XI
Chapter XI offers a general description of Halle an der Saale, the town where L. will study theology for two years. We learn of the varied history of the town and of the theological faculty, which has hosted Catholics, Lutherans and Pietists, humanists and dogmatic reformers, scientifically-minded theologians and more mystical figures
Time of composition: January 31–February 8, 1944. Time of narration: Summer 1943. Narrated time: 1903–1905.
| at whose feet […] wanted to sit | Although this phrase has obvious Christological implications, it is actually taken from Goethe’s Poetry and Truth. |
| | The University of Wittenberg is where Faust studies in the Chapbook. |
| | A sixteenth-century humanist, to whom Z. has already expressed intellectual fealty on 6/12, where he appears as “Crotus of Dornheim.” |
| “Dr. Kröte, the toad […]” | Kröte means toad in German and was Luther’s favorite insult for Crotus (whose given name actually derived from the Greek satyr Krotos). The quotation is taken from David Friedrich Strauß’s biography of the German humanist Ulrich von Hutten (1488–1523). |
| Holy Communion under both kinds | At Pietist services the faithful receive Communion through both bread and wine. |
| subjective arbitrariness […] objective ties | This opposition recalls very similar terms in Kretzschmar’s Beethoven lectures in chapter VIII. |
| should actually be welcomed | The ideas expressed here derive from Nietzsche’s Ecce Homo (1888), but probably also allude to the so-called Conservative Revolution in Germany during the 1920s. |
| Would it not have been better? | Z.’s critique of scientific theology was heavily inspired by an exchange of letters between TM and his friend Paul Tillich, who also provided TM with a description of Halle around the turn of the century and an overview of the state of theological instruction in Germany at that time. Z.’s mistrust of extreme rationalism and preference for intuition once again stresses his contrast with L. |
| | The fictional fraternity “Winfried” is modeled on the actual fraternity “Wingolf,” of which Paul Tillich was a member when he studied theology at Halle in the early years of the century. |