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OF THE
TRANSACTIONS
AMERICAN
PHILOSOPHICAL
HELD
SOCIETY
AT PHILADELPHIA
FOR PROMOTING
VOLUME
USEFUL
KNOWLEDGE
ORPHEUS
PHILOLOGUS
Bachofenversus
Mommsenon the Study
of Antiquity
LIONEL GOSSMAN
Professor
ofRomanceLanguages,Princeton
University
THE AMERICAN
INDEPENDENCE
PHILOSOPHICAL
SQUARE:
SOCIETY
PHILADELPHIA
1983
Libraryof CongressCatalog
Card Number 82-73832
InternationalStandard Book Number 0-87169-735-1
US ISSN 0065-9746
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments.................vu..................
Abbreviations ...................................
I. Vestigesof Bachofen .................................
II. The Prophetof Basle .................................
III. The Enemy: Mommsen ...............................
IV. AphilologicalHistoriography.............
..............
V. Bachofenand the NeohumanistTradition ......
..........
VI. Bachofenversus Mommsen Today .........
.............
Index
.................
..................
Page
ix
1
8
21
42
58
80
87
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The bulk of this essay was writtenin 1978-79 duringtenureof a fellowship fromthe National Endowmentforthe Humanities.I would like
to expressmy gratituteto the N.E.H. I also wish to thankPrincetonUniversityforgrantingme a leave of absence frommynormalteachingduties
and the InstituteforAdvanced Studyin Princeton,and its DirectorHarry
Woolf,forallowingme, as a Visitor,fulluse ofthefacilitiesof theInstitute.
It is a pleasure to recordmy indebtednessto Felix Gilbertforthe sympatheticinteresthe has shown in mywork,to mycolleague Carl Schorske
forhis warmencouragement,
especiallyin thefallof 1979 when we taught
a seminartogetheron nineteenthcenturyBasle, and to Douglas Forsyth,
a graduate studentin the HistoryDepartmentat Princeton,for sharing
withme his extensiveknowledgeof thenineteenthcenturyBasle patriciate
and forseverallivelydiscussionsabout Basle and its culturein the course
ofthepast fewyears.Finally,I wish to acknowledgethegenerouspractical
assistanceI received,duringa briefvisitto Basle in 1979, fromDr. Berthold
Wessendorfof the Departmentof Manuscriptsat the UniversityLibrary.
Lionel Gossman
Princeton,February1983.
ABBREVIATIONS
As Bachofen'sworkis notwell knownand remainslargelyuntranslated,
it has been quoted liberallyin English translationin the presentstudy.
Referenceshave been placed in the textin order to allow the reader to
identifyimmediatelythe source,and, in the case of the correspondence,
the date of each quotation.The followingabbreviationshave been used.
They are also used in the footnotesto referto Bachofen'sworks.
Correspondence,in JohannJakobBachofensGesammelteWerke,Ed.
Karl Meuli. Vol. X, ed. FritzHusner. Basle and Stuttgart:Schwabe
& Co., 1967. The numberrefersto the numberof the letterin this
edition,and is followedby the indicationof the year.
GR JohannJakobBachofensGriechischeReise. Ed. Georg Schmidt.Heidelberg:RichardWeissbach,1927. The firstpublicationof the 1851
manuscriptin the UniversityLibraryat Basle.
Werke.Ed. Karl Meuli. Basle and
GW JohannJakobBachofensGesammelte
&
10 volumes. Volumes 1, 2, 3,
1943-67.
Stuttgart:Schwabe Co.,
4, 6, 7, 8, and 10 had appeared by the time of Meuli's death in
1968. No furthervolumes have appeared.
M
ofJ.J.Bachofen.
Myth,Religion,and MotherRight:SelectedWritings
Trans. Ralph Manheim. BollingenSeries, no. 84. Princeton:PrincetonUniversityPress,1967. WhereverpossibleI have quoted from
the version of
this readily available English text. Unfortunately,
Bachofen's autobiographygiven here is a truncatedone, though
thereis no indicationthatthe German textfromwhich the translationwas made had been drasticallyabbreviated.I have therefore
been obliged,quite frequently,
to referto the fullGerman text(SB
below).
SB
Autobiography(a long autobiographicalletterto his formerteacher,
the legal scholar F. C. von Savigny,writtenin 1854, rediscovered
far
in 1916, and firstpublished by Hermann Blocherin Zeitschrift
34 [1917] and in BaslerJahrbuch,
Rechtswissenschaft,
vergleichende
und Antrittsrede
1917, 295-348), in J.J.Bachofen,Selbstbiographie
Ed. AlfredBaeumler. Halle/Saale: Max Nieuiberdas Naturrecht,
meyer,1927.
WTS Dr. WilhelmTheodor Streuber.Nekrolog.November1857. Basle:
Schweighauser'scheBuchdruckerei.
C
I. VESTIGES
OF BACHOFEN
timeof the firstappearance of his influentialand successfulRomische Geschichte(1854), he was the object of the passionate and
enduringhatredof an obscure Swiss philologistin the provincialcityof
Basle. JohannJacobBachofenis stillnot well knownin the English-speaking world. He receivesa briefmentionin most historiesof anthropology
on account of his pioneeringcontributionto the popular nineteenth-cenhis studiesofrelationsin matrilinear
turytheoryof "matriarchy,"
societies,
notablyof the "avunculate,"and his correspondencewithLewis Morgan.'
Most of his ideas have been discardedby contemporaryanthropologists,
however; the theoryof matriarchyis now discredited;and recentscholarship in Germanyhas challenged the view that he himselfsubscribed
to theevolutionismcommonlyassociatedwithhis work.2Classical scholars
know of his strikingly
originalcontributionsto the studyof Greek myth
l Bachofen'sMutterrecht
(1861) preceded McLennan's PrimitiveMarriage(Edinburgh:A.
and C. Black, 1865) by fouryears.In Studiesin AncientHistory(London: B. Quaritch,1876)
McLennan pointedout thathe did not know of Bachofen'swork until 1866 (391-92). This
seems plausible, since Bachofenclaimed that even in Germanyhis work was ignoredand
thatitcould be effective
onlyifitwere translatedintoEnglishand French.He was pathetically
gratefulto the young Genevan, Alexis Giraud-Teulon,for bringingit to the attentionof
Frenchscholars(La Me'rechezcertainspeuplesde l'antiquite,Paris: E. Thorin,1867). Bachofen,
on his side, learned of McLennan's work even later,in 1869 (C 264, 1869).
Amongthemanygeneralstudiesofthe historyof anthropologyin whichBachofenappears
in connectionwiththe theoryof matriarchy
and the theoryof evolutionism,see notablySol
Tax, "From Lafitauto Radcliffe-Brown;
a shorthistoryof the studyof social organization,"
in SocialAnthropology
ofNorthAmericanTribes:EssaysinSocialOrganization,
Law,andReligion,
originallypresentedto ProfessorA. R. Radcliffe-Brown,
ed. Fred Eggan (Chicago: Univ. of
Chicago Press, 1937), and Carle C. Zimmerman,Familyand Civilization(New York:Harper
and Brothers,1947). His name appears frequently,
of course,in the major workssupporting
or challengingthe ideas of primitivepromiscuityand matriarchy,such as Westermarck's
Historyof Human Marriage(London: Macmillan, 1891) or Briffault's
The Mothers(London:
George Allen and Unwin, 1927). Though Briffault's
argumentrests more on the idea of
matrilocythan on that of descent throughthe female line (matrilocywas discussed by
Bachofenonlyin his laterwork),itsdebtto Bachofenis stillconsiderable.Curiously,Briffault's
massive three-volumework suffereda fate similarto Bachofen's:it was eitherneglectedor
regardedwithcondescensionby professionalanthropologists
as theworkof an amateurwho
stillclung to outwornevolutionarynotions. In addition,it sufferedfroma similarstylistic
disability,the centralargumentbeing swamped by the mass of illustrativematerial.There
has been some revival of interestin Briffault
and an abridgedversionof The Motherswas
published in England in 1959.
2 See JohannesDormann,"War JohannJakobBachofenEvolutionist?"
Anthropos
60 (1965):
1-48, and "Bachofen-Morgan,"
Anthropos
63-64 (1968-69): 129-38. Bachofenhimselfmakes
no secretof the partplayed in his thinkingby Plutarch'sIsis and Osirisor of the essentially
spiritualcharacter-in his view-of the "evolution" that is manifestedin social life and
institutions.
of Athenian
and tragedythroughGeorge Thomson,whose interpretation
tragedyin Aeschylusand Athens(1941) owes much to Bachofen, and
throughmany admiringallusions to him in the writingsof Karl Kerenyi.3
ReadersofEngelscome acrosshis name in TheOriginsoftheFamily(1884),
whereEngelsacknowledgesat some lengthhis indebtednessto Bachofen's
Marxistswere understandably
then stillrelativelyneglectedMutterrecht.
attractedto the thesis that patriarchywas preceded by matriarchyand
thatthe existingsocial orderis thereforeneithernaturalnor eternal.4The
Mutterrecht
was obviouslyalso of interestto Freud and Jung,as readers
lettersare aware.5Jung,espeof Totemand Taboo and of the Freud-Jung
cially,as a fellow citizenof Basle, appears to have had a special affinity
forBachofen,and he himselfattributedthe Bachofenrevivalin the early
twentiethcenturyto the growingpublic interestin psychology.6Lewis
Mumfordwas probablyindebted,directlyor indirectly,to Bachofen for
ofMan (1956) and The
the contrasthe draws,in both The Transformations
Cityin History(1961), betweenthematernalcultureof theneolithicvillage
I
See the moving and understandingtribute,"JohannJakobBachofensPortrat,"in his
TessinerSchreibtisch:
Mythologisches
Unmythologisches
(Stuttgart:
Steingruben,1963), 21-31.
See also his AufSpurendes Mythos(Munich and Vienna: Langen-Muller,1967), 49-50, 84,
115,etpassim.As earlyas 1955 Kerenyihad alreadydedicateda substantialessay to Bachofen
des Humanismus,miteinemIntermezzoiuberNietzscheundAriadne,
(Bachofenund die Zukunft
Zurich:RascherVerlag). Referencesto Bachofenas a reveredguide and masteroccur frequentlyin the pages of Kerenyi'sGesammelteWerke(Munich: Langen Muller,1966-).
avec Paul et Laura Lafargue,ed. E. Bottigelli3 vols. (Paris: Editions
4 See Correspondance
sociales, 1956-59. 3 vols.), 3: 64-65. Marx's thoroughknowledgeof Bachofenemergesfrom
his notes on Morgan,Maine, and Lubbock;see Lawrence Krader,ed., The Ethnological
NotebooksofKarlMarx(StudiesofMorgan,Phear,Maine, Lubbock)(Assen: Van Gorcum& Comp.
B. V., 1974), 116-1 7, 235-37, 314, 323, 339. On Bachofen'spopularityin the oppositecamps
of socialistand fascistwritersin the earlytwentiethcentury,see ErichFromm,"Die sozialpsychologischeBedeutungder Mutterrechtstheorie,"
Zeitschrift
furSozialforschung
3 (1934):
196-227; also GerhardPlumpe, "Die Entdeckungder Vorwelt:Erlauterungenzu Benjamins
Text+ Kritik31/32 (1971): 19-27.
Bachofenlektiire,"
5 See The Freud-Jung
Letters,ed. WilliamMcGuire,trans.R. Manheim and R. F. C. Hull
(Princeton:PrincetonUniversityPress, 1974), letters312J-316J,318J,fromApril to June,
in Totemand Taboo,pt. 4 (CollectedWorks,
1912. Freud also refersto Bachofen'sMutterrecht
standarded., 13: 144; cf. 122, 125-26). The influenceof Bachofenon Jungand the Jungians
An Inquiryintothe
was doubtlessgreaterthan on Freud. See Jung'sMysterium
conjunctionis:
Separationand SynthesisofOppositesin Alchemy,trans.R. F. C. Hull, in his CollectedWorks,
20 vols. (Princeton:PrincetonUniversityPress,1954-78), 14: 18-20, 307, et passim.See also
the works of Erich Neumann, Amorand Psyche:The PsychicDevelopmentof the Feminine,
trans.Ralph Manheim (1956; 2nd. ed. Princeton:PrincetonUniversityPress, 1971) and The
GreatMother:An AnalysisoftheArchetype,
trans.Ralph Manheim (1955; 2nd. ed. Princeton:
PrincetonUniversityPress, 1972). WilliamMcGuire,editorof the Freud-Jung
Lettersand coeditorof the CollectedWorks,told me thatit was at Jung'ssuggestionthatthe extractsfrom
Bachofenwere translatedintoEnglishand publishedin the BollingenSeriesby The Princeton
relationmay be found
UniversityPress. Furthersuggestionsconcerningthe Jung-Bachofen
in Henri Ellenberger,The Discoveryofthe Unconscious:theHistoryand EvolutionofDynamic
"C. G.
Psychiatry
(New York: Basic Books, 1970), 223, 660; and in Philipp Wolff-Windegg,
Jung-Bachofen, Burckhardt,and Basel," Spring:an Annual of ArchetypalPsychologyand
Jungian
Thought(1976): 137-47. On theotherhand, on theleftwingof Freudianism,Wilhelm
ReichacceptsBachofen'sthesisof a matriarchalperiodprecedingthe age of patriarchy.(See
his The InvasionofCompulsory
Sex-Morality,
orig. Ger. 1936; New York: Farrar,Straus and
Giroux,1971). ErichFrommalso refersfrequentlyto Bachofen.
6"Psychology and Literature,"CollectedWorks,14: 84.
VESTIGES OF BACHOFEN
and the newer paternalcultureof the town.7Those familiarwith Mumford'swork will recognizethe significanceof that contrastfornearly all
his writing.Most recently,feministshave begun to take an interestin a
writerwho can be presented,thoughnot withoutsome simplification
and
even speciousness,as having been an earlychampion of women.8These
are, however, faint echoes of a massive work of great originalityand
imaginativepower, which will come to ten volumes when the Gesamtausgabe,edited by the late Karl Meuli, is finallycompleted.A volume of
extractsin an English translationby Ralph Manheim was published by
PrincetonUniversityPress in the Bollingenseries in 1967, but none of
Bachofen'smajorworkshas been translatedin fulland, apartfromJoseph
Campbell's introductionand George Boas's prefaceto the Princetonvolume, thereis virtuallyno criticalliteratureon him in English.
In Germany,on the otherhand, Bachofenhas consistently
engaged the
most energeticand enterprising
minds. During his lifetime,it is true,he
was eitherignored completelyor disregardedas a misguided eccentric,
one of hundreds of obscure classical philologistsin the provincialcities
of German-speakingEurope.9He had difficulty
findinga publisherforhis
writingsand it was only in his later years that he began to attractthe
7 See The Transformations
ofMan (New York: Harper and Brothers,1956), Chapts. 1-3,
and The Cityin History;its Origins,itsTransformations
and itsProspects(New York:Harcourt,
Brace and World, 1961), chapts. 1-3. In 1961 Mumfordcontributeda note on Bachofento
a slimvolume containinga shorttranslatedtextby Bachofen,whichwas printedby the wellknown printerViktorHammerat his Stamperiadel Santuccioin Lexington,Kentucky,in an
editionof one hundredcopies (Walls:Res Sanctae/ResSacrae.A passagefrom"VersuchUeber
die Graebersymbolik
derAlten'). The distinctionbetween neolithicvillage and civilizedtown
was, of course, essential to the work of PatrickGeddes, the unusual Scots scientist,educationist,and urbanplanner,who was the singlemostpowerfulinfluenceon Mumford.(See
especiallyGeddes's fiveTalksfromtheOutlookTower,given at the New School in New York
in 1923, in Marshall Stalley,ed., PatrickGeddes:SpokesmanforMan and the Environment,
New Brunswick:RutgersUniv. Press, 1972, 289-380, notablythe thirdand fourthtalkson
"The Valley Plan of Civilization"and "The Valley in the Town"). Geddes had been a close
friendand associate of Elisee and Elie Reclus,both of whom participatedin his Edinburgh
SummerMeetingsbetween 1887 and 1899, and Elie Reclus was one of Bachofen's small
band of correspondentsand admirersin the last years of the philologist'slife. There is,
indeed, an audible echo of Bachofen in Geddes's affirmation
that village cultureis not
supersededbut continuesto existalongside that of men and cities,and in the admiration
he expressed for a historianof Rome who "below, behind, beyond this great historyof
Rome . . . got down to bedrock;down to the primitive,matriarchal,and persistent,fact,
thatwomen are in the way of feedingmen, providedtheirmen will bringthemthe stuffto
cook, and the fuelto cook it with" (Stalley,310). Mumford'slinksto Bachofenare thusboth
indirectand direct.
8 See, forinstance,ErnstBornemann,Das Patriarchat:
Ursprungund ZukunftunseresGesellschaftssystems
(Frankfurt
am Main: Fischer,1975). The AmericanfeministEvelyn Reed,
in Woman'sEvolutionfromMatriarchalClan toPatriarchalFamily(New York:PathfinderPress,
1975), refersto Briffault
ratherthan Bachofen,but her argumentis in line with Bachofen's.
A vigorouslycriticalevaluation of Bachofenfroma more modern feministstandpointis to
be foundin MarielouiseJanssen-Jurreit,
Sexismus:iuberdieAbtreibung
derFrauenfrage
(Munich
and Vienna: Carl Hanser Verlag, 1976), 96-111 .
9 See C 91, 94 (both 1857), 242 (1868); also Meuli in Afterwordto Mutterrecht
(GW 3:
1097-1100), and Kienzlein Afterword
to Tanaquil(GW,6: 455-57). Itis striking,
nevertheless,
thatMcLennan,the authorof Primitive
Marriage,did come upon theMutterrecht
shortlyafter
he had published his own study.
VESTIGES OF BACHOFEN
to his earlyphilologicalvocation,just as he remained-uncomfortablybound to his native city,choosing in both cases the path of inner exile
ratherthan that of open rupture.In the end, many German artistsand
intellectualscame, as Thomas Mann did, to see Bachofenand Nietzsche
as representingdiametricallyopposed solutions to the dilemmas of
modernman."'
It was notNietzsche,but themembersof theKosmischeRunde,an avantgarde artisticand philosophicalmovementin Munich at the end of the
last century-notably Ludwig Klages, Karl Wolfskehl,and AlfredSchuler-who reallymade Bachofen'sreputationin Germany."2The circleof
" The textsin whichNietzscheis closestto Bachofenare the inauguraladdress on Homer,
We Philologists,The Futureof our EducationalInstitutions,
and The Birthof Tragedy,which
Frau Bachofen told C. A. Bernoulliher husband had read with deep satisfaction(Martin
einesgenialenIrrtums,
Geschichte
Vogel,ApollonischundDionysisch:
Regensburg:Gustav Bosse
Verlag,1966, 99n). Like Burckhardtin thisrespect,Bachofenfound it increasinglydifficult
togo along withNietzsche'sworkafterTheBirthofTragedy,
despitehis initialwarmsympathy
for the man. Frau Bachofenrecountsthat even personal relationswith Nietzsche cooled,
then broke offaltogether.The estrangementbetween the two men was probablydue not
so much to Nietzsche's increasinglyphilosophical bent-thereis somethingdisingenuous
about Burckhardt'sinsinuations,in his lettersto Nietzsche,that the cause of his growing
reservewith respectto his erstwhilecolleague was his own lack of philosophical talent;
Burckhardtknew as well as anybodythatNietzsche was in no sense a professionalphilosopher,had not been trainedas one, and did not use the language or the styleof professional
philosophy-asto his increasinglyfreeand directexplorationof the problemsthatconcerned
him. The BirthofTragedy,thoughit irritatedthe professionalphilologistsin Berlin,was still
recognizablya workof philology.It concernedancientGreekculture,the relationof ancient
and similarquesartand ancientreligion,the relationof dramaticand epic representation,
tions. If it seems revolutionaryto us today, that is partlybecause we read it from the
perspectiveof Nietzsche's later work, which Bachofen and Burckhardtcould not do, and
the traditionof classical philology,fromZoega on,
partlybecause mostof us have forgotten
in which contemporariescould easily place it. As a work of philology,it was well received
by Nietzsche's colleagues at Basle. Withthe writingof HumanAll Too Human and Dawn of
Day, however,in 1878 and 1881, Nietzsche had clearlybroken with the philologicaland
historicaldisciplineswhich, for Bachofen and Burckhardt,however free theymightbe in
theirattitudesto those disciplines,stillprovideda residual orderand objectivity,a bulwark
against the total disintegrationof all established order. In Bachofen's case, in addition,
Nietzsche's overthostilityto religionmay have contributedto the estrangementof the two
men. Bachofencould toleratethe quiet atheismof Overbeck,but he may well have found
the increasinglymilitantanti-Christianfulminationsof Overbeck's friendunacceptable.
On the relationsof Bachofenand Nietzschethe mostimportantstudyis AlfredBaeumler,
"Bachofen und Nietzche," firstpublished in 1929, in his Studienzur deutschenGeistesgeschichte(1937; 3rd ed., Berlin:Junkerund Dunnhaupt, 1943), 220-43. The questionof Bachofen's relationto Nietzscheis also centralto Baeumler'sextensiveand learned introduction
to extractsfromBachofen'sworks,published as Der Mythusvon Orientund Occident:eine
der altenWelt,aus den Werkenvon J.I. Bachofen(Munich: C. H. Beck, 1926). A
Metaphysik
second editionof thiswork appeared in 1956, and Baeumler'sintroductionwas laterpublished separately,withan addition,as Das mythische
Weltalter:
BachofensDeutungdes Altertums,miteinemNachwort,Bachofenund die Religionsgeschichte
(Munich: C. H. Beck, 1965).
The relationto Nietzscheis also emphasized by Baeumler'scolleague,ManfredSchroter,in
his introduction
to a new editionof Bachofen'sDas lykischeVolk(Leipzig; H. Haessel, 1924).
On the oppositionof Bachofenand Nietzsche,see note 16 below.
12 See especially the importanttributeto Bachofen in the essay on sources following
Eros (Munich: Georg Muller, 1922; 4 editions until 1941):
Klages's Vom kosmogonischen
"Verfasserdieser Zeilen bekennt,dass die ihm um die Jahrhundertwende
zuteil gewordene
mit den HauptwerkenBachofenssein weiteresLeben entscheidendmitbesBekanntschaft
timmte"(quoted fromLudwig Klages,St(mtliche
Werke,8 vols., Bonn: BouvierVerlagHerbert
VESTIGES OF BACHOFEN
workedfora federal
were drawnfromold Basle families-Achille Bischoff
customs union, BenediktLa Roche for a federal postal system,Johann
JacobSpeiserbecame directoroftheCentralBank and introduceda federal
currencyand a federalcoinage, Carl Geigy championed and helped finance the constructionof a federalrailway system-the cityleadership
seems on thewhole to have been draggedunwillinglyalong in the process
of centralizationwhichbegan withthe new Federal Constitutionof 1848.
Many of theold families,among whom the cityfathershad been recruited
forover two centuries,looked apprehensivelyon centralization,
railways,
industrialization,and immigrationas threatsto the traditional,closed,
semi-patriarchal
communitytheyconsideredthemselvesobligatedto preserve and protect.
Aftermid-century,
however, modern life began to transformthe traditionalways of Basle. The Strasbourgrailway reached the outskirtsof
the cityin 1844, the railway fromGermanyshortlyafterwards.Banking
operations,which had been a familybusiness run by the merchant-manufacturers,were revolutionizedby the formationof modern joint-stock
banks capable of financingthe railways and otherlarge-scaleindustrial
projectstypicalof thesecond halfof the century.Frommodestbeginnings
as an adjunct to the manufactureof silk ribbons,the chemical industry
increasedin importanceuntilby the last quarterof the centuryits contributionto the city'seconomybegan to rival thatof the ribbonindustry
itself.Again,the old familiesappear to have been divided in theirattitude
to this development.The most liberaland enterprising
sons of the patriciate, influencedby the progressiveideas of ChristophBernoulli(17821863), an early champion of science, technology,and industry,took the
lead in promotingit, but otherslooked on it with deep misgiving,and
considered the manufactureof syntheticdyes not only unsanitaryand
deleteriousto public health,but unnaturaland immoral.JohannRudolf
Geigy-Merian,one of the youngerpatriciansmost eager to adapt to the
new order of industrialcapitalism and the man most responsible for
launching the present Geigy Chemical Company on the road to commercialsuccess,at firstprovidedfinancialsupportforthepioneeringefforts
of an associate, preferring
not to engage the familyfirmand the family
reputationdirectlyin what seemed a riskyand not altogetherrespectable
enterprise.
New industries,along with new techniquesand modes of production
in the older ones, led to a far more rapid increase of population in the
lateryears of the centurythan in the earlierones, and the native artisan
class was graduallyoverwhelmedby a new proletariat.At the beginning
of the century,half the inhabitantsof the citywere sufficiently
well esoffto enjoy burgherrights.By the 1880s those
tablishedand comfortably
enjoyingburgherrightswere outnumberedby nonburghersfourto one.
What the patriciatehad consistentlysoughtto avoid-the destructionof
the old communityand corporatelifeof the cityby a vast influxof foreign
workers-had finallycome to pass, partlyas a resultof the veryadjust-
10
11
12
13
21
J. J. Bachofen,"Ueber Herkommenund Zucht. Rede gehalten am Grutlifest
vor der
SectionBasel des Zofingervereins,"
in Zofingia:Centralblatt
des schweizerischen
Zofingervereins
(Basle, Feb. 1958, 98: 145).
22 Basle Univ. Library,
Bachofen-Archiv272, item 292. Note fromSir WilliamHamilton
(24 June1840).
23 On the radical attacks on Bachofen's appointment,see K. Meuli in GW 3: 1039; W.
Kaegi,JacobBurckhardt,
2 (1950): 399. Bachofendid agree to serve,fromJanuary1855 until
May 1858, on the universityCuratel,the three-mancommitteewhich effectively
determined
universitypolicyafterthe reformof the universityadministration
in 1818 (Bachofen-Archiv
279, 9-10). A letterfromJuliusFriedlanderof Berlin(21 Nov. 1857) reportingDroysen's
opinion of a candidate for the chair of historyat Basle dates fromthis period (BachofenArchiv272, 59). Buteven withoutany officialrole,Bachofenappears to have been frequently
consultedon universitymatters.Accordingto Edgar Bonjour (Die UniversitatBasel 14601960, Basle: Helbing and Lichtenhahn,1971, 541-42), he was largelyresponsiblefor the
14
There seems littledoubt that the events leading to Bachofen's resignationmarkedhim deeply and permanently.He had believed thathe had
somethingto contributeto the lifeof his native city,thathe was destined
to be one of its patres,and he had probablyhoped to steerit, at his own
speed and accordingto his own lightsno doubt, in a moderatelyliberal
direction.But others,he discovered,were not willingto entrustthe fortunesof the cityto him and were impatientformoreradical changes than
he, in all likelihood,contemplated.His disappointmentwas more than
personal: his liberalfaithitselfcollapsed. It was shatteredcompletelyby
the activitiesof the militantradicals of the mid-1840s, at Lucerne and
elsewhereeven more than at Basle. These culminatedin 1847 in the SonderbundWar,which set the radical-mostly Protestant-cantonsagainst
the conservative-mostlyCatholic-ones, and in which Basle, Protestant
and commercialbut also deeply conservative,triedunsuccessfullyto play
a mediatingrole. ThereafterBachofenshared the angrycontemptof his
compatriotBurckhardtforwhat the latterreferredto, with bitterness,as
"the illusions. . . of 1830.124
The vigilantirony which enabled Burckhardtto overcome in some
measure the dialecticof illusion and disillusionseems not to have been
a solutionforBachofen,however. Far fromabandoning the idealism of
his youth,he spent his life piously preservingand protectingit untilhe
it into the image of a lost, immenselybeautiful,and evertransformed
regrettedage of harmonyand wholeness that pervades his entirework.
Evokingthe elationhis friendWilhelmStreuberexperiencedas a student
at the Universityof Berlinin the mid-1830s and the disappointmenthe
sufferedon his returnto Basle, Bachofen expressed his own continued
mourningforthe dream of reconciliationand harmonywhich the great
teachersof his generation-Ranke, Savigny,Schleiermacher,Bockh-had
held out to theirstudentsas capable of being realized in history.25
In Streuber
ofthemagicwhichtheFriedrich
Wilhelm
we findfurther
confirmation
exercises
on sensitive
and eageryoungminds.The combinedpresence
University
of so manyrespectedscholars,the highpositiontheyoccupy,the importance
in lifeand in thestate,thecomingtogether
ofso many
to scholarship
attributed
appointmentto the chair of law of AgathonWunderlichand, afterhim, of R. von Jhering,
two of the most distinguishedlegal scholarsGermanyproduced in the nineteenthcentury.
He withdrewfromthe Curatel on account of what he termeda grossinsulton the part of
one of his colleagues,"eines ungewaschenenNeu-Schweizers" (C 129, 1860). Nevertheless,
even afterthis episode, Bachofenremainedloyal to, if somewhat detached fromthe university.In 1877 he made a giftof 15,000 francsto the Padagogium forthe supportof sick
or sicknesspension fund
or disabled teachers,and a giftof 5,000 francsto the Krankenkasse
forthe supportof sick students,especiallyof those withoutfamilyin the
of the university,
city.
24 JacobBurckhardt,
ed. Emil Durr (Stuttgart:K. F. Koehler,1957),
HistorischeFragmente,
270.
25 Wilhem Theodor Streuber(1816-1857) began teachingclassical philologyat Basle in
1841 and was appointedprofessorof classical philologyat the universityin 1851. In 1847
he succeeded Burckhardtas editorof the BaslerZeitung,a post he occupied untiljust before
his death. Streuberdied ten monthsto the day afterBachofen'smother.
15
hundredsof youngmen filledwiththe desireto leam, fromall the Germanthebeautyand dignityof thescholarlylife.
speakinglands,all thishighlights
Everyotherconcemvanishesaway, and the soul is filledwitha singleidea.
. . . Likeone newbomStreuber
enjoyedin Berlinwhatno latertimeoflifeever
ofa presentfullof contentment
bringsback-the doublyblissfulexperience
and
of thefruits
and of a proudand confident
of thefuture.
satisfaction
anticipation
in a dreamand now
. . . LeavingBerlinhe feltlikea manwho had beenflying
foundhimself,
as he awoke,sinkingbackdownto theharshground.. . . Now
thedoublepainofmemories
fullofmelancholy
he suffered
and a future
without
help.He had girdedhimselfup forlifeas fora joyfulfeast,buthe had hardly
begunto drinkfromthecup whenthelastlampswereextinguished
and thelast
notefellsilent(WTSvi,viii,xxxvi).
Life in Basle was certainlya far cry fromthe joyful feast to which
Bachofen,like Streuber,had once looked forward."Along with many
oustandingqualities,our good cityof Basle," Gerlach once wrote to his
old student,"has an overpoweringtendencyto philistinetediousness,
which,God knows,is breathedin withthe veryair."26Bachofenaccepted
old nativecity"(C 162,
the tediousnessof lifein his "highlyuninteresting
1863) as a conditionforwhich therewas no remedyexceptironicalforbearance. His lettersconvey not only the boredom and provincialismof
what was then stillthe largestGerman-speakingcityin Switzerlandbut
a salutarycapacity forwritingabout it with humor. Expressinghis reservationsabout the estheticismof Burckhardt'slectureson art in a letter
to his friendMeyer-Ochsnerin Zurich,Bachofenadded that"in any case
it's unlikelyhe will create much havoc here. The thoroughlyunesthetic
dispositionof the Basle public will make sure of that.For it is not easily
shakenout ofitsImperialCitycomposureand pursuestheso-calledhigher
pleasures only out of boredom" (C 109, 1958). On scholarlyactivitiesin
Basle, he wrote on anotheroccasion, "I have not much to tell you. An
enormouscentrifugalforcedissipateseverythingand nothingsignificant
happens.. . . The good folk of Basle cherishunconditionalpeace. The
littlebit of spiritthereis is spent on creditbanks and otherswindles that
go by the name of progress"(C 152, 1863). In a more playfulmood he
told Meyer-Ochsnerof being visitedby a "courteous and well-educated
who had been recommendedto call on him.
youngman" fromFrankfurt,
His age naturally
calledforsomesocialdistractions.
How glad I wouldhave
beento providehimwiththese,ifonlyitwerepossible.Butin Basle,youknow,
at leastas faras myeyescan see,thereis no societyand absolutely
no association
ofthevariousfamilies.
Mr.Myliusspeakswellofthedancingassemblies
inZurich;
he willhaveto forgoall thatsortofthinghere,forI do notrecollect
everhearing
ofanyonedancingin Basle,exceptat thevilepopularballsat camivaltime.I come
to theconclusion
thatwiththebestwillin theworldI have nothingto offer
the
youngmanexcepttheadvicethathe notstaytoolonghere.Thenativesgo tobed
themselves
fromearlyyouthtohaveas fewneedsas possible.
earlyanddiscipline
26
16
concert,
anda sermonbyPaterHebich,voila
A lecture,
an interminable
symphony
tout(C 140,1861).
Marriageto Louise Elizabeth Burckhardtin 1865 and the birthof his
son Wilhelma year later did not alter Bachofen's view of life in Basle.
"Boredom as always," he wrote to a friendin Rome in 1879. "In a city
like Basle absolutelynothinghappens, except what happens wherever
thereare human beings-baptisms and burials" (C 300, 1879). Toward
the end of his life he wrote a series of lettersto his littleniece Annita,
who was spendingthe winterin the south of France,to keep her abreast
of eventsin Basle. "I should have to inventsomething,"he told her, "if
I am to entertainyou pleasantly. For nothingnew is to be discovered
eitheron the Gerbergasseor on the Baarfusserplatz"(C 333, 1886).
I am answering
yourletterrightaway,thoughthereisn'tmuchto tell.One day
is verymuchlikeanotherhere.We getup in themoming,consumefourmeals,
thenretireto bed again. If the sun shineswe go out,if it rainswe take our
umbrellas
else. One day I beginmywalkwiththeSanktalonglikeeverybody
nextday withtheAeschenvorstadt,
theday afterwiththegreat
Alban-Vorstadt,
Gerbergasse.
EverymomingI drinkcocoa,everyeveningtea.
Wieintressant,
wie intressant
0 du, meinherrlich
Schweizerland!
(C 336, 1887)
If humorprovided some relieffroma reality,fromwhich, since 1844
at least, Bachofenno longer expected any joy or satisfaction,therewas
also a more powerfulconsolation.Italy,forBachofenas forBurckhardt,
was the golden land, the only place, accordingto his correspondence,
wherehe was trulyhappy. In his large,comfortablehouse in the greyold
cityon the Rhine he would dream of it or plot tripswith his friendand
fromZurich,HeinrichMeyer-Ochsner;and then sudfellow-philologist
dently,on an impulse, he would be off,wanderingup and down the
peninsula, visitinghis beloved burial sites and adoring the unchanging
beautyof the landscape. It is strikingthatin his autobiography,when he
wantedto emphasize the tiesthatbind a man to his homeland,the phrase
thatcame to his mindwas one thatits author,Madame de Staei, had used
to describe her heroine's attachmentto Italy. Bachofen's Italy was not
however.He was not drawn to the land of artand culture,
Burckhardt's,
but to a more ancient,prehistorical,pre- or early Roman Italy,an Italy
"ieratica e sacerdotale," as he himselfdeclared, quoting an Italian colleague,27an Italyof primitivepietyand religionwithits deepest roots,as
27 C 257, to Meyer-Ochsner,
18 Feb. 1869,quotingAng.Leosini,"La Provinziadell'Abruzzo,"
Rivistaitalianadi scienze,lettereed arti,127 (1863). Cf. also C 65: "The subsequent studies
[oftheGeschichte
derRimer]are to describethefortunesofCentralItalybeforethefoundation
of Rome and at least to suggesthow greatwas the floweringof those centuries,which are
the golden age of Italy.The mightyrealm of Alba, of which so low an opinionis held, and
whichis now regardedvirtuallyas mythicaland legendary,lay especiallyclose to myheart."
On Burckhardt'slongingforItaly,see the letterto Hermann SchauenbergfromBerlin,27
February,1847: "Italyopened myeyes,and since thenmywhole lifeis consumedby a great
longing for the golden age, for the harmonyof things" (The Lettersof JacobBurckhardt,
selected,editedand translatedby AlexanderDru, London: Routledgeand Kegan Paul, 1955,
104).
17
18
19
20
Jn
Bachofen'seyesTheodorMommsenwas theCaesarofthecontem-
21
22
world.38)Typically,Bachofendid not limithis interestin antiquityto classical antiquity.He followed the work of Frenchand English orientalists
and Egyptologistsattentivelyand he constantlyinsistedon the oriental
The strictneoclassical conceptionof
rootsof ancientItalian civilization.39
antiquitydefendedby Letronnein Paris, forinstance,would have been
He also kept
as unacceptableto him as to Champollionor Felix-Lajard.40
up with the growingliteratureon the "primitive"peoples of Africaand
America,in which theremay have been greaterinterestat Basle, withits
extensivetrade in "colonial" products and its support of the overseas
missionaryactivitiesof the Basle Mission,than in most German-speaking
cities.Indeed, Bachofenwas increasinglytakenup by thisbranchof study,
Briefe(vol.
as investigationof the sources of his last work,Antiquarische
from
1, 1880; vol. 2, 1886), has made abundantlyclear. The difference
As the past thatdrew Bachofenwas
Burckhardt
on thispointis striking.4'
more remote and alien than the one that appealed to Burckhardt,its
boundarieswere also less narrow;and itis movingto observethe obscure,
embitteredclassical philologistreachingout in the years of his maturity
to Lubbock, Tylor,McLennan, and Morgan, while many youngermen
achieved acclaim by laboring diligentlywithin the restrictedfield of a
as any modem podisciplinethathad become as bounded institutionally
liticalstate.42
38 On the Voss-Creuzercontroversy
and the two orientationsrepresentedin it,see Baeumler,Der Mythusvon Orientund Occident,cvii-cviii,et passim.See also W. Rehm,Griechentum
und Goethezeit(Leipzig: Dieterich,1936), 285-334.
39 Cf. C 179, 188, 257; above all the Introduction
to Tanaquil,GW 6: 380-405. The subtitle
of Tanaquilis "Eine Untersuchunguber den Orientalismusin Rom und Italien."
40 Bachofenwould not, of course,have supportedChampollion's "Egyptomanie,"as his
opponentscharacterizedit. He probablystood close to Raoul-Rochette,whom he cites frequentlyand who argued consistentlyat the Academie des Inscriptionsagainst two privileges-that of the writtentextover monumentalevidence, and that of Hellenism (and its
rival Egyptomania)over a largervision of the Orient (India, Assyria,Phoenicia) as the
principalfocus fromwhich human culturespread out toward the West,includingGreece.
41 Burckhardt's
rejectionof evolutionismand comparatismseems not untaintedby racism.
on History(London: George Allen and Unwin, 1943), 35: "To draw
Thus in the Reflections
deductionsfromnegroesand Red Indians is of as littleuse as to draw deductionsfromnegro
religionsto throwlighton religion.The white and yellow races must have gone different
on thatbeginning;"
ways fromthebeginning,and theblackracescan castno lightofauthority
and on p. 42: "We may at once exclude here the religionsof lesserraces,those of the negro
peoples, etc. . . The primordialelementsof the spirituallife can be deduced fromthem
even less than the originsof the state fromthe negro state. For such peoples are fromthe
outseta preyto everlastingfear;theirreligionsdo not even give us a standardforthe first
signs of the birthof the spirit,because among them the spiritis destinednever to come to
spontaneousbirth."
with Morgan by sending
42 See C 276, 278 (1870). Bachofenopened the correspondence
the lattera copy of Tanaquil(C 286). Morgan,on his side, had heard of BachofenfromErnst
Curtius'sGriechische
Geschichte
(Engl. trans.,1868) in which thereis a referenceto the paper
"LTberdas Weiberrecht"that Bachofen read to the membersof the German Philological
Associationat theirmeetingin Stuttgartin 1856. Bachofen's work was acknowledgedby
Morgan in AncientSociety(1877). The correspondenceand exchangeof books was kept up
untilMorgan's death. Mary Morgan then wrote Bachofenthankinghim for"the beautiful
tributeto my husband which you so kindlysent to me in your letterof January16," and
assuringhim "that I shall always cherishyourname because of the delightyou gave to my
272, item 166, Mary Morgan to Bachdepartedone" (Basle Univ. Library,Bachofen-Archiv
23
24
25
26
6: 653-54.
Mommsen,GesammelteSchriften,
27
AllgemeineZeitungfor
a review of a work by Gerlach in the Augsburger
the past
September18, 1858, the contemporaryfashionforinterpreting
in termsofthepresentand forhighhandedlyrejectingtraditionalhistorical
testimonyis fiercelycriticized."What would the world know of Rome,
if the only source of knowledge leftto it were Niebuhr or Mommsen?"
(GW 1: 450). In 1861 Mommsenis pictureddisdainfullyas an entrepreneur
in the currently
modishinscriptionsbusiness and as sendinghis "commisvoyageurs"or sales representativesto Spain and otherplaces in orderto
cornerthe marketforhimself(C 134). The same year,the publicationof
of which Bachofenstill
a thirdeditionof Mommsen'sRomischeGeschichte,
received a courtesycopy,48and the award of the Bavarian Academy's
Gold Medal to the author,unleashed a floodof hostilefeelings,of which
Bachofen'searlierallusions to Mommsengave only a hint.Fromthismoment of officialconsecrationonward, Bachofen's hatred and opposition
were unrelenting.Mommsen now became the emblem forhim of everythinghe found repugnantnot only in scholarshipbut in the entirecontemporaryworld. I shall reproducethe relevanttextsalmost in full.
Mommsen's Historyhad filledhim, Bachofen declared in a letterto
Meyer-Ochsner,"with rage and deep revulsion."
bookseveraltimes,veryattentively,
and I can say
Up to nowI havereadthefirst
sineireet studiothatthereare no wordsto characterize
withabsoluteconviction
It is a dutyto protestpubliclyagainstsuch
theauthor'strulyvillainousinfamy.
thatsucha miserable
a book.It is a markof thiscentury's
production
ignominy
couldactuallywin an awardand be acclaimedas a significant
accomplishment.
I havetoovercome
but,as I said,I regarditas a dutytoprotest.
a genuinedisgust,
I do nothopetoconvinceortoconvert.
Butat leastitshouldnotbe possiblelater,
itsgoodsense,tosaythatourage had sunkso deep
whenhumanity
has recovered
thatitdid notevenentera protest.
ofRome"is mynew task.I wantto exposethe
So "Mommsenand theHistory
entiremethodand procedure
ofthisso-calledhistorian
and toportray
theshamein all its repulsivenakedness.It
less insolenceof a modern,mindlessBerliner
wouldlead me toofar,wereI toelaboratemycomments
toyounow.Ifyouread
forinstance,
thechapteron theEtruscans,
you willgetan idea of theboundless
and at timesone
geniusoftheman.Buteachchapterincreasesone'sindignation,
wondersifone is dealingwitha personwho is in hisrightmind.The reduction
ofRometo theclichesofthemostinsipidPrussiansalonliberalism
is particularly
All thejargonof thedemagoguecropsup as earlyas theage of the
nauseating.
is embracedby themostmiserable
conceptsand comkings,so thateverything
pletelystoodon itshead.The onlymovingforceofancientlife,itseems,is trade
and traffic.
You constantly
read of importsand exports,the balanceof trade,
freeports,navigation
as ifthese
acts,factories,
emporia,
speculation,
competition,
indeedtheonlypointofviewfromwhichthelivesofpeoples
providetheprincipal,
can be considered
and judged.Indeed,this"practicalpointof view" is carried
thereis talkof the"clear-minded
overintoreligion:
oftheRomans,
rationalism"
48 He appears to have been on Mommsen's list, for in 1850 he mentionsreceivinga
courtesycopy of Mommsen's book on Roman coinage (C 63).
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
and love. That is the proper way forlaw to be "natural." Only respect
for the past, for nature,for the Mothers,in short,will provide a solid
foundationfor the rule of law. In another text,in which he compared
Rome betweenthetimeof theGracchiand Augustus-Mommsen's Rome,
in otherwords-to modernFrance,Bachofendeplored a governmentin
which "thereis no mediation,but that which obstructsis always immediately annihilated [and] there is always a class that rules-today the
noblesse, tomorrowthe bourgeoisie,then le peuple, never all together,
never each in its own sphere" ("Bemerkungenzu Livius," GW1: 65-70).
The positionexpressedin both these passages is manifestlypolitically
conservative.(The essay fromwhich the firstpassage is takenwas in fact
writtenon the morrowof the defeatof the Sonderbund,
and the drafting
of a new Federal Constitutionin 1848). Bachofen'sargumentagainstabsolutismand in favorof pluralismis essentiallyreligious.Humanity,he
maintains,embracesthe past as well as the present,the dead as well as
the living,the vanquished as well as the victorious,the weak as well as
the strong,the peripheryas well as the center.In timeit extendsfarinto
thepast and the future,and in space it embracesfarmorethan Berlinand
Prussia,or even Greece and Europe. It is characteristic
of Bachofenthat
the historythat interestedhim most was the most remote,and that his
attentionextended outward fromGreece and Rome to the Orient,and
ultimatelyto the Africaand North America of travelers,explorers,and
ethnologists.Humanity,in sum, is not just presenthumanityor western
European humanity.The past does not existforthe sake of the present
in it.For Bachofen,at least as much as forhis teacher
or finditsfulfillment
Ranke, "JedeEpoche ist unmittelbarzu Gott." In the same way, the historiesof the various German communitiesare not fulfilledin Bismarck's
PrussianReich.
In the end, Bachofensituatedthe profaneworld,the world of human
historyand human society,between two portals throughwhich none
could pass: a transcendentoriginto which therewas no returnbut with
which communicationhad to be maintainedif men were not to cease to
be human, and a transcendentend beyond history,which it was not
possible to know, impious to anticipate,but equally imperativenever to
lose fromview. His historicalvision is not of inevitableprogressbut of
a fluctuating
existence,now more,now less effectively
shaped and determinedby transcendentalvalues. To be rebornto a vita nuovaof the spirit
is man's properdestinyand he muststrivenot only to meritit in his own
lifebut to promotehistoricalconditionsfavorableto the pursuitof the life
of the spiritin general.The realm of the solar, of pure spiritcan only be
approached in history,however; it cannot be actualized. Moreover,constantapproximationto it is not the inevitablemovementof history.Moments of achievementmay be followed by a fallingaway, momentsof
decline by a revival,and thereis no time,in historyas in individuallife,
when itis not necessaryto strugglein orderto achieve the closestpossible
approximationto the good, and to be vigilantin defendingwhat has been
achieved againstthethreatofdecadence. Bachofen'sview ofhistoryseems
38
39
districtsfromthe cityand divided the old city-stateinto the two autonomous cantonsof Basel-Stadtand Baselland. Resolutelyignoringthemodernizationthat had occurredsince then and that had in factbeen acceleratedin some respectsby the divisionof the canton,Bachofenchose at
timesnot to see Basle as the moderatelyprosperousindustrialand commercialcitywhichithad become and fromwhichhe himselfwas inwardly
estranged,but to transformit into a symbolof the world that had been
lost. Lookingout fromhis defeated,amputated,nativecity,withitsstruggling institutionsof learning and its memories of past glory,6'toward
Berlin,the brash,rich,new centerof German power and German scholarship,he associatedin his mind's eye the citywhich had given him birth
and guided his firststeps in the studyof antiquity,as it had once guided
all Europe,withthosefiguresof the defeated-the Demetrianmother,the
erstwhilemistressand teacherof men, and the Amazonian heroine,conquered and shorn of her glory-who are the heroines of his principal
work. It is easy to see how Mommsen,the Caesar of Berlin,always associated in his writingwith boots, pipes, cigars,and other emblems of
male power, could come to serve forhim as the figureof the violatorand
thetyrant.He is armedwiththestylusof thehistorian,Bachofenobserves,
but is unworthyto use it (C 144, 1862), since he wields it like a bludgeon
to coerce the past, ratherthan tenderlyand with understandingto serve
it. In the Mutterrecht,
in contrast,the phallus veneratedby the Mothers
is thatof theirsons-their champions,servants,and heroes (GW 2: 159).
Not surprisingly,
Bachofen in one of his letterscontraststhe humanist
scholarsof the sixteenthcentury-the period of Basle's eminence-with
the modernPrussian"pygmies."The greatage of his native citybecomes
one withthe greatage of the Mothersas he lamentsitspassing and pours
scornon what has succeeded. "That heroicage is reallypast," he writes.
"Yet we can console ourselves.We now have railwaysand Prussiancriticism" (C 132, 1861).62
The increasingacrimonyof Bachofen's attacks on both Prussia and
Mommsen after1860 seems closely related to his indignationat the aggressivepolicies of Bismarck.As earlyas 1856-1857 Prussia had offended
Swiss of almosteverypoliticalconvictionwhen it triedto bullythe fledgling Confederationinto acceptingFrederickWilliam IV's claims to Neuchatel by mobilizingforwar. Subsequently,duringthe period of intense
Austro-Prussianrivalryfor leadership of the erstwhileReich between
61There are frequentallusions in Bachofen'scorrespondenceto the difficulty
of attracting
distinguishedor promisingscholarsto the Universityof Basle, in partbecause the citycould
affordto pay only modest salaries. In his earlyyears he supportedplans to make the uniin German-speakingSwitzerland-into a federaluniversity
versity-thentheonlyuniversity
or Swiss national university.The subsequent evolution of Swiss politicstransformedhim
intoa championoflocal autonomy.The Basle patriciatewas extremely
proudofitsuniversity,
and thoughBachofen'sactual teachingcareerwas short,he remainedkeenlyinterestedin
the fortunesof the university.(See note 23 above).
62 Cf. the even more bitterremarkin C 278, 1870: "L'epoque du droitde mere me parait
. . .un age d'or a c6te du siele des chassepots."
40
about 1860 and the outbreakof war in 1866, sentimentin many of the
Germanlands ran against Prussia.63Outside Prussia itself,many liberals
as well as conservativesrejected the Prussianizationof Germany as a
solutionto the problemof Germanunity.Bachofenwas by no means out
of line in supportingthe congress of German sovereignsat Frankfurt,
which Austria,under the liberalleadershipof Schmerling,had called in
1863, and which Prussia boycotted(C 166, 1863). By 1866 Bachofenwas
so incensed by Bismarck'sarroganceand by the Austro-Prussianwar in
particularthathe refusedto attenda scholarlymeetingin Prussia. "I find
I have a deep innerrevulsionagainst Prussia," he wrote,"which makes
thesocietyand even thesightof thatrobber-nation
extremely
unpleasant"
(C 225, 1866). AftertheFranco-Prussianwar-though no admirerofeither
Franceor Napoleon III, whom he despised as the despot thatthe corrupt
and materialistFrenchdemosdeserved-he refusedto read the German
newspapersany more (C 283).
Thoughit was exacerbatedby his growingindignationat contemporary
events in Europe, Bachofen's hostilityto the view of ancient historyhe
associated with Mommsen was consistentwith the positionshe himself
had upheld since earlyin his career.In the struggleagainstMommsenhe
was simplyled to definethese more sharply.Since the mid-1840she had
of
rejectedthe aggressivenessand suspicion he consideredcharacteristic
modern criticalapproaches to texts,maintainingthat the lattermust be
addressed trustingly
and with respectif they were to respond to the inadvances and yieldtheirsecrets.True historicalunderstanding,
terpreter's
he had consistentlyheld, does not mean appropriatingthe otherto the
self,modernizingthe past and readingit withthe eyes of the present,but
losingthe selfforthe sake of the other,alienatingoneselffromone's own
presentand going out to reach the othernessof the past. To the deeply
religiousBachofen,historicalunderstandingwas akin to conversion.Like
Winckelmann,and all thegreatRomanticphilologists,moreover,Bachofen
had always seen bookishness and pedantic eruditionas barriersto the
livingrealityof the past. Especiallysince his firstjourneyto Italyhe had
been convincedof the value of the immediateexperience,short-circuiting
words, that is vouchsafed by directcontact with the actual relics and
landscapesofthepast. He had likewisealways denouncedthefragmented,
atomistic,aggregativeconceptionof knowledge implied by the practice
of old-stylegrammaticaland purelytextualphilology,claimingthat the
properaim and onlyworthyobjectofphilologywas comprehensiveinsight
into a culturalwhole. Finally,he had always opposed mechanisticideas
about the practiceof historicalresearch;these could only lead, according
to him, to the mere productionand accumulationof information,
not to
and to thecreationofa race ofscholar-bureaucrats
genuineunderstanding,
eagerlycompilingmore and more facts. His own ideal was always the
63 See GeoffreyBarraclough,
(Oxford:BasilBlackwell,1946),
TheOriginsofModernGermany
413, 420.
41
Bachofendefinedthestancehe expectedthescholarseekingto
Let us follow
systems.
truthby brilliant
Let us notbe deceivedabouthistorical
has produced,the
of thatwhichhistory
and investigation
. . .The observation
and
on whichall trueknowledge
studyofthepastis thegreatprinciple
empirical
1:
18).
rest
all progress (GW
APHILOLOGICAL HISTORIOGRAPHY
43
44
APHILOLOGICAL HISTORIOGRAPHY
45
46
Excursion
in Asia Minor,1838),GiuseppeMicali(Monumenti
ineditia illustrazione
dellastoriadegliantichipopoliitaliani,1844),GeorgeDennis
APHILOLOGICAL HISTORIOGRAPHY
47
48
APHILOLOGICAL HISTORIOGRAPHY
49
50
forhimself(SB 39).
Bachofen's distrust of books and words-which is in essence a devaluation of the sign in favor of the living idea of which the sign is held to
be the inert and lifeless image-is a persistent feature of western thought,
notably of the Platonic and Christian traditions in which both he and his
teachers were steeped.8' The reference to Plato is explicit in the letters to
Savigny. In the autobiographical letter of September 1854, he declares
that he is convinced of the truth of the Platonic view that "even the best
written works are always only like silent pictures of which one has a
thousand questions to ask, with no hope of ever receiving an answer"
(SB 21). He does not like books, he repeats in another letter,and reproduces
the objections outlined in Plato's seventh Letter-the deformation of the
writer's meaning, which the writtentext is powerless to prevent, the coldness and alienation that take the place of original human contact, the
vulgarization that replaces the intimacy and directness of communication
among a privileged, like-minded few.
I shrinkfromthe generalscholarlypublic withits coldness and disinterestedness.
I do not like it. How rarelyit happens that words are understoodas they were
image arises
intendedin the mind of the writer.In most cases a totallydifferent
in the reader'ssoul fromthatenvisagedby the composerof it. And as thisimage
is completelydumb, cannot answer questions,explain its origin,resolve doubts,
APHILOLOGICAL HISTORIOGRAPHY
51
I simplydo notpermit
itto entertheworld.Truedelightand genuinesatisfaction
in whichone sparklightsup
come onlyfroman immediatespiritualrapport,
another,everyonebothgivesand receivesback,and thesprouting
and growth
oftheseedcanbe observedbyall. Sincethediscovery
ofprinting
thisdelighthas
becomerathertheexception
dwindledconsiderably,
thantherule,and falleninto
neglect.Forthebookhas communicated
itscharacter
to oraldiscourse
too.Whereverthepresent-day
scholarappears-in universities,
academies,or learnedsomeas anything
cieties-hehas neverstruck
buta bookreadingitself.
A bookthat
is delivered
up to thepublicis likea coinI havespent.I am thepoorerforit,and
notindeedby theloss of partof mywealth-thatcan be madeup-but by the
loss ofpartofmyself
(C 82, 1855).
Bachofen'sattitudeis not only nourishedon his own familiarity
with
traditionalPlatonic and Christianideas, it reflects,as we shall see again
laterin more detail,the positionof his teachersand masters,of Bockh at
Berlinor of Creuzer, Bockh's friend,protectorand formercolleague at
Heidelberg.In the sometimesacrimoniousdebate,in the earlydecades of
the century,between the school of Wolf and his pupil Bockh on the one
hand, and thatof Gottfried
Hermann,professorat Leipzigfrom1803 until
1848, and his studentChristianLobeck,professorat K6nigsbergfrom1840
to 1860, on theother,Hermannand his students,whose linguisticmastery
of Greek and Latin was legendary,denigratedthe low level of language
competenceand the primitivenatureof the textualcriticismpracticedin
the seminarsof Wolf and Bockh, while the latterand theirfriendsand
studentsdespised the narrownessof theiropponents' textualscholarship
and the presumptuousnessof theiremendationsand conjectures.In the
correspondenceof Bockh,Muller,and Welcker,"sachsischtrivial"became
a bywordforthe traditionalphilology,focusingexclusivelyon words and
books, that was supposedly practicedby Hermann and his school and
that stood opposed to the more comprehensive,historicallyorientedAlor generalstudyof antiquity,championedby Wolf.82
tertumswissenschaft,
The definitionof philologygiven year afteryear in Bockh's lecturesascribedto it an even vasterscope. In Bockh's eyes philologywas no longer
to be restricted
even to antiquity;itwas thehuman science,par excellence,
to borrowa modernterm,and its goal was the studyand understanding
of the entirerealm of human experienceas expressedin the productsof
or worksof art-"Erkenntnis
human culture,whetherbooks, institutions
des Erkannten,"in Bockh's own lapidaryphrase.83The aim of Bockh and
his school was to go behind the word to the "innerlife" thatit attempted
to convey.84
82
Hoffmann,August
Bockh,164, 220; Bravo,Philologie,85-86 et passim; FriedrichPaulsen,
Geschichte
desgelehrten
Unterrichts
aufdendeutschen
SchulenundUniversitaiten
(Leipzig:Veit,
1885), 546, 638-42; A. Bernardiniand G. Righi,II Concettodi filologiae di culturaclassica
nel pensieromoderno(Bari: Laterza, 1947), 459-67.
83 AugustBockh, Encyklopadie
undMethodologie
derphilologischen
ed. Ernst
Wissenschaften,
Bratuschek(Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1877), 18.
84 Cf. C. 0. Muller, Prolegomenazu einer wissenschaftlicher
Mythologie(Gottingen:
Vandenhoekund Ruprecht,1825): "Kann man blosse Zusammenhaufungvon Faktennoch
52
85 Cf. M 10, 13; C 18, 1851: "obscurato coelo et luce occulta"; there are innumerable
referencesin the Correspondenceto the smoke-filledrooms and the "Rauchclubbiste"of
Berlin.
APHILOLOGICAL HISTORIOGRAPHY
53
54
APHILOLOGICAL HISTORIOGRAPHY
55
56
privatefundsand privateactivity
of all sorts.Onlythenwillit be possibleto
realizetheideal of whichI have spokenand to eradicatetheliterary
proletariat
withall itsevilconsequences
(M 8).
Professionalcriticismis withoutvalue because it can be impartedmechanicallyto large numbersand to a uniformstandard,and requiresa
bureaucraticsalaried professorate,for whom education and scholarship
are not a deeply-experienced,personal vocation but a business and a
career.Both mass education and vast co-operativescholarlyenterprises,
such as Mommsen'scelebratedCorpusInscriptionum
Latinarum,
forwhich
Bachofennever let slip an opportunityof expressinghis contempt,were
at odds with an essentiallyreligiousview of scholarshipas a prophetic
vocationor at least a high priesthoodof the elect. "It is not the man who
has chosen his studies," he once remarkedof the Duc de Luynes, "but
they that have chosen him" (SB 29), and in the remarkableeulogy of
Streuber:
In thedecisivemoments
ofourliveswe seldomfreely
determine
ourownactions.
Whatappearstobe ourworkhas itsultimate
originin a higherdesign.We believe
we chooseourvocation,butin factwe are chosenby it. Thereinlies itshigher
thereinthe sourceof the joy withwhichwe carryit out and the
justification,
blessingthatitbringsto us (WTSvi-vii).
Toward theend ofhis lifeBachofentoldJosefKohlerthathe felthimself
a hermit-one cannot help recallingBurckhardt'ssympatheticportrayal
of the early Christianhermitsin Die Zeit Konstantins
des Grossen(1853)
and, thoughBachofenused the term"Einsiedler,"one is also reminded
of the subtitleof H6lderlin'sHyperion:"Der Eremitin Griechenland"and thathe was convincedneitherhis ideas northekindofanthropological
evidence he was collectingforthemwould be accepted by the academic
establishmentof his time.But it is unlikelythathis isolationever led him
to question his position; on the contrary,it seems, as in the case of an
earlierSwiss Jean-Jacques,
to have been interpretedby him as a sign of
the rightnessof his cause. In the religiouscontextwhich appears to have
been that of nearly all Bachofen's thoughtand experience,persecution
and martyrdomare confirmation
of the purityof faith.
Afterhis resignationfromthe universityin 1844 Bachofenceased, as
we have already observed,to regardhis vocation as that of teacherand
educator of the youth of his city,and saw himselfratheras a lonely
witnessto the truthin a fallenworld,in which a small numberat best,
if it were the will of Providence,mightheed his words. Increasingly,as
he felthimselfbecoming more and more eccentricwith respect to the
interestsand activitiesof academic philologists,he sought to associate
himselfwith othermarginalfiguresand to discernin themfellow spirits
possessed by the same vision of truthor responding,as if throughthe
of divine grace,to his call.
intervention
der Alten (1859) to
He dedicated his Versuchuiberdie Griabersymbolik
Ludwig Ross, who shared his isolation and exclusion fromthe contem-
APHILOLOGICAL HISTORIOGRAPHY
57
B
5
achofen'sopposition
totheacademicscholarship
thathad gradually
88
58
59
60
61
62
Zeitschrift,
108, 1912:
93 H. Kantorowicz,"Volksgeistund historischeSchule," Historische
313-19.
94 Mazzacane, Savignye la storiografica
giuridica,29.
f.d. Dogmatikdesheutigenrdmischen
95 "Die schopferische
KraftderJurisprudenz,"
Jahrbuch
unddeutschen
Privatrechts,
25 (1887): 263, quoted by Mazzacane, 35. See also the interesting
of Roman law in lettersto Bachofen
discussionof the historicaland the systematictreatment
withwhom Bachofenhad become
fromthe distinguishedlegal scholarRudolfvon Jhering,
friendlyduringJhering'stenureof a chair in law at the Universityof Basle: "Unbekannte
fur
BriefeR. von Jheringsaus seinerFruhzeit,1846-1852," ed. AlbertBruckner,Zeitschrift
schweizerisches
Recht,neue Folge,53 (1934): 34-71, especiallythe long letterof 26 Oct. 1852.
63
64
Nietzche," 226-27.
65
On the whole, thisargumentis convincing.As has been shown, Bachofenacceptedman's conditionof alienationin historywitha kindof pious
resignationand, rightlyor wrongly,consideredthatall attemptsto break
out of it,to live the divine lifewhich was the object of his longing,in the
world, were not only doomed to fail but certainto produce monstrous
consequences. The ideal we love, if we tryto realize it will turninto a
dehumanizinghorror.The beauty of primitivecommunismis irrecoverable. What men will get if theytryto recoverit is a new bestiality.The
taboo on contactwith the Mothergoddess, in short,may not be lifted.
At the same time,contemplationof the ideal was not simplyforBachofen,as Baeumlerimplies,a formof estheticism,a bourgeoisindulgence.
It was also, to a greaterextentperhaps in Bachofen'scase than in thatof
Burckhardt,
againstwhom a similaraccusationhas been leveled,a catalyst
of moral protestand a guide to conduct.To be a ChristianforBachofen
seems not to have been a passively received,secure,historicalcondition
fromwhich the wild joys and ecstasies of paganism could be safelycontemplatedwithpleasure,but a constantlyrenewed dedication,a struggle
and engagementofthewhole being.As a studentat theBasle Padagogium,
Bachofenhad been introducedto Pascal by his FrenchteacherAlexandre
Vinet,probablythe leading Pascal scholar of the nineteenthcenturyand
himselfa latter-dayPascal who refusedtheeasy compromisesoftheliberal
theologyof his time.102(As a ministerof the ReformedChurch, Vinet
foughtto bring about the separation of church and state in his native
cantonof Vaud). In general,Pascal appears to have been read attentively
at Basle-in contrastwith Germanywhere, according to Nietzsche, he
was hardlyknown-and to have served as a counterpoiseboth to Pietist
and to the bland optimismof liberals,such as Mommsen's
sentimentalism
friend,the BerlintheologianAdolf Harnack,whose chiefaim was to acto modernscience,modernphilosophy,and modcommodateChristianity
ernbourgeoismorality.To FranzOverbeck,forinstance,themutualfriend
of Nietzscheand Bachofenand a professorof theologyat Basle, the liberal
theologiansof Berlinwere a kind of latter-dayJesuits,against whom the
It may thereforehave
austerefaithof Pascal was a valuable astringent.103
been in a farmore strenuousChristianspiritthan Baeumlersuggeststhat
Bachofenreflectedon the divine world of originsand on the nature of
the redemptionin which he apparentlybelieved. It is hard to imagine,
given the religiousintensityof his vision of antiquity,that it simplycoit nor affectedby
existed alongside his Christianfaith,neitheraffecting
both implicitand explicit,to rememberthe
it. The repeatedexhortations,
rightsof the Mothers and to use paternal power with compassion and
fiihlt,ist er imstande,auch den Symbolengerechtzu werden,die geschichtlichuberwunden
337).
worden sind" ("Bachofen und die Religionsgeschichte,"
828-29, n. 70. On Alexandre
note in Gelzer,"Die Bachofen-Briefe,"
102 See the important
347-54.
Vinet,see Kaegi, JacobBurckhardt,
Theozurmodernen
103 Franz Overbeck,Christentum
undKultur:GedankenundAnmerkungen
logie . . . Aus dem Nachlass herausgegeben von Carl AlbrechtBernoulli(Basle: Benno
Schwabe, 1919), 125.
66
67
68
69
70
71
119Hegel, Enzyklopddie
der philosophischen
im Grundrisse,
Wissenschaften
3, ii, c. -y,para.
549, ed. Nicolin and Poggeler(Hamburg: Felix Meiner Verlag, 1959), 426-27; Vorlesungen,
1, ed. Hoffmeister
(Hamburg:FelixMeinerVerlag,1955): 20-21, 30-32; 3, ed. Lasson (Hamburg Felix MeinerVerlag, 1968): 663.
120 Vorlesungen,
3: 663.
121
1: 20--21.Bachofen'sobjectionswere identical:"Wer kuhn sein Schiffauf
Vorlesungen,
die hohe See hinaussteuert,der kann auf Beifallzahlen. Die Zeitgenossenpreisen ihn als
historischesGenie. Wie verachtlicherscheintihm gegenuiberder furchtsameSchiffsmann,
der, stets behutsam dem Ufer entlang segelnd, das Festland nie aus den Augen verliert
. . .Neues und Pikantesist dem leckernGaumen unsererZeit am erwunschtesten. . . Zu
welcherHohe steigtdas Bewusstseindes Gelehrten,der uiberdie grossenGeschichtschreiber
und Staatsmannerder altenZeit zu Gerichtsitztund ihnenihreIrrtumer,
Missverstandnisse,
Verkehrtheiten,
ja selbst die Quellen derselbennachzuweisen vermag" (GW 1: 449-50).
122 Hegel, Enzyklopadie,
427.
72
thehistorian
mustbringreasontohistory.
Buttorecognize
thegeneral,
therational,
one will
. . . Ifone goesouttowardtheworldonlywithone's own subjectivity,
betterand
findit to be as one is madeoneself;one willalwaysknoweverything
alwayssee how thingsoughtto have been or to have happened.The essential
content
ofworldhistory,
however,is rationaland mustbe rational;a divinewill
thatitdoes notdetermine
theessential
rulesin theworldand is notso impotent
content.
To discoverand learnto knowthissubstantial
elementmustbe ourgoal;
and toknowitone mustbringwithone theconsciousness
ofReason(Vernunft)(Verstand),buttheeye
nottheeyesof thebody,notthelimitedUnderstanding
of theIdea,theeyeof Reason,whichpiercesthesurface.
Certainphilologistsobject that thisis an a prioriprocedure,but such an
objectioncannot be admittedby philosophy.The substantialelementin
historycan only be recognizedif it is approached with Reason.
forthesedistort
One mustnotapproachitwithone-sidedreflections,
and
history,
ariseout of falsesubjective
views.Philosophyhas nothingto do withthem.In
willbe confident
thatevents
theassurancethatReasonruleshistory,
philosophy
thetruth,
as it is thefashionto
followtheorderof theIdea and willnotdistort
acumen
who withtheirso-calledcritical
do today,especiallyamongphilologists
introduce
purea priorinotionsintohistory.123
Niebuhris designatedby name in a note.
claim thathe was not much impressed
Bachofen'smoderninterpreters
it seems
by Hegel. That may be. Fromwhat we know of his own thinking,
in
enthusiastic
Berlin
he
found
years
quite likelythat his optimisticand
than
intuitive
more
insight,
congenial
Hegel's
Schelling'sAnschauung,or
austereVernunft,or Reason, as the ground on which knowledge rested.
He himselfadmits,moreover,that he was attractedto Schelling,even
though,like his teacherBbckh,he also says thathe was fearfulof losing
his way in the all-engulfing
nightof Schelling'smetaphysicsand feltthe
need to emphasize his own commitmentto empiricalinvestigation.124
Nevertheless,it was an essentially"speculative" conceptionof knowledge-a conceptionsharedby Hegel and Schelling-that he opposed both
to the modernizingtendencieshe consideredsuperficialand to the piecemeal, positivisttendenciesof those he referredto disdainfullyas the "literaryproletariat."In addition,in Bockh's lectures,which we know Bachofen attended and studied carefully,the elaborationof the nature and
objectof philologicalinquiryclearlybears thestampofHegelian influence.
It may thereforehave been indirectly,
throughBbckh,thatBachofenfelt
the effectof Hegelianism.
The aim of philology,accordingto Bockh,is "Erkenntnisdes vom mend.h. des Erkannten"("knowledgeofwhatever
schlichenGeistproducirten,
1: 30-32.
Vorlesungen,
know fullwell what dangersbeset me at this time. I mighthave strayedinto metaphysicalbypathsand lostsightof myrightroad forever.And the long circlingabout might
have led to phantasmsof the Huschke variety.I thankthe Lord thatmy soul is too sound
forthatsortof thing"("Autobiography,"M 14-16). The allusion is to a professorof Roman
law at Breslauwho was stronglyinfluencedby Schelling.
123
124 "I
73
74
a toutesles epoques,dansles
maisqui se retrouve
futpropreaux tempsprimitifs,
de
la
conscience
humaine.127
profondeurs
It is not surprisingthereforethatBockh himselfentertainedmisgivings
derAthener(1817)
about Niebuhr.Afterdedicatinghis Staatshaushaltung
to Niebuhr,Bockh conceded in the bibliographicalsection of his EncyklopadiethatNiebuhr "went too farin his criticismof sources and substitutedfictionsof his own forthe mythicalinventionsof the Romans. Hegel
is not altogetherwrong in protestingthat his methods are often arbiC. 0. Miller anticipated another of Bachofen's reservations
trary."1128
when in 1833, three years afterNiebuhr's death, he turned down an
invitationto continueand completethe RomischeGeschichte."The directionof myinterests,"he declared,"is moreand moretowardthe spiritual
towardthe nerlifeof antiquity,in language,religion,art,and literature,
vous systemof this organism,so to speak, and not the musculatureand
the bone structureof externalevents,with which historyis already too
much concerned." Two years earlier,he had welcomed Welcker's apMuseumon the groundthat
pointmentto the editorshipof theRheinisches
the journal "will now have a warmerfeelingforthe totalityof the study
of antiquitythan it did under Niebuhr."-129
Bachofen'soppositionto Niebuhrand to the criticalmethodin general,
howeverQuixoticit may appear in the contextof the reigningpositivism
of the laternineteenthcentury,was not, in short,an obstinatepigheadedness or stupidity;it was rootedin a fundamentalphilosophicalposition
thatwas absolutelyopposed to positivismand in the general orientation
of his interestsand of his conceptionof what philologyshould be. It is
in this connection,that he thoughtvery well of
entirelycharacteristic,
Herodotus,who did not enjoy a good pressamong thecriticalphilologists,
but whom Creuzer, at the very beginningof his career,had defended
as an earliertypeof historianthan Thucydidesand as faithenergetically
the world as his contemporariessaw and experiencedit.
fullyreflecting
The Greek people loved Herodotus, Creuzer had written,and found in
wahr,getreu
his worka nationalhistorywhichwas "nach seinenBegriffen,
und wiirdig."-130It was in this same spiritthat Bachofentriedto defend
127 "Notice historiquesur la vie et les travauxde Georges-Frederic
Creuzer,"Memoiresde
25, pt. 1 (1877): 342.
l'InstitutNationalde France:Academiedes Inscriptions,
128 Bockh,Encyklopa'die,
349. Likewisehis commentto C. 0. Muller that"Der neue Band
August
der RomischenGeschichtescheintmirviel Hypothetischeszu enthalten"(Hoffmann,
227, n. 3). Niebuhr'soppositionto Welckeras a memberof the editorialboard of the
BoYckh,
Museumled to an estrangementof Bockh fromNiebuhr toward the end of the
Rheinisches
latter'slife.On the otherhand, strikinga moderatepose, Bockh rejectedthe Geschichteder
Romerof Gerlach and Bachofenfirmlyas "eine unkritischeVerteidigungder altestenUber349).
lieferung"(EncyklopaYdie,
129 Muller,Briefwechsel,
ed. Kern,207, letterto C. F. Elvers,26 Sept. 1833. See also Bravo,
Philologie,107, 122.
Versucheinernayheren
Wardigungeinigerihrer
130 G. C. Creuzer,Herodotund Thucydides:
schreibenmasse,'
aufLuciansSchriftWie manGeschichte
mitRuicksicht
GrundsaYtze
historischen
(Leipzig und Marburg:Neue akademischeBuchhandlung,1803), 114.
75
76
found the model for both in Winckelmannhimself.In his richlydocumentedand illuminatingintroductionto Bachofen,Der Mythusvon Orient
undOccident,Baeumleremphasizes the romantic,religiousstrainin Bachofen and contrastsit with the esthetic,neoclassical attitudeof Winckelmann. Bachofen himself,however, as we saw, made no secret of the
profoundinfluencehis readingof Winckelmannhad on him; and he was
by no means insensitiveto the beauty of classical works of art. On the
contrary,he believed that antiquityspoke directlyto the heart through
its artand thata properunderstandingof it requiredthe collaborationof
theheartand theunderstanding(M 10). He even ventureda mildcriticism
of C. 0. Muller on the ground that he was less open than a classical
scholar must be to the beauty of the art of the ancients(SB 28). On the
itself
otherhand, he praisedWinckelmann'sHistoryofArtformanifesting
the kind of beautyWinckelmannadmiredin the ancients.It had, he said,
the charm "der antiken edeln, nicht der modernen tanzmeisterartigen
Grazie" (SB 29). In Winckelmann'smind the ideal of "edle Einfaltund
stilleGrosse," which he foundrealized in antiquity,stood opposed to the
the "pedantry,"theexhibitionof learningand erumanneredaffectation,
of the derivativeand oftenparodistic
ditionwhichhe saw as characteristic
rococo art of his own time:the Greeks in theirbest period, he claimed,
showed no interestin appearing learned-that is, in showing that they
knew what othersknew-but appreciatedonly the unaffectedexpression
of nature:"There was one vanityfewerin the world then,the vanityof
knowingmanybooks." For thisreason Winckelmannturnedhis attention
to pre-AlexandrianGreekart,conceivedas a culturefreeof eruditionand
close to nature.135
The pedagogical function,which Winckelmannascribed to the study
of Greek art,and men as varied as Herder,Humboldt,Ast, Hegel, and
Bachofen'sown teachersGerlach and Bbckhto the studyof antiquityin
general,is well known.136Winckelmannhimselfdescribed his own encounterwith the works of classical art in Rome in termsof a shattering
To the genexperience,by which his whole being was transformed.137
erationof Humboldt the studyof antiquitywas no narrow technicalor
scholarlyexercise:it was conceived as an essentialstage in the education
and reconstructionof the
of German youth and in the transformation
Philologie einen hoheren Zweck; er liegt in der historischenConstructiondes ganzen Erkennens und seiner Theile . . ." (14).
77
138
139
78
141 Hyperion,
Book I, HolderlinsWerke,ed. ManfredSchneider,4 vols. (Stuttgart:Walter
Hadecke Verlag,1922). 1: 70.
79
80
81
eingreifendeBeschaftigungen
zersplitterte
Lage," in thewords of Wilhelm
von Humboldt."44This release, this returnto originsis accompanied by
"a sense of discovery"(M 12). The successfulpilgrimfindsthat all the
barriershave fallen,and that he stands in the presence of the dead, of
Spirit,of the Divine. "Nothing intervenesbetween them and us." The
smoke-filled
roomsvanish and are replacedby a worldsuffusedwithlight,
as the last obstaclesand enclosuresfall,those thatseparatelifeand death.
"The sun warmsand illuminatesthose restingplaces of the dead so wonderfully,and infusesthe abodes of horrorwith the magic of joyous life."
The dead letteris replaced by the livingwaters of life: "All these necropolises are situatedbeside streams.The lappingwatersseem to intonethe
eternalpraises of the dead" (M 12).
One of Bachofen'smost recentcommentatorsin German has demonstratedhow this ideal of immediacymarks the scholar's attitudeto his
own writing.All the artifactsBachofenstudied were forhim "keys that
open many locks" (M 16), windows on to "a highertruth,essentiallythe
onlyreal spiritualtruth,whichrisesabove all ephemeralthingsto an idea
that is manifestedin them" (Tanaquil, M 246). Everything,in the end,
whetherbooks, sculptedmonuments,or natureitself,was a sign of somethingbeyond it. "Alles Verganglicheist nur ein Gleichnis." Its function
was fulfilledonce it had set the viewer in the presence of the formative
Idea of which it was the sign. In itselfthe sign was but a "husk" (M 15).
This is the source of Bachofen'santi-estheticism-thoughwe should not
forgetthat thereare many passages in his writing,notablythe autobiographicalletterto Savigny,the GreekJourney,
and the descriptionof the
Roman campagna in the Geschichteder Romer, where his delightin the
beauty of classical objects and classical landscape is patent,and that,in
general,the Germanidealistsof the generationof Hegel and Schellingdid
not always findit easy to draw a line between an idealism that tended
to dissolveall mediationsin a vast pantheismand an idealismthatsought
to preservethemin theirconcretereality.Goethe's contrastof Winckelmann and Zoega, his scathingattackon those forwhom Betrachtung
has
given way to Deutungand ended in Deuteleien,his criticismof the flight
of certainspiritsinto "agyptischeund indische Fernen," are indications
of this tension.145
There seems littledoubt thatBachofenleaned toward Schellingrather
than Hegel, toward Zoega ratherthan Winckelmann.It is not surprising
thereforethathis own writingis markedby the difficulties
thatmediating
formspresentedto him. His greatscholarlyworks are partlymarred,as
literarytexts,by his failureto integratethe scholarlymaterialinto the
mainbody of the work.The scholarshipis piled up in cumbersomemasses
thatare illuminatedfromtime to timeby a beautifulrestatementof the
centraltheme.Were it not forthe introductions,
in which he undertakes
144
145
82
83
84
85
86
Hoffmann,
AugustBockh,53-54.
INDEX
Associationof German Philologists,Teachers and Orientalists,17, 22 n42, 25
Ast, Friedrich,43, 44, 76
88
INDEX
INDEX
69, 77, 82; associated by Bachofen with
Bismarck,31, 34, 39; influenceof, 21; reviews Bachofen's Lex Voconia and Geschichteder Rdmer,25-26; RdmischeGeschichte,1, 24, 26, 27-29, 30; seen as symbol by Bachofen,23-24, 27
Morgan,Lewis, 1, 22, 22 n42, 44, 57
Mothers,rule of, 1, 2, 30, 32-34, 39, 49
Muller,Carl Otfried,12, 23, 35, 41, 43 n66,
51, 60, 67, 70, 74, 75, 75 n133, 76, 80, 85
Mumford,Lewis, 2-3, 3 n7
Myth:and historyin Bachofen,55, 59 n90;
of, 67-68
symbolicinterpretation
National Socialism,6, 6 n14, 7, 7 n16
Neohumanism,44, 60; A. Baeumler's criticism of, 64; as pedagogical ideal, 76-79;
philosophical foundation of, 48-49, 48
n78; relationof philology to philosophy
in, 67-69. See also Classical antiquity;InPhilology
terpretation;
Niebuhr,BartholdGeorg,21, 25, 26, 27, 28,
42, 43, 43 n66, 57, 71, 74
Nietzsche,Friedrich,4-5, 5 nll, 6, 7 n16,
64-65, 67
Orientalism,22, 41, 43, 57, 80
Overbeck,Franz, 5 nll, 65
Pascal, Blaise, 65
and as
Philology: as Altertumswissenschaft
textualcriticism,51-52, 68-70; and law,
61-63; as means of individualand social
reform,76-79; and philosophy, 67-69;
of, 19, 31, 40-41, 55professionalization
57; as vocation, 19, 45-47, 56. See also
Classical antiquity;Interpretation;Neohumanism
Pietism,4, 65, 71, 82
Platonism,46 n75, 50, 50 n81, 51, 52, 71,
80-81, 82, 83
Plutarch,1 n2
Prussia, 27, 37, 39, 40, 41, 58, 77; seen by
Bachofen as representativeof modern
Machtstaat,2, 3, 31, 32
Ranke, Leopold von, 12, 13, 14, 37, 66
Raoul-Rochette,Desire, 22 n40
Reclus,Elie, 3 n7, 57
Reed, Evelyn,3 n8
Reich,Wilhelm,2 n5
Revolutionsof 1848, 13, 17, 25, 62
89
Museum,74
Rheinisches
Ritter,Carl, 12
Ross, Ludwig, 42-43, 43 n66, 56-57
56, 60, 82
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques,
Savigny,FriedrichCarl von, 12, 13, 14, 26,
34, 45, 46, 47, 50, 54, 55, 60, 61-61, 63
n97, 66, 67, 80, 82
Schelling,Friedrichvon, 68, 72, 73, 75, 77,
78, 80, 81
Schiller,Friedrichvon, 64, 78
Schlegel,Friedrich,38, 44
Friedrich,14, 43, 67, 70, 80
Schleiermacher,
Schmidt,Georg, 7 n15, 63 n98
Schopenhauer,Arthur,4
Schr6ter,Manfred,5 nll, 6, 7
Schuler,Alfred,5
Sonderbund
War, 14, 37
Speiser,Jacob,9
Stael, GermaineNecker,Mme de, 16
Streuber,WilhelmTheodor, 14, 14 n25, 46
n75, 56, 60, 77
Swiss Confederation,8, 13. See also Helvetic
War
Republic;Sonderbund
Tertullian,18 n30, 46, n75, 47
Thierry,Augustin,38
Thiersch,Friedrich,69
Thomson,George,2
Thucydides,74
Tocqueville,Alexis de, 8
Turel,Adrien,35 n56
Tylor,Sir Edward, 22
Vinet,Alexandre,49 n80, 65
Vogt,Carl, 29
Voss, JohannHeinrich,21, 43-44, 67
Weber,Max, 6
Welcker,Friedrich,20 n35, 41, 51, 67, 69,
74, 74 n128, 79, 85
Westermarck,
Edward, 1 nl
Winckelmann,JohannJoachim,21, 41, 44,
71, 76, 76 n135, 78, 79, 80, 81, 85
Wolf,FriedrichAugust,44, 51, 68, 80
Wolfskehl,Karl,5
Wunderlich,Agathon,14 n23
Zoega, Georg,5 nll, 44, 46, 78, 79, 81
13
Zofingerverein,