Things I’ve been Reading the Past Decade
 to Prepare Writing a Novel about for a Trip to Germany (Part I)

Read Part I here.

Martin Buber, Erzählungen der Chassidim (Tales of the Hasidim) (1948)

Solomon Maimon, Autobiography (1800)

Johann Herder, God, Some Conversations (1787)

Isaiah Berlin, Vico and Herder: Two Studies in the History of Ideas (1978)

Correspondence between Schiller and Goethe from 1794 to 1805

Friedrich Schiller, Letters Upon the Aesthetic Education of Man (1794)

–––––. “On Simple and Sentimental Poetry,” (1795)

–––––. William Tell (1804)

Charles E. Passage, Friedrich Schiller: World Dramatists (1975)

Johann Goethe, Goethe’s Letters to Zelter

–––––. Götz von Berlichingen (1773)

–––––. Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (The Sorrows of Young Werther) (1774)

–––––. Iphigenieauf Tauris (Iphigenia in Tauris) (1779)

­­­–––––. Italienische Reise (Italian Journey) (1816–17)

–––––. Aus Meinem Leben: Dichtung und Wahrheit (Poetry and Truth from My Own Life) (1811–1830)

–––––. Novella (1828)

–––––. Zur Farbenlehre (Theory of Colors), “Preface to the First Edition of 1810.”

–––––. Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre (Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship) (1795)

–––––. Faust Part I (1808)

–––––. Faust Part II (1832)

Rudolf Steiner, Goethe’s Weltanschauung (1897)

–––––. Grundlinien einer Erkenntnistheorie der Goetheschen Weltanschauung (A Theory of Knowledge Implicit in Goethe’s World Conception) (1886)

–––––. Nietzsche, ein Kämpfer gegen seine Zeit (Friedrich Nietzsche: Fighter for Freedom) (1895)

–––––. Education as a Social Problem (1919)

–––––. The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity (1922)

–––––. Mysticism and Modern Thought (1928)

George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, “Preface to Phenomenology” (1807)

Arthur Schopenhauer, Essays and Aphorisms [taken from Parerga and Paralipomena] (1851)

Nietzsche, Writings from the Early Notebooks, (1870-1873)

––––-. The Birth of Tragedy out of the Spirit ofMusic (1872) (1886)

–––––. On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense (1873)

–––––. Unzeitgemässe Betrachtungen (Untimely Meditations) (1873–1876)

­­­–––––. Toward a Genealogy of Morality (1886)

Walter Kaufmann, Nietzsche: Philosopher,Psychologist, Antichrist (1950)

–––––. Discovering the Mind Vol. II – Nietzsche, Heidegger, Buber (1981)

***

Ferdinand Tönnies, Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft (Community and Society) (1887)

Wilhelm Dilthey, Selected Works Vol. III: The Formation of the Historical World in the Human Sciences [~1865-1911] (2002)

Max Weber, Essays in Sociology [~1900-1920] (1946)

Jürgen Habermas, Strukturwandel der Öffentlichkeit (The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere) (1961)

Benedetto Croce, Historical Materialism and the Economics of Karl Marx (1900)

E. M. Butler, The Tyranny of Greece Over Germany (1935)

Oscar Jászi, The Dissolution of the Habsburg Monarchy (1929)

Vladimir Lenin, The State and Revolution (1917)

Antonio Gramsci, Quaderni del carcere (Selections from the Prison Notebooks) (1929–1935)

****

Victor Lefebure, The Riddle of the Rhine: Chemical Strategy in Peace and War (1923)

Ranier Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet (1902–1908)

Rudolf Otto, The Idea of the Holy (1917)

Heinrich Mann, Im Schlaraffenland (Berlin: in the Land of Cockaigne) (1900)

Heinrich Mann, Der Untertan (Man of Straw) (1918)

Thomas Mann, Buddenbrooks (1901)

–––––. “Germany and the Germans” (1945)

Nigel Hamilton, The Brothers Mann (1979)

Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (1923)

Martin Buber & Franz Rosenzweig, Die Schrift und das Wort (Scripture and Translation) (1926)

Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf (1927)

Arnold Zweig, Der Streit um den Sergeanten Grischa (The Case of Sergeant Grischa) (1927)

Erich Maria Remarque, Im Westen Nichts Neues (All Quiet on the Western Front) (1929)

Jaroslav Hasek, Osudy dobrého vojáka Švejka zasvětové války (The Good Soldier: Schweik) (1930)

Karl Kraus, Half-truths & One-and-a-half truths: selected aphorisms [~1900-1936] (1976)

Sigmund Freud, Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious (1900)

Carl Jung, The Jung Reader [1918-1930] (2012)

Walter Benjamin, Illuminations (1940)

Moritz Julius Bonn, The Wandering Scholar (1940)

Stefan Zweig, The Royal Game and Other Stories (1941)

H.G. Atkins, German Literature Through Nazi Eyes (1941)

Ernie Pyle, This is Your War: The Story of G. I. Joe (1943)

Martin Foss, The Idea of Perfection in the Western World (1946)

Karl Jaspers, The Way to Wisdom: An Introduction to Philosophy (1951)

Elie Wiesel, Night (1960)

Hannah Arendt, The Life of the Mind (1971)

Walter Laqueur, Weimar: a Cultural History, 1918–1933 (1974)

–––––. The Terrible Secret: An Investigation into the Suppression of Information about Hitler’s ‘Final Solution’ (1980)

–––––. Best of Times, Worst of Times: Memoirs of a Political Education (2009)

Werner Heisenberg, Across the Frontiers (1974)

Günter Grass, Im Krebsgang (Crabwalk) (2002)

Fritz Stern, Five Germanys I Have Known (2006)

George Steiner, The Death of Tragedy (1961)

–––––. After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation (1975) 

–––––. The Portage to San Cristóbal of A. H. (1981)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by @chang.li.nao on Dec 7, 2018 at 4:49pm PST

Book Treasures from Germany

This translation of Dickens’s Oliver Twist comes from 1927, printed in Stuttgart, contains some beautiful illustrations by H. Grobet. It was a gift, and I believe it was purchased at Historica Antiquariat Bertz Wawrzinek on Heinrichstraße in Dresden.

A post shared by Christopher Landrum (@bookbread2) on May 1, 2018 at 7:26am PDT

A post shared by Christopher Landrum (@bookbread2) on May 1, 2018 at 7:27am PDT

A post shared by Christopher Landrum (@bookbread2) on May 1, 2018 at 7:28am PDT

 

What Germans Thought of American Football Coaches 100 Years Ago:
(At Least According to Max Weber):

Written in about 1917:

The American boy learns unspeakably less than the German boy.

In spite of an incredible number of examinations, his school life has not had the significance of turning him into an absolute creature of examinations, such as the German.

For in America, bureaucracy, which presupposes the examination diploma as a ticket of admission to the realm of office prebends, is only in its beginnings.

The young American has no respect for anything or anybody, for tradition or for public office—unless it is for the personal achievement of individual men.

This is what the American calls “democracy.” This is the meaning of democracy, however distorted its intent may in reality be, and this intent is what matters here.

The American’s conception of the teacher who faces him is: he sells me his knowledge and his methods for my father’s money, just as the greengrocer sells my mother cabbage. And that is all.

To be sure, if the teacher happens to be a football coach, then, in this field, he is a leader. But if he is not this (or something similar in a different field of sports), he is simply a teacher and nothing more. And no young American would think of having the teacher sell him a Weltanschauung or a code of conduct.

Now, when formulated in this manner, we should reject this. But the question is whether there is not a grain of salt contained in this feeling, which I have deliberately stated in extreme with some exaggeration. ––Max Weber (1864–1920)[1]

 

A post shared by Jeana 📚☕🌸 (@hotcocoareads) on Feb 24, 2018 at 8:01am PST

[1] Max Weber, “Science and Politics,” From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, translated by H. H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills, (New York, NY: Oxford UP, 1958) 149–50.

Politics and the Language of Soccer/Football

From “What sets Germany’s ‘liberal’ FDP apart” at Deutsche Welle news on August 11, 2017:

While both German liberals and US libertarians want a smaller state, most FDP members reject the notion they are libertarians because the term is often associated with radically anti-government views. “I don’t bend down to American terminology, it is not historically adequate,” Paque said. “Just like I don’t call football ‘soccer’ just because Americans call it that.”

Compare George Orwell (1903-1950):

Did I understand the political situation in England? Oh, of course, of course. I mentioned the names of various Ministers, and made some contemptuous remarks about the Labour Party. And what about Le Sport? Could I do articles on Le Sport? (Football and Socialism have some mysterious connexion on the Continent.)

Down and Out in Paris and London. 1930. Berkeley Medallion Edition. September 1967. Ch. VIII, p. 37.

 

Goethe at a Glance

Goethe on writing:

After my usual habit—whether a good or a bad one—I wrote down little or nothing of the piece; but worked in my mind the most of it, with all the minutest detail. And there, in my mind, pushed out of thought by many subsequent distractions, it has remained until this moment, when, however, I can recollect nothing but a very faint idea of it.

Italienische Reise, 1816–17. From Goethe’s Travels in Italy: Together with his Second Residence in Rome and Fragments on Italy. Translated by A. J. W. Morrison and Charles Nisbet. London, UK: G. Bell and Sons. 1892. “Below Taormina: on the Sea-shore, May 8, 1787” 288–89.

The complete works take up about 6 shelves:

Complete works of Goethe takes up 6 shelves #Goethe #books #library #deutschland

A post shared by Christopher Landrum (@bookbread2) on Mar 24, 2017 at 10:22am PDT

Trump Quotes Goethe

I’ve been reading Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship and will write about that soon. In the meantime, all I have are Goethe memes:

Trump quotes Goethe #Trump #Goethe #deutschland

A photo posted by Christopher Landrum (@landrumc) on Feb 10, 2017 at 5:24am PST

Trump quotes Goethe #Trump #Goethe #deutschland

A photo posted by Christopher Landrum (@landrumc) on Feb 10, 2017 at 5:23am PST

Trump quotes Goethe #Trump #Goethe #deutschland

A photo posted by Christopher Landrum (@landrumc) on Feb 9, 2017 at 11:49am PST

Trump quotes Goethe #Trump #Goethe #deutschland

A photo posted by Christopher Landrum (@landrumc) on Feb 9, 2017 at 11:48am PST

 

Joseph Conrad and the Skulls of Berlin

This news story from Deutsche Welle about an unclaimed collection of African skulls in Berlin reminded me of a passage from Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1899):

“The old doctor felt my pulse, evidently thinking of something else the while. ‘Good, good for there,’ he mumbled, and then with a certain eagerness asked me whether I would let him measure my head. Rather surprised, I said Yes, when he produced a thing like calipers and got the dimensions back and front and every way, taking notes carefully. He was an unshaven little man in a threadbare coat like a gaberdine, with his feet in slippers, and I thought him a harmless fool. ‘I always ask leave, in the interests of science, to measure the crania of those going out there,’ he said. ‘And when they come back, too?’ I asked. ‘Oh, I never see them,’ he remarked; ‘and, moreover, the changes take place inside, you know.’ He smiled, as if at some quiet joke. ‘So you are going out there. Famous. Interesting, too.’ He gave me a searching glance, and made another note. ‘Ever any madness in your family?’ he asked, in a matter-of-fact tone. I felt very annoyed. ‘Is that question in the interests of science, too?’ ‘It would be,’ he said, without taking notice of my irritation, ‘interesting for science to watch the mental changes of individuals, on the spot, but…’ ‘Are you an alienist?’ I interrupted. ‘Every doctor should be—a little,’ answered that original, imperturbably. ‘I have a little theory which you messieurs who go out there must help me to prove. This is my share in the advantages my country shall reap from the possession of such a magnificent dependency. The mere wealth I leave to others. Pardon my questions, but you are the first Englishman coming under my observation…’ I hastened to assure him I was not in the least typical. ‘If I were,’ said I, ‘I wouldn’t be talking like this with you.’ ‘What you say is rather profound, and probably erroneous,’ he said, with a laugh. ‘Avoid irritation more than exposure to the sun. Adieu. How do you English say, eh? Good-bye. Ah! Good-bye. Adieu. In the tropics one must before everything keep calm.’… He lifted a warning forefinger…. ‘Du calme, du calme.’

5 Interesting Things to Read

German Chancellor Angela Merkel toasts 500-year-old beer purity law (Deutsche Welle)

“George R. R. Martin’s Never-ending Story” by Steven Malanga (City Journal)

“UT Murder Coverage Misses the Point” by Chase Hoffberger (Austin Chronicle)

“Unfriendly Climate: Texas Tech’s Katharine Hayhoe is one of the most respected experts on global warming in the country. She’s also an evangelical Christian….” by Sonia Smith (Texas Monthly)

“Why Dale Watson has Disavowed Country Music” by Glen Burnsilver (Phoenix New Times)