Gold, Guilt and Scholarship Adelbert von Chamisso's Peter Schlemihl Author(s): Marko Pavlyshyn Reviewed work(s): Source:

The German Quarterly, Vol. 55, No. 1 (Jan., 1982), pp. 49-63 Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the American Association of Teachers of German Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/405591 . Accessed: 16/04/2012 10:44
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Gold, Guilt and Scholarship Adelbert von Chamisso'sPeter Schlemihl

MARKO PAVLYSHYN

Adelbert von Chamisso's Peter SchlemihlswundersameGeschichte (writtenin 1813, published 1814) is one of the more frequentlyinterpretedGermanprosetexts of the earlynineteenthcentury.Dorte Brocklists hagen's Forschungsbericht twenty-onestudies of the work for the Yet all of considerable importance.2 criticalinteresthas centeredupon a limitednumberof issues-the genreunderwhichthe tale is best classified or to cat("Marchen" "Novelle"?),the applicability it of the descriptive of egories "romantic"and "realistic,"and the interpretation the symbolic significanceof the shadowmotif-to the relativeneglectof other, equallysignificantquestions.One such criticalgap, to whichthe present paper addressesitself, is the examinationof the scholarlyidyll at the end of the tale in relationto the themesof knowledgeand guilt. Several opinions have been advanced concerningSchlemihl's final situation.Bennovon Wiesesuggeststhat it reflectsChamisso'sapproval of self-denialand self-limitation disinterested in scholarlycontemplation as the only satisfactorysolution for one estrangedfrom the unedifying world of societyand money.3But althoughvon Wieserightlystatesthat the tale admitsof no possibleworldbut that of civil society,, he omits to discussthe natureof the relationshipdevelopedin the tale betweenthis social worldand the researcher Schlemihl.MartinSwalespartlyfills this lacuna by interpreting both Schlemihl'sfinal condition and his original in misdemeanor economicterms.The sale for moneyof his own shadow makeshim guiltyof alienating degrading the statusof an exchange and to While commoditysomethingthat is at once personaland non-material.5 this aspectof Swales'argument persuasive,his accountof Schlemihl's is botanicalactivity-the painstakingcollectionand documentation the of details of nature-as a penance for his previousmaterialismdoes not do justice to the complexityand ambiguityof the ending. In a more recent discussionof the work, Colin Butlerdemonstrates with finessethat such an ambiguityexists, but evaluatesit as a weakness. He expresses disapprovalof the so-called "happy end": as an illusoryreconciliation made possible by the narrativeconventionof the "Marchen"form, it is evidenceof the tale's moralindifference.Responsibility guilt, eleand ments of the centralcharacter'sconsciousnesswhich should be the link
49 period 1945-76 alone.' Since then, at least three new titles have appeared,

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between his private self and the social world, are merely dismissed; reality is "subverted" by Chamisso's "reliance on the 'Marchen.' "6 Butler does not concede that the non-resolution of obvious problems may in this case be a deliberate structural device with a complex, interpretable and socially significant meaning. It seems that the realistic aesthetic of the large-scale nineteenth-century novel, from which Butler draws many of his examples for comparisons with Schlemihl, has led him to demand verisimilitude of psychological causation as a prerequisite of responsible social argumentation in literature. There is little point in taking issue with this position other than by offering an alternative interpretation, according to which Chamisso is more sensitive to his social environment than Butler admits. I The portion of Chamisso's story which deals with Peter Schlemihl's existence as a scientist, though small, nevertheless contains surprisingly complete accounts, both of Schlemihl's scientific practice, and of his personal ideology. The two stand in profound contradiction. Though embellished by the fairy-tale motif of the magical seven-league boots, Schlemihl's botanical, zoological and meteorological studies correspond closely to authentic research undertaken on contemporary voyages of discovery. They converge almost exactly, for instance, with what were to be Chamisso's own duties as official scientist on the expedition of the Russian ship Rurik (1815-1818).' On the basis of Schlemihl's own description, his activity would seem to be motivated by the notion that knowledge worth having consists of a fullness of unadorned facts intelligently interpreted after thorough collation and comparison: Ich streifteauf der Erdeumher,bald ihre Hohen, bald die Temperaturen ihrerQuellenund der Luft messend, bald Tiere beobachtend,bald GewAchse untersuchend; ich eilte von demAquatornachdem Pole, von dereinen mit Welt nach der andern, Erfahrungen Erfahrungen vergleichend.s Yet Chamisso does not permit Schlemihl to espouse the positivist ideal of science which would be logically appropriate to his practice. Instead, he contrives for Schlemihl the following confession concerning his vocation: Ich fiel in stummer Andachtauf meineKnieund vergoB Tranendes Dankes-denn klarstandmeineZukunftvor meinerSeele. DurchfrUheSchuldvon der menschlichen wardich zum Ersatzan die Gesellschaft abgeschlossen, Natur, die ich stets geliebt, gewiesen,die Erde mir zu einem reichenGartengegeben, das Studiumzur Richtung und Kraftmeines Lebens, zu ihremZiel die Wissenschaft. Es war nicht ein Entschlu3, den ich fal3te. Ich habe nur seitdem, was da hell und vollendet im Urbild vor mein inneres Auge trat, getreu in stillem,

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Flei3 strengem, unausgesetztem darzustellen gesucht, undmeine hat SelbstzufriedenheitvondemZusammenfallendes Dargestellten dem Urbildabgehangen. mit (pp.60-61; emphasis.) my The grammatical ambiguityof the word "da" in this passagemakes it possible that Schlemihlis saying one of two equally curious things: eitherthe vision of that singleinspiredmomentprovideshim with an allembracing"Urbild" (perhaps an instantaneousperception of all the knowledgewhichhe laterunravelsin detailin the courseof his scientific labors), or a series of such directperceptionsguides him in the process of observation.In eithercase, a specialorganof supra-sensual cognition is at work. The termsin whichthe passageis couchedcarryassociations remote from scientific rationality. "Seele" is part of the Christian "Urbild" sugvocabularyadopted by the literatureof sentimentality; gests Platonic and idealist contexts; "inneres Auge" belongs to the the theory of the Romanticimagination.The terminologyunderscores fact that, whichevermeaning applies, Schlemihldeliberatelydistances himself from rigorouspositivismand insists on the spiritualdimension of his scientific knowledge, preservingin it an element of revelation. The productof his scholarlylabors, the "Darstellung,"presumablyas it is manifestin his writtenrecords,bearsthe imprintof somethingmore than the empiricalworld. WhenSchlemihl'smethodologicaltheorizingsare confrontedwith the reader'sevidenceof his scientificpractice,however,it becomesevident that the role of the subjectiveforce which he claims accompanieshis pursuitof knowledgeis limiting,ratherthan productive.In a confessional passagehe writes, "ich habe . . vieles auf sich beruhenlassen, vieles raden Sinn vertrauend,der Stimmein mir, so viel es in meinerMacht gewesen, auf dem eigenenWege gefolgt" (p. 53). Yet the actual results of Schlemihl'spursuitof the InnerVoice are not profoundinsights,but some Latin publicationsand a quantitativeexpansionof geographical, meteorologicaland botanicalinformation.These would seem to be the fruits, not of a life inspiredby a vision, but a careerguidedby scholarly researchso rigidly skepticismand caution, and dedicatedto painstaking in positivist that it almost neglects interpretation favor of factual precision: "Ich habe die Tatsachenmit moglicher Genauigkeitin klarer Ordnungaufgestelltin mehrerenWerken,meine Folgerungenund Ansichtenflachtig in einigen Abhandlungenniedergelegt"(my emphasis; p. 66). What, within the poetic logic of the work, is the reason for the inconsistency between Schlemihl's expressed self-consciousnessas a scientist and the principlesimplicit in his work?9The answer becomes transparentthrough the special function which accruesin Schlemihl's discourseto the term "Seele." In Schlemihl'saccount of his revelation quoted above, the phrase "vor meinerSeele," usually a conversational
cliche approximating the English "before the mind's eye," is recharged with meaning: Schlemihl speaks of the soul as the cognitive organ through which he has perceived, "im Urbild," his future vocation. The zu wissen und zu begreifen Verzicht geleistet, und bin, . . . meinem ge-

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readeris remindedthat Schlemihl'ssoul is a participant the plot: had in it been in the devil's hands at the time, no vision would have occurred. Schlemihl'sscientificventure,in fact, is dependentupon his possession of a soul. (Lest this appearan overinterpretation a stylisticaccident, of it shouldbe noted that Chamissois fond of the meaningfulrevitalization of cliches'0and that an identical usage of "Seele" occurs at another importantpoint in the narrative,discussedbelow.)" And yet, for all the ascribesto the significancewhich Schlemihlas narratorretrospectively soul, he had at first displayedlittle interestin it. His initial rejectionof the gray man's proposal to exchangehis soul for his shadow is not the result of principles:"Er [the gray man] war mir von Herzensgrunde Widerwillemehr verhaBt,und ich glaube, daB mich dieser persOnliche als Grundsatzeoder Vorurteileabhielt, meinenSchatten,so notwendig er mir auch war, mit der begehrtenUnterschrift erkaufen"(p. 43). zu Schlemihlis indifferentto any Christian connotationsof the loss of the soul until after he has lost his chances of social happinesswith Mina. Only then does the appearancefrom the gray man's pocket of the damned soul of the rich merchantThomas John move Schlemihlto throw away the purse of Fortunatus,thus ensuringthat the devil shall never tempt him with the returnof the shadow again. This is an act of that at leastthe soul, an abstraction whichSchlemihl salvage,ensuring by had previously little stock, will remainwith him whenshadow,social put prominence,marriageand money have been lost. If Schlemihlcarries over his soul into his new life and stylizes it as the cognitive startingpoint and ideologicalcornerstoneof his scientificenterprise,he does so out of psychologicalneed. Only by makinga virtue of necessitycan he give the severelimitationsimposedupon his life a positiveinterpretation. The contradiction betweenSchlemihl'sscienceand his ideologyremains real: the preservedspiritualdimension of his scientific endeavorsis a mereplay on words, a case of intellectualself-delusionfor the sake of a bearableself-image.
II

Chamisso'sSchlemihlisso structured to challengeits early-nineteenthas century readerto make a judgment of the situation at the end of the tale, which the hero-narrator paints as an idyll of limited contentment and meaningfulactivity.Chamissoprovidescomplexevidencefor such a judgment-evidence, as this paperwill now suggest,whoseinterpretation drawsthe readerto reflectionson aspectsof his social environment. In a narrow sense, Schlemihl'senterprisesas a scientist are morally indifferent,insofar as they are carriedout in isolation and thus have no effects, good or bad, on the human sphere. However, Schlemihl'sactivities in pursuitof knowledgecan be judged by their associationwith
phenomena which, in the given argumentative framework, have an unambiguous moral significance. In Peter Schlemihl it stands the natural sciences in good stead to be seen as the alternative to the acquisition of knowledge by speculation,

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which is assigned a distinctly negative value. This point is made in a passage which has escaped critical attention hitherto,12 but which merits attentive consideration. After fleeing on horseback in the depths of night from the town where he had wooed Mina and had survived the threat to his soul, Schlemihl is joined on his path by a pedestrian, who, after a number of social niceties, begins a monologue. Schlemihl reports: Er entfalteteseine Ansichtenvon dem Leben und der an Welt und kam sehrbald auf die Metaphysik, die die Forderungerging, das Wort aufzusuchen, das aller RAtselLbsung sei. Er setzte die Aufgabe mit vieler Klarheitauseinanderund schritt fuirder deren Bezu antwortung. mit ... Nun schien mir dieser Redekiinstler grol3em Talent ein fest geftigtes Gebaudeaufzuftihren,das in sich selbst begrtindetsich emportrug,und wie durch ich eine innere Notwendigkeitbestand. Nur vermil3te ganz in ihm, was ich eben darin hatte suchen wollen, dessen und so wardes mir zu einemblo3en Kunstwerk, zierliche Geschlossenheitund Vollendungdem Auge allein zur Ergetzungdiente; aber ich horte dem wohlberedtenManne gerne zu, der meine Aufmerksamkeit von meinen Leiden auf sich selbst abgelenkt,und ich hatte mich ihm willig ergeben, wenn er meine Seele wie meinen Verstandin Anspruch genommen hdtte. (My emphasis;p. 53.) The pedestrian, whose identity as the gray man is initially concealed both from Schlemihl and from the reader, sets himself the task of discovering the word which is the answer to all riddles. On the "Marchen" level this undertaking is of a kind with the other folktale motifs in the narrative, and in particular it provides the intellectual equivalent of Fortunatus' magic purse. The latter is the source of infinite wealth, the former promises absolute knowledge. In the tradition of the fairy-tale, the riddle is a constraint on the freedom of the hero; correctly answered, it guarantees his liberty to proceed towards his happy end." The motif found a place in Romantic literature-it plays a role in Klingsohr's "Marchen" in Novalis' Heinrich von Ofterdingen, to mention only the best-known example14-and the pursuit of the magic word or the mysterious language is a favored symbol of the quest and yearning for infinite human freedom in the perfection of knowledge. The pedestrian's self-imposed task, then, reflects an intellectual ambition familiar to the period. The proposed solution to the conundrum bears the qualities of a speculatively deduced philosophical system: inner cohesion, completeness, and mutual interdependence of all its parts. It constitutes an argument for the proposition that the totality of knowledge resides in a system of rational speculation. The philosophical fashion reflected here is, of course, that of all-embracing philosophical systems which had been initiated by Leibniz and intensified by the concentration of philosophical interest since Kant and Fichte on the self and its cognitive activity as the ordering principle of the world.

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Schlemihl's reaction is ambivalent, although it ends in his rejection of the pedestrian's mental experiment. Although he admires the system's aesthetic qualities, admitting freely the great rhetorical mastery of the speaker, he does not find the speech persuasive, as he would have, had it affected his soul as it did his mind. A revitalized cliche again alerts the reader to the fact that had Schlemihl sold his soul to the devil, the rejection would not have taken place. Only after it has been made clear that the pedestrian's philosophical propositions are seductive, but not convincing to one still in the possession of a soul, comes the light of dawn which identifies the pedestrian as the gray man and therefore German Idealism as a thing of the devil. There is, of course, a venerable literary and demonological tradition in which the devil is a sophistical debater and a master of abstract logic. The reason why it should be invoked here in order to demonize speculative rationalism is not clarified within the text, but easily enough understood in terms of a personal antipathy on the author's part. Chamisso had rejected Kantian and Fichtean thought, as well as the speculative and systematic approach to natural phenomena fostered by Schelling, at the time of his turn to the natural sciences." In Peter Schlemihl this judgment stands unsubstantiated on the argumentative level of the textwhich does not diminish its role in the poetic logic of the work. The scene is a deliberately constructed scenario in which Schlemihl distances himself from such philosophizing, and affords the reader an opportunity to judge this move positively, preparing him to give the unassuming empirical method of contributing to knowledge a high evaluation when he encounters it on the final pages. On the other hand, from a different perspective, the natural sciences appear in a negative light. They are placed severely in question by their association, through the intermediary motif of gold, with the devil. The advocate of the intellectual bugbear of philosophical Idealism is also the author of the more palpable evil in the story: gold, or, more precisely, the exchange for gold of an inalienable thing-a shadow. Swales has argued that the initial guilt of Peter Schlemihl stems from his acquiescence in converting into a commodity a naturally given companion of human life:'6 he fails to resist the corrupt materialism which accompanies wealth and dehumanizes all values. The most complete satire on this form of reification occurs in the gray man's attempt to persuade Schlemihl to relinquish his soul: Und, wenn ich fragen darf, was ist denn das fuirein Ding, Ihre Seele? Haben sie es je gesehen, und was denkenSie damit anzufangen,wenn Sie einst tot sind? Seien Sie doch froh, einen Liebhaoerzu finden, der Ihnenbei Lebenszeit noch den Nachlaf diesesX, dieser Wirksamkeit, galvanischenKraft oder polarisierenden und was alles das narrischeDing sein soil, mit etwas Wirklichembezahlen will, namlich mit Ihrem leibhaftigen Schatten, durch den Sie zu der Hand Ihrer Geliebtenund der Erfhllungaller Ihrer Wlnsche gelangenkannen. (pp. 42f.)

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diatribe,nothing-not even a soul-can Accordingto this remarkable have any value unless it be an object. Of course, a soul fails to meet the definition of an object espoused by the materialistand the utilitarian: it cannot be seen, nor can it be put to use. From the gray man's viewpoint, it can at best be considereda luxuryarticle, a hobby item, of interestonly to a limitedclienteleof collectorssuch as himself. In tryingto "invaluable" soul, the persuadeSchlemihlto part with his (intrinsically) devil argues that the soul is "valueless"(in the marketplace). He can thereforeclaim to be magnanimous offering to acceptit in returnfor in somethingwith a socially proven marketvalue: Schlemihl's"corporeal shadow." To borrow for a moment from a familiarterminology,we encounterhere a formulationof the distortedrelationshipbetweenexchangevalue and use value in capitalistsociety. The humorousparadox in the phrase"leibhaftiger Schatten"highlightsthe capacityof the commercialprocessarbitrarily createvalue, even if this involves turning to common senseupsidedown and imparting the immaterial illusion the to of substance. The immaterialthings whose degenerationinto exchangeablecommoditiesis paralleled the sale of the shadow,the tale suggests,are the by indistinct,but nonethelessreal elementsof humanrelationships: respect, admiration,even love. Schlemihldiscoversthat his new gold can transform all of these into purchasable articles.The transformation does not initiallyrequirean act of his volition; at the outset it costs him no more than a passive lie. With time, the business of maintainingan untruth becomes more circumstantial.Initially, the populace of the town to which Schlemihlflees from Thomas John's circleis its own dupe for assuminghim to be an incognitoking; but he thereafternurturesthe illusion, adding deliberatedeceit to his initial involuntaryguilt. Where Schlemihltries to preservehis human emotions from corruption,the evil generated his gold bringshim to grief:his love for Minafounders by when the scandalousorigin of his wealthbecomespublic knowledge.A relationshipwhich he strenuouslystrove to retain at a human, rather than a financiallevel ultimatelyfalls prey to the commercialprinciple which Schlemihlin that instancehad tried to circumvent: Mina is purchased from her parentsby his formerservantRascal, a less scrupulous but more consistent exploiter of wealth than Schlemihl. The wealth which makes possiblethis abominationhas its origin in the same purse that Schlemihlhactreceivedfor his shadow. The consequencesof that unhappy act of exchange, therefore, include suffering for the initial "beneficiary"and for those who innocentlycome within his ambit. The very act of the enjoymentof the gold is paintedas sordid, shameful and guilty; it is performedin secretin a frenzyof self-humiliation: Was denkstdu, Chamisso, ich nun anfing!-O daB
mein lieber Chamisso, selbst vor dir es zu gestehen, macht mich erroten.Ich zog den unglticklichen Sackel aus meinerBrust hervor, und mit einer Art Wut, die, wie eine flackernde sich Feuersbrunst, in mir durchsich selbst mehrte, zog ich Gold daraus, und Gold, und

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mehrGold,und streute auf den es Gold, und immer Estrich,und schrittdariberhin, und lieBes klirren, und warf,meinarmesHerzan demGlanze,an dem mehr zu dem Klangeweidend,immerdes Metalles selbstauf das reicheLager Metalle,bis ich ermtidet sank und schwelgend darin wihlte, mich dartAber walzte.So vergingder Tag, der Abend, ich schloB meineTtlrnichtauf, die Nachtfandmichliegend auf demGolde,und daraufUbermannte der Schlaf. mich (p. 24) The celebrationof the newly acquiredgold is describedas a physical, indeed, an orgiastic excess, as an eruptionof uncontrollableand irrational forces; it is followed by bad conscience, exhaustion, revulsion and remorse.Materialgreed,this passagewould suggest,is a component of the subconscious,usuallyrepressed; explosionsare followedby the its rationaljudgment. If, as this excerptapregretsof the discriminating, avariceis a repressed, in fact naturalelement but parentlydemonstrates, of Schlemihl'spsychic composition, then it would seem that the guilt associatedwith it may well be real and palpable,but it is not the product of his own responsible acts. Thereexists, in otherwords,an a prioriconnection between gold and guilt independentof volition-a conclusion confirmed by the circumstances under which Schlemihlassumes what he comes to regardas his "frilhe Schuld" (p. 60). Unlike the sale of a to soul, the sale of a shadow is not immediatelyrecognizable him (nor to the reader)as a culpableact. Only the associationin folklore of the shadow with the soul makesthe event somewhatuncanny.Add the fact that Schlemihl enters the agreement in a kind of avaricious trance ratherthan in the full possession of his faculties-this is reiteratedno fewerthanthreetimes'7-and it is difficultat any singlepointto discover a willfullyguilty act. On the basis of these observations,one can readilyenoughdiscoverin the gold motif implicationsfor features of the modern economy that were discernible the early nineteenthcentury.'" Schlemihl'seagerness by to possess the magic purse without understandingthe consequences brings to mind the individual's desire to benefit from the capitalist economy without understandingits workings; Schlemihl's failure to escapethe devil exceptby throwingaway the pursesuggeststhe individual's difficulty in opting out of the prevailingeconomic system. The miraculousflow of gold from Fortunatus'purse is reminiscentof the durof generation wealth,for whichopportunities speculative multiplied ing the eighteenthcentury;it is a metaphorfor the growingabstraction of the connectionbetweenwealth and its sources."'It is not, however, the intentionhereto refine and elaboratethese analogies.Theirpurpose is to draw attention to the fact that a historical localization of the functionof the gold motif (and its criticalramifications) both possible is
and plausible, before we address ourselves to the closer examination of Schlemihl's scholarship. It is a consequence of the yoking together of gold and guilt that any

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connection which might be establishedbetween gold and Schlemihl's science must throw a shadow (so to speak) over the latter. Chamisso goes out of his way to ensure that such a relationshipis established. Schlemihldiscoverssome time after his acquisitionof the seven-league boots that his formerservantBendelhas used the remaininghoardsof his otherwise unsanctified ("sonst nicht gesegnetes," p. 64) gold to establisha foundationwhich financesthe buildingand upkeepof a hospital. Institutionalcharityis supportedby money whose origins are far from respectable. Furthermore,Schlemihl uses the remnants of the devil's gold which he finds in his pockets as the financial basis of his scientific enterprise.When the seven-leagueboots are purchasedwith the tainted gold, Chamisso even refers to a cash transaction("bare Bezahlung,"p. 59) in orderto remindthe readerof this fact. As for the whichSchlemihlrequiresbooks, the sextant,and the otherinstruments he purchasesthem, as he says without discomfiture, "mit dem Rest meines Zaubergoldes" 62). (p. What is to be made of the fact that in Peter Schlemihlactivitieswhich the narrative invitesthe readerfrom one viewpointto approve, structure are directlydependenton agencieswhich, in a context developedelsewhere,areto be condemned? Whyis scienceto be seen as a byproductof the evil of wealth? When consideredin connection with the historical developmentof scientific disciplines in Chamisso's day, the paradox seemsless strange.Chamisso,who found his way to the naturalsciences only after rejectingphilosophyand poetryas his chief occupations,was accustomedto reflect on his own relationshipto science, as numerous confirm.20 It is not surprisingthat Peter places in his correspondence Schlemihlappearsto give evidenceof a well-developed(and skeptical) attitudeto the social role of scientificactivity. Fromthe middleof the eighteenthcenturyonward,structural changes in the fundingof scientificresearchbegan to occur throughoutEurope. For reasons which included the growing complexity of scientific disciplines, the need for more expensivepersonneland equipment,and the increasingurgencyof researchto commerce,industryand the military the establishments, sciencesfound new patrons.In England,wheremuch scientific enterpriseserved the progress of the IndustrialRevolution, these patronswere largelyprivate. Institutionsto promote and reward scientific and technologicalingenuity, such as the Society for the Enand Commerceand the Royal Incouragementof Arts, Manufactures stitution of Great Britainwere establishedby public subscriptionor by Industrialists wealthy entrepreneurs.2' engagedscientistsand engineers for researchwith the goal of enhancingefficiency and productivity.22 On the continent,whereneitherthe Industrial Revolutionnor the private patronageof sciencehad yet taken hold, the scienceswere nevertheless blessed with a significantincreasein funding from "enlightened"governmentsmotivated, as a contemporary chroniclerof Germanuniversities puts it, by the "Genius des Jahrhunderts"23and by a competitive spirit between rival courts. The ability to subsidize universities, astronomical observatories, herbariums; botanical gardens, libraries and

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academicsalarieswas, especiallyin Germany,a measureof the glory of the absolute monarchand, like ostentatiouspatronageof the arts, an importantaspectof his self-representation. Although the actual conditions for the pursuit of knowledge improved, the decline of the self-financingamateurscientist in favor of the scientistas the employee, whetherof an industrialconcernor of a state-fundeduniversity,inevitablyput severelyinto question the concept of a disinterestedand free science. In England scientists found themselvesfor the first time pursuingobjectivesdefined, not by their own disciplines,but by industry.In Germany,newly organizeduniversities providedscholarswith salarieswhich permittedthem to live without personalhardship;on the other hand, the universities were stripped of theirtraditionalprivileges,often includingthe rightof self-censorship and the rightto appoint professors.24 Nowheredid the dependenceof the scientiston the public or private patron become more acute than in those branchesof knowledgewhose furtherancerequiredextensivedata. The progressof geography,zoology, meteorology,anthropology,astronomy, and botany (Chamisso's data fromall parts specialinterest)demandedthe collectionof empirical of the globe by means of exploratoryexpeditionsemployingships and hundreds men, and lastingseveralyears.Suchventureswereobviously of the reach of individual scholars or even unassisted scholarly beyond groups, and depended on governmentsor outstandinglyrich private patrons. Scientificactivitywas thereforenecessarilycombinedwith the pursuit of economic and political interests. These interests, however, were entirelybeyond the control of the scholarhimself; still less under his controlwerethe sourcesof the moneywhichsubsidizedhis research. Against the backgroundof this state of affairs the morallyambiguous in connectionbetweenthe motifs of gold and scholarship PeterSchlemihl becomesmore than an accidentof narrativenecessity. Two historicalexamplesmay serve to illustratethe kind of practical dilemmaof sciencewhich finds an echo in Schlemihl.The threevoyages of CaptainJamesCook between1768and 1780wereexplicitlydedicated to scientificgoals: the observationof the transitof Venusfrom a station in the South Seas; the verificationof the existenceor otherwiseof a southerncontinentin the Pacific; and the discoveryof a northernpassage from the BeringStraitto Hudson Bay. The scientificcharacterof at least the first two voyages was visiblein the role playedby the Royal Society in initatingand organizingthem. But the voyagesalso bear witness to the integrationof scientificobjectiveswith those of an empirebuildingcommercialstate. The BritishParliamentvoted ?25,000 from the public purse to finance the second voyage,25not because the first had successfullyperformedits astronomicalobjective-it had not. The financial support carriedthe characterof an investment. The failure of the third voyage to find a passagefrom the northernPacific to the
Atlantic was more than compensated by the discovery of the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), whose convenience as a half-way harbor between China and North America was immediately exploited by trade. From the

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of perspective the scientistin whose name this activitywas carriedout, the gains to knowledge stand in uncertainbalance with the negative effects of the voyages. Georg Forster'srecordof Cook's second voyage deals with the questionwhetherthe discoveryof new peoples repeatedly in the South Seas is sufficientjustificationfor the social disruption,disease and exploitationwhichcontactwith Europeansis boundto bring.26 If this exampleilluminatesthe moral ambiguityof the consequences following upon the collaborationof science and money, the early hisstridentcase of science tory of Chamisso'sown journeyis a particularly benefitingfrom what in terms of our discussionhithertomay be called "tainted gold." The expedition was funded privatelyby the Russian aristocratNikolai Petrovich, Count Rumjantsev(1754-1826),a patron of the sciences on a large scale.27(Chamisso'sreport on the journey Germanpracslightlydeformshis name, in keepingwith contemporary to "Romantsoff.")Apart from the expeditionof the Rurik, he was tice, concernedwith numeroussimilar voyages, financed scholarlypublications and editions of historical sources, provided support to Russian scholars and establisheda major libraryand museum. These ventures were funded from the profits of Rumjantsev'senormouslandholdings in the Ukraine.The 0tates had been acquiredby Rumjantsev'sfather, partly through purchase, but largely as gifts for his services to the of crown as field marshalland as governor-general the Ukrainianterritories. In the latter position, Rumjantsevsen. distinguishedhimself particularlyby supervisingin 1783 the introductionof serfdom. The wereto benefit manvoyageof the Rurik, whose scientificundertakings kind in general,was financedthroughwealthgeneratedby the labor of newly enserfedpeasants. Rumjantsev's As a result of its dependenceon money, scientific researchwhich is entirelylaudable, or at least value-freewhen viewed in terms of its internal justificationsand objectives, becomes enmeshedin social causes of and consequences a morallyuncertaincharacter,whichthe scientistis often incapableof seeing, much less controlling.Such a situationis rein of flectedin the interconnection gold and scholarship PeterSchlemihl. III for The evidencehas now beenmarshalled the evaluativejudgmentof Peter Schlemihlwhich the tale demandsof its reader.Such a judgment can be no simple one. We know that Schlemihl'sguilt rests on no consciously culpableact. He has sold his shadow undermitigatingcircumstances, ignorantof the true state of affairs, deceivedby a cunningadguilt versaryand urgedby subconsciousinclination.But his involuntary innocencein another.Whenhe in this contextis balancedby involuntary freelymakesthe Faustianchoice to sell his soul ratherthan lose Minato intervenes:he loses consciousness.In the former Rascal, circumstance case he cannot be held responsiblefor his action; in the second he is
prevented from implementing his will. Clearly, he is not in control of his own destiny, and not to be judged as one would judge a Faust. Schlemihl

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must be seen to inhabit a moral half-wayhouse. On the one hand he is tainted with the guilt of materialism,into which he has been imperceptiblydrawn.In this respecthe re-enactsthe non-deliberate processby which the individualfinds himself entangledin the contingenciesof the socio-economicsystemwithinwhichhe has no choicebut to live. On the other hand, when all is said and done, he discoversthat he has not acdemonicworld. Even ceptedthe final consequencesof the materialist's he so, he continuesto be a victim of false consciousness: remainsinnothe centlyunawareof the paradoxinvolvedin renouncing devil, yet keeping part of the gold. It is the privilege of Schlemihl as scholar and scientistto benefit(admittedly a limitedextent)from the sinisterprocto esses which create wealth, and yet to have the moral satisfactionof renouncinga pact with the devil. In Peter Schlemihl,then, the readeris invited to see the hero as led along a compromisecourse betweenthe extremesof absoluteguilt and absolute uprightness.Here moral compromiseis a workable modus vivendi, not involvingextremehardship,but at the same time offering only moderatesatisfaction;hereprovisionis made for a humanbeingto develop a favorableself-imagewhich, though remote from the truth, gives life an illusorydimensionof meaning.Withina model of realityin whichthe individualis deniedknowledgeand responsibility, reader's the to judgmentof Schlemihlcannot be a sternone. The affect appropriate such a realityis humor (and not the pathos of tragicchoice, for whose absenceButlerwould criticizeChamisso).28 To underscorethe perceived triviality of human fate, Chamisso's humor banalizeswhateverelements in it display even the potential of he sublimity.Thus the devil is no Mephistopheles; appearsinstead as a salesman. Schlemihlhimself, deprivedof the grandeurof personal decision, retains no more stature at the end of the tale than a comic figure. The secondaryliteraturehas tended, unjustifiably,to evaluate Schlemihl's final fate in emphaticallypositive terms. Feudel speaks of his "heroischeEntsagung"29 Flores considershis enhancedmoand bility "godlike,"3o but in fact Schlemihlas a scientist undergoescontinual trivialization.Gero von Wilperthas demonstrated that Chamisso systematically exploitsthe possibilitiesof the shadowmotif for its comic The potential."3 same could be shown for the motif of the seven-league of boots, which determinesthe character Schlemihl'slife as a scientist. When Chamissocombinesthe wit involvedin the imaginativeexploitation of the motif with slapstickeffects, Schlemihlplays the clown: he scoursthe continentsfrom one side of the globe to the other (thereis a long itineraryof his ports of call) within a single afternoon;after a fall into the Arctic Ocean he oscillates feverishlybetween the torrid and frigid zones, between night and day, in order to find an appropriate for temperature dryingoff. It is difficultto accommodatesuch comicalof ly grotesqueelementsin a seriouslyaffirmativeinterpretation Schlemihl's scholarship. Furthermore, Chamisso makes Schlemihl the object of an ironic jest between author and reader by having him remain unaware of the comical contradictions in his new lifestyle. Following the

Chamisso's Peter Schlemihl

61

traditionof Christian hermits,Schlemihlsettlesin a cave in the desertof Thebais. Into this region, with its historyof devout self-abnegation,he introducesvestiges of middle-classcomfort: his cave is "eine der verbequem und den Schakalenunzuborgensten,die zugleich geratumig, war" (p. 61). He equips himself with the other attributesof a gAnglich bachelor'sdomestic comfort-a tobacco pipe and a dog. By revealing himself as a paradoxicallyconvenienthermit, he opens himself to derision as that whippingboy of Romanticliterature,a Philistine. The relativization Schlemihl'sscientific phase, however, does not of of take comic forms. The most seriousshortcoming his existence always as a scientistis its isolation from life situations,whichreceivesanticipatory formulationearly in the plot. After his orgy of gold production, Schlemihlhas a dream. It takes the form of a static scene, reminiscent in its arrangement a baroqueemblemandthereforeinvitingallegorical of At interpretation. the centeris Schlemihl'sfriendChamissoin his study. He is surroundedby the attributesof his profession as biologist and writer-a skeleton, pressedbotanicalspecimens,works of literatureon the sofa, scientific books open on the desk. The strangestand most significantelement,whichis revealedlast and providesthe exegetickey, is the fact that Chamissois dead. It becomesclearthat all the elementsof the dream-zoology, botany, literature-deal with life only at second remove. The picture of death, therefore, anticipatesSchlemihl'slife, which will have to do with dead plants, dead animals, and the dead impressionsof life in books. As if this were not enough, the skeleton, symbolnot only of deathbut of vanitas, suggeststhat even the value of Schlemihl'sactivitieswill be placed radicallyin doubt. (It need scarcely of be addedthat the presenceof Chamissoas the center-piece this dream -it is, when interpreted,a nightmare-is a self-inflictedirony that reflects Chamisso'sdoubts, amply documentedin his correspondence,32 about his own work as a naturalscientist.) occurs In fact, the trivialization Schlemihl'sscientificachievements of in the final paragraphs the tale, whereit can exertmaximuminfluence of on the reader'spartingimpressionof the book. Not unexpectedly,the situation is humorouslyconceived: Schlemihlcannot reach New Holland, evidentlybecause his seven-leagueboots cannot cross the Timor Sea even by a processof island-hopping. (SevenGermanmiles are about 52.5 km; even with today's geographicalknowledge,the feat would be impossible.)Schlemihl'sscientificinsightsremainincomplete: zum der Dasmerkwtirdige, Verstandnis Erdeundihres und der Kleides, Pflanzen- Tierwelt, sonnengewirkten und so wesentlich Neuholland die Stldsee notwendige und mitihren waren Zoophyten-Inseln miruntersagt, so und war,im Ursprunge schon,alleswasich sammeln zu verdammt erbauen wollte,bloles Fragment bleiben
(pp. 61f.). In this differentiated, subtle, perceptive and, indeed, prophetic portrait of the modern scientist and the business of modern scientific scholarship, the last words equate fragmentation with damnation. It is true that systematic

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philosophyis derided in Peter Schlemihi as rhetoricaldeception; but the empirical methodprovidesno emotionalcompensationfor the totalthe ity of world view which it disenfranchised; undiminished yearning for that unity is echoed in the final "verdammt."Fragmentation, too, is the social experienceof Schlemihlas the modernindividualwho discoversthat the alternative an unreserved to affirmationof the demonism of the economic leviathan is isolation, non-participationand social irrelevance.
Monash University
? DOrteBrockhagen, "Adelbert von Chamisso" in Literatur in der sozialen Bewegung, ed. Alberto Martino, Gtinter Hantzschel and Georg Jager (Tilbingen: Niemeyer, 1977), pp. 373-423. 2 They are, in chronological order, Martin Swales, "Mundane Magic: Some Observations on Chamisso's Peter Schlemihl, " Forum for Modern Language Studies, 12 (1976), pp. 250-62; Colin A. Butler, "Hobson's Choice: a Note on Peter Schlemihl, " Monatshefte, 69 (1977), pp. 5-16; and Gero vqn Wilpert, "A. von Chamisso Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte" in his Der verlorene Schatten. Varianten eines literarischen Motivs (Stuttgart: KrOner, 1978), pp. 20-50. Butler's provocative article, though rarely in agreement with the present author's views, provided numerous stimuli to this paper. Winfried Freund, Adelbert von Chamisso. Peter Schlemihl. Geld und Geist. Ein biirgerlicher Bewui3tseinsspiegel (Paderborn: Schoningh, 1980) could not be consulted before the completion of the manuscript. The book does not, however, touch upon the issues to be discussed here. ? Benno von Wiese, "Adelbert von Chamisso, Peter Schlemihis wundersame Geschichte" in his Die deutsche Novelle von Goethe bis Kafka. Interpretationen, in 2 vols. (Dilsseldorf: Bagel, 1956), I, 97-116, here pp. 102-04. 4 Ibid., p. 106. 1 Swales, p. 261f. 6 Butler, p. 13. ' See Chamisso's register of his activities in his letter to Hitzig from the voyage, in Adelbert von Chamisso, Werke, in 6 vols., 2nd ed. (Leipzig: Weidmann'sche Buchhandlung, 1842), VI, 48. This edition is subsequently referred to in the Notes as Werke. ' Adelbert von Chamisso, Sdimtliche Werke, in 2 vols., ed. Jost Perfahl and Volker Hoffmann (Miinchen: Winkler, 1975), I, 63. All page numbers in the text refer to the first volume of this edition. 9 Some critics have noticed no conflict between Schlemihl's theory and practice. Von Wiese, for instance, asserts that for Schlemihl the world is not the object of "Geftlhl," but of "forschender Verstand" (p. 114), whereas in fact it is the object of both of these. o0Cf. Stuart Atkins, "Peter Schlemihl in Relation to the Popular Novel of the Romantic Period," GR, 21 (1946), pp. 191-208, here p. 203; von Wilpert, p. 49. " See p. 54 below. 21 To my knowledge, the only critic who mentions this passage even obliquely is von Wiese (p. 106). " Mathilde Hain, Rdtsel (Stuttgart: Metzler, 1966), Sammlung Metzler 53, p. 36. " Novalis, Schriften (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1960-1976), I, 301. 15"Mir ist das milBige Construiren a priori und Deduciren und Wissenschaft aufstellen von jedem Quark und Haarspalten, zum Ekel geworden." Werke, V, 376; see also Werke, V, 398. 16 Swales, pp. 261-62. 17".... er hatte mit dem einen Wort [Fortunati GlOcksackel] meinen ganzen Sinn gefangen"; "in mir war noch keine Besinnung"; "Ich kam endlich zu Sinnen" (p. 23). ' Cf. Werner Feudel, Adelbert von Chamisso. Leben und Werk (Leipzig: Reclam, 1971), p. 73.

Chamisso'sPeter Schletnihl

63

'9 P. Rohrmann, "The Central Role of Money in the Chapbook Fortunatus," Neo20

formulation the philologus,59 (1975),pp. 262-72describes motif in its sixteenth-century in as a reflexto conditionsprevailing earlycapitalism.
E.g., Werke, V, 351, 376, 378, 391; VI, 39-40, 52, 57. A. Wolf, A History of Science, Technology and Philosophy in the 18th Century, in schaft und Wirtschaft bis zur industriellen Revolution (Berlin [East]: Akademie-Verlag,

2'

2 vols., 2nd ed. (London:Allen and Unwin, 1962),II, 42; JurgenKuczynski,Wissen1970),p. 122.
Kuczynski, pp. 130f. Christoph Meiners, Geschichte der Entstehung und Entwicklung der hohen Schulen

22
23

unseres Erdteils, in 4 vols. (Gottingen:Johann FriedrichRomer, 1802-1805,Rep. Aalen: Scientia,1973),II, 42. 24 Ibid., IV, 204-05and 214-17. 25 GeorgForster, Werke,vol. I (A Voyage Round the World)(Berlin[East]:AkademieVerlag, 1968),p. 17. 26 Ibid., pp. 133, 182. 27 and "NikolaiPetrovichRumjantsev" "PetrAleksandrovich Rumjantsev Zadunajskij" in Entsyklopedicheskij Slovar, in 82 vols. (Leipzig:F. A. Brockhaus;St. Petersburg: I. A. Efron, 1890-1904). 28 Butler,p. 13. 29 Feudel, p. 78. GQ, 49 (1974),pp. 567-84,here 30 RalphFlores, "The Lost Shadowof Peter Schlemihl," 11Von Wilpert,pp. 42-49.
32

p. 580.

Werke, VI, 52, 53.

***

"Literatur fur's Volk," "Dichter zum Anfassen" gab es beim StadtschreiberFest in Frankfurts Stadtteil Bergen-Enkheim am 29.8. Im tiberfillten Festzelt konnte man einer ganzen Reihe bekannter Schriftsteller nah sein: Fast alle, die einmal Stadtschreiber von Bergen waren, waren gekommen, um ihren achten Kollegen, den Schweizer Peter Bichsel, zu feiern, unter ihnen Peter Rtihmkopf, Peter Hartling, Karl Krolow, Helga Novak and Dieter KOhn, der jiingste Amtsinhaber. Das groi3te Aufsehen galt allerdings dem Festredner des Abends, Max Frisch, der die Laudatio auf seinen Landsmann Bichsel hielt. Frisch warnte eindringlich vor der "ZerstOrung der Menschenwelt." Die Neutronenwaffe der USA, die europaische Unfreiheit, Kritik an einer Politik der Abschreckung statt der Vernunft waren ebenso seine Themen wie die Ohnmacht der Schriftsteller. Wer heute noch schreibe, rechne nicht mehr mit einer Nachwelt, meinte Frisch. Peter Bichsel, den die Jury als einen "Anwalt der Hoffnung und der genauen Worte" pries, wies die Verantwortung des Stadtschreiber-Amtes, Sprache zu wahren und zu fordern, von sich: denn die Folgen einer solchen Aufgabe k6nne er nicht abschatzen. 15r zeigte sich den Bergen-Enkheimern aber dankbar ffor das eine Jahr geschenkter Zeit und versprach, ihnen m6glichst viel von dieser Zeit zurtlckzuschenken. Das Amt des Stadtschreibers von Bergen gilt als der hOchstdotierte Literaturpreis in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland: ffor ein Jahr erhalt der Schriftsteller einen monatlichen Ehrensold von 2.000 Mark und freie Wohnung im Stadtschreiber-Hauschen an der Oberpforte.