JOHANN GOTTFRIED HERDER:

THE VOLK CONCEPT AND THE JEWS

The idea of the ‘national spirit’ of a people is more than anything

else the contribution of Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803). This
thought would prove both positive and negative to the view on Jews
and Judaism. In the same vein as the deists, Enlightenment theology
used morals as the yardstick for examining different religions. Universal-
ism, monotheism and unity of faith across borders of time and space
all belonged to the basic religious values, and Jews and Judaism were
examined accordingly. Thus, as noted earlier, Enlightenment theologians
often defended emancipation of the Jews, despite their often prejudiced
view of them.
With Romanticism came a new interest in nation and nationality, the
other side of this coin being a growing German national chauvinism.
The ideological ferment of such political movements can be traced
back to early Romanticism,1 when the struggle for a united nation
became a matter of urgency for the intelligentsia. Thus central notions
that were used in Germany’s national struggle, such as particularism
and universalism, were transferred to the evaluation of the Jews in the
New Testament and in general. Jews represented particularism, whereas
Western Christian people stood for universalism.
Herder is often considered one of the most important fathers of both
Romanticism and liberal or Enlightenment theology.2 His Romanti-
cism is seen as a counter-rationalistic reaction to the Enlightenment,
although this reaction only concerned rationalistic Enlightenment. Taking
on board and developing the Enlightenment ideas of his time, Herder
added important new aspects, strongly fighting mere rationalism and
creating his own synthesis. The components stem from the rational,

1
See George L. Mosse, The Crisis of German Ideology. Intellectual Origins of the Third
Reich (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1964), 1–30. Mosse primarily discusses the
Kaiserreich, but points to the beginnings of a fully developed völkisch thinking in early
Romanticism.
2
Hans-Wolf Jäger, “Herder, Johann Gottfried”, in Neue deutsche Bibliographie, heraus-
geben von der Historischen Kommission bei der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (Berlin:
Duncker & Humblot, 1969), 602.
52 part i. enlightenment exegesis and the jews

humanistic Enlightenment and from Romanticism,3 with key concepts

being reason, humanity, freedom and a theological stance far removed
from the old Protestantism of his country.4
As a result of his historiographical studies on the world’s national
cultures, Herder pioneered the view of the peoples as being organic,
each having their own life and spirit. In his Ideen zur Philosophie der
Geschichte der Menschheit, 1787, he discusses all known peoples, developing
the idea of a national spirit.5 Such a spirit expresses itself in culture,
philosophy, religion and social life. Using concepts like ‘national spirit’
(‘Nationalgeist’), ‘genius of the people’ (Genius des Volkes), etc.,6 Herder
portrays a national Volk with a mentality, language and mission that is
peculiar to that people, i.e. the German people. However, it is important
to note that ‘nationalism’ at the time of Herder was radical rather than
chauvinistic. Herder himself cherished the French Revolution, being a
cosmopolitan and not holding one nation to be better than another.7

Herder on the Jews

Herder’s new nationalism would prove both positive and negative to

his view on the Jews. The word Volk (‘people’), which referred to the
geographical circumstances as well as inner characteristics of a people,
became an ideologically loaded concept. Herder believed that this
national spirit was given by God during creation and that it was a great
crime to rob a nation of its national character, language and peculiar-
ity of spirit.8 The spirit of a nation shaped its history and governed
its ethos, and so Herder did not approve of outside interference in a

3
See Matthias Schmitz, “Herder, Johann Gottfried”, in Metzler-Philosophen-Lexikon.
Dreihundert biographisch-werkgeschichtliche Porträts von den Vorsokratikern bis zu den Neuen Phi-
losophen, ed. Bernd Lutz (Stuttgart: J. B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1989).
Through listening to Rousseau and through his friendship with J. G. Hamann, Herder
encountered liberal ideas and literature that would become important to his develop-
ment, Jäger, “Herder, Johann Gottfried”.
4
Jäger, “Herder, Johann Gottfried”, 602.
5
Johann Gottfried Herder, Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit, vol. 3 (Riga
und Leipzig: Johann Friedrich Hartknoch, 1787).
6
Wolfgang Tilgner, Volksnomostheologie und Schöpfungsglaube. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte
des Kirchenkampfes, ed. Kurt Dietrich Schmidt, vol. 16, Arbeiten zur Geschichte des
Kirchenkampfes (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1966), 18–19.
7
Jäger, “Herder, Johann Gottfried”, 602.
8
Tilgner, Volksnomostheologie und Schöpfungsglaube, 21–22.