolution: A History , London 1837, 3 vols .; German von Feddersen, Leipzig 1844, 3 vols.) , Had a greater impact due to its brilliant and gorgeous style . In 1839 an essay on Chartism was published .
In the years 1837–1840 Carlyle gave several lecture cycles in London, one of which was a series of lectures on heroes, hero worship and heroism in history ( On Heroes and Hero Worship and The Heroic in History , London 1846; German von Neuberg, Berlin 1853 ), has been printed. From these lectures, given in front of a small but enthusiastic audience, one can clearly see the anti - rationalist , anti-utilitarian and authoritarian worldview , which was influenced by German idealism , but also influenced by the Calvinism of his families belonging to the Burgher secession church (a split from the Church of Scotland ) and the political system of the romantic Carlyle. He lists five types of heroism: the prophet ( Mohammed ), the poet ( Dante and Shakespeare ), the priest ( Luther and Knox ), the writer ( Johnson , Rousseau , Burns ), the ruler ( Cromwell and Napoleon ), and He emphatically advocates the right of genius to shape the world autonomously on the basis of his intuitively gained insights into what is historically necessary. History seemed to him to be synonymous with the biography of the great men by whom it was made, as Heinrich von Treitschke later put it.
His book Past and Present (London 1843) follows on from a 12th century monk's diary and passionately fights against the mendacity of modern society. Friedrich Engels wrote from Manchester at the time that this font was the only font from England that was worth reading this year. His Latter-Day pamphlets (das. 1850), prophecies of Judgment Day that were made under the influence of the revolution of 1848, reveal similar tendencies.
In 1845 Carlyle's most important historical work appeared, his biography Cromwell ( Letters and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell , London 1845, 5 vols.), Which for the first time, pioneering a new conception, stylized the Puritan general and statesman into a figure of lofty size . The history of Frederick II ( The History of Frederick II, Called Frederick the Great. London 1858–1865, 6 vols .; German von Neuberg and Althaus, Berlin 1858–69) is based on the most extensive studies he has done himself in Germany , and their mannerist Linguistic style has been criticized several times. Here, too, there is an unmistakable tendency to stylize Friedrich II as a heroic figure of superhuman format. This is also made clear by the fact that Bismarck wrote to Carlyle on December 2, 1875:
- " You put our great Prussian King in his full form, like a living statue, for the Germans ."
Among the most recognized biographies written in English is The Life of John Sterling (London 1851); the last historical works that Carlyle published are essays on the ancient history of Norway and John Knox ( The early kings of Norway and an essay on the portraits of John Knox , das. 1875).
In 1867 he fought under the title Shooting Niagara - and After? the agitation for democratic parliamentary reform; In 1871, in his Letters on the War Between Germany and France, against the current prevailing in England , he strongly advocated the right of Germany against France ; Finally, even during the oriental turmoil, he published a pamphlet in favor of Russia , as the expression "the unspeakable Turk" usually attributed to Gladstone actually derives from him. He supported Gladstone in 1876 in his extra-parliamentary agitation for international intervention against the brutal Turkish suppression of the Bulgarian April uprising and appeared together with him and other public figures at a rally in London's St James's Hall.
In 1865 he was elected rector of the University of Edinburgh to succeed Gladstone against Benjamin Disraeli . In 1874 Carlyle was accepted into the Prussian order " Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts ". In 1875 a gold medal was minted in England to celebrate his 80th birthday, and British literary luminaries , Darwin , Forster , Joseph Dalton Hooker , Friedrich Max Müller , Tennyson , sent him congratulations, while Droysen , Gneist and Leopold von , among others , signed from Germany Tendril a message of greeting.
Soon after the death of his wife, Jane Welsh Carlyle, in 1866, Thomas Carlyle published her correspondence as he felt guilty about reading her diary. On December 3, 1866, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh . In 1878 he was accepted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . Carlyle died in London in 1881 as a "generally mourned luminary of the English writing world".
Impact history
Thomas Carlyle advocated a social idealism (the dignity of the individual should be realized) and fought against materialism . This made him one of the ideas behind various social movements, such as the settlement movement . His historical-philosophical concept of history as the creation of enkomiastically depicted heroic figures had a strong impact on the person-oriented German historiography of historicism in the 19th century (Heinrich von Treitschke: "Men make history") as well as on the neo-romantic, intuitionist conception of history and gestalt theory of the George Circle ( Friedrich Gundolf ; Ernst Kantorowicz ).
"The Negro Question" and the Economy
The notorious designation of political economy as "dismal science" comes from Carlyle's pen. It was based in particular on the population theory of Malthus and Sismondi .
The originally related discourse is less well known . The phrase was first included in his article The Nigger Question , first published in Fraser's Magazine in December 1849, and then published as a separate pamphlet in 1853. In 1834 England and then France in 1848 abolished slavery in the respective colonies . At the same time, a new poor law was passed in England . Carlyle pointed to the natural laziness and viciousness of colored people and the unintended consequences of the liberation of slaves for the colonies themselves as well as for the labor discipline of the lower classes in England.
In search of a livelihood as a writer in London, Carlyle had sought the acquaintance of John Stuart Mill , whom he considered to be a kindred social critic based on his article The Spirit of the Age , published in the Examiner . Mill actually supported Carlyle for a long time and kept in contact with him, although he did not want to be converted to his views. Carlyle's negro pamphlet, however, had truly outraged Mill because it openly preached the right of the fittest. When Edward John Eyre held the post of governor of Jamaica in 1862, he had the opportunity to put Carlyle's philosophy into practice. When a rebellion broke out on Morant Bay in 1865 due to the oppression of the colored population, he brutally suppressed it and took the opportunity to proclaim martial law and, among other things, to execute a Baptist preacher as an alleged rebel. In England, after it became known, a Royal Commission was set up to investigate what was going on, and Mill publicly advocated prosecution of the officials responsible. Carlyle, however, publicly sided with the Eyre Defense Committee and donated £ 100 to them.
German persistence literature of the First World War
As the first title in the series of Blue Books, a Carlyle selection appeared under the title Work and Not Despair .
As a programmatic reading aid, there is a quote before and after as a motto:
"The future of Germany is the future of the world."
and finally:
“Blessed are the humble, blessed are the unknown. It is written: 'Do you desire great things? Do not desire it. ' Live where you are, just live actively, wisely. "
The publisher notes enthusiastically in his introduction:
“In the second summer of the war, the 181st to 200th thousand of the book appeared and was deposed in 10 months, mainly on the fronts, where German soldiers read Carlyle many times while they were fighting against the same England for which he was in need the connection to German intellectual life has preached so passionately and so in vain ... "
Works
Printed
A complete edition of Carlyle's works appeared in 37 volumes (Chapman & Hall, London 1872–74). Anthologies of his writings have been published repeatedly, for example by Ballantyne (London 1870), by Barrel (New York 1876), by Williamson ( Carlyle's Birthday Book , London 1879). A German edition of Selected Writings (6 vols.) Was published by August Kretzschmar (Verlag Wigand, Leipzig 1855–56). Another, increased German edition was published by the same publisher in 1895 in nine volumes. James A. Froude published from the estate Reminiscences (London 1881, 2 vols.), Pictures of the life of his father, his wife, his childhood friend Edw. Irving and three contemporary writers (Lord Jeffrey, Southey, Wordsworth), which caused a lot of offense and would probably not have been published.
- Sartor Resartus (1831)
- The French Revolution: A History (1837)
- On Heroes and Hero Worship and the Heroic in History (1841)
- Past and Present (1843)
- Letters and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell (1845)
- History of Friedrich II of Prussia (1858)
On-line
- The French Revolution (PDF file; 20.36 MB)
- The life of Schiller in Project Gutenberg ( currently not usually available for users from Germany )
In German
Newer editions
- Work and don't despair. Karl Robert Langewiesche Verlag, 1990.
- Sartor Resartus. Life and opinions of Mr. Teufelsdröckh. Manesse Verlag, 1991, ISBN 3-7175-1804-6 .
- About the heroic in the story. Translated by Egon Friedell. Sabon-Verlag, 2001, ISBN 3-907928-31-8 .
- The French revolution. Volume 1, European History Publishing House, 2010, ISBN 978-3-86382-275-0 .
- The French revolution. Volume 2, European History Publishing House, 2010, ISBN 978-3-86382-276-7 .
- The French revolution. Volume 3, European History Publishing House, 2010, ISBN 978-3-86382-277-4 .
- History of Frederick the Second called the Great. Six volumes. Volume 1, European History Publishing House, 2011, ISBN 978-3-86382-286-6 .
Older editions
- The life of Schiller. Wilmans Verlag, Frankfurt 1830. (Also attached: The Daniel-Schubart letters from Schiller.)
- History of Frederick II of Prussia, called Frederick the Great. Volume 1–6, Berlin 1858 to 1865, (translated by Josef Neuberg and S. Althaus), R. v. Deckers Verlag (G. Schenck).
- Life memories. Translated by Paul Jäger. 2 volumes, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht publishing house, 1901.
- Mixed essays. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht publishing house, 1910.
- The great revolution. Translated by Adalbert Luntowski, Verlag Neues Leben / Wilhelm Borngräber, Berlin, 400 pp., 1911.
- Goethe's correspondence with Thomas Carlyle. Einhorn-Verlag, 1919.
- The diamond necklace. Musarion Verlag, 1920.
- Heroism and power. Published by Michael Freund. Alfred Kröner Verlag, 1935.
literature
- Ernst Cassirer : The Myth of the Twentieth Century. The preparation: Carlyle. In: Ernst Cassirer: The Myth of the State. Meiner, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-7873-1616-7 (reprint of the Zurich edition 1949).
- Thomas Fasbender: Thomas Carlyle. Idealistic view of history and visionary hero ideal. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1989, ISBN 3-88479-389-6
- Thomas A. Fischer: Thomas Carlyle. A story of his life. Wigand, Leipzig 1903.
- James A. Froude: Thomas Carlyle. Murray, London 1979, ISBN 0-7195-3654-5 (reprint of the London 1884 edition).
- Edwin Paxton Hood : Thomas Carlyle. Philosophic Thinker, Theologian, Historian and Poet. Huskell House Publication, New York 1970 (reprint of the London 1875 edition).
- David Masson: Carlyle. Two Edinburgh Lectures, Personally and in His Writings. Folcroft Library, Folcroft 1973 (reprint of the London 1885 edition).
- John Morrow: Thomas Carlyle. Hambledon Continuum, London 2006, ISBN 1-85285-318-2 .
- Thomas Carlyle. A picture of life and grains of gold from his works. Shown, selected, transmitted by Eugen Oswald . Wilhelm Friedrich, Leipzig 1882.
- Richard H. Shepherd: Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Thomas Carlyle. Allen, London 1881.
- 1785-1846.
- 1847-1881.
- Egon Friedell : Small portrait gallery. Five essays. Beck, Munich 1953, DNB 451371836 , pp. 32-96 (Novalis - Carlyle - Lord Macaulay - Emerson - Altenberg).
Web links
- Literature by and about Thomas Carlyle in the catalog of the German National Library
- Works by and about Thomas Carlyle in the German Digital Library
- John J. O'Connor, Edmund F. Robertson : Thomas Carlyle. In: MacTutor History of Mathematics archive .
- Carlyle Letters Online , collected letters from Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle
- Works by Thomas Carlyle in the Gutenberg-DE project
Individual evidence
- ↑ Treitschke: The historian is not allowed to simply deduce the later from the earlier in the manner of natural scientists. Men make the story. The favor of the world situation only becomes effective in the life of nations through the conscious human will who knows how to use it , German History in the 19th Century, Volume 1, Leipzig 1879, p. 28.
- ↑ Friedrich Engels: The situation in England. "Past and Present" by Thomas Carlyle, London 1843 . In: German-French yearbooks . Paris 1844. Marx-Engels Works . Volume 1, pp. 525-549 digitized DEA archive
- ^ Richard Aldous: The Lion and the Unicorn. Gladstone vs. Disraeli. Pimlico, London 2007, p. 277.
- ↑ Thomas Carlyle , website of the Pour le Mérite Order, accessed January 19, 2012.
- ^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed October 16, 2019 .
- ↑ See above for receipt. On Treitschke's discussion with Carlyle, cf. Roland Ludwig, The Reception of the English Revolution in German Political Thought and German Historiography in the 18th and 19th Centuries. Leipziger Universitätsverlag, Leipzig 2003, ISBN 9783937209302 , pp. 350–351, which also refers to Treitschke's criticism of Carlyles from the point of view of the German national hatred of England regarding the positive image of Oliver Cromwell.
- ^ Friedrich Gundolf, Caesar. History of his fame. Georg Bondi, Berlin 1924
- ^ Ernst Kantorowicz, Kaiser Friedrich II. Georg Bondi, Berlin 1927 [vol. 1], ibid. 1931 [vol. 2].
- ^ Robert John Dixon: Carlyle, Malthus and Sismondi: The Origins of Carlyle's Dismal View of Political Economy, 1965-1970. In: History of Economics Review. Vol. 44, pp. 32-38, summer 2006.
- ↑ Peter Groen ways: Thomas Carlyle: "The Dismal Science," and the Contemporary Political Economy of Slavery. In: History of Economics Review (Canberra, Australian National University). 34 (Summer 2001), pp. 74-94.
- ↑ Michael St. John Packe: The Life of John Stuart Mill. Secker and Warburg, London 1954, p. 168.
- ↑ Michael St. John Packe: The Life of John Stuart Mill. Secker and Warburg, London 1954, p. 464 ff.
- ↑ Thomas Carlyle: Work and not despair. Excerpts from his works. German by Maria Kühn and U. Kretzschmar. Karl Robert Langewiesche Verlag, Königstein i. T. / Leipzig (The Blue Books).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Carlyle, Thomas |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Scottish essayist and historian |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 4th December 1795 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Ecclefechan |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 5, 1881 |
| Place of death | London |