Voices of the German Enlightenment / The Legitimacy of Revolution: A Dialogue on France, 1789

First English Translation with Commentary
1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-3-565-03064-4
Verlag: epubli

Buch, Deutsch, Band 6, 56 Seiten, Format (B × H): 135 mm x 205 mm, Gewicht: 91 g

Reihe: Voices of the German Enlightenment

"The nation felt itself too strong in its own powers to be frightened any longer by the phantom of authority."

In August 1789, as the Bastille fell and Europe watched in shock, one of Germany's most influential Enlightenment thinkers penned a passionate defense of the French Revolution. Christoph Martin Wieland's "A Dialogue on the Legitimacy of the Use that the French Nation is currently making of its Enlightenment and Strength" captures a pivotal moment when the old world was crumbling and the new had yet to be born. Available in English for the first time, it documents that rare moment in history when everything seems possible and nothing is certain. As one of the "big four" German Enlightenment writers alongside Kant, Herder, and Schiller, Wieland shaped an entire generation's understanding of politics, reason, and human nature. His influence extended from Goethe to the American Founding Fathers, yet his political writings have remained largely inaccessible to English readers—until now.

This scholarly edition includes Wieland's haunting 1796 addition, written after the Terror had revealed the Revolution's darker turn, making this one of the most honest documents of how even the brightest minds struggled to understand the historical forces they witnessed.

Features:
•Complete new English translation with extensive annotations
•Historical commentary placing the dialogue in context
•Scholarly afterword analyzing Wieland's political theory
•Detailed timeline of the French Revolution and German Enlightenment

Volume 6 in the Voices of the German Enlightenment series, following Wieland's "The Secret of the Order of Cosmopolitans," Herder's "Ideas for a Philosophy of the History of Mankind," Schiller's "What is Universal History," Mendelssohn's "Jerusalem," and Kant's "What is Enlightenment?"

Autoren/Hrsg.

Wieland, Christoph Martin

Weitere Mitwirkende

Delaube, Jean

Über Autor(innen)

Wieland, Christoph Martin
Christoph Martin Wieland (1733-1813) zählt zu den bedeutendsten Vertretern der deutschen Aufklärung. Als Herausgeber des "Teutschen Merkur" prägte er die literarische Szene seiner Zeit. In seinem 1788 erschienenen Werk "Das Geheimnis des Kosmopoliten-Ordens" entwickelt er eine Philosophie des Weltbürgertums, die vernünftige Reformen statt revolutionärer Umbrüche befürwortet. Als Mitglied der Freimaurerloge und enger Verbündeter des Weimarer Kreises bewegte er sich geschickt zwischen höfischer Abhängigkeit und geistiger Freiheit. Seine Werke zeichnen sich durch elegante Ironie und stilistische Feinheit aus, die es ihm ermöglichten, kritische Gedanken in ansprechender Form zu verpacken.