Johann Gottfried Herder
Johann Gottfried von Herder (/ˈhɜːrdər/ HUR-dər, German: [ˈjoːhan ˈɡɔtfʁiːt ˈhɛʁdɐ];[15][16][17] 25 August 1744 – 18 December 1803) was a German philosopher, theologian, poet, and literary critic. He is associated with the Enlightenment, Sturm und Drang, and Weimar Classicism. He was a Romantic philosopher and poet who argued that true German culture was to be discovered among the common people (das Volk). He also stated that it was through folk songs, folk poetry, and folk dances that the true spirit of the nation (der Volksgeist) was popularized. He is credited with establishing or advancing a number of important disciplines: hermeneutics, linguistics, anthropology, and "a secular philosophy of history."[18]
Johann Gottfried Herder
25 August 1744
18 December 1803 (aged 59)
- Enlightenment
- Counter-Enlightenment[1]
- Romantic nationalism[2][3]
- Anticolonialist cosmopolitanism[4][5]
- Sturm und Drang
- Weimar Classicism
- Historicism[6]
- Romantic hermeneutics[7]
- Classical liberalism[8]
- Teleological conception of history[9][10]
- Cultural relativism[11]
- Volksgeist
- Cultural nationalism[12]
- Empirical approach to the investigation of languages and cultures[13]
Biography[edit]
Born in Mohrungen (now Morąg, Poland) in the Kingdom of Prussia, his parents were teacher Gottfried Herder (1706–1763) and his wife Anna Elizabeth Herder, nee Peltz (1717–1772) grew up in a poor household, educating himself from his father's Bible and songbook. In 1762, as a youth of 17, he enrolled at the University of Königsberg, about 60 miles (100 km) north of Mohrungen, where he became a student of Immanuel Kant. At the same time, Herder became an intellectual protégé of Johann Georg Hamann, a Königsberg philosopher who disputed the claims of pure secular reason.
Hamann's influence led Herder to confess to his wife later in life that "I have too little reason and too much idiosyncrasy",[19] yet Herder can justly claim to have founded a new school of German political thought. Although himself an unsociable person, Herder influenced his contemporaries greatly. One friend wrote to him in 1785, hailing his works as "inspired by God." A varied field of theorists were later to find inspiration in Herder's tantalizingly incomplete ideas.
In 1764, now a clergyman, Herder went to Riga to teach. It was during this period that he produced his first major works, which were literary criticism. In 1769 Herder traveled by ship to the French port of Nantes and continued on to Paris. This resulted in both an account of his travels as well as a shift of his own self-conception as an author. By 1770 Herder went to Strasbourg, where he met the young Goethe. This event proved to be a key juncture in the history of German literature, as Goethe was inspired by Herder's literary criticism to develop his own style. This can be seen as the beginning of the Sturm und Drang movement. In 1771 Herder took a position as head pastor and court preacher at Bückeburg under William, Count of Schaumburg-Lippe.
By the mid-1770s, Goethe was a well-known author, and used his influence at the court of Weimar to secure Herder a position as General Superintendent. Herder moved there in 1776, where his outlook shifted again towards classicism.
On 2 May 1773 Herder married Maria Karoline Flachsland (1750–1809) in Darmstadt. His son Gottfried (1774–1806) was born in Bückeburg. His second son August (1776–1838) was also born in Bückeburg. His third son Wilhelm Ludwig Ernst was born 1778. His fourth son Karl Emil Adelbert (1779–1857) was born in Weimar. In 1781 his daughter Luise (1781–1860) was born, also in Weimar. His fifth son Emil Ernst Gottfried (1783–1855). In 1790 his sixth son Rinaldo Gottfried was born.
Towards the end of his career, Herder endorsed the French Revolution, which earned him the enmity of many of his colleagues. At the same time, he and Goethe experienced a personal split. His unpopular attacks on Kantian philosophy were another reason for his isolation in later years.[20]
In 1802 Herder was ennobled by the Elector-Prince of Bavaria, which added the prefix "von" to his last name. He died in Weimar in 1803 at age 59.
