Abstract

›Political Song – Spiritual Song?‹ Friedrich Schlegel as a Poet and Thinker of Peace

Friedrich Schlegel’s political lyric poetry, begun in 1806, was sparked by the defeat of Austria in the 3rd Coalition War with Napoleon, which marked a double turning point in his work. Firstly, it was a departure from a kind of poetry conceived of as an end in itself, especially in the literature dedicated to nationalistic themes; secondly, even before his conversion in 1808, it became a decided turning point towards Christian, particularly Catholic thinking. This political poetry, written between 1806 and 1809, is characteristically dual in character: It oscillates between a political-bellicose and a Christian-pacifist tone, with the latter predominating. This sharply distinguishes his ›patriotic-religious‹ poetry from the nationalistic language of concurrent Prussian writing. After 1809, Schlegel’s decidedly political poetry comes to an end; it occasionally gives way to an affirmative poetry of eulogies, which in the late period also sees itself distinctly as a form of peace poetry. This closes the circle from the Cologne years to Schlegel’s very late philosophy of history in 1828.