Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim (1719-1803) was one of the most widely read poets of his time and a close friend of many other poets and thinkers. Friendship was a cult in the 18th century, and Gleim was perhaps the most passionate representative of this cult. As a poet, as a genius of friendship, as a literary activist and promoter, he was a central figure in the literary communication of the Enlightenment.
Gleim's first work was already a sensational success: jocular poems of wine and love (1744) modelled on the Greek poet Anacreon. His poems on Frederick II of Prussia and his campaigns in the Seven Years' War were even more successful. Gleim was also widely known as a fabulist. With these and other poems, he provided impetus for literary development. He was one of the most prominent writers of letters of his time.
Gleim began to gather his friends around him in portraits at an early age. Over the years, the walls filled up. At the same time, his library grew. His correspondence with over 500 people took on the characteristics of a manuscript archive. Gleim systematically expanded these collections in order to document the literary development and the culture of friendship of his time, and provided for their preservation in his will.
After his literary successes, Gleim was known as the 'German Anacreon', the 'Prussian Grenadier' or the 'Hüttner'. The active support of many younger poets earned him the nickname "Father Gleim". He remained an authority in the literary world into old age, even though a new generation had long since set the tone.
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The 18th century, the Age of Enlightenment, is also known as the "century of friendship". Gleim himself was a genius of friendship. Friendship in this period was linked to new values and emotionality.
Gleim and his contemporaries orientated themselves on the model of virtuous friendship, which was represented in antiquity by Aristotle. Those who represented the (new) values of the Enlightenment called each other friend. Friendship was not only practised in personal encounters, but also in letters. As more and more people became literate, a new written culture of friendship developed. To this day, friendship is important for people and also for society. How has the culture of friendship changed over the centuries? How do we experience friendship in our own lives? How do social connections change as a result of new media? What is the relationship between love and friendship? As a museum of friendship, the Gleimhaus invites visitors to explore questions about friendship in the past and present.
Tolerance (or forbearance) was one of the great ideals of the Enlightenment. This emerged naturally from two central ideas of the era: Namely, that all human beings are inherently endowed with dignity and fundamental rights and, furthermore, that the various religions and denominations have a common core.
Religions have a lot in common with each other - this idea was not easy to express openly. The philosopher Christian Wolff was expelled from his chair at the University of Halle in 1723 because he had declared that the Chinese could also be virtuous. According to Christian understanding, only Christians could know what God wanted. And even towards the end of the century, Lessing felt compelled not to present these thoughts openly, but to dress them up in a stage play: "Nathan the Wise".
In Enlightenment states, religious freedom was the raison d'être of the state. The Prussian King Frederick II, for example, declared that everyone should "be blessed according to his façon". From a political point of view, this was pragmatic, as the integration of well-educated people of other religions or other origins increased prosperity.
In the 18th century, tolerance was mostly related to religion, but also to culture and anthropology. Herder, for example, believed that geography and experience led to great diversity among people and cultures, but not to different values. From the diversity of religions, cultures and ethnicities, the focus shifted to the commonality, the universal humanity.
The Enlightenment did not begin with a single date and, above all, it is not complete. But it characterised a century in a very special way: The 18th century is regarded as the Age of Enlightenment. The intellectual movement swept across the whole of Europe. In the name of reason, a battle was waged against prejudice and superstition.
The sciences undertook great endeavours to explore the world and the laws of nature. People had become sceptical about the religion of revelation and the belief in miracles. They were replaced by the idea of a 'natural' religion based on reason.
It was no longer original sin that determined the image of man, but his reason, sense of community and sense of justice. Instead of waiting for redemption in the afterlife, people now sought happiness and fulfilment in earthly life. What was new was the idea that all people were inherently endowed with fundamental rights. This led to a new definition: the common good as a state objective.
Throughout the era, there was a certainty that reason and education would bring progress. Education as a person and as a citizen played an important role in this. In this vision of an ethical future, the individual could in turn contribute to the common good.
Enlightenment is a movement - to this day.
Humanity, humanity, human rights, human duties, human dignity, human love - the term "humanity" encompasses all of these. It became a programme in the Enlightenment through the writings of Johann Gottfried Herder.
Reason and goodness characterise human beings. However, according to Herder, they are initially only inherent in human beings. It is only through the development of these dispositions that man achieves humanity. The fact that this is possible at all is in turn a peculiarity of man. Only humans have reason and language and therefore the ability to perfect themselves.
Education therefore plays a central role. Education is to be understood as the acquisition of knowledge and skills, but even more as the development of personality - as the education of people to become human beings. Its goals are freedom of action within one's own life and effectiveness for society.
Linked to this was the confidence that education would lead to the perfection of the individual and society. In this way, he was able to assume constant progress.
Gleimhaus
Museum of the German Enlightenment
Domplatz 31
38820 Halberstadt
Tel: 03941 6871-0
E-mail: gleimhaus@halberstadt.de
