14. The Development of the German Soul

“A German who writes the history of France, of Italy, of Russia, of Turkey: in this, no man finds anything incongruous, anything contradictory”; — Herman Grimm thinks, because this German soul becomes pliable and flexible through this expansion, this German soul knows how to find its way into these other national souls – “but a Russian, Turk, Frenchman, Italian, who wanted to write about German history! And if the book should impress a few innocent people because it was written in a foreign language, then all that is needed is a translation. A Russian has written about Mozart and, buoyed by the success of his work, also about Beethoven. “Is this Mozart, is this Beethoven?” asks Herman Grimm. — “Music seems not to have any fatherland. These two people” – Mozart and Beethoven – ‘are two composers, one of whom wrote Mozart's works’ – according to what the Russian says – ‘and the other Beethoven's, but they themselves’ – he means the people the Russian is describing – ‘have nothing in common with the book and its judgments.’