The chapter looks at Wilhelm Grimm’s early conception of the philologist as a redeemer of the nation. Grimm was decisively influenced by the university teacher and mentor of both brothers, the law professor Friedrich Carl von Savigny, who was known for his belief that the historicist legal scholar served as the primary custodian of the national legal corpus. Following Savigny’s example, Wilhelm Grimm argued that the philologist must strive to retrieve, clarify, disseminate, and thereby guard the nation’s folk culture. The nation formed the only viable basis for rule, but the nation’s history was not generally known; rather, it had to be explored, preserved, and transmitted by publicly oriented scholarship. In this sense, there was a vital philological dimension to the modern conception of political legitimacy, and the philologist had to assume the important task of reconstructing and reintroducing politically crucial cultural materials for the contemporary world. Inspired by the folktales’ own imagery of resurrection and rejuvenation, Wilhelm Grimm even pictured the philologist as able to reawaken the nation from its slumber.

This chapter focuses on an often-forgotten aspect in the story of Christianity and international law, namely, Judaism, Jews, and the Jew. More specifically, it discusses how Christian antisemitic sentiments – often serving as a precursor to further exclusion of the socially different “Other” – found their way into the doctrines and histories of international law. Antisemitism is a living legacy within Christianity and within the discipline of international law. The text explores this theme by revisiting one of the most famous “fathers” of international legal thought, Friedrich Carl von Savigny (1779–1861)