Types of Weltschmerz in German Poetry | Page 4

and of
genius--reached its high-water mark in Germany in the seventies. But
with the unrestrained outbursts of the champions of Storm and Stress
the problem was by no means solved; there remained the basic conflict
between the idea of personal liberty and the strait-jacket of Frederician
absolutism, the conflict between the dynastic and the national idea of
the state. Should the individual yield a blind, unreasoned submission to
the state as to a divinely instituted arbitrary authority, good or bad, or
was the state to be regarded as the conscious and voluntary coöperation
of its subjects for the general good? It was, moreover, a time not only
of open and active revolt, as represented by the spirit of Klinger, but
also of great emotional stirrings, and sentimental yearnings of such
passive natures as Hölty. Rousseau's plea for a simplified and more
natural life had exerted a mighty influence. And what has a most
important bearing upon the relation between these intellectual currents
and Weltschmerz--these minds were lacking in the discipline implied in
our modern scientific training. Scientific exactness of thinking had not
become an integral part of education. Hence the difference between the
pessimism of Ibsen and the romantic Weltschmerz of these uncritical
minds.
In accounting for the tremendous effect produced by his "Werther,"
Goethe compares his work to the bit of fuse which explodes the mine,
and says that the shock of the explosion was so great because the young
generation of the day had already undermined itself, and its members

now burst forth individually with their exaggerated demands,
unsatisfied passions and imaginary sufferings.[6] And in estimating the
influences which had prepared the way for this mental disposition,
Goethe emphasizes the influence of English literature. Young's "Night
Thoughts," Gray's "Elegy," Goldsmith's "Deserted Village," even
"Hamlet" and his monologues haunted all minds. "Everyone knew the
principal passages by heart, and everyone believed he had a right to be
just as melancholy as the Prince of Denmark, even though he had seen
no ghost and had no royal father to avenge." Finally Ossian had
provided an eminently suitable setting,--under the darkly lowering sky
the endless gray heath, peopled with the shadowy forms of departed
heroes and withered maidens. To quote the substance of Goethe's
criticism:[7] Amid such influences and surroundings, occupied with
fads and studies of this sort, lacking all incentive from without to any
important activity and confronted by the sole prospect of having to drag
out a humdrum existence, men began to reflect with a sort of sullen
exultation upon the possibility of departing this life at will, and to find
in this thought a scant amelioration of the ills and tedium of the times.
This disposition was so general that "Werther" itself exerted a powerful
influence, because it everywhere struck a responsive chord and publicly
and tangibly exhibited the true inwardness of a morbid youthful
illusion.[8]
Nor did the dawning nineteenth century bring relief. No other period of
Prussian history, says Heinrich von Treitschke,[9] is wrapped in so
deep a gloom as the first decade of the reign of Frederick William III. It
was a time rich in hidden intellectual forces, and yet it bore the stamp
of that uninspired Philistinism which is so abundantly evidenced by the
barren commonplace character of its architecture and art. Genius there
was, indeed, but never were its opportunities for public usefulness more
limited. It was as though the greatness of the days of the second
Frederick lay like a paralyzing weight upon this generation. And this
oppressing sense of impotence was followed, after the Napoleonic
Wars, by the bitterness of disappointment, all the more keenly felt by
reason of this first reawakening of the national consciousness. Great
had been the expectations, enormous the sacrifice; exceedingly small
was the gain to the individual.[10] And the resultant dissonance was the

same as that to which Alfred de Musset gave expression in the words:
"The malady of the present century is due to two causes; the people
who have passed through 1793 and 1814 bear in their hearts two
wounds. All that was is no more; all that will be is not yet. Do not hope
to find elsewhere the secret of our ills."[11]
This then in briefest outline is the transition from the century of
individualism and autocracy to the nineteenth century of democracy.
Small wonder that the struggle claimed its victims in those individuals
who, unable to find a firm basis of conviction and principle, vacillated
constantly between instinctive adherence to old traditions, and
unreasoned inclination to the new order of things.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: "Pessimism, a History and a Criticism," London, 1877.]
[Footnote 2: Ed. von Hartmann: "Zur Geschichte und Begründung des
Pessimismus," Leipzig, Hermann Haacke, p. 187.]
[Footnote 3: "Les Poètes Lyriques de l'Autriche," Paris, 1886, p. 293.]
[Footnote 4: "Vorträge und