15. Discussion of a Lecture by Karl Julius Schröer on the Anniversary of Goethe's Death

On March 22, the anniversary of Goethe's death, Prof. Schröer gave a lecture at the local Goethe Society on the topic: “On Goethe's: ‘We call it piously’ (from the poem: ‘Trilogy of Passion’). The remarks were primarily about Goethe, the man. Popular judgments, which still endeavor to disparage Goethe in this or that respect, should be thoroughly countered. Goethe's love life, in particular, which a crude view would like to present as that of a life of debauchery, was put in its proper light as that of a highly developed, selfless idealist for whom love is the only passion free from selfishness. Goethe's love is the genuinely German love, imbued with the noblest view of feminine worth, not the selfish love that originates in base instincts. The frivolous jokes about platonic love do not catch on with Goethe, “he was not only acquainted with her, but intimate with her.” Schröer also thoroughly illuminated Goethe's position on religion. He was not pious in the sense of a positive religion; he could not make the god of any confession his own; but he was pious in the sense that he recognized a divine in all earthly things, in all reality, and revered it, even tried to embody it through poetry and to embody it through science. The much-discussed chapter “Goethe as a courtier” was also duly treated. Goethe's free nature towards the Duke of Weimar, as indeed towards the entire court, and his deeply sarcastic descriptions of court life in the second part of Faust were not known or understood by those who wanted to present Goethe as a courtier. Schröer finally showed how Goethe's poetry is only a reflection of his noble, elevated human nature, which the entire nation should endlessly honor and recognize instead of constantly trying to belittle and find fault with.