»We have to know and recognize our own history of thought​«

The spirit of 1800 can still be felt in many parts of the university. Tourists from around the world follow the trail of earlier days. Visitors from Germany and abroad come to Jena to discover the living and working environment of Romantic personalities. One of the people they often come across during their visit is Dr Helmut Hühn. As head of Schiller’s Garden House and the Goethe memorial (which is currently being transformed into a »laboratory«), and as a co-founder and head of the »European Romanticism Research Centre«, he is involved in researching and communicating ideas from around 1800. In this interview, he explains why Schiller’s Garden House is also a Romantic place, what we can still learn from previous conflicts and how he manages to convey the ideas of great intellectuals like Schiller and Goethe.

Interview by Sebastian Hollstein

Why are places like Schiller’s Garden House in Jena so important for gaining a better understanding of Romanticism?

Schiller was driven by a fervent belief in the humanizing and social function of art. His programme of »aesthetic education« was an essential source of inspiration for the Romantic agenda. The early Romanticists tried to reflect on the modern world and heal its wounds. With critical reference to their own times, their thoughts and actions were geared towards (re)establishing the bonds that connected people with themselves, with others and with nature. Every individual was supposed to be a whole person and realize their own unique individuality. The Romanticists advocated for a society built upon the pillars of love and cooperation which was not to be torn apart by division, egoism and competition.

In places like Schiller’s Garden House in Jena, we learn how to move between eras and not be tied too strictly to the present day. We wonder how Schiller might have lived here with his family, how he might have structured his everyday life and work, how he might have shaped his surroundings. We read the letters that he wrote and received, we look at his calendar and Goethe’s diary and discover what he thought and wrote here during the summer months from 1797 to 1799. The atmosphere of a place with such tangible layers of history engenders a very special productivity. The fact that you can visit such historical places is one of Jena’s advantages as a place of study—they provide a space for reflection, interaction and dialogue, and inspire lively and creative conversations. A number of doctoral thesis projects have even been conceived over there (pointing at the bench in front of a small tower known as »Schillers Gartenzinne« or »Schiller’s Merlon«).

You co-founded a central institution, the »European Romanticism Research Centre«, in 2010. What is the idea behind that?

By founding the research centre, we were able to continue the work of the collaborative research centre known as »Weimar-Jena. Culture Around 1800« on a smaller scale and consolidate Romanticism research in Jena. Our aim was to further internationalize the research, with particular attention to European exchange relationships and interconnections. We also wanted to introduce a more interdisciplinary approach and move away from hasty essentializations of the subject, i.e. from the construction of »essential Romantic identities«. After all, there have been conflicting interpretations of the different manifestations of Romantic thought and Romantic representation throughout the past 200 years of engaging this subject. Historicizing, not essentializing, is one of our main ideas.

At the research centre, we look, in accordance with research impulses by Reinhart Koselleck, at the period from 1750 to 1850 as a time of upheavals and transitions that led to the emergence of the »modern age«. With regard to the Romantic movements in Europe, we investigate constellations in art, philosophy, literature, science, religion and society. In doing so, we hope to gain a better understanding of the history of problems that underpin the modern age.

What connections do you make with the present? Why is it important to continue studying Romanticism today?

I am personally interested in historical and cultural conflicts and their transgenerational contexts in the process that is modern age. Such a conflict, for example, is expressed in the radical criticism that philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel addressed to the Romanticists, especially Friedrich Schlegel: He viewed Schlegel as the representative of a modern mentality that misunderstood the freedom of the subject achieved over centuries of struggle, distorting this freedom as arbitrariness and thus losing the ability to mediate with other subjects. Hegel criticized the ironic Romantic subject as one that sees itself as the sole and exclusive decision-making authority for truth, law and duty, and thus undermines the world of legal obligations and moral commitments.

Even though Hegel misrepresented Schlegel’s views, there was a real social and epistemological conflict—one that can also be observed today. I don’t want to back that up with examples from the pandemic, but the problem, i.e. the arbitrary use of one’s own freedom, seems obvious. We, too, are asking how subjective particularity can be overcome, and how intersubjectivity can be lived responsibly. Modern societies face the challenge of justifying themselves on reasonable grounds. In the medium of communication with others, subjects search for procedures to legitimize their orders and their practices. We need a common public in which conflicting views can be formed on the same relevant issues. Schlegel and Hegel experimented with different ways of legitimizing objectivity. But to give you a straight answer, we are not studying Romanticism because we are Romanticists ourselves or because we confuse their world with our own; without an understanding of the problems and conflicts that existed around 1800, we would not be able to grasp how we became the »post-Romantic subjects« we are today. We have to know and recognize our own history of consciousness and thought in order to face the challenges of the present.

How do you manage to communicate Romanticism and its ideas in Jena?

First of all, the keys to all good teaching are in-depth research, careful attention to one’s own present and its unresolved problems, as well as genuinely open and engaging conversations. It is obvious that we aspire to address the great period of our university around 1800 in its various facets and in its significance with special competence in teaching and research—in philosophical terms, that is the late Enlightenment, early Kantianism, early Romanticism and early Idealism; in literary and artistic terms, it is Classicism and Romanticism. This should be our ambition. In addition, there is an interdisciplinary cultural transfer that we are able to achieve, especially in special places like the Garden House. It is an internationally renowned literary place that attracts visitors from around the world, whom we are delighted to welcome year after year. We think beyond the present day here.

How do you convey content when attractions such as the Garden House have to remain closed for a long time?

The ongoing pandemic is a long-term disaster that has highlighted the irreplaceableness of personal encounters. As part of the Hölderlin Year in 2020, we had invited poets to readings and planned an international conference with translators of Hölderlin’s poems. When our plans were thwarted by the pandemic, we had to transform the project. This resulted in a podcast in which people of all ages—including students, researchers and poets—discuss Hölderlin’s work (»Was Hölderlin mir bedeutet« or »What Hölderlin Means To Me«). The participants each read a text by Hölderlin, which then provides an opportunity for them to express their own questions and thoughts. The project has been received with open arms.

We are now thinking about launching another podcast—this time focusing on Schiller. As we look back in the 21st century, what does the university (still) have to do with its namesake? What connects our faculties and current research in various subjects with Schiller? This, we will try to explore during small »expeditions«.