Christian Fürchtegott Gellert

"To tell the truth through a picture to one who has not much sense." Fabulist Christian Fürchtegott Gellert on his 300th birthday

The great German Enlightenment philosopher and writer Christian Fürchtegott Gellert celebrated his 300th birthday this year.

His fables should be emphasised here as a suggestion for reading evenings in December. Even his earliest works, which were widely praised as masterpieces, brought the young poet great fame. The collection of fables published in 1746 was even praised as the "book of the nation". On the one hand, his relaxed and entertaining narrative style set him apart from his predecessors, who saw literature primarily as standardised, poetic utility texts.

On the other hand, he was able to reach a wider readership and Gellert's "fables and tales" became one of the most widely read books of his time. Even those who could not read heard the stories through hearsay and women were also among the regular recipients. A light, flowing style of writing, which grew out of an original naturalness, corresponded to a new poetology in which, in his opinion, the "excellence of genius" was best revealed.

In this early phase, he was thus one of the pioneers of Stürmer und Dränger. This first required the clarification and valorisation of the written word and its author within society. It is therefore not surprising that many of the 54 fables from the first book thematise the relationship between poetry, poet and readership. Animal characters mirror humans, and so the bee in "The Hen and the Bee" can fly from flower to flower like an author, drawing on different sources and yet creating something individual, innovative and useful. What's more, the fabulist even has a social teaching function: "To tell the truth through an image to someone who does not have much sense."

The role of the poet is therefore inextricably linked to the role of the educator. Another symbol that Gellert chooses as an animal mirror image is the nightingale, following a tradition established in antiquity. The songbird is introduced in ancient Greek poetry as a victim inferior to the mighty hawk, yet the nightingale manages to assert itself, at least ideally, against subjugation by means of its widely audible voice and thus becomes the moral role model or mouthpiece of the narrator. On the one hand, Gellert reshapes the ancient model and adapts it to the spirit of the Enlightenment, which also goes hand in hand with the trivialisation of the original material. On the other hand, he reinvents material and motifs, which he takes from his natural surroundings: the everyday world of Germany. In favour of a rationalisation of society, much of the ambiguity and sensuality of the mythological substance was lost. The basic substance was lost. But Gellert compensates for this loss by conceptually arranging his fables in pairs or groups around the canon of the time and relating them to each other in their sequence.

He also peppered them with leitmotifs: for example, he has the nightingale (= Gellert himself) speak at important points, thus weaving the collection into a meaningful large text. He wants to convey values, such as that talent alone is not enough; only moulding through hard work makes genius. He also uses the stylistic device of satire to quietly criticise society.

He argues in favour of the natural and bourgeois life, exposes the beautiful appearance of the aristocracy, which masks itself with expensive clothing and gives up its very own desire for freedom for high office and an imposed canon of rules. He also criticises the still widespread adherence to superstition, hypocritical piety, avarice and quarrelsomeness. The extreme character traits of the protagonists are often reflected in their experimental set-up.

Gellert thus shows that he is aware of a dark and a light side, both in the public and in the individual sphere, but he calls for a harmonious balancing of both principles by means of rational reason, which he sees as best conveyed through literature as a medium.

However, the fable material was not only passed on in the written word or in oral narration, but also by means of musical settings. The texts were set to music shortly after the collection was published.

Thanks to Gellert's poetry, the role of the author took on a new dimension of depth, while at the same time a new self-image of the bourgeoisie was formed: emancipation, self-determination and individuality. Gellert's guiding principle as a reformer in the areas of morality and ethics transcends all social classes and is aimed at every individual, regardless of their position.

The quality of his fable collections therefore lies on the one hand in their everyday vividness with a high recognition and identification value, and on the other hand in the complex interweaving of the valorisation of literature and poetry, educational momentum and hidden social criticism.

Significant for their quality were not least the translations into several foreign languages that appeared throughout Europe and beyond as early as the 18th century.

And even today it is worth rediscovering them.

Maren Gündel, City Archive

Published in: Official Gazette Radebeul, December 2015