Birthdays should be celebrated – and especially the big ones. No wonder that a group of people gathered on 25 August at the monument for Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803) in Rīga to commemorate the 280th birthday of one of the most influential poets, philosophers, literary critics, theologians and librarians of his time.
"I am really glad that despite the sound of summer we still found time on the last Sunday of August to come today here to Herder“, Raivis Bičevskis welcomed the celebrants gathered around the monument at Herder square in the very heart of Rīga Old Town near the Cathedral Church, while pedestrians and cars passed by like every other day.
The philosophy professor at the University of Latvia hosted the event in honour of the great thinker who at the age of 20 came to Rīga, which back then was part of the Russian Empire but predominantly populated by German inhabitants and a haven of Enlightenment thought.
Herder worked as teacher at the Rīga Cathedral School (Domschule), assistant librarian for the city library and also performed the duties of a pastor's deputy at two suburban churches – the Church of Jesus and the current Old Church of Saint Gertrude.
In what is now the Latvian capital Herder published his first works and also initially developed and matured a number of important concepts and insights that were later reflected in his philosophical ideas which shaped human culture far beyond their time and have a legacy that stretches into the present day.
"Herder grew to be Herderian in Rīga”, is how the Baltic German philosopher Kurt Stavenhagen (1884-1951) aphoristically put it a century ago in 1925 to describe the influence that the years spent in Riga had on Herder.
While residing in Rīga the philosopher came to the conclusion that not only people had characters but also entire nations. And to get to know a nation, he consequentially argued and elaborated in more detail later in his works, one had to at first learn its history, which in turn is closely connected to the people's heritage and language. These ideas on the origin of nations were fundamental for the national awakenings of smaller and suppressed nations in Eastern Europe including the Baltics in the 19th century to the present day.
"We should dedicate this birthday celebration to the hopes of youth, plans for the future and – despite the fact that the era is harsh – remember how a young person like Herder in Rīga thought about himself and his future“, Bičevskis said in his speech. "How he thought about himself as a person who will not only perhaps reform the education system in the local region, but who also had far-reaching plans for the understanding of human nature, language and the world. This desire in him, this youthful and perhaps a little illusionary vigor, this is what we want to honor today.“
Important and instructive stay in Rīga
Herder arrived 1764 in Rīga after studying theology, philosophy, and literature at Königsberg where he had been in close contact with Immanuel Kant, the founder of critical philosophy, as well as with Johann Georg Hamann, one of the Enlightenment’s most prominent critics. The young scholar quickly gained great respect in German intellectual circles and made a name for himself with his stimulating teaching and witty sermons. But after five years, Rīga became too small and narrow for Herder. His ambitions were big and he moved on, travelling first by ship to the French port of Nantes and then on to Paris.
The journey resulted in the posthumously 1846 published Journal meiner Reise im Jahr 1769 (Journal of my journey in the year 1769). Being written as a continuous essay rather then in diary form, the travel book built the nucleus of his many later works and heavily inspired the German romanticist movement of the 19th century.
For the renowned German literary scholar and author Rüdiger Safranski the departure and escape from Rīga and the moment when Herder set out on his sea voyage even marks the beginning of the history of Romanticism, as he points out in his book "Romanticism: A German Affair". But also for Europe as a whole, Herder became one of the spiritual leaders of the Sturm und Drang movement.
Under the impression of his experiences on the infinite sea, Herder set out for new shores in the truest sense of the word.
"What a ship that floats between sky and sea gives us to think about in a wide sphere! Everything here gives our thoughts wings and movement and a wide circle of air!," he wrote euphorically in his Journal, in which he develops revolutionary views and ideas on human development and education, and re-defines his self-identity and individuality. "So I became a philosopher on the ship."
The Journal and letters from Herder also show the importance that his five-year stay in the city had for him. Despite dissenting views on his Rīga period, the stint was a decisive and formative episode in the life of the great thinker and provided Herder impetus to tackle his unfinished four-volume masterpiece Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit (Ideas for the Philosophical History of Mankind, 1784-91) – an all-encompasing synthesis of his thoughts about nature, history, culture, and the very meaning of human experience. Some excerpts from it were read at the birthday celebration that concluded with socialising and a Herder cake.
Widely considered to be his main and greatest work, the historical-philosophical discourse was first published and distributed by the Rīga -based father-and-son publishing house Johann Friedrich Hartknoch. Herder developed a close and lasting friendship during his time in Rīga with the publisher Johann Friedrich Hartknoch (1740-1789) and later his same-named son that were both also publishing major treatises by Hamann and Kant as well as the German translations of the works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778).
"Hartknoch's shop and house was a place that Herder visited almost daily”, Aija Taimiņa wrote in her remarkable account of the Hartknochs and their bookselling business, indicating that the German philosopher owes his first literary success to the publishing house. The Hartknochs published almost all of Herder's works from the Rīga period and continued to further publish Herder's manuscripts until the end of his life in 1803. The family helped the thinker also otherwise and paid him not only generously royalties but also financially supported his travel from Rīga to France by lending him the money for the trip.
'Grandfather of the Dainas'
In an essential contribution in bringing Latvian culture into the spotlight and preservation of its heritage, Herder also researched the Latvian folksongs called dainas that are a form of oral literary art. He was the first to notice and discern the importance and value of the four-to-six-lines verses that embody the collected wisdom and worldview of the Latvian people. "The poetry and music of the Latvians is special and testifies to nature, which was and still is their teacher," the German philosopher once wrote, attributing to the Latvian people also an "insurmountable penchant for poetry“.
Herder was particularly impressed by the harmony and rich symbolism of the dainas, some of which he published in his folk song collections Volkslieder (Folk Songs, 1778/1779) and the slightly modified, posthumous Stimmen der Völker in Lieder (Voices of the People in Song, 1807). Both are the first widely known publications of Latvian folk songs and inspired further collecting activities in the Latvian-speaking provinces of the then Russian Empire – first by local Baltic German intellectuals, and later by members of the emerging Latvian national awakening movement.
Herder's interest in Latvian folk songs seems to have been stirred by the tradition of celebrating Midsummer that he first encountered in summer 1765 while visiting the manor house of a Rīga merchant family at the bank of Lake Jugla and witnessing the festivities of Latvian peasants with their dances, singing and bonfires. Historians assume that this documented episode was a turning point in Herder’s attitude towards folk art and made him have a lifelong interest in folk poetry and songs. The scene was also prominently highlighted in a 2015 exhibition in the Latvian National Library dedicated to Herder’s years in Rīga.
Drawing on a network of diligent correspondents, Herder acquired the songs after his time in Rīga, when he later researched the oral poetry of numerous European peoples and asked clergymen from Vidzeme and Baltic pastors to collect Latvian folk songs and send them to him to Weimar. Some of the preserved original texts, that were written down in Latvian and accompanied by interlinear translations into German, are today kept in the Berlin State Library.
"Herder has, according to very strict criteria known to him, selected these few songs that he has combined – with his Sprünge und Würfe approach – in a completely postmodern manner, put them together and made out of it: Here, these are Latvian texts, they are folk songs“, explains the literary scholar and leading Herder researcher Beata Paškevica from the Latvian National Library, adding that Herder was also the first one to call them folk songs in the German-speaking world and stimulated Baltic German interest in Latvian folklore.
Known as the “Father of Dainas” for his lifetime's work at the turn of the 20th century, legendary Latvian folklorist Krišjānis Barons (1835-1923) later built upon the initial work of Herder in an all-encompassing way. Barons collected and recorded in handwritten form more than 200 000 songs from all over Latvia, ensuring that an oral tradition that had lasted centuries did not perish. To be able to catalogue and cross-reference his monumental collection, he compiled the texts in a filling cabinet called the Dainu skapis – a wooden closet with 70 compartments. This treasure chest is seen as Latvia’s national shrine and in 2001 has been included in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register.
The Dainu skapis is housed and on public display in the Latvian National Library, where an exhibition in 2018 also traced and showcased the path leading from Herder's activities to Barons' work. Using a figurative comparison for the close interrelation between the two principal classifiers of Latvian folksongs, some academics consider Herder to have planted the tree from which Barons made his cabinet, while Paškevica is even not afraid to call the German thinker the "Grandfather of Dainas" – not least because all subsequent collectors of Latvian folksong in the 19th century emulated the standards and premises that Herder had established for classifying them.
Immortalising the memory
In recognition and memory of Herder's work, a monument was erected to him already in 1864 on the occasion of his 120th birthday and the 100th anniversary of his arrival in Rīga – it was the first statue in the city dedicated to a cultural figure. Modelled after the Herder monument in Weimar, the bronze bust on a Gothic plinth was placed next to the Dome and Herder’s former working place in the very old town of Rīga. It is located on the Herder Square that received its original shape after the buildings on the west side of the Rīga cathedral were demolished. Until 1864, the square was called "Square of the Small Scales".
"This is a historically very charged place and a charged point in Rīga“, Pauls Daija, literary scholar and researcher of the Latvian National Library, told the audience at Herder’s birthday celebration, while standing right in front the Herder monument and explaining the former visual appearance of the surrounding area. "Here was the Rīga Cathedral School, the Rīga city library and, very important for booksellers, the main publishing houses and reading societies of Rīga were located here. Among them here around the corner Hartknoch published Herder’s works“
Following World War II the square was emptied for political reasons when the Herder statue that along with other ideologically undesirable monuments was dismantled by the Soviet authorities. While the cast iron pedestal was melted down in a furnace and got lost forever, the war-damaged bust was somehow saved. It was stored at various locations, before it was suddenly re-erected at its original place in 1959 in a historical episode that serves as prime example for the mindset and modus operandi of the ruling Soviet power.
Pivotal for the restoration was the planned visit of the East German political leaders Walter Ulbricht and Otto Grotewohl who, on their way Moscow, wanted to stop over in Rīga.
“Although the tour route led to particularly selected objects so that the guests would not see anything undesirable, the local officials hastily decided to restore the Herder monument, in case the distinguished guests found out that there was a monument to their compatriot in Rīga that could be visited“, recalls the historian Rita Vilciņa.
Being back than employed in the Department for museums, fine arts and monument protection at the Ministry of Culture of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic, Vilciņa was in charge for the restoration of the monument, which was implemented within a very short time with the help of Latvian architects and restoration experts. Every day she had to personally report about the process and progress to her superior, as she wrote in her memoirs published 2005 in an anthology about Herder’s life and work in Rīga .
How much importance was placed in re-erecting the Herder monument is also illustrated by the fact that Vilciņa could even resort to use the personal Volga limousine of the Minister of Culture for transporting the bust. Time was too short, however, to remodel the original plinth, and so the authorities made an effort to ensure that a new pedestal was quickly created for it. In an ironic twist of history, its inscription was ultimately neither in Russian nor German but until today simply states only Herder’s birth and death year, and the deliberately Latvian version of his name: Johans Gotfrīds Herders.
Making Herder live again
In commemoration of his 260th birthday, 200th anniversary of his death and 240th anniversary of his arrival in Rīga, Herder’s legacy was celebrated widely at the end of 2003 and in 2004 and inspired a renewed outpouring of translations, conferences, writings, exhibitions and even art performances. His departure from Rīga also became the basis for the contemporary German-Latvian film and performance project "Euphoria!" that was staged in Weimar, Rīga and other cities.
Some years later, the Latvian film and television production company Hansa Media even let Herder return to modern-day Rīga in a series of episodes, in which the Latvia-based German poet and translator Matthias Knoll played both Herder and his interview partner.
"We produced the series for a project related to the German language with the aim to foster the interest in learning it“, producer Gundega Tabaka told LSM, adding that for the three-part TV series the production team collaborated also with the Rīga Herder Secondary School where pupils can learn the German language in depth starting from the first grade.
Selecting Knoll for the role of Herder and conceptual author of the series was not a random choice. Renowned as translator and advocate of Latvian literature in German-speaking countries, the German poet regularly guides tourists through Rīga on his literary walking tours reciting Latvian poetry and other texts and often passes the Herder monument where he sometimes also stops off to read some text of the German philosopher to his guests.
"I found it a very interesting project and wrote the concept for it on the very same evening on the day I was asked to take part in it“, he remembers.
In a private campaign Knoll later also started to collect money for rebuilding the authentic pedestal for the monument that originally replicated the words Licht, Liebe, Leben (Light, love, life) in reference to Herder’s postulated tenets of humanity, along with his biographical dates and positions held in Rīga. Putting aside tips received during this literary walking tour, Knoll saved up more than 1200 euros and wrote a proposal that includes placing a QR-Code on the pedestal, so that tourists and others can get more information about Herder once they scan the code with their smartphone.
Knoll’s project idea has received so far only a restrained response and the money collection campaign is thus on hold since 2019."I have the impression that it is considered not relevant,“ Knoll stated with mixed emotions in an interview with LSM. Yet he has not completely given up the hope to make his wish a reality someday, indicating that he still has the earmarked money set aside on his bank account and is willing to donate it for the intended purpose. "Maybe it is something for Herder’s 300th anniversary.“
The wish to restore the pedestal is shared by Vilciņa who described in her memoirs how the Herder monument repeatedly became the object of ideologically motivated vandalism during Soviet times. Something similar happened also in autumn 2004 when the statue had to be removed for restoration after is was vandalised. It was set back on its square in 2005 and since then is surrounded by a fence. In the presence of the German ambassador, a Rīga city official said during the opening ceremony that there were few monuments in Rīga that were dedicated to European-rank personalities.
Is Herder still relevant?
Nowadays, however, there seems not to be so much fuss about the great philosopher in Latvia, who certainly can be considered one of the most notable former short term residents of its capital. While much effort is put into reclaiming Richard Wagner (1813-1883) for Rīga by restoring the theatre where the German composer used to serve as Kapellmeister (chief conductor) for a mere three years – and who did not express much enthusiasm for in the city himself – Herder’s fame seems to have waned and appears to be rather forgotten beyond academic and scientific circles.
Only a handful of researchers attended the public birthday celebration from the University of Latvia and the Latvian National Library along with some of their students – no Latvian state officials or representatives of the Rīga City council were anywhere to be seen. Similarly, from the German embassy or the Goethe-Institut no representatives were present at the event dedicated to one of the authors most commonly associated with Weimar classicism, along other famous names such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Schiller and Christoph Martin Wieland.
"In my opinion, there is a disproportion between the popularity of Herder's name and the little-known-ness of his work in our country, while at the same time he has so much to offer – be it in the field of folklore or modern Latvian mythology “ stated the musicologist Mārtiņš Boiko from the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music at the celebration.
The assessment is echoed by Bičevskis for whom Herder is hidden in the shadow of other great philosopher and authors such as Kant or Goethe who also celebrate big anniversaries this year, as he told LSM on the sidelines of the birthday event.
The University of Latvia and Latvian National Library want to overcome this shortcoming and to give more attention to the time Herder spent in Rīga with another festive event dedicated to the philosopher in November. Bičevskis also voiced the hope that the 280th anniversary might initiate more translation of Herder's work into Latvian, so that a wider audience could get acquainted with his thoughts and writings. In addition, several research projects have been started, together with universities in Germany and Estonia. One of them is dedicated to the Herder Institute Rīga – a private German university in Latvia named after the philosopher that existed in the interwar period from 1912 to 1939.
Herder doppelgänger Knoll sees the issue in more pragmatic terms. Given the nowadays generally less developed historical awareness and information overload in the digital age, he considers it "quite logical and comprehensible" that the life and work of the philosopher has fallen out of sight of current generations and is not a household name any more. "You can not nail it into the common knowledge and self-image of the Latvians“, he told LSM, adding that Herder still has managed to leave an everlasting mark in Rīga which most strongly and visibly expressed by his urban presence in form of a monument and square.
"Being a representative of classical Western intellectual culture, Herder is a symbol with which both Rīga and Latvia adorn themselves and thereby enhance their own identity. It is irrelevant who Herder actually was, how and in what way he worked and what specific content he stood for“, Knoll said.
"If he had not been in Rīga, if he had not brought Latvian folk songs into the European consciousness, Herder would be almost completely forgotten in Latvia – as he is in Germany, except for some specialists due to their professional interest.“
