Lecture X

GA 173b/1916-12-25/p045 ·1916-12-25 · English MediumMedium alignmentSome paragraph re-numbering between this translation and the German original — the locus may slip by a paragraph or two.
Record: stenogram (shorthand transcript). Shorthand transcript taken during the lecture — the strongest kind of lecture record in this corpus. Evidence: «Diese dreibändige Ausgabe wurde auf der Grundlage der stenografischen Nachschriften vollständig neu bearbeitet.» (This three-volume edition was completely re-edited on the basis of the shorthand transcripts.). The publisher's description of GA 173a-c, as mirrored on AnthroWiki (GA 173a-c). The translation is the maintainer's, not a published one.

Perhaps this put the councillors' noses out of joint somewhat, but we shall not go into this. So the Emperor took aside the councillor known in Cologne as Gerhard the Good and asked: Why do people call you Gerhard the Good? He had to ask this question, for the angel had pointed out that it all depended on whether he could recognize why this man was called Gerhard the Good. For he was to be healed through him. Gerhard the Good answered: People call me Gerhard the Good because they are thoughtless. I have not done anything special. But what I have done, which is something quite insignificant and about which I shall not tell you, has become known to some extent and, because people always want to invent phrases, they call me Gerhard the Good. The Emperor said: Surely it cannot be as simple as all that, and it is extremely important for me and my whole reign that I discover why people call you Gerhard the Good. Gerhard the Good did not want to disclose anything, but the Emperor pressed him ever harder till Gerhard the Good said: Very well, I will tell you why they call me Gerhard the Good, but you must not tell anyone else, for truly I see nothing special in it:

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Cite: GA 173b/1916-12-25/p045 · edition English