Classical Humanism and the Challenge of Modernity

Bas van Bommel

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9783110391404
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Geschichte
• Subtopic: Deutsche Geschichte

In scholarship, classical (Renaissance) humanism is usually strictly distinguished from 'neo-humanism', which, especially in Germany, flourished at the beginning of the 19 th century. While most classical humanists focused on the practical imitation of Latin stylistic models, 'neohumanism' is commonly believed to have been mainly inspired by typically modern values, such as authenticity and historicity.
Bas van Bommel shows that whereas 'neohumanism' was mainly adhered to at the German universities, at the Gymnasien a much more traditional educational ideal prevailed, which is best described as 'classical humanism.' This ideal involved the prioritisation of the Romans above the Greeks, as well as the belief that imitation of Roman and Greek models brings about man's aesthetic and moral elevation.
Van Bommel makes clear that 19 th century classical humanism dynamically related to modern society. On the one hand, classical humanists explained the value of classical education in typically modern terms. On the other hand, competitors of the classical Gymnasium laid claim to values that were ultimately derived from classical humanism. 19 th century classical humanism should therefore not be seen as a dried-out remnant of a dying past, but as the continuation of a living tradition.

Part I: The Persistence of Classical Humanism

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19 ^th-century classical humanism: the case of Karl Gottfried Siebelis (1769 – 1843)

“So oft Siebelis die Classe betrat, war ein würdevoller Ernst über sein Antlitz verbreitet. In langsamen, gemessenen Schritten bestieg er das Katheder. Gleich beim Anfange der Stunde sah und hörte man, daß er vom Gegenstande auf’s tiefste erfüllt war und mit ganzer Seele darin lebte und webte.” (Karl Ameis, 1845)

Lithograph (1841) by Julius Fiebiger (1813 – 1883).⁵⁴

Introduction

In this chapter I will describe the ideal of classical education endorsed by the Saxon classicist Karl Gottfried Siebelis (1769 – 1843). As rector of the Gymnasium in Bautzen (Saxony), Siebelis played a leading role in educating the local citizenry of the Oberlausitz, the region around Bautzen, for almost four decades. Throughout his life, he showed a great devotion to classical literature and an unwavering commitment to his educational vocation. As Siebelis’ views were widely shared among classical schoolteachers, they can be seen as representative of 19^th-century classical humanism.⁵⁵

Karl Gottfried Siebelis was born on the 10^th of October 1769 as a baker’s son in Naumburg (Saxony).⁵⁶ Since both his parents died when he was three years old, he grew up in very difficult circumstances under the guardianship of his step-grandparents. Being of lower middle class origin, a university career initially seemed an unlikely prospect. However, as his eminent talents were discovered at the Gelehrtenschule of Naumburg, he was encouraged to graduate. Thanks to a small inheritance from his parents he could afford to study theology, philosophy and philology in Leipzig. As a student, he was extremely poor and had to make some money as a private tutor. In 1798, he got his first official job as conrector of the Stiftsschule in Zeitz (Saxony). In 1804, at thirty-four years old, he was appointed to the rectorship of the Bautzen Gymnasium, a position he would keep for the rest of his life.⁵⁷ Under his leadership, the school developed into a highly-reputed institution, and Siebelis acquired considerable prestige among the local citizenry. As a member of the mayor’s cabinet, he had personal contact with the Saxon king when important decisions concerning the Gymnasium were to be made. On his retirement, he won the honour of being elected a Knight of the Königlicher Sächsischer Zivilverdienstorden, and his financial security was guaranteed by the local citizenry. His private life, however, continued to be miserable. His wife died in 1810, his eldest daughter in 1833. Yet, he found great comfort both in his Christian faith and in the classical studies to which he devoted himself throughout his life with heart and soul. He retired in 1841 because of physical debilitation, only to live on for two more years. He peacefully died in his bed on the morning of the 7^th of August 1843.

Siebelis set out his educational views in various ‘school programs’ (Schul-programme) that were published annually. Four program texts directly relating to classical education were jointly published in 1817 as Vier Schulschriften (henceforth VS).⁵⁸ The 1832 text, Stimmen aus den Zeiten der alten griechischen und römischen Klassikern, was published in an extended version in 1837 (henceforth SZ). A number of other school programs, in which Siebelis expounded the harmonious relationship between classical education and Christianity, were published in 1837 as Disputationes quinque (DQ).⁵⁹ Important and detailed information about Siebelis’ teaching practice is contained in his autobiographical notes, published by his son shortly after his father’s death in 1843 (henceforth AB), as well as in the memoires recorded in 1845 by Siebelis’ student and admirer Karl Friedrich Ameis (1811 – 1870), who attended the Bautzen Gymnasium between 1828 and 1832.⁶⁰ In addition to his educational writings, Siebelis published many academic works. The most important was his well-known Pausanias edition, produced between 1822 and 1828.⁶¹ Siebelis also published textbooks for school use as well as theological works.⁶²

In the first part of this chapter, I will identify nine ‘constitutive’ features of Karl Gottfried Siebelis’ ideal of classical education that I found to be shared by virtually all classical humanists of the time. In the second part of the chapter, I will give an account of Siebelis’ teaching practice. With this twofold portrayal I aim to describe an ‘ideal type’ of 19^th-century classical humanism.⁶³

Nine constitutive aspects of classical humanism

1. Refining human nature

In Siebelis’ view, the “main purpose” of higher education was to educate pupils to “Humanität.”⁶⁴ This term, which I will translate as “humanness,” was greatly popularised by Herder’s Briefe über Humanität – which belonged to Siebelis’ favourite readings.⁶⁵ Siebelis used it to refer to the human condition in which the properties that make a human being a human being are fully developed. To Siebelis, becoming truly ‘human’ was only possible by cultivating “the nobler part of our nature,” that is, “our immortal soul,” which distinguishes us from animals.⁶⁶ He considered it education’s task to “lift” students “above common inclinations” (der gemeine Sinn) and to raise them to a “magnanimous way of thinking” (großherzige Denkungsart).⁶⁷ Siebelis’ educational ideal, then, was emphatically an ideal of elevation. In his view, the human race fell apart in “uncultured and ordinary people who always prefer the useful to the decent” and people who, being “ennobled by humanness and culture (Bildung) esteem human dignity above anything else.”⁶⁸ Only those people who had managed by way of study to acquire a certain nobility of mind he deemed worthy of being called ‘human.’⁶⁹ It is notable that Siebelis spoke of ‘humanness’ instead of ‘humanism. ’ This last term was coined in 1808 by the Bavarian pedagogue Friedrich Immanuel Niethammer (1766 – 1848), who used it as a polemical tool to distinguish the ideal of classical education from another, allegedly inferior ideal of education – based on criteria of efficiency and utility – which he named “philanthropinism” or “animalism.”⁷⁰ Although the term ‘Humanismus’ was picked up by a small number of educationalists, it was only in the second half of the 19^th century that it came to be widely accepted.⁷¹ Until the mid-century, classicists like Siebelis generally preferred the term Humanität, which had been sanctioned by tradition.⁷²

2. Exemplary subject matter

According to Siebelis, cultivating one’s human qualities was only possible by a continuous engagement with an ideal, exemplary subject matter. Students should intensively study “the true, the beautiful and the good,” that is, the three elements of the “Platonic triad,” which was highly popular among classical humanists.⁷³ As the only “aspirations worthy of a human being” were those based on “truth, beauty and morality,” humane education should focus exclusively on what was intellectually, aesthetically and morally exemplary.

3. The classics

Like most humanists, Siebelis was of the opinion that “the true, the beautiful and the good” had never been more perfectly represented “than in the writings of the ancient Greek and Roman classics.”⁷⁴ According to Siebelis, the ancient Greek and Roman authors were called ‘classics’ in the proper sense of the word “because, being endowed with excellent intellectual and moral gifts, they possessed a cultured taste for the true, the beautiful and the good, which they preserved in their writings.”⁷⁵ Therefore, there was no better means to the “advancement of humanness” than to embark on an intensive spiritual dialogue with the great writers of classical antiquity.⁷⁶ It seems never to have occurred to Siebelis that “the true, the beautiful and the good” might also be studied in anything else than classical literature. It is a revealing fact that under his rectorship, German literature was never taught as a separate subject, not to mention French or English literature. Throughout his life, Siebelis adhered to the distinctly traditional view that when it came to education, the Greek and Roman classics were the only kind of literature truly worth studying.⁷⁷

4. Intellectual education

Siebelis laid his beloved Platonic triad at the foundation of his analysis of the individual educational benefits of the study of classical literature. Firstly, classical studies were of eminent importance as a “means to excite, cultivate and exercise the intellectual faculties of the human mind: comprehension (Verstand), judgment and reason, wit and acumen, the faculty of divination and memory.”⁷⁸ The study of classical literature stirred the human mind in so many different ways that Siebelis considered it eminently suited to the “harmonious refinement of our human nature.”⁷⁹

5. Aesthetic education

Besides its intellectual benefit, Siebelis expected classical ...