# 139. Lex Heinze

The "J. G. Cottaschen Buchhandlung Nachfolger" has now published the "Three Speeches" in brochure form, which Hermann Sudermann gave against the "Lex Heinze". They are: 1st speech, held in the hall of the Berliner Handwerker-Verein on March 4, 1900. 2nd speech, held in the ballroom of the Berlin City Hall on March 25, 1900. 3rd speech, held at the first meeting of the Munich GoetheBund on April 8, 1900.

Some particularly important sentences from the second of the above speeches should be quoted here. "And because we must not tire of defending our positions, that is why we have invited you, gentlemen, here to this solemn place ... because we wanted ... consult with each other and tell our friends what is troubling us. We wanted to call out once again to the entire art-loving German world that we consider the unfortunate paragraphs of the Lex Heinze aimed at us to be an *unheard-of harassment* of our conscience, that we want to keep this conscience free and proud, and that it is not appropriate to create an artificial quagmire full of artificial sins in which the impartiality of our creativity must sink without salvation."

In the meeting in which these words were spoken, the "Goethe-Bund" was founded. The net proceeds from the sale of the brochure "Three speeches given by Hermann Sudermann" were earmarked for this association.