From Enlightenment to Revolution

Hertzberg, Schlözer, and the Problem of Despotism in the Late Aufklärung

Bibliographic Data

ID9644271
AuthorsJames Van Horn Melton, James Melton (0000-0001-9545-4002, corresponding author)
Year1979
Volume12
Issue2
Pages103-123
Publication date1979-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCentral European History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0008-9389 • E-ISSN: 1569-1616
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0008938900022317
OpenAlexW2145884008
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited17

That many German intellectuals greeted the French Revolution with enthusiasm, but showed little interest in importing it across the Rhine, is a well-known paradox in German history. For Jacques Droz this paradox resulted from the preoccupation of most German intellectuals with the purely ethical implications of the Revolution—in other words, the Germans dealt with the Revolution in the realm of thought but ignored it in the realm of politics. Behind this argument lay the assumption that because the Germans were for the most part “monarchists” rather than “republicans,” they were apolitical

Argument (complex analysis · Economic history · Enlightenment · Enthusiasm · Epistemology · French revolution · German · Political science · Politics · Realm · Theology · Central European and Russian historical studies · European Political History Analysis · German Literature and Culture Studies · History · Law · Philosophy

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