Karoline von Günderrode’s Notes on History of Religion
The notes translated here are taken from Günderrode’s manuscripts held at the Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg in Frankfurt, which are in the public domain.[1] German transcriptions of these notes can also be found in the critical edition of Günderrode’s works edited by Walter Morgenthaler[2] and in an article published in 1975 by Doris Hopp and Max Preitz.[3] Please cite me if you share or quote from this translation or commentary.
Günderrode’s interest in religions from around the world was part of an accelaration of studies of Indian, Egyptian and Middle Eastern religions and customs that began in Europe around 1800. While a few German (as well as English, Latin and French) resources for the study of Hinduism, Islam and other religions had been available since at least the mid-1600s,[4] these greatly increased in number in the last quarter of the eighteenth century. The availability of texts from outside Europe, including translations, further increased throughout the nineteenth century, beginning shortly after Günderrode’s death. This included significant work on Sanskrit by Friedrich and August Wilhelm Schlegel, published between 1808 and 1830,[5] and Georg Wilhelm Creuzer’s influential Symbolism and Mythology, published 1810–1812.[6]
Despite the relatively limited resources that would have been available to Günderrode, it is not easy to identify the texts from which she drew the information in her notes on the history of religions from around the world. One possibility is that the information came through Creuzer, who Günderrode met in 1804 and with whom she had an affair. We know from their correspondence that Günderrode discussed Creuzer’s research for Symbolism and Mythology with him, and Dagmar von Gersdorff identifies shared phrasing in Günderrode’s notes and Creuzer’s description of Egypt.[7] Creuzer’s massive work includes much or all of the information in Günderrode’s notes, and presumably his research materials were even more substantial. It is likely he shared at least some of this material with Günderrode.
Günderrode’s notes on Hinduism, beginning “Brahm Parabrahma…,” may have been taken near the start of 1805, around the time she wrote her play Udohla,[8] which is set in India.[9] We know from Günderrode’s correspondence that she read Georg Forster’s German translation (via William Jones’ English translation) of Śakuntalā, a play by the fourth- to fifth-century Sanskrit author Kālidāsa,[10] which at that time was taking Germany by storm. Günderrode’s notes may have been influenced by Forster’s introductory materials to the translation.[11] A closer parallel to much of the information in these notes can be found in Johann Friedrich Kleuker’s The Brahminic Religious System, published in 1797.[12] However, Günderrode’s notes include terminology and information not found in either of these sources. In the case of these notes, too, a closer search of Creuzer’s Symbolism and Mythology may yield more information.
A. Leslie Willson suggests that Günderrode may have gleaned information on Hindu and Muslim customs from “The Laws of Manu” and Herder’s Ideas.[13] The former refers to the Manusmṛiti, a collection of ideals for political organization and social behavior that was among the first Indian texts translated into European languages. German translations of the Laws were available at the time Günderrode was writing, but we do not have evidence that Günderrode read them. On the other hand, Günderrode did read Herder’s Ideen, which includes sections on ancient cultures in China, India, North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia.[14] However, Herder’s text does not especially focus on the religions of these areas and much of the information included in Günderrode’s notes is missing. While it is plausible that Günderrode learned about ancient cultures in part by reading Herder, it does not seem that the notes translated here were taken from the Ideas.
Regardless of their source, Günderrode’s notes on history of religion are interesting for at least two reasons. First, they show what an educated European with good access to available texts about religions and mythologies from the rest of the world (in Günderrode’s case through Creuzer, one of the foremost researchers on the subject) could learn at this time. As such, they contribute to understanding the early reception of Asian and North African thought in Europe.
Second, the notes tell us something about Günderrode’s thinking itself. In all her comments on the topic, Günderrode consistently maintains that all religions mediate the same truth: that the universe is comprised of one divine essence that generates the changing things of the world, including ourselves, from itself.[15] These notes show that Günderrode did not make this claim in ignorance, but after careful study. She was not just parroting the ideas of other thinkers, for instance the theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher, who similarly claimed that the essence of all religion was intuition of the infinite.[16] Nor did she make this claim on the basis of monotheistic religions alone, such as the different forms of Christianity that were current in Europe in her time. Günderrode was deeply interested in and well informed on many different kinds of religion: her notes include information on polytheistic and animistic religions as well as Buddhism and Manichaeism. The fact that she knew details of these, and found the details important to record, shows that she intended her idea of universal religion to be truly cosmopolitan. The one truth mediated by all religions, as she saw it, had to encompass every possible expression of what Günderrode saw as the essential, spiritual component of human existence, wherever it appeared in the world and in whatever form it did so.
Whether this is an accurate, nuanced or sensitive way to understand religions is another matter. Schleiermacher, for instance, has been criticized for importing Protestant assumptions into his interpretations of other religions and, by universalizing the experience of religion, ignoring important cultural context that affects the role and meaning of religion and religious experience.[17] Arguably, Günderrode was subject to the same biases.[18] While her notes translated here appear to simply note down facts about the history and practice of religions from across the world, they are not immune to errors, bias and misinterpretation, whether by Günderrode or by her sources.
NOTES ON HISTORY OF RELIGION
Religion of the Egyptians
In the most ancient times they only worshipped physical objects (fetishes). Each province basically had a national fetish. Subsequently, they clothed natural forces in divine images, e.g., Osiris, the sun and effective forces; Isis, the moon and passive natural forces. Sacred oxen were general fetishes. They believed in the transmigration of souls.
The Persians (Magi)
Zeruane Akerene,[19] the primal being, time without limitation: by his word he created two beings, Ormuzd[20] and Ahriman.[21] Ahriman became evil. These two created the whole spiritual and physical world: Ormuzd everything good, Ahriman everything evil. But one day (after the resurrection) everything will be good, even Ahriman. The Persians believed in many evil and good demons, in immortality, and worshipped fire as divine, as the symbol of the good being. Their priests were called magi. Zoroaster founded this religion in 3359.[22] The Zend Avesta is the textbook of the Persian religion.
The Sabaean Religion[23] extended over Phoenicea, Syria, Arabia and Central Asia. It was worship of the active natural forces, and the stars.
Religion of the Indians
Their highest gods are Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver, Shiva the destroyer. Apart from these they believe in many subordinate gods, demons, and the transmigration of souls.
Religion of the Chinese
They also worshipped parts of the physical world; they called the whole, or the highest being, Tian. Confucius improved [the religion of the Chinese] in 3500.[24]
Religion of the Fo [25]
Fo founded this religion in the year of our lord 100. It consists in belief in the transmigration of souls, and calls the condition of greatest peace blessedness, which one can achieve through suppressing sensuality.
Shamanistic Religion
It is the mother of most Asian religions. It teaches that good and evil burkhans[26] (spirits) came into being at the same time as the world: they govern the world and occasionally transform themselves into people (Fo was one of these). The number of the good is always increased by pious people dying. It also teaches the transmigration of souls. The Dalai Lama is the immortal priest of this religion,[27] which accepts no highest god.
[Hinduism]
Brahm Parabrahma, the highest divinity, the eternal,[28] spirit, first created Bhavani, productive nature. The latter bore:
Brahma the creator, the earth element
Vishnu the preserver, water
Shiva the destroyer, fire
Then Moisasur[29] came into being, and the multitudes of spirits.
Moisasur rebelled against Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. The eternal thereupon commanded Shiva to throw Moisasurand the spirits that had fallen with him into the abyss. Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva pleaded for the fallen, and the eternal gave them the power to form the universe after 5000 years, which the fallen spirits should wander through in 4 periods of the world (yugas[30]). But anyone who persisted in their evil after this time should be damned forever to the abyss Onderah.[31] Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva pleaded to the eternal for permission to be allowed to appear to the fallen in mortal form for consolation and admonishment, which was granted to them.
Marichi: the light
Aditi: day through sun = Kashyapa: space
Diti: night; Indra: the atmosphere; Kashyapa’s and Aditi’s son
Agni: demon of fire
Saraswati: goddess of wisdom
REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING
App, Urs. “The Tibet of the Philosophers Kant, Hegel and Schopenhauer.” In Images of Tibet in the 19th and 20thCenturies. Vol. 1. Ed. Monica Esposito, 5–60. Paris: EFEO, 2008.
Becker-Cantarino, Barbara. “The ‘New Mythology’: Myth and Death in Karoline von Günderrode’s Literary Work.” InWomen and Death 3: Women’s Representations of Death in German Culture since 1500. Ed. Clare Bielby and Anna Richards, 51–70. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2010.
Creuzer, Friedrich. Symbolik und Mythologie der alten Völker, besonders der Griechen. 4 vols. Leipzig and Darmstadt: Carl Wilhelm Leske, 1810–1812.
Ezekiel, Anna, ed. and trans. Karoline von Günderrode: Philosophical Writings. New York: Oxford University Press, 2026.
Galasso, Stephanie. “Form and Contention: Sati as Custom in Günderrode’s ‘Die Malabarische Witwen.’” Goethe Yearbook 24 (2017): 197–220.
Gersdorff, Dagmar von. “Die Erde ist mir Heimat nicht geworden.” Das Leben der Karoline von Günderrode. Insel: Frankfurt, 2006.
Günderrode, Karoline von. Ms. Ff KvGünderrode Abt. 1, 127–131 and Abt. 1 (from back), 1–3 (Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg, Frankfurt).
Günderrode, Karoline von. Sämtliche Werke und ausgewählte Studien. Historisch-Kritische Ausgabe. Ed. Walter Morgenthaler. Basel, Frankfurt am Main: Stroemfeld/Roter Stern, 1990–1991.
Herder, Johann Gottfried. Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit. 4 vols. Riga: Hartknoch, 1784f.
Hopp, Doris, and Max Preitz. “Karoline von Günderrode in ihrer Umwelt III. Karoline von Günderrode’s ‘Studienbuch.’“Jahrbuch des Freien Deutschen Hochstifts (1975): 223–323.
Kālidāsa. Sakontala oder der entscheidende Ring. ein indisches Schauspiel von Kalidas. Aus den Ursprachen Sanskrit und Prakrit ins Englische und aus diesem ins Deutsche übersetzt mit Erläuterungen von Georg Forster. Trans. Georg Forster. Mainz and Leipzig: Johann Peter Fischer, 1791. Second edition ed. Johann Gottfried Herder. Frankfurt: August Hermann dem Jüngern, 1803.
Kleuker, Johann Friedrich. Das Brahmanische Religionssystem im Zusammenhange dargestellt und aus seinen Grundbegriffen erklärt. Riga: Hartknoch, 1797.
Vial, Theodore. Modern Religion, Modern Race. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.
Willson, A. Leslie. A Mythical Image: The Ideal of India in German Romanticism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1964.
[1] Ms. Ff KvGünderrode Abt. 1, 127–131 and Abt. 1 (from back), 1–3.
[2] Karoline von Günderrode, Sämtliche Werke und ausgewählte Studien. Historisch-Kritische Ausgabe [hereafter “SW”], ed. Walter Morgenthaler (Basel, Frankfurt am Main: Stroemfeld/Roter Stern, 1990–1991), vol. 2: 413–417.
[3] Doris Hopp and Max Preitz, “Karoline von Günderrode in ihrer Umwelt III. Karoline von Günderrode’s ‘Studienbuch,’“Jahrbuch des Freien Deutschen Hochstifts (1975): 291–292, 306.
[4] E.g., Abraham Roger translated two satakas by the fifth-century Indian author Bhartṛhari into Dutch in 1651; Roger’s translations were translated into German in 1663.
[5] Friedrich Schlegel’s Über die Sprache und die Weisheit der Indier was published in 1808. In 1818, August Schlegel was made the first Chair of Sanskrit Literature in Bonn; his Indische Bibliothek was published from 1820 to 1830.
[6] Friedrich Creuzer, Symbolik und Mythologie der alten Völker, besonders der Griechen, 4 vols (Leipzig and Darmstadt: Carl Wilhelm Leske, 1810–1812).
[7] Dagmar von Gersdorff, “Die Erde ist mir Heimat nicht geworden.” Das Leben der Karoline von Günderrode (Insel: Frankfurt, 2006), 227. Gersdorff considers that Creuzer may have copied Günderrode’s phrasing here, rather than the reverse.
[8] For an English translation of this text, along with a commentary on its anti-colonial implications and novel account of human agency, see my Karoline von Günderrode: Philosophical Writings, part of the Oxford New Histories of Philosophy series.
[9] SW 3: 348.
[10] E.g., in a letter to Günderrode, Creuzer urges her to write poetry “in the sense of Sakuntala” (SW 3: 144).
[11] Kālidāsa, Sakontala oder der entscheidende Ring. ein indisches Schauspiel von Kalidas. Aus den Ursprachen Sanskrit und Prakrit ins Englische und aus diesem ins Deutsche übersetzt mit Erläuterungen von Georg Forster, trans. Georg Forster (Mainz and Leipzig: Johann Peter Fischer, 1791). Hopp and Preitz suggest that Günderrode’s information may come from Jones’ foreword and Forster’s commentary in the second edition (Frankfurt: August Hermann dem Jüngern, 1803), v–xx, esp. xvii, 199–267 (Hopp and Preitz, “Umwelt. III,” 322; see also SW 3: 348).
[12] Johann Friedrich Kleuker, Das Brahmanische Religionssystem im Zusammenhange dargestellt und aus seinen Grundbegriffen erklärt (Riga: Hartknoch, 1797). Hopp and Preitz suggest this as a source for the information on Moisasur and the short list of deities at the end of Günderrode’s notes (“Umwelt. III,” 323).
[13] A. Leslie Willson, A Mythical Image: The Ideal of India in German Romanticism (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1964), 189–190, 193.
[14] Johann Gottfried Herder, Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit (Riga: Hartknoch, 1784f.), vol. 3, books 11–12.
[15] See esp. “Story of a Brahmin” and “Letters of Two Friends” (for English translation of these texts with accompanying commentaries see my Karoline von Günderrode: Philosophical Writings).
[16] For example, in “On Religion,” which Günderrode excerpted in her notes (see Ezekiel, ed. Karoline von Günderrode: Philosophical Writings).
[17] Theodore Vial, Modern Religion, Modern Race (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 58–59.
[18] See, for example, criticisms of her poem “The Malabarian Widows” by Barbara Becker-Cantarino and Stephanie Galasso (Barbara Becker-Cantarino, “The ‘New Mythology’: Myth and Death in Karoline von Günderrode’s Literary Work,” in Women and Death 3: Women’s Representations of Death in German Culture since 1500, ed. Clare Bielby and Anna Richards (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2010), 51–70; Stephanie Galasso, “Form and Contention: Sati as Custom in Günderrode’s ‘Die Malabarische Witwen,’” Goethe Yearbook 24 [2017]: 197–220).
[19] Zeruane Akarene, also “Zaruana Akarana” or “Zurvan,” is the principle of “uncreated time.” Günderrode seems to be describing a form of Zoroastrianism, now defunct, called Zurvanism, in which an original, morally neutral deity, Zurvan, created opposing principles of good (Ahura Mazda) and evil (Angra Mainyu). In the dominant form of Zoroastrianism today, Ahura Mazda is the original principle and the principle of good.
[20] Also spelled “Ormazd”: an alternative spelling for Ahura Mazda, the benevolent deity in Zoroastrianism.
[21] Ahriman is the later Persian development of the evil principle Angra Mainya.
[22] Zoroaster, also spelled Zarathustra, is thought to have lived between 1000 and 1500 BCE.
[23] Saba (biblical Sheba) was a pre-Islamic kingdom in Arabia. There is only scattered information available on the Sabaean religion.
[24] Confucius is thought to have lived from around 551 to 479 BCE.
[25] “Fo” is the name for Buddha in some Chinese languages, including modern Mandarin. Buddhism was called “the religion of the Fo” by European historians and philosophers from the sixteenth to at least the nineteenth century (Urs App, “The Tibet of the Philosophers Kant, Hegel and Schopenhauer,” in Images of Tibet in the 19th and 20th Centuries, vol. 1, ed. Monica Esposito [Paris: EFEO, 2008], 7).
[26] A god, spirit or buddha in Mongolian shamanism.
[27] There are many forms of shamanism and only some (in Mongolia and central Asia) have any relationship to Buddhism. It is problematic to describe the Dalai Lama as the head of these religions, since Buddhism often replaced and in some cases outlawed shamanistic religions.
[28] Günderrode originally wrote “the one” or “the one eternal” instead of “the eternal,” but crossed this out (SW 2: 416).
[29] Moisasur (or Mahishasura) is an Asura (a class of powerful beings in Hinduism) who represents chaos and destruction.
[30] The Sanskrit word yuga refers to a long period of time, usually the four ages of the world according to Hinduism.
[31] Kleuker defines “Onderah” as “the abyss of darkness, from which, if they want, all the spirits that have been cast into it can be released before the completion of the last age of the world, on condition of progressive punishment, reformation, and purification” (Das Brahmanische Religionssystem, 353–354).
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