26. Herman Grimm On his seventieth birthday
We feel lucky to be able to live with certain people at the same time. If I were to name such people, one of the first would be Herman Grimm, who celebrates his seventieth birthday on January 6. He showed me directions of spiritual life that no one else could have shown me. Through him, I was introduced to a world of imagination that no one else could have introduced me to. I could only name two or three contemporary writers of whom I can say the same about him: from the first sentences of each of his books, each of his essays, I have a personal relationship with him. He is one of the writers for whom I have had the greatest sympathy since my youth. There are few people I respect as much as him when I have to disagree with them. With others, the contradiction we encounter blunts our love for them. Never with him. I have the feeling that everything he says comes from high places and must be accepted, even if we believe we have to disagree. I cannot speak of error to Herman Grimm.
Everything that Herman Grimm writes and speaks has the most personal character of his being. What he researches through diligent scholarly work, what he gains through the most careful observation, he expresses as a personal view, as a subjective opinion. He never writes a sentence that does not reflect his personality. He expresses personal experiences, whether he is talking about Goethe, Homer, Raphael, Michelangelo or Shakespeare. The personal experiences of a deeply and nobly feeling spirit.
A noble personality in the noblest sense of the word stands before my soul when I think of Herman Grimm. Every thing he touches takes on a peculiar meaning in his hands. One can look at it under the idea of nobility. The greatness that lies in nobility is peculiar to him. There are things that remain alien to him because they cannot be viewed from the perspective of nobility.
Strict researchers who insist on so-called objectivity are annoyed by Herman Grimm. One could hear very derogatory judgments in this direction when his book on Homer was published. I have a very special fondness for this book. A purely human interest captivates me to the work. Others write about Homer as the impersonal "method" demands. Herman Grimm writes as someone who enjoys Homer's works with artistic sensitivity must write. He thus brings their content much closer to us than any historical-philological method can do.
Herman Grimm's works on Michelangelo and Raphael show us these artists in a light in which we can only see them through him. His view will live on in the development of art history.
Herman Grimm is not interested in the breadth of historical development. The great personalities are the essential thing for him. The fact that Western culture has produced a Homer, Sophocles, Michelangelo, Raphael, Dante, Shakespeare and Goethe is what makes this culture valuable to him. What lies between these spirits should only be considered for their sake.
Although Herman Grimm opens up great historical perspectives for us, the historical approach has never obscured his feeling for the immediate present. He lives in the present, albeit in his own way. We hear his opinion on every significant contemporary issue with the greatest interest.
The image that Herman Grimm creates of Goethe is not to the liking of Goethe scholars. This is because he views every move, every utterance of Goethe with a personal interest. For him, Goethe's image is something that he regards as entirely subjective. The question of what Goethe is to me shines through all his remarks. He considers Goethe insofar as he is an element that effectively intervenes in his own life. He says things about Goethe that he feels he must say if Goethe is to be worthy of him. He does not say things that do not interest Herman Grimm, even if scholars believe that they are important for understanding Goethe. Herman Grimm's Goethe is not the "objective" Goethe, but we would not want to be without him as part of our intellectual life.
A few weeks ago, Herman Grimm gave us the third edition of a volume of novellas. All of Grimm's novellistic works have a beauty that speaks deeply to the heart. Whoever reads them feels in a characteristic way what culture is. One has the feeling that one is confronted with a personality who leads a stylish life.
The style of life seems to me to be an outstanding feature of Herman Grimm's personality. Everything he does in detail fits into a whole. Nothing stands out from the big picture that strikes us about him.
Our scientific way of looking at things is far removed from Herman Grimm. In many respects, it offends his personal sensibilities. His favorite object of contemplation is human nature as it is currently presented before our eyes and as it expresses itself in the works of imagination and reason. He is not interested in how this nature has developed organically from other forms. A natural feeling seems to give him better insight into the highest philosophical and religious questions than the scientific way of looking at things.
An expression of this way of looking at things is Herman Grimm's style. For him, every sentence springs from a personal impulse. He does not know the deduction of one sentence from another, the derivation of judgments from basic assumptions. In his progression from proposition to proposition, there are no starting points and results. Every assertion arises from a new experience. It is due to this peculiarity of his style that we believe we become richer in inner life content when reading his books.
He always gives us fresh, warm life: that's why we bring it to him.