Речи към немската нация

by Johann Gottlieb Fichte

Фихте е единственият от почти всички големи философи, който произлиза от най-дълбоките народни недра. Личните му качества и исторически условия го издигат до ректор на първия университет в пруската столица Берлин, за да го върнат в немската земя след смъртта му като санитар доброволец във войните срещу общоевропейската, макар и предимно френска империя на Наполеон Бонапарт. Наред със спекулативната дарба, у него изригва furor teutonicus, немската ярост, завещана от Верцингенторикс и Лутер, за да го нареди сред героите на духа, служещи за пример в поредица немски опити за световно господство. С характерното пренебрегване на историческия контекст и при обичайната идеологическа злоупотреба с авторитети Фихте лесно бива поставян сред „духовните бащи на фашизма“ и „враговете на отвореното общество“. Затова разглеждането му както откъм тогавашната, така и откъм днешната идеологическа конюнктура бързо го причислява сред политически некоректните и го прави ако не по-незабележим, то по-неспоменаван в сравнение със съкласиците, заклеймяван и забраняван заради антисемитски изяви, откровен национализъм и проповеди за културно и стопански самодостатъчна държава. В голяма степен това се дължи на Речи към немската нация, исторически най-влиятелното му произведение. Все по-рядкото му издаване и превеждане е напълно в духа на гузното пренаписване на историята с опит за забрава и отказ от нейната реалност, в която делото на Фихте е сред най-ярките теоретически изяви на идеята за еднородна и еднонародна държава, противопоставяща се на наднационални империи.

Genres: Philosophy, Politics, History, Germany, German Literature, Nonfiction, Sociology

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1808

About the author

Johann Gottlieb Fichte was a German philosopher. He was one of the founding figures of the philosophical movement known as German idealism, a movement that developed from the theoretical and ethical writings of Immanuel Kant. Fichte is often perceived as a figure whose philosophy forms a bridge between the ideas of Kant and the German Idealist Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Recently, philosophers and scholars have begun to appreciate Fichte as an important philosopher in his own right due to his original insights into the nature of self-consciousness or self-awareness. Like Descartes and Kant before him, the problem of subjectivity and consciousness motivated much of his philosophical rumination. Fichte also wrote political philosophy, and is thought of by some as the father of German nationalism.
His son, Immanuel Hermann Fichte, was also a renowned philosopher.

Reviews

[A · Rating 4 out of 5]

8/10.

I believe that these addresses, generalized to the entire European people, would have as great an impact today as they did in Fichte's own time, more than 200 years ago. They connect nationalism, racialism, and God in a distinctive Faustian sense.

God has created the various peoples of the world and given them the soil they reside on. Not through "humanity", but through these individual peoples, does God manifest himself in this world. Painting, music, sculpture, philosophy, literature, devotional writings — these are not abstract to "mankind", but are the heritage of specific peoples and cultures. God shows his favor for a given people through its fruits: through its creativeness. The groups most productive are the most valuable to all of mankind due to their innate and indefatigable creative power. If they are lost, what remains? What culture remains? Who can create in an alien land with alien values?

No one can. The great man of history is the vehicle by which a given people expresses its spirit. The concordance between his writings and the people's spirit leads to wide acceptance. His nation accepts him as their mouthpiece and thus gives him wide praise.

But what values lead to such creativity, besides natural superiority? Here Fichte makes his most essential point. A nation's great man believes that his actions have an eternal imprint, but not merely on the supernatural world. No, further than that, he believes in the eternality of his race. His contributions help his people live on and continue their creations forever. In Fichte's words: "The belief of the noble man in the eternal continuance of his activity even on this earth is accordingly based on the hope for the eternal continuance of the people from which he has sprung and on the particularity of that same people".

Therefore, our actions have eternal value. Our families have eternal value. Every day that we grow stronger, more dutiful, more cognizant of deleterious propaganda, we grow for our race. Every one of our actions matters, not merely for the world to come, but for the contribution that they make to our race. The hope, nigh faith, in the eternal existence of our particular and fruitful people gives us the energy to become nobler in this life. Our ancestors call us to righteousness, to duty, to strength, to honor, to fatherhood — in short, to nobility in the traditional sense.

The media tells us to become hateful of our own people. They call us vile words in an attempt to sterilize our thoughts and actions. But the moment we relinquish our people, we relinquish ourselves. Talking of the Ancient Germans when defending their people against the Romans, Fichte says, "Slavery was the name they gave to all those blessings that the Romans offered them, because by accepting these they could not but become something other than Germans; they would have to become half-Romans. It went without saying, they assumed, that every man would sooner die than become thus and that a true German could wish to live only in order to be and remain forever a German and to bring up his children as Germans also".

What is freedom for a German? "Freedom meant to them that they remained Germans, that they continued to decide their affairs independently and originally, in keeping with their own spirit, and, likewise in keeping with their spirit, that they continued to move forward in their development, and that they passed on this independence to their posterity".

What is freedom for a modern European, whether he be in Europe, America, Australia, or abroad? Currently, he is reviled, spit on continually, and told that he has no culture. He is a slave to alien influences. Aliens invade his country, lie to him about his heritage, and weaken him through degeneracy and saccharine pleasure.

Freedom is breaking free from this utter slavery. It is reclaiming your history, not as "world history" nor as the "contributions of man", but as the deeds of your ancestors. And that is something to be proud of! Our insidious rulers offer us many benefits, just as the Romans did to the Germans, if we relinquish our culture. If we accept these benefits, and "cure" ourselves of "racism", "toxic masculinity", and "homophobia", we will be applauded by the media. But in the process of doing so, we will become self-hating and weak. We will destroy the very substance that led to our greatness.

The solution is to turn away. Turn away from fake heroes and replace them with the real heroes who you descended from. Replace Superman with the Spartans. Replace Batman with the brave Vikings and explorers who crossed oceans. Replace consumerist kitsch with reality — the reality of your own heritage. Preserving our culture begins first by accepting it, then loving it, and finally by passing that love down to our children. May we hope, changing a few words of Fichte's, that a true European could wish to live only in order to be and remain forever a European and to bring up his children as Europeans also. We were not born to be consumerist drones. We were born to be strong and noble Europeans.

[Hristo Ivanov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fiche after having finished with his "hard" philosophy and letting his students finish the job(Schelling and indirectly Hegel), went on to make popular philosophy and writings because he feld a connection with the ideal of the German Nation and it's people. The French Revolution in Germany was this, an emerging Nationalism after the decay of the Holy Roman Empire and the loss of the Austrians by Napoleon and before that by the French armies of the French Revolution.

This gave the germans and their philosophers the dream of a unified German Nation that would stand as well as England, France and Spain.

Fiche being the first to spread this among the people(Herder being the first theoretically to form the idea of Nationalism), had these addresses formed. All subsequent nationalism in all of Central and Eastern Europe followed the general rules he wrote for awakening the nations, that were under various empires.

Fichte is a hero for composing this, not only for Germany, but also for all nations that lead liberation wars against occupying armies.

[Madison De Asis · Rating 1 out of 5]

Had to read for class, wanted to die the whole time.

[Zon · Rating 1 out of 5]

-1 point parce que c’est le pire livre du programme de l’agreg, sinon j’ai pas aimé et j’ai pas compris la partie du milieu

[Hakan Alpan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ein Buch wie ein Hieb ins Gesicht des geschichtlichen Verständnisses.

Als ich dieses Werk zu lesen begann begleiteten mich sowohl die Empfehlungen mancher wie auch die Warnungen anderer. Manch einem erschien dies als Schlüssel zum gesunden Nationalverständnisses und zum freien Charakter, dem anderen als verworrenes, idealistisches Werk eines Kindes seiner Zeit.
Was man lobend erwähnen muss ist, dass die Passagen über die Erziehung in einer sehr nachvollziehbaren fast löblichen Abhandlung geschrieben ist. Auch die Aufteilung in sprachlich abgegrenzte Räume erscheint logisch und gut begründet.
Dieses Besuch ist eine gelungene Ergänzung zu Herders Ausführungen zum Thema Nationalismus.
Aber...
Zu weilen hat man das Gefühl Fichte möchte gar nicht richtig verstanden werden. Seine Ausführungen wiederholen sich ab und zu. Es ist nicht immer klar worauf Fichte abzieht oder worin der Kern seines Gedankens besteht. Manchmal ist man verwirrt von langen Sätzen, welche verschachtelt und unstrukturiert scheinen.

Fazit:
Ein Muss für jeden der das Phänomen Nationalismus verstehen will ohne von den Einflüssen des frühen 20. Jahrhunderts in seiner Meinung verfälscht zu werden. Allerdings benötigt dieses Werk eine kritische Lesweise (insbesondere beim Thema der Religion).

[Jesse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despite the diatribes on the "superiority" of the German race and the (interesting) thoughts on the differences between the "dead" foreign languages and the "living" German language, this was a remarkable text. Forcefully written (Fichte was quite the orator) and powerful. Particularly enjoyed his thoughts on education and his insistence that all problems with the state of the nation could be traced back to matters of education. I think that diagnosis could easily apply to the present day United States as well.

[Luis Francisco Contreras · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've skimmed through all the addresses to get a good idea of his principles, but I've especially focused on his second, third, and tenth addresses. It's chilling to the bone to read the principles and justifications of our western schooling system. After reading it it's not surprising to understand the ineptitude and ineffectiveness of the current system.

[Michał Hołda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is call to German people to do Education, but Education is call to everyone. Therefore it's good book for everyone.

Weimar Classicism (Weimarer Klassik), which heavily intertwined with German Idealism and early German Romanticism. At the absolute core of this movement was the philosophical concept of Bildung—the holistic, lifelong cultivation of an individual's moral, civic, and intellectual character. They believed that to revive a broken nation, they had to educate the "whole person," transforming passive subjects into active, freethinking citizens.

Fichte stood in Berlin after the Prussian/German forces were utterly crushed by Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Jena in 1806 . During the 1790s and early 1800s, the small university town of Jena became the undisputed intellectual capital of the German-speaking world. In Jena, the Humboldts and Fichte constantly met with Germany's greatest literary giants, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller. They gathered daily in Schiller's garden house or at local lecture halls to debate science, philosophy, and the future of human education.

After the catastrophic collapse of the Jewish nation:

Ezekiel 37:1-10 details the prophet's famous vision of the "Valley of Dry Bones". God commands Ezekiel to prophesy to a valley of scattered, lifeless bones, causing them to assemble into skeletons, grow flesh, and finally breathe—symbolizing the future spiritual and national restoration of Israel.

German philosophy since its origin has preached again and again, because it could do nothing else but preach. It is now sufficiently clear that these sermons have vanished without result into thin air, and the reason for this is evident too. A living thing affects only something living; but in the actual life of the age there is no rela- tionship at all with this philosophy, which goes its own way in a sphere that is not yet revealed to this age, and which calls for sense-organs that it has not yet developed. This philosophy is not at home in our age, but is an anticipation of time, and a principle of life ready in advance for a generation which shall first awake to light in it. It must give up all claim on the present genera- tion; but, in order not to be idle until then, let it now undertake the task of fashioning for itself the generation to which it does belong. As soon as this, its immediate business, has become clear to it, it will be able to live in peace and friendship with a generation which in other respects does not please it. The education which we have hitherto described is likewise the education for this philosophy. Yet in a certain sense it alone can be the educator in this education; and so it had to be a fore- runner neither understood nor acceptable. But the time will come when it will be understood and received with joy; and that is why our generation should not despair of itself.

40. Let this generation hearken to the vision of an ancient prophet in a situation no less lamentable. Thus says the prophet by the river of Chebar, the comforter of those in captivity, not in their own, but in a foreign land. "The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, and caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry. And He said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest. Again He said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones, Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live and I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above; but there was no breath in them. Then said He unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God, Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army."

Though the elements of our higher spiritual life may be just as dried up, and though the bonds of our national unity may lie just as torn asunder and as scattered in wild disorder as the bones of the slain in the prophecy, though they may have whitened and dried for centuries in tempests, rainstorms, and burning sunshine, the quickening breath of the spiritual world has not yet ceased to blow. It will take hold, too, of the dead bones of our national body, and join them together, that they may stand glorious in new and radiant life.

Wilhelm von Humboldt and his brother Alexander directly answered Fichte's call. Wilhelm took over the Prussian directorate of education and founded the University of Berlin (where Fichte became the first elected rector). They implemented a universal education system aimed at awakening the national spirit.

Madeline Juno - Lovesong

(ich lass' ihn) Can I pronounce it as ślaski?

(ich lass' ihn) translated as (I'll let him)

In the song's line "Here you are, he's a Macher and his lass' ihn (ich lass' ihn)"

Ślawski/Szlawski is my mother's surname.

Ślasy (or Szlasy) is a historically native Polish nobility backwater that originated long before the Lodzerdeutsch dialect or industrial Łódź.

In ancient Poland, the ending "-wski" (or "-ski") was the equivalent of Western European nobility prepositions, such as the German "von" or the French "de." It originally meant "from" or "coming from."

Jan z Ślasy (Janusz z Ślasy). In 1462, he purchased part of the land in present-day Podlasie (near the settlement of Łoje Gręska) from Jakub Barwikowski, settled there, and founded the family village of the nobility.

Although in standard German (Hochdeutsch), the "ch" in the word ich is pronounced softly as the so-called Ich-Laut [ç] (a sound reminiscent of a snake's hissing or a very soft, palatal "ś"), in the traditional German dialect of Silesia (Schlesisch) and in many Central German dialects, the so-called Sibilierung is a natural feature.

This distinctive pronunciation began to develop in Silesia in the 13th and 14th centuries, and finally became established in the modern period, i.e., in the 16th and 17th centuries. This specific pronunciation survived in the everyday speech of the region's inhabitants until the mass resettlements after 1945. The history of Germans in Łódź and their language differs from that of Silesia. Łódź had a unique, urban linguistic mix known as Lodzerdeutsch (Łódź German). In the 19th century, Łódź became a powerful center of the textile industry. Weavers and craftsmen from Germany arrived in large numbers. Most of them came from Saxony, Silesia, and Bohemia (Sudeten Germans).

German in its own words and in its own circle of verbal images, such as: Menschenfreundlichkeit (friendliness towards people), Leutseligkeit (condescension or courtesy), and Edelmut (nobility).

In the 19th century, philologists studying the influence of German on Polish noticed that the Polish word "szlachetność" (nobility) was, in some contexts and regions (especially under the partitions), a semantic structural calque of the German "Edelmut." Polish authors, seeking an ideal equivalent for this specific, moral German concept, used the words "nobility of mind" or "magnanimity." The word "Edelmut" was commonly used in Polish secondary schools (gymnasiums) during German language lessons and the analysis of classic literature. Polish students analyzed "Edelmut" as a characteristic of heroes in the works of Goethe, Schiller, and Wilhelm Hauff's fairy tales (e.g., analyzing the character of Orbasan in "The Rescue of Fatma").

Edelmut was perceived as a person's ability to act against their own selfishness. A noble person is one who, through reason, can control their primal instincts and make a decision that is good for the common good, even if it brings personal harm.

Leutseligkeit signified the ability of a monarch, magnate, or high official to interact with common folk in a kind, direct, and arrogant manner. It was believed that a good, enlightened ruler should not isolate himself from his subjects but rather speak to them with empathy and come down to their level.

Philosophers such as Christian Wolff and Immanuel Kant used this concept as a fundamental social virtue of the civilized person. It was used as a counterpoint to roughness, savagery, and pride. It signified openness, ease in establishing contacts, and the courtesy that binds society together.

In pietistic and theological writings of the 18th century, the word was used to describe Jesus' attitude toward sinners and the poor—as a model of "approachability" and love for humanity that Christians should emulate in their daily lives.

In the second half of the 18th century, an educational reform movement called philanthropism arose in Germany. Thinkers such as Johann Bernhard Basedow used the concept of Menschenfreundlichkeit as the primary goal of educating youth. Education was intended to create "friends of humanity," meaning people who were socially useful, empathetic, and committed to the common good.

The word Menschenfreundlichkeit (meaning in German kindness towards people, philanthropy, love of neighbor, or humanitarianism) comes from ancient Greek, but its current linguistic form was formed in German theology and philosophy of the Enlightenment (18th century).

The early use of this concept is associated with the translation of the Bible, specifically the New Testament Letter to Titus (Titus 3:4), which speaks of God's love for humanity.

As a characteristic of God: For centuries, Menschenfreundlichkeit primarily meant "God's kindness towards humanity" (Greek: philanthropia tou theou).

Every pupil, even if born in the lowest class-for, in truth, the class into which children are born makes no difference to their talents-will grasp, and indeed grasp easily, the instruction in those subjects.

The pupil's faculty of knowledge must never be stimulated without love for the known object being stimulated at the same time, for otherwise knowledge remains dead; similarly, love must never be stimulated without becoming clear to knowledge, for otherwise love remains blind. This is one of the chief principles of our proposed education, with which Pestalozzi also must agree, since it is in accordance with his whole system of thought. Now, the stimulation and development of this love is connected with the systematic course of instruction by means of sensation and perception, and arises without our design or assistance. The child has a natural inclina- tion for clearness and order. This is continually satisfied in that course of instruction, and so fills the child with joy and pleasure. But, while in this state of satisfaction, he is stimulated again by the new obscurities that now appear, and so he is satisfied anew. Thus life is passed in love of and pleasure in learning. It is this love by means of which each individual is connected with the world of thought; it is the bond of the sensuous and spiritual worlds. This love renders possible the easy development of the faculty of knowledge and the successful cultivation of the fields of science; a result that is certain and premeditated in this education, but which was formerly attained by chance in the case of a few specially favoured persons.

But there is yet another love, that which binds man to man and combines all individuals into one rational community with the same disposition. The first kind of love fashions knowledge; this other kind fashions the life of action and stimulates people to show forth in them- selves and in others that which has become part of their knowledge. Since for our special purpose it would be of little use simply, to improve the scholar's education, and since the national education intended by us aims first of all at training not scholars but simply men, it is clear that, in addition to that first love, the development of the second is also an essential duty of this education.
Pestalozzi speaks of this subject with soul-stirring enthusiasm. Yet we must confess that his statements did not seem at all clear to us, and, least of all, so clear that they could serve as the foundation for an art of developing that love. It is therefore necessary for us to state our own thoughts concerning such a foundation.

The bond, therefore, which makes men of one mind, and the development of which is a chief education for manhood, is not sensuous love, but the instinct for mutual respect. That instinct appears in two forms; in the child it begins as unconditional respect for adults and becomes the desire to be respected by them, and to measure by means of their actual respect how far he also should respect himself. This confidence, not in one's own but in an external standard of self-respect, is also the special characteristic of childhood and youth. On its existence alone is based the possibility of all instruction and of all education of growing youths to perfect men. The adult has in himself his standard of self-esteem, and wishes to be respected by others only in so far as they have first of all made themselves worthy of his respect. With him that instinct assumes the form of demanding that he shall be able to respect others, and that he shall himself produce something worthy of respect. If there is no such fundamental instinct in man, whence then arises the phenomenon, that even the tolerably good man grieves to find men worse than he thought they were, and is deeply hurt at having to despise them; for selfishness, on the con- trary, is necessarily pleased at being able to exalt itself haughtily above others? Now, the educator must exhibit this latter characteristic of adult manhood, just as, in the case of the pupil, the former characteristic is to be relied on with certainty. In this respect, the aim of education is just to produce adult manhood in the sense that we have mentioned. Only when that aim is attained is education really completed and ended.

If you want to fight classism, imagine that you'll cause suffering and death, hard times. All you have to do is study; anyone can do that. Otherwise, if you want to learn but can't, you feel like an oppressed worker. If you learn because you want to, you feel inspired, and you can then have higher-class people as role models, and they'd be flattered ;) Hold on to that thought.

Remember, if you don't want to learn at school, maybe you want to learn/explore what interests you. Most often, it's simply philosophical, like "I want to learn about life," but others might want to learn about sex or friendship.

The conscious moment when we tell ourselves I want to educate myself in this field because it attracts/inspires me is important.

When I was little, I had questions and thoughts, and suddenly, out of nowhere, an adult would come and change the world, letting me know that I was older and had to give up my games/activities. And develop on a different level, but this is also only a temporary state, and then, then everything changes again, and I leave behind what was troubling me during the last stage of a child's life. I've always wondered how to write this. XD

My desire for love began with a desire to build a life with someone close to me. Similar tastes, interests, views, customs, backgrounds—yes, I have it. It's more fun together. Friends,... friends.

I also have this feeling that if someone interrupts my monologue/conversation, I can forget what I was thinking and be unable to speak. On the other hand, I want to live my life in contact with others and get to know others. Other times, I sometimes feel like I know I know nothing, and I'm wandering, but it passes. I remember everything, but then I don't analyze it. Then I read and analyze it freshly, but how much will I remember? I'm not an encyclopedia. Then, in a decade or two, I won't remember the knowledge I have today. At the same time, the knowledge that people use is elementary for me and I search deeper and further.

[Jesse · Rating 1 out of 5]

With Napoleon's invasion of the German States, Fichte's earlier Jacobin universalism is transformed into an extreme German nationalism, albeit with pretensions to being the saviors of all humane and Christian ideals for the world. Scholars seem to argue about whether this is an "ethnic" or a "cultural" nationalism, but I'm not sure that such a distinction can really be made.

Fichte believes in a very close connection between a People/Nation (völk) and their Language, following an extreme version of Herder's philosophy of language. He argues that most of Europe is inhabited by descendants of Germanic tribes, but that these peoples, with the exception of the modern Germans, have been cut off from their true German-language heritage due to the imposition of Romance languages. This break prevents these foreigners (ausländer) from truly understanding the abstract words which their language uses to describe the "supersensible", spiritual world. Thus all the speakers of these dead languages are spiritually dead, unaware of their potential for freedom, unable to create truly new things and to achieve infinite progress. A less grandiose argument, which he only vaguely alludes to, seems to be that the intellectuals and elites in other European states use a different language that can't be understood by the people at large, while in Germany the classes are united by a common language.

He blames the moral and intellectual degeneration of modern Germans on the negative influence of foreign ideas - for example, the "mechanical" conception of the state is a French idea, while real Germans know that a love for the fatherland, which can't possibly be encoded in mechanical rules, is what invigorates a truly progressive state. These flaws in the French spirit are presumably what explains the degeneration of the French Revolution in Fichte's eyes.

Fichte's hope for the preservation of the German nation against Napoleonic despotism lies in the implementation of a national education system. (I'm not sure why the subjugated German states will have the autonomy in matters of education that Fichte fears they will lack in other areas.) He seems less interested in preserving German literature, as one might expect from his emphasis on language, than in instilling an austere, Kantian morality in the kids, through schools that emphasize knowledge for knowledge's sake alone, a love of the spontaneously discovered Universal Law. His only example of this is kids mentally intuiting that it takes 3 lines to enclose a planar region - closely following Kant in using now-discredited ideas about space/geometry to back up his moral program. This love of freedom and autonomy appears to be the true German heritage - thanks, Luther!

This schooling should be compulsory, for people of all ranks and classes, co-educational. It should separate children from their parents, and extend until the age of majority. More surprisingly, each school should be run like a little autarchic state, producing all of its own goods from scratch, as if Fichte was hoping for at least a toy model of his plans for a "Closed Commercial State" (1800) which he thinks was unjustly and disastrously ignored.

[Natan Bedrosian]

These addresses are fascinating—not only in terms of their content but also in the motivations behind them. As a student majoring in History and Political Thought, I see Fichte as attempting to construct a sense of German nationhood in the aftermath of the capitulation following the French conquest. It is also compelling to read about the Napoleonic Wars from the perspective of an occupied, non-French nation—in this case, the Germans—and to observe how they viewed both the occupation and themselves as a social group living within a political entity under French supervision.
In summary, Fichte's primary objective in these addresses is to preserve Germans' sense of identity and belonging through the promotion of culture. To achieve this, he stresses the significance of language and education while also advocating for revolutionary measures, such as the unification of Germans across religious denominations (notably Protestant and Catholic). This work is highly recommended for those interested in the Napoleonic Wars, particularly from the perspective of the nations that fought against Napoleon and for those intrigued by modern German history.

[John Anthony · Rating 2 out of 5]

Prof Fichte’s addresses were delivered at a time of low national morale following the recent defeat by Napoleon (1806). Fichte’s main purpose is to raise national morale and German self confidence. His emphasis is on planning for the future, especially state education of the young. Fichte looks forward to a time when Germany is united under a strong, inspirational leader with clear vision. The unification would come 60 odd years later.

Fichte talks up the German language which he argues is a living and developing language compared to Latin, which he sees as dead, though idolised by contemporaries, including German cultural snobs.

Hitler was an admirer of Fichte and he featured in the Fuhrer’s library. I’m sure that Hitler could see himself in the role that Fichte envisages here. I found this volume very heavy going and I was guilty of skim reading from 40% onwards. But there is a lot of repetition so I did not feel to miss too much.

[Cathrine · Rating 2 out of 5]

(Eight address)

[Leonardo]

La soberanía nacional y la soberanía popular fueron, por lo tanto, productos de una construcción espiritual, es decir, la construcción de una identidad. Cuando Edmund Burke se opuso a Sieyés, su postura fue mucho menos diferente que lo que el clima polémico tórrido de la época podría hacernos suponer. Aún para Burke, de hecho, la soberanía nacional era el producto de una construcción espiritual de identidad. Este hecho puede reconocerse aún más claramente en la obra de aquellos que levantaron el estandarte del proyecto contrarrevolucionario en el continente europeo. Las concepciones continentales de esta construcción espiritual revivieron tanto las tradiciones de la nación históricas como las voluntaristas y agregaron a la concepción del desarrollo histórico una síntesis trascendental en la soberanía nacional. Esta síntesis ya está alcanzada en la identidad de la nación y el pueblo. Johann Gottlieb Fichte, por ejemplo, proclama en términos más o menos mitológicos que la patria y el pueblo son representación y medida de eternidad terrena; son lo que aquí en la tierra puede ser inmortal.

Imperio Pág. 83

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

I, myself, have only read the fourth address, and seeing the roots of German supremacist thought form through the eloquent speech of Fichte is truly frightening.

That being said the content of his Fourth Address truly made me want to learn German.

I would have given this a 5 star simply because Fitche is obviously a genius but I found his way of writing a bit tedious and at times confusing. I much prefer Herder's method of writing.

[Jackson Cyril · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of nationalistic clap trap here, but Fichte standing up and delivering them as Napoleon's armies were overrunning Germany was very courageous.

[nlam · Rating 1 out of 5]

go to therapy