KELLER QUOTES TO INSERT INTO CAFE DEUTSCHLAND TONITE 1-10-26
“Thereafter the world became for me infinitely more beautiful and deeper, life more worthwhile and intense, and death more earnest … (*1880 at 60) p 46 in Gray Gm Poetry
Keller, born 1819, was 29 in 1848, the year of revolutions in Europe and Germany, when the government of the canton provided him with a scholarship for foreign study, which allowed him to study in Heidelberg and Berlin.
Keller, age 60, recalling the Heidelberg lecture by Ludwig Feuerbach that he had attended, and which, as he crossed back across the bridge that evening, set him on fire at the age of 29 …
AI Overview
The Swiss author Gottfried Keller did not simply attend a lecture by Ludwig Feuerbach in Heidelberg, but was profoundly influenced by his philosophy while studying there. He is often associated with the quote that describes the path to truth as a “stream of fire” (Feuerbach literally translates to “fire-brook” or “fire-stream” in German)
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The quote, which is often cited in discussions of Feuerbach’s influence on young Hegelians and German Realism, is:
“There is no other road for you to truth and freedom except that leading through the stream of fire [Feuerbach]. Feuerbach is the purgatory of the present times.”
This quote highlights the transformative, albeit challenging, nature of Feuerbach’s materialist philosophy, which the young Keller embraced as a path to “self-knowledge” (Selbsterkenntnis). He viewed this contact with Feuerbach as a pivotal moment that crystallized his own worldview
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THESE ARE FROM MY FILE:
“5. Keller’s Politics Dec 25 at 8 pm DONE DONE DONE including FN [later: move to Trump pamphlet]”
I cannot take kindly to communism. For one thing, it consists of chimeras, which could never be put into practice without increasing misery, and on the other hand, it seems to be the result of a spreading indolence.
– Keller, Diary entry July 10, 1843, age 24
It’s not late-phase democracy that we should be afraid of, it’s the politicians that it attracts.
– Robert Michels, Political Parties (1911)
1849 Keller is 30. His diary entry on German Revolutionaries is from March 10.
Keller is spending the year in Germany to meet with Feuerbach and to attend Feuerbach’s public lectures in the Heidelberg town hall. It is less than a year after the “revolutions of 1848” have shaken Paris and other European capitals.
We are already having beautiful spring days here. Snow fell during the night, but already the sun, as I write this, is burning away the white coat. But I wouldn’t want to be in Heidelberg if there’s another revolution. I have never met a more stupid and brutal proletariat than here, muttering everywhere about a “republic” [catchword of the French revolution of 1789]. And their so-called “leaders” are cut from the same cloth, namely editors of provincial pamphlets, narrow-minded and brutal fellows. These German revolutionary ‘republicans’ of second and third rank are something I’ve never seen before. They carefully nurse in the common folk all the bad passions–envy, revenge, bloodthirstiness, and lying. [5] 149
1849 Keller’s “notes for Green Henry” in his diary include the following remark on political rhetoric, namely the words “democracy” and “republic.” I paraphrase here a very long, complex paragraph: Beware mere words in political mouths. Men understand words such as ‘republic’ and ‘democracy’ but in spite of their intelligence, are too lazy and weak to put these words into actual practice. Instead, they worship an arbitrary ‘phantom’ or ‘mystical symbol’ such as the abstract word ‘monarch’—which is, however, in itself as worthless as is paper money to the pure gold of a real functioning ‘republic.’ Keller’s aversion to abstractions in politics, and preference for concrete policies, comes up again and again. [6] 358
1843 Zurich, 10 July, Keller is 24, writing in his diary:
“A forlorn rainy day. After a few blossoming spring days in May we have pitched into a wet, rainy early summer…. I cannot take kindly to Communism. For one thing, it consists of chimeras which could never be put into actual practice without increasing misery–because it would overthrow the entire present order of things—not only outwardly, but also inwardly, in the very nature of man. On the other hand, it seems to be the result of a spreading indolence and pleasure-seeking, in the main a sort of short-sighted and greedy jealousy of the rich in this world. In the words of the revolutionary Weitling (Guarantees of Harmony and Freedom, 1842), these people not only want to eat, which is fine, they also want to have it completely “as good as the rich.” You fools! I am completely with you–body and soul–when you want an equal education from the state, equal pay for equal work, and care for the helpless and those unable to work, but if you’re serious about your completely fanatical, world-destroying notions, stay away from me; you can go to madhouse, and as for any of your self-serving greed, go to the devil.
1849 Heidelberg, 10 March, Keller is 30, writing in his diary again. He is spending the year in Germany to meet with Feuerbach and to attend his public lectures in the Heidelberg town hall there. It is less than a year after “the revolutions of 1848” have shaken Paris and European capitals.
“We are already having beautiful spring days here. Snow fell during the night, but already the sun, as I write, is burning away the white coat. But I wouldn’t want to be in Heidelberg if there’s another revolution. I have never met a more stupid and brutal proletariat than here, muttering everywhere about a “republic” [catchword of the French revolution of 1789]. And their so-called “Leaders” are cut from the same cloth: editors of provincial pamphlets, narrow-minded and brutal fellows—I’ve never before seen such as these German revolutionary ‘republicans’ of second and third rank. They carefully nurse in the common folk all the bad passions–envy, revenge, bloodthirstiness, and lying.”
“A forlorn and rainy day. After a few blossoming spring days in May, we have been pitched into a wet, rainy, early summer….”
The previous quotes are David’s translation of Keller’s diary 80 and 149 contra Communism, Dec 22, 2020 exc
The statement “Feuerbach is the purgatory of the present times,” is a attributed to Karl Marx. Context = it appears in Marx’s writings from 1842 (“Luther as Arbitrator between Strauss and Feuerbach”) a reference to the German philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach (1804–1872) and the nature of his work.
- “Feuerbach” means “Fiery Brook” in German. Marx uses this literal meaning to create a pun, suggesting a difficult but necessary path to truth.
- A Necessary Passage: In the context of Christian theology, purgatory is a place of temporary suffering or a cleansing state before entering heaven. Marx used the metaphor of “purgatory” to imply that engaging with Feuerbach’s philosophy was a painful but essential step for contemporary (especially Young Hegelian) thinkers to achieve true understanding and intellectual freedom.
- Critique of Religion: Feuerbach’s central argument in The Essence of Christianity was that God is a projection of alienated human qualities onto a divine, external being, and that philosophy needed to move from theology to anthropology (the study of humanity).
- Foundation for Future Thought: For Marx, Feuerbach’s work was a crucial, radical critique of religion and Hegelian idealism that cleared the way for his own materialist philosophy. Marx argued that there was “no other road for you to truth and freedom except that leading through the brook of fire (the Feuerbach)”.
Café Deutschland – On German Literature, Philosophy, and Culture 