Zusammenleben: Goethe's ideas on community building and transforming religious festivals in the wake of the Napoleonic wars

Abstract

ABSTRACT Napoleon and the French military occupation brought economic ruin, religious persecution, forced conscriptions, levies, rape, and territorial redistribution to the German lands. The entire left bank of the Rhine was seized and by the end of the conflict 5,000,000 Europeans were dead. Germans were traumatised. Goethe's writings during the immediate aftermath of the Napoleonic wars, visionary and yet practical, show that he was concerned with overcoming division and discord, healing the wounds of war by focusing on how to build community. He urged Zusammenleben or learning to live together in diversity by acknowledging a common humanity and common interests. Goethe saw the opportunities for community building afforded by local religious festivals such as the re-introduction of the Carnival festival at Cologne, the festival at the dedication of the restored St. Roch Chapel, and the festival of the tercentenary of the Reformation. He recast these local religious festivals, conservative structures, as vehicles for liberal values. By tapping into religious platforms he understood that it might be possible to reach a broader public, even gesturing towards a global one, in non-threatening and familiar ways. His strategy was to instrumentalise these religious festivals by expanding and gently secularising them to repurpose them for his vision of harmonious community life, thus blurring the lines of orthodoxy and creating a space to strengthen community through religious and social pluralism.