Franklin and Germany: Further Evidence of His Reputation in the Eighteenth Century

Abstract

The names of two men and two only represented our nation to foreign countries during the century that saw it emerge from colonial status to the dignity of independence. These were George Washington, the military and political leader, and Benjamin Franklin, the spokesman for America in the realms of the intellect. Although both names were frequently joined in the judgment of their contemporaries, and especially those in Germany, this study intends to separate them and consider only the reputation of Benjamin as it is documented by the words of certain representative Germans during the last quarter of the eighteenth century. The standard work in English on the subject of influence in German is Benjamin and Germany, the doctoral dissertation of Beatrice Marguerite Victory, published as Number 21 of the America Germanica series of the University of Pennsylvania in 1915. Dr. Victory discusses at length visit to GSttingen with Sir John Pringle in the summer of 1766, and in subsequent chapters deals with Franklin's Reputation in Europe Germany a. In the Eighteenth Century, and with Franklin as known to Goethe, Schiller, Justus Moiser, and Herder (Johann Fried.). It might be argued that in view of the existence of this painstaking piece of scholarship there is no need of pursuing the subject further, but, although Dr. Victory's monograph contains much basic material, it does not exhaust its subject and naturally cannot give consideration to the material gathered by the investigators of the last generation. It is useful to distinguish three periods in the development of reputation in Germany. In the first, prior to 1776, he is known as the conqueror of lightning and inventor of the lightning-rod. Indeed, it would be difficult to name any other happening in the eighteenth century which stimulated human imagination as keenly as did the famous experiment with the kite. Here was to be seen an outstanding example of the power of man's mind to analyze and tame natural forces that had hitherto with-