Volume 28, Issue 1

This article deals with a prominent emblem composition by the Stettin theologian Daniel Cramer, which is based on Colossians 2:13-14, one of the most important basic texts of the New Testament that deals with the fundamental relevance of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross for salvation. This article first locates Cramer’s emblem in the context of Martin Luther’s theology and early modern Lutheranism. Furthermore, it examines the heterogeneous way in which the symbol was adapted, interpreted, and disseminated in early modern church furnishings is examined. The focus here is on the analysis of a double change of media: Firstly, it is the metaphor of the sinner’s promissory note, which is transformed in an engraving. In this change of media, however, another change of media takes place. Through God’s activity of writing with the blood of Christ as ink, the certificate of debt becomes the opposite of itself: a carte blanche.

Albrecht von Haller’s ≫Unvollkommenes Gedicht uber die Ewigkeit≪ (1737/42-1748) reflects the reciprocal relationship among empirical observation of the world, imagination and human self-determination. In Haller’s poem, the grief over the death of a friendn triggers religious and secular reflections on finiteness and eternity. Faced with the knowledge of the infinity of time and space in the Copernican universe, the imagination is plunged into a crisis that leaves the speaking and reflecting ego struggling for words. The linguistic search is an open process and the poem remains unfinished - a fragment due to the subject matter. The paper analyzes the poetic process of this crisis and illustrates how the experience of the sublime, evoked by the amazement at the multiplicity of worlds, is mixed with a melancholy fear of one’s own forlornness and placelessness in the face of cosmic infinity.

The essay begins with a discussion of the concepts of chance and contingency from both philosophical and common knowledge perspectives. Subsequently, the essay analyzes Schiller’s rejection of chance as a dramaturgical factor, which he offers in the preface to Die Verschwörung des Fiesko zu Genua. This analysis is conducted with a reference to Lessing’s Hamburgische Dramaturgie. The reading then poses the question: Could Schiller’s figure Fiesko and Lessing’s Orsina be correct in crediting Providence’s hand, despite their misguided perception of their own standing and role? After a brief exploration of the »Schicksalsdrama« genre, which was prominent in the 19th century, the focus then shifts to Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s comedy Die Physiker. In Dürrenmatt’s play, chance emerges as the ultimate principle governing worldly events.

This essay rescues from oblivion the now almost forgotten work of the Polish philologist and publicist Zygmunt Łempicki, who was, due to his renowned German-language publications, a well-known figure in German literary studies in the period between the two World Wars. Of particular interest is Łempicki’s theoretical position in German literary studies at the time, which is examined here. Based on his education in Twardowski’s logical school of Lviv, Łempicki developed an analytical, conceptually and historically honed mode of reflection for literary studies concepts, which allowed him to develop a meta-theoretical critique, the main features of which are still relevant today.

As several studies of Thomas Mann’s novel Der Zauberberg have shown, the novel refers in various complex ways to the so-called ›literature of world-views‹ (›Weltanschauungsliteratur‹), represented by the works of Ernst Haeckel, Oswald Spengler, and others. The article explores one aspect of this relationship, focusing on argumentative techniques that characterize the ›literature of world-views‹. In Mann’s novel, these techniques of argumentation - especially generalizations, analogies and inferences from ›is‹ to ›ought‹ - are shown in a very critical light when they are employed by Settembrini and Naphta; the novel suggests that they are dubious from a moral as well as an epistemic standpoint. However, in other parts of the novel, the same modes of argumentation are used by the protagonist and the narrator to develop a general view of the human, nature, ethics and politics, a view that is meant to surpass the world-views represented by Settembrini and Naphta.

This article focuses on Paula Ludwig’s dream texts (›Traumtexte‹) and her dream conception. Fundamental to understand her concept of dreams is her stay in Munich, where she encountered numerous intellectuals and lovers of culture, including Grete Weisberger and Karl Wolfskehl. It is likely in this context that she came into contact with Ludwig Klages’ dream theories, which have left clear traces in the paratexts of her dream collections. However the development of National Socialism and the outbreak of the Second World War soon disrupted European and world history, which was reflected in Paula Ludwig’s life and work. Accordingly, the article aims to shed light on the incursion of history into Paula Ludwig’s dream world, using a philological and hermeneutic method that also considers biographical, historical and cultural aspects.

The article examines the significance of the Incarnation of Christ for the development of Marshall McLuhan’s media theory. McLuhan’s Catholicism was already a topic of debate in the 1960s and 70s, albeit often in a less than benevolent manner. More recently, however, scholars from the English-speaking world have approached McLuhan’s religious convictions and their possible influence on his media-theoretical considerations in a more nuanced way. Building on this research, the article argues that McLuhan’s understanding of media and their effects, summarized in the famous phrase »The medium is the message«, can hardly be separated from his belief in the Incarnation, which has often been neglected by German scholars. If one takes a closer look at a variety of sources, e. g. letters and essays written from the 1930s onwards, it becomes clear that McLuhan considered human creativity to be the result of the total remaking of human nature by the ›medium of all media‹, i. e. God incarnate, and that it is precisely these christological and anthropological principles that underlie his media theory.

The essay outlines a future ›polemology‹ based on a novel model of polemics. Polemics are ideally understood as ubiquitous, constitutively public, argumentative modes of speech that, using a wide variety of means (especially aesthetic ones) pursue the dual purpose of object annihilation and audience differentiation as polarization. Polemics are characterized by epistemic, aesthetic, and politicalsocial productivity, by theatrical and imaginary features, by their non-dialogical character, by their great situational and historical variability, reflexivity, as well as pronounced morality. The methodological relevance of a general polemology derives from its potential to integrate approaches from the history of ideas as well as social and cultural history. The multiform and paradoxical connection between polemics and artistic autonomy, the medial binding of polemics, and their role in the production of the literary public sphere result in the possibility of a special polemology of literary studies.