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قراءة كتاب Pictures of German Life in the XVIIIth and XIXth Centuries, Vol. I.

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Pictures of German Life in the XVIIIth and XIXth Centuries, Vol. I.

Pictures of German Life in the XVIIIth and XIXth Centuries, Vol. I.

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دار النشر: Project Gutenberg
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PICTURES OF GERMAN LIFE

IN THE


EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES.


SECOND SERIES.




VOL. I.







PICTURES


OF


GERMAN LIFE


In the XVIIIth and XIXth Centuries.




Second Series.



BY

GUSTAV FREYTAG




Translated from the Original by

MRS. MALCOLM.




COPYRIGHT EDITION.--IN TWO VOLUMES.



VOL. I.




LONDON:

CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193 PICCADILLY. 1863.







LONDON:
BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.





CONTENTS.


SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES.


Introduction.--The nation and the individual--Aim of the book--Peculiarities in the development of the German people since the Thirty Years' War



CHAPTER I.


Life of the German Peasant (1240-1790).--The duration of modern nations--German agriculture in the time of the Romans, the Carlovingians, and the Hohenstauffen--Description of the peasants by Neidhart von Reuenthal--Narrative of young Helmbrecht, by Wernher the Gardener--The fifteenth century--The Peasant War--Eberlin von Günzburg--Condition of the peasants after the war; their service and burdens; their different condition according to districts, and deterioration by oppression--First signs of improvement--Description of the German peasant by Christian Garve--Insurrection of the peasantry in 1790, and their present position



CHAPTER II.


The Life of the Lower Nobility (1500-1800).--The country nobles in the sixteenth century--The court nobles--The detrimental effects of the Great War--Description of a wealthy nobleman from 1650-1700--Patents of nobility--Description of the life of the newly-ennobled merchants from 1650-1700--The country nobles and Krippenreiters from 1660-1700--Description of the same from "The Nobleman," by Paul Winckler--Better condition after 1700--Privileges of the nobles--Introduction of a new culture--Gellert--Union of the nobles with the citizens



CHAPTER III.


The German Citizen and his Shooting Festivals (1300-1800).-Gradual development of the citizen class--Decline after the Thirty Years' War--The prize shooting as an example of their former wealth and importance--May feasts of the old citizens--Prize shooting before 1400--Preparations for the festival--The Pritschmeister and procession--Prizes and fortune's urn--Hospitality, and conclusion of the festival--Zurich and Strasbourg--Differences of the festivals according to districts--Their decline--Description of the Breslau "Königschiessens" of 1738, by Kundmann



CHAPTER IV.


The State Policy and the Individual (1600-1700).--The dissolution of the German Empire--The Prince's parties--The despotic official administration--The statesmen after the war--The insecurity of the subject; its influence on the character--Characteristics of the State system in a flying sheet of 1678--Tendencies up to 1740



CHAPTER V.


The "Stillen im Lande," or Pietists (1600-1700).--Tendencies of Protestantism till 1618--Consequences of the war--The older Pietism--Spener--Hatred of worldly pleasures--The women--Self-contemplation and social intercourse--Good effects on morals--The revival--Characters of Petersen and his wife--Narrative of Johanna Eleonora Petersen--Narrative of Dr. Johann Wilhelm Petersen--Fate of this couple, and their revelations--The later Pietism and its aberrations--Opposition--Lamentations of the student, Ernst Johann Semler--Progress of the people through Pietism



CHAPTER VI.


The Dawning of Light (1750).--Changes in the human mind from the invention of printing--Mathematical discipline and natural science--Law--Philosophy and its position with respect to theology--The leaders--Change of literature by Wolf and his disciples--Description of a German city about 1760, its police and artisans--The gentry--Merchants and their commerce--Ecclesiastics, teachers, and schools--Post and travelling--Dress and manners--Sentimentality, tears, and self-contemplation--Marriage a business matter--Women and house duties--Narrative of Johann Salomo Semler--Letter from a bride to her bridegroom in the year 1750






PICTURES OF GERMAN LIFE.



Second Series.






INTRODUCTION.


The Man and the Nation! The course of life of a nation consists in the ceaseless working of the individual on the collective people, and the people on the individual. The greater the vigour, diversity, and originality with which individuals develop their human power, the more capable they are of conducing to the benefit of the whole body; and the more powerful the influence which the life of the nation exercises on the individual, the more secure is the basis for the free development of the man. The productive power of man expresses itself in endless directions, but the perfection of all powers is the political development of the individual, and of the nation through the State. The mind, the spirit, and the character are influenced and directed by the political life of the State, and the share which the individual has in the State is to him the highest source of honour and manly happiness.

If in the time of our fathers and grandfathers the German contemplated his own position among other men, he might well question whether his life was poor or rich, whether hope or sorrow predominated; for his earthly position was in every way peculiar. Whilst he felt with pleasure that he was in the enjoyment of a free and refined cultivation, he was daily oppressed by the harsh despotism, or the weak insignificance of his State, in which he lived as a stranger without the protection of the law; he looked with pride on the gigantic workings of German science, but he perceived, with bitter sorrow, that millions of his countrymen were separated by a deep chasm from the highest results of scientific labour. He found himself amidst the working of a popular energy, which ventured with heroic courage on the boldest conclusions in the realm of mind; and, on the other hand, saw around him narrow-hearted obstinacy, where simple and close results ought to have been the aim. He felt with thousands an eager desire for an object of life which would exalt and animate him, and again he found himself surrounded and shackled by

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