Griff und Zeichen verstehen sie sich, und bauen in stillen Taten den großen, edlen Bau der Humanität fort.” Hence, the ideal of Humanität, as developed by Herder in the sense of a reformulation of the Masonic practice of secrecy, consists in a way of overcoming, of tearing down the borders of state, rank and religion. Or as “Ich” says about this almost utopian society: Ich treffe in ihr alles an, was mich über jede Trennung der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft


erhebt, und mich zum Umgange nicht mit solchen und solchen Menschen, sondern mit Menschen überhaupt, nicht nur einführt, sondern auch bildet. Precisely this idea of Bildung, of a society not only introducing, but even educating


its members to Humanität, is crucial here. To achieve this, Herder states in his dialogue on Freemasonry, it was once necessary to have laws, rules, pledges and symbols, but not anymore: For our own time, he concludes, “we have to use the opposite method, pure, light, revealed truth”, reine, helle, offenbare Wahrheit.


V. However – and now I come to the issue of Bildung and to my last point – Herder is


well aware of the fact that truth doesn’t work for itself. On the contrary, reine Wahrheit needs someone to cultivate it and to communicate it, to put it into practice as Bildung. Historically, this has been the self-appointed role of the secret societies, such as Freemasonry or the Knights Templar, who has seen themselves as keepers of a kind of arcane knowledge, “ein Weisheitsgeheimnis”, that certain carefully selected people can be initiated into. In the last part of this paper I am going to show how Herder tries to adapt this Masonic model of cultivation and communication of knowledge for his own time. An important text for understanding how Herder takes up the model of the secret society and tries to adapt it to contemporary, Enlightenment purposes, first and foremost, by insisting on its fundamentally open and public character, is a rather small treatise written in 1787, with the title: “Idee zum ersten patriotischen Institut für den Allgemeingeist Deutschlands”. In fact, the idea to this essay came from one of the enlightened German princes of the time, count Karl Friedrich von Baden. The count was a strong supporter of the idea of a German league of princes, ein Fürstenbund, and as a parallel to this political vision, he considered founding a league of scholars, writers and thinkers, ein Gelehrtenbund, that – he thought – would contribute greatly to creating a common German spirit, ein Allgemeingeist Deutschlands. For a long time the count had been an admirer of Herder and his works and now he wanted him to develop his great vision into a practicable plan. After several requests Herder complied and wrote the already mentioned text that was sent to Carl August, the prince and ruler of Sachsen- Weimar, in December 1787. The main thought in the treatise – that Herder had from Karl Friedrich von Baden – was to found an academy, eine Teutsche Akademie – a German version of L’academie francaise – with members from all the provinces and principalities of the German Reich. The task of this academy was to be an institution and an instrument of Bildung within the German cultural sphere, or as Herder puts it, “ein Vereinigungspunkt mehrerer Provinzen zur allgemeinen, praktischen Geistes- und Sittencultur”15 As in the case of Humanität this idea of an institute of Bildung takes up


15 16, s. 606. 57


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