Goethe's Reception of Ulrich von Hutten

Summary

Toward the end of the seventeenth book of Dichtung und Wahrheit, Goethe recalls his discovery of the works of the humanist Ulrich von Hutten (1488–1523):“Die Werke Ulrichs von Hutten kamen mir in die Hände und es schien wundersam genug daß in unsern neuern Tagen sich das Ähnliche, was dort hervorgetreten, hier sich gleichfalls wieder zu manifestieren schien” (FA 14:773). This remark is followed by a long quotation from Hutten's autobiographical letter to the Nuremberg humanist Willibald Pirckheimer (1470–1530). In the cited part of the letter,Hutten expresses the desire to be ennobled on his own merit and criticizes the aristocratic attitude towards education. The immediate context of the quotation seems to restrict the significance of Hutten's work to the relation between the nobility and the third-estate. However, Hutten's life and work were of importance not only to the Germany of the Sturm und Drang, but also to Goethe's own life and work, particularly Götz von Berlichingen.

This study will historically and culturally situate Goethe's reception of Hutten. The first part outlines what Hans Robert Jauss calls the Erwartungshorizont by describing the historical forces that made Goethe's reading of Hutten's work possible. It seeks to answer the questions: why was Hutten's work relevant to Sturm-und-Drang Germany and what were the events that Goethe thought were repeating themselves? In the second part, I will examine Götz von Berlichingen in the light of some of Hutten's dialogues, pointing out possible influences of the humanist on the young Goethe.