Von der Idee des Menschen. Über Friedrich Schiller

Abstract

Hinderer, Walter. yon der Idee des Menschen. Uber Friedrich Schiller. Wurzburg. Konigshausen and Neumann, 1998. 351 pp. DM 78.00 paperback. Walter Hinderer's book is a culmination of over thirty years of research on the work of Friedrich Schiller. It is composed of no fewer than thirteen articles published between 1974 and 1996. Hinderer is part of a select group of American Schiller scholars that has been at the forefront of Schiller scholarship at the international level, including Germany Thus this collection of essays is a worthy and much appreciated contribution to scholarship. Here, in one handy (and attractive) volume, scholars and students alike have immediate access to Hinderer's reading of one of Germany's most outstanding writers. The nicely integrated collection of essays spans the time from Schiller's speeches at the Carlsschule and the medical dissertations (Abschlussarbeiten) to the drama Wilhelm Tell and the later fragments. To Hinderer's well-informed understanding, Schiller's idea of the human being embraces the concept of the ennobled individual, that is, one who strives to attain an ideal of the purest and most magnificent humanity. The primary task for the naive writer is to give this humanity its most complete expression. Given the fact of rupture and the need to bridge the gap between all of the standard dualities that Schiller posits, however, the modern, i.e., sentimental writer must strive not simply to describe but, rather, to engender humanity Hence, in order to overcome the dualisms of life, the (modern) artist must seek harmony, and this can be accomplished only with the aid of aesthetic education, i.e., beauty as facilitated by the play drive (Spieltrieb). As the representation of the ideal, that is, the projection of beauty and harmony as a goal for humankind, art stands in opposition to contemporary reality, which is its political function. The task of art, in Hinderer's reading of Schiller, is to cultivate eine neue Synthese von Natur and Kultur (98) that is to compensate for the limitations and failings of contemporary society. There are many strengths in Hinderer's account of Schiller. In particular, I very much appreciate the sensitivity to the continuity of Schiller's Gesamtwerk. For example, Schiller's idea of the whole individual human being, the cultivation of which potentially leads to Gottgleichheit, is sustained from the time of the first dissertation to Wilhelm Tell. It is obvious that Hinderer has kept abreast of the most recent research on Schiller, as is evident from his appreciation of the impact of the medical writings on Schiller's later development as a writer. Thus, for Schiller, aesthetic and anthropological education go hand in hand. …