Types of Weltschmerz in German Poetry

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Types of Weltschmerz in German
Poetry, by

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Title: Types of Weltschmerz in German Poetry
Author: Wilhelm Alfred Braun
Release Date: December 21, 2005 [EBook #17364]
Language: English
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TYPES OF WELTSCHMERZ IN GERMAN POETRY

BY
WILHELM ALFRED BRAUN, Ph.D.
SOMETIME FELLOW IN GERMANIC LANGUAGES AND
LITERATURES, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
AMS PRESS, INC. NEW YORK 1966

Copyright 1905, Columbia University Press, New York
Reprinted with the permission of the Original Publisher, 1966
AMS PRESS, INC. New York, N.Y. 10003 1966
Manufactured in the United States of America

NOTE
The author of this essay has attempted to make, as he himself phrases it,
"a modest contribution to the natural history of Weltschmerz." What
goes by that name is no doubt somewhat elusive; one can not easily
delimit and characterize it with scientific accuracy. Nevertheless the
word corresponds to a fairly definite range of psychical reactions which
are of great interest in modern poetry, especially German poetry. The
phenomenon is worth studying in detail. In undertaking a study of it Mr.
Braun thought, and I readily concurred in the opinion, that he would do
best not to essay an exhaustive history, but to select certain
conspicuously interesting types and proceed by the method of close
analysis, characterization and comparison. I consider his work a
valuable contribution to literary scholarship.
CALVIN THOMAS.
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, June, 1905

PREFACE
The work which is presented in the following pages is intended to be a
modest contribution to the natural history of Weltschmerz.
The writer has endeavored first of all to define carefully the distinction
between pessimism and Weltschmerz; then to classify the latter, both as
to its origin and its forms of expression, and to indicate briefly its
relation to mental pathology and to contemporary social and political
conditions. The three poets selected for discussion, were chosen
because they represent distinct types, under which probably all other
poets of Weltschmerz may be classified, or to which they will at least
be found analogous; and to the extent to which such is the case, the
treatise may be regarded as exhaustive. In the case of each author
treated, the development of the peculiar phase of Weltschmerz
characteristic of him has been traced, and analyzed with reference to its
various modes of expression. Hölderlin is the idealist, Lenau exhibits
the profoundly pathetic side of Weltschmerz, while Heine is its satirist.
They have been considered in this order, because they represent three
progressive stages of Weltschmerz viewed as a psychological process:
Hölderlin naïve, Lenau self-conscious, Heine endeavoring to conceal
his melancholy beneath the disguise of self-irony.
It is a pleasure to tender my grateful acknowledgments to my former
Professors, Calvin Thomas and William H. Carpenter of Columbia
University, and Camillo von Klenze and Starr Willard Cutting of the
University of Chicago, under whose stimulating direction and
never-failing assistance my graduate studies were carried on.

CONTENTS
Chapter I
--Introduction 1

Chapter II
--Hölderlin 9
Chapter III
--Lenau 35
Chapter IV
--Heine 59
Chapter V
--Bibliography 85
CHAPTER I
=Introduction=
The purpose of the following study is to examine closely certain
German authors of modern times, whose lives and writings exemplify
in an unusually striking degree that peculiar phase of lyric feeling
which has characterized German literature, often in a more or less
epidemic form, since the days of "Werther," and to which, at an early
period in the nineteenth century, was assigned the significant name
"Weltschmerz."
With this side of the poet under investigation, there must of necessity
be an enquiry, not only into his writings, his expressed feelings, but
also his physical and mental constitution on the one hand, and into his
theory of existence in general on the other. Psychology and philosophy
then are the two adjacent fields into which it may become necessary to
pursue the subject in hand, and for this reason it is only fair to call
attention to the difficulties which surround the student of literature in
discussing philosophical ideas or psychological phenomena. Intrepid
indeed would it be for him to attempt a final judgment in these bearings

of his subject, where wise men have differed and doctors have
disagreed.
Although sometimes loosely used as synonyms, it is necessary to note
that there is a well-defined distinction between Weltschmerz and
pessimism. Weltschmerz may be defined as the poetic