Schiller, Hölderlin e la Rivoluzione Francese. L'eredità di Licurgo e Posa nell'Hyperion

This paper aims to redress current views about the impact of the French Revolution on German culture, focusing on Schiller and Hölderlin. In particular, it examines how German intellectuals were anything but entirely dependent on external, i.e. French, input in their theories of political leadership and constitution; rather, they were well able to rely on genuinely German patterns of thought. The connection Schiller-Hölderlin exemplifies this situation best: the latter’s novel Hyperion (1797-1799) depicts the failure of a political insurrection which, besides forming an obvious link to the French Revolution, uncovers a number of ideas which are to be traced back to the former’s essays Briefe über Don Karlos (1788) and Die Gesetzgebung des Lykurgus und Solon (1789-1790). In so doing, not only did Hölderlin prove his own indebtedness towards his fellow countryman – as well as the importance of Schiller’s so-called minor writings – but also, and most importantly, he used typically German lenses to interpret a French event, thereby providing a clue to understanding the continuity of German culture beyond what is otherwise justly considered a watershed.