The Rudolf Steiner Archive

19. Schiller and Fichte’s “Barbarian People”

[ 1 ] What lives in the souls of those who are sacrificing themselves out there today? All those guiding spirits are contained within them, as if they were meant to live on in the people of the present. We wish to hold up two in particular, vividly alive before us—not to evoke sentimental feelings, but as exemplary fighters. Let us begin with the deaths of Schiller and Fichte. (Herman Grimm is quoted regarding Schiller’s death.) Goethe passed away, fell asleep, but Schiller died! His body had decayed, but his soul was victorious. The spirit that lived within Schiller’s body still had much to say to the people. Even more significant was the death of Johann Gottlieb Fichte. He delivered the most German of speeches to his people. At his sickbed, his son brought him the news of Blücher’s crossing of the Rhine. He was running a fever, imagined himself on the battlefield, and German philosophy took hold of him. He rejected the medicine and said: “I need no medicine; I am healed—I can feel it.” And so he died.

[ 2 ] Germany’s greatest sons teach us how Germans feel differently about their nationality than other nations do. A German is not simply a German; he becomes one. Goethe puts it this way: “Only he deserves his German identity who must always strive to earn it.” The most magnificent work on the development of humanity was produced by Schiller: the “Aesthetic Letters.” For him in particular, the question of the essence of Germanness was always framed as follows: The one who seeks the ideal of humanity within it possesses the deepest essence of Germanness. Not under the compulsion of cold logical necessity, nor merely under that of the senses, nor solely under that which comes from the physical world. All of that is not the true human essence. Schiller seeks to instill in human beings a balance between sensuality and reason—so that one is never satisfied with oneself, but constantly asks: How do I become human? This is fundamentally present in all his works of poetry. The science of the spirit seeks only to carry forward the impulses that were introduced by our spiritual heroes.

[ 3 ] In Fichte’s speeches, there are three questions that one could no longer possibly ask today: first, whether there is a German nation; second, whether it is worth preserving or not. Schiller and Fichte himself are the answer to that; third, whether there is a sure means of preservation and, if so, what it is. Fichte believed that this means was education. The science of the spirit is this education. Every person can embrace it. But as a people, the Germans are most closely connected to the idea that true humanity lies not in the material, but in the spiritual. The recognition of the invisible as the only truth—that is what Fichte calls it. This is precisely what the Science of the Spirit strives for. The Science of the Spirit speaks of this true reality—not abstractly about the spirit—but of how the human being will consciously continue to live in his or her soul after death. It stands boldly against passive science. Fichte did not state this explicitly, but the inspiration regarding the invisible came from him. Fichte wanted to give his nation a different kind of education. He expresses how many cling to the old ways in a parable that seems to come straight out of modern spiritual science: “Time appears to me like a corpse” (the quote was much longer; it begins with these words).

[ 4 ] Anyone who knows what life is like for the soul immediately after death could not draw on any other comparison. For the German spirit, there must be the possibility of giving form to everything that is within it. Fichte says: “The path of the German is the harvest of his entire life.”

[ 5 ] How does what these geniuses instilled in the heart of Europe continue to live on? We dare not say, as Fichte and Schiller could, what has become of the people of Central Europe. Today, we are called “barbarians” by the West, the East, and the Northwest.

[ 6 ] Emerson says of Goethe: One quality that Goethe shares with his entire nation is inner truth. England has talent; France, brilliant ideas. The German spirit possesses a certain probity that never stops at appearances. (All of this, and more to follow, is quoted from Emerson.) The terms of distinction used in high-level conversation are therefore all German.

[ 7 ] (Mrs. Wylie is then quoted; excerpts from her book *Eight Years in Germany* have been published in the *Süddeutsche Monatshefte*.) This is addressed to the English by Mrs. Wylie: German literature, German religion, and German philosophy are books sealed with seven seals to us. We know how many ships they have. It is wrong to believe that Germany has already reached its zenith. It knows that they are lying in wait at its borders to the east and west and across the water, biding their time until it shows the slightest sign of weakness so they can pounce. (The quote continues.)

[ 8 ] (Herman Grimm is then quoted:) Everyone here is willing to sacrifice themselves for their homeland, but the idea of doing so through war is foreign to us. France presents its war plans as a moral imperative and demands that Germany acknowledge them as such. (The quote continues a bit further.)

[ 9 ] Going back to the last days of June, when the press campaign began in St. Petersburg. The pressure on Austria’s rights. (Here, Bismarck is quoted from his speech delivered on the occasion of the military bill of February 6, 1888. This concerns Russia’s policy toward Austria, which pits Germany against Russia. And then Bismarck again in the same speech, where he says:) If I were to ask for a billion for a war of aggression, I do not know whether you would have the confidence to grant it. I hope not.

[ 10 ] (Then the speech from Manchester is quoted, which was delivered just this year or last year, in which the speaker, an Englishman, highlighted the following three characteristics of the Germans: truthful, thorough, and loyal. And it is stated that the preface to this book, in which the Manchester speech appeared, was written by Lord Haldane and quotes from it how Haldane specifically holds up Germany’s strength and integrity as exemplary. The book is a compilation of speeches delivered in various cities on the occasion of visits—I believe, by German city councils.)

[ 11 ] (It is then said that the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was part of Austria’s Balkan mission, and the agitation led by Herbst is mentioned—which prompted Bismarck to refer to Herbst and his followers as the “autumn crocuses.” Dr. Steiner said:) This is one of those terms from cultural history. Lord Salesbury gave Austria this mission—namely, Bosnia and Herzegovina—and now Austria owes the assassination of the heir to the throne to England’s policy. All the hatred coming from the East stems from this mission, which was bestowed upon Austria by English policy. And yet today England seeks to avenge what it itself has done. Is that true, thorough, or faithful? And we are called “barbarians.” (Then the punishment of Austria is discussed, and Bismarck is quoted again. Following this, the violation of Belgian neutrality is addressed. Bismarck is quoted once more, where he speaks of how one does not wage war out of love. This is followed by Dr. Steiner’s statement:) It has never happened before that one people has sacrificed itself for another. (Schiller and Goethe are mentioned, both of whom seem to suggest that one best finds the German within oneself by finding the human within oneself—by rising above things, but also above nationalities.)

[ 12 ] There is a lot of talk today about what the German people’s relations with the other peoples of Europe are like. How they hate England because of the overwhelming challenge (so they say). I do not believe in this hatred. There are instances where we Germans love you English people more than you love yourselves. Where is Shakespeare more cherished, where is he more—or at least more appreciatively valued—than in England? In the German spirit! The Germans have shown that they love the English more than the English love themselves.

[ 13 ] (Goethe is then mentioned, the author of *Faust* and *Euphorion*.) Who was the inspiration for Euphorion? The Englishman Byron. Goethe loved the English spirit.

[ 14 ] When we look to the West, we see how the figure of the Virgin is drawn from there. She is glorified and lives on in the hearts of the German people: Schiller. In a few years, the same will be said of the East as well.

[ 15 ] Another quote from Bismarck: “We Germans fear God and no one else in the world.” What can we promise to those who want us to carry out our global mission? Just as the German spirit will spread across the earth, the person who carries the German spirit and the German mind within himself will never stand for anything other than the words of Faust: “On free soil with a free ...” and so on.

[ 16 ] The German would never want to destroy a legitimate root. Can we Germans hate as much as the others? No! We cannot. We face the opposing powers as a symbol, just as Goethe portrayed it in his *Mephisto*!

[ 17 ] (Emerson is quoted as saying: “The world is young. We must write sacred texts to reunite the world of the spirit and the world of the earth.” To recognize the truth is Goethe’s principle, says Emerson. This is followed by a concluding quote from Bismarck (that is, as Dr. Steiner puts it in Bismarck’s sense): “The German hates the spirit of lies, the spirit of untruth, but nothing and no one else in the world!”