The Rudolf Steiner Archive

39. Nietzsche, Maeterlinck, and Jacobowski

[ 1 ] On Monday, after a long hiatus, the Free Literary Society once again held a lecture evening at the Victoria-Säle on Leipziger Straße. Dr. Rudolf Steiner began with a lengthy, impromptu speech outlining the evening’s program and briefly sketching the profiles of the poets whose works would be featured. He began by describing the state of mind of Friedrich Nietzsche, who created his divinity—his ideal—in the “superman,” and in whom the pain generated by the struggle with human weakness awakens a lyrical sensibility that finds its expression in moving songs. The Dutch writer Maeterlinck stands firmly on the ground of the natural sciences. He avoids major conflicts and intense passions. The world soul reveals itself in the everyday; it is not to be sought in crude, external appearances, which he does not make the subject of his portrayal either. Human beings encounter one another as souls, and his poems depict subtle, delicate feelings—so subtle that words often seem too crude a means of expression for them. Ludwig Jacobowski is a different sort of character. Only what is accessible to the people and folk-like comes across to us in his songs and ballads. According to Dr. Steiner, the royal court actor Mr. Arthur Krausneck recited the announced poems. “The Martyr,” a one-act drama by Dr. Georg Reicke, received lively applause. It captivated the audience particularly through the subtle characterization of the title hero. A pastor who refuses to acknowledge dogma loses his position and falls into deep hardship; for the same reasons that made him a martyr, he refuses to allow his daughter—the provider for his children and himself—to marry a good man who has asked for her hand. Krausneck delivered the play with warmth and effectiveness, though we would have liked the nuances between the characters to have been even more subtle and expressed with even greater vocal richness. This was followed by two ballads by Maeterlinck, adapted by Franz Bley, followed by two poems by Nietzsche, which, in true lyricism, gave voice to the trembling pain of a mighty spirit and evoked the same feeling that creeps up on one when alone on a towering mountain peak—a shudder at the mysteries of nature that nevertheless has an uplifting effect. “The Four Robbers,” a legend by Ludwig Jacobowski—a ballad brimming with poetry—concluded the recitations, which were met with lively applause. The audience, consisting mainly of women, left the hall visibly satisfied around 10 o’clock.