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Goethe's ‘Wilhelm Meister’ and Spinoza

Hans-Jürgen Schings

To cite this article: Hans-Jürgen Schings (1986) Goethe's ‘Wilhelm Meister’ and Spinoza,
Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 11:2, 118-121, DOI: 10.1179/isr.1986.11.2.118

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 Goethe's 'Wilhelm Meister' and
Spinoza
PROFESSOR DR HANS-JURGEN SCHINGS
Seminar of Germanic Stndies, University of Heidelberg,
A strong case is made in this review that Spinoza greatly in8uenced Goethe in his much-studied
novels, a fact not hitherto recognized, although Goethe himself acknowledged the inspiration
Spinoza's work. Goethe's Werther, and his Faust, are the mythical figures of modern times with
Meister novels the critical countertheme in which the voice of Spinoza is here considered the
outstanding significance.
Goethe's 'Wilhelm Meister' novels, as befits their
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importance, are among the most thoroughly studied
texts in German literature. Hence it is all the more
surprising that the role of Spinoza has remained vir-
tually unrecognized, especially in view of the fact that
Goethe could not have been more explicit in acknowl-
edging the inspiration he gained from Spinoza's
works.! Did they not have an impact on this cycle of
novels comparable only to 'Faust' - to which Goethe
devoted himself at intervals over decades, starting
with the writing of the' Theatralische Sendung' in 1777
and ending with the final version of the 'Wanderjahre'
in 1829?
Spinoza's 'Ethics' was remedy for the 'strange soul'
of the restless genius,2 a remedy to cure the
melancholy of the self-subverting, other-worldly sub-
jectivity which had found its paradigmatic expression
in the 'Leiden desjungen Werthers'. Wilhelm Meister
was conceived not least as a polar opposite to
Werther. Therefore this Bildungsroman is also a novel
about a cure which persistently opposes all forms of
hypochondria-laden introspection. And just as
Goethe derives 'serenity and clarity' from Spinoza
and a pristine recognition of himself and of the world,
and feels how the 'atmosphere of peace' envelops
him,3 he wants his representative in the novel to
experience this as well.
It is obvious that there is no simple path from the
geometrically cool Spinoza to poetry. Moreover, the
fact that Goethe blurs these traces rather than reveal-
ing them is a feature of his narrative technique, which
loves a laconic game of hide-and-seek, playing down
the results for the sake of his 'realistic tic,.4
Remember to Live
'Remember to live' - this is the maxim that the Uncle,
the founder of the Tower Society (Turmgesellschaft),
chose as the epitaph for his own gravestone. Wilhelm
Meister sees it, together with Natalie, in the Hall of
118 INTERDISCIPLINARY SCIENCE REVIEWS, VOL 11, NO.2, 1986
FRG
Wilhelm Meister
he derived from
the two Wilhelm
cantus firmus of
the Past (Saal der Vergangenheit). A weak replica
the Christian 'memento mori,?5 Indeed, the max
stems directly from Spinoza's 'Ethics' and sums
the following proposition: 'Homo liber de nulla
minus, quam de morte cogitat, et ejus sapientia n
mortis, sed vitae meditatio est'. 6
This tenet focuses the power that Spinoza attribu
to reason, announcing the unwavering 'suum e1
conservare', and rejecting all effects that destroy li
Without a doubt, here is a foundation for Goeth
art of living; in any case, Goethe's often-discuss
'death neurosis' certainly has a quite rational co
'What a life ... in this Hall of the Past!' Wilhe
Meister exclaims when he recognizes that in this h
'art and life eradicated any reminder of death a
the grave'. And it is not coincidental that, at the Sal
time, the key words 'purest cheerfulness' appear: 7 t:
too is a signal pointing to Spinoza, to the succi]
declaration, 'Hilaritas excessum habere nequit, s
semper bona est, et contra Melancholia semI
mala,.8
'Memento vivere', this is the standard by which 1
novel's characters are measured. Even the narrat
style obeys the maxim. 'Stay away from this unhap
object,' the doctor advises Wilhelm, when the lat
wants to see Mignon's corpse. The narrator does I
give free rein to hypochondriac self-torture, a
above all he avoids descriptions of dying and
mourning, even though Wilhelm encounters de~
often enough (whereas significantly, none of the m:
characters in the' Wander jahre' die I). Even Migno
exequies turn into a celebration of life. Mignon
probably the most painful sacrifice the novel demar
of Wilhelm. The last book of the' Lehrjahre' lures I
deeper and deeper into the sway of 'Melancholi
which fundamentally destroys her.
'Reason is cruel, ... the heart is better' - Migno
resigned sigh seems almost like a reflex reaction
Spinoza's reason, which sets new standards, whi
tries to banish hope and fear, pity and remorse, a!
above all, 'Tristitia' or 'Melancholia' from its sphl
© J W Arrowsmith Ltd, 1
 of influence. Mignon's desperate phrase, '1 am learn-
ed enough ... to love and to mourn', shows the gulf
which separates her from that world. Thus the figures
associated with tragic melancholy - Mignon and her
father, the harpist Augustin - are destroyed when
Wilhelm establishes himself in the new world of the
Tower.
The Tower Society administers the Uncle's legacy
and recoins the 'Memento mori' into its gospel of
activity and of clear recognition. The Uncle had gran-
ted man the possibility of being 'God-like' in order
to, like Spinoza, ward off the 'advocate of the evil
spirit', which is only willing to see 'the frailty and
weakness of our nature,.9 Spinoza's spirit is felt
wherever the Uncle elucidates his rules of life: unity
with one's self, decisiveness and consequence, con-
sistent activity, dominion of creative power over the
elements. The power of rationality, freedom, reason
versus the power of affects, servitude and arbitrariness
- the Uncle constructs the edifice of his art of living
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on the tenets of Spinoza's Ethics.
In the school of the Tower, and then in the society
of the emigrants, Wilhelm Meister will learn to escape
the abyss of introspection and to master the irritations
of the heart. Naturally, the program of renunciation
in the 'Wanderjahre' would be quite unthinkable
without Spinoza.1o The 'Memento vivere' also returns
in a new version. Lenardo, one of the leaders of the
traveling group, replies to the emerging sorrow, in
fact even despair, of his companions: 'Just as old
men, weary oflife, call to their own "Think of dying!",
we younger men, who are full of life, can surely
encourage and admonish each other with the cheerful
words: "Think of traveling!",ll
There is good reason therefore for the travelers to
be in league with the mysterious cosmic Makarie,
who orchestrates the final part of the novel from
behind the scenes. Whereas traveling and emigrating,
as Lenardo declares in his great speech, mean 'mobil-
ity', 'turbulent life',12 that is to say, an avowal to a
new life in permanence, Makarie's entelechy, which
moves 'as an integrating part' in the solar system,13
embodies Goethe's belief in the immortality of the
active monad. The 'Memento vivere' can hardly be
interpreted more' boldly than in the stateplent to
Eckermann, summarizing this belief: 'the conviction
that we live eternally originates for me in the concept
of activity; for if I work without ceasing until my
dying day, then nature is obligated to assign to me
another form of existence, when the form I have now
can no longer bear my spirit' .14
Necessity and Arbitrariness
In a stroke of genius, young Wilhelm Meister puts
his trust in a personal pact with fate and he worships
'fate, which knows how to initiate my best and the
best of all others'. Perplexed, even unwilling, he must
listen to a stranger, the first representative of the
Tower Society, pronounce a harsh judgment on this
illusion. 'Woe to him who, right from his youth, is
accustomed to trying to find something arbitrary in
what is necessary, who wants to ascribe a kind of
reason to what is coincidental', he says there; the
stranger only accepts the person 'who knows what is
useful for himself and others, and who attempts to
restrict his arbitrariness'; only then is he worthy of
being called 'a God of the Earth,.ls Thus the novel
is given its programmatic direction, which it will
follow to the end, the negation of the arbitrariness
of modern subjectivity, of 'volition' as the 'God of
modern times'.16 Here, too, Goethe draws on the
reservoir of Spinoza's doctrines.
As we know, it was in the years 1784 and 1785 that
Goethe was most intensively studying Spinoza
together with Herder and Frau von Stein, also in
association with Jacobi, who then was to stir up the
great dispute about Lessing's Spinozism. The traces
of these studies leave their mark most explicitly on
the documents of the travels in Italy, especially where
Goethe is reacting to Herder's new writings, the' Ideas
on the Philosophy of the History of Humanity' (part
three, 1787) and the discussions of Spinoza entitled
'God' (also 1787).
Goethe's emphasis is unusual. It leads to the well-
known fundamental propositions of his 'Spinozism'
(which by no means adheres to the scholarly way of
thinking). Rome, 23 August 1787: 'The outward form
of this world is transitory, I would like only to deal
with lasting circumstances and only thereby, accord-
ing to the doctrine of ttt (Spinoza), to gain eternal
life for my spirit,.17And on September 6: 'These high
works of art were created by man at the same time
as the highest works of nature according to true and
natural laws. All that is arbitrary and merely imagined
collapses, and there is necessity, there is God' .18What
does this mean?
Spinoza's doctrine ascribes to reason the form of
knowledge 'sub specie aeternitatis'. It lies in its nature
to view things as necessary and not as coincidental,
yet the necessity of things is the necessity of the eternal
nature of God himself; consequently, the spirit is
eternal, it attains eternal life for itself, insofar as it
possesses this form of knowledge. 19Wherever in this
way, i.e. 'sub specie aeternitatis', all that is coinciden-
tal, and thus subjective or arbitrary, is abolished, there
indeed is necessity, there is God. Herder's apologia
and adaptation of Spinoza, his treatise 'God', never
tires of praising this necessity, playing off 'kind,
beautiful necessity' against 'mad, blind arbitrari-
ness,.20
Epistemology, metaphysics and ethics are in agree-
ment on this point. All arbitrariness is banished from
the Cosmos; therefore absolute perfection does not
allow the assumption of final causes; 'arbitrariness
and velleities' is what Herder therefore calls the
causae finales?l Freedom is the recognition of divine
necessity, and its acceptance is 'conquering our
passions, in fact gaining control over destiny itself,
through complete concepts, which we can only
acquire through the knowledge and the love of God,?2
INTERDISCIPLINARY SCIENCE REVIEWS, VOL. 11, NO.2, 1986 119
 This path leads directly to Wilhelm Meister, to the
stern judgment of the Tower Society against fate. For
Wilhelm's belief in fate, which Goethe had also held
in his youth/3 is, in fact, nothing but a naive
expression of the teleological world view, that
anthropomorphic bias which says that everything that
happens occurs for the sake of mankind, an illusion
that Spinoza taught Herder and Goethe to ward off.
The restriction of arbitrariness - one now has a pre-
monition of the lessons the laconic words of the
stranger imply for Wilhelm's future. And Wilhelm
grows into the new world, most clearly perhaps in
the Hall of the Past which brings him close to the
happy experiences Goethe had in Rome: 'That is how
everything was and this is how everything will be.
Nothing is transitory, except for the one who enjoys
and watches'.24
As one could demonstrate, the course of action of
the Tower Society with its educational theory of
laissez-faire and errors is anti-teleological- for: 'every
predisposition alone has the power to perfect itself
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as well,.25 Anti-teleological could also be used to
describe the structure of the 'Wilhelm Meister' novels,
which ever more decisively push the hero out of the
central position until, in the end, the amazing experi-
ment of form, the' Wander jahre', quite systematically
eliminates the typical genre characteristics of the
novel by relinquishing the subject-oriented, con-
tinuous plot and the omniscient narrator - thus, of
course, also presenting the reader with a new chal-
lenge.26A collective,27in fact a social, novel is created
as though even the form of the novel were taking the
maxim seriously: 'It takes all people to make up
humanity, and all powers taken together to make up
the world'.28
The moral doctrine of the world organization of
emigrants is short and to the point. 'Moderation in
the arbitrary, industriousness in the necessary' - thus
they formulate their terse commandments. Then
is added: 'Now anyone can put these laconic words
into practice on his way through life as he wishes and
he has a rich text to live by without restrictions'. 29
Consequently, this is indeed a sum of Spinoza's
ethics, which Wilhelm Meister first encounters in the
exhortations of the stranger and which he then, after
errors and confusion, embraces once again.
Amor Dei and Amor Hominum
What especially fascinated Goethe about Spinoza was
- aside from the calming of passions through the
conviction of the 'eternal, the necessary, the legiti-
mate,30 - the 'infinite selflessness' of his doctrine. It
was this conviction that had led to the paradox that
Goethe admired above everything: 'He who really
loves God must not expect God to love him in
return,.3! In her own way, pert Philine is allowed to
voice the sentiments - 'and if I love you, what concern
is it of yours?' However, she has no right to the
content and context of this sentence, for that is re-
120 INTERDISCIPLINARY SCIENCE REVIEWS, VOL. 11, NO.2, 1986
served exclusively for Natalie, the 'saint', the 'perfect
mortal', in whom Wilhelm Meister sees his perfect
happiness.
The closer Goethe's novel gets to its crux, the better
it seems to conceal it. Only in this context can the
misunderstandings that involve Natalie be explained.
Of Natalie, too, it could be said that she is 'much
admired' (in the novel) 'and much criticized' (by the
more recent critiques).32 Absolute positivism in
literature simply does not easily arouse interest,
especially since the key was missing which could have
unlocked Natalie's concept. In this case, as well,
Spinoza's Ethics are relevant.
Goethe himself gave a clue when he wrote to Schil-
ler in reference to the' Confessions of a soul' that he
wanted 'the Christian religion in its purest sense to
appear only in the eighth book of a future gener-
ation,.33 Only Natalie can be meant by this. Indeed,
Jarno does concede that Natalie has the Christian,
the theological, virtues of faith, love and hope,
whereas economical Therese is left merely with
insight, steadfastness and confidence. Certainly, one
cannot speak here of orthodox Christianity.
In the controversy with Jacobi and Lavater, Goethe
had long since taken leave of any otherworldly
orthodoxy. This goes hand in hand with his turning
to Spinoza's 'Deus sive natura'. Goethe calls Spinoza
his 'saint'34 and confides to Jacobi: 'He does not prove
the existence of God, existence is God. And though
others accuse him of being an atheist, I would like
to call him theissimum, indeed christianissimum and
to laud him for it'.35 Even here he already attributes
the 'purest sense' of Christian religion to Spinoza. In
the same fashion, the Johannine concept oflove fuses
with that of Spinoza.
The criticism of forms of traditional religiousness
is exemplified vividly enough by 'Wilhelm Meisters
Lehrjahre', with great discretion in the 'Confessions'
of the Protestant-pietistic canoness and with undis-
guised severity in the story of the Italian Catholic
family (Augustin, Sperata, Mignon). Whereas the
image of the fair soul is considerably marred by
sickliness and exaggerated self-reflection, as well as
'moral and religious fearfulness', the Italian story is
dominated by the monstrous excesses of effusive
superstition and pathological melancholy. Natalie
stands detached from such deficiencies.
The canoness can report strange and curious things
about her niece: she 'refused to show in any way any
kind of love or ... any need for devotion whatsoever
to any visible or invisible being'.36 What she does not
understand is that Natalie's love knows no needs, no
devotion, because she is totally selfless and without
a tinge of the subjective, the arbitrary, the imagined,
which stand out all too clearly in the mentality and
religion of the pious canoness. 'Her behavior towards
the suffering and the needy was inimitable since her
youth', her aunt continues; her action was
'unequaled', says her brother Lothario.37
Wherever Natalie is mentioned, she appears as an
active helper, and she does so with an inborn natural-
 ness, blessed by nature, without the slightest reflec-
tion. The course of her life develops unswervingly
and without the least confusion. Thus she embodies
in her activity, in fact in her very existence, that
'beautiful necessity' celebrated in Herder's dis-
cussions on Spinoza. Her love exceeds any common
degree, goes beyond any passionate eros. When
Wilhelm asks her: 'Have you not loved?' she
answers: 'Never or always!,38 'Never' - that ex-
cludes possession, need, 'cupiditas'. 'Always' - that
is the distinction that Spinoza confers upon the
'Amor Dei'. For only in this way does it come full
circle: selflessness, love of humanity, love of God are
identical.
This is what is said in the concluding fifth part of
Spinoza's 'Ethics', which Goethe was especially fond
of.39'The love of man is stirring, / The love of God
is stirring now' - with these words Faust repeats what
Goethe had realized from Spinoza's tenets on the
'Amor Dei intellectualis', the unity of the love of
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mankind and the love of God. But Faust, unlike
Natalie, immediately loses the feeling again. In her
Notes and Literature Cited
1. Cf. B. Suphan, Goethe und Spinoza. 1783-86. Festschrift zu
der Zweiten Sacularfeier des Friedrichs-Werderschen
Gymnasiums zu Berlin, pp. 159-193, Berlin (1881); W. Dilthey,
Aus der Zeit der Spinozastudien Goethes. In W. Dilthey,
Gesammelte Schriften, Vol. II, pp. 391-415, 2. ed., Leipzig-
Berlin (1921); E. Kiihnemann, Goethe und Spinoza. Jahrbuch
der Goethe-Gesellschaft 15, 279-305 (1929); A. Henkel,
Entsagung. Eine Studie zu Goethes Altersroman, pp. 114-
124,2. ed., Tiibingen (1964); M. Bollacher, Der junge Goethe
und Spinoza. Studien zur Geschichte des Spinozismus in
der Epoche des Sturm und Drangs, Tiibingen (1969);
H. Timm, Gott und die Freiheit. Studien zur
Religionsphilosophie der Goethezeit. Vol. I: Die Spinoza-
Renaissance, Frankfurt a.M. (1974).
2. Goethe, Dichtung und Wahrheit III, 14, Hamburger Ausgabe
(HA), E. Trunz (Ed.) X, p. 35.
3. Goethe, Dichtung und Wahrheit IV, 16, HA X, p. 77.
4. Goethe to Schiller, 9 July 1796.
5. See K. Schlechta, Goethes Wilhelm Meister, p. 72, Frankfurt
a.M. (1953).
6. Spinoza, Ethica IV, Propositio LXVII.
7. Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre VIII, 5, HA VII, p. 540 sq.
8. Spinoza, Ethica IV, Propositio XLII. Cf. ibid. Propositio XLI;
'Laetitia directe mala non est, sed bona: Tristitia autem
contra directe est mala'.
9. Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre VI, HA VII, p. 404. Cf. Spinoza,
Ethica IV, Propositio LXIII, Scholium. Ibid., Appendix, Cap.
XXV.
10. See A. Henkel, Entsagung, pp. 114-124.
11. Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre III, 1, HA VIII, p. 318.
12. Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre 11I,9, HA VIII, pp. 384-392.
13. Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre I, 10, pp. 125-127. and III, 15,
pp. 449-452.
14. Goethe to Eckermann, 4 February 1829. See A. Schone,
'Regenbogen auf schwarzgrauem Grunde' - Goethes Dorn-
burger Brief an Zeiter zum Tod seines GroBherzogs. Gottin-
ger Universitatsreden 65. Gottingen (1979).
15. Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre I, 17, HA VII, pp. 70-72.
16. Goethe, Shakespeare und kein Ende, HA XII, p. 293.
17. HA XI, p. 386 sq.
18. HA XI, p. 395.
19. Spinoza, Ethica II, Propositio XLIV and V, Propositio XXX.
unassuming, mysterious and roughly outlined perfec-
tion, her identity becomes an event, she appears as
calm activity. In this manner, Natalie, the Uncle's
best pupil, leads Wilhelm Meister into the innermost
regions of Spinoza's ethos. She is the epitome of a
new life for the one who loves, a joy to humanity, as
it is pointed out, the true 'fair soul' ,40 which owes its
essence not only to Schiller's theory, but to the spirit
of Spinoza, which makes her into a new 'saint'. It is
evident that, under such conditions, Wilhelm's novel
cannot end like a love novel.
There is no doubt that Goethe was one of the
greatest discoverers and creators of modern subjec-
tivity. His Werther and Faust are virtually mythical
figures of modern times, of the emancipation of the
subject and his absolute volition. The two 'Wilhelm
Meister' novels intone the countertheme, a 'self-
criticism of modern times' ,41 which can hardly be said
to have lost any of its timeliness. Here the clear and
uncompromising voice of Spinoza is the cantus
firmus, whose significance can scarcely be overesti-
mated.
20. Herder, Gott, Siimtliche Werke, B. Suphan (Ed.) XVI, pp. 470
sqq. For a discussion see R. Haym, Herder nach seinem
Leben und seinen Werken, Vol. II, pp. 284 sqq., Berlin (1885);
E. J. Schaede, Herders Schrift 'Gott' und ihre Aufnahme bei
Goethe, Berlin (1934); H. Timm, Gott und die Freiheit, pp.
320 sqq.; P. Kondylis, Die Aufkliirung im Rahmen des neuzeit-
lichen Rationalismus, pp. 629 sqq., Stuttgart (1981).
21. Herder, Gott, Werke XVI, p. 480.
22. Herder, Gott, Werke XVI, p. 500.
23. Cf. H. Schmitz, Goethes Altersdenken im problemgeschicht-
lichen Zusammenhang, § 2, pp. 6-11, Bonn (1959).
24. Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre VIII, 5, HA VII, p. 541.
25. Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre VIII, 5, HA VII, p. 552.
26. Cf. E. Bahr, Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre oder Die
Entsagenden (1821/1829), in Goethes Erziihlwerk. Interpre-
tationen, P. M. Liitzeler and J. E. McLeod (Eds) pp. 379-389,
Stuttgart (1985).
27. See Goethe to J. F. Rochlitz, 28 July 1829.
28. Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre VIII, 5, HA VII, p. 552.
29. Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre III, 11, HA VIII, p. 405.
30. Dichtung und Wahrheit IV, 16, HA X, p. 78.
31. Dichtung und Wahrheit IV, 14, HA X, p. 35. Cf. Spinoza,
Ethica V, Propositio XIX.
32. Cf. especially K. Schlechta, Goethes Wilhelm Meister, pp.
55 sqq.
33. Goethe to Schiller, 18 August 1795.
34. Goethe to Charlotte von Stein, 28 December 1784.
35. Goethe to Jacobi, 9 June 1785.
36. Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre VI, HA VII, p. 419.
37. Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre VI and VIII, 10, HA VII, p. 418, 608.
38. Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre VIII, 4, HA VII, p. 538. The context
evidently echoes Spinoza, Ethica III, Affectuum Definitiones,
VI (Amor).
39. Cf. Spinoza, Ethica V, esp. Propositiones XXXIII sqq.
40. Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre VIII, 10, HA VII, p. 608.
41. See A. Henkel, Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre. Zeitkritik und
Prognose? in A. Henkel, Goethe-Erfahrungen. Kleine
Schriften 1, pp. 117-135. Stuttgart (1982).
The manuscript was received 10 December 1985.
INTERDISCIPLINARY SCIENCE REVIEWS, VOL. 11, NO.2, 1986 121