Kleists Turbulenzen oder »lernen von der Natur«

Abstract

My article explores how Heinrich von Kleist’s famous novella »Das Erdbeben in Chili« can be understood as a philosophical treatise about the dynamics of history. I argue, based on Manuel DeLanda’s historical reflections from his book A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History that Kleist demonstrates in his narrative how historical change manifests itself through complex interactions that create turbulences. These turbulences withdraw from a teleological model of history and implement a chaotic understanding that underlines the unpredictability of history. In my concluding remarks, I highlight that such a ›chaotic‹ perspective is not necessarily a heuristic projection of contemporary theoretical models onto Kleist’s text, but can also be found in several of his own philosophical writings and in the nearly contemporaneous work of Carl von Clausewitz.