Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

[KALKI]

Karl Wilhelm Friedrich (after 1814: von) Schlegel (10 March 1772 – 12 January 1829) was a German poet, literary critic, philosopher, philologist and indologist. With his older brother, August Wilhelm Schlegel, he was one of the main figures of the Jena romantics.

He was a zealous promoter of the Romantic movement and inspired Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Adam Mickiewicz and Kazimierz Brodziński. Schlegel was a pioneer in Indo-European studies, comparative linguistics, in what became known as Grimm's law, and morphological typology. As a young man he was an atheist, a radical, and an individualist. Ten years later, the same Schlegel converted to Catholicism. Around 1810 he was a diplomat and journalist in the service of Metternich, surrounded by monks and pious men of society




Life and work

Karl Friedrich von Schlegel was born on 10 March 1772 at Hanover, and his father was the Lutheran pastor Johann Adolf Schlegel in the Marktkirche. He studied law at Göttingen and Leipzig, but ultimately devoted himself entirely to literary studies. He moved to Jena where his brother August lived and collaborated with Novalis, Ludwig Tieck, Fichte and Caroline Schelling. In 1797 he published Die Griechen und Römer (The Greeks and Romans), which was followed by Geschichte der Poesie der Griechen und Römer (The History of the Poetry of the Greeks and Romans) (1798). Then he turned to Dante, Goethe and Shakespeare. In Jena he co-founded the Athenaeum, contributing fragments, aphorisms and essays in which the principles of the Romantic school are most definitely stated. They are now generally recognized as the deepest and most significant expressions of the subjective idealism of the early romanticists. After an argument with Friedrich Schiller, Friedrich decided to move to Berlin. There he lived with Friedrich Schleiermacher and met Henriette Herz, Rahel Varnhagen, and his future wife Dorothea Veit-Mendelsohn, a daughter of Moses Mendelssohn and the mother of Philipp Veit.

In 1799 he published Lucinde, an eccentric and unfinished romance, which is interesting as an attempt to transfer to practical ethics the Romantic demand for complete individual freedom.[4] Lucinde, in which he extolled the union of sensual and spiritual love as an allegory of the divine cosmic Eros, caused a great scandal by its manifest autobiographical character, and contributed to the failure of his academic career in Jena [5] where he lectured as a Privatdozent in Transcendental philosophy. In Alarcos, a tragedy (1802) in which, without much success, he combined romantic and classical elements.


Old photo of the cathedral before completion shows the east end finished and roofed, while other parts of the building are in various stages of construction.


Unfinished cathedral, 1856 with ancient crane on south tower.
In 1802 he went to Paris, where he had a circle including Heinrich Christoph Kolbe and edited the review Europa (1803). In Weimar he met with the French authors Germaine de Staël and Benjamin Constant. He lectured on philosophy in private courses for Sulpiz Boisserée, and carried on under Alexander Hamilton (linguist) and Antoine-Léonard de Chézy to study Sanskrit and the Persian language. In his magazine Europe he published about Gothic architecture and Old Masters. In 1806 he and his wife went to visit Aubergenville, where his brother lived with Madame de Staël. In 1808 he published an epoch-making book, Über die Sprache und Weisheit der Indier (On the Language and Wisdom of India). In the same year he and his wife Dorothea joined in the Cologne Cathedral the Roman Catholic Church. From this time he became more and more opposed to the principles of political and religious freedom. He went to Vienna and in 1809 was appointed imperial court secretary at the headquarters and accompanied archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen to war, issuing fiery proclamations against Napoleon and editing the army newspaper. Schlegel was stationed in Pest, during the War of the Fifth Coalition; there he studied the Hungarian language. Meanwhile he had published his collected Geschichte (Histories) (1809)[citation needed] and two series of lectures, Über die neuere Geschichte (On the New History) (1811) and Geschichte der alten und neuen Literatur (On old and new literature) (1815). In 1814 he was knighted in the Supreme Order of Christ.

“ In collaboration with Josef von Pilat, editor of the Österreichischer Beobachter, and with the help of Adam Müller and Friedrich Schlegel, Metternich and Gentz projected a vision of Austria as the spiritual leader of a new Germany, drawing her strength and inspiration from a romanticised view of a medieval Catholic past. ”

In 1815, after the Congress of Vienna he was councillor of legation in the Austrian embassy at the Frankfurt diet, but in 1818 he returned to Vienna. In 1819 he and Clemens Brentano made a trip to Rome, in the company of Metternich and Gentz. There he met with his wife and her sons. In 1820 he started a conservative Catholic magazine Concordia (1820–1823), but was criticized by Metternich and his brother August, in between professor Indology in Bonn and busy publishing the Bagavad Gita. Friedrich and began the issue of his Sämtliche Werke (Collected Works). He also delivered lectures, which were republished in his Philosophie des Lebens (Philosophy of Life) (1828) and in his Philosophie der Geschichte (Philosophy of History) (1829). He died on 12 January 1829 at Dresden, giving a series of lectures.

[KALKI]

Frederich von Schlegel (1772-1829), German philosopher, critic, and writer, the most prominent founder of German Romanticism. Educated in law, he turned to writing. His brother, August Wilhelm von Schlegel, was a scholar and poet. With his brother, August Wilhelm, he published the Athenaeum, the principal organ of the romantic school. He was so impressed with Indic spirituality that he declared:

" When one considers the sublime disposition underlying the truly universal education (of traditional India)...then what is or has been called religion in Europe seems to us to be scarcely deserving of that name. And one feels compelled to advise those who wish to witness religion to travel to India for that purpose...."

(source: In Search of The Cradle of Civilization: : New Light on Ancient India - By Georg Feuerstein, Subhash Kak & David Frawley p. 276).

“The Indians possessed a knowledge of the true God, conceived and expressed in noble, clear and grand language…Even the loftiest philosophy of the Europeans, the idealization of reason, as set forth by the Greeks, appears in comparison with the abundant light and vigor of oriental idealism, like a feeble spark in the full flood of the noonday sun.”

(source: Hinduism Invades America - By Wendell Thomas p. 239 published by The Beacon Press Inc. New York City 1930).

Schlegel study of Sanskrit and of Indian civilization, On the Language and Wisdom of India (1808), was outstanding.

He said that, " There is no language in the world, even Greek, which has the clarity and the philosophical precision of Sanskrit," adding that:

" India is not only at the origin of everything she is superior in everything, intellectually, religiously or politically and even the Greek heritage seems pale in comparison."

[KALKI]

Frederich von Schlegel (1772-1829), German philosopher, critic, and writer, the most prominent founder of German Romanticism. Educated in law, he turned to writing. His brother, August Wilhelm von Schlegel, was a scholar and poet. With his brother, August Wilhelm, he published the Athenaeum, the principal organ of the romantic school. He was so impressed with Indic spirituality that he declared:

" When one considers the sublime disposition underlying the truly universal education (of traditional India)...then what is or has been called religion in Europe seems to us to be scarcely deserving of that name. And one feels compelled to advise those who wish to witness religion to travel to India for that purpose...."

(source: In Search of The Cradle of Civilization: : New Light on Ancient India - By Georg Feuerstein, Subhash Kak & David Frawley p. 276).

“The Indians possessed a knowledge of the true God, conceived and expressed in noble, clear and grand language…Even the loftiest philosophy of the Europeans, the idealization of reason, as set forth by the Greeks, appears in comparison with the abundant light and vigor of oriental idealism, like a feeble spark in the full flood of the noonday sun.”

(source: Hinduism Invades America - By Wendell Thomas p. 239 published by The Beacon Press Inc. New York City 1930).

Schlegel study of Sanskrit and of Indian civilization, On the Language and Wisdom of India (1808), was outstanding.

He said that, " There is no language in the world, even Greek, which has the clarity and the philosophical precision of Sanskrit," adding that:

" India is not only at the origin of everything she is superior in everything, intellectually, religiously or politically and even the Greek heritage seems pale in comparison."

[KALKI]

" India is not only at the origin of everything she is superior in everything, intellectually, religiously or politically and even the Greek heritage seems pale in comparison."

(source: Arise, O India - By Francois Gautier ISBN 81-241-0518-9 Har-Anand Publications 2000. p. 25 ).

He wrote to his friend and comrade, the poet Ludwig Tieck (1773-1853): "Here is the actual source of all languages, all the thoughts and poems of the human spirit; everything, everything without exception comes from India."

(source: On Hinduism Reviews and Reflections - By Ram Swarup p. 105 and The Aryan Hoax: That Dupes The Indians - By Paramesh Choudhary p. 109).

Schelegel speaks of the noble, clear and severely grand accents of Indian thought. He wrote in his book, Indian Languages, Literature and Philosophy, p. 471:

"The divine origin of man, as taught by Vedanta, is continually inculcated, to stimulate his efforts to return, to animate him in the struggle, and incite him to consider a reunion and reincorporation with Divinity as the one primary object of every action and reaction. Even the loftiest philosophy of the European, the idealism of reason as it is set forth by the Greek philosophers, appears in comparison with the abundant light and vigor of Oriental idealism like a feeble Promethean spark in the full flood of heavenly glory of the noonday sun, faltering and feeble and ever ready to be extinguished."

(source: India And Her People - By Swami Abhedananda - p.23-24).

Schegel spoke for his generation when he wrote that:

"In India lay the real source of all tongues, of all thoughts and utterances of the human mind. Everything - yes, everything without exception - has it origin in India." and "The primary source of all intellectual development - in a word the whole human culture - is unquestionably to be found in the traditions of the East."

(source: Oriental Enlightenment: The encounter between Asian and Western thought - By J. J. Clarke p.65).

"India is pre-eminently distinguished for the many traits of original grandeur of thought and of the wonderful remains of immediate knowledge."

"The doctrine of the transmigration of souls was indigenous to India and was brought into Greece by Pythagoras."

"Even the loftiest philosophy of the Europeans, the idealism of reason, as is set forth by Greek philosophers, appears in comparison with the abundant light and vigor of Oriental idealism like a feeble promethean spark in the full flood of heavenly glory of the noonday sun - faltering and feeble and ever ready to be extinguished."

(source: Lectures on the history of literature: ancient and modern p. 126 and Hindu Superiority - By Har Bilas Sarda p. 276 - 280).