Hölderlin our Contemporary: "Empedokles" and German Intellectuals of the 1970s

A longer version of the report was published in Theater 76, 46-49.

Hansjoachim Bleyl. "Höderlin in der Berliner Schaubühne" (pp. 161-4).

Peter Weiss , Höldeirlin (Suhrkamp. Frankfurt . 1971). Page references will be to this edition.

René König , Soziologie, 2nd ed., in Enzyklopädie des Wissens (Fischer, Frankfurt , 1967), 151.

See König , ibid , who considers "die mehr konservativen Vertreter ... eine höchst problematische Abart der Intelligenz im strengen Sinne". Intelligenz is his term for 'intellectuals'.

See König , op. cit, 150 and 155, on the essential lack of "Beamtung".

Rudolf Walter Leonhardt , "Nüchterne Nostalgie" ( Die Zeit, 1 October, 1976).

The Hölderlin-Jahrbuch 1971-72, which contains the proceedings of the Marbacher Hölderlincolloquium of 19-21 November, 1970 (see esp. Walter Müller-Seidel's summary "Hölderlins Dichtung und das Ereignis der französischen Revolution: zur Problemlage". p. 119), as well as Cyrus Hamlin's report on the state of Hölderlin scholarship ("Hölderlin in Perspective". Seminar, vii (1971), 123-43) reflect this impact. While rejecting Bertaux's deductions concerning Hölderlin's poetry, Hamlin realizes that "no serious student of Hölderlin can now avoid the issue of his republicanism" (p. 134).

Pierre Bertaux , "Hölderlin und die französische Revolution", Der andere Hölderlin : Materialien zum Hölderlin-Stück von Peter Weiss, ed. Thomas Beckermann und Volker Canaris (Frankfurt. 1972), 65-100. Bertaux's paper was first published in Hölderlin-Jahrbuch, xv (1967/68), 1-27.

Dei andere Hölderlin, 101-24.

Volker Canaris , "Interview mit Peter Weiss", Der andere Hölderlin, 143.

The edition of Hölderlin's works used here is Hölderlin : Sömtliche Werke (Kleine Stuttgarter Ausgabe). References from Empedokles will be to vol. iv (1962). Since verses are not numbered throughout, but page by page, quotes will be identified by page and lines. Other volumes of this edition will be referred to as Werke.

Christoph Prignitz points out the lack of dramatic motivation for Empedokles's speech and death in the first fragment (Friedrich Hölderlin: Die Entwicklung seines politischen Denkens unter dem Einfluβ der Französischen Revolution (Hamburg, 1976). 322).

The second fragment has only 717 verses. With 262 verses the first scene is by far the longest.

Hölderlin scholarship in general has rather neglected the Empedokles fragments in favour of Hyperion and the poetry. Only recently, with a number of German dissertations on Empedokles, does a change of interest seem imminent. Of the three fragments, the second has received the least attention. In the predominant traditional view, I and II differ merely in form, not in substance. Hölderlin experiments with a new metre, takes a step toward eliminating incidental elements (e.g. Beißner : in omitting the Panthea-Delia dialogue), and clarifies or strengthens Empedokles's tragic conflict, while the basic issues remain the same. See for instance: Max Kommerell , "Hölderlins Empedokles-Dichtungen", Ueber Hölderlin, ed. Jochen Schmidt (Frankfurt, 1970), 213-36: Benno von Wiese. Die deutsche Tragödie von Lessing bis Hebbel, 6th ed. (Hamburg, 1964). 453-65; Wolfgang Schadewaldt , "Die Empedokles-Tragödie Hölderlins", Hellas und Hesperien, 2nd ed. (Zurich, 1970), ii, 261-75; Johannes Hoffmeister , Hölderlins Empedokles, ed. R. M. Miiller (Bonn, 1963); Emil Staiger , "Der Opfertod des Empedokles", Hölderlin-Jahrbuch, xiii (1963-64 ). 1-21; Friedrich Beißner, in his notes to the Stuttgart Editions; Lawrence Ryan , Friedrich Hölderlin , 2nd ed. (Stuttgart, 1967), 50. This assumption has prevented thorough discussion of the second fragment, even among recent critics who challenge the established opinions on the form or substance of Empedokles. Thus, M.B. Benn ("The Dramatic Structure of Hölderlin's 'Empedokles'", Modern Language Review, lxii (1967 ), 94f), Leonardo van de Velde (Herrschaft und Knechtschaft bei Hölderlin (Assen. 1973). 190f). and Ingeborg Gerlach (Natur und Geschichte: Studien zur Geschichtsauffassung in Hölderlins 'Hyperion' und 'Empedokles' (Frankfurt, 1973). 157) see no need to give separate consideration to II. Notable exceptions are Prignitz (see ref. 13) and Jürgen Söring (Die Dialektik der Rechtfertigung: Ueberlegungen zu Hölderlins Empedokles-Projekt (Frankfurt, 1973)), who examine in detail the successive stages of Hölderlin's work on Empedokles, as they reflect the development of the poet's political and philosophical thought. Both critics support my reading of the essential change in II. Prignitz finds an effort to make the hero's figure and fate correspond more adequately to the political ideals contained in I (p. 327). Söring, whose book Jochen Schmidt has judged to be the best on Empedokles (Germanistik, xv (1975). 200). presents the most thorough reading so far of the second fragment. He sees the decisive first scene as a new departure in two possible directions: toward a Reformationsdrama and toward a Revolutionsdrama (pp. 132, 134f, and 141).

In the one significant detail derived from the third version, Weiss, following Manes's suggestion, models his Empedokles on Christ. Hölderlin's Empedokles, however, rejects this view of his role.

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 20 September. 1971.

Stuttgarter Zeitung, 21 September, 1971.

Apo ='außerparlamentarische Opposition' : designation for the leftist groups of the late 'sixties and early 'seventies which remained outside the political system.

Stuttgarter Zeitung, 28 September. 1971.

Karl-Heinz Janßen . "Biermann und wir" (Die Zeit , 3 December, 1976).

Die Zeit, 8 October, 1976.

(1) Wolfgang Brezinka, Erziehung und Kulturrevolution: Die Pödagogik der neuen Linken (München, 1974). The book had a second edition in 1976. (2) Helmut Schelskv. Die Arbeit tun die anderen : Klassenkampf und Priesterherrschaft der Intellektuellen (Opladen, 1975). The book had a second edition in 1976. (3) Kurt Sontheimer. Das Elend unserer Intellektuellen : linke Theorie in der Bundesrepziblik Deutschland (Hamburg, 1976). See also Matthiesen's review (Die Zeit, 2 July, 1976) of Klaus Mehnert's latest book Jugend im Zeitbruch: Woher—wohin? (Stuttgart, 1976).

See Kurt Becker , "In vier Wochen fallen die Würfel" ( Die Zeit, 3 September, 1976).

Rolf Michaelis, "Kultur im Ausverkauf" (Die Zeit, 25 June, 1976), reports on Literaturmagazin 5. Vom Vergehen von Hören und Sehen: Aspekte der Kulturvernichtung, ed. Hermann Peter Piwitt and Peter Riihmkorf (Hamburg, 1976). See especially Piwitt, "Anstelle eines Vorworts", pp. 9-17 ; "Editorial: Die Jahre, in denen Kultur Politik machen wollte, sind vorüber", p. 7; and Adolf Muschg, "Bericht von einer falschen Front", pp. 24-29.

Thus Beißner. Staiger. Hoffmeister, Ryan. van de Velde. Gerlach, and Prignitz, who follows Maria Cornelissen's interpretation in "Die Manes-Szene in Hölderlins Trauerspiel 'Der Tod des Empedokles' ", Hölderlin-Jahrbuch, xiv (1965-66), 97-109. Only Staiger arrives at his interpretation independent of the "Entwurf zur Fortsetzung".

Söring makes this point on p. 196.

Söring supports my reading, pp. 10, 177, 185 and 213.

The essay Werden im Vergehen is commonly placed in Hölderlin's Homburg time, when his main poetic project was Empedokles, but, unlike the Grund zum Empedokles, its connection with the third fragment has found little attention. Söring's extensive treatment is the only exception. While I agree with his reading of the essay and of its implications for the position taken in the Grund, my view of its connection with the third fragment is different from his (see his pp. 203, 209, 211, and 241)

Letter to Neuffer, 3 July, 1799: Werke, vi, 364.

Staiger (p. 19) and Söring (pp. 209-12) consider this fact evidence of Hölderlin's lack of dramatic skill. while Cornelissen (p. 99) argues that a dramatic process could still be kept going.

The participles "geliebt,/gedient" express opposition of the type: "not ... but instead".

On the reading of this scene I most strongly disagree with Söring, whose judgment here seems biased. He sides, in rather polemical fashion, with the young idealist Pausanias against the old, self-indulgent sceptic Empedokles, whom he finds "skrupellos" (p. 192 and n. 162). His basically philosophical approach gives too little weight to truth as established in the poetic text.

The word 'andrer' should be read, not as a descriptive adjective, attribute of 'Pflicht' ( ='other duties'), but rather as genitive plural of the pronoun: 'the obligation owed to others'.

Jean Améry's latest book, Hand an sich legen : Diskurs iiber den Freitod (Stuttgart, 1976), might be called a theoretical defence—in the name of humanism of the Empedokles III position. Améry, a self-declared socialist. thus illustrates the phenomenon studied in this paper: disengagement and withdrawal into individualism.

It is this attitude which provokes Söring's criticism of Empedokles's behaviour toward Pausanias. See above, ref. 33.

Hölderlin's definition in "Ueber den Unterschied der Dichtarten", Werke; iv, 277.

See Bleyl (ref. 2), 161.

See Michaelis (Theater 76), 46. The Caspar-David-Friedrich vogue of recent years can be read as a sign of the times. The first Friedrich exhibit after World War II in 1974 became a sensation because of the immense crowds thronging to see the works of this arch-romantic painter, who. like most German nineteenth-century artists, had sunk into oblivion and mild contempt.

Arguing against attempts to declare recent terrorist acts in the Federal Republic as basically unpolitical. Harry Pross concludes: "Paul Tillich nannte Terror 'einen Ausdruck, ein Gefühl für den Enttäuschungscharakter einer verwirklichten Utopie'. Behält er recht. steht es nicht gut" (Die Zeit, 21 October, 1977).

Schubert's posthumous sonata in B flat was constantly played during rehearsals in order to serve as a model of the lightness of art achieved over the abyss of reality. See Michaelis (Die Zeit).

Another Schaubiihne production was Brecht's Der Untergang des Egoisten Fatzer. Stuttgart staged the two fragmentary versions of Büchner's Woyzeck during the same evening.

Exemplary of this trend is the Stuttgarter Staatsschauspiel, whose 'Programmhefte' were chosen as best dramaturgical achievement in the 1975/ 76 theatre competition (Theater 76, 4).

"Windstille", Theater 76, 44. He is a lone voice crying in the wilderness, as he acknowledges himself. Peymann's Käthchen von Heilbronn (Stuttgart), one of the examples he cites for excessive subjectivity, was selected as best production by six critics in the journal's annual competition.

Der andere Hölderlin (ref. 9). 127.