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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
The outstanding history of the Prussian Academy of Sciences has been written by Adolf Harnack in his Geschichte der Königlich Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, a monumental work which supersedes the earlier French account of Christian Bartholmèss in every respect. But naturally Harnack, in his voluminous treatise, does not offer a connected narrative of the fortunes of the German language in the Academy throughout the two centuries of the existence of that body. This phase is dealt with continuously and brought nearer to date in an article by Gustav Roethe. Roethe, however, is interested chiefly in the modern Deutsche Kommission and considers the entire question from the point of view of this interest. The present paper aims to direct attention once more to the subject as a whole, in the belief that it constitutes in a sense a chapter in the history of the German language.
1 Berlin, Reichsdruckerei, 1900. 3 vols. in 4. Cf. also the shorter account of Wilhelm Dilthey, Die Berliner Akademie der Wissenschaften, ihre Ver gangen-heit und ihre gegenwärtigen Aufgaben (Deutsche Rundschau, CIII, 416 ff., and CIV, 81 ff.).
2 Histoire philosophique de l'Académie de Prusse, depuis Leibnitz jusqu'à Schelling, particulièrement sous Frédéric le Grand. Paris, 1850-1851. 2 vols.
3 Gustav Roethe, Die Deutsche Kommission der Königlich Preussischen A kademie der Wissenschaflen,ihre Vorgeschichte,ihre Arbeiten und Ziele (Neue Jahrbücher für das klassische Altertum, Geschichte und deutsche Literatur, hrsg. von Johannes Ilberg, 31. Band, 16. Jahrg., 1913, pp. 37-74).
4 The statement made by Ludwig Keller, Comenius und die Akademien der Naturphilosophen des 17. Jahrhunderts (Vorträge und Aufsatze der Comenius-Gesellschaft, III, 1), Berlin, 1895, p. 15, to the effect that these academies used the promotion of the German language only as a blind to conceal their real esoteric, political objects from their enemies has not been proved.
5 The work appears in Harnack, op. cit., II, 19 ff. It contains this passage: “Und wird mir kein Teutscher fruchtbringender verdencken, dass ich deutsche, lateinische und andere barbarische oder zierliche Wörther ohne Wahl, wie sie sich zuerst offeriret, jure primogeniturae gebraucht und gnug gehabt, verstanden zu werden.”
6 Harnack, op. cit., II, 26 ff.
7 Ibid., p. 29.
8 Ibid., p. 31.
9 The Ermahnung has been published from the manuscript in the then royal library of Hanover by C. L. Grotefend, Hannover, 1846, and was republished in Weimar Jahrbuch, III, 88-110(1855). For its probable date, 1679 or 1680, see Schmarsow, Quellen und Forschungen, XXIII, 15-16. The most recent edition is that of W. Schmied-Kowarzik : Leibniz, Deutsche Schriften, vol. I, Leipzig, 1916.
10 It has been published in more recent times by Schmarsow, loc cit., Strassburg, 1877. Its original title, which serves to disclose its original purpose, later considerably broadened, was Unvorgreiffliche Gedanken betreffend die aufrichtung eines Teutschgesinnten Ordens. Schmarsow dates it a few years later than the Ermahnung, not as late as 1697, as was previously done. It had first been published in 1717 by Leibnitz's assistant Eccard. See also Schmied-Kowarzik, loc.cit.
11 Grotefend ed., p. 10.
12 Op. cit., pp. 12-13.
13 Op. cit., p. 18.
14 Op. cit., p. 19.
15 Schmarsow ed., p. 47. Subsequent page references in this paragraph refer to the same edition.
16 Harnack, op. cit., II, 71.
17 Ibid., II, 79.
18 Ibid., II, 83-84.
19 Ibid., I, 94.
20 Ibid., I. 98.
21 In a letter to Jablonski of August 30, 1700, Leibnitz mentions a memorandum he wrote for the Elector on the German language. It was probably based upon the Unvorgreiffliche Gedancken. For the letter see Harnack, op. cit., II, 123-124..
22 The full title of Grau's work was: “Die unmassgeblich-neu-angegebene hoch-teutsche Grund- und hoche Landes-Unterrichtung, darinnen durch eine neue Lehr-Art dargethan wird, wie nicht allein die allgemeine angehende Landes-Jugend von dem 4ten Jahr an bis zu Ausgang des 12 ten in allerley vernünftigen Grimden der Künste und Wissenschaften, auch wahrer christlicher Furcht Gottes, sondera auch die ferner aufwachsende bis zu Ausgang des 20ten Jahrs, neben dem Lauff anderer lateinischen Classen und hochen Schulen zu der 4 Haupt-Sprachen und hohen Haupt-Wissenschafften reicher und genugsamer Erkäntniss, in der regierenden Fürsten-Sprache so anzuführen seyn, dass dem gantzen Lande ungewöhnlich viele und grosse Seelen- und Leibes-Nutzen mit wenigem Lern- und Lebens-Kosten glücklich und gesegnet können zugewendet werden, zu hoher Erwegung und gnädigster Beförderung an das teutsche Licht gelegt von Christian Gottlieb Grau, der Welt-Weisheit Professore und des göttl. Wortes Predigern,” Herborn 1695.
23 Harnack, 'op. cit., II, 148.
24 The Oigo is published in the Miscellanea, I, 60-83. It contains many-inaccuracies.
25 Harnack, “Berichte des Secretars der brandenburgischen Societat der Wissenschaften J. Th. Jablonski an den Präsidenten G. W. Leibniz (1700-1715) nebst einigen Antworten von Leibniz,” Abhandlungen der königl. Akad. d. Wissensch. zu Berlin, 1897, No. 124.
26 See Harnack, “Berichte des Secretare,” Nos. 156, 157, 159.
27 Harnack, Geschichte, II, 223.
28 Ibid., II, 224.
29 Ibid., I, 205. This letter of 1711 is undated. The word “Pollacken” is misleading, for the Jablonski family came originally from Bohemia. But the father of Daniel and Johann migrated at an early age to Polish Lissa, where the two boys, whose maternal grandfather was Amos Comenius, lived for some years. See A. D. B., XIII, 523 ff.
30 Harnack, “Berichte des Secretare,” No. 32. Cf. also J. L. Fischer, Frisch's Briefwechsel mit G. W. Leibnitz, Berlin, 1896 (reprint from vol. 2 of Archiv der Brandenburgia), p. 41.
31 Harnack, Geschichie, I, 238.
32 For Stille see A. D. B., XXXVI, 240 ff. Koser, Friedrich der Grosse als Kronprinz, Stuttgart, 1886, p. 130, writes very favorably about him. See also Koser, König Friedrich der Grosse, Stuttgart, 1893, I, passim.
33 Formey, Histoire de l'Académie royale des sciences et des belles lettres de Berlin-, avec les mémoires pour la même année, tirez des registres de cette académie, 1752, p. 152 ff.
34 Harnack, Geschichte, I, 275.
35 Ibid., I, 279.
36 For the original German text cf. Harnack, op. cit., II, 263-268.
37 Ibid., I, 294-295. The order itself is not preserved, but the letter of the curators of July 19 referring thereto is found in the Akademisches Archiv. This order did not of course affect the essays submitted by contestants in the annual prize competitions. They could be written in French, German or Latin.
38 See Prémontval's partly satirical Préservatif contre la corruption de la langue française en Allemagne, Berlin, 2 vols., 1759-1764, mentioned in Harnack, op. cit., I, 312. Cf. also Formey's anonymous Souvenirs d'un citoyen, 1er tome, 1789, p. 165. Maupertuis, the president of the Academy, and Formey, the avowed disparager of Leibnitz, both championed the use of French in the Academy. See Harnack, loc. cit. French of his day, says Formey in the preface to the academic Mémoires of 1745, is almost in the same position as Greek was in the days of Cicero. Maupertuis, in his discourse Des devoirs de l'Académie, printed in Formey's Histoire de l'Académie royale, 1752, p. 144 f., speaks in the same vein, mentioning the perfection of the French language, its facility of expression, French progress in the arts and sciences, and the great number of excellent books in French. Still he feels constrained to defend French against the charge of oversubtlety and of possessing too much bel esprit. His strongest argument in favor of the use of French in the Academy, however, is the statement that the King has willed it so.
39 Harnack, op. cit., I, 237.
40 Ibid., 362.
41 Ibid., 306-307.
42 The letter appears in Œuvres de Frédéric le Grand, XVII (tome II of the Correspondance), Berlin, 1851, pp. 337-338.
43 An interesting commentary upon Frederick's attitude toward German is furnished by the following incident reported by Dieudonné Thiébault, a member of the Berlin Academy at this time. Thiébault came to Berlin early in 1765 to assume his duties as French grammarian at the Berlin military school. In his first interview with Frederick the conversation turned to the subject of languages. Frederick inquired: “Ainsi, monsieur, vous ne savez pas l'allemand?” Thiébault replied: “Non, Sire, mais je l'aurai bientôt appris, par le plan que je me suis tracé à ce sujet.” Whereupon the King, fearing that a knowledge of German might contaminate the French grammarian's French, answered: “Au contraire, monsieur, je vous engage très-fort à ne jamais l'apprendre. C'est un bonheur que vous ne le sachiez pas.” See Thiébault's Souvenirs de vingt ans de séjour à Berlin, 2 vols., Paris, 1860 (published in Barrière's Bibliothèque des mémoirs relatifs à l'histoire de France pendant le 18 e siècle, vols. 23-24), I, 25. A German translation of Thiébault's Souvenirs appeared in Stuttgart in 1901.
44 Cf. Harnack, Geschichte, I, 362.
45 Ibid., I, 459-460.
46 Cf. Koser, König Friedrich der Grosse, I, 513.
47 Charakter Friedrichs des zweyten Königs von Preussen, beschrieben von Anton Friederich Büsching, 2nd ed., Karlsruhe, 1789.
48 Œuvres de Frédéric le Grand, XXIII (tome VIII of the Correspondance), Berlin, 1853, pp. 335-338. For a discussion of the whole subject of Frederick's attitude toward German literature see A. E. Berger, Friedrich der Grosse und die deutsche Litteratur, Bonn, 1890.
49 The title page of the first edition reads: De la littérature allemande; des défauts qu'on peut lui reprocher; quelles en sont les causes; et par quels moyens on peut les corriger. A Berlin, chez G. J. Decker, imprimeur du roi, 1780. A modern edition is provided by L. Geiger in Seuffert's Deutsche Litteraiurdenkmale des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts, Vol. XVI, 1883. Cf. also Suphan, Friedrichs des Grossen Schrift über die deutsche Litteralur, Berlin, 1888.
50 But Josua Maaler's dictionary, Die Teütsch spraach, called by Jakob Grimm (Wb. I, xxi) “das erste wahihafte deutsche Wörterbuch,” appeared as early as 1561.
51 Ueber die deutsche Litteratur, die Mängel, die man ihr vorwerfen kann, die Ursachen derselben und die Mittel, sie zu verbessem. Aus dent französischen übersetzt. Berlin, gedruckt bei G. Jac. Decker, Königl. Hof-Buchdrucker, 1780. This first edition does not mention the name of the translator, but a second edition of 1781 does. Three other German translations also appeared in the latter year.
52 Suphan, op. cit., pp. 57 ff. Herder argued with Goethe in defense of the Academy.
53 Harnack, Geschichte, I, 462-465.
54 Cf. his Sur l'Origine de la langue Allemande, in the Nouveaux Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences et Belles-Lettres, 1783, pp. 531-546. Supplément, 1785, pp. 468-482. See also his La Prusse littéraire sous Frédéric II, 3 vols., Berlin, 1790-1791.
55 See Harnack, Geschichte, I, 394. Somewhat later, however, the attitude of the Academy toward Frederick became more favorable. Cf. the oration of the Swiss historian Johannes von Müller, De la gloire de Frédéric, delivered before the Academy on January 29, 1807 (publ. in his Sämtl. Werke, Stuttgart, 1831-1835, vol. 26, pp. 276 ff.).
56 Cf. Wilhelm Dilthey, Die deutsche Aufklärung im Staat und in der Akademie Friedrichs des Grossen (Deutsche Rundschau, CVII, 21 ff.).
57 Cf. Harnack, op. cit., I, 426-431, for the entire question of the Academy's influence on German literature.
58 Scherer, Geschichte der deutschen Literatur, 15. Aufl., Berlin, 1922, p. 417.
59 Vol. I, p. 154.
60 Geschichte, I, 502.
61 Cf. the quotation from Hertzberg's academic lecture of January 26, 1792, ibid., I, 18.
62 It is preserved as Des Staatsministers von Hertzberg Eingabe an den König, betreffend die Vervollkommnung der deutschen Sprache durch Mithülfe der Akademie, nebst verwandten Actenslücken (January 4 and 9 and April 15, 1792), ibid., II, 322 ff.
63 Harnack, op. cit., I, 522, records that the German members of this time endured all sorts of tyranny and oppression with sheepish indifference. Most of them joined the Philosophische Gesellschaft, a private society in which they enjoyed more freedom and respect.
64 Ibid., I, 612. The prize was awarded to the Berlin preacher Jenisch.
65 Ibid., I, 610, 613.
66 Ibid., I, 509-510 and 532.
67 Ibid., I, 510.
68 Ibid., I, 519-520.
69 Ibid., I, 575.
70 Ibid., I, 604.
71 Humboldt's article is found in the Akademisches Archiv. See Harnack, Geschickte, I, 554.
72 Harnack, Geschichte, I, 677.
73 Part of Haupt's address appears in Harnack, op. cit., I, 991-992. For the full text see Monatsberichte der Königl. Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, 1861, p. 636.
74 Monatsberichte, 1874, pp. 257-274.
75 Cf. Bericht der Akademie an den Staatsminister Folk, betreffend die Einrichtung einer besonderen deuischen Klasse bei der Akademie, 1878. It appears in Harnack, op. cit., II, 600 ff.
76 Cf. Verhandlungen über die Einrichtung einer Deuischen Akademie, 1888-1889. Ibid., II, 603 ff.
77 See especially Sitzungsberichte, 1905, p. 694 ff. On account of death and resignations the personnel of the Kommission naturally is subject to changes. In 1925 it was constituted as follows: Gustav Roethe (geschäftsführendes Mitglied); Konrad Burdach; Wilhelm Schulze; Paul Kehr; Johannes Bolte; Julius Petersen; Edward Schröder of Göttingen; Bernhard Seuffert of Graz, and the ausserakademisches Mitglied Wrede of Marburg. Dr. Behrend is Archivar and Bibliothekar. Not every member of the Kommission is necessarily a Germanist. Thus Hermann Diels, for many years a member, was a classical philologist, and Paul Kehr is an historian. Andreas Heusler of Basel (Ehrenmitglied), the philologian Hugo Schuchardt of Graz (auswärtiges Mitglied), Eduard Sievers of Leipzig (korrespondierendes Mitglied), Gustav Ehrismann (korrespondierendes Mitglied), and Wilhelm Braune of Heidelberg (korrespondierendes Mitglied) are members of the Academy but not associated with the Kommission. Unpleasant incidents have sometimes occurred in connection with appointments to the Academy and Kommission. There have been charges of partizanship made against some of the members. This is not the place, however, for judging the justification of such complaints.
78 See note 3, supra.
79 Since the war this work is confronted by serious obstacles due to the alienation of Prussian linguistic territory from the Reich.
80 The very limited resources of the Academy available for Germanistic work have been somewhat increased by the Julius Rodenberg Stiftung für die Wissenschaft vom deulschen Leben (capital 250,000 Marks).