and reworks important ideas from the Masonic tradition, in a way that strives to liberate them from the functions and mechanisms of secrecy specific to this tradition. Herder himself evokes the tradition of the secret societies in the introduction to the treatise, considering them as symptoms of a certain contemporary intellectual movement,“ eine Gährung” – as he puts it, with a concept that, according to a study by Hans-Jürgen Schings, was central to Masonic thought and a favorite metaphor of the Illuminati. Moreover, this concept or metaphor seems to support Koselleck’ s claim that the Masonic ideology was characterized by a utopian faith in progress, anticipating the collapse of the Ancien Regime. I quote:
Die große Anzahl geheimer Gesellschaften, die meistens nur deswegen geheim sind, weil sie sich ans Licht hervorzutreten nicht wagen, zeigen auch in ihren Mißbräuchen und Verderbnissen, dass eine Gährung dabei, deren Wirkungen man nur dadurch vorkommt, daß man die Gemüther der Menschen öffentlich auf allgemeine, bessere Endzwecke leitet. 16
In this passage Herder seems to come to the same conclusion as Koselleck – that the secret societies were in fact revolutionary forces, plotting to overthrow the absolutist regimes in Germany.
Thus, an important, even urgent task for an enlightened ruler would be to canalize this revolutionary energy – this Gährung – into other areas less threatening to the state, such as the reation of a common German spirit and culture. Hence, in this case the reworking of the Masonic model of organization obviously also had a political purpose, of pacifying the secret societies and changing them into instruments of cultural reform, not political revolution. As
Tavola di tracciamento tedesca del 1770 answer to the request of the prince, to make a plan for the construction of a German Gelehrtenbund Herder subsequently changes the Masonic model for a secret society into a model for a definitely public one.
In the dialogue on Freemasonry in the Humanitätsbriefe the ambition was global, concerning alle denkenden Menschen in allen Weltteilen; in the treatise zum patriotischen Institut the goal is a national one, concerning den Allgemeingeist Deutschlands. Comparing the two texts, however, we find that most of the thoughts and even the words are the same. In the“ Teutsche Academy”, as in the sichtbar-unsichtbare Gesellschaft, there shall neither be room for petty partiality, nor for any sort of contempt for other provinces and religions or for the political interests of different estates.“ Because”, Herder adds,“ Germany has only one interest, the life and happiness of the whole”. Thus, the global ideal of Humanität has been replaced by the national ideal a German culture. As instruments of this project of Bildung, of forming a national character, Herder mentions – in this order – language, history and practical philosophy. The following description of how one should go about to form such an academy can
16
16, s. 602
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