4. To Josef Köck (?), Oberlaa?

Dear faithful friend!

It was the night of January 10 to 11, when I did not sleep a wink. I had been up until ½1 a.m. MNits.¹ with various philosophical problems, and then I finally threw myself onto my bed. My ambition had always been² to investigate whether it was true what Schelling says: “We all possess a secret, wonderful ability to withdraw from the vicissitudes of time into our original self, stripped of everything that has been added from outside, and there, in the form of immutability, to contemplate the eternal within us.”³ I believed and still believe that I have clearly discovered this innermost faculty within myself – I had already sensed it for a long time –; the whole of idealistic philosophy now stands before me in a significantly modified form; what is a sleepless night compared to such a discovery! And the morning came – an icy cold one.... I quickly got ready for my journey⁴ and was ready to depart when I found a letter addressed to me;⁵ I quickly discovered from the address that it was from you. I was in the carriage and read by a pitiful lamp – – – it is impossible today to describe my feelings at that moment; I was beside myself – – – tremendously moved; what could I do to calm down – – – apparently nothing! All day long I was not the same person as the day before — naturally in a material sense, not formally — and in the evening, on my way home, a woman had to pay for it; I got into the train carriage — that is, my body did — to show you that such a thing is possible, I will insert a little anecdote here. Once I sat up late into the night with Jean Paul, I read and read immediately—the same thing had happened the day before—but I don't know what happened next, because I hadn't undressed or gone to bed, yet in the morning I found myself lying in bed, my books, clothes, etc. in their usual places—apparently everything had happened in a dream, and since I go to sleep every day in a very specific way, i.e., I put my books in a specific place, my clothes, etc., etc., this had now happened with the same precision in my dream—so I went about my business that day and went to the station and got into the carriage and sat down—unfortunately on a watch that a woman had left there and that was broken—she suffered the loss, not I; for I did not pay her anything; she should have put her watch somewhere else. In the evening, I wrote these lines, which are also enclosed with this letter⁶ - the next day to a friend⁷ - without further explanation - when he asked me the reason for my sadness: in the autograph book, the words at the top of the enclosed — Unfathomable Depth, etc.⁸ - Now it has been two days After considering the matter as a human being for two days, it is my duty to consider your nature as a philosopher, and I say to you quite frankly: You are the most incomprehensible of the incomprehensible to me. Above all, look into your innermost being and consider it your duty to explore whether your love relationship was completely free of selfishness—free to the utmost—for what you say about renunciation as an ignoble act, I confess openly that I do not understand, and even less why it would have been better if you had not renounced. If it was completely free of it, then, my good friend, you need nothing more, you have enough, you have Cyane⁹ Take her into your heart, where she will live on; her image is enough for you, and you can even share it with your friends; that is true love, where one is content with the image and does not need the flesh, indeed suppresses it. There is no sorrow, no grief. Tell that to your friend too—and now, friend, one more piece of advice: get Heine—the literary street urchin, the despiser of his fatherland, the distorter of feelings—completely out of your head.¹⁰ and read Goethe's Faust – there is nourishment there for every thinking and feeling person who aspires to more than the two times two is four of homespun everyday life. I thank God and good fortune that I met a man here in Vienna who, after Goethe himself, can claim to be the best expert on Faust, a man whom I hold in high esteem and revere as a teacher, as a scholar, as a poet,¹¹ as a human being. It is K. J. Schröer,¹² the son of Chr. Öser, who is so famous in Germany, and also partly here, through his poetry on the one hand, his world history for girls' schools, letters on the main subject of aesthetics to a young woman, etc., etc., etc. Take the name—it is a pseudonym—Chr. Öser¹³

Now, my friend, I tell you to study this work; I say this from the bottom of my heart, with the deepest and most sincere conviction. Drink from it the courage of a new life, of new strength, of new ideals, and, as Heinrich Heine concludes, do not let him drive you mad. I also know some beautiful things that Heine has written, but I am sorry that this was written by Heine. Look instead at the lovely, noble Müller,¹⁷ or Rückert or Uhland, these noble German hearts—Heine, the despiser of Germans, let him seek fame among the French, perhaps he will find favor there—where he has gone to ruin and sung frivolous songs that offend noble sensibilities. There he may believe that he is still regarded as a tribune alongside a poet in Germany, but here he is a street urchin who sometimes has witty ideas. Forgive me for speaking so harshly about your mistake in holding Heinrich Heine in such high esteem, but what would it mean if I said otherwise, than what I think is worthy of a noble soul toward a friend? I confess to you openly that it is my firm conviction that if Schiller had still been alive when Heine's songs were sung, he would have judged them in the same way. You have studied Plato, too! And probably his State as well!¹⁸ Study it again sometime; perhaps you will come to a different conclusion. What's the point of wanderlust? Just say it directly! Don't be a novel hero who doesn't know what he wants because the poet didn't know what he wanted either. It is characteristic of our time that young poets, when they write poetry [end of page. Rest missing.]

Source: Original (4 pp., double sheet), RSA; print: Br 1, pp. 63-67; GA 38 <1985>, pp. 13-16, reply to letter dated: before Jan. 11, 1881 (not available); addition: entry in autograph book dated Jan. 12, 1881 (not available)

People: Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling; Jean Paul; Cyane?; Heinrich Heine; Johann Wolfgang von Goethe; Karl Julius Schröer; bias Gottfried Schröer (Chr. Oeser); Johann Ludwig Wilhelm Müller; Friedrich Rückert; Ludwig Uhland; Friedrich Schiller; Plato

Literature: Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling: Philosophical Letters on Dogmatism and Criticism, Philosophical Journal of a Society of German Scholars. Edited by Friedrich Immanuel Niethammer, Neu-Suelitz 1795; Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Faust. The Tragedy, Part Two in Five Acts, Stuttgart 1832; Ch. Oeser's Letters to a Young Woman on the Main Subjects of Aesthetics. A Gift for Women and Young Women, 5th edition, Leipzig 1857; Plato: The Republic.

Places: Vienna

About this letter: Since this letter, which survives only in fragments, does not contain a name, it is uncertain who the recipient was, or even whether the letter was ever sent. The content suggests that it was addressed to Rudolf Steiner's school friend Josef Köck (Wiener Neustadt, November 30, 1861 - April 23, 1918, Salzburg).