Napoleon’s German admirers
From Maynard Solomon’s Beethoven:
“For Beethoven’s German and Austrian contemporaries, the Napoleonic image was especially potent: Bonaparte’s admirers included Kant, Herder, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, Schiller, Goethe, Hölderlin, Wielan, and Klopstock. Grillparzer, in his Autobiography wrote, ‘I myself was no less an enemy of the French than my father, and yet Napoleon fascinated me with a magic power … He put me under a spell, as a snake does a bird.’” (p. 134)
Why am I not surprised by that list of names? Are there any military dictators they didn’t or wouldn’t admire?
[Update: Scott Powell reflects upon on Napoleon's place in history. (Via Not PC.)]
Tags: Fichte, Goethe, Grillparzer, Hegel, Herder, Hölderlin, Kant, Klopstock, Maynard Solomon, Napoleon Bonaparte, Schelling, Schiller, Scott Powell, Wielan
