1
20
54
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168471a4a7376273c851c1fc394fed08
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Speeches, presentations, and other lectures
Description
An account of the resource
Speeches, presentations, and other lectures given at St. John's College. These include convocation addresses delivered in both Annapolis, MD and Santa Fe, NM.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Speeches, presentations, and other lectures" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=15">Items in the Speeches, presentations, and other lectures Collection</a></strong> to <span>view and sort all items in the collection.</span>
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St. John's College Greenfield Library
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speechespresentationsotherlectures
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paper
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Richards Scofield 1898-1970
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Richard Scofield (1898-1970)
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Annapolis, MD
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St. John's College
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English
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text
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St. John's College owns the rights to this publication.
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pdf
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An account of the resource
Program of the transcript for the memorial services of Tutor Richard Scofield, held in The Great Hall on the Annapolis Campus, October 17, 1970.
Subject
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memorial
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https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/629840f409ae13d9d94fb9c566abaaf5.mp3
cae98e3a405613c74c89f2d1b55328b4
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Speeches, presentations, and other lectures
Description
An account of the resource
Speeches, presentations, and other lectures given at St. John's College. These include convocation addresses delivered in both Annapolis, MD and Santa Fe, NM.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Speeches, presentations, and other lectures" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=15">Items in the Speeches, presentations, and other lectures Collection</a></strong> to <span>view and sort all items in the collection.</span>
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speechespresentationsotherlectures
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vinyl record
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00:09:33
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<strong>Ode to St. John’s College<br /></strong><strong>Music by Elizabeth Ellen Starr<br /></strong><br />We sing to thee, our mother dear, (our mother dear,)<br />Our hearts are warm, our voices clear, (our voices clear;)<br />As to thy praise we sing,<br />As to thy praise we sing,<br />Down through the sounding aisles of time<br />We send thy praise in tuneful rhyme,<br />And make thy old halls ring,<br />And make thy old balls ring.<br /> <br /><strong>Chorus:</strong> To thee, St. John's, we gladly sing,<br />To thee we sing, we sing, we sing;<br />To thee our sounding praises bring,<br />Our praises bring, our praises bring,<br />We hail thee, love thee, bless the day<br />That brought us 'neath thy guardian sway,<br />Thy guardian sway.<br /> <br />Farewell! old bell! go on and ring (go on and ring,)<br />High in thy lofty turret swing (turret swing)<br />But not for us thy peal -<br />But not for us thy peal.<br />Farewell, green sward and sheltering trees.<br />'Tis not for us thy whispering breeze<br />Shall through your branches steal<br />Shall through your branches steal.<br /> <br />Oft from the strife of coming years (of coming years;)<br />Oft from the mingled hopes and fears, (hopes and fears,)<br />Our hearts will turn to thee<br />Our hearts will turn to thee.<br />Thy restful paths, thy sunny slopes;<br />Thy promises, youth's buoyant hopes<br />We find in thoughts of thee<br />We find in thoughts of thee.<br /> <br />And strengthened by these mem’ries dear (mem'ries dear)<br />We forward go with songs of cheer (with songs of cheer.)<br />To thee our thanks we raise,<br />To thee our thanks we raise;<br />And to the guiding Hand above<br />Which over all our lives doth move,<br />A parting song of praise<br />A parting song of praise.<br /><br />Lyrics source: <a href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/3687" title="Commencement Program, 1910">Commencement Program, 1910</a><br />.
<strong>St. John's Forever<br /><br /></strong>St. John’s forever, her fame shall never die<br />Fight for her colors, we’ll raise them to the sky<br />Each loyal son pledges her his heart and hand<br />For her united we as brothers stand<br />.
<strong>“A Team Song”</strong><br /><strong>Tune: <em>Auld Lang Syne</em><br /></strong><br />Should all our victories be forgot<br />Of now and long ago,<br />You'd surely find we always keep<br />A team that's far from slow.<br />We play the game and win great fame<br />Wherever we may roam,<br />And then right back to Old St. John's<br />We take the victory home.<br />Come gather 'round the Orange and Black<br />And lift your voice in praise<br />For Alma Mater, loved St. John's,<br />And dear old college days.<br /><br />Lyrics source: <a href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/2023" title="Rat=Tat 1910">Rat=Tat 1910</a>
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Various St. John's College musical recordings
Description
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Audio recording of three St. John's College songs, including: "Ode to Saint John's College", "Saint John's College March" (or "St. John's Forever"), and "A Team Song" sung to the tune of "Auld Lang Syne".
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Annapolis, MD
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sound
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mp3
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English
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Saint John's College Music
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[ca. 1949-1959]
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f511bfe1dc8362fc31732a869b96fc2a
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Speeches, presentations, and other lectures
Description
An account of the resource
Speeches, presentations, and other lectures given at St. John's College. These include convocation addresses delivered in both Annapolis, MD and Santa Fe, NM.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Speeches, presentations, and other lectures" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=15">Items in the Speeches, presentations, and other lectures Collection</a></strong> to <span>view and sort all items in the collection.</span>
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St. John's College Greenfield Library
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speechespresentationsotherlectures
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mp3
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01:20:38
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Title
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Memorial for Elliott Zuckerman
Description
An account of the resource
Memorial service for Annapolis Tutor Elliott Zuckerman, October 27, 2019. The program includes musical tributes and eulogies by Jamie Young, Kirk Duncan, Dylan Knight Rogers, Eric Stoltzfus, Eva Brann, Christopher Nelson, Chester Burke, James Siranovich, Jonathan Tuck, Zena Hitz, Howard Zeiderman, and the St. John's College Ensemble.
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St. John's College
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Annapolis, MD
Date
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2019-10-27
Creator
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Young, Jamie Zuckerman
Duncan, Kirk
Rogers, Dylan Knight
Brann, Eva T. H.
Stoltzfus, Eric
Nelson, Christopher B., 1948-
Burke, Chester
Siranovich, James
Tuck, Jonathan
Hitz, Zena, 1973-
Zeiderman, Howard
Rights
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Signed permission forms have been received stating, "I hereby grant St. John's College permission to make an audio recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John's College Greenfield Library and to make an audio recording of my lecture available online."
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sound
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mp3
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Zuckerman, Elliott
Eulogies
Music
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Abbott, Robert Charles, Jr.
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English
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Zuckerman_Elliott_MemorialService_2019-10-27
Tutors
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be835979273a6b77ae24791327f5358e
PDF Text
Text
KEPLER'S DISCOVERY
OF THE ELLIPTICAL
ORBIT OF MARS
�ror e good many years I have had the ambition to be able to answer the question& How did Kepler errive at the so-called firat Keplerian law, the ellipticity
of the planetary orbit? The discovery of the ellipse ought to be, one would think,
a rather $traightforw®rd geom~trical aff~ir, a matter of calculating di~tsncee b~
tf.il~an Suri ~rid plenat t:rigonQmatdcaUy, arid eeein9 that thees distances fit into M
dlipse with the Sun at one focus. Now as all the commentat«:irs make clsar, eucli
dietance-dateTminetions do indeed play a role in Kepler's journey of discovery.
Sut this ~ole, as I believe I can now show, is e negative one; the trigon0atatry
does not lf!'Jiad to th~ !dee of thi!ii ellipse l.n the fi:i:at place, 1 t is too imprecitH~ to
gJ.vfJ the
£?J.,mansiof!_! t:Jf' the ll!lll.ipae, and H does not provide
~hl!lt Kepl~n~
regeu:·dsd
~~
en adequ~te confirm~t ion of the elliptical shape. What has smerged for me fr om ~
study of Kepler's book, the Aetronomia Nave of 1609 ~ and I do not believe that
thie underatanding appears in any of th;-;;condary literature -- is not msrely th~t
~epler gm~a hie journay theory-laden, btJt, that i t is £.Q!X thua that ha !iUai'U'lges to
rnrive 2t hie first tuio laws~ the ellipse end the e.i·aa law. It is en initial hum::Jl ~
~ physical hypothesis, which guides him throughout; every step ie made deliberat~ly ,
not only in confrontation with data, but in pursuance of that hunch. And the laws
~rrived et~ the ellipse and the area law, rest on the physical theory as on a pr~m
:Les; they r 't!main hy pothetical; t hey cannot be confirmed independently of one ano ther~ but taken jointly yield better predictions than had avar been achieved
before. What I shall try to show, then, is how this is so; to trace in achametic
outline the logical m~p of Kepler's journey.
let ma begin with two preliminary remar ks. The first has to do with the obthat Kepler used. With the benefit of hindsight , we can say that ell
the planets known to Kepler have nearly circular orbits. The one with the most
flattened orbit is mercury, but mercury, being close to the Sun, is difficult to
observe. The next greatest departure from circularity occurs in the orbit of IYlars
-- the orbit that Kepler studies -- and here the departure from circularity is such
that the minor axis of the ellipse is about 1/200 or i'% less than the major axis.
In a picture of this orbit drawn to scale, meet of us could noti by merely looking,
detect the departure from circularity.
~ervationa
Thus a planetary theory which uses circular paths can be surprisingl y good.
It is not quite right to talk about errors arising from the assumption of circularity alone; in any planetary theory, an additional aesumption has to be made ea
to the motion of the planet. But I can assert that, if one .2!2_ have a theory for
mars which erred only in assuming a circular path, the discrepancies between prediction and observation would never rise above 10' of arc. Now my thumb, held out
aa far as possible from my eye, subtends an angle of about two degrees, or 120'.
So the discovery of the elliptical orbit is going to depend on rather refined
observations.
The observations which Kepler used were made by Tycho Brahe, in the years
between 1575 and 1600. They were made by naked eye, but with large instruments, quadrants, sextants, on which the scales could be finely divided. Often
Tycho had two observers observing the same object simultaneously; their results
e0atetimes differed by ae much as 3' of arc, but the final result or average waa
regarded a s accurate to within 2' of arc~ This is to be compared with the 10'
discrepancy between observations which previous astronomers had allowed to be
tolerable. Without Tycho's reduction of the expected error to about 2' of arc,
Kepler's discoveries could not have been mede .
�2
/
FIGURE 1
STAGE 1
�3
The second preliminary remark concerns Kepler ' s hunch, the ph:1 sical hypothesis which guides him throughout his work. Whan Kepler went to Prague in 1600 ,
to work under Tycho Brahe, he was already an ardent Copernican. frJ saw that the
preeminent role of the Sun in planetary theory, which had appeared as an unexplained assumption in Ptolemy's constructions, becomes a simple cansoquance of
the postulates in Copernicus's system. However, Kepler felt that Copernicus had
failed to realize the full meaning of his new system. For Copernicus , tho Sun
sits like a lamp in the midst of the solar aystam, lignting and heating up the
world; otherwise it is functionless . The centers of the planetary circles do not
even lie in the sun.
Now Kepler felt that the Sun was more then a mere lamp. He noted that ae
you go o~t from the Sun, the actual linear speeds of the planets become lass:
Venus movas mere slowly than mercury, the Earth moves more slowly than Venuag mare
moves more alowly than the Earth, ~nd so on. To Kepler this correlation between
distance and speed suggested a causal relation: he hypothesi.zad that the Sun was
somehow causin_g the planets to move about, and that the motive force or virtue
fell off in strength ae one got farther from the Sun. Thus, when he sta~ted his
work on mars, l<aplar already had the germ of the idea of a celestial physics, that
is, an account of the planetary movements in which the planets do not have within
them the source of their motionsi but are moved from without by pushes and pulls.
What I think we need to see is how Kepler, faced with a mass of confusing data
end theory inharitad from his predecessors 9 is guided by this physical hypothesis
throughout his journey.
So much for preliminaries. I turn now to what Kepler, with his flnir for
the dramatic, calla his ~on mars. I shall divide the war into seven phases.
The first phase I shall baraly mention. It has to do with th3 latitudes of
the planet. The observed position of a planet is specified by latitude and longitude (Figure 1). Hare is the celestial epheret with the celestial north pole on
top, and the equator running around the middle. As far aa the making of observations is concerned, we can think of the (arth as being at or near the center of
this sphere. Inclined to the equator is the circle of the sclipti~. This is the
apparent path of the Sun during a year, projected against the background of tha
stars. The Sun's position along the ecl ipt ic, measured i n degrees eastward from
the vernel equinox, is called its longitude.
Now the plenets are observed tc do something like what the Sun doe3: their
general movement ie eastward, approximately along the ecliptic. However, they
depart from the ecliptic by small amounts, going above it and below. Now the
theories of Ptolemy and Copernicus with regard to the variati on in latitudes are
frightfully complicated. Kapler accomplishes an ancrmous simplification. He
hypothesizes that the plane of ffiar's orbit is inclined at a constant angle to the
plane of the ecliptic, and passes through the Sun. He is able to verify this
hypothesis by means of certain observations, which I shall not describe hers .
Note the use of the Sun as a fixed reference point; the previous theories had
always used an imaginary point called the mean Sun~ rather than the "real and apparent Sun", as a reference point in their planetary calculations, and this was
one of the reasons for the complications in the Ptolemaic and Copernican theories
of the latitudes . (In the case of Ptolemy, the additional complication due to the
use of the mean Sun is clearly apparent in the theories of Venus and Mercury; in
the Ptolemaic theories of the latitudes of the superior planets, the complication
arises mainly from the geocentric mode of description .) Kepler's establishment
�4
....
.&:,, , __
----
M,
/
/
/
E1
z
/
\
I
\
I
I
I
\
I
I
I
I
I
S
I
\
I
\
I
I
\
\
',
t1.'C'/
~y
" " . . . . . . . . -- - _p_1:1~-~.,, .
~~/
.......
p
FIGURE 2
STAGE 2
1
M
Mars as Evening Star
2
M
M rs a t Opposition
a
�5
of the constancy of the inclination, end the passage of the plane of the orbit
through the real Sun, is a first victory for his hunch about the role of the Sun.
In what follows, I shall ignore the problem of latitudes entirely. I shall deal
only with the longitudes, i.e., the positions of Mare as projected onto the
ecliptic.
Second Phase. Kepler sate up a theory for the longitudes of ~ars which is
successful in one way and fails in anothar . The first thing to understand is what
one hes to go on in setting up a theory for the longitudes of a planet. The observations of the planet are of two kinds. Let us agree to take the Copernican
standpoint, and to think of the Sun as a fixed point, and of the Earth and the
other planets as moving in orbits about the Sun (Figure 2). Hare the outer
circle is the assumed path of Mars, and the inner dotted circle is the assumed
path of the Earth. Ordinarily, when an observation on lilare,is made, the Earth,
Sun and Mars form a triangle, e.g., SEW. The observation gives only the direction of mars from the Earth, against t~e 1 background of the stars. At this point
we are far from knowing everything about the triangle. Of course Kepler does have
a theory of the Earth's motion, or rather of the Sun's motion, which he has inherited from Tycho, and we sh~ll find him trusting this theory to give the direction of the line E1 s 1 • for a reason which will appe ar shortly, Kepler will not
completely trust t~is theory to give him the distance E1 s 1 , which varies around
the circle since the Sun is off-center. And even if we accepted Tycho's theory,
to solve the triangle we would still need to know the direction of s~ 1 • How can
we determine the direction of sm,?
Thie b~ings us to the second sort of observation. About every 780 days, mars,
the Earth, and the Sun come into a line, with the Sun on the far side of the Earth
from frlars. At about this time, mars can be observed approximately on the meridian
overhead at midnight. At the exact time of opposition, an observer on Earth is
seeing mars against the background of the stars in just the positi on in which he
would see it if he were situated in the Sun. Kepler had twelve su~h observations
to work with, taken between 1580 and 1604 . Actually, one seldom ggts an observation at the exeat time of the opposition; the position of the planet at opposition
has to be calculated from a group of observations made about the time of the opposition . Kepler, for the first time, calculates the oppositions to the real Sun,
rather than the f1lean Sun; this is in line with his hunch; ha hopes this change will
lead him to a new and better theory.
But how set up •a theory? At the time of the opposition one knows the heliocentric longitude of mars, its position on the ecliptic as seen from the Sun. But
one does not know its distance from the Sun. The only thing to do is to make an
assumption. Kepler proceeds to try to fit a theory of Ptolemaic type to the data.
That ls, he assumes that r1lars is moving in a circular path with center at C, that
the Sun is off-center at some point S, and that the motion of the planet is uniform not necessarily about C but about another point Q, called the equent point.
All of these features are present in the Ptolemaic theory of the deferent of mars,
except of course that the Sun ia replaced by the Earth. What one needs to find is
the direction of the line SCQ, and the ratios of SC and CQ to the radius of the
circle. The procedure for finding these things, both for Ptolemy and Kepler, is
the horrendous one of trial and error: make a guess, than alter it if the theory
fails to fit the facts.
There is one difference between Ptolemy and Kepler that I should mention:
Ptolemy hed assumed that the point C is midway between S and Q for reasons that
�6
By vicarious theory :
SQ
~SQ
SC
=
18 , 564
9 , 282
11 , 332
From tw o tri gonometric
calculati ons :
p
SC between
8000 and 9943
(av . = 8971)
SC between
8377 and 10106
(av . = 9242)
FIGURE 3
STAGE
2
�7
are not entirely clear. Kepler did not want ta asaums this; rather, he wanted to
place the point C between S and Q et just the right point, to yield the beet fit
between observation and theory.
Kepler uses four of the twelve observQtions at opposition to set up hie
and afte~ 70 t rials, finds a theory which fits these observations. H~
than checirn the theory ~gain~t t he t'emaining eight observations , and finds the
concordance very good : the average discrepancy between theory and observat ion ie
50'' 9 the maximum dhcrepency being 2 1 12 11 • Whet th:ie theory does than, is to give
t he heliocentric longitudes of mars, ite positions es aeon from the Sun, with e
pr~~ie!on equal to that of the obearvatione .
theory~
Now ae we next discover, this theory is false. Kapler come~ to call ! t
hia vi carious or substitute theory , bacauee though false it serves to give him
the hel iocentric longi tudes of Mara, for all his later work. What it frtile to
gioo correctly are t he dhtancee of filers from the Sun.
How ca n Kepler learn ~y_thi n_g about the ~ence,!. of mars f'rom the Sun?
Suppcas f or ~ moment that wa take Tycho 's eolar theory and t ransform it into a
theory of the Earth's m
otion -- this ie a vary simple geometrical trensformaUon
mhich I shall descr ibe shortly -- end conaider. observations of' mars whtitr. it ie
~in opposition ( rigur a 3) . The Earth, Sun and mare in each of t he two ob0ervetions p.i.ctursd hers form a triangle . The position of Si'll is now known from the
vicerioue thaory j tha position of Em is given by the observation in each c~ae, and
the position of ES is determined by Tycho ~ s solar theory . Now Tycho'n eoler
theory~ which differs from Ptol emy'e only in its numbers, is known to giua ths
he liocentric l ongitudea or t he tarth with coneid~ rabla accuracy ~ juat as the vicarious theory gives the heliocentri c longitudes of Mars ~i th considersbla accu~acy, so all the angles in th~sa triangle$ are known to wit hin about 4 1 of arc.
The ratioa of t he sides of the t:r.ienglae can thiin be ci.ilculat&1d t ri gonometri©ally,.
If only one could huet Tyc:ho • e theory to give aJ.ao the ratio of SE1 to sr 2 - thase ar-e not equal becsuae the Sun is not in the center of the circl e -- on"
could determine the ratio of
sm1
to SM2 •
The fact is, Ksplsr know:<.l that ha can trust Tycho~e thAory, in its predi ction of Ea:rth- Sun distances, within ca!'tain lim.its. Ona beaie for this truat
is provided by observations of the apparent diameter of the Sunt e di sk~ which
shaw. ~hough ~ little toughly, thet tha distBncs b0twoen the Earth and Sun does
not change vary much, changes in far.t less than Tycho's th~ory p~sdicts . Th~
orbit ~mt be nsa:rly circul a!'. The possible er~ors are em3ll enough s o thet
Kepler can uae Tycho ' s theory to learn somsthing about ma1·e-Sun distance~ . He ifi
particularly interested in checking the plecramont of the point C, the cent~r or
tha orbit. The vicarious t heory had put i t about 0 . 61 of tha way from S to Q, By
computing mars-Sun distances near the line of apaidee Kepler now show6 t hat C mumt
ba muc h clcear to helf way between S and Q. !f he now alters the vicarious theory
eccordingl y, and puts C midway between s l!lnd Q, tha al tet~d theor y no lor.ger rn:edicts the heliocent ric longitudes of mars correctly, but gives errors as high as
B', whereas Tycho's observations cannot~ in error by more than about 2 1 • The
8' error ha r a~ Kapler tell o us, is what forced him to go on to a total reformetion
of aetronomy.
Kepler's situation, at this point, can be summarized as follows. He has
two theories, Tycho~s aolar theory for the Earth, and the vic8rioua theory for
�8
4
F I GU RE
STAGE 2
.
Theory s ucceeds
for
Why the Vicarious.
longitudes
heliocent ri c
�9
M
ars. Both are Ptolemaic-styl e theories, involving a circula r pati1, and uniform
angula= motion about a point within the circle. Each theory predicts tho heliocentric longitudes of its planet with errors not exceeding 1 1 or 2', as confirmed
rather direc tly by obser vation. * But if Tycho'e theory for the Ea:th is taken as
correct for Earth-Sun distancaa, then the uicarioua theory ie wrong with respect
to mars-Sun dio tancee . In f eet, tha vicarious theory is definitely wrong, becauae
the possible errors in the distances in Tycho 1 s theory are relativoly sm~ll, compared with those deduced for the vicarious theory . So of the two r ssurnptione on
u
ihich the vicarious theory r eErta , the ch'cular path and tns uniforr.1 m
otion ebout
an Equant point, one or the other m t be wrong. Ths vicar ious theory wil l remain
us
uasful, ana indeed indispeneabla 9 f or f inding the heliocentric longitudaa of
mars, but it i6 a false th11o:r y.
Which of the two Ptolamnic principles, circular path or equant point, should
ba changed? Kepl e r M no doubts en thie acore. If one has in mind tha possias
bi lity af a cclestiel physics, the equant principle appears artifi ci al: there i~
no body at th0 oquant point, no believable mechanism of which the equent principle
would b~ th~ 8Xprrcoian . ruoreover, the work on the vicarious theory has provided
Kepler mi h a cluA to a possible substi t ute for the equant principle. It is tha
equant princiclG th~t Koole r wil l firs t abandon, but before doing so , he undert ekee an inquiry as to why Ptolemaic-style theories, using equent points, can
be so successful, in tho prediction of heliocentric longitudes.
fundnrnantall '.; , tho success m6'0.ns this (figurf;! 4). The • arying motion of any
J
.i.$ symrr.etri r:2l. about a certain Hne 1 the line of apsi df,1s (AP}.
The fll!}E)\:.
r apid motion of the planat occurs at Gne point (P) , and its alawast motion et a
point 180° away (A). In between these points, on either side of the line of epsidss; the change in the planet's angular apeed about 5 ia gradual. Suppose we
assume the planet to be mouing uniformly on a circle concentric with S. This
theory is wrong , beceuse 1 sta rting at A5 tho po int of s lowest motion, the actuol
anet falls behind tna planet of our th8ory; the discrepancy builds up graduall y
to a maximum at about a quarter of tha planet 's period, and then decreasas again
to zero as the planet comes to P.
that after a
period tha pl anet is aean f rom S ~ long SK instaed af SU; in other words, the discrepancy ot thi s t ime between observation and
our first theory is the angle KSU. We can eliminate this discrapa~cy rather simply, by shifting the planetary circle up, so that its center is at Q. Thia new
theory will rhyme with observation when ths planet ·s in ths lines SA, S!C, SP, SL;
end the J(:r·g &-crde.< di;screp2mcv bstwsGn th$o:ry amJ obaervat.icri, angle ~CSU ( ,... a'f;,gl~
SKQ), amounting ta nearly 11° in the cBse of Mars, hae been elimin~tcd. Such diocrepanciea as remain will be in the octants, and will be much smaller; in the case
of luara these remaining errors are at maximum about 8 1 , i.e. , 1 /80 of the former
er ror.
Kepler goes on to ehow how 9 keeping Q fixed ae the equant point or center
of uniform motion, and taking a new orbit with center at some point C between S
and a, the remaining disc=epancies can be reduced below the level of observational
detection . In this fin al ad justment of the orbit ~ the point O~ previously deter*This statement is made from Kepl er's point of view. Actually, Tycho'a incorrect
values for ref rac~ion and for solar parallax lead to an eccentricity that ie too
high, nnd so the sol~r theory is more erroneous than the above statemsnt implies.
�10
Twins
5°30'
s
c
c
E
E/
E9~iva.lent Eal"th Theo~/
Tyc1o's Solar Theo1;y
F I GURE
5
STAGE 3
B A
Given :
( 1)
( 2)
SC
~
CQ
#
Then :
Q
AB : RP : : AQ : QP
c
(approximately)
s
But :
= SP ,
= SA .
AQ
QP
Therefore :
AB : RP : : SP : SA
(approximately)
RP
FIGURE 6
STAGE 3
�11
mined , must remain the equant point; otherwise, s oma part of t he n~ iginal l a r georder di screpanc y will be r e-introduced.
Thi s argument shows why , gi ven the general charactar of planotary motion,
a theory of the equant type is doomed ta succeao, as far as canca~na prediction
of heliocentr ic longit udes. There is one dther consequence I should like to mention for later use : it is that the placement of the equant point can be determined with greater precisi on then the placement of the center of the orbit, because
the placement of the equant point depends on the determination of a larger angle.
Third Staqe. Kepler devises a replacement for the equant principle. As I
mentioned before, the worl< with filers has already provided a clue. Kepler has
f ound t hat t he midpoi nt of the line of apsides, C, eannot be where the vicarious
theory puts i t , but must be more nearly midway between S and Q, the Sun and the
equant poi nt. Now it is a peculiar fact, on which Kepler had meditated, that
Ptolemy in his theories of Venus, mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, had assumed what is
called t h~ bisection of t he eccentricity . If we translate the Ptolemaic theor ies
i nto hel i ocentr i c form, what thi s means is that the center of the orbit is assumed ta l i o mi·· ~y between th9 Sun and tho Equant point . And Keplor has now gotten
a r ough veri f i r.ation o~ this assumption i n the case of Mars . Among the princ ipal
plenete, the main e xcopi.ion, to which this assumption had not been applied, was
the Sun, or if you are a Coparnicnn, tho Earth (rigure 5) . (Of tee other exception, mercury, Kepler ends by distrusting some of the observations on which
Ptolemy's theo r y is1based.) Tycho 1 s solar theory, like Ptolemy's, was a simple
eccentric theory : the Earth is off-center, but the Sun goes uniformly about the
center of the circle, so that equant point and center of the circle coincide.
When you transform thi s t heory into a theory of the Earth's motion, you again get
a simple eccentric theory, with equant point and center of the orbit coinciding .
Now what if the eccentricity were bisected in the case of all the planets?
Take a planetary theory in which the eccentricity is bisected (fiqure 6) . The
planet m
oves at a uniform angular rate about Q. In a given time ~t would, say,
go through e small angle AQB. In an equal time, later, it woul d go through the
equal angel RQP. The equality of,the angles means that, for small arcs near the
li:ie of apsides , very nearly, 'Ai3/RP = AQ/QP. But because of the bisection of the
eccentr icity, because Q and S are symmetrically placed about C, i~ follows that
AQ = SP and AS = QP. Substituti ng, AB/RP = SP/SA . In othar words, near the line
of apsi des , the arcs traversed by the planet in equal times are inversely es the
distances from the Sun. Or the velocity of the planet varies invoreely as i ts
distance f rom the Sun.
This is a new hypothe sis, which Kepler believes might be generally applicabl e , thr oughout t he or bit. I t is not precisel y equivalent to the equant pr inciple, e xcept in the li~e of apsides w
hen the eccentr icity is bisected . But this
h) pothes i s is in acc or d with Kepler's hunch , tho physical hypothesis he brought
wi th him to Prague, the i dea that t he Sun , by means of some mysterious, immaterial virtue, is pushing the planets about , and tha t its m
otive virtue f alls off
in c..h ''" •·:.t-h 11: i t. ~ ornat.or rli Ph~ '1C 8 S f rom the Sun .
Now Kepler feels that he will be justified in trying out this new hypothesis, if he can eateblish that tho eccentricity ie ~·~ so cted in the case of ths
Earth, just as Ptoleffly had assumed it to be for the other planets beaidee marcury.
�12
FI GURE
7
STAGE
3
Observat ion s a t E1 , E 2 ,
687 day s apart .
Dir ecti ons of lines
determined :
EJM ' E 2 M ~ E 3Mby
observati o n .
(2) SEJ , SE? ' SE 3 by Ty c h o ' s
soiar t fieory .
(3 ) SM by t he v ic a riou s t heory .
(1)
Leng th o f SM assume d the s am e for
e ac h o b serv at i on .
FIGURE
A
8
STAGE
3
I
\
I
I
I
\
\
\
\
\
\
" Radius Rule " :
Times fo r equal ar c s AB ,
BD, are as the distances of
t hose arcs from the Sen , Sm 1 ,
Sm 2 •
" Area Rule ":
Ti mes for equal ar c s AB , BD are
as the areas of the sectors ASB , BSD .
s
�13
The main procedure Kepler uses is as follows (Figure 7} . He takes three of
Tycho's observations of mars, made 687 days apart, the ti m it takes ffiars to go
e
once around its orbit. At ell three times, then, frlars should be at the same
place, m. Let the Earth at these timos be at the points E1 9 E2 , E3 • Then the
directions of the lines E1 ra, E2m, E3 mare determined by Tycho's obse rvations;
the directions of SE , SE , SE are determined by Tycho's solar theory; and
finally the position 1 of S~ is ~etermined by the vicarious theory of mars. We get
three triangles with all angles known 9 and one side, 5"11, in common. It is than
possible to find the ratios of SE , SE 2 , SE 3 to Sfil, and hence to one another; so
the positions E1 , E2 , E3 are found. Tnree points determine a circle, and so
Kepler can determine the position of the canter of this circle, and hence the
length SC in relation to the radius of the circle.
Now I want to stress that these trigonometric calculations are much less
satisfactory than the usual accounts of l<epler's work suppose; into each calculation of SC go seven pieces of data 9 each of which can be in error, and the trigonometric calculation can greatly magnify the initial e r rors, especially when
emall angles are involved.
Kapler goes throu gh procedures of this kind several times, and gets divergent results: the highest reault for SC is to the lowest as 5 to 3. All of them,
however, show that the ecc entricity of the orbit is ~than the valug assigned
by Tycho. Remem
ber that the eccentricity determined by Tycho is essentially the
eccentricity of the equant, which can always be determined with greater precision
than the canter of the orbit. Kepler's results, tho ugh markedly divergent among
themselves, show that the center of the orbit does not coincide with the equont
point as had always been previously assumed; rather-:-i't lies somewhere in the
middle between the equant point and the Sun. Kepler, then, assumes that the eccentricity is exactly bisected. Then he can proceed to try out his new hypothesis, that the velocities of the planet vary inversely as the distances from the
Sun.
The new hypothesis has one great disadvantage: it is dif ficult to calculate
with. The speed of the planet is const antly var ying as a function of its distance from the Sun, and the hypothesis says how it is varying; but what we need
to know is how far the planet goes in a given time along its path. To determine
this, one would need the methods of the calculus, not yet invented. K3pler attempts an approximation: approximately, he says, the times for the planet to traverse equal arcs are proportional to the distances of these arcs from the Sun; the
great er the distance, the greater the time (figure B}. In applying this idea,
Kepler goes through very tedious calculations, dividing the ssmicircle into 180
area of one degree each, computing the distancesof each of thsse arcs from S,
adding up successive sums of these distances and putting these sums proportional
to the times. Let me montion only one result: in the case of the Earth, predictions based on this new principle differ from those based on Tycho's theory by et
Most 9" of arcp which is below the level of observational detection. The new
theory is satisfactory in predicting the heliocentric longitudes of the Earth,
because it jibes with Tycho's solor theory. And Tycho's solar theory, a simple
eccentric theory in which th8 equant point coincides with the center of the orbit,
is satisfactory for heliocentric longitudes because the eccentricity of the
Earth's orbit is small -- less than 1/5 of the eccentrici ty of mars' orbit -- and
therefore what matters is only thA placemen t of the aquant point, which Tycho
has determined fai rly precisely. l<e pler knows this and depends on it.
�14
Fl GU RE
S TAGE
3
"Radius Rule":
Times for equal arcs AB, BD
are as the distances of those
arcs from the Sun, Sm 1 ~ Sm 2 .
"Area Rule":
Times for equal arcs AB, BD are
as the areas of the sectors ASB, BSD.
FIGURE
STAGE
)1...,,, ......
9
----.A
'
4
""\
\
\
\
I
\
I
Ptolemy's solar theory adapted to
account for eccentric orbit of Mars
s
I
Radius of epicycle = eccent ricit y SC
S replaces Earth; M replaces Sun
For circular path, angle A must be
equal at every moment to angle 1
I
c
I
\
'
I
\
I
I
\
'"
''
.......
--- p
/
/
/
/
I
I
�15
Then Kepler has another idea, to abbreviate the calculationE. The distances
from the Sun to the points in one of these equal ores (o.g. AO, figure 8a) are
all contained in the area of the sector, e.g. BSA. Tho aro::i of t ;iis sector suggests itself AS R ~~asure of all the dist~nces within the sector. Th8n just as
previous! y ·the distances of these equal a::cs wPre proportional to the times, eo
now the areas might be assumed to be proportional to the times, for thees equal
arcs. This is the origin of what is called Kepler's ~cco~~ law, ~h8 law of
areas: as it is usually stated today, the areas swept out by thF radius vector
from the Sun to the planet are proportional to the times. Actue~ly, t~is hypothesis is a new principle , not equivalent to the for~~r one. Out again, in the
case of the Earth, it rhymes satisfactorily ~1ith Tycho's theory: the m~~imum discrepancy is 34" of arc. In the case of mars, the differences t:JOU~d be r.;uch
larger.
f"ourth Staq_!!· Kepler renews his attack on r.lar:-:-., using his new principle,
that the areas are proportional to the times. (I a~ !Raving out of account here
the 'act that Kepler continued to calculate also with his firot hypoth3sis, that
the times for equal arcs are as the distances of th ose arcn from the Sun. I
shall deal only with his uce of the arP3 lru.)
In this new attack, Kapler first assumes a circulnr orbi~ for rn3r s, with
the Sun off-center. The Sun is presumably pushinq
pln~ot eround, the strength
of the push decreasing with increasing distcn~o fro~ ~~~ cun.
But at this point Kapler has to ask himself a quLJqtion. Why should the
distance of the planet from the Sun vary? w:1y dons it not si~~ly move in a circle concentric with the Sun? The only account Kepler can think of is an adaptation of Ptolemy's epicyclic theory for the Sun (figure 9). In this, the epicycle has a radius equal to the eccentricity, and movos count!"lrcJockwise oround
a circle with the Earth at the center, while thn Sun moves clock~ise a~: the same
rate on the epicycle. At every moment, anglo L = angle A. On these assumptions,
it can be shown that the Sun simply moves in a circlo ecccn~ric tJ the Earth
(dotted circle in the figure). Now this samo mechanism cen be adopted to make
Mars move in a circle eccentric to the Sun. Besidoo being moved 3round by tho
Sun, Mars then has a mover of its own, which moves it in this tiry epicyclic
circle. Kepler worries about how the planetary movBr might accor.plish this. He
knows,that, as Tycho's observations on the parallaxes of cornets ~3V8 indicated,
the heavens are not solid; there are no crystalline sphere~; comets rno110
straight through the planetary regions. Tho planetary mover h3s no feet or wings .
And there is another difficulty. The angle L docs not increase cniformly with
time, but rather follows the dictates of the area low. But for [ars t o remain on
a circle, angle A must at each instant be equal to angle L. So t~~ planet hos to
move !!2!!-uniformly about the epicycle. Oor.s ths planetary mover have to study
planetary tables, trying to find out whore it ought to be? J<ople= is sceptical
about that, but he proceeds anyway to 2rply th3 area law of the eccentric circular orbit.
I shall not describe the calculations. Uoing th8 aroa rule~ Kepler is
finding out where the planet is in its circle at givP-n ~imos in the whole period
of 687 days in which it completes its orbit. The rosu:ts ~re checked against
the predictions of the vicarious theory. As it tu~n~ out, thore is agreemont of
�16
A
FIGURE
10
STAGE
4
Er rors in Circul a r Theo r y
of Stage 4, as c ompare d
with the Vi c ariou s Theory .
p
STAGE 5
I
~c
Err ors i n t he Ov a l Th e ory
o f Stage 5, a s c ompa re d
wi th the Vicarious The o r y
�17
t he t wo t heor i e s i n t he apsi~oe (A, A) and i n t he quadrants (q, Q) but a discrepanc y of about 8' i n t he octants ( f i gur e 10 ) . At a1 for instancej the new theory
pu t s t h ~ plf~rm t 8'2"l 11 al'le a j of 111he r e i t shou l d be; and at o2 , it is 8 1 1" behind
where i t s houl d be . The pattern of e r r or i s s ym etrical in the other semim
ci r c l e . So t he pl ane t , on the assumpti on of a circular orbit end the area rule
or l aw, ie be i ng made t o m
oue too rap i dly about the aps i dee, and too slowly
about t ha quadr ant s . The re for8 either t he ci r cular orbi t must be wrong, or the
a r e a rul e, or both. I f i t is only the circl e which is wrong, t hen the orbit
must bs br ought wi t hi n t he ci rcle in t he m
iddle l ongitudes? around the quadrants,
eo t ht'lt t he amount of a r e a i s reduced t hare, and hence the times for given a rcs
ahortenad . The or bit woul d be oval.
Kepl e r perf orms a num
ber of c al c ul a tio ns wit h tri a ngles involving the Earth,
Sun and M s , in otd e r t o determine the di s tance of Mar s from the Sun in these
ar
middl e l ongitudes. I have pre vi ou s ly mc n:ioned the error in t his type of calcul etiqn . Kepler i s now i n a better po sit i on t o make these distance cal culations
t hen befor e, bec ause his ;~ odi f icati on of Tycho 1 s solar theory -- hie introduction
of the bi section of t he occontricity -- makes the the or y a better predictor of
Earth- Sun distanc e s . Eut 'the £'~ror is st i ll ~ trouble s ome . However , Kepler's
r esul t a £!.£ s how th.:i t f.'.:c.~ s '.':'.J ,:os l'.' i :.;hi n the c i r c le i n the mi ddle longitudes. In
othsr words, the or bi t is s ome kind of ova:, rather than circular. So the circle
of the Stage Four t heo ry is wrong . O the other hand, the area law may still be
n
right; it pr edicts that tha orh it i s ov al, and the distance-determinations,
though rough , confirm thi s prec;ic~ion.
fifth Stage . At the begi nning of Chapter 45 of the Astrono~l!!~'
Kapler tells us that, having di $covered that t he or bit is not circular, he felt
he knew the cau s e of th8 departure from circularity. from Stage four you will
recall that the planetary mover that was moving Mar s on its little epicycle was
having a rather diff i cult time. No t only did it l eek f eet or wirgs, but it was
having to move the planet .IJ£!!-~~ly on the epicycle in order to keep to the
sccsr.tric circular path. It u j ob would be easier, though still i mpossible, if
it had only to move the planet uniformly on the epicycle. But ii it were to do
thi s , t he resulting path would be oval, as required. This is eas y to show, but I
shall omit the demonstration . The actual orbit turns out to be 8gg-ehaped, wit h
the sharper end at the peri-helion, or point of closest approech to the Sun.
Kepler proceeds to calculate the consequences of this new hypothesis,
assuming as before the area rule. The calculations are horrendous. To simplify
matters, Kepler substitutes en ellipse for the egg-shaped oval; the difference
in shape is very small. I shall call th is el lipse the auxiliary ellipse . Even
then tha problem remain ~ difficult, and l<epler tries a number of different routes
to its solution. The results in which he finally reposes trust (fi gure 11) again
show agreement with t ho vicari ous theory in the apsioss and quadrants , and discrepancies in the oct ants. In onA calculation , for i nstance , he finds t hat the
new oval theory puts the plc11st 8 1 behind where i t should be at the f ir s t octant ,
and ?t' ahead of where it should b8 at the thi rd octant. Note that t he e r rors
in the oval hypothesis, on t~e ascu ~pt ion of the a r ea rule , are almost the exact
opposite of those found in t he circular hypothesis : the pl a net i s going t oo
slowly about the apsidea, and too rapidly in t he m ddle l ongi t udes . If t he area
i
law is right, then the orbit should bo ~ narrow: there needs to be more are a
between the Sun and th~ or~it in th8 middle ! ong i tudes y i n or der to show the
planet down t hore 9 areas being proportional to times .
�18
A
c
T
Q
s
+8'
-8'
Errors
in Circular and Oval The ori e s
Circular
Circu lar
Ov al
-8'
+8 '
1st octant
3rd octant
FIGURE
-8'
12
p
+8 '
STAGE
6
�19
!Hxth Sta.Q!. Keph:r now 0ee s that ~ on t he as eumption that the '111'&8 law ie
right , h~ will get a theory t ha t jibes with t he vica~ious th eory, in its predictiorts of heliocantr ic: longitudes , if he choos es an orbit j ust midway b~ti..1een the
cir cle of Stage four ~ nd the a~J x il .i.sr }4 d lipas of Stage f'ive ( f'igura 12).
Rounding off th e B:n·or s i n the oc t emb, we get an anti-symmetri ca l rarrey ( afl
shown oppo8 ite t he diegrelm) " Th e dotted !i!llipt icfi!l orbit, jumt 111ich.1m)' bE'Ntwaen
th ~ ci rcl @ ~n d t he su ~ il isr y ellips e, will reduco t hese symmetrical errors to
zer o. I n effe ct, t he arae l aw is controlling the s hape of the orbit . Tha f5 r3~s
swept out ftbout the Sun ~re es0umsd to be proportional to the timws; varioua ly
6h~ ped orb i ts distr ibute tha total area of the orbit in di ff er ent weye; only one
e hapa of orbi t will get t he planet t o the right plecG at t he right time. Dn the
eaeumptio n of the ~rea l i:u1p the right or bit csn differ only negligibly from the
dotted dlipee.
moreover , Kepler ia now able to calculate the precise dimensions of the
dotted ellipse. long before, he had calculated the width, CT, of th~ lunule
which the auxiliary ellipse cute off from the ci rcle. He hae only to he lvu t his
width to get QR , and hence RC , the semi-minor axis of the ellipse.
Two remarks.
As is well known , th e correct ellipse is that ellipaa which
hes the Sun et ona focus. Tha term "forcus" -- first introduced into European
mathematical literature by Kepler himself , in the Aatronomie ~Optics of 1604
-- is nowhere used i n the
now described (Phase#:£,),
realized that the Sun was
involved in the discovery
Astronomie Nave. At the stage of his journey we have
Kepler gives no indication ae to whether or not he
located at the focus. The focal properties were not
of the correct ellipse.
Second Remark. What about the possible role of mars-Sun diatancee, determined trigonometrically, in the discovery of the correct ellipse? From three cf
Kepler's letters, written in December, 1604 and January, 1605, it is apparent
that tha dietance-determinaticne are misleading him: they are giving the wrong
value for the amount of ingression of the orbit within the circle. Let the mean
distance from the Sun to the Eerth be 100,000. Than thG mean distance from the
Sun to mare comes out to be 152,350, approximately . The correct, dotted ellipse
comae within the circle by about 660 of these parts. Kepler was getting values
o f 800 or 900 parts. In a passage of a letter written in May of 1605 , after th e
war wea over -- it cema to an end about Easter time -- Kepler says thet the dis tance determinations generally left him in doubt by about 100 or 200 pe~ta.
By contrast, the assumption of the area law, together with the dotted ellipse,
laeds to predictions which, Kepler tells us, jibed mith the vicarious theory
"to the nail". The distance-determinations play an essential role , but this
r ole ie mainly negative and admonitory . They show that the vicarious theory is
wrong in ita predictions of mere-Sun distances, end that Tycho'e soler theory ie
wrong in its predictions of Earth -Sun dietancee; in both cases , they indicate
that the eccentricity is more nearly bisected; and in the case of Mare, they
show that the orbit ia not a circle but some kind of oval. After the discovery
of the correct elliptical orbit of mars, and after Kepler hes, arguing from
analogy, altered his theor y of the Eerth to make the shape of its orbit oval,
the distencee in these two orbits can be used in predicting positions of mars
es eesn from t he Earth; and these predictions can be checked against the obeer vetiona . But Kepler sees these confirmations es confirming hie mar s and Earth
t heories 1oint ly, not th ~ martien theory by itself . And in any case, the disUlnce de t erminatior~ do not lead, in the first place, to the idae of t he ellipse,
.2£. to its exact dimensions: they ere t oo ridden with error to do so.
�21
Seventh .2DS. final Stage. Kepler has the ellipse and the area lew -- the
first and the second plar1etary law!i that go under his name. He is in despair.
He feels that his triumph over filers is empty . He cannot explain ·.uhy the planet
should go in this particular orbit.
One day he ie considering a diagram of the eccentric circle -- not the
correct orbi t of ffiars, but the orbit of Staga Four (Fi gure 13). This circle, of
course, circumscribes the correct elliptical orbit. If we assign 100,000 parts
to the radi us of the circle, then the ellipse come s within the circle, in the
middle longi tudes, by 429 parts; Kapler had calculated this number. Now he had
been employing thie circle constantly, in his cal cul ations of areas in the el l ipse; and always in these calculations, a certain triangle pleyed a r ole: the
triangle with the base SC, where S is t he Sun, and C is the cente r of the orbit,
and the apex P is on t he circle, at such a point that PC ie perpendicular to CS.
The angle CPS, Kepler knew, woe s0 1a•. Kepler t ells us t ha t qui t e acc identally
he happened on the s ecant of CPS, t ha t i s PS/PC ; it was 100429/ 100000 . "It was
aa though" -- he says -- "I had awakened from s leep, and seen a new l igh t." In
the middle longi t ud es, betws8n the apsides, the lunula is broadest ,. and in fact
its width, 429 is just t he exc ess of PS over PC.
Keple r immediatel y a rrives at the notion t hat for othe r places on t~ e c i rcle,
e.g. , P' , t he distanc e of mars from the Sun should be gi ven , not by SP ', but by
the perpendicular project ion of SP' onto the correspooding di ameter of the circle,
viz . P'T .
lhe last part of the story I am barely touching on, because of its compli cation, but I do want to urge that Kepler's sudden sense of illumination is not
totally unintelligible. There are, I think, two raaeons for it. One of them has
to do with the relation between the area law, and that first hypothesis which
l<apler had proposed to replace the ~quant, the hypothesis that the times for
equal arcs are proportional to the distances of those arcs from the Sun. Kepler
knew that these t wo hypotheses were not equivalent fo r most orbi~A; b\Jt I thick
t hat et the moment of illumination, beca~ee of e certain geometrical rel a tion ,
he got the idea that the two hypotheses would be exactly equivalent for the
r i ght e l liptical orbit . This is not quite right, and Kepler finds a clear and
strictly corr ect formula t ion only much later, after the Astronomia ~was
f i nished.
The other reason has to do with the explanation of the e llipticity of
t he orbit. Kepler now proceed!:! to replace the motion of t he planet on the epicycle, used in Stages Four and five, by a libration or oscillation of the di ameter of the epicycle that goes through t he Sun. The possibility of such Bn
oscillation Kepler had thought of long before , when he was having all his di fficul t ies with the c onception of t he planetar y mover, and was t rying to imagine
a wey in which mar e could be caused t o move in an orbit eccentr i c to t he Sun .
K pler f i nal ly accounts for the osc il l at ion by a kind of m gnet i c a tt raction and
e
a
r 'pulaion. But the point I w ~n t to make he re i s that, i n Kepler's e arlier
study of this oscillation t ho tr i angl e P'TS i s i nvo lved .
Thus t his moment of i llumin~tion is t riggered by an dCCidontal observation;
but the reaso n that the acc idontal o~servation seems illuminating is that it
s uggests a solut ion to two prohl€ms on whi ch Kepler had spent long hours, and
with the geometry of llihic h he is thoroughly familiar.
�A
FIGURE
13
STAGE
7
Discove ry of the correct rule for Sun - Planet distances
When the angle at the center of the circle is x , and the
helio ce nt~ic longi t ude therefore u (approximately) ,
t hen -the Sun - Planet distance is n ot SP' (as in the circular
theory),
but P ' T (t h e p r ojection of SP ' onto the diameter) .
�23
What Kepler now has is a proposed procedure or formula for calculating the
distances of filers from the Sun. for a given angle at the center of the circle,
say~ x in rigure 13, the proper distance is not SP' hut P'T.
But: how is
P'T to be laid off? One end of it has to go et S, but where does the other end
go?
Kepler first verifies hie not-quite-defined formula by laying P'T off along
SP', the radius vector from Sun to planet in the old, discarded circular theory
of Stage rour. This theory, we recall, gave errors in the heliocentric longitudes of B' in the octants. The resulting orbit, gotten foam the new distance
formula, applied in this way, is not an ellipse. It does not matter; the angular
positions of the new distances era not quite right, but they are never off by
more than 8 1 • In an 8' shift, at the upper octant for instance, the radius
vector in the ellipse changes by about 25 parts. The distances determined by
observation and trigonometrical calculation are uncertain by 100 or 200 parts.
In other words, the observationally determined distances fit orbits which differ
slightly in shape from the ellipse.
Kepler knows this. But he wants to fit the distances of the new formula
into the ellipse. The orbit must be elliptical, as he has convinced himself
on the basis of the area law.~ter a time-consuming mistake, Kepler discovers
the right way. The new mistances, laid off from S, are to be shifted in position
from the line SP' to a position such that the end-point of the distance lies
on P'M, a line perpendicular to the line of apsides. Then the end-points lie on
en ellipse. Kepler is here discovering a new piece of geometry, hitherto unknown.
All right.
The war is over.
Whet I have bean trying to show may be summarized aa follo~E. The revolution which Kepler brings about in astronomy -- and the Keplerian rev~lution is
the decisive revolution, it is here rather than with Copernicus that we cross the
divide between ancient and modern astronomy -- this revolution does not consist
in the discovery of what may be called, in a simplistic sense, e~pirical laws.
If the first two Keplerian laws were empirical in that sense, thAn it 1110uld have
had to be the case that the ellipticity of the orbit was verified independently
of the area law, and then the area law verified within the ellipse thus found .
The actual process was the other way round: what Kepler verified, with the
degree of precision he wanted, was the proposition: .!.f. the area law is right,
!!:!.!!:!. the orbit is elliptical. It is true that he has satisfied himself, independently of the area law, on the basis of distance-determinations, that the
orbit is oval. But these determinations leave an unsatisfying range of
indeterminacy.
Newton will later write:
"Kepler knew ye Orb to be not circular but oval,
But the guess is no idle guess; it comes
out of a hunch actively pursued, in confrontation with all the previous theories,
end with Tycho's new data.
& guest it to be Elliptical." Yes.
If one is asked what is responsi ble for Kepler's discoveries, I think one
has to admit the role of chance, lucl<, or as Kepler would say, Providence. It is
into his care that Tycho's observations are eonfided
the only obaerveti~ns
that could have led him to his goal. The first task he is assigned is that of
�24
constructing a theory for mare - - the only planet whose elliptical path could
have been discoveredt in t he t hen state of the obse~vati gnal ert . The th@oriss
of Stages four and rive, which he constructs, happen to err equally in apposite
dir•ctione from the right result. H%ll .!1~.efL~!l! by accident on the !meant of s
tlertain eingle 9 ~nd sfJ emeirgss f'.l:om his final p~rplexity.
aut ruhat ii>l just as i.i:tpcrt.:ant, thro1,,.,igh all the
~ccid®nt
end ®I'ror
~nd
luck, is, first, Kepler's belief in the possibility of understanding, and his
dovation t.t:i hi~ task~ th~t con i es him th:cough four yaera of !'aaeord.ng i:md c:~l""
oulaUon;
~nd t>J~cond
y, the rightness of his initiB-1 hurv;h or insight., Md hh
ability to disentangle the confused state of things before him in the light of
.i t.
~~
procaecig
ioo~ad
e k i nd o f She&·i.m:k Holmei!3,'\,an l ngicp whi ch
cl ~ima
ir1
eliminating the impossible or false to arrive 8t the true ; and most of the
physical hypoth.wsas ha constructs wiH ha1Je lat.er to be discet>ded ~~ inconai~tant
~ith Nriwtonian theory .
But at ·the root of all his theorizing is that initial
aenao of the significance of the inverse releti~ between velocity and sietancs
'"""' I':! fir~t ~liW.!i11',!ll"
of wht'it will one dray be the law of cane1ervation t:f angulfU'
It is in the light of that hunch that he is guided through 900 paoss
or ~:@1. cul etion to El bettsx plen!'ltar y thecriry than hsd even.' bean proposed befoira.
No doubt K~pler ~ a di~cove~ies ~re a kind of mi~acle -- of chance and love, but
aleo ot inventive hypothesizing and detective logic.
mom~ntum.
�
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Speeches, presentations, and other lectures
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Speeches, presentations, and other lectures given at St. John's College. These include convocation addresses delivered in both Annapolis, MD and Santa Fe, NM.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Speeches, presentations, and other lectures" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=15">Items in the Speeches, presentations, and other lectures Collection</a></strong> to <span>view and sort all items in the collection.</span>
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speechespresentationsotherlectures
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paper
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24 pages
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Kepler's discovery of the elliptical orbit of Mars
Description
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Typescript of a lecture given in May 1967 by Curtis Wilson at the University of California at San Diego.
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Wilson, Curtis
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San Diego, CA
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1967-05
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St. John's College has been given permission to make this item available online.
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text
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pdf
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English
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lec Wilson 1967-05
Deans
Tutors
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Speeches, presentations, and other lectures
Description
An account of the resource
Speeches, presentations, and other lectures given at St. John's College. These include convocation addresses delivered in both Annapolis, MD and Santa Fe, NM.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Speeches, presentations, and other lectures" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=15">Items in the Speeches, presentations, and other lectures Collection</a></strong> to <span>view and sort all items in the collection.</span>
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speechespresentationsotherlectures
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cassette tape
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00:34:11
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Bib #65727
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Newton's double pendulum experiment: talk and demonstration
Description
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Audio recording of a lecture delivered on March 20, 1999 by Curtis Wilson. This lecture was given as part of the Isaac Newton Conference & Exhibition at St. John's College, March 19-21, 1999.
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Wilson, Curtis
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Annapolis, MD
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1999-03-20
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St. John's College has been given permission to make this item available online.
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sound
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mp3
Deans
Tutors
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Speeches, presentations, and other lectures
Description
An account of the resource
Speeches, presentations, and other lectures given at St. John's College. These include convocation addresses delivered in both Annapolis, MD and Santa Fe, NM.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Speeches, presentations, and other lectures" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=15">Items in the Speeches, presentations, and other lectures Collection</a></strong> to <span>view and sort all items in the collection.</span>
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St. John's College Greenfield Library
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speechespresentationsotherlectures
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00:58:38
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Bib #81628
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Lessons from a decade of frustrating war
Description
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Audio recording of a lecture delivered on April 09, 2014 by Francis J. West as part of the LCDR Erik S. Kristensen Lecture Series.
The lecture is the second in a series of joint lectures series between St. John's College and the U.S. Naval Academy to honor the memory of Lieutenant Commander Erik S. Kristensen. An alumnus of the United States Naval Academy and the St. John's College Graduate Institute, Kristensen, a Navy SEAL, was killed in the line of duty in Afghanistan in 2005. This lecture series aims to create even greater ties between the two schools, as well as to educate the public about civil-military relations and the place of the liberal arts in education of naval and military professions.
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West, Francis J.
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Annapolis, MD
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2014-04-09
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A signed permission form has been received stating, "I hereby grant St. John's College permission to: Make an audio recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation in the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make an audio recording of my lecture available online. Make a typescript copy of my lecture available for circulation and archival preservation in the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make a copy of my typescript available online."
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sound
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mp3
Subject
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United States, Foreign relations, Middle East
United States, Military relations, Middle East
War and society, United States
Kristensen lecture series
U.S. Naval Academy
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Speeches, presentations, and other lectures
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An account of the resource
Speeches, presentations, and other lectures given at St. John's College. These include convocation addresses delivered in both Annapolis, MD and Santa Fe, NM.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Speeches, presentations, and other lectures" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=15">Items in the Speeches, presentations, and other lectures Collection</a></strong> to <span>view and sort all items in the collection.</span>
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St. John's College Greenfield Library
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speechespresentationsotherlectures
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9 pages
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paper
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Weigle Inaugural Address 1950
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Inaugural Address of President Richard D. Weigle
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1950-10-28
Description
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The Inaugural Address given by St. John's College President Richard D. Weigle on October 28, 1950.
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Annapolis, MD
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St. John's College
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English
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text
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St. John's College owns the rights to this publication.
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pdf
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Weigle, Richard D.
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PDF Text
Text
�������
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Speeches, presentations, and other lectures
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An account of the resource
Speeches, presentations, and other lectures given at St. John's College. These include convocation addresses delivered in both Annapolis, MD and Santa Fe, NM.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Speeches, presentations, and other lectures" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=15">Items in the Speeches, presentations, and other lectures Collection</a></strong> to <span>view and sort all items in the collection.</span>
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St. John's College Greenfield Library
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speechespresentationsotherlectures
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paper
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6 pages
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Title
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Beginnings of community
Description
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Transcript of an address given on May 21, 1999 by Stephen Van Luchene as part of the Baccalaureate service in Santa Fe, NM.
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Van Luchene, Stephen R.
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St. John's College
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Santa Fe, NM
Date
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1999-05-21
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Meem Library has been given permission to make this item available online.
Type
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text
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pdf
Subject
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Communities
Language
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English
Identifier
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24003362
Baccalaureate service
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Speeches, presentations, and other lectures
Description
An account of the resource
Speeches, presentations, and other lectures given at St. John's College. These include convocation addresses delivered in both Annapolis, MD and Santa Fe, NM.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Speeches, presentations, and other lectures" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=15">Items in the Speeches, presentations, and other lectures Collection</a></strong> to <span>view and sort all items in the collection.</span>
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St. John's College Greenfield Library
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speechespresentationsotherlectures
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paper
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7 pages
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The Chains of the Skyway: Freedom in the Liberal Arts
Description
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Typescript of a lecture given by Jonathan Tuck.
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Tuck, Jonathan
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Annapolis, MD
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n.d.
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St. John's College was given permission to make this item available online.
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text
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pdf
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lec Tuck The Chains of the Skyway
Tutors
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8ffc53ecf7ac556e5fa3061a25e08fb7
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Speeches, presentations, and other lectures
Description
An account of the resource
Speeches, presentations, and other lectures given at St. John's College. These include convocation addresses delivered in both Annapolis, MD and Santa Fe, NM.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Speeches, presentations, and other lectures" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=15">Items in the Speeches, presentations, and other lectures Collection</a></strong> to <span>view and sort all items in the collection.</span>
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St. John's College Greenfield Library
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speechespresentationsotherlectures
Sound
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m4a
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00:43:35
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Myth and Mycelium
Description
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Audio recording of a lecture given by Sophie Strand on April 22, 2023 as part of the Carol J. Worrell Annual Lecture Series on Literature. A description of the event: "For most of human history knowledge was kept alive through our relationships to each other and to our environments. Storytelling and scripture did not live on the page but in boats of breath, buoyed between generations. Our most important information was nested in oral narrative vessels compelling and flexible enough that they could reliably sail through cultural collapse, disaster, and climatological pressures. In oral cultures and the historical oral traditions, we see narratives that are intimately responsive to their environments and concerned with right relationship to land. What happens when we start writing our stories down so that they can no longer evolve? What happens when we shift from breath to text, from direct relationship to land to abstracted marks on a static page? When we uproot knowledge from its ecosystem – its map of relationships – it becomes more vulnerable to misinterpretation and misuse. What if oral culture’s cultivation of resilient community, narrative plasticity, and environmental embeddedness is exactly what we need to look to in an age of ecological peril? We cannot return to the folk traditions of our distant ancestors. But we can reclaim knowledge as inherently relational and environmentally situated.
What if we could reclaim narrative as a way of rooting back into a resilient multi-species network of beings with more feral suggestions on how to dismantle paradigms of domination? The type of stories we are called to write and tell now are probably somewhere closer to composting. We live in a culture that is remarkably good at abstracting itself from waste and off-loading it onto the marginalized communities least responsible for its creation. We cannot simply decide that civilization and patriarchy are toxic and then reject them. Instead, we can take responsibility for our entangled inheritance of bad stories through the transformative power of rot. On the compost heap, nothing is exiled. Beliefs and epistemologies never designed to touch, inappropriately combine in the moist refuse pile, fermenting into soil that can grow something freshly adapted to our dire circumstances. Let us reroot our favorite texts in their original environments to recover the ecological wisdom they were built to transmit."
Creator
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Strand, Sophie, 1993-
Publisher
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St. John's College
Coverage
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Santa Fe, NM
Date
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2023-04-22
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Meem Library has been given permission to make this item available online.
Type
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sound
Format
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mp3
Subject
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Storytelling
Cultural narrative
Language
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English
Identifier
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SF_StrandS_Myth_and_Mycelium_2023-04-22
Worrell lecture
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PDF Text
Text
....
Trustees
..
..
NT ER.
�AN
ACCOUNT
OF THE
CEREMON Y OF LAYING
THE
CORNER STONE OF THE NEW BUILDING,
AT
ST. JOHN'S COLLEG E,
PERFORMED BY THE
Hon. JOHN STEPHEN, Judge of the Court of Appeals
WITH AN
ADDRESS DELIVERED ON THE OCCASION,
BY
.JOHN .JOHNSON, Esq., one of the Visitors and Governors
JUNE
18TH,
1635.
WITH A
HISTORICAL NOTICE OF THE INSTITUTION, A CATALOGUE
OF THE OFFICERS AND STUDENTS,
AND .A.
COPY OJ' THE SUBSCRIPTIONS MADE
TO THE
FUNDS
ANNAPOLIS
Published by request of the Board of Trustees
JEREMIAH HUGHES, PRINTER
�E.
ORI GIN OF ST. JOH N'S COL LEG
ide
THE first act of Assembly in Mar ylan d, to provding
for foun
for Collegiate Education, passed in 178 2,
requ ired ,
was
a Seminary on the Eastern Sho re. It
be raised
ld
shou
by the char ter, that a sum of money
£50 0 for
to
l
eqna
by contribution, for its endowment,
s were
year
five
each county on the Eastern Sho re; and.
In an
.
itic,n
cond
allowed for the performance of this
at
ted
prin
,
king
erta
account of the progress of the und
,
a1ly
hatic
emp
d,
urge
Phil adel phia in 1784, it was
D
GOO
hy
e,
mad
be
t
that ''las ting pro1Jisions mus
n of PA•
EDU CA TIO N,fo r trai ning up a successio
for LIB NEs;
D1v1
and
ES
TRJO Ts, LAW GIV ERS , SAG
re her fair
ER TY will not dei~n to dwell, but whe
by her side;
companion KNOWLEDGE flourishes
ered, but
nor can GOVERNMENT be duly administ
, VrnT uE,
w~ere the principles of REL IGIO N, JusT ICE ENC E
SCI
CON
for
CE,
DIEN
SonRrnTY and OBE
people of
SAK E, are uph eld. " Thi s appeal to the
. In less
the Eastern Sho re, was not made in vainsubscribed
e
than.five months, upwards of £10 ,000 wer
that Sho re;
on
ties
coun
ous
vari
the
in
for the College,
to put the
and measures wer e immediately adopted
list of the
Sem inar y inh> operation. An accu rate
count, ~c."
subscribers, is pres erve d in the above "./l.c
sense of its
w'.1ich exhibits, in a strik ing manner, the
shington
Tfla
importance then felt by the people.
, and
own
Colle!fe was accordingly opened at Chestert
erconf
the
held its first Annual Commencement, for
at
rch
Chu
ring of Degrees, May 16th , 1783, in the
aPhil
of
D.
that place. The Rev. W. Smi th, D.
son having
delphia, pres ided on the occa~ion, and his
�4
the
been !ho ugh t ,vo rth, y of
Th e Dfirst honour, spoke the
valedictory oration
egree of Bac hel or of
trt s, was con ferr ed on fiv
men, Alumni oft he
ollege. Copies of the e gen~Je
~tory and salu tato ry
or~ti_ons: are p1·eserved in v;~ed1
_e a ove ",llccount &c "
~n rnd1cate tha t the
were of unco'mm.
i,nterest and effect I exercises 4, the College on
178
ay,
•.. nfM Gen W
was
l,onoured with a v,s1
t rom
, who
ToN
be
I.NG
ASH
•
13
th
of
er
..:ame a memb
e oa rd of Tru stee s ai d •IS
enrolled among th
cent of its ; t l
Th e College Ed'fie most munifi
ns.
was l60 feet in len gth ,a trhoree
stories in hei gh/a bee
ove the b
~
!se me nl, and con tain ed
rooms ior more than 100 St uae
• was
nts. Per h aps 1t
to
an
. err or, ere ct one b ·1d·
of tl~ese dimensions,
t~t ea, f of following the i:u atg l ? of sep ara te Halls
pa
o1 a smaller num ber each o
different par ts of th;
College grounds. In cod n
e of this arra nge ;en t,hw hen the bui ldin g :;~ t~~I e some yea rs sin ce
,
e w ole was red uce d to ru·ms.
A
? err or of more conse
e wa_s committed by
forming the Universitlj of if.uen~
and rn two Bra nch es
one on the Eastern a~d one ar,11
tl~e We ste rn Sho re'
!n_the preamble to the cha rt on
•
'' ashington C II
of
er
it is ~tated tha t ''th •
~i
a17 J_ la~dable und er~ ah:
hat h been reta rde d
ry mcz den ts of a p bl'
nat ure , but chiFjiy b th gre
_u g zc
fi.rin
di.fficulty ot'.
a
~'h oree if at
'J
situ atio n on eit"tter u.
th •
iSem
a
for
te,
Sta
_zsh
'
~biar,1/ of uni ver sal learningo' 'Vmc mig ht b if
•
enefit and c
_~f
::• youth of bothe;ho'J,~tha
~;11wa~ dete;:i.:~"::~•e~
t
circumstances
ze inh abi tan ts of each Sh ese sho
t'
fet't
be
uld
. nce ore
;1 • o con• fi
sui t· the. ir own co nvenze
fre ely
and
g
din
~un
n
:;: ;w i'lg a College or Sem h::t1/I
ng
rni
lea
al
<;r
gen
if
for themselves, und er
p
,;
law
of:'
n
: sanctio
'd
•
er haps the re wer e co 11 s1 cra twn
'J
•
t hat p · d
s m operation at
ex /r1 0 , ren der ing suc h a course necessary or
are
we
r pe ient, of which res :ot now sensible. Inteligen~ men on both Sho
er, ver y generalJy,
question the pol icy of tha~ a:: ::vgem ent , and app ear
tyg;::~
e been far bet ter to
to be convinced tha t it would hav
Sta te at some one
con cen trat e the pat ron age of the establishment of a
the
for
point favourably situ ate d,
n, nuw so fre que ntly
Sta te University. Th is opinio
the people of Ma ryex pressed in eve ry qua rter , b)
effect in the Annual
land, is P.mbodied wit h gre at
the Hon. JoH N B •
Rep ort to the Leg isla ture , by
ted to visit St. Joh n's
MoRRls, of the com mit tee app ni;i
3.
College, De cem ber session, 183
College is dee me d
n's
"T he pro spe rity of St. Joh
t the you th from
tha
a sub jec t of gre at imp ort anc e, so
ns of the Sta te,
isio
div
at
eve ry portion of the two gre
assurance of
ed
und
gro
l
may convene wit h the wel
education, and at the
being able to a1.:.quire a libe ral
riot ic anticipations of
same time, consummate the pat
ion bet wee n the two
the cha rter ; ''th at the connex
by uniformity in
shores, will be gre atly increased
the adv anc em ent of
mannf:!rs and join t efforts for
no way can this paLit era tur e." It is believed in
d as by sustaining
rental aspiration be so well rea lize rnin g at the sea t
Lea
on a liberal scale a Sem ina ry of
chi ld are con ven ed,
and
ent
par
e
her
n-w
of Leg isla tio
me re511latio ns for
the one to aid in devisrng wholeso
oth er to acq uire the
the welfare of So cie ty- the
in the reg uhr coursP.
prin cip les of knowledge, wh ich
n und er the favoraof events is to be put in requisitio
nne rs" and ear ly
ma
ble auspices of "un ifo rmi ty of
associations."
not be chosen to
Language more felicitous could
neous sentiments of
utt er wh at must be the sponta
who knows the story
eve ry true friend of the Sta te,
St. John's, like
.
of this unf ortu nat e institution
sub jec t to calamity
Washi11g/0'1, College , has been
ten ce, almost simuland adv ers ity -ca lled into exis
l action by a wis e
tan eou sly , and set into successfu
, it seems to hav e
gov ern me nt and a liberal peo ple strike the m bot h,
uld
been fate d tha t the paralysis sho
manent vigour and
per
the
in
atta
before eith er could
ma ture d institutions.
efficiency tha t belong to well
�6
e name is
"l'he same wor thy agen t, whose venerabl
ton College,
enrolled in the earl y Hecords of Washing
nt and estabtook the most active part in the endowme
versity. A
lishment of this second bran ch of the Uni
, for the
him
list of the subscriptions obta ined by
the books
on
benefit of St. John 's CoJJege, is pres erve d
equal to
was
of the Board of Trus tees . The amount
ch on
bran
r
othe
that which had been obtained for the
two
sum
ch
whi
of
,
the Eastern Sho re; i. e. £10 ,000
and
tor
Rec
''the
by
thousand pounds wer e subs crib ed
subsc:rip Visit01·s of the .11.nnapolis Scho ol." This
Ann athe
of
tors
Visi
tion secu red to the Rec tor and
tors
Visi
two
g
intin
appo
polis School, the priv ileg e of
also
e
ileg
priv
a
ege;
Coll
and Governors of St. John 's
in the same
exte nde d to tbe othe r class of subscribers,
£10 00
each
for
r
erno
Gov
and
tor
ratio, viz: -on e Visi
Thi s corsubs crib ed and secu red for the College.
Wil liam 's
poration was originally called ''Ki ng
s, the balScho ol," and possessed considerable fund
convey to St.
ance of which, 1t was proposed, also, to
pleted. The
John 's College, after it should be com
to coup le the
Rec tor and Visitors, how ever , proposed
tion, that in
following condition with thei r subscrip
Visitors and
case of a vacancy in thei r number of
enin g, out
happ
Governors, ''to fill up the vacancy so
th £10 00
wor
be
l
of such citizens of Annapolis as shal
not apwas
n
tatio
curr ent money each ," Thi s limi
ernors,
Gov
and
prov ed or acee pted , "the Visi tors
prin the
izn
wit!
rty,
not thinki:ng themselves at libe
ded,
foun
is
ege
Coll
the
ciples of equ ality upo n 'Which
conbe
l
shal
ncy
vaca
that the choice to fill up such
this
from
And
lis."
apo
.fine d to the citiz ens of .llnn
ool,
Sch
the
of
tors
Visi
proposition the Rec tor and
s11hscription
unanimously agre ed to rece de. The ir
Visitors ancl
two
and
e,
mad
of £20 00, was ther efor e
Boa rd.
the
to
rned
retu
and
Gover11ors were elected
7
chosen by subscribers,
The original. members,
were the foll owr ng:WJL LIA ~ WCELsrGgE¥;r ' D. D.
THO MA S J.
NIC HOL AS CARROLL, Esq.
JOH N H . STO NE, Esq.
WIL LIA M BEA NES , Esq.
RIC HAR D RID GEL Y, Esq.
SAM UEL CHA SE, Ellq.
JOHN THO MA S, Esq.
THO MA S STO NE, Bsq: N ' Es q.
ALE XAN DER C. HANSO
THOMAS JEN NIN GS, Esq.
b the Visitors and
en d \ver e the following-:
me1:11bers {bn
The othe rcons
titut e t e oar ,
Governors to
JA~ IES BRI CE,
JOH N ALL EN THOMAS,
GUS TAV US R BROWN,
EDW ARD GAN TT,
CLE MEN T HIL L,
RIC HAR D SPR IGG ,
CHA RLE S CAR ROL L, of C.
JER EM IAH T. CHA SE,
CHA RLE S WA LLA CE,
os h
JOH N CAR ROL L, D. D.
1,; t
.
Feb
held
h Boa rd was
•
fled before A. C.
The first mee tmg oft e
Cou rt, by
178 6. The members wer e fq~~e1 General
thei r beof
ion
arat
Hanson, one of the J ~d.ges o decl
two oaths
the
ng
taki
d
a
repe atin g and_ s?bscr1b~n.~
Laws of
and
n
utio
ti
Can
h10n
lief in the Chr1s.t1an Rehg
ons
e
t
by
of fidelity reqm red
h B ard proc eede d to
this State. .
~·ng the ColJege.
On the 1st of Mar ch 178 6 t
i .llnnanolis and
t1sd
er for es!a
fix upon a place prop
.
r
e , ts wer
1 wer e .nomrna
e give n
. ballo
Two places on Y
latte r plac e.
Upper Mar l borough; wheia1;:~efor the
term s of
the
to
, rdin
for the former, and two.
of four
lot
a
of
•of
acco
is,
Thi s election of Annapol possess1
f
the
ed
use o
the
for
d
base
.
secu r
the Cha rter, with
pure
,
in the city
acre s of land
r
~r
�8
the public, and conveyed, in 1744, by Stephen Bord- .
Iy, Esq. to Thomas Blad~n, Esq. t~en Governor of
Maryland. 1 his lot has smce remarneJ the property
of the College, and is the scite on which the present
buildings stand.
.
.
On the 10th of March 1786, it was resolved to
finish the building, then standing on the ground, for
the purposes of the College, and to add wings on the·
North and South ends, according to a plan furn ished
by Mr. Joseph Clarke. This plan was never executed, and is probably lost. The following gentleme n
composed the Building Committee.
ALEXANDER CONTEE H ANSO K ,
NIC HOLAS CA RRO LL ,
RICH ARD RI DGEL Y, Esquires.
DR.
JoHN
McDoWELL was the first officer chosen
to preside over the College as Professor of Mathe~atics; and he was afterwards promoted to the station
of Principal, which office he discharged with great
ability for many years. The 11th day of Nov. 1789
was selected for the occasion of opening the Institution, and the Rev. Dr. Smith was requested to attend·
as Principal of the College, pro tempore, and to deliver
a sermon. The dedication was performed with much
solemnity, all the public bodies being in attendance,
and forming a long procession from the State House
to the College Hall. In addition to the sermon by
Dr. Smith} an oration, by Mr. Higginbottom, Professor of Ancient Languages, was delivered on the advantages of classical education. And from the account
published by the authority of the Trustees, it is evident
that the high reputation of this College, for its classical course, has been owing, in a great measure, to the
thorough discipline which was then provided, and
which has been preserved to the present time.
The Trustees proceeded to the appointment of
other Professors, as the increase of their funds gave
them the necessary means; and in 1792 the sum of
EJ7·5 was expended for the purchase, in Loadon, of
9
ihe requisite Philosophical apparatus. Most of the
articles are still found in the College, thou_gh $ome
important ones, among which was a th~odolite, have
been lost, At this period there were six l'rofessors
and Teachers, constantly employed in the College;
~nd, for ~nany years, its reputntion was such that. a.
long succession of distinguished scholars took then•
.,
deg rees at its annual Con1me nc'ements,
On Friday, N ov. 2 2d 1805 (a day or singular
fatality and ill -omen to education in Maryland,~ lea~e
was granted in the Ho.use of Delegates to br_mg 1 .
''an act to withdrn:µJ the funds f rom f,flashington
and St. John's Cqtleges." The strongest possiblf!:
influence whi-ch the enemies· of ,the College could
command was concentrated; and brought to bear upon it; but so firm were .;:he convictions of the impolicy
and injustice of the a0t, then felt, that a majority pf
but eight members, unde}• all the exciteme nt of the
ticcasion , could be zll'evaile'd on to take the fatal step.
"{his decision was not had in the House of Delegates
till thy 1st of Ja111rary, 1806. And a strong indication of the dispassionate judgment of the Honse~ on
this important matter, is founi;l in the vote subsequently taken at the s~me s~ssion: upon a r esolution
introduced to restor~ S 1600 per annum from the funds
which had been withdrawn, for the p urpose of enabling _the Trustees to continue the institution. The
question was t~ken upan this resolution on the '27th·
Jan. 1806, and was lost by only a· sing1e vote.
In consequence of this a,ction on part of the Gov~
ernmer;it, tht:: Visitors arid Governors were under the
r!ecessity of passing the following resolufion on tho.
12tQ of May 1806. . "Wherea~, by virtue of an act
of the Legislature of ldaryland, at their last session,
the donationfrom the State to St . .John's College of
£1750 per, 9nnum,. wilt,cease am/ determine on thtJ
1§.t day of J,une next, therefore,-Resolved, that the ,
Principal, Vice Principal, Professors and M aste.rs of
said College, be discontinued on tile 10th day of Au,'.:
~
•
I
�•
11
10
gust, ne:i:t." Such provisions we1·e made, howev:1,
at the same time, as the funds would allow for the mamtenance of a respectable school; but its character as a
College was lost. Yet the Visitors and Gover~ors hav_e
never abandoned the hope under the rnostpressrng period of their necessity, of ultimately fulfilling the designs
of its founders. They have, accordingly, appealed
to the Legislature, at several periods, for a restoration to the enjoyment of their rights, and the justice
of their claim has been repeatedly acknowledged; and
acts of partial indemnity have been passed in theit•
favour. In 1811 an act was passed, appropriating
81000 per annum on the same terms, with similar
sums granted to other county Seminaries. In 1821
a lottery was also granted, v,hich added ~20,000 to
the permanent funds. Finally, in 1833, an act of
compromise was passed, by whic-h 82000 per annum,
in addition to former grants, were secured to the
College forever, which the Visitors and Governors
accepted in full of their legal and equitable claims;
and the deed of release, required by the act, was executed and entered upon the records of the court of
appeals. By the same act, ten of the highest ofti•
cers of the State Government were introduced into
the Board of Trustees. These measures have gone
far to restore to the College the confidence of the
people of Maryland, and the consequent increase of
patronage, has required the addition of another building for the accommodation of students. It was accordingly resolved, Feb. 15, 1835, to solicit funds,
by subscription, for this purpose and for the general
improvement of the library and apparatus. Upwards
of deven thousand dollars have been already subscribed, and a commodious edifice, 80 feet by 40, 3 stories
in height above the basement, has been commenced,
and will be completed by the ensuing spring~
The foundation walls are built of stone, in the
most substantial manner, furnishing one large and
convenient public room, in the basement story, in
addition to a kitchen, ct:llars, &c. of sufficient size
for a public establishment. The walls above the
basement, are of brick, with partitions of the same
material, and will contain twenty-five sepa1·ate rooms,
for the accommodation of fifty Students, besides rooms
for the family of a· Professor of the College. The
Corner Stone was cut from a single block of granite,
in the form of an Octagon, four feet across, corresponding with the form and dimensions of the angular
buttresses.
The ceremony of laying the Corner Stone, was
preceded by Prayer, by the Rev. Dr. Humphreys,
the President of the Coilege. The following inscrip•
tion, enclosed in a sealed gla1s vase, was deposited in
a mcta\\ic box, undt•r the stone:
"This corner stone wits laid on Thursday, the 18th
day of June, A. D., 1835, by the Hon. John iStephen,
Presiding Judge in the Court of Appeals, the Rev.
Hector Humphreys~ D. D. President of St. John's
College, and John Johnson, Esq. one of the Visitors
and Governors, being present and assisting; His
Excellency .11.ndrew Jaclrson, being President of the
United States; His Excellency James Thomas, being
Governor of Maryland, and the Hon. John S. Martin,
Thomas Veazey, Geol'ge C. Washington, .Nathaniel
F. Pftilliams, and Gwinn Harris, being the :Executive Council; and Dr. Dennis Claude, being Mayor
of Annapolis.
Ramsa.1/ Waters,
John Johnson,
Building Committee.
Nicholas Brewer, Jr.
R. C. Long, Architect,
Elijah Welts, Builder."
!
After the ceremony was performed, the following
remarks were m&.de by the presiding Judge, standing
on the Corner Stone.
"The object of erecting the Edifice, of which the
corner stone has just been laid, is one of vital importance to the future happmess, prosperity and welfare
�12
~r .that community of which we are members.
fier~
likewise, is to be laid the corner stone of that mteliectual cultivation, which is to develope the powers
of the youthful mind, and enable it to gather w~alth
from those treasures of antiquity, which have outh~ed
the wreck of Empires, and s?rvived the a!l-moulderrng
hand of time. J;Iere the rising generat10n are te ac~
guire the rudiments of s~ience,_ aud to ~e taught thostl
elemental principles of learmng, which elsewh~re,
:µnder pigher auspices, are to be foster~d and cherished and receive additional culturP, until they expand
in(o full growth and maturity. To the mind ~f the
Patriot, the spectacle which the _ceremony of this day
has exhibited, must bring a tram of thought, o~ t~e
roost gratifying and consoling character. Withm
these walls, the first lessons of that wisdom are to be
taught, which is to guide and control the f~ture ~estinies of this rising Republic, to sway the dehberat1?ns
of its Rulers, and elevate its character to that high
~egree of splendour,· d!gnity and ~enown, to whi~h,
under the benignant smiles of Provi9ence, and a virtuous and enlightened administration of its affair&, it
~eems to be tt:nding with a step as certain as fate, aud
:.ureas the advance of time itself. To the friend and
Jover of his country, 'no human interest can present
stronger claims to patronage and support, than the
cause of science arid literature; by their lights ar.d
influence, the mind is invigorated, the taste refine~,
and the heart warmed with noble and elevated sentiments. But above all, in a Government founded, as
ou1·'s is, upon the virtue and intellig~nce of ~he pe_ople, a gen6ral diffusion of knowledge is essential to its
prosperity and permanent existence. May we not
then, indulge the pleasing, the delightfol hope, that
from within these w . dls, the lights ot science will go
forth and pervade every corner of our land, illumine
the mind() of the rising generation, and impart to
posterity those blessings which learning and virtue
never fail to bestow.
ADDRESS
BY
JOHN JOHNSON, Esq.
l)ELIVERED IN THE HALL OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE~
June 18th, 1835.
The occasion which calls us together is one which
~u]dresst>s itself mo,,t powerfully to the best aftections
of the human heart. We are engaged in providing
means tor the education of the rising generation. In
supplying that aliment for the minds of those who are
to fill the places now occupied_ by us, without ;Vhich
the glorious institutions transmitted by our fore1athers
to ourselves, would be but a barren and unprofitable
inheritance.
In vain did the Heroes of the Revolution toil and
bleed to free us from the galling yoke of Colonial
servitude. In vain did the warm currents of their
lives best blood, 8tream over the fields, whose ab~ndance we now enjoy, if we, their sons do not furnish
the future owners of all these blessings, with a full
knowledge of their inappreciable value: . ~t may be
truly said, that the eyes of the whole c1 v1hzed world
are anxiously directed to the career of youthful America. The friends of freedom regard her progress
with exulting anticipations it is true, but with hopes
sometimes overcast with gloomy forebodings of the
future. The advocates of despotic authority, dreading the influence which her bright example may extrt
over those who have so long been the victims of that
authority, watch every indication of degeneraCY,
eagerly longing for _the moment, when. the spectacle
of bleedin~ and dismembered America may be a
warning to ~woid, rather than an example to follow.
,!\nd shall we not employ all the means placed by a
�14
gracious .i.Jrov1oence within our reach, to fulfill the
hopes of our friends, and disappoint the expect ations
of our enemies? Shall we preter mit any effort~ which
may sustain, in all their purity , the be<1utiful fabric of
Repub lican Institutions, purcha sed with the blood of
our glorious ancestors, from a nation whose valor until then, had never been successfully resisted? and
how is this priceless treasu re to be preser ved-th ese
inestimable institutions upheld and defend ed, but by
teachin g their full value to those to whose keepin g
they must ere long be confided? There is no way in
which this can be done, unless education is diffused
widely among the people . To apprec iate a blessing,
its worth must be known, and it can only be known ,
by assiduously cultiva ting the mi.nds of those upon
whom the impression is to be made. A glorious destiny awaits Repub lican Ameri ca if she is faithful to
the principles which led to her indepe ndence . She
has already taken the lead of the older nations of Europe in the science of Government. The votaries of
freedom there, pant in vain for the high prize which
descen ded to us from our venera ted forefa thers- oppressed and borne down as they are with the barbar rous institutions, of barbarous and benigh ted ages;
institutions interw oven with the very web of their
social systems, and which cannot be overth rown, or
even essentially modified, withou t dange r to the
fabricks themselves; ages must roll away before the
same perfec tion in Gover nment is attaine d there, as
exists with us-no ne disput e our superiority in every
thing which relates to political organization. It
is admitted and unquestionable, and if we can likewise outstri p other nations in the cultiva tion of
the sciences and the lessons of practic al wisdom, we
shall prove ourselves deserv ing of the blessings we
enjoy. It is not to be expec ted, or perhap s desire d,
that the same high finish and elegant polish in literature, shall be acquir ed in this countr y, as is to be fount!
in the higher grades of Europ ean society; There the
great accumulation and concentration of wealth, in
15
the hands of a few, enable them to dedica te thcil
whole lives to the cultiva tion of those arts which serve
rather to adorn than benefit niank ind-w ith us, this
can never be the case. 1 he genius of OUl'institutions
is alike opposed to the monopoly of \~e.alth or_kno:V·
ledge. They were framed 111 a sp1_r1t of d1ffus1 vc
philan thropy , and \vhilst the law provides that we.llth
shall not accumulate for ages, the avenues to knowledge are thrown open alike to all. The great object
is to enlighten the mass. The int_elligence_of a nation
consists in the aggreg ate of the wisdom of its people ,
and not in possessing a few dazzling ~uminaries, whos_e
brilliJncy but deepen s the surrounclrng gloom. It ~s
not meant that the minds of all can be equally cultivated. Societ y is a chain of dependencies, and some
are invited to the discha rge of duties, which rtquir e
higher attainments than are necessary. to the parts
which others are called on to play. Whilst therefo re,
the streng th and durabi lity of the Government, and
the happiness and indepe ndence of ~he ~eople, arc
essentially promo ted by the spread of rntelhgence and
education 2 it is of the highes t importance that means
should be liberal ly provid ed, for the more elaborate
instruc tion of those who may be regard ed as the
especial conser vators of the institutions of the countr y,
and upon whose success in the great strugg le for
mental superi ority, th@ fame of the nation must necessarily rest. For this reason, it is the duty of all
who cheris h the honor and welfare of the State, not
only to furnish abund antly the means of improvement
to the mass of the community, to enable them to ap•
precia te truly, the happiness of their condit!on, and
to choose discre etly, those to whom the machi nery of
Government shall be confided, but it is also their imperativ e obligation to supply semina~•ies, _where the
most perfec t cultur e, of which the mmd is capabl e,
may be afforded.
In propor tion as these are multiplied, and society
is filled with a class of men, eminently qualified for
�16
the discharge of its most important duties, the danger
of selecting unfaithful or incompetent trustees of the
public we]fa!'e, is diminished. The conduct and
qualifications of every candidate for the popular suffrage, will be vigilantly and searchingly examined,
and it wiH rarely happen, that ignorance will escape
detection, or presumprion fail of its rebuke. And
should the various States of this happy country, ri val
each oth e1· in the cat1se of education, with the same
zeal which they now display in improving thei r physical condition, in opening avenues to wealth, and
adding new impulses to commer<?e, a degree of pros•
perity may be attained, which the imagination of the
wildest visionary has not yet conceived. Every motive to exertion, which can actuate the human heart,
:must exist in a nation like this. Witlt us, there are no
privileged orders1 Lorn t-o fill the high places in the
State. No sense of conventional inferiority, presses
upon the mind here, deadening its energies, and
smothering its virtuous aspirations, The highest
posts in the State; posts, the possession of which;
might thrill with a palpitating gladness, the bosom of
the loftiest monarch of the world, are accessible to the
humblest iudividual. The staridard of merit in this
nation of 1:epublicans, is virtue, intelligence, integrity
and devot10n to the public welfare. These are qualifications which depend aot, on blood, on wealth, or
adventitious influences of any kind. The son of the
humblest peasant within the wide borders of our almo~t li1~itless territory, 01: !he offspring of the poorest
artisan 1n our numerous C1t1es, may by his merit alone
rise to a height of true glory, whose elevation would
r;nder giddy the head of the proudest potentate of
Europe. He may be placed at the head of a nation
of freemen, whvse selection of him for such a trust
stamps him with ~ perpetual and glorious immortalit/
With these motives to stimulate to exertion, who can
set bou~ds to Am:erican genius, if proper appliances·
are furnished for its careful cultivation.
17
In most of the States of the confederacy, ~his momentous subject is engaging much of _the pubhc attP.?·
tion, and large sums have been contr1bu~ed by pubhc
and private munificence, for the promotion of ed~ca•
tion. In Maryland, a fatal lethargy for ~ long time,
seems to have brooded over the public mrnd. In all
the other elements of greatness, sufficient activity has
been manifested, especially within the compass of the
last few ye11rs. Efforts have been made, and are now
making, to attract within our borders, by stupen~ous
works of internal improvement, the rnexhaustible
riches of the western world.
The lofty Alleghanies are to be pierced o~ scaled,
and a tide of commerce and wealth poured rnto our
lap from fields and vallies, which it was supposed
we;e separated by impassable barriers. T!iese are
achievements to which Maryland enterpr1ze, and
Maryland treasure are freely devoted, and if successful as can scarceli be doubted, will reflect imperishabl~ honor upon those who devised, and ~hose. who
executed them. But whilst we are pressmg vigorously on the heels, if not ontstrippin~ ou_r sister States
in the race of physical and commercial 1mpr?vement,
it is not to be disguised, that we are far bc_hrnd _m~st
of them ' in furnishino-b the means of educat10,1 w1th1,1
Ve have not yet among us, any
our own borders.
great State lnstitu~i~n, affor<l~ng adequate facilit~es to
our y,mth, of acqmrrng the higher branches of intellectual improvement. In consequ_en?e of the.absence
of a liberally endowed and flour1shmg seminary of
learning, our youth are compelled to resort ~o o_ther
States, where feelings and prjnciples may be 1mbibe_d
in opposition to the best interests of the land of their
birth.
It is natural to the human heart, to feel a strong
yearning of affection for the spot_ where the light ?f
wisdom first beamed upon_ the mm?·. The pla~~s m
which we abode "when hfe was m its sprmg, and
which are associated with our freshest recollections-:
3
�IS
where the capacities of the mind were first unfolded
a1!d the Jessons of virtue and wisdom originally in:
~tilled, ~re alw~ys remembered, even to the dying
hour, with fe elings of gratitude and love.
Would it not be wise then to tie the sons of Maryland by these golden cords of affection to the land of
t~e~r birth, a~d not exp?se them to the perils of a
.divided alleg1a?ce? I_t 1s far from the purpose of lhis
_ad~ress to excite sentiments of hostili ty, or even of
md1fference, to the welfare of our sister States. ~Te
all constitute one great family, banded toge1her in
the holy brotherhood of affection and mutual interests
-Jiving un~er one common government; pursuing
the same objects, and Jinked together by a thousand
recollecti?ns of mutual dangers ·and mutual support,
~ha~ed with, a?d afforded to each other. The prosperity .o~ each Is the prosperity of the whole, and may
the brilliancy of the constellation never be dimmed
by the obscuratio n of a solitary star-on the contrarv'
PU; earnest w~sh is~ that they may grow brighter, a~d
bri~hter, until then· rays shall illuminate the farthest
ends o_f the earth: A ll that is urged is, that it is the
true d1c~ate of wisdom to bind the sons of Maryland
to her s01l, by every sympathy which can penetrate to
the recesses of t he human heart. They should be
,t aught_to regard the_land of their birth, as the land
by which every blessmg they enjoy has been bestowed
and to_whose glory and advancement, they are bound
~o dedicate the best e~ergies of their nature. They
..hould not be permitted to reflect, that whilst they
~re Mary~anders, by the _accideut of birth, they owe
to other S~atcs all f~r w?1ch life is worth preserving;
1he educati?n of t heir mrnds, that moral culture which
~nsures. their resp~ct amo~g men, and those religious
1mpressions, on whwh their hopes for eternity are reposed.
In additj?n to these inducements, which are surely
of so?1e _weight~ the effort now making to establish a
!)qur1shrng s~m;nary of learning in Maryland is re-
19
commended by considerations of the truest economy.
. The amount annually expended by our young men,
who are sent abroad for their education, must necessaril y far exceed the interest of the sum, which would
be required to build up a college at home, adequate
for every purpose. Independently of \Vhich, what is
carried abroad is lost, or only returned rn attachmen ts
severed from home; whilst what is expended at home
is promotive of the pnblic good, by being more widely
diffused . It cannot be doubted, that 8100,000 spent
abroad impoverishes the State more than five times
t hat su :U spent among ourselves-whilst the first is so
much taken from the general mass, never to be restored ; the latter after performing a round of circulation, giving employment to the \lOor, and food to th_e
ind ustrious. is returnect to the sources from whence 1t
was contrib'uted, by a thousand channels. Why education has been so long neglected in Maryland it is
difficult to conceive. A-. early as the year 1784 the
attention of the State authorities was called to this
subjec t, in order as the preamble t? the charter of
Wushington College declares "to raise up, and perpetuate a succession of able and honest men, for dis charging the v.irious offices and duties of the commu11ity, both civil and religious, with usefulness and
r eputatio n," and in 1784 an annual donation of £1250
was granted to this College, to be applied to the payment of the salaries of the principal, professors and
tutors. In the same year 1784, an act was passed
for founding a College on the western shore, and constituting the same, together with Washington College
on the.eastern shore, one university, by the name of
'.'the Universi ty of Maryland." This institution was
in orporated by the name of the Visitors and Govern•
ors of St. John's College, and for the purpose of providing a "permanent fund for the further encourage•
ment and establishment of the said College," the sum
of £ 1750 was ''annually and for ever thereafter given
and granted, as a donation by the public, to the US"
�20
'lf_thc_ saicl College on the western shore," to be applied rn the same manner as the donatiou to Washington C~lle 9e, "for. the liberal education of youth in
the prmc1ples of virtue, knowledge, and useful literature."
Thus it will be seen, that our ancestors, those who
fought t_he b_attles_ of the Hevolution, and bequeathed
us the rich_ inheritance _of freedom, were fully sensible of the mcalculable importance of education and
coun_ted not price, in the means of furnishing it. They
had Just emerged from the dangers of a bloody and
f~arful contes}; and "frighted peace had hardly found
time to ]?ant, after the ferocity of the struggle.
The music of the martial trumpet, and "the earth9uake shout of victory," had scarcely ceased to ring
m the1~ cars, when ~he paramount importance of
education arrested their attention and in the circumstanc.e~ in which they were plac~d, the most liberal
prov1si_on ~as ma~~ for it. For not only did the
St~te, rn its political capacity, grant the donation
which has been mentioned, but contributions to the
~m~u~t of upwards of £10,000, were furnished by
md1v1duals, for the same elevated and benevolent
purpose. . Among these contributors, beside a list of
name:-:! "'.h1ch any age or nation might be proud to
exh1b1t, 1s to be found that of Washington himself, the
man, who had not only "filled the measure of his
C()Untry's glory,'' but who had raised the standard of
h~~amty, throughout the limits of the civilized world.
' ' 1th _the means thus supplied, St. John's College was
estabhshed, and pursued for many years a career of
usefulness and honor, dispensing the bles;ings of educat10~ upon hundreds of her sons, and bidding fair
to raise the reputation of the State, which founded
and foste_red her, to an equal height at least with any
'
of her sisters.
In 1805, less enlightened and liberal counsels appear to have prevailed, and the funds which had been
perpetu~lly dedicated to the support of this institution,
were withdrawn. It is not our purpose to speak
21
harshly of the proceedings of that day. It is enough
to say, that they fell heavily upon the hearts of those,
to whom the interests of education were dear, and that
the brightening beams of St. John's were shorn of
their lustre. The University, within whose walls
had been educated many of the most illustrious men
of the age, who had sent forth from her venerable
shades, a number of the States, most distinguished
ornaments, was doomed for a season, to sicken and
languish, from the indifference of the parent, who
had engaged by every sanction, to nurture her to the
last. But may we not indulge the hope, that these
days of neglect are past? That the minds of our fellow
citizens are fully awakened to the vjtal importance of
building up, and sustaining here at home, a high
seminary of learning, commensurate with the progress
of society, and the dignity and honor of the State.
The Legislature of 1832, influenced by enlightened counsels, and stimulated by a sense of justice, restored a portion of the funds withdrawn in 1805, and
incorporated in the Board of Trustees, several of the
chief ufficers of the State, thus clearly impressing
upon it, the characteristics of a State institution.
From that auspicious moment, the progress of the
College has been rapidly onward. The Board of
Trustees had previously @ngag'ed the services of a
gentleman in the capacity of Principal, eminently
qualified for the duties of such a station. To the advantages of much experience, deep and various learning, a character of the most elevated cast, he adds a ·
zeal and devotion which knows no flagging, and a
perseverance and assiduity which has never faltered.
Under his guidance, with the growing interest
manifested by the community for our welfare, the
full realization of our hopes can hardly be doubted. ·
Occupying a position in the confederacy, eminently
favorable to the development of her resources, Maryland cannot fail to become one of its most conspicuous ·
members, if she is faithful to her own best interests.
No apathy on the subject of these interests has been'
�22
displayed, save only with respect to education. In
opening channtls of communication with the distant
and fr uitful west, gigantic efforts have been, and arc
being made, and mil lions of t1·easure unhesitatingly
expended. T o ascertain what hidden treasures lie
buried in the bowels of the land, and contribute our
portion to the cause of science, liberal provision has
been made, and we have the proud consciousness of
knowing, th at with reference to the latter objects, we
have taken the decided lead. The benefictal results
of these wise measures, are already most sensibly
felt. The spirit of commerce, which had begun to
droop beneath the incubus of inactivity, 1s now buoya~t with reno vated life, and whitening every ocean
with h er wings. The farn1er pursues his meritorious
occupation, wit h the well founded assurn11ce of being
amply r em unerate<l for his toil, and the industrious
artiza ns of our towns and villages, partake largely of
the general prosperity. In the midst of this reioicing, this ac t ual fruition of abundant causes of pr~sent
gratulation, and prospects for the future most cheering to the hea r t of the philanthropist; it is our happiness to kn ow, that the hopes of the friends of St. Joh n's
are once more reviviug. In addition to the recent
bounty of the State, already adverted to, and the
steps which ha ve been taken towards placing her in
the footing of a State institution, a considerable accession of fu nds has been derived, from the voluntary
contribution of i ndividuals. With the means thus
acquired, the Ed ifice, the corner stone of which has
just been laid, is to be erected. The object of the
building is, to acco mm odate with board, students from
a· distance, whose paren ts or guardians may wish to
exclude them fro m the city. The want of such an
appenda&'e to the College, has been Jong felt; and
~hen fimshed, we confidently hope, will infuse new
vigour i_nto !ts r~vi ving energies. The appeal however which 1s berng made to the public liberality has
been hut partially r esponded to.
'
23
T o place the institution upon the lofty ground,
which i t deserves to occupy, to ena~le it to f~lfil the
h opes of its friends, and to a~compl~sh the high J?Ur •
poses of the patriotic generat10n which founded it, a
far more generous supply of means is ~ndispeosab)y
necessar y. That they will not be furlllshe~, we_w~ll
not believe- Maryland can, and will maintain w1thm
her bosom one high seminary of learn_ing, where her
sons may drink freely, of those '.ountnrns _of trot~, of
wisdom and of virtue, so essential tf) their happrness
and pro'motive of her aggrandisement. _Why should
not th e pu re and elevating lessons of ph~l?sophy, the
profoun d recesses of science, the beaut~fu\ and cap tivating graces of Grecian and H.omart literature, be
as effectually incukated, explored, and un_folde? here,
as el sew here? The libel, that the ''gemu~ sickens,
and the fancy dies" in A 111erica, has long srnce been
ex ploded. The p1·oductions of our st~tesmeu, and our
orators, our poets, and_ our men of ~cience, arc b0rne
across the broad Atlantic, to be admired_, wond_ercd at,
and imitated, by those who taunted us rn our _infancy.
The profound argument, the deep discuss10n, th e
clear perc eption of the duties of gover~m_ent,. the
flashing wit, the withe:in_g sa:cnsm, the brilliant _ima•
gination, which have d1st111gu1shed our c~ngress10nal
debates, not only demonstr;lte that gemus does not
languish in America, b~t that she has f?und new
worshippers here, to krndle her _flames rnto a ret
brigh ter effulgence. Wl~at _Ame_rican does not i~el
h is bosom swell with patnot1c pn<le, when he hears
the p raises of her sons wafted back from tlie shores of
E urope? What has become now of th_c ~neer, '~w~o
:-ea<l s an American hook?" Where, w1tl~m the hnnts
of the wide world, are such accurate news of (?o·
vern ment ente rtained? Where so pure a morality
inculcated, and such rapid advances in ~II that ca~
adorn and elevate humanity, made, as m youth~ul
America. The nations of Europe, though c~nturies
pefore us in the order of time, :tre nearly distanced
�26
24
in the race of prosperity. In reforming their political constitutions, in tearing down the cumbrous ma~hi~er~ of remote ages, and substituting in their place,
I?stitutions better adapted to the progress of civilization. In ab0lishing complications which oppress, and
supplying simplicity which relieves; in destroying
de_spotism and establishing freedom, the example of
this west_ern Republic is exerting a mighty ard most
salutary influence. In all these important requisites
of human. happiness, the space between us and them,
can har~ly be measured by comparison. We are
young, vigorous and free, full of present e;njoyment
and radiant with hopes of the future. They old
f~eble, and enslaved, Jiving under institutions cr:1mb~
hog be~eath the hand ~f time, and heaving to their
foundat10ns under the billows of popular discontent.
Th_e same shores which received the pilgrim fathers,
flymg from shackles forged for their consciences, are
now t~e. refuge ~o~ the oppressed of every clime.
The victim of political m,urpation, he who is made to
contribute from his scanty means to support a church
whose creed carries no consolation to his bosom; th;
!over ~f freedom, and _the slave of tyranny; the starv1ng Irish, and the exiled Pole, all seek and find an
asyl?m on the shores of happy America. With these
motives to warm our hearts with gratitude towards
our creator, should we not strain every nerve tor the
fulfilment of his holy precepts? And why should not
on_e great Temple to learning be erected here on
~his spo~, associated as it is, with some of the :Uost
rnterestrng events in our history? 'Twas here the
father o[ his ~ountry resigned that sword, which had
waved m trrnmph over the fields, on which the batt~es of inde_pendence ha~ been fought. 'Twas here
he bade adieu to au~hor1ty, suppressing, if he ever
felt them, the promptrngs of ambition, and presenting
to the world a spectacle of sublimity, which never
has been eqq.alled, and never can b~ excelled.
If education is to be fostered in Maryland as its
importance demands, no location more favo.rable for
its cultivation could be selected than this. The
building now existing,_ and th~t in the course of con•
struction are seated m a plam of great extent and
unrivalled beauty. The climate of the place is un•
surpassed for salubrity, and whilst the moral co~taminntion incident to the vicinity of a large Town, 1s not
to be dreaded, the presence of the seat of Government
is full of advantages.
Every thing conspires to render St. John's a favo•
rite of the State. It was built up by the purchasers
of our freedom, whilst the storms of the revoluti~n,
were yet rocking the battlements of the Repuhhc.
It has enrolled among its alumni some of the brightest
ornaments of the nation, and continued its usefulness
to the last, though frowned.upon a~d discouraged ~y
the parent which cre~ted 1t. . It i~ endeared by its
origin; venerable for Its age; 11lustr1ous for the great
minds nurtured within it:i walls, and entitled to our
gratitude for yet striving to do good. Let us then
hope, as we do hope, that the days of its discouragement are past, and that from the walls now about to
rise, a race of virtuous and enlightened men may he
sent, who shall add new lustre to their country's glory,
until the bright star of the Republic shall scatter the
rays of liberty to the uttermost ends of the _Earth.
No maxim is more universally admitted than
that wealth and knowledge are mighty elements
of power. That nation which is possessed of these,
in the largest abundance, not onlyholds her own
liberties impregnable to the _assaults of o~hers, but
the fate of others is generally i!l her kee~rng._ Extensive territory, and a teeming popula~1~n if ~es•
titute of these resources, so far from givmg vigor
to a Government, invite aggression and encourage
rapacity. Points accessible to attack are generally
plUltiplied in proportion to territorial extent; and the
dangers of internal dissentiou are increased by the ex:4
�26
istence of a dei,se, if unenlightened, populatio
n. Iq
every nation spre ad over a large exte nt of
surface,
thr.re must, by the unalterable laws of natu
re, exis t
geographical distinctions, whic h wisdom and
patr iotism can alone appease. If these are wanting,
not only 'Yill actual diversities of inter est impel to
disunion,
~nd ensure weakqess, but inte rests only
seemingly
~onflicting, will be ia:flamed by the designin
g into irreconcilable differences. Wha t was it, but
the sound
good sense of thf' Ame rica n people, the love
of coun try and jts laws, which result from understan
ding thei r
~'Xce11ence, which saved these Unit ed Stat
es ftom
dismemberment, duri ng the rece nt violent
poli
~gitations. It was said, and no doubt believed, tical
by the
pe~ple_ of ~n imp~ rtan t division of the coun
try,
that
thei r r~ghts a~d mter ests were sacrificed
to enri ch
pthe r sections, less favored by natu re than them
selves.
The y were told that the bounties whic h Prov
iden ce
had showereq upon them with a prodigal libe
ralit y,
~ere wr~sted from thei r enjoyment by a
tyra nnic al
~ourse of legislation. Eve ry avenue by whic
h the
~urnan hear t can be appr oach ed, was assa
iled with
maddening an~ soul stirr ing appeals. The
ir
thei r interei:;ts, thei r feelings of Stat e prid e, honor,
the natural in~ignation of a gallant people at oppr
essio n,
~ere all m turn addr esse d by the eloquent
victims of
~ . fearful delus~~n. It is impossible to cont
emp late
with out shud deri ng, the consequences whic
h mig ht
have rei;µltetl fr~m th~se ~auses, if the peop
le of these
Unit ed Stat es haq not felt, and known, the
value of
pheir gove mme nt. The Halls of Congress
would in
vain hay~ rung wjth the eloquent voices of
our unfiV!U~d oratorll. Tpe ir warnings, thei r invo
cations,
the~r deep s~ga~ity, thei r solemn adjuratio
ns,
and
th!11' beseeching appeals, would have been
all, all in
yam, and the same fields on which Green
and How ~r.d had fought for thei r coun try's inde pend
pught have been crimsoned with American bloo ence ,
d shed
~y A~~ ri~a n han~s.
'
27
nd how is 1t that the English nation, for so
many
centuries, has maintained liel' ascendancy amo
ng !he
nations of Europe? Her terri tory and popu
lation
compared with many of them, ~ould, b~t
for othe r
causes plac e her far below them 1a the scale
of grea tness. 'The se causes are, her superior weal
th and
knowledge. By thei r means: s~e has not on!y
and maintained herself on a footing of equa pla~ed
lity, w1t.h
the most powerful of th_em all,_ but has been
~nal>le_d
to interpose her prot ectrn g reg1~, to sa~~ them
rn thei r
extr eme st danger. The warlike spm t of
~ran_ce,
blown into an intx ting uish able flame, by the whir
lwm d
of the Revolution, and guid ed and cont:entrated
by the
matchless genius of N~poleon, threatened the
world
with universal conquest. One _after a?~t
her,
nations of Euro pe yielded to his domuuon . ~he
. I he
Alps and the 1-yrene~s, presen~ed no _obstacle
to the
victorious march of his conquerrng leg10ns,
and deat h
and desolation follo\'Ved resistance to his will.
Italy ,
the seat of th~ once prou d mistress of t_he_
wo:l d,
Spain, unmindful of the glory which ?nee d1st1
~gmshed her atnong the nations, Aust:ia, Prus
~ia, a?d
Russia with theil· countlesg armies and
imperial
scep tr;s, had all quailed before the eagles of
invincible Fran ce. In this full care er of conquest,
however,
ther e was one spot to which thei r victorivus
pinions
could neve r reach, and that was the land of
our forefathers· that island anchored in the deep, who
se wealth
and whose knowledge bid defiance to thei
r flight.
Not only did she preserve_ her own sh?res,
unprofaned by a hostile foot, thougo ever y nat10n of
Euro pe,
at one time, was leagued for her overthro
w,. but
I?ersevered in the struggle, until the star ot
the victo r
pale d before her bann er, and "the arbitP.r
of othe rs'
fates, became a supp liant for his ?Wn." _And
thes e
mig hty efforts were made, and this sple~d1d
consummation accomplished, by the potent engrnes
of wealth
and knowledge, for ''no towers or bulwarks
along the
stee p," ever were deemed necessary to tht
safety of
England.
�28
Whilst however, the power which reswlts from
i!ea]th, ex_erts a treme~dous _influence upon the destmy of _nations, tha~ which arises from superior knowledge, .1~ far more hkely to ensure thei1· happiness and
tranquility. The acquisition of the former not un•
freq~ent1y brings with it, luxuries which vitiate the
pubhc morals, and vices that contaminate the ver)
sour~es of pub]i~ vir!ue; whilst the latter expels cor•
ruphon, where 1t existed before, and purifies, as with
:fire, the foulness which preceded it. In seeking
therefore,. to better our condition, to promote ou:
own happ~ness, and a~vance the power of the nation,
let us not !n the pursuf~ of riches:, overlook the paramount ~la1ms of ed~cation; but rather, let us be doubly desirous to acquire th~ latter, that the vast energies
of the former may be directed to better and holiel'
purposes.
SUBSCR iPTIONS MADS 1'0 THJ_,; FU N.U •
The subscription mentioned in the prefatory re•
marks, was made in three, equal, annual, instalments.
It wa·s carried through the several counties on the
Western Shore. and the amount obtained, was· ten
thousand pounds.
In 1821 , at a meeting of the Alumni, in the Senate Chamber, at Annapolis, a plan of subscription
was drawn up, a condition being inserted that the
whole should be void, unless the sum of ten thousand
dollars should be obtained. Severa\ names were
subscribed upon the spot, but no agent was appointed;
the requisite sum was not obtained, and the subscrip•
tion paper has been lost. The only record of it t~at
remains, is the payment of the following sum, which
was discharged by the donor, though not required to
do so by the terms~
8200.
Isaac McKim,
for the
plan
a
exhibit
s
The following resolution
in the
now
and
1834,
in
same object, undertake n
courie of prosecution.
Resolved, by the Visitors and Governors of St.
John's College, that the Principal be authorised and
requested to collect subscriptions, payable to the
Visitors and Governors, to be applied by them, in the
erection of suitable buildings, for the accommodation
of students, and for improving and extending the
Library and Philosophical Apparatus of the College,
and that the Treasure r be authorised to pay to the
Prinitipal, the expenses he may incur, in carrying
,to effect this resolution.
Resolved, by the Visitors and Governors of St;
John's College, that the Governor of this State, His
Excellency JAMES THoMAs, and the Hon. BENJAMIN
S. FoRREST, and the Hon. THOMAS WRIGHT, 3d.
�31
members of this Board, be a committee to co-operate·
with the Principal, in making all suitable preparations
to carry into effect the resolution of the Board, to
coUect subscriptions for the benefit of this institution:
St. John's College, Feb. 15th, 1834.
COPY OF THE SUBSCRIPTIO N.
We, the subscribers, hereby agree to pay to the
Visitors and Governors of St. John's College, at Annapolis, Maryland, or order, th'e sums of money opposite our names, respectively, in two equal instalments,
to be applied in carrying into effect the foregoing
resolutions: provided, however, that this subscription
shall be void, unless at least ten thousand dollars shall
be subscribed, as aforesaid; and on the completion o{
said subscription, the first instalment above mentioned, shall become due, and the other instalment,
twelve months thereafter.
Sept. 9, 1834.
James Thomas;
William Hughlett;
Robe1·t W. Bowie,
Wm. H. Marriott,
~lexancler C. Magruder,
Henry Maynadier,
H. H. Harwood,
George Mackubin,
Dennis Claude,
Ramsay Waters,
John Johnson,
Nicholas Brewer, Jr.
Alexander Randall,
Thomas S. Alexander,
George "\\'ells,
Brice J. Worthington,
Richard Harwood, of Thos.
Richard I. Jones,
Thomas Oliver,
J. I. Cohen, Jr.
Walter Farnandis,
$500 '
300
.250
250 •·
200
200'
200
200
20()
.200
200
200
200
200
200
200
200
200
200
200
lbO
Hector Humphreys,
Robert W. Kent,
Dauiel Clarke,
Gabriel Duvall,
Fielder Cross,
William D. Bowie,
John H. Sothoron,
William Reeder,
Robert Ghiselin,
Samuel Mayn11rd,
Thomas Franklin,
R. M. Chase,
Thomas S. Culbreth,
Hyde Ray,
James Iglehart,
Swann ~ Iglehart,
George F. Worthington,
George G. B~ewer,
John B. Moms,
Andrew McLaughlin,
IJ.'homas B. Dorsey,
William G. Tilghman,
Charles Goldsborough,
John C. Henry,
Joseph E. Muse,
Henry Page,
G. C. Washington,
Benjamin S. Forrest,
J. Nevitt Steele,
Allen Thomas,
Charles W. Dorsey,
R. G. Stockett,
R. W. Dorsey,
Larkin Dorsey,
John C. Weems,
Chas. S. W. Dorsey,
Daniel !v.l urray,
John H. Alexander,
Gwinn Harris,
N. F. Williams,
'!'homas Sappington,
Thomas Snowden,
George Brown,
F. S. Key,
$100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
JOO
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
llJO
100
JOO
JOO
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
�82
v·rga Maxcy,
Joseph Todhunte r
Thos. H. Carroll, ,
.Jonathan Ellicott & Sons,
Francis Thomas,
John S. Sellman,
Robert H. Goldsborough
E. 8. Winder,
'
Andrew Skinner
J:is. B. Steele '
Brice J. Gold;borough
Thomas Hayward
'
William W. Eccle~ton
Chas. J. Kilgour,
'
J. H. W ilkiuson
'l'humas E. Sudl~r
J. Hughes,
'
R. I. Cowman,
John Randall,
George McNeir
Basil Shephard ,,
R..J. Crabb,
Thomas Duckett,
Jo~n. H. Waring,
W Ilham Ghiselin
J. G. Chapman, '
Leonard Iglehart,
Wm. D. Merrick,
Charles H. Steele
Wm. T. Goldsbo:ough
H. W. Evans,
'
Nathan R. Smith
Daniel Randall 2
James Wilson '
David Baruum'
James Carroll J'
Wm. Denny,
R. Potts,
John Tyler,
Benry K, Randall
Thomas J. Dorse'tt
John Iglehart,
,
A~n Iglehart,
ft1chard Marriott,
33
$100
100
100
100
100
100
50
bO
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
pO
50
60
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
The names of future subscribers will be embraced
in the next Annual Report of the College, to the
Legislature, It is proposed to collect at least thirty
thousand dollars, for the above objects. The present
buildings, when completed, will be insufficient for
the purposes of the College. The old building contains all the necessary public rooms for such an establishment, being 80 feet in length, by 60 feet in
width, and three stories high, above the basement.
But a separate building is required, for the exclusive
accommodation of the GRAMMA R ScnooL. And,
should the number of students increase, according to
present prospects, a third CoLLEGE EDIFICE will
J)ecome necessary, at no distant period.
tiO
50
s
�BOA RD OF VISI TOR S AND GOV ERN
O,!IS
OF
ST. JOH N'S CO LLE GE .
His Excellency JAME S THOM AS, ex-officio Presid
ent.
Hon.
,, JOHN BUCHANAN.
JOHN STEP HEN .
" STEV ENSO N ARCH ER.
" THOMAS B. DORSEY.
" EZEK IEL F. CHAM BERS .
" C. ASA SPEN CE.
" THEODORIC IlLAND.
" JOHN G. CHAPMAN.
" WILLIAM J . .BLAKISTONE.
" JOSE PH KEN T.
" RO.BERT W. BOW IE.
ALEX AND ER C. MAG RUD ER, Esq.
SAM UEL RIDOUT, Esq.
JAME S .BOYLE, Esq.
NICHOLAS BREW ER, Esq.
HEN RY MAY NAD IER, Esq.
WILL IAM H. MAR RIOT T, Esq.
THO. MASH . CARROLL, Esq.
THOMAS S. ALEX AND ER, Esq.
JOHN N. WAT KINS , Esq.
THO.MAS FRAN KLIN , Esq.
RAM SAY WAT ERS, Esq.
DR. DENN IS CLAU DE, Esq.
NICHOLAS BREW ER, JR. Eiq.
JERE MIAH HUG HES, Esq.
GIDEON WHI TE, Esq.
ALEX AND ER RAN DALL , Esq.
JOSE PH H. NICHOLSON, Esq.
JOHN JOHNSON, Esq.
TRE ASU RER ,
GEOR GE ~1ACKUBIN, Esq.
SECR ETAR Y.
GEOR GE WELLS, E;11.
FA CU LT Y.
Rev. HEC TOR HUMPHREYS, D. D.,
PRESIDENT AND PROFESSOR OF MORAL SCIEN
CE.
JULIUS T. DUCATEL, M. D.,
PROFE SSOR OF CHEM ISTRY , JIIINER
ALOGY , AND GEOLO GY.
EDW ARD SP ARKS, 1\1. D.,
PROFE SSOR OF .ANCIE NT LANGU AGES,
THOMAS E. SUDLER, A. .M.,
:ilRO.F.ESiOR OF IIIATH EMAT ICS AND
CIVIL ESGIN EERfl' \'O.
WILLIAM B. LEAR Y, A. M.,
PROFE SSOR OF GRAlll MAR.
CHA RLES T. FLUSSER, Esq.,
PROFE SSOR OF .l\ICIDE RN LANG UAGE
S.
�37
JUNIO R CLASS
RESIDEN CE,
NAMES,
CATAL OGUE OF THE STUDE N1'S
OF
ST. JOHN 'S COLL EGE.
1835.
•
George B. Dunkel,
John Buchanan Hall,
John W. Martin,
Joseph Trapnell,
Trueman Tyler,
•
CLASS GRADUATED, FEBRUARY 21st, 1835.
NAlllES.
RESIDEN CE,
THOMAS HOLME HAGNER, A. B.
ABRAM CLAUDE, A. B.
EDWIN BOYLE, A. B.
RICH.A.RD SMtTH CULBRETH, A. B.
RICHARD CREAGH MACKUBIN, A. B.
RICHARD WEEMS, English Diploma,
Washington City.
.llnnapolis.
.llnnapolis,
Caroline County.
.llnnapolis.
.llnne Jlrundel Co,
•
SENIO R CLASS .
NAlllES.
Thomas Granger,
George Grundy ,
William R. Hayward,
Joshua D. Johnson
George F. Johnson',
George Edward Musa,
William I. Reder
John H. Reeder '
' .
Henry W. Thomas
Franklin Weems
' gton,
Nicholas B. Worthin
St. J\fary's County,
Charles County.
Baltimore City.
Washington County.
Cambridge,
Frederick.
Prince George's County .
John M. Bt·ome,
Frederic k S. Brown,
SOPHO MORE CLASS .
RESIDEN CE.
NAMES,
William Tell Claude,
Marius Duvall,
Jlnnapolis.
Do
lJavid Edgar,
Thomas Iglehart,
Charles N. Mackuhin,
Jlnne Jlrimdel Comity.
Baltimore City.
.flnnapolis.
Do
Baltimore County.
William C. Thompson,
Edward Worthington,
•
RESIDEN CE.
FRESH MAN CLASS.
Queen .llnne's County.
Baltimo re City.
Cambri.dge
Frederick.
.fl,mapolis,
Cambridge.
Baltimore City.
no
St. Mctry's County.
Ellcridge.
.llnne .flrundel County,
NAMJ,:S,
RESIDEN CE.
.llrmapolis.
John M. Brewer,
Do
Philip Culbreth,
.
Elkridge
Cale Iii Dorsey,
Do
"William H. G. Dorsey,
Do
John Thomas B. Dor11ey,
.llnnapolis.
John W. Duval!,
Calt•ert County.
Thomas C. Gantt,
Somerset County.
Benjamin Gray,
�38
39
Reverdy Ghisclin,
Jeremiah L. Hughes,
Richard II ughl ett,
Thomas R. Kent,
Absa'om Ridgely,
William C, Tuck,
Prince George's County.
.!lrmapolis.
Talbot County.
.!Jnne .!lrnndel County,
.linnapolis,
Brice J. Worthington,
.!lnne .llrundel County.
Do
B. Thos. B. W orthin 0o-ton.
D<J
•
PARTIAL STUDENTS.
NAMES,
R E SIDE N CE.
WiJli11m R. Goodman
Edwin E. Pratt,
.llnnapolis.
Queen Jlnne's County.
.llnne .llrundet County,
'
Samuel Ridout,
•
STUDENTS
IN THE
NAJIIES.
GRAMMAR SCHOOL.
RESIDENCE,
George Barrott,
John Basil,
Robert Bowie,
Lewellin Boyle,
Jeremiah T. Chase
J0hn Clayton,
1-lenry Duvall,
'
Richard R. Gaither ,
Alexander H. Gambrill
Benjamin H. Hall,
Dennis D. Hart
Benjamin Harwood,
George S. Ilumphrevs,
John T. E. Hyde,
'
Washingto,1 City.
Jlnnapolis.
Prince George's County,
.linnapc,l is.
Do
Do
Do
Do
Do
Jlnne .lirundel County.
.!lnnapolis.
Jlnne .lirundtl Count y,
.IJ,mcipolis .
Do
Edward G, Maynard,
Walter McNeir,
George McNeir,
Amiapolis.
Do
Nicholas Holland,
James McNeir,
Washington City.
Annapolis,
George Miller,
Edward C. Mills,
Thomas McParlin,
Henry M. Murray,
Horatio S. Ridout,
Samuel Ricrout,
Richard Ridgely,
Allred G. Ridgely,
William Ridgely,
Richard H. Schwarar,
Francis H. Stockett,
John T. Taylor,
;)ennis C. Thompson,
James C Welch,
Do
Do
Jlnne .flrundel County.
Jlnnapol is.
Do
Jlnne Jlrundel County,
Jlnnapolis.
Do
Do
Do
Do
Anne .llrundel County.
.finnapolis.
Do
Levin Winder,
James M. Winder,
Charles F. Worthington,
Do
Easton.
Do
.finne .11.rundel County;
Nathan Moore,
John G, Gamble,
Baltimore City.
Weelaunee, Florida.
~dam Smith,
Allan Quynn,
Baltimore City.
.finnapolis.
�41
SOPHOMORE CLA.SS.
FIRST TERM,
f0.URSE ~F STUDIES, EXPENSBS, &c!
Juvenal, ( Leverett's.)
Homer'& Iii ad, (Robinson's.}
Plane Geometry, (Legendre's.)
SECOND TERM,
Pl:tEPARATORY STU;DIES, VIZ:
;English G:rammar; Geography; Arithmetick; Latin Gram'Q
~ar; C?rderms~ lEsop's Fables; Eras ,, us; C~sar's Com~
men~anes, '!r _Sallu~t; Eclogues, and first six books of th~
1En_e1d, of V1rg1l; Cicero's Orations; Mair's Introduction, or
L aun Tutor; Greek Grammar; Greek Delectus; and Jacob's
Greek Reader, and Prosody.
•
Pupils not intending to enter College will als b
• t
h E 1· h '
,
o e rece1v•
e d m o t e , ng 1~ Departm~nt, and will pursue such
·t
~ranches of Education, embraced in the course as
Jheir particular views.
' ' iµay sui
Cicero de Oratore, or Quintilian.
Grreca Majora, (Odyssey and Hesiod.)
Solid Geometry, (Legendre's.)
THIRD TERM.
Rhetorick and Belles Lettres.-(Whateley.)
Grreca Majora.-(Tragedians.)
Logarithms; Plane and Spherical Trigonometry:
Exercises in original Compositidn and Elocution, during
the year.
•
JUNIOR CLASS.
P O ~ L E G I ~ 'I' E
COU R s E .
FRESHMAN CLAS$. ·
FIRST .T ERM.
,olsom's Livy.
Prreca Majora-(Xenophon Herodotus Thucyd' d J
preek and Roman 'Antiquiti;s, History, ~nd Myth~l!;y.
SECOND TERM.
1Jorace, (~des.) 'firgil's Georgicks.
1rreca MaJ?ra, (Lysias, Demosthenes Isocrates )
_ gebra, with Arithmetic revised.
'
• •
FIRST TERM,
Grreca Majora. (Minor Poets.)
Applications of Trigonometry to the Mensuration of Heights
. and Distances, Navigation, Surveying, Levelling, 4-'c.
Moral Philosophy.
Abercrombie's Intellectual Powers.
SECOND TERM ,
Tacitus.-(History.)
Conick Sections.
Chemistry, with Lectures. (Turner's.)
G
,
A
TH!RD TEJ.UI.
Hora~,,, (Satires and Epistles.)
GAlrreca ~ajora, (Xenophon's Memorabilia Plato )
gebra completed.
'
•
raus!at!ons, Them~s, and Declamations du~ing the y~ar,.
'f
THIRD TERM.
Tacitus-(Manners of the Germans, and Life of Agricola.)
Natural Philosophy, with Lectures. (Olmsted's:)
Elements of Criticism, with Lectures on the Frne Arts.. (Karnes')
Debates, Compositions, and Declamations, during the year•
6
�42
43
SENIOR CLASS.
EXPENSE S.
FIRST TERM.
Natural l?hilosophy, finished, with Lectures. (Olmsted's.)
Horace, De Arte Poetica; with Lecturns on Taste, and a
Revision of Latin.
J,qgic, and Philosophy of the Mind. (Whateley's.)
SECOND TERM.
Astronomy-wi th Lectures. (Cambridge.)
Political Economy-with Lectures. (Say's.)
~vidences of Christianity and Natural Theology. (Paley's.)
THIRD TERM.
Laws of Natwns-Consti tution, and Civil and PDlitical
History ot the United States. (Kent.)
Butter's Analogy.
Civil Engineering-(c onstruction of Machines, Bridges,
Roads, Canals, &c.)
Mineralogy and Geology. (Shepard's.)
))ec:amat1ons of Original Pieces, Extemporaneou s Debates,
• and Exercises in Criticism, during the year.
The study of the Modern Languages, shall be so arranged
~snot materially to interfere with the College course.
The officers of instruction, will endeavor to make the
horough as possible; and in no case will
course of study as t_
a Scholar be allowed to pass, to an advanced standin"', till
he _shall _have sustained all the previous examinations, to the
~atisfasllon of the Faculty.
Full Courses of Lectures are delivered to th€' classes on
(;hemistry, Mineralogy and Geology, and on Natural Philosophy and Astronomy.
. The State Cabinet of Minerals, collected by the Geolo~
gist of Mary Ian~, is deposited in the College, anJ may be
us~d, together with the College Cabinet, which ot !!self is
quite respectable, in illustrating the Lectures on Miner.1logy
~nd ~eology.
The College Bills are payable quarterly, in advance, as
ol lows, viz:
$24 per annum.
English Department,
do.
40 do.
Preparatory Classes,
do.
Freshman and Sophomore Classes, 40 do,
do.
50 do.
Senior and Junior Classes,
The above Bills include all extras.
No Commons are established; but board may be had in
.
private families, for $120 per annum.
Parents and Guardians are requested to place all momes
intended for the use of the students, in the hand~ of ~ne ?f
th p ofessors who will exercise a parental discret10n, 10
th:ir ~isburse~1ent; and lhe following ~aw o~ the ~late,
passed December session, 1834, is published for the rntor•
mation of all persons concerned.
Section 1. Be it enacted by the General .lissembly of .Jl,faryland, That no person or persobn~ shall ~'!Ve cre?htt tot atnhy
e
Student of St. John's College, emg a mrn~r, wit ou
consent, in writing, of his Parent or Guarclian, or ?f such
Officer or Officers of the College, as may be authorised by
the government thereof, to act in such cases, except for
.
,,
washing or medical aid,
Sec. 2. .find be it enacted, I hat if any_ person or person$
shall give credit to any minor as afotesa1d, c~ntrary to the
provisions of this act, he or they shall fo~fe1t and pay to
the Treasurer of the H' estern Shore of this State, a sum
not Jess than tv,enty, nor more than three hundre~ doll~rs,
according to the nature of the offence, and at tl!e d1scret1on
of the Court of Anoe Arundel Countr, which may be
recovered in any proper nction, before said Court.
Sec. 3. .!lnd be it enacted, That it s~all be the duty of
the Attorney General of this State, or _his Deputy, on the
complaint of any of the Officers aforesaid, to prosecute for
all violations of this act.
���
Dublin Core
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Title
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Speeches, presentations, and other lectures
Description
An account of the resource
Speeches, presentations, and other lectures given at St. John's College. These include convocation addresses delivered in both Annapolis, MD and Santa Fe, NM.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Speeches, presentations, and other lectures" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=15">Items in the Speeches, presentations, and other lectures Collection</a></strong> to <span>view and sort all items in the collection.</span>
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St. John's College Greenfield Library
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speechespresentationsotherlectures
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Title
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An Account of the Ceremony of Laying the Corner Stone of the New Building, at St. John's College, Performed by the Hon. John Stephen, Judge of the Court of Appeals, with an Address Delivered on the Occasion, by John Johnson, Esq., One of the Visitors and Governors, June 18th, 1835, with a Historical Notice of the Institution, a Catalogue of the Officers and Students, and a Copy of the Subscriptions Made to the Funds
Description
An account of the resource
An Account of the Ceremony of Laying the Corner Stone of the New Building, at St. John's College, Performed by the Hon. John Stephen, Judge of the Court of Appeals, with an Address Delivered on the Occasion, by John Johnson, Esq., One of the Visitors and Governors, June 18th, 1835, with a Historical Notice of the Institution, a Catalogue of the Officers and Students, and a Copy of the Subscriptions Made to the Funds. The pamphlet was published by the Board of Trustees and printed by Jeremiah Hughes.
Creator
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St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)
Publisher
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St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)
Coverage
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Annapolis, MD
Date
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1835
Rights
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St. John's College owns the rights to this publication.
Type
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text
Format
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pdf
Subject
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Cornerstone laying
College trustees
College students
Language
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English
Identifier
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LD_4811_A249_S14
Contributor
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Stephen, John, -1844
Johnson, John, 1798-1856
Humphreys Hall
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/aa349d2c0fb8d1eed65617704914eb85.pdf
80a1265f25857aa152629bdf1e8924e9
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Speeches, presentations, and other lectures
Description
An account of the resource
Speeches, presentations, and other lectures given at St. John's College. These include convocation addresses delivered in both Annapolis, MD and Santa Fe, NM.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Speeches, presentations, and other lectures" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=15">Items in the Speeches, presentations, and other lectures Collection</a></strong> to <span>view and sort all items in the collection.</span>
Contributor
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St. John's College Greenfield Library
Identifier
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speechespresentationsotherlectures
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Page numeration
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57 pages
Original Format
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paper
Dublin Core
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Inaugural Proceedings and Lectures 1980
Title
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Inaugural Proceedings and Lectures of 1980
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
09/27/1980 - 09/26/1980 & 10/04/1980 - 10/03/1980
Description
An account of the resource
Program of the Inaugural Proceedings and Lectures of 1980 including: The Duties of Higher Education to America, an Address by Edwin Jules DeLattre, President of St. John's College and An American Scholar: The Young James Madison, Lectures by William J. Bennett, President of the National Humanities Center.
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Annapolis, MD
Santa Fe, NM
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inauguration
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Speeches, presentations, and other lectures
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Speeches, presentations, and other lectures given at St. John's College. These include convocation addresses delivered in both Annapolis, MD and Santa Fe, NM.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Speeches, presentations, and other lectures" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=15">Items in the Speeches, presentations, and other lectures Collection</a></strong> to <span>view and sort all items in the collection.</span>
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speechespresentationsotherlectures
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01:04:29
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Inauguration Ceremony of Panayiotis Kanelos
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Audio recording of the Inauguration Ceremony of Panayiotis Kanelos held on October 28, 2017 in Annapolis, MD.
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St. John's College
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2017-10-28
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Saunders-Albin, Pamela
Roosevelt, Mark
Macfarland, Joseph C.
Kemmer, Brittany
Ongley, Jennifer
Fielding, Ronald
Kanelos, Panayiotis
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Kanelos Inauguration 10-28-17
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<a title="Inauguration Program" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/3444">Inauguration Program</a>
<a title="Typescript" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/3446">Typescript</a>
Deans
Inauguration
Presidents
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Speeches, presentations, and other lectures given at St. John's College. These include convocation addresses delivered in both Annapolis, MD and Santa Fe, NM.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Speeches, presentations, and other lectures" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=15">Items in the Speeches, presentations, and other lectures Collection</a></strong> to <span>view and sort all items in the collection.</span>
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01:17:32
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Homer on Military Leadership
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Audio recording of a lecture delivered on April 10, 2015, by Jonathan Shay as part of the LCDR Erik S. Kristensen Lecture Series.
The lecture is the third in a joint lectures series between St. John's College and the U.S. Naval Academy to honor the memory of Lieutenant Commander Erik S. Kristensen. An alumnus of the United States Naval Academy and the St. John's College Graduate Institute, Kristensen, a Navy SEAL, was killed in the line of duty in Afghanistan in 2005. This lecture series aims to create even greater ties between the two schools, as well as to educate the public about civil-military relations and the place of the liberal arts in the education of naval and military professions.
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Shay, Jonathan
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St. John's College
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Annapolis, MD
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2015-04-10
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sound
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LEC_Shay_Jonathan_2015-04-10
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Command of troops
Homer
Kristensen lecture series
U.S. Naval Academy
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Text
Berlin Lecture on "The Year 1943 and the German Resistance to Hitler"
~tlfXMXZXIXIJ:XIEEJlXJ!XEXEIIEX.XX
of the second world waro
1943 may have been the crucial year
Churchill, in his history of that war, entitled
the volume on it "The Hinge of Fate"o
Beginning at El Alamein and
ending in Tunisia the British and Americans cleared the Germans and
Italians out of North
Africa~
The Russians inflicted the greatest
defeat so far on the Germans at Stalingrad.
That defeat increased
"'\
the readiness amo~g many~ermans to get rid of Hitler who had
sacrificed the Sixth Army instead of allowing it to retreat while
there was time.
The sudden surge in the number of Germans, especially among the
military, who were willing and eager to overthrow Hitler coincided,
however, with the Allied demand for "Unconditional Surrender".
Roosevelt had pronounced it at a press conference at the end of
his meeting with Churchill at Casablance, and Churchill had supported
it.
Stalin shrouded himself in ambiguity, encouraging some Germans
to think that they might get a better deal out of the Russians than
out of the Western powers.
The Anglo-Americans were adamant and
Unconditional Surrender meant capitulation in the West and East -at a time when their invasion and liberation of Western
Europ~
was
still in the distant future.
This was not a propitious circumstance for the opposition to
the Nazis inside Germany.
The lecture addressed itself to the
question how harmful the demand for Unconditiontl Surrender was
and came to the tentative conclusion: not very - apart from the
touch of rhetorical vaingloriousness.
It may have helped to hold
the co;f{ion of the Big Three together and that was needed to keep
1\
Stalin sweet and fighting.
The Russians were bearing the brunt
of the 'W!lr in Europe, and his demand for a second front in Western
Europe was not met until June 1944.
The lecture dealt with the activities of the German resistance
to the Nazis in 1943, which included several abortive attempts to
assassinate Hitler and equally . abortive efforts to come to some
1li-f·kt~(
agreement with the Allies.
c~
ended with other forms of resistance:
The activities of the Munich students known as "The White Rose" and
of people who helped those persecuted and endangered by the regime
activities undertaken at great risk and with considerable loes
of life.
1
~
•
�DER DEUTSCHE WIDERSTAND JM WENDEJAHR 1943
s e~Je.--
R0 h WJ
VOV)
@ee~
Erlauben Sie mir eingangs eine autobiographische Ortsangabe.
1943 sass ich in London in einer Abteilung des Foreign Office, die sich vor allem
mit der Analyse der deutschen Medienproduktion befasste:
Zeitungen,
Agenturmeldungen, Radio. Wir wussten natOrlich, dal3 Goebbels und sein Apparat
nicht die Wahrheit sprachen. Trotzdem konnte man aus ihren Ausserungen ganz
nOtzliche SchlOsse ziehen, wenn man das Zeug Tag fOr Tag las und auf Nuancen
und Veranderungen achtete.
Da kam plotzlich eines Tages etwas ganz Anderes, kein Goebbelsprodukt.
Es war ein maschinegeschriebener anonymer Bericht ·Ober ein Ereignis in
MOnchen, wo eine Gruppe Studenten Flugblatter gegen das Regime verbreitet
hatte und dafOr vom Volksgerichtshof zum Tade verurteilt warden war. Es war das
erste, was ich vom deutschen Widerstand las. Von Stund' an liess mich das Thema
nicht mehr los.
Von wem der Bericht stammte erfuhr ich erst sehr viel spater, nach dem
Kriege. Es war Helmuth James von Moltke, von dem ich damals noch gar nichts
wusste. Seine englischen Freunde hielten dicht.
Im Laufe der Zeit sah ich mehr und mehr und immer wieder, wie oft die
Religion oder der Glaube ein Bestandteil der Fahigkeit zum Widerstand war.
Spater versuchte ich, etwas darOber zu schreiben - nicht so sehr Ober den
Kirchenkampf und Ober das Verhalten der kirchlichen Organisationen und ihrer
Haupter als Ober die Rolle des Glaubens im Leben derer, die dem Massenwahn
\':
�•2•
nicht verfielen: Bei der Arbeit an diesem Thema stiess ich immer wieder
~uf
Helmuth Moltke - nicht weil er sich so viel daruber geaussert hatte • das tat er nur
ganz gelegentlich, dann aber Oberzeugend; vielmehr weil er danach handelte und
weil so viel von dem Anderen was ich fand, vom Widerstand der Frommen,
Verbindungen mit seiner Person hatte. Die Menschen, die den Ansturm der Holle
als solchen erkannten und, umgeben vom Bosen nach dem Guten strebten, sich
darum mOhten, bereit waren, etwas dafOr zu riskieren - erstaunlich viele von ihnen
-t:
schienen mit Moltke in BerOhrung gekommen zu sein. Vielleict)\kam das daher,
dass er sich so rOhrig umgetan hatte.
In diesen MOhen fanden diese Menschen
- wie mir in vielen Fallen schien - so etwas wie Gnade, etwas, was sich ihnen
q_ffenbarte und ihnen half. Diese Offenbarung - ich bin nicht ganz sicher, ob man es
so nennen kann - aber wie sonst? - war etwas, was sie entdeckten oder
wiederentdeckten, was ihnen wirklich oder wirklicher wurde. Es war nicht
Todeszellenfrommigkeit, nicht nur Hinwendung zum alten Gott nach den
ErschOtterungen des Krieges, dieses Krieges, der ja vor 1939 schon als unerklarter
BOrgerkrieg in Deutschland begonnet"
lta.,-tf {.,.
Obrigens spielt auch das hinein, das BOrgerkriegsartige, in die Tragik des
e
ausseren Krieges und seiner Zwange. ~ Krieg war ja nach Nationen und
Koalitit'onen von Nationen organisiert. Da schlug man sich nach Nationalitaten tot,
weil nur so die Nation, die Adolf Hitler zum Fuhrer hatte und die ihm bis zu seinem
Selbstmord folgte, bezwungen warden konnte. Dass er und sein System seine
eigenen Feinde im lnneren auch totschlug wusste man. Aber das Kollektiv
Deutschland, Nazideutschland musste niedergezwungen werden, um nicht nur die
anderen Lander von dieser Bedrohung zu befreien, sondern auch die
unterdrOckten und verfolgten Menschen in Deutschland.
Das VerlassenheitsgefOhl mancher Gagner des Regimes, das GefOhl im
Ausland missverstanden und nicht gewOrdigt zu sein, ist ein Teil der Tragik dieser
�•3•
Konstellation, der Tragik des Krieges. Mir scheint, es gab wirklich nur eine
Moglichkeit, die zu beenden:
den Krieg zu verlieren und
.s.o.
Hitler und seine
Helfershelfer los zu werden - es sei denn, dass es gelang, ihn und sein System
- mitten im Krieg - durch inneren Aufstand zu beseitigen. Der Versuch wurde, nach
etlichen folgenlosen Anlaufen, gemacht und er misslang. Zu viel stand ihm
entgegen, vor allem der Krieg und die patriotische Befangenheit des Volkes und
der Wehrmacht. Es war den Nationalsozialisten gelungen, Deutschland und den
Nationalsozialismus zu verketten. Und es war fOr Deutsche schwer, zu sehen dass
diese Ketten nur auf dem Wege der nationalen Katastrophe gelost werden
konnten.
Manche - vielleicht sogar viele - sahen es, durften oder wollten es sich aber
nicht eingestehen. Und so wurde weitergekampft bis Hitler tot war, von eigener
Hand.
Es gab Verschworer gegen ihn, die ihn toten wollten um die Wehrmacht von
dem ihm personlich geleisteten Eid zu befreien. Ware diese Befreiung der Gefahr
einer neuen Dolchstosslegende entgangen? Waren die Deutschen, genug
Deutsche, so weit, sich wirklich hinter die Gegner dieses Fuhrers und seines
Regimes zu stellen und die Folgen in Kauf zu nehmen? Ein "ehrenhafter" Friede
war schon 1943 kaum mehr zu erwarten.
So waren die Verschworer auf sich gestellt, auf sich und ihr Gewissen.
-..
'<=::::::
~:;>
t:ai
Weshalb nenne ich 1943 das "Wendejahr" ? Winston Churchill nannte den
vierten Band seiner Geschichte des Zweiten Weltkriegs, der sich mit diesem
Zeitabschnitt befaBt, " The Hinge of Fate ". In El Alamein, Stalingrad und Tunis
~
wendete sich der Krieg von standigen aliierten Niederlagen zu Siegen. Im Mai war
"
Afrika von den Achsenmachten befreit. Im Juli landeten die Aliierten in Sizilien und
Mussolini wurde gestOrzt. Auch im Krieg zur See hatte sich das Blatt gewendet.
Der Luftkrieg war massiv geworden und die Alliierten hatten da jetzt die Oberhand.
�. 4•
Aber auBenpolitisch war auch eine tiefere, langsamere Wende im Gange.
Im Juni 1941 hatte Hitlers Angriff auf die Sowjetunion das schwere Jahr seit dem
Fall Frankreichs beendet, in dem England
.a1Jfiln - wenn auch gestOtzt auf sein
Weltreich - dem Herren Europas Widerstand leistete. Ein halbes Jahr danach hatte
der japanische Angriff auf Pearl Harbor Amerika in den Krieg gebracht. Hitlers
Kriegserklarung machte es Roosevelt leichter, sein Volk in den Krieg gegen
Deutschland zu fOhren, ja diesem europaischen Krieg sogar den Vorrang vor dem
Krieg im Pazifik zu geben.
Aber das ungeheure amerikanische Kriegspotential brauchte Zeit um zum
Tragen zu kommen. Die von Stalin seit 1942 geforderte zweite Front liess bis Juni
1944 auf sich warten. Sie ging von England aus und hatte mit Eisenhower einen
amerikanischen Oberbefehlshaber. Er hatte schon in Nordafrika den Oberbefehl
gefOhrt, obwohl die Briten in Afrika noch die Hauptlast des Krieges trugen. Aber die
Gewichte verschoben sich zugunsten Amerikas. Churchill hatt1'# keinen leichten
Stand gegenOber dem Obermachtig werdenden Bundesgenossen im Westen, der
dazu noch geneigt war, mit dem Bundesgenossen im Osten ein argloseres
Verhaltnis zu pflegen als der britische Premierminister. Russland hatte seit 1941
die Hauptlast des Krieges in Europa getragen - jedenfalls zu Lande - und trug sie
weiter. Churchill war ein langgedienter Kommunistengegner, hatte aber, als Hitler
die Sowjetuninon angriff, so fort den neuen Bundesgenossen begrOsst, der nun
einen patriotischen Krieg gegen Deutschland fOhrte.
Stalin liess es sich 1943 angelegen sein, besonders dem Ausland
gegenOber die ideologische, die kommunistische Komponente zurOcktreten zu
!assen. Die Komintern wurde aufgelost. Im Juli 1943 wurde in Russland das
"Nationalkomitee 'Freies Deutschland' " gegrOndet, im September der Sund
Deutscher Offiziere. Eins seiner Veroffentlichungsblatter, das nach England
gelangte, trug stolz die Farben schwarz - weiss - rot.
Auch die Wortwahl der
�•5 •
Rhetorik war bemOht, das Ausland den
Kommunismus vergessen zu lassen.
Stalins Werben um die Deutschen machte dem Westen natOrlich
etwa~ Sorge.
Deutsche FOhler in ostlicher Richtung gab es sowohl seitens des Regimes als auch
seiner Gagner. Letztere waren in unserem Zusammenhang besonders heikel. Es
war nicht klar, ob sie den Zweck hatten, mit den anscheinend oder angeblich
weniger auf "bedingunsloser Kapitulation" bestehenden Russsen handelseinig zu
werden, oder den Zweck, diese Moglichkeit oder Drohung als Druckmittel auf den
Westen zu benutzen.
Aber wahrend Stalin bestrebt war, die Furcht var einer Ausbreitung des
Kommunismus zu zerstreuen, stellte er doch ganz handfeste GebietsansprOche.
Russland brauchte nach diesem Krieg Sicherheit. Bevor das Jahr 1943 um war,
thatten die Westaliierten der Verschiebung Polens nach Westen zugestimmt.
/\
~
Ausserdem hatte Stalin schon im Mai die Reaktion der Exilpolen in London auf die
Leichenfunde in Katyn zum Anlass genommen, die Beziehungen zu ihnen
abzubrechen.
In einer neuen Churchillbiographie von einem jungen englischen Historiker
warden die Zugestandnisse an Stalin 1943, 1944 und 1945 als Appeasement
bezeichnet. Der Autor hatte in einem frOheren Werk die Appeasement-Politik
Chamberlains gegenOber Hitler ~erteidigt. Churchills Entschluss, den Kampf
gegen Hitlerdeutschland nach dem Fall Frankreichs weiterzufOhren, k@isi!W er.
Dieser Kampf konnte nur in einer erhofften spateren Bundesgenossenschaft, einer
"Grand Alliance" mit Amerika und Russland zum Erfolg fOhren und musste die
Abhangigkeit Englands von diesen Bundesgenossen bedeuten. Was an dem Buch
auffallt, ist der kOhle Abstand von den Vorgangen in Hitlers Deutschland und
Hitlers Europa. 2
�. 6•
Diese aber waren es, die die GemOter erregten und den Krieg gegen Hitler,
bis zum bitteren Ende, notig erscheinen liessen. Und das Ende
.w.ar
bitter.
Englands materielle Stellung in der Welt ging dabei drauf. Die Bitterkeit zeigt sich
bei manchen Englandern noch jetzt in Feindseligkeiten gegenUber Deutschland.
Aber war diese Entwicklung, wenn man dem Hitlerismus nicht freien Laut
lassen wollte, zu vermeiden ? Schwerlich. Nicht
all.a Opfer und Einbussen waren
vorauszusehen, aber doch mehr als "Slut, Schweiss und Tranen", die Churchill
Ab 0~~J
gleich bei der Obernahme seines Amtes erwahnte.
Es war ein schwerer Kampf gegen das
·
.filn.e. Deutschland, mit dem sich
immerhin die Masse des deutschen Volkes und seiner FOhrerschaft identifizierte.
Dabei konnte man durchaus die Existenz eines "anderen" Deutschland
~nerkennen,
und viele taten das auch, aber diese Anerkennung war vermischt mit
Enttauschung und Misstrauen.
Warum geschah nichts gegen diesen Tyrannen ?
Warum waren die Reprasentanten seiner Gegner nicht bereit, die Gewinne
seiner Politik fahren zu !assen ? Gut, sie waren Patrioten und litten, wie viele
Deutsche, an dem Trauma von Versailles und wollten wieder die deutschen
Grenzen von 1937 oder 1938 oder 1914; aber sahen sie nicht, dass diese nach
allem, was geschehen war, nicht mehr in Frage kamen ? Sie wollten eine Zusage
guter Bedingungen tor ein neues Deutschland nach der Beseitigung Hitlers. Aber
sie klangen immer wieder so als ob eine solche Zusage eine Bedingung ihres
Handelns war.
Dagegen sah Helmuth Moltke schon 1939 den Verlust des Krieges voraus
(und hielt ihn sogar tor notig).2. Er sagte schon 1940 zu George Kennan (damals an
der amerikanischen Botschaft in Berlin), das wUrde wahrscheinlich den Verlust
seiner Heimat, Schlesien, bedeuten.4 Im Herbst 1941 hatte er heftige Auseinandersetzungen mit einem Verwandten, der deutscher Botschafter in Warschau
gewesen war, Uber die notigen Gebietsverzichte. Nie konne man verzichten, sagte
der Diplomat und hielt es fUr unpatriotisch, auch nur daran zu denken.5'
�-7-
Natarlich waren die Gagner des Regimes in einer ZwickmOhle. Wann sie
Zuwachs werben wollten, mussten sie diesem Hoffnungen machen und vielleicht
war die Hoffnung auf die Befreiung vom Unrechtsstaat nicht genug. Die
Generationen erfahrener Manner
hielten.
dachte~in
Kategorien, die sie fOr realpolitisch
Ab~J.
, --
Die jungen Leute von der Weissen Rose hingegen wollten vor allem das
Gewissen der Deutschen aufrOtteln. Und dator waren sie bereit, ihr Leben zu
riskieren -manche mehr, manche weniger. Christoph Probst war verheiratet und
hatte drei kleine Kinder. Aber sowohl von Hans als auch ~ von Sophie Scholl
sind AussprOche Oberliefert, die ihre Bereitschaft zeigen. So sagte Hans nach
~iner
bekannt gewordenen Hinrichtung von einer Anzahl von Sozialisten und
6
Kommunisten, es sei an der Zeit, dass auch Christen etwas taten; und Sophie
sagte:
"/is fallen so viele Menschen 1Qr dieses Regime, es wird Zeit, dass jemand
1
dagegen fallt." Dass sie mit diesem "Jemand" sich selbst meinte, sich jedenfalls
nicht ausschloss, und dass auch sie an eine Wiederverchristlichung Deutschlands
dachte, scheint mir ganz klar aus ihrem Traum in der Nacht vor der Hinrichtung
hervorzugehen, den sie ihrer Zellengenossin erzahlte. In dem Traum trug sie ein
Kind in einem langen weissen Kleid zur Taufe. Der Weg zur Kirche fOhrte einen
steilen Berg hinauf. Aber sie trug das Kind fest und sicher. Da tat sich plotzlich vor
ihr eine Gletscherspalte auf. Sophie konnte das Kind gerade noch an die
gesicherte gegenOberliegende Seite legen, dann stOrzte sie in die Tiete.f?
Fur so wichtig hatte Roland Freisler diesen Fall gehalten, dass er selbst
nach MOnchen geeilt war um die jungen Leute abzuurteilen. Nur vier Tage
vergingen z'fbschen der Festnahme der ersten drei und dem Fallbeil, das ihr
Leben beendete. Alexander Schmorell suchte zu entkommen, wurde aber verraten
und gefasst. Professor Hubers Verleger bat um Aufschub von dessen Hinrichtung,
�•8•
damit sein Autor noch sein Buch Ober Leibniz fertig schreiben konnte. Der Antrag
wurde abgeschlagen. Willi Graf musste bis Oktober auf seine Hinrichtung warten,
da die Gestapo - vergeblich - versuchte, noch weitere Namen von ihm zu erfahren.
Die Guillotine, die ihrem Leben ein Ende setzte, war eine von den etwa 19
Guillotinen, die Moltke in einem langen Bericht Ober die Zustande in Deutschland
erwahnte, den er zur gleichen Zeit wie seinen Bericht Ober die Weisse Rose
bemOht war, aus Schweden zu seinem Freund Lionel Curtis in England gelangen
zu !assen. Dieser Brief blieb in Schweden stecken und nur ein - etwas verzerrter Bruchteil, memoriert von dem amerikanischen Generalsekretar des Vereins
Christlicher Junger Manner, gelangte zum Bischof von Chichester, der ihn an Curtis
weiterleitete: Aber der Bericht Ober die Weisse Rose und ihr letztes Flugblatt
nahmen einen anderen Weg und kamen durch.
Nach einer eingehenden Schilderung des Falles, seines Hintergrundes, der
Vorfalle, der drei Studenten, der Formalitaten vor ihrer Hinrichtung, den
Nachwirkungen oder Nachwehen und der Verhaftung von Professor Huber, kam
ein Abschnitt Ober die nahere Zukunft und ein letzter Ober mogliche Hilfe aus der
Aussenwelt.
Zur Frage des "Was Nun ?"stand in dem Bericht folgendes: In Deutschland
mOsse die Sache verbreitet und weitergefOhrt werden. Das sei schwierig und
gefahrlich. Die Aufforderung des Flugblatts, aus der Partei und ihren
Organisationen auszutreten, sei allerdings unklug und solle herausediert werden:
sie wOrde zu viele Menschenleben kosten und es den Machthabern zu leicht
machen, ihre Gegner zu erkennen und auszuschalten; besser sei es, von innen
heraus zu arbeiten und die Machthaber unsicher zu machen, auf wen sie sich nun
verlassen konnen.
�. 9•
Varn Ausland konne Hilfe dadurch geleistet werden, dass man der Sache
zur Publizitat verhelfe, die Namen der Beteiligten immer wieder nenne, var allem
im Radio. Aber noch Wichtigeres sei moglich: "Dieser Fall" ( ich zitiere und
Obersetze ) "ist frei van Spionage, Kommunismus, Defaitismus, usw.
Es ist ein
klarer Fall inneren Aufstands auf Grund sittlicher Prinzipien, die eines Tages die
inner-europaischen Beziehungen leiten mOssen. Es ware ein enorme Hllfe, wenn
diese Tatsache einen Widerhall van draussen fande, wenn auch nur eine
Andeutung gegeben wOrde, dass es Krafte in Deutschland gibt, mit denen es nicht
nur moglich sondern notig ist, nach dem Krieg zusammenzuarbeiten. Andererseits
wOrde grosser Schaden angerichtet, wenn diese Vorgange nur als Symptom eines
~erfalls
in Deutschland registriert wOrden, Anzeichen dafOr, dass die Lage van
1918 wieder herannaht. Das wOrde namlich das Urteil des Volksgerichtshofes
rOckwirkend rechtfertigen ....
Es ist somit ein Fall, dessen Behandlung im
neutralen und feindlichen Ausland viel Gutes und viel Schadliches bewirken
10
kann." Soweit der anonyme Moltke.
Die BBC verlas das beigelegte letzte Flugblatt und die Royal Air Force warf
viele Exemplare, mit einer Rahmenerklarung, Ober Deutschland ab.
Als ich viele Jahre spater in den inzwischen freigegebenen Akten des
Foreign Office wieder auf diesen Bericht stiess, war er, wenn ich mich recht
entsinne, in der Kategorie mit lauter Material Ober Zersetzungserscheinungen und
deutsche Versuche, die Einheit der fiiierten Koalition zu sprengen und einen
/\
milden Frieden zu erreichen.
Dass dem anonymen Autor hochstens das Letzte
angelastet werden konnte, ergibt sich daraus, dass er Uber Zusammenarbeit nacil
dem Krieg sprach. NatOrlich warder Wunsch nach der Anerkennung des "Anderen
Deutschland" schon wahrend des Krieges auch dabei.
�• 10 •
Jedoch bevor das Jahr um war, machte Moltke doch einen Versuch, einen
verzweifelten Versuch - ob von Canaris, ob von den Kreisauern gedeckt, weiss
man nicht - den Angloamerikanern tor den Fall einer Invasion in ausreichender
Starke und mit mehr Durchschlagskraft als der des Feldzugs in ltalien, eine
deutsche Offnung im Westen in Aussicht zu stellen, die zu einer schnellen
Besetzung ganz Deutschlands fOhren wOrde und mit einem Schlage auch das
Volk von
dieser Losung
Oberzeugen
und
die
Gefahr
einer
neuen
Dolchstosslegende vermeiden wOrde. Nicht von ihm selbst, sondern von zwei
exildeutschen Kontaktmannern nach seiner Abreise aus Istanbul im Dezember, fOr
den amerikanischen Geheimdienst (OSS) formuliert, fOhrte dieses Memorandum
zu langen Auseinandersetzungen unter den Amerikanern, die man jetzt in den
~
~
Vierteljahrsheften for Zeitgeschichte nachlesen kann. Moltke selbst wurde nach
diesem Vorstoss, den er bei einer Dienstreise in die TOrkei machte, verhaftet und
ausser Gefecht gesetzt.
Es wurde nichts aus dem Plan, der, obwohl aus anderer Feder stammend,
seine Ansichten zum grossen Teil richtig wiedergeben mag. Er hatte mit Hans
Wilbrandt und Alexander ROstow, dem Hauptautor der Denkschrift, eingehende
Gesprache gefOhrt. Er hatte selbst vor seiner Abreise an Alexander Kirk, den ihm
wohlbekannten ehemaligen amerikanischen Geschaftstrager in Berlin und jetzt in
Kairo, einen Brief geschrieben, als er ihn nicht, wie erhofft, in Istanbul antraf. In
dem Brief erwahnt er auch das entmutigende Beispiel ltalien, das im September
kapituliert hatte und zum Kriegsschauplatz wurde. Das war nicht gerade ein gutes
Omen fOr innere Veranderungen in Deutschland. Es mOsse klar gemacht warden,
wie sich eine Wiederholung vermeiden Hesse. Dazu brauche man eine
gemeinsame politische Zielsetzung, ohne die es keine wirksame militarische
Zusammenarbeit geben konne. Was diese angehe, konne sowohl vom
militarischen wie auch vom politischen Standpunkt aus nur eine solche in Frage
�• 11 •
kommen, die die Lage mit einem Schlage verwandle. Und dafOr sei Geduld notig,
man mOsse warten, warten und nochmals warten bis eine Streitkraft vorhanden
12.
sei, die, mit deutscher Hilfe, unwiderstehlich sein wOrde. Die lBesorgnis Ober den
~amen Foldzug in ltalien und d~ Notwendigkeit abzuwarten bis genOgende
9~ t(trl.lft'f!?<J
Kraft tor ein 6Adef'sa™g'-9s Vorgehen in Frankreich da sei, kommt Obrigens auch in
.......
=efttJ.an'freye vor.t31n dem Memorandum steht dazu noch, dass eine solche
schnelle Entscheidung und Besetzung Deutschlands durch die Westmachte taktvoll "die Aliiierten" genannt - von der dadurch freigesetzten "wahren Stimme"
1't
Deutschlands als eine Art westliches Tauroggen begrOsst werden wOrde. Der
Bericht stiess trotz seiner diplomatischen Formulierung auf Skepsis und
~blehnung.
Trotzdem er eingangs die Annahme der zu Anfang des Jahres
proklamierten Forderung der. bedingungslosen Kapitulation beteuerte, beinhaltete
er eben doch Bedingungen. Die Grossen Drei hatten sich jedoch eben erst in
Teheran Ober die gemeinsame FortfOhrung des Krieges und einige Gesichtspunkte
der Nachkriegsregelung geeinigt. Die Westmachte konnten off/iziell auf einen
solchen Vorschlag nicht eingehen und Prasident Roosevelt, zu dem das Dokument
gar nicht durchdrang, Mitte das auch nicht gewollt. Sagar die Englander wollten
lieber Deutschland mit russischer Beteiligung besetzen. Aber anscheinend
erfuhren englische und russische diplomatische Vertreter erst im Mai 1944 von
diesem oder einem ahnlichen Vorschlag.
All das bedeutet, meine ich, nicht, dass man Peter Hoffmann in seinem Buch
Ober die Bruder Stauffenberg voll zustimmen kann, wenn er den Schluss zieht, vor
allem aus der Verzogerung der Mitteilung an die Englander und Russen, dass "die
Missachtung der Moglichkeit, Hunderttausende von Menschenleben zu retten,
nicht durch den Zwang der Kriegskoalition zu erklaren"
ist-"(,..f?J+.;-=s:-se~~fDas
Argument der Moglichkeit, Hunderttausende zu retten, war von einem sehr
16
engagierten aber nicht einflussreichen BefOrworter des Plans erwahnt warden. Die
�• 12 •
Auseinandersetzung daruber zog sich Ober Monate hin und war von sehr
unterschiedlicher Qualitat.
Moltkes alter Freund, der Journalist Wallace Deuel, der
mittlerweile far das OSS arbeitete, war auch daran beteiligt. Er legte seine Hand
fOr Moltke ins Feuer, hatte aber Zweifel an der DurchfOhrbarkeit des Plans,
besonders was die Moglichkeit und Wirksamkeit der in Aussicht gestellten
deutschen Mitwirkung
anging~rNatOrlich
war auch die Reaktion der Sowjetunion,
selbst unter der Annahme der DurchfOhrbarkeit, ein wichtiger Punkt. Der Plan
schlug vor, die Ostfront etwa an der Linie Tilsit-Lemberg zu halten. So ist vielleicht
Peter Hoffmanns Wort von der "Mlssachtung" der vorgeschlagenen Moglichkeit
etwas zu streng, und vielleicht unterschatzt er auch den Zwang der Kriegskoalition.
Er bestand ja nicht nur in dem anglo-amerikanisch -russischen Versprechen der
~ofortigen
gegenseitigen Benachrichtigung Ober deutsche Kontaktaufnahmen,
dessen Bruch den stets argwohnischen Stalin zu wer weiss was fOr
Sonderabmachungen mit den Deutschen veranlassen konnte
solche Erwagungfen auf russischer
- Anzeichen fOr
.u.nd deutscher Seite waren schon da. Worin
bestand der Zwang der Koalition?
Doch auch in der Oberzeugung, dass
Deutschland total besiegt warden musste, ohne Abmachungen und Konzessionen
und solche Bedingungen wie sie in dem fraglichen Dokument trotz seiner verbalen
Akzeptanz der "bedingungslosen Kapitulation" enthalten waren. Es kam, wenn
nicht auf "bedingte Kapitulation" dann zumindest auf eine "gesteuerte Niederlage"
hinaus. Der Hinweis des Memorandums auf eine Gefahr der Bolschewisierung
Deutschlands wirkte, von deutscher Seite kommend, eher wie ein rotes Tuch, wie
ein weiterer Versuch die Koalition zu spalten. Trotz gewisser Bedenken gegenOber
der Sowjetunion und Stalins Absichten, musste Deutschland mit
seiner Hilfe
besiegt werden. In den Demokratieo war ein Abgehen von der Koalition zu dem
Zeitpunkt undenkbar. Hitlers Pakt mit Stalin, der Auftakt zu diesem Krieg, war nur
moglich weil weder Deutschland noch Russland Demokratien waren. Solche
politischen Schaltungen konnen nur Diktatoren vornehmen.
'
,,
,,
.\
-----.. *V ~ .la-.
�- 13 -
Das Wendejahr 1943 hatte mit der fast gleichzeitigen Bekanntgabe des
Endes des Kampfes in Stalingrad und der Proklamation der Forderung
bedingungsloser Kapitulation Deutschlands, ltaliens und Japans auf der Konferenz
Matr~
von Casablanca begonnen. Im febraaf waren zwei Attentatsversuche auf Hitler
misslungen. Im April gelang dem SD eine empfindliche Schwachung der Abwehr.
Im Mai kapitulierten die deutschen und italienischen Truppen in Nordafrika. Im Juli
landeten die Aliierten in Sizilien. Mussolini wurde vom Faschistischen Grossrat
~Ee~ ol0 Jalit'o~
·
gestOrzt und ~erhaftet - sp~ffer aber Wieder von Deutschen befreit. Im September
/'
landeten die Angloamerikaner in SOditalien und die neue italienische Regierung
unter Marschall Badoglio kapitulierte und bot den Aliierten ihre Hilfe an. Die
geutschen intervenierten und kampften zah.
An der diplomatischen Front endete dann das Jahr 1943 mit der
interalliierten Aussenministerkonferenz in Moskau und dem Treffen von Stalin,
Churchill und Roosevelt in Teheran. Auf diesen Konferenzen wurde das weitere
gemeinsame Vorgehen gegen den gemeinsamen Feind beschlossen. Das etwa
war der Rahmen, in dem sich der lnnerdeutsche Widerstand gegen das
Hitlerregime 1943 abspielte.
Bevor das Jahr begann, hatte Dietrich Bonhoeffer eine Bestandsaufnahme nach
10 Jahren
1942/43
nationalsozialistischer Herrschaft gemacht, die er zur Jahreswende
Hans von Dohnanyi, Hans Oster und Eberhard Bethge Oberreichte. Darin
ausserte sich Bonhoeffer zur Frage Attentat und Staatsstreich wie folgt:
die
Dummheit sei getahrlicher als die Bosheit, die man bekampfen kann. Menschen
konnten dumm gemacht werden, konnten sich dumm machen !assen.
�• 14 •
Es sei Macbtentfaltung, die den Menschen die innere Selbstandigkeit raube, sie
erlagen dann Schlagwortern und Parolen und wOrden zum willenlosen Instrument
und zu allem Bosen tahig, und zugleich unfahig, es als Boses zu erkennen. Und
nun kommt der springende Punkt: es war fOr Bonhoeffer ganz deutlich, dass nicht
ein Akt der Belehruog sondero alleio ein Akt der Befreiung die Dummheit
Oberwinden konne. " Dabei wird man sich", schrieb er, "damit abfinden mOssen,
dass eine echte innere Befreiung in den allermeisten Fallen erst moglich wird,
nachdem die aussere Befreiung vorausgegangen ist."
Diese war es, die er mit
seineo Freunden und Vertrauteo anstrebte.
Was er dann Ober Klugheit schreibt, gehort vielleicht nicht so direkt zur
Frage Widerstand, ist aber doch relevant und · fOr einen Lutheraoer - erstaunlich.
Die Missachtung der g6ttlichen Gesetze sei nicht nur unrecht, schreibt er, sondern
unklug, und er findet es, besonders nach den Erfahrungen der letzten zehn Jahre
verstandlich, "warum die aristotelisch-thomistische Ethik die Klugheit zu einer der
Kardinaltugenden erhob."
"Klugheit und Dummheit", tahrt er fort,"
sind nicht
ethisch indifferent, wie uns eine neuprotestantische Gesinnungsethik hat lehren
wollen."
Und dann: " Es
i.S1 einfach in der Welt so eingerichtet, dass die
grundsatzliche Achtung der letzten Gesetze und Rechte des Lebens zugleich der
Selbsterhaltung am dienlichsten ist, und dass diese Gesetze sich nur eine ganz
kurze, einmalige, im Einzelfall notwendige Oberschreitung gefallen !assen,
wahrend sie den, der aus der Not ein Prinzip macht, und also neben ihnen ein
eigenes Gesetz aufrichtet, fnJher oder spater - aber mit unwiderstehlicher Gewalt erschlagen. n
�- 15 -
Dass die verantwortliche Tat, die Befreiungstat, das irdische Leben kosten
konnte, wusste er, wussten sie alle, die Widerstand leisteten. "Der Tod kann uns
nicht mehr sehr Oberraschen", schreibt er. "Unseren Wunsch, er moge uns nicht
zufallig, jah, abseits vom Wesentlichen, sondern in der FOlle des Lebens und in der
Gesamtheit des Einsatzes treffen, wagen wir uns seit den Erfahrungen des Krieges
kaum mehr einzugestehen. Nicht die ausseren Umstande, sondern wir selbst
warden es sein, die unseren Tod zu dem machen, was er sein kann, zum Tod in
freiwilliger Einwilligung." 1'6
Helmuth James von Moltke glaubte wohl weniger an eine solche
Befreiungstat. Er meinte, dass nur ein klare militarische Niederlage zur Befreiung
fOhren konne - Befreiung nicht nur von Hitler, sondern von dem, was Hitler moglich
gemacht hatte, einschliesslich des Militarismus, der • seit dem "grossen Moltke",
dem Feldmarschall Bismarcks • eine gesunde politische Entwicklung in
Deutschland erschwert hatte. Ein Miltarputsch und Staatsstreich, wie ihn die
Verschworer im Sinne hatten, konnte kaum die Grundlage eines gesunden
Staatswesens abgeben. Wie Moltke von einer Dienstreise in Schweden an seinen
englischen Freund Lionel Curtis schrieb, hielt er es fOr einen Fehler der deutschen
Opposition, dass sie sich auf eine Aktion der Generale verliess. Diese Hoffnung
war, wie er meinte, von vornherein aussichtslos. Der wichtigste Grund war ein
soziologischer: "Wir brauchen eine Revolution," schrieb er, "nicht einen
Staatsstreich; und eine solche Revolution wird den Generalen niemals denselben
Spielraum und dieselbe Stellung geben, wie sie ihnen von den Nazis eingeraumt
warden sind und noch eingeraumt werden." -11
�• 16 •
Diese Ansicht spielte sicher eine Rolle in der Auseinandersetzung zwischen
der Gruppe van Goerdeler und Beck (tar den Moltke grosse Hochachtung hatte)
und dam Kreisauer Kreis. Spannungen gab es monatelang.
Anfang Januar 1943
gab es eine Begegnung zwischen den "Alten" oder, wie Moltke sie nannte,
"Exzellenzen", Goerdeler, Beck, Popitz, Hassell, Jessen und dem Vermittler, Fritz
van der Schulenburg, einerseits, und den "Jungen" vom Kreisauer Kreis: Moltke,
Yorck, Gerstenmaier und Trott. Goerdeler wollte die jungen Manner nicht recht
ernst nehmen und versuchte, die Differenzen bezOglich der geplanten Wirtschaftsund Sozialpolitik zu verschleiern. Moltke hielt Goerdelers Programm tor eine
"Kerenski -Losung", d.h., eine unhaltbare Zwischenlosung, die zum Kommunismus
fOhren musste. Selbst Hassell fand Goerdeler "eine Art Reaktionar".w
·-
Was immer die auseinandergehenden Ansichten
innerhalb des
Widerstandes gewesen sein mogen - im Marz kam es dann zu zwei
Attentatsversuchen, die missglOckten. Kann man die Versuche als ein Zeichen
nehmen, dass die Ende Januar in Casablanca van Roosevelt formulierte und von
Churchill unterstOtzte Forderung der "bedingungslosen Kapitulation" sich nicht so
lahmend auf den deutschen Widerstand auswirkte
wie van manchen
angenommen wird? Stalingrad war ein Signal zum Handeln. Wie stark war die
Behinderung durch die neue Formel - die eigentlich nur das formulierte, was !angst
stillschweigende Annahme gewesen war? Schon 1941
hatte Churchill
angeordnet, dass jeglichen deutschen Annaherungen durch Schweigen zu
begegnen war. Seitdem waren nur noch mehr GrOnde hinzugekommen, vor allem
die Notwendigkeit, die Koalition mit Sowjetrussland und Amerika zusammenzuhalten. Sachlich hatte die Forderung ausserdem das tor sich, dass man damit
eine Wiederholung des Trauerspiels von Wilson's 14 Punkten und Versailles
vermied. Rhetorisch war sie vielleicht weniger glOcklich. Aber Goebbels hat wenig
daraus gemacht - Historiker des deutschen Widerstands hingegen mehr. 2.1
�- 17 -
Im Juni fand die dritte und letzte Konferenz der Kreisauer in Kreisau statt.
Die Hauptgesprachsgegenstande waren Aussen - und Wirtschaftspolitik, sowie die
Bestrafung van "Rechtsschandern". Diese Vokabel wurde benutzt, wail es sich bei
den Naziverbrechen nicht nur um Kriegsverbrechen sondern um prazedenzlose
Schandungen des gottlichen und Naturrechts handelte, denen schwer mit
Paragraphen beizukommen war. Die Bestrafung dieser Rechtsschander sollte
einerseits in deklaratorischer Achtung bestehen, andererseits van Deutschen oder
van einem internationalen Gericht mir deutscher Beteiligung vorgenommen
werden. In den folgenden Wochen wurden die besprochenen EntwOrfe waiter
Z'L
diskutiert und in dokumentarischer Form festgelegt. Ausserdem suchte man nach
Qeeigneten Personen, die in der Obergangszeit als "Landesverweser" fungieren
konnten.
Parallel hiermit intensivierten sich im Sommer wieder die Planungen der auf
einen Staatsstreich hinarbeitenden Verschworer. Bis im Herbst Claus Stauffenberg
zu dieser Gruppe stiess - bei dem sich Axel van dem Bussche als Attentater
meldete - war Henning von Tresckow der militarische Motor der Verschworung.
Aber Attentat und Staatsstreich waren ja nicht die einzige Art des
Widerstands. Planung fur die Zeit nach dem Umsturz oder der Niederlage gehorte
auch dazu - ebenfalls der Kampf gegen die Grausamkeiten des Regimes. In
seinem schon erwahnten Bericht Ober die deutschen Zustande, der seinen
englischen Freund nie erreichte, schrieb Moltke auch etwas Ober die Opposition
gegen das Regime, jene Manner, van denen man, wie er einer englischen Schlagzeile entnahm, "so viel hart und so wenig merkt." Er erwahnte die grossen Verluste
der Regimegegner, ihre stillen Erfolge bei der Sabotage mancher nationalsozialistscher Massnahmen, ihre Rettungsaktionen tar einzelne Menschen.
�• 18 •
Zwei dauerhafte Erfolge der Opposition hebt er besonders hervor: die
Mobilisierung der Kirchen und die Wegbereitung far ein dezentralisiertes
2..~
Deutschland. In der Tat geharten zu den Kreisauern nicht nur Kirchenmanner
beider Konfessionen wie auch Sozialisten, die dem Christentum positiv
gegenOberstanden, sondern Moltke war von Anfang an bemOht, die deutsche
Glaubensspaltung politisch zu OberbrOcken und die Hierarchen politisch zu
2A:
aktivieren. Mit dem katholischen Bischof von Berlin besprach er seit 1941
regelmaBig, wie man den Unrechtsmassnahmen der Regierung und Partei am
besten entgegentreten konnte und 1943 gelang es, den Bischof Preysing mit dem
evangelischen Bischof von WOrttembergJ~m weithin aner:kanAten Oberhaupt des'fticM glsiohgesehalteten Teils der protestantischen
-
Kirche,~
zusammenzubringen,
und beide, Preysing und Wurm, protestierten gegen Verfolgung und Tatung
.
unschuldiger
2..t;;°
Menschengruppen.
Auch
ein
Hirtenbrief
der
Fuldaer
Bischofskonferenz Ober die Zehn Gebote erregte das Missfallen des
Sicherheitsdienstes wegen seiner politischen Relevanz. Da stand namlich zum 5.
Gebot zu lesen: "Tatung ist an sich schlecht, auch wenn sie angeblich im lnteresse
des Gemeinwohls verObt wurde: an schuld - und wehrlosen Geistesschwachen
und Kranken, an unheilbar Siechen und tOdlich Verletzten, an erblich belasteten
und lebensuntOchtigen Neugeborenen, an unschuldigen Geiseln und entwaffneten
Kriegs - und Strafgefangenen, an Menschen fremder Rassen und Abstammung."
Der SD beanstandete auch, dass sich der Kommentar zum 6. und 9. Gebot mit der
Heiligkeit der Ehe befasste, auch der rassischen Mischehe.2.'T
Moltke
selbst
war
besonders
rege
in
der
VerhOtung
von
Geiselerschiessungen und verhandelte hierOber nicht nur mit Generalen sondern
2£
auch mit den zustandigen SS-Gewaltigen in Holland und Danemark.
Ausserdem
2b
�• 19 •
mag er seine Unterredungen mit den Generalen Falkenhausen und StOlpnagel
elie...
.
auch zu Sondierungen anderer Art, z.B. betreffend-6ef Moglichkeit einer Offnung
nach Westen, benutzt
haben~ Sowohl
in Holland als auch in Skandinavien
besprach er sich mit Reprasentanten des Widerstands, der in Norwegen stark von
der Kirche getragen war. Es gelang ihm auch dem bereits unter Hausarrest
stehenden norwegischen Bischof Berggrav gegen noch peinlichere Repressalien
zu helfen.
Moltke war auch in Kontakt mit schwedischen Oekumenikern und andere
Kreisauer, besonders Trott und Gerstenmaier, mit dem Vorlaufigen Weltkirchenrat
in Genf, besonders dessen Generalsekretar A.W. Visser 't Hooft, der eine grosse
.
Hllfe war.
30
·-
1945, zwei Jahre nach dem Bericht Ober die Weisse Rose, begannen wir in
London Akten aus den befreiten Gebieten und aus dem besetzten Deutschland zu
n
J)a>. ~efi.vv1 cJ.Q._s 'S'c'e., \1€..N~~/' l~q;t- ~c'~ ~~w'21
sehen, auch Papiere aus Konzentrationslagern. ~ie waren niederschmetterndl benre-{b-<J
Die Lager waren van den Aliierten Oberrannt und befreit warden. Auch die ersten
Bilder kamen nun nach England.
Da bekam ich ein Bunde! Akten - Photokopien -
aus der Reichskanzlei: Eingaben an Heinrich Lammers, Chef der Reichskanzlei.
Besonders erinnerlich ist mir ein Konvolut, das sich mit der - talschlich - so
genannten
etVi€.fr1.
"Euthanasia"
befasste. Da war ein Pastor Braune, der dagegen
tlEinspruch erhob. Und da war, auf komisch kariertem Papier, ein Protest von
~ ~ei~~htenberg. Es war wie eine Enklave des Himmels in der Holle. Von den
Predigten des Bischofs Galen hatten wir schon wahrend des Krieges gehort. Sie
wurden sogar in England veroffentlicht.
Aber hier waren weniger prominente
Manner, die offenbar ihr Leben auf's Spiel setzten um das Leben anderer zu retten.
Viel spater erfuhr ich Naheres Ober sie.
�- 20 -
Am 5. November 1943 war der Domprobst Bernhard Lichtenberg nach
VerbOssung seiner zweijahrigen Gefangnisstrafe auf dem Weg nach Dachau
gestorben. Er hatte, unter anderem, offentlich in Abendandachten in der
Hedwigskathedrale in Berlin zum Gebet fOr "die verfolgten nichtarischen Christen
und tor die Juden" aufgerufen. Obwohl er das schon lange getan hatte - schon im
November 1938 hatte er, wie er selbst in der Gerichtsverhandlung angab, damit
begonnen - war er nie van einem Gemeindemitglied denunziert warden. Das taten
dann zwei rheinische Studentinnen, die wahrend einer dieser Andachten in der
3l
Kirche waren. Der Bericht Ober Lichtenbergs Gestapoverhor hatte Moltke bei
einem seiner Besuche bei Bischof Preysing so beeindruckt, dass er ein StOck
.
.
.
.. 1· h
B ne fe
.
d
~avon in einem seiner tag 1c en
wurde freigegeben -
3 .
S'et~ ·1·1e rt e.2-Lie ht en b ergs
an~ z1
Le1c he
.
er war, schwer herzkrank, eines "natOrlichen" Tades
gestorben. Sein Bischof, Konrad Preysing, sprach bei seiner Beerdigung, zu der
Tausende kamen.
Es war die letzte offentliche Kundgebung der Katholiken
Berlins. 33
Man muss sich immer wieder vergegenwartigen - und jOngere Generationen
konnen es sich kaum vorstellen - in was fOr einem Staat diese Menschen lebten.
Das Gerichtsurteil gegen Lichtenberg mag das beleuchten. Die einschlagigen
Paragraphen
waren
Kanzelmissbrauch
und
Vergehen
gegen
das
HeimtOckegesetz. In der UrteilsbegrOndung steht dazu:
" lndem der Angeklagte in seinem Gebet ausdrOcklich tor die Juden und die
Gefangenen in den Konzentrationslagern eintrat, befasste er sich
offentlich mit den gegen die genannten Personengruppen eingeleiteten
staatlichen Massnahmen; denn der Grund dafOr, dass er sie in seine
FOrbitte aufnahm, lag nach seiner eigenen Einlassung allein darin, dass er
�• 21 •
sie um ihrer Rassenzugehorigkeit oder ihrer Weltanschauung willen fOr von
den staatlichen Behorden verfolgt ansah. Er hat also in AusObung seines
Berufes in einer Kirche vor mehreren Personen Angelegenheiten des
Staates zum Gegenstand seiner VerkOndigung gemacht. Dies geschah in
einer den offentlichen Frieden getahrdenden Weise. Sowohl die Regelung
der Judenfrage wie auch die Bekampfung staatsfeindlicher Elemente durch
Anordnung der Vorbeugungshaft in Konzentrationslagern sind Massnahmen
des nationalsozialistischen Staates, an denen die gesamte deutsche
Bevolkerung Anteil nimmt .....
Dass sich gegen seine Abendandachten
bisher niemand beschwert hatte, ..... zeigt nur, wie sehr seine Zuhorer
durch ihn schon beeinflusst waren."31
Nun war er also tot. Und inzwischen hatten diese staatlichen Massnahmen
sich auf das ganze besetzte Europa ausgedehnt mit dem Erfolg millionenfachen
Mord es.
In Deutschland war man an die Trennung der sogenannten Mischehen
gegangen, deren jOdische oder, wie es damals hiess, "nichtarische" Partner bisher
von der Deportation ausgenommen waren. Das tohrte im FrOhjahr 1943 zu der
Demonstration Berliner Ehefrauen, denen es wirklich gelang, ihre schon
verhafteten Manner noch mal freizukriegen.
Der Anlass zur Verhaftung van Hans von Dohnanyi und Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Anfang April 1943 war ein Versuch, der auch gelang, einige Juden, als
Abwehragenten getarnt, ins neutrale Ausland zu retten. Hans Oster wurde bei
dieser Gelegenheit auch kaltgestellt und war tartan in seiner verschworerischen
35"
Aktionstahigkeit stark beeintrachtigt. Es war der erste Einbruch des SD in die
Abwehr, in der sich ja, angefangen bei Admiral Wilhelm Canaris selbst, eine rege
Tatigkeit gegen das Regime entfaltet hatte.
---J:: i'\.j·~-~
�~
Ii
~J
6
~.::::;
• 22 •
"'d
..!:::,(
=(, ti' -::..,
~,~;
':> ~..:;-
Da haben wir ein Spektrum von Widerstand, von dem nur _ein Teil zu dem
gehOrte, was dann am 20. Juli 1944 in dem Versuch des Attentats und
Staatsstreichs gipfelte. Alie diese Manner - und Frauen, wie z.B. Margarete
~ -~
~ ....
~
~
un.el ~e-~ ic.id(q,e,{i <'k'.e- tW. ~~ h.s f..14' bc"Jf5~ <~,1z-p.&llc>~ ~~ t>er ~ /!}._ "t'l-l.~ ~ lh~ij l<e)lSommer vom Hilfswerk des Sischoflichen Ordinariats in Berlin/\ und junge Leute
wie die Studenten und SchOler der Weissen Rose, all diese - wie man sagt Deutschen setzten ihr Leben ein - und viele verloren es.
In Hava Sellers bewegendem Film Ober den deutschen Widerstand, "The
Restless Conscience", "Das ruhelose Gewissen", wird ein Teil von Henning von
Tresckow's Ausspruch vom 21. Juli 1944 zitiert.
lch mochte den fehlenden Teil
~itieren: >
" Wenn Gott einst Abraham verheissen hat, er werde Sodom nicht
verderben, wenn auch nur zehn Gerechte darin seien, so hoffe ich,
dass Gott auch Deutschland um unsertwillen nicht vernichten wird." 3G
Ob Tresckow Deutschland 1945, 1949, 1989, oder heute, wohl als
"vernichtet" ansehen wOrde? Es handelt sich aber -tor mich- nicht nur um
Deutschland. Gewiss, der Widerstand war eine Manifestation des "Anderen
Deutschland", und das war nach dem Krieg eine gute Sache, auch fOr
diplomatische Werbung im Ausland. Aber nicht darum geht es und nicht nur um
Deutschland. Es geht um das, was Helmuth Moltke einmal "das Bild des
Menscheo"
nannte~f Die
Unmenschlichkeit, die die Menschheit in Hitlers
Tausendjahrigem Reich erlebte, war vor allem, aber nicht nur, eine Angelegenheit
der Deutschenjt>def-\lielleicht-=SO:llto iGt-r= Sagen "de1 61~eutseneA ", eenHie-
�- 23 -
~ci+le-5-Se~t~BM~ffi--fi:Hff~~~~
Man sah, was Menschen moglich war.
Nach den zwolf Jahren waren es die Beispiele der Menschlichkeit, der
Mitmenschlichkeit, die einen wieder Vertrauen zu den Menschen, auch deutschen,
fassen liessen. Staatswesen sind pervertierbar. Mehr Menschen sind schwach als
base. Wohl denen, die in einem guten Staatswesen leben. Die Deutschen hatten
es von 1933 bis 1945 schwer. Nur starke GemOter konnten den Versuchungen und
Drohungen des Dritten Reiches widerstehen.
DafDr, dass es sie gab, muss man sehr dankbar sein.
�Anmerkungen
1.
Beate Ruhm von Oppen, Religioh and Resistance to Nazism,
Princeton 1971.
2.
John Charmley, Churohills
biography.
3.
The end of glorys a political
London 1993.
Jtlrgen Heideking und Christof Mauch, Das Herman-Dossiers
Helmuth James Graf von Moltke, die deutsche Emigration in
Istanbul und der amerikanische ~eheimdienst Office of Strategic
Services (OSS), Vierteljahrshefte ftlr Zeitgeschichte (40) 1992,
So 574, Anmo 360
4.
George F. Kennan, Memoirs 1925-1950, Boston 1967, s. 121;
Memoiren eines Diplomaten, Stuttgart 1968, s. 127.
deutsch
"'
5 0 Beate Ruhm von Oppen,\H~., Helmuth James von Moltke, Briefe an
Freya 1939-1945,
6.
Mttnchen 1988, Brief vom 13.11.41,
Hermann Vinke, Das kurze Leben der Sophie Scholl.
s.
317.
Ravensburg 1980,
So 125.
Anm~
6),
s.
7o
Vinke, Sophie Scholl (s.
146.
80
Vinke, Sophie Scholl (s. Anm. 6), S. 157.
9 0 Text der "Kurzfassung" mit Begleitbrief des Bischofs in Ger van
Roon, German Resistance to Hitler: Count Moltke and the Kreisau
Circle, translated by Peter Ludlow, London 1971, So 364-367;
Originaltext in Henrik Lindgren, Adam von Trotts Reisen nach
Schweden 1942-1944, Vierteljahrshefte ftlr Zeitgeschichte (18),
1970, So 274-291; wiederabgedruckt in Michael Balfour / Julian
Frisby, Helmuth von Moltke: A leader against Hitler, London 1972,
So 215-224; deutsch in Freya von Moltke / Michael Balfour/
Julian Frisby, Helmuth James von Moltke 1907-1945: Anwalt der
Zukunft, Stuttgart 1975, S. 212-2200
10.
Wilhelm Ernst Winterhager (Hg.), Der Kreisauer Kreis: Portr~t
einer Widerstandsgruppe. Begleitband zu einer Ausstellung der
Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin 1985,
11.
12
0
IH-eieiekisg /Ma.Yob' Herman-Dossier (s. Anm.
s.
234 f.
3), s. 567-623.
ldleia9ki:a-g / Mau.eh,t Herman-Dossier ( s. Anmo 3), So 584 f
o
�s.
130
Moltke, Briefe (s. Anm. 5), 7.1.44,
14.
Herman ... Dossier ... ~ ( s. Anmo 3), S. 590.
15.
Peter Hoffmann, Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg und seine
Brttder, Stuttgart 1992,
s.
587.
360.
160 ~id.eking/ M.an-cnJ,Herman-Dossier
(s. Anm. 3),
s.
588.
170
Herman-Dossier (s. Anmo 3}, So 615-6190
180
Eberhard Bethge (Hgo), Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Widerstand und
Ergebungo Briefe und Aufzeichnungen aus der Haft, Neuausgabe,
Mttnchen 1970,
190
s.
16-200
Helmuth James von Moltke, Bericht aus Deutschland im Jabre 1943.
Letzte Briefe aus dem Gef~ngnis Tegel 1945. Berlin 1971, S 0 1946.
200
Moltke, Briefe (so Anm. 3), Brief vom 9olo43, So 450 f; Eugen
Gerstenmaier, Streit und Friede hat seine Zeito Ein Lebensbericht,
Berlin 1981, s. 169 f; Die Hassell-Tagebtlcher 1938-1944. Ulrich
von Hassell, Aufzeichnungen vom Anderen Deutschland. Nach der
Handschrift revidierte und erweiterte Ausgabe unter Mitarbeit
von Klaus Peter Reiss herausgegeben von Friedrich Freiherr
von Gaertringen, Berlin 1988, So 3470
21.
Ihr sch~rfster deutscher Kritiker ist Lothar Kettenacker in seinem
Beitrag tiber "Die britische Haltung zum deutschen Widerstand
wl!hrend des Zweiten Weltkriegs" in Lothar Kettenacker (Hgo),
Das "Andere Deutschland" im Zweiten Weltkrieg: Emigration und
Widerstand in internationaler Perspektive, Stuttgart 1977,
So 49-740
22.
Ger van Roon, Neuordefnung im Widerstando Der Kreisauer Kreis
innerhalb der deutschen Widerstahdsbewegung, Mtlnchen 1967,
S 0 550-571, und Roman Bleistein (P.g.), Dossier: Kreisauer Kreis.
Dokumente aus dem Widerstand gegen den ~ationalsozialismus.
Aus dem Nachlass von Lothar
K~nig
SoJ., Frankfurt am Main 1987,
So 239-299 und 337-3530
23 0
Moltke, Bericbt (so Anm. 19), So 38 f.
24.
Moltke, Briefe (s. Anm. 5),
25.
Ludwig Volk (Hg.), Akten deutscher Bischtlfe Uber die Lage der
Kirche 1933-1945.
938-943;
Band
6~
s.
12-14.
Band 5, Mainz 1983,
s.
675-678, 817-819,
Mainz 1985, So 19ff, 2lff, 25, 42, 62-65,
�99 r, 128, 145, 192, 202, 207, 215-220, 267-270, 283, 285, 291 r.,
293, 332, 4290 Fftr Wurms Engagement s. Heinrich Hermelink (Hg.),
Kirche im Kampf, Tttbingen 1950, s. 654 ff, 659r., sovie Gerhard
ScQ~fer (Hg.), Landesbischof Wurm und der nationalsozialistis9he
Staat 1940-1945. Eine Dokumentation. Stuttgart 1968, s. 149 ff.,
160 ff., 163 f., 165 fo
26.
So "Protokoll der Plenarkonferenz des deutschen Episkopats,
Fulda, 17o-19o August 1943 11 in Volk, Bischofsakten (s. Anm. 25),
Band 6, 133-146, und "Hirtenwort des deutschen Episkopats vom
19.8.43 - am 29.8.43 verlesen", s. 178-184, sowie "Hirtenwort
ttber die Zehn Gebote vom 19.s.43 - verlesen am 12.9.43 11 , s. 197205. Siehe auch zwei Entwtirfe von Eingaben des deutschen
Episkopats vom ~2./23o August 1943 gegen die Aufl6sung der
Mischehen und d~"Evakuierung der Nichtarier", f 0 216 ff.· und
22or. Ftir die"Handreichung an die Pfarrer und Altesten zum
fttnften Gebot der letzten altpreussischen Bekenntnissynode vom
ft
16.-17. Oktober 1943 So Eberhard Bethge, Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Theologe, Christ, Zsitgenosse.
Mtinchen 1967, So 795-797.
Heinz Boberach (Hg.), Berichte des SD und der Gestapo Uber Kirchen
'und Kirchenvolk in Deutschland 1934-1944. Main~l971, Nr. 264,
s.
850-855, besonders 853 Fo
280
Moltke, Briefe (so Anm. 5), Brief vom 5.6.43, s. 484-486, vom
7.6.43, s. 488, vom 12.9.43, s. 537, vom 4.-5.10.43, s. 550-552.
29.
Moltke, Briefe (s. Anm. 5), Brief vom 5.-8.6.43, So 488-491.
30.
Fttr die umfassende Darstellung der Auslandskontakte des deutschen
Widerstands siehe Klemens von Klemperer, German resistance against
Hitler: the search for allies abroad 1938-1945. Oxford 1992.
Das Buch ist dem Andenken der beiden 6kumenischen Haupthelfer,
George Bell und W.A. Visser 1 t Hoof~gewidmet.
310
Alfons Erb, Bernhard Lichtenberg, Domprobst von St. Hedwig zu
Berlin.
5o Aufl., Berlin 1968,
5),
s.
80.
32.
Moltke, Briefe (s. Anm.
Brief vom 14.11.41,
33.
Erb, Lichtenberg (s. Anm. 31),
s.
136-138.
34.
Erb, Lichtenberg (s. Anmo 31),
s.
104-105.
350
Bethge, Bonhoeffer (s. Anmo 26), So 878-885.
s.
319-323.
�36.
Fabian von Schlabrendorff, Offiziera gegan Hitler. Neue,
durchgesehene und erweiterte Ausgabe von Walter Bussmann.
Nach der Edition von Gero von So Gaevernitz.
37.
~erlin 1984, So 129.-
Bo Balfour/ Frisby, Moltke (Anm. 9), s. 184-186; deutsch in
Moltke/ Balfour/ Frisby (Anmo 9), So 184-187 (unvollstlindig).
�
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lec Ruhm von Oppen 1993-07-19
FaFi-Ruhm von OppenB026
Tutors
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Text
This materiaf rn~\I h
Copyright law (Titl . !=i protected by
e 17 U.S. Code)
REVISIONISM AND COUNTER-REVISIONISM IN KIRCHENKAMPt' HISTORIOGRAPHY
by
Beate Ruhm von Oppen
Paper presented on March 18, 1970 a.t The International Scholars
Conference on "The German Church Struggle 1933-1945: What Can
America Learn?·" held at Wayne State University March 15-19, 1970.
�Prefatory note
Two passages in what follows are printed in brackets.
They are portions of my original manuscript I left
undelivered when I read my paper in the morning of
17 March.
I have decided to reinstate them (a)
because some listeners expressed a regret that the
lecture was not
lon~er
and (b) because I myself
regretted the omission when I heard Richard
Rubenstein in the afternoon.
B.R.v.o.
�REVISIONISM AND COUNTER-REVISIONISM IN KIRCHENKAMPF HISTORIOGRAPHY
Beate Ruhm von Oppen
The title on our program is a terrible mouthful.
explain how I intend to deal with it.
Let me
I shall not confine myself
to the church struggle in the narrower, purely institutional sense.
Nor would you want me to do so.
What interests us all are the
wider implications of that part of church history, that crisis of
Christianity and Christendom.
As for "revisionism and counter-revisionism" in the writing
and thinking about that era of church history, tlie allusion to what is
going on in the general field of contemporary history is deliberate.
The last few years have witnessed some striking reinterpretations
of the history of the age of Hitler.
There was A.J.P. Tarlor with his Origins of the Second World
1
War.
He rejected the version that had been more
accepted since the Nuremberg trj_als.
~r
less
But what is cux-rently
known as "revisionism" is the interpretation provided by the New
Left.
There was Alperovitz with his Atomic Diplomacy: Hiroshima
2
and Potsdam in 1965 and quite a lot in that vein since. The
tenor of all this is the reasonableness of the Russians and the
obduracy and uncooperativeness of the United States, amounting at
times to collusion with the Germans.
The historian Arno Mayer digs
deeper and goes back further, at least to the Russian Revolution
and the Treaty of Versailles as an early exercise in containment
3
or counter-revolution.
�2-
But what concerns us more is his contention that in the context of the
international civil war that began in 1917, the Second World War and the
extermination camps wer0 r.tthe diabolic wages of revolution ."1.ud counter
4
revolution . . . . "
Th~.:J
:i.s
mor·'~ rndi~n 1,
PVcn, th'.""! P12tcr Waiss
j
in his Auschwitz oratorio The Investigation,
which mentions the com-
plici ty of Germ.an industry in the employment of slave labor.
It goes a
good deal further than Hochhuth who, after a tr€mendously long build-up,
finally lets his Pope appear and shows him preoccupied with
investments and capitalist calculations.
" ... von brennen.der
6
Sorge um Unsere Fabriken erfilllt ... "
and so on.
You may remember that clever crack.
For the benefit
for those without German among us I should perhaps add that "Mit
brennender Sorge," the famous first words of the anti-Nazi
encyclical of Pius XI, are here put into the mouth of his heartless successor to express his "burning concern" for the coffers
of the church.
The rapacity of Rome is quite an old theme, dating
back to Luther and beyond.
':I'he
complicity of German firms in the
slave labor system is a newer one and undeniable.
But to say that
that system and the camps that supplied some of the labor were
the consequence of the Western capitalists' view of Hitler's
Germany as a bulwarlt against Bolshavism is something else again.
It would be too much of a digression to say more about
revisionism in general contemporary history and its possible points
of contact with our subject.
another thing:
But the above examples illustrate
the difficulty of isolating "historiography."
7
Once political scientists and historians like Lewy
and
�38
Friedlaender
take Hochhuth seriously enough to start their works
with favorable references to his play and its historical appendices
and message and then are in their turn accepted as scholarly and cogent,
it is not only the public mind that has been invaded by melodrama
9
That invasion, its causes and
but the academic mind too.
consequences, form part of the story of revisionism and counterrevisionism.
And one might be quite prepared to let the
academic mind go to pot, if the universities were not the new
churches where people look for
salvatio~--provided,
of course,
they are "relevant."
Ever since Hitler came to power I have been interested in
the relevance of religion to Nazism and the resistance to it.
made me go to Dahlem, as a schoolgirl,
It
to hear Martin Niemoller.
But now when I say that I am working. on this subject, the
usual question is for figures:
what statistics are there?
I do
not think that relevance can be quantified, though one may be
able to draw certain conclusions from church attendance, penalties
inflicted on clergy and parishioners, the denominational breakdown
of the membership of the SS, and the like.
But was the church, for instance, "relevant" to the man who,
among those who tried to kill
Hitle~
caree closest to succeeding?
On the eve of his attempt to kill Hitler and bring down the Nazi
system, in the evening of the 19th of July, 1944, a very tense
and busy day, Claus Stauffenberg went briefly inside a church.
You will find no mention of this in Guenter Lewy's book The
Catholic Church and Nazi Germany, not even in the slender chapter
�4-
10
on "The Problem of Resistance."
Perhaps the incident does not
affect his argument--which at most, though not at all, times he
limits to the conduct and recorded utterances of bishops and
other representatives of the institution.
It does appear in a
11
book published long before Lewy wrote.
And Peter Hoffmann in
12
his recent book on the resistance
even goes into the question of
what church it was.
enquiries.
He has made exhaustive a.nd inconclusive
So we do not know if it was a Catholic or a
Protestant one.
uncertainty.
I quite like the
ecume~ical
aspect of that
Stauffenberg was a Catholic and the son of a
13
Protestant mother--who never
conve~ted
to her husband's faith.
But Lewy al:so goes into questions of theology and motivation
~.
Therefo:r.e it is even odder that he does not mention the
fact that earlier StRuffenberg had tried to recruit a fellowCa tholic for the conspiracy by pointing to the
Catholic view on Natural Law and tyrannicid'3 which, whatever the
Protestant view might be, made it the duty of a faithful Catholic
to act counter to 2n oath of loyalty that had been rendered void
by mass murder and a ruinous military policy.
the
Both Major Leonrod,
brother officer to whom Stauffenberg had talked in this v':i."@p,
and his confessor whom Leonrod had subsequently consulted on the
sinfulness of knowing about assassination plans, were later
14
hanged.
Lewy mentions just enough of the Leonrod story to make
one VlOnder about the priest and about Cardinal Faulhaber for later
praising him
11
?.s a fight er against Nazi tyranny . "
Every-
thing is possible, and I would not put it past the Faulhaber of
1946.
But in fact, when one goes to Lewy's source, one finds
�5-
Mother Mary Alice Gallin reporting something slightly different:
a Lenten Pastoral in which Faulhaber "praised the heroism of
those who fought against the Hitler tyranny and used as
illustration ... a letter ... in which a priest from Munich wrote to
him:
'What a beautiful day--the exaltation of the Cross!
I am
condemned to death for being the confessor of a man who
15
participated in the attentat.'''
Whatevar the possible intricacies of that communication, it
strikes me as both mean and misleading to bring out mainly the
negative points of that story.
Mother Gallin used it quite properly
in a discussion of the apparent or real inconsistencies in the
attitudes of the church to rebellion.
It is, indeed, close
enough to the posthumous misappropriation of a martyr by the
establishment to give one an inkling of the rage that anyone not
totally uncritical of the establishment might come to feel if
this line were followed consistently, with never a twinge of
self-examination or whisper of regret.
Then thera is, of course, not a word in Lewy about the hanging
judge's comment on this Catholic priest for having (as a matter of
course) considered a possible assassination of Hitler under the
16
heading of tyrannicide.
Yet that was precisely what Stauffenberg
meant when he spoke to Leonrod about the duty of a Catholic, and
the greater freedom of conscience a Catholic might have compared
with a Protestant.
What keeps Lewy's resistance chapter so slim?
indictment of the church for collaboration so fat?
What makes his
Sticking to
�6-
the recorded public utterances of the hierarchs and taking them at
their face value.
Where such statements deviate from t:'J.e diplomacy that
was widely practiced under the dictatcrship; they may be used
selectively, to exclude intim?.tions of opposition.
And silence
is taken as assent--though we know quite well that it was not
17
always so taken at the time.
But it is not in order to reduce the file on collaboratiofr and
increase that on resistance that !'urge a less selective view of
the church struggle.
It is in order to take accpvnt
of the fact that the churches as institutions were
fearful crisis.
~nd
are in a
Unless we regard them as dispensable or even in
need of liquidation in the general interest, we must try to see
what good they did--a.s well as what harm--when the challenge to
Christianity and to hllmanity was at its most deadly.
And if that
is our purpose, it will not do to persist in simple compilations
18
of damning quotations.
Even the juxtaposition of staunch lay
men and women and the timid clergy, a.nd even that of the devoted
pastoral and lower clergy and the diplomatic higher clergy can be
overdone.
(With this distinction I refer more to the Catholic
constellation.)
It is, after all, conceivable that if there had
been no Concordat, yes,
even with its secret annex on the clergy
and the armed services, Goebbels would have had no cause to complain
about the danger to the National Socialist cause represented by
army chaplains at the front.
These chaplains were clearly far more
important than the Nazi propagandist army bishop Rarkowski whose
significance is, I think, exaggerated by Gordon Zahn and Guenter
19
Lewy.
I must confess that in all my work on captured German
�7-
records Rarkowski never impinged on me, whereas the troublesome
20
army chaplains, both Protestant and Catholic, constantly did.
Goebbels considered them even more dangerous than he did Bishop
Galen of Milnster whom, nevertheless, he wanted eliminated as soon
as this was feasible, i.e., after the war.
Quite clearly there
were checks and balances of a kind, of a practical and psychological
kind, even in the totalitarian system of the Third Reich.
They
did not balance enough, they did not check nearly enough--but
they were real all the same.
They even saved lives sometimes.
It is one of the merits of Peterson's book on The Limits of Hitler's
21
Power
that he almost stumbled on the religious factor among the
limits and writes about it without, however, thinking much further
about it.
He simply takes it as one of the givens of a complex
situation, like character traits or the differences between small
and big towns.
�8-
[on Monday Eberhard Bethge gave a breathtaking description
of the self-deceptions and errors of the Confessing Church.
Twice,
I think> he referred to the "room to breathe" that Confessors
enjoyed at a time, for a time.
The fallacy of the "revisionists" lies in ignoring the
fact that in order to resist the murderers, people must be able
to breathe.
Theoretical constructs cannot resist.
To postulate
a population of perfect resisters does not restore to life a
single man, woman, or child.
To sneer
~t
those who did resist
because they do not conform to the current counsels of perfection(iamf
insults not only them but also the casualties they were trying,
by their lights, to save.
dimmer than ours.
I am not so sure their lights were
Hindsight is not perspicacity.
Neither is there
merit in not having been led into certain temptations by the grace
of geography or chronology; nor, of course, is there any merit
or demerit or moral immunity in genealogy or the accidents of
birth.
That, surely, is one thing we must have learnt.]
�9-
Thus I would say:
Neither the retrospective expectation of
the impossible nor the narrow institutional approach gets us
anywhere with our subject--though, of course, questions of the role
of institutions are very important, including, naturally, the
question of the self-defense of institutions and of its cost and
benefits, both to their members and to non-members.
I incline to
the view that the self-defense of the church, the real church
(and I know that that word "real" begs a question), both
Protestant and Catholic, had benefits trat reached well beyond
their own membership.
Of course there were moments when the
defense of the institution was in conflict with the defense of
the faith and of humanity.
But to make those moments into a
comprehensive indictment of these institutions strikes me as wrong,
irresponsible, and unh:lstorical.
Penitence is one thing--and we have had quite a lot of that
here, though we have had other things too, and sometimes one was
not quite sure about who was b?.ating whose breast.
But I think
wholesale condcmnation--even self-condemnation--does not help.
There are, I
ad~it,
moments when one can understand the
"revisionist" wave that swept over all earlier accounts of the
heroism and martyrdom of the church struggle.
But when a History
22
Scholar in Oxford refers to the churches as "tools of fascism"
revisionism has gone far enough.
The pre-war historians of the church struggle may have suffered
from the weaknesses John Conway described on Monday.
Yet they were
closer to the truth, I think, than the latter-day perfectionists.
�10It strikes me as significant that George Shuster who, with
Reinhold Niebuhr, seems to have been one of the first in this
23
country to recognize and denounce the evil of Nazism,
was also
the first to write a book about the church conflict.
he gave it, Like a Mighty Army:
The title
Hitler Versus Established
Religion, may have been over-optimistic, yet the
boo~
published in
24
1935,
gave an impressive picture of the clash.
Then, in 1936,
there was John Brown Mason's Hitler's First Foes: A Study in
25
When, thirty years later, I asked an
Religion and Politics.
assistant at the New Yorlt Public Library for it, he said somewhat
sardonically, "I didn't know he had so many enemies."
By then,
of course, Hochhuth held the stage and revisionism was in full
swing.
Mason, incidentially, was a Protestant, writing about the
conflict betweeri the Catholic church and the Nazi regime.
was another.
Micklem
He published his book in 1939, under the auspices
26
of the Royal Institute of International Affairs.
Lewy uses it exactly
~'
It is a classic.
in his chapter on "The Church and
Hitler's Foreign Policy," merely for the translation of an announcement read from the pulpits in the diocese of Berlin after the
Munich Agreement.
"God
has heard the prayer of all Christendom
for peace," and so on.
He uses Micklem's translation in his own
27
argument of church support for Hitler,
but does not quote
Micklem's comment which follows immediately after:
please the Nazis.
"This did not
It ascribed glory to God rather than to Adolf
28
Hitler."
And so it goes, I am afraid, in much of Lewy's book.
There is a lot one can do with selective quoting and taking things
out of their context; and he has done it; and thus what John Conway
�11-
29
has called a "brilliant polemic"
is built up.
Conway was more
30
severe with FriedlaendE:lr's booli: on Pius XII;
and my guess is that
one reason was that when he saw that he had seen more of the
documents on relations between Berlin and the Vatican and he knew
what Friedlaender must have seen and had suppressed, ignored,
or distorted.
docume~ts
! had had more experience with the domestic
and developments and therefore found Friedlaender mild
in comparison with Lewy.
Also, a misinterpretation of this one
dead po:rn worries me less than false siP'plifications of the complex
doings and sufferings of a lot of people.
Perhaps a personal note will help to explain why I feel this
so strongly and also feel that--whatever the revival of German
Protestantism and its theology in the Nazi era, in response to its
almost deadly challenge--Catholics should not be forgotten in all
this.
During and after the war I was working on Germany for the
British Foreign Office.
We heard and saw more than most, certainly
more than the news media; and received more reliable information than the
press and
r~dio
(television
hardly existed in those days).
Doing
that kind of work gave one a clearer view of the hell of Hitler's
Europe than anyone else outside, and clearer, too, than most
people insj_de had.
It is, I suppose, an experience that leaves
its marks.
After the Normandy landings, captured documents began to
arrive--including concentration camp records.
They conveyed a
picture of hell and the virtual inescapability of hell.
Then the
�12-
records of the Reich Chancery arrived, the records of the
administrative, governmental, center of it all (though, of course,
there was the Party Chancery too, and the SS and concentration camp
universe had more to do with that).
Rut here was the correspondence
of Lammers, the head of the Reich Chancery.
alia, the euthanasia or
It contained, inter
killing'' material.
'~ercy
Here were the
protests of Bishops von Galen and Wurm--one Catholic, one
Protestant--of the Protestant pastor Braune and of the Catholic
priest Bernhard Lichtenberg.
in the middle of hell.
died in captivity.
prayed for the Jews.
They were like an enclave of heaven
And of thesa four it was Lichtenberg who
But then he had also publicly pleaded and
All these men were brave, Braune perhaps the
bravest.
But Lichtenberg was imprisoned, maltreated, humiliated,
31
and then died in transit to a codcentration camp.
It is
that kind of thijg "f.::hat stays with one:
proof of courage and
the p.it,lpable, visible
fidelit~.
These men had kept faith with imbeciles and epileptics and
had tried to intervene at the heart, the unfeeling bureaucratic
heart, of the political machinery, to get one kind of killing
stopped.
They even eventually succeeded, probably because the
factor that had prompted their ~ion '--~~~-grief an~ horror of )h:_C<enext of kin, remained a factor.
There
~ people
all over
w·~D ~rxir
Germany whose institutionalized brothers, sons, aunts died sudden
deaths by medical means, who night have seen their relatives quite
recently, were then told that they had died of acute appendicitis,
and knew there had been no appendix since it had been taken out
�13-
years ago.
It was these lying death certificates, which one knew
bore no relation to the actual cause of death, that may first
have conveyed to ordinary, unpolitical people the fact that the
country was, in part at least, being run by murderers.
of course, always individual families that were hit:
It was,
it was just
one person they loved or were somehow attached to who had been
made to die; it might happen quite near where they lived, or in
an institution farther away; the victims were usually taken somewhere else to be killed; some of the trPnsports became known in the
institutions affected--even children heard about them; and here
and there smoke from cremation would attract attention.
But it
was not these--usually avoidable--failures of stagecraft that
caused unrest among the people.
It was the fact that the families
of the victims were leading normal lives among other families
leading normal lives, in a state whose laws did not provide for
the killing of the incurable--let alone light cases of epilepsy-and whose legal system, despite all political distortion, was
still function;.ng.
That the whole program of medical murder was
based on a secret order by Hitler, some may have known or heard by
way of rumor--most did not.
The whole thing was surrounded by
mystery, secrecy, brutality, administrative anonymity, and
33
misleading language, even organizations with phoney names.
All
this was happening all over the country and caused individual grief
and collective unrest.
The members of the clergy who were
approached by the bereaved or those about to be bereaved or who,
like Braune, were connected with institutions that housed and cared
�14-
for the patients the system was now exterminating, these men-Braune, Lichten'be:"."g, Wurm, Galen--could and did use the argument
of inexpedi8ncy against this policy of extermination.
Popular
unrest is not a thing a government wants, least of all during
a war that demands increasing sacrifices from the people.
also used the argument of illegality.
God and the dictates of humanity.
They
And they invoked the law of
But it was almost certainly
the consideration of the inexpediency of the operation that
eventually got it stopped or almost
sto~ped.
Quite an arsenal of arguments--though God and humanity did
not cut much ice with Nazis.
Expediency did.
But even here, what
surprised me, coming on this correspondence when I did, was that
anyone protested at all--not that there had not been more protest.
And th:id protest w2.s "through channels," the channels that were
left in what sm:vived of the old system, the ancien regime.
Galen
also preached in public, referred to the matter in sermons; and
at once the radicals, or progressives, of the new regime took counsel on
how he could be silenced. ·
T~ey
or to kill him during the war.
decided it was inadvisable to touch
He was too popular in Westphalia--
indeed all over the Reich, wherever people pricked up their ears
for a voice of dissent.
Lichtenberg, on the other hand, was hardly
known beyond Berlin and even there his name meant something only
to the Catholic minority and a few lively minds outside.
Incidentally, his arrest and eventual death were due not to police
initiative or the denunciation of one of his parishioners, but to
a couple of sharp-eared and vigilant women students from the
34
Rhineland who were sightseeing in his church during a service.
�15-
It is such human
.facto1·s,
social tac tors, atmospheric factors
one has to be aware of in dealing with those years.
It may have been partly as a result of this early conditioning
by much of the documentation on the churches that I felt that
even Bockenforde was not quite just to the German bishops in
his very critical article on German catholicism in the crucial
year of 1933.
This article appeared in the Catholic monthly
35
Hochland in early 1961
and was, I suppose, the real beginning
of the revision of the earlier
favorabl~
picture.
There was a reply
36
by Hans Buchheim
37
and then a rejoinder by Bockenforde.
I felt tha:.
even Bockenforde was isolating some episcopal statements from
their contexts--or at any rate not giving enough context for
38
certainty about the significance of the quotation.
Shortly
before there was Morsey with his long chapter on the end of the
39
Center Party in the big book Das Ende der Parteien.
So the nineteen-sixties were largely occupied by critical
literature, some of it hyper-critical, but they also saw the
beginning of the documentary series put out by the Vatican and the
Catholic Academy in Bavaria and the steady progress of the
publications of the corresponding commission on the Protestant
side, the AGK or Arbeiten zur Geschichte des Kirchenkampfes.
40
In 1967 came Bethge's Bonhoeffer
misleading:
--but to call it that is
it is to my mind the best single book on the develop-
ment of events and the feel of the time and, of course, the
figure and role of Bonhoeffer.
published in translation.
It is now, at long last, to be
It is the most vivid, the most telling
�16-
picture of the era of the church struggle you ara likely to
get anywhere.
41
John Conway's book on The Nazi Persecution of the Churches
appeared soon after and its very title signalled a change.
The
book is not just about persecution, it is also about adaptation
and resistance but it gets back, at last, to the point that,
whether we call them totalitarian or not, the Nazis, once in
power, had the initiative and had church policies of their own.
They were not friendly.
Readers of German had already been reminded of that in 1965
in Friedrich Zipfel's book, Kirchenkampf in Deutschland 1933-1945.
Religionsverfolgung und Selbstbehauptung der Kirchen in der
nationalsozialistischen Zeit.
(That word "Selbstbehauptung"
is, I think, a key term in our context.)
The evidence about the relationship of the Nazis and the
churches is so vast and manifold that the argument about resistance
and collaboration can go on forever and lead nowhere, certainly to
no understanding, unless certain values and priorities are made
explicit.
One may have to agree to disagree about values; but at
least one then knows what the disagr€ement is about.
By all this
I do not mean to say that my own values and priorities are crystal
clear to me.
But very often in the polemics of the last decade I
have had the distinct impression that the basic quarrel was not
really so much about facts as about their interpretation.
Though
there are, admittedly, lots of facts, important facts that we need
to know more about.
One category of facts concerns the very
�17-
difficult questions who knew what when; also, what was knowable
at any given stage.
Here hindsight is a great hindrance, unless
one is aware of its dangers.
�18-
[These questions are complicated by the hardest question and
the most painful answer of all:
much.
the question who cared and how
Caring and knowing are connected--and so are courage and
knowledge.
In the pressures of the time certain kinds of knowledge
were dangerous.
There were, undoubtedly, such things as cognitive
courage and cognitive cowardice, factors of courage or the lack
of it that affected cognition itself.
Also much "knowing" was a
43
matter of interpretation.
Louis de Jong has shown
that the Jews
in Holland simply would not or could not believe what was going
on in the East.
They must have been lilte the many Germans who
knew of deportation but did not know of extermination.
In the
case of Jews who were themselves, as we now know, liable to
extermination, one cannot say they did not know because they did
not care.
But since in the
c~se
of non-Jews there is always the
suspicion that they did not care, or did not care enough, much
more contemporary knowledge of the mass killing is
~ow
assumed than
is probably justified.
The extreme example of wanting to know and taking steps to
find out is Kurt Gerstein.
It involved complicity.
Any knowledge
meant a kind of complicity, meant either tacit toleration of the
intolerable or attempts to counteract it which invariably involved
lies, deception, some harm to others, perhaps even murder.
Gerstein
himself became part of the system that supplied the gas with which
millions of Jews were killed.
If his own account is to be accepted
--and I do, on the whole, apart from some minor details, accept
it--he diverted
some of the supplies.
But his signature is on
�19-
the receipts for large quantities.
He signed for them in order to
divert them.
A proportion he was unable to divert or destroy.
44
He had joined the SS in order to find out about its murders.
This extreme example shows that the courage to see, the courage
45
to know, was a far from simple matter.
The present phase of recrimination indicts knowledge as well
as ignorance--knowledge, however, somewhat more than ignorance.
There is a widespread desire to incriminate.
Where so many
suffered and died, the desire to find c·:llprits who caused their
suffering and death is natural.
But it is hard to satisfy with
the truth.
Part of the truth undoubtedly is that there was less knowledge
of what we now know to have happenP-d at the time it was happening.
But the other and more painful part of the truth is that
most men (and most women, and most children) cared less than they
should have cared.
They did not love their neighbor like them-
selves--particularly not the neighbor who had been classified as
not-a-neighbor or the millions of Jews outside Germany, in occupied
Europe, especially in Eastern Europe where they were so numerous
and so segregated.
The Jewish experience of forsakenness--the sin of Christendom-is now being visited on Christianity.
was a deadly reality.
"Christian" anti-semi tism
But the mainspring and machinery of the
twentieth-century mass murder of Jews was not Christian, it was
post-Christian or neo-pagan.
Christians did not prevent the murders
but they did not instigate them.
And it is surely significant that
�20-
the Nazi agencies whose task it was to watch opposition to the
regime interpreted Christian, particularly Catholic, objections to
Nazi neo-paganism as objections to Nazi racial policies.
Nazis
and anti-Nazis were agreed on the synonymity of neo-paganism and
racism.
And that, to me, is the chief lesson to be learnt from that
epoch.
It does not mean that one ignores the anti-semitism or
cowardice or greed or cruelty of gentiles called Christians.
But it means that there is a difference between Christianity and
gentility, between Christianity and Judaism on the one hand and
paganism on the other; and the difference may be one between life
and death, earthly, physical life and death--as well as the other
kind.]
�21-
This conference may help us on toward the dialectical
synthesis mentioned by John Conway on Monday, which Victor
46
Conzemius prognosticated or hoped for when he wrote two years ago.
He had also suggested, even earlier, some such conference as this but
could do nothing to bring it about.
be a good :i.dea t'J get
Incidentally, it might
111s really outstanding sn:rvey of
the literature on the Christian churches and Nazi totali-
47
tarianism translated.
Meanwhile there is my own somewhat
shorter and less systematic article,
"N~-zis
and Christians" in
48.
World Politics, April, 1969.
---~----~-
.
-
I mention it here because church
---------~-
historians may not expect an article on our subject in that politiea1
quarterly.
Our subject has all along suffered from inter-
disciplinary as well as inter-denominational segregation.
That is
why this conference is such a wonderful opportunity to de-segregate,
to integrate, to bring together what belongs together.
Conzemius, I think, sees the essential as well as the
existential connection between the two components of the subject
of the
~~dress
with which our Chairman opened this ccnferoncc.
To sustain the tension between them without short circuits
seems to me the only way to illumination or enlightenment on the
darkest secret and the best publicized crime of Christendom.
publicity has been retrospective and blinding.
must come from elsewhere.
The
The il~umination
�22-
The church struggle was the struggle of the church to be true
to its Lord.
And I take that to be a vital concern not only to
its members but to all mankind.
I am not a member, but I am
passionately convinced of its importance.
What gave me that
conviction was precisely the experience of Hitler's millennium
and the Christian response to it.
�23-
Footnotes
1.
(London:
2.
A.J.P. Taylor, The Origins of the Second World War
Hamish Hamilton, 1961).
Gar Alperovitz, Atomic Diplomacy:
Hiroshima and Potsdam;
the Use of the Atomic Bomb and the American Confrontation with
Soviet Power (New York:
3.
Simon and Schuster, 1965).
Arno J. Mayer, Poli tics and
DiplOI~_acr o~ Peacema}.~~!lg: Co~tain~_
nient and Counterrevolution at --·- Versailles, 1918-1919 (New York: Knopf,
-- - - - ---- ----- - --·-· -
~'--· -~
---·
-
·-
196'1).
4.
"Uses and Abuses of Historical Analogies," paper delivered at
the Annual Mc8ting of the American Historical Association, 1967.
5.
Peter Weiss, Die Ermittlung;
(Frankfurt am Main:
play.
Oratorium in 11 Gesangen
Suhrkamp, 1965); and The Investigation; a
English version by Jon Swan and Ulu Graubard (New York:
Atheneum, 1966).
6.
Rolf Hochhuth, Der Stellvertreter.
Schauspiel, mit
einem Vorwort von Erwin Piscator (Reinbek bei Hamburg:
1963); The Deputy.
Translated by Richard and Clara Winston.
Preface by Albert Schweitzer (New York:
7.
York:
Rowohlt,
Grove Press, 1964).
Guenter Lewy, ThP. Catholic Church and Nazi GeI_"ma11y (New
McGrav'
'!T-•.L.l.
Book Company, 1964).
�24-
8.
Saul Friedlaender, "Pius X:£I and the Third· Reich.
Documentation.
Translated froil! the
Fullman (New York:
9.
A
French and German by ChRrles
Knopf, 1966).
For the invasion of the classroom by the Hochhuth
industry see Dolores Barracano Schmidt and Earl Robert Schmidt,
eds., The
Dep~ty_ _!leader:
Studies in Moral Responsibility (Chicago:
Scott, Forsman and Company, 1965).
10.
Lewy, pp. 309-321.
11.
Eberhard Zeller, Geist der Freiheit:
Juli (Milnchen:
12.
der zwanzigste
Hermann Rinn Verlag, 1954), p. 217.
Peter Hoffmann, Widerstand, Staatsstreich, Attentat.
Der Kampf der Opposition gegen Hitler (Milnchen, Piper, 1969),
pp. 465 and 808.
13.
She made a point of mentioning this to me when I saw her
in 1953.
14.
Spiegelbild einer Verschworung:
Die Kaltenbrunner-
Berichte an Bormann und Hitler Uber das Attentat vom 20. Juli
1944.
Geheime Dokumente ans dem ehemaligen Reichs-
sicherheitshauptamt.
Herausgegeben vom Archiv Peter filr
historische und zeitgeschichtliche Dokumentation (Stuttgart:
Seewald Verlag, 1961), pp. 262 f, 321-4, 435, and Christian
Milller, "19. Juli 1944" in Hans-Adolf Jacobsen, ed., 20. Juli 1944.
Die deutsche Opposition gegen Hitler im Urteil der auslandischen
�25-
Geschichtsschreibung.
Eine Anthologie (Bonn:
Presse- und
Informationsamt der Bundesregierung, 1969), p. 225.
15.
Mother Mary Alice Gallin, German Resistance to ... Hitler:
Ethical and Religious Factors (The Catholic University of
America Press, Washington, D.C., 1961), p. 288.
16.
Volksgerichtshofs-Prozesse zum 20. Juli 1944.
Transkripte von Tonbandfunden.
Deutschen Rundfunks.
17.
Herausgegeben vom Lautarchiv des
Mimeographed,
n.~.,
April 1961, p. 136.
For a discussion of some of this see Beate Ruhm von
Oppen, "Nazis and Christians," in World Politics, vol. XXI, No.
3 (April 1969), pp. 392-424.
18.
Not even subtler
p~esentations
German Catholics and Hitler's Wars:
(New York:
such as Gordon
c.
Zahn's
A Study in Social Control
Sheed and Ward, 1962).
19.
Zahn, pp. 143-172; Lewy, pp. 236-242 and 247.
20.
For documentation refer to some of the earlier Guides
to German Records Microfilmed at Alexandria, Va. (Washington,
D.C.:
The National Archives, 1960-
records were filmed selectively,
).
Later Field Commands
omitting the chaplaincy
sections.
21.
Edward N. Peterson, The Limits of Hitler's Power
(Princeton, N.J.:
Princeton University Press, 1969).
�26-
22.
Magdalen Goffin, "A Contradictory Hero," in The New
York Review of Books, 21 August 1969, p. 34.
(opening Lecture by Franklin Littell).
23.
See above, p.
24.
George N. Shuster, Like a Mighty Army:
Established Religion (New York:
Hitler versus
D. Appleton-Century Company,
1935).
25.
John Brown Mason, Hitler's First Foes:
A Study of
Religion and Politics (Minneapolis, 1936).
26.
Nathaniel Micklem, Natior.al Socialism and the Roman
Catholic Church, Being an Account of the Conflict Between the
\
National Socialist Government of Germany and the Roman Catholic
Church 1933-1938 (London:
Oxford University Press, 1939).
27.
Lewy, p. 219.
28.
Micklem, p. 229.
29.
John S. Conway, The Nazi Persecution of the Churches
1933-45 (London:
Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1968; and New York:
Basic Books, 1969), p. 409.
30.
Ibid., pp. 494-450.
31.
Anton Erb, Berhard Lichtenberg.
1946).
(Berlin:
Morus Verlag,
�27-
32.
argues
It was not just, as Lewy (pp. 266-7; and Conway, p. 283)
that there was a popular outcry against the euthanasia
program because the next of kin felt sympathy for the victims as
relatives, and no outcry againct the extermination of the Jews bccauso
pro~aganda;
there had been anti-semitic
another important point
of difference was the almost instant knowledge of the fate of the
victins of the euthanasia program and the lack of it in the case
of deported Jews.
33.
Infamy:
Cf. Fred Mielke and Alexander Mitscherlich, Doctors of
The StoLy of Nazi Medical Crimes ... translated by
Heinz Norden ... (New York:
H. Schuman, 1949); Alexander
Mitscherlich and Fred Mielke, eds., Medizin ohne Menschlichkeit
(Franldurt am Main:
34.
Fischer-Bilcherei, 1960) .
Cf. Otto Ogiermann, S.J., Bis zum letzten Atemzug:
Prozess gegen Bernhard Lichtenberg (Leipzig:
der
St. Benno-
Verlag GMBH, 1968), pp. 120-5.
35.
Ernst-Wolfgang B5ckenf5rde,
'~er
deutsche Katholizismus
im Jahre 1933; eine kri tische Betrachtung," Hoch land, vol. LI II
(February 1961), pp. 215-39.
36.
Hans Buchheim,
'~er
deutsche Katolizismus im Jahr 1933:
Eine Auseinandersetzung mit Ernst-Wolfgang B5ckenforde," ibid.,
(August 1961), pp. 497-515.
37.
Ernst-Wolfgang Bockenf5rde, "Der deutsche Katholizismus
im Jahre 1933:
Stellungnahme zu einer Diskussion," ibid., vol.
LIV (February 1962), pp. 217-45.
�28-
38.
Beate Ruhm von Oppen, ucatholics and Nazis in 1933,"
Wiener Library Bulletin, vol. XVI (January 1962), p. 8.
39.
Erich Matthias and Rudolf Morsey, eds., Das Ende der
Parteien (Dlisseldorf:
40.
Droste Verlag, 1960), pp. 279-453.
Eberhard Bethge, Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Zeitgenosse (MUnchen:
Theologe, Christ,
Christian Kaiser Verlag, 1967).
41.
42.
1945.
See note 30.
Friedrich Zipfel, Kirchenkampf in Deutschland, 1933-
Religionsverfolgung und Selbstbehauptung der Kirchen in der
nationalsozialistischen Zeit (Berlin:
43.
de Gruyter, 1965).
Cf. Louis de Jong, "Die Niederlande und Auschwitz," in
Vierteljahrshefte flir Zeitgeschichte, 17. Jg., 1. Heft, January
1969, pp. 1-16.
44.
Cf. Saul Friedlaender, Kurt Gerstein ou l'nmbiguit6 du
bien (Paris:
Casterman, 1967); Kurt Gerstein oder die
Zwiespaltigkeit des Guten, deutsch von Jutta und Theodor Knust
(GUtersloh:
Bertelsmann Sachbuchverlag, 1968); Kurt Gerstein,
the Ambiguity of Good.
Translated from the French and German by
Charles Fullman (New York:
45.
Knopf, 1969).
Friedlaender brings this out.
But he does not make it
clear that the document known as the Gerstein Report was written
in April 1945, long after the events presented by Hochhuth, who uses
and stresses Gerstein's knowledge and his attempt to communicate it
to the Vatican--but not the cost 0£ its acquisition.
�29-
46.
See above, p.
47.
Victor Conzemius,
[John Conway's paper.]
'~glises
chretiennes et totalitarisme
national-socialiste," in Revue d'Histoire Ecclesiastique, vol.
LXIII, nos. 2 and 3/4, 1968, pp. 437 and 868-948.
been reissued as a monograph:
Victor Conzemius, Eglises
Chretiennes et Totalitarisme National-Socialiste.
Historiographique (Louvain:
See note 17.
Un Bilan
Bibliotheque de la Revue d'Histoire
Ecclesiastique, Fasciule 48, 1969).
48.
It has since
�
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Revisionism and counter-revisionism in Kirchenkampf Historiography
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lec Ruhm von Oppen 1970-03-18
FaFi-Ruhm von OppenB016
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ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE LIBRARY
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LAITY AND CHURCHES IN THE THIRD REICH
Beate Ruhm von Oppen
Paper read at a conference on "Christianity and Resistance"
University of Birmingham, England
19-23 April, 1995
�BRvO, 1
While on an official trip to neutral Sweden in the spring of 1943,
Helmuth James von Moltke wrote a long letter to his English friend Lionel
Curtis. Moltke tried to give him a picture of the state of Germany and hoped
to get it to him from Sweden.1 The letter never reached Curtis; only a rather
deficient and severely abridged, memorized version was conveyed to the
Bishop of Chichester, who passed it on. It is interesting that, though
memorized and conveyed by a professional churchman, it omitted the bit on
the churches. 2
On his way to Sweden Moltke had read some recent Reports of the
House of Lords. In his job at the Abwehr, as legal advisor to the German
High Command, he had regular access to Hansard. The Reports may well
have included the pleas of Bishop Bell in the House of Lords on 11 February
and 10 March for a differentiation between the Nazi regime and the German
people, such as Stalin had made, but which the Casablanca formula of
Unconditional Surrender called in question. Moltke told his wife that he read
the debates with great interest and not without profit.
11
11
3
What concerns me here is what Moltke said about the churches, not in
the garbled version that got through to Curtis, but in his own letter, which
rested in a Swedish archive until resurrected a quarter of a century later.
After a long, detailed, and graphic description of conditions in Germany, he
addressed the question of the internal opposition to the regime, "the men 'of
whom one hears so much and notices so little,"' as he says, quoting one of his
ltteimuth James von Moltke, Letters to Freya 1939-1945, edited and translated by Beate
Ruhm von Oppen, New York 1990, pp. 281-90.
2For the text of that version, see Ger van Roon, German Resistance to Hitler: Count von
Moltke and the Kreisau Circle, tr. Peter Ludlow, London, etc., 1971, pp. 364-67.
3Letters (see note 1), p. 277.
�BRvO, 2
English sources. He mentioned the immense difficulties any internal
resistance had to cope with and the losses inflicted by "the quick-working
guillotines. The opposition was, however, able to throw some sand into the
11
machine and surreptitiously save thousands of lives. Its chief mistake was
relying on the generals to act.
But it had done two things which, Moltke believed, would count in the
long run: the mobilization of the churches and the clearing of the road to a
11
completely decentralized Germany." He thought the churches had done great
work and he knew that some of the sermons of the more prominent bishops
had become known abroad, especially Galen's sermons against "euthanasia"
(so-called) and two sermons of the Bishop of Berlin, Count Preysing. The
state was putting great pressure on the churches, but did not dare to go too
far at present. And the churches were full, Sunday after Sunday.
Moltke's phrase about the opposition mobilizing the churches is
11
11
startling and in stark contrast with the assumptions of his later judge, the
President of the People's Court, Roland Freisler--assumptions shared, it
sometimes seems, by some historians: bishops give orders or exercise "social
control" and the faithful follow them.4 As Preisler knew, the Catholic church
was by no means as supine or supportive of the government as its postwar
critics allege. Unlike the Protestant churches, it had opposed the Nazis
before their assumption of power; and its adaptation to the new conditions
did not amount to capitulation.
In April 1940 the papal nuncio in Berlin considered it his duty to
report the following:
4see for instance Gordon Zahn, German Catholics and Hitler's Wars: A Study in Social
Control. NewYork, 1962.
�BRvO, 3
A part of the clergy have adopted an almost hostile attitude
toward Germany at war, to the extent of wanting complete
defeat. This attitude arouses not only the displeasure of the
government, but gradually also that of the entire people, as
they are almost all enthusiastic about their Leader; I therefore
fear that a painful reaction will one day follow which will divide
the clergy and even the church from the people. . . . As long as
it was merely a matter of domestic policy, it was easy for
anyone to distinguish between anti-Nazi and anti-state
attitudes; the clergy adopted the former but not the latter.
Now, when it is a matter of foreign policy ... there are only a
few who can understand that one can be against Hitler without
being against the state, i.e., without being a traitor.s
One member of the clergy he undoubtedly had in mind was Konrad
Preysing, the Catholic Bishop of Berlin. But there were others; and the
attitude observed by the nuncio was widespread among the lower clergy and
did not escape the Security Service or the Gestapo either. One has to wonder
if it was only the (unrepresentative) Protestant Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was
praying for the defeat of his country.
The Austrian clergy had little sympathy for the refusal of an Austrian
peasant, Franz Jagerstatter, to fight for Greater Germany. To Gordon Zahn is
due the merit of having discovered and publicized the story of that
extraordinary layman. Zahn had first delivered himself of a compilation on
the shortcomings of his church, full of dubious judgments, shocking
Srne Briefe Pius' des XII. an die deutschen Bischofe 1939-1944. ed. Burkhart Schneider
and others, Mainz 1966, pp. 354-56.
�BRv0,4
quotations and sociological jargon. 6 Then came the splendid book In Solitary
Witness: The Life and Death of Franz Jagerstatter.7 The best part of it is
what the simple Austrian peasant Jagerstatter wrote himself. He was so
uncompromising in his refusal to serve in Hitler's army that the Gestapo
thought he might be a Jehovah's Witness, or at least under the influence of a
cousin who belonged to the sect. But no, he was a Catholic. He was not even
a pacifist--he had done some basic training earlier on. But he refused to
fight for the regime that was fighting against his church. His church,
however, was urging him to think of his wife and children and do what the
law required. The army, in the person of a sympathetic officer, even offered
him non-combatant service. But no--he would have nothing to do with that
army, not even in Russia, where it was allegedly fighting the godless
Bolsheviks. So, against the entreaties of his clergy, he went to the guillotine.
(According to Moltke's information there were nineteen of them at work in
Germany in 1943. Their installation had begun in the thirties. They were
more efficient than the hand-axe and quicker than hanging: three minutes
per execution; hanging took five.)
Where Zahn editorializes, he can go wrong--as in a surmise that in
talking about mass murder his hero may have been alluding to concentration
camps, whereas he obviously meant abortion. He was not a liberal. The
mass murder of the Jews may not even have impinged on the peasant of St.
Radegund.
What concerned Jagerstatter was not survival but salvation. He had
observed the Nazi policies against the church in Germany before the
6see note 4.
7New York 1964.
�BRvO, 5
Anschluss. When Hitler marched into his homeland, the Nazi system
developed in Germany in five years was instituted in a matter of days and
weeks. The church was not attacked at once. Cardinal Innitzer, the
Archbishop of Vienna, was a Sudeten German and rejoiced in the
incorporation of Austria into Greater Germany. He did not rejoice for long.
But first he and his bishops issued a proclamation praising National Socialist
achievements in national and social policy and economic revival. They were
not alone in this. Austrian Protestants were just as full of hopes and
illusions, and even some leading socialists shared them. Austrian church
resistance to the Nazis took about six months to form and stiffen.8
Did Jagerstatter condemn his hierarchy and clergy? He obviously
deplored their attitudes and utterances, but he understood them somewhat
better than their latter-day critics. This is what Zahn quotes of Jagerstatter's
notes:
Let us not ... cast stones at our bishops and priests. They, too,
are men like us, made of flesh and blood, and can weaken.
They are probably much more sorely tempted by the evil
enemy than the rest of us. Maybe they have been too poorly
prepared to take up this struggle and to make a choice between
life and death . . . . Perhaps, too, our bishops thought it would
only be a short time before everything would come apart at the
seams again and that, by their compliance, they would spare the
faithful many agonies and martyrs. Unfortunately, things
turned out to be quite different: years have passed and
8Erika Weinzierl, "Osterreichs Katholiken und der Nationalsozialismus," Wort und
Wahrheit, Vienna, XVIII ( 1963), pp. 417-39 and 493-526, and XX (1965), pp. 777-804.
�BRvO, 6
thousands of people must now die in the grip of error every
year. It is not hard to imagine, then, what a heroic decision it
would require for our people to repudiate all the mistakes that
have been made in recent years. This is why we should not
make it harder for our spiritual leaders than it already is by
making accusations against them. Let us pray for them, instead,
that God may lighten the great tasks which still stand before
them.9
On another occasion he wrote:
It may well be that hell holds great power over this world at
the present time, but even this need not cause us Christians to
fear. May the power of hell be ever so great, God's power is still
greater. Naturally, though, anyone who does not arm himself
with the weapons ... that Christ left behind for us in His
supreme legacy when He instituted the Most Blessed Sacrament
of the Altar, will scarcely be able to hold out very long against
these mighty enemies.10
The church had been instituted as the custodian and dispenser of the
sacrament, the means of grace. Should we not take that aspect seriously? It
is hardly ever discussed in the vast literature about the churches in the
Third Reich. Yet the Kulturkampf of the Second Reich had deprived entire
regions of their priests.
The enmity of the regime against the churches, indeed against
Christianity, was relentless, with only a few tactical adjustments during the
9solitary Witness (see note 7), p. 15.
lOJbid., pp. 231-32.
�BRv0,7
war. Towards the end of the 1960s John Conway had to remind the critics of
the Pope and the churches of this. enmity in his book The Nazi Persecution of
the Churches 1933-1945.11
The Nazis were not just anti-clerical; they were anti-Christian. Let me
add this: In public Hitler was careful about what he said. In the privacy of
his Table Talk he was quite open and indulged in denunciations of
Christianity along vulgarized Nietzschean lines: it made a people soft and
useless for great enterprises; it was the begetter of Bolshevism; it had Jewish
roots. Whatever one may think of the reliability of Hermann Rauschning as
a source, his report on Hitler's dictum about conscience as a Jewish
invention 12 rings true and agrees both with the indiscretions of the Table
Talk and the actions of the regime.13 As early as 19 34 the bloody purge of
Ernst Rohm and his associates in the S.A. included not only other enemies
like the former chancellor Kurt von Schleicher and his wife, but also Erich
Klausener, the Berlin head of the lay organization Catholic Action. And it is
surely no accident that the much-quoted threat against the Jews in Hitler's
long speech of 30 January 1939 was immediately followed by a threat
against the churches if they stepped out of line and opposed the regime.14
The secret public opinion reports of the Security Service are full of
detailed observations of church opposition to and activities against the
11 London 1968.
12Hermann Rauschning, Hitler Speaks: a Series of Political conversations on his Real
Aims. London 1939, p. 220.
13Hitler's Secret conversations, New York 1953; and Werner Jochmann, ed., Monologe
im Fiihrerhauptguartier 1941-1944, Hamburg 1980.
14Max Domarus, ed., Hitler: Reden und Proklamationen 1932-1945, vol. II, 1, 1939-1940,
Wiesbaden 1973, pp. 1058-59.
�'BRv0,8
programme and policies of the regime, with considerably more attention
given to the Catholics or "political Catholicism" than to the Protestants, who
were regarded as mere reactionaries and anyway always divided among
themselves. Catholic denunciations of Nazi neo-paganism were--rightly-regarded as attacks on the religion of race, and incidents of opposition to
round-ups and deportations of Jews were ascribed to church influence.
Little escaped the Gestapo and Security Service and their network of
informers and infiltrators. And Cardinal Bertram was, from his pusillanimous point of view, quite right to take fright when the last plenary meeting
of the German Catholic bishops at Fulda in 1943 drew up a pastoral letter on
the decalogue that had, in the section on "the human rights of the scond
tablet," comments on the fifth, sixth, and ninth commandments, with clear
condemnations of the wholesale killing of the innocent and the forcible
break-up of "racially" mixed marriages. The Security Service noted them too
and quoted them at length.15 They were obviously thought to have an effect
on the faithful.
The watchdogs of the regime were no doubt aware that the effects of
such pronouncements--there was a comparable one by the Confessing
Church in Prussia later that year--reached well beyond the flock of churchgoers. The churches were crowded during the war, and the crowds included
people who had not been in the habit of going to church. Thus Moltke only
went to a service held by Hanns Lilje after he had been bombed out of his
lSLudwig Volk, ed., Akten deutscher Bischofe uber die Lage der Kirche 1933-1945, vol.
6, Mainz 1987, pp. 197-205; and Heinz Boberach, ed., Berichte des SD und der Gestapo
uber Kirchen und Kirchenvolk in Deutschland 1934-1944, Mainz 1971, pp. 767-69; also
Heinz Boberach, ed., Meldungen aus dem Reich 1938-1945: Die geheimen Lageberichte
des Sicherheitsdienstes und der SS, vol. 12, Herrsching 1984, No. 348 of 7 January 1943,
pp. 4635 ff.
�BRv0,9
flat and moved in with Peter Yorck and his wife; they went to hear a rousing
sermon from the man later re-encountered in jail. Even before the war
there was that tendency. I was certainly not a church-goer, and not even
confirmed, when, as a teenager, I went with one of my schoolteachers to
hear Martin Niemoller in Dahlem in the early phase of the Third Reich.
In fact, the inhuman and godless nature of the regime created
something I would call a wider congregation, which included even nonbelievers. Dietrich Bonhoeffer's brother Klaus was once twitted for kneeling
down at a wedding service and replied that he would rather bend the knee
there than to the dictator. The alternative may have urged choices on people
who in more normal times could have avoided them. When his brother KarlFriedrich later visited him in prison, Klaus told him that he had the score of
Bach's St. Matthew Passion in his cell. Karl-Friedrich commented that it was
nice that Klaus could hear the music when he read the notes. "Yes," Klaus
answered, "but the words also! The words!" 16
And then, in such a time, believers and many unbelievers looked to
the churches and watched them. They may often have been disappointed in
what they saw and heard. An activist like Moltke did indeed take part in
the "mobilization of the churches" against the regime. And the benighted
Anglican Bishop of Gloucester, Arthur Headlam, may have had a bit of a
point when he said that Moltke's concern about the church struggle in
Germany was primarily prompted by his antagonism to the Nazi regime,
which that bishop did not share, at least not in the mid-thirties. But it was
16Eberhard Bethge, Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Man of Vision, Man of Courage, tr. Eric
Mosbacher et al., ed. Edwin Robertson, New York 1970, p. 832.
�BRv0,10
not the whole point.17 Fortunately George Bell, the Bishop of Chichester,
held different views.
When Fabian von Schlabrendorff was arrested in August 1944, the
police commissar told him that there were four grounds of suspicion against
him which led to the assumption of his involvement in the July plot: that
theological literature had been found in his luggage--a book on Catholic
moral theology, a book on Protestant ethics, publications on the
rapprochement between Protestants and Catholics, and a Bible. The second,
third and fourth grounds were that he had been a lawyer in civilian life, an
officer and a member of the nobility (one of Reich Labour Leader Robert
Ley's "blue-blooded swine"). The order of these suspicious circumstances is
surely noteworthy. The Nazis had never discovered the plot of 1943-because the intrepid Schlabrendorff had managed to retrieve and dispose of
the bomb that had failed to go off in Hitler's plane. But finding religious
books in the baggage of the reserve lieutenant on General von Tresckow's
staff rightly aroused the suspicions of the investigators. Schlabrendorff,
incidentally, held the view that before the Nazi challenge roused it German
Protestantism was somnolent, possibly even moribund.18
He was a dyed-in-the-wool Protestant. He was not alone in his
ecumenical interests and concerns, interests that went beyond Geneva and
Scandinavia and England and reached Rome and Roman Catholicism. Not for
17Michael Balfour and Julian Frisby, Helmuth van Moltke: A Leader Against Hitler,
London 1972, p. 71.
18fabian von Schlabrendorff, The Secret War Against Hitler, Boulder and Oxford 1994,
pp. xix-xx.
�BRv0,11
nothing did Hitler's ideologue-in-chief, Alfred Rosenberg, and his minions
denounce "Protestant pilgrims to Rome" in 1937.19
Moltke, another Protestant and the son of stoutly anti-Catholic
Christian Scientist parents, read papal encyclicals--probably the social policy
encyclicals Rerum Novarum and Ouadragesimo Anno--on the Sunday war
was declared. When he and Peter Yorck began to form what is now known
as the Kreisau Circle, they took care to include not only men of different
political experience and views, but members of both denominations-realizing the disastrous political consequences of the religious split in
Germany. In the letter to his wife about the way his trial went, Moltke
wrote that he was condemned for his friendship with Catholics, and,
sardonically, that he was going to die as a martyr for St. Ignatius. Indeed,
Roland Preisler had previously indulged in considerable vituperation against
the Jesuit Alfred Delp, a member of the Kreisau Circle, who was tried and
sentenced to death with Moltke.20 Augustin Rosch, the Provincial of the
Society of Jesus and another member of the Kreisau Circle, was arrested
while the trial was in progress.21 He survived. Lothar Konig, the least well-
19Nathaniel Micklem, National Socialism and the Roman Catholic Church: Being an
Account of the Conflict Between the National Socialist Government and the Roman
Catholic Church 1933-1938. London 1939, p. 180. Micklem also notes that in the context
of the anti-Nazi encyclical Mit brennender Sorge of March 1937, Preysing declared in
his pastorla letter of July 11th "that the Catholics had never felt themselves so firmly
united with their separated brethren nor felt so closely bound to them as at the present
time" (ibid.).
20Letters (see note 1), pp. 399 f,, 402, 404 f., 409 f.; also Roman Bleistein, Alfred Delp.
Geschichte eines Zeugen, Frankfurt am Main 1989.
21 Roman Bleistein, ed., Augustin Rosch: Kampf gegen den Nationalsozialismus.
Frankfurt am Main 1985.
�BRvO, 12
known but probably most active of the Munich Jesuits, escaped arrest.22 He
was also, like Preysing, a member of the Ausschug fur Ordensangelegenheiten, a committee of five bishops, four members of religious orders,
and a layman, which was officially concerned with the affairs of religious
orders, but was in fact a ginger group formed to overcome the paralyzing
effect of Cardinal Bertram, the chairman of the Fulda conference of bishops.
Preisler did indeed find Moltke's association with Jesuits most
objectionable. "And you visit bishops," he yelled. "What is your business
with a bishop, with any bishop? Where do you get your orders from? You
get your orders from the Fuhrer and the NSDAP! That goes for you as well
as for any other German, and whoever gets his orders from the guardians of
the Beyond, gets them from the enemy and will be treated accordingly."23
Preisler had got it back to front. The Protestant layman Helmuth
Moltke did not visit the Catholic Bishop of Berlin to get orders, but to
exchange information and to discuss the best way to fight the regime.
Moltke began his regular visits to Preysing, this most determinedly and
consistently anti-Nazi member of the German hierarchy, in July 1941.
Berlin, the young diocese of the Catholic diaspora, was lucky in its bishop,
who had opposed the Nazis even before his translation from Eichstatt in
Bavaria.2 4
22Roman Bleistein, ed., Dossier: Kreisauer Kreis. Dokumente aus dem Widerstand gegen
den Nationalsozialismus. Aus dem NachlaE. van Lothar Konig S.J., Frankfurt am Main
1987.
23Letters (see note 1), p. 403.
24see Edward N. Peterson, The Limits of Hitler's Power, Princeton 1969, pp. 295-311.
�BRv0,13
Berlin was lucky to have Preysing's right-hand man, Bernhard
Lichtenberg, the Provost of St. Hedwig's, the Catholic cathedral of Berlin, and
head of the bishop's Hilfswerk, the office for helping Jews or "non-Aryans."
After the pogrom of November 1938 he began regular public prayers "for
the persecuted non-Aryan Christians, for the Jews, and for the poor
prisoners in concentration camps." None of his parishioners ever reported
him. That was left for two visiting Protestant women students from the
Rhineland in October 1941. So he was arrested, as he had not been after
writing to Dr. Leonardo Conti, the chief medical officer of the Ministry of the
Interior and Reichsgesundheitsfi.ihrer, to protest against the killing of the
incurable and allegedly incurable inmates of institutions. But the public
prayer for the Jews led to his arrest and two years in jail for commenting on
politics from the pulpit, after serving which he was to be taken to Dachau.
He died on the way there.Zs
Berlin was lucky again, because Lichtenberg's job at the office for
helping Jews was taken on by a laywoman, Margarete Sommer, who on one
occasion, acting on Preysing's instructions, even penetrated to Cardinal
Bertram in Breslau and tried to get him to agree to a protest against the
deportation and murder of the Jews. But he insisted on incontrovertible,
undeniable proof of the latter--which she could not produce. So she failed.
But she did what she could. Gertrud Luckner did similar work with the
backing of the Archbishop of Freiburg. She was arrested and sent to
Ravensbruck concentration camp. Berlin had quite a network of people,
2Ssee Alfons Erb, Bernhard Lichtenberg, Domprobst von St. Hedwig zu Berlin, Berlin
1986.
�BRv0,14
members of the Protestant Confessing Church, too, who helped Jews evade
deportation.
Pastor Harald Poelchau, the Protestant prison chaplain at Tegel, was
one of them. He also helped innumerable political prisoners. By some quirk
of providence he had been appointed to his post in 1933--though he was a
socialist, a fact that could hardly have escaped the authorities. He was both
forthright and cunning-and indefatigable in help for others. As for his
sacramental ministrations, he once told Moltke--whose circle he joined in
1941--that he never offered communion, but that 50% of the people he
looked after asked for it spontaneously.26
What difficulties such ministrations had to overcome and what
interdenominational solidarity existed in prisons has been movingly
described by Eberhard Bethge, who was himself involved as prisoner and
ordained minister. He cooperated with Father Odilo Braun, a Dominican, in
the prison at Lehrterstrasse 3. Thus they shared the wine Bethge had
retrieved while tidying up the cell of Ernst von Harnack on the day of
Hamack's execution. They shared wafers, Bethge slipped the consecrated
host to Catholics when he distributed coffee in his capacity as prison trusty,
and sometimes he managed to bring the Eucharist to fellow-Protestants. All
these people were in solitary confinement after July 1944 and not all were
allowed visits by chaplains.27 Alfred Delp was supplied with wine and
wafers by two women who were allowed to bring laundry and other
necessities. The sergeant on duty was tolerant.28
26Letters (note 1), p. 169.
27Eberhard Bethge, "Plotzensee - die kostbare Gabe: Predigt am 20. Juli 1994,"
Evangelische Theologie, vol. 54, pp. 485-90.
�BRvO, 15
It was not just clergy that practised this solidarity. The case of the
Lubeck priests, three Catholic, one Protestant, who were tried and executed
together, was probably unique.29 The chief ecumenical push came from the
laity. Stauffenberg, the Catholic son of a Protestant mother, made it his
business to brief himself on the theology of tyrannicide. He may have felt he
had to do it because of the piety among the brave. He told Axel von dem
Bussche that tyrannicide was less problematic for Catholics, but that even
i
Luther permitted it in certain circumstances, and told him of a place in
r
r
Luther's works where he could look it up. Unfortunately Bussche never
passed that on and later even denied that it mattered to him: Notwehr. the
emergency, the need for self-defence, was sufficient.30 I still feel that
Luther, with his interpretation of Paul, especially Romans 13:1, was a great
impediment; and I wish I could find a helpful argument in his vast output.
f
I
!
'
Indeed, as Eberhard Bethge put it in his great biography of Dietrich
I
I
Bonhoeffer, "Like Kierkegaard, Bonhoeffer had always believed that 'Luther
j
would say now the opposite of what he said then. 111 31 It took a sovereign
I
,_
spirit like Bonhoeffer to see that--or to claim to see it--and to act on it.
The Nazi challenge produced efforts to overcome theological and
sociological barriers. The situation in 1945 was very different from that
described by Thomas Nipperdey for the period from 1866 to 1918--which
he summed up by calling the denominational split, even among the
secularized majority, the basic religious factor, where the definition of
28Bleistein, Delp (see note 20), p. 325.
29Else Pelke, Der Uibecker ChristenprozeF.. 1943, Mainz 1961.
30seate Ruhm von Oppen, Religion and Resistance to Nazism, Princeton 1971, pp. 70-71.
31Bethge, Bonhoeffer (see note 16), p. 373.
,_
�BRv0,16
Protestantism for many Germans was anti-Catholicism and little else.32 How
tremendous the barriers were even up to 1934--and how Hitler was able to
exploit them--is fairly clear, too, in Klaus Scholder's account.33 But
something was happening to them--and it was not that secularization had
simply made them irrelevant or uninteresting.
One of the younger and earlier opponents and victims of the regime,
the 21-year-old Sophie Scholl, had a dream in her prison cell the night
before her execution. She and her brother and their friends in the White
Rose group were imbued with a sense of the need to rechristianize Germany
to overcome the Nazi regime and ideology. The tiny inner group actually
happened to extend from the Protestant Scholls to the Catholic Willi Graf and
even included one practising Russian Orthodox member, Alexander
Schmorell.34 This is how Sophie told her dream to her cell-mate:
It was a sunny day, and I was carrying a little child, dressed in
a long white gown, to be baptised. The path to the church led
up a steep hill. But I was holding the child firmly and securely
in my arms. Suddenly I found myself at the brink of a
crevasse. I had just enough time to put the child down safely
on the other side before I plunged into the abyss.35
That day she went to the guillotine, as did her brother and a friend.
32Thomas Nipperdey, Arbeitswelt und Biirgergeist, vol. 1 of Deutsche Geschichte 18661918, Munich 1991, pp. 428-530.
33Klaus Scholder, The Churches and the Third Reich, vols. 1 and 2, Philadelphia 198788.
341 am grateful to Christiane Moll for this information on Schmorell.
351nge Scholl, Die WeiF..e Rose, Frankfurt am Main 1955, pp. 101-102.
�BRvO, 17
Moltke considered the White Rose and its activities and motivations so
important that he took great pains to get a report to England, together with a
copy of their last leaflet. Unlike his letter to Lionel Curtis, this report did get
through, and the RAF later dropped thousands of copies of the leaflet over
Germany. Their effect may have been impaired by simultaneous bombing.
And Moltke's plea to the British not to treat the event as just a sign of
crumbling German morale, but as an indication that there were forces in
Germany with whom the Allies could and should cooperate, was hardly
heeded. The report ended up in the Foreign Office f1le on crumbling morale
and peace feelers put out by German opponents of the Nazi regime.
But perhaps even Moltke expected too much of the Allies after
Alamein and Stalingrad, especially Stalingrad, and over a year before the
Allied landings in Normandy. The war unleashed by Hitler and loyally
supported by the bulk of the German people had entered its last, most
massively brutal phase. And it was a coalition war, with very disparate
partners. That circumstance put severe limitations on the flexibility of
British and American policy regarding "the other Germany."
Yet some regret lingers. It is that, I supppose, that brought many of
us here. But let us give thanks for the lives and the deaths of these men and
women. It is by their deaths, and the pain of their families, that they made
possible a process of healing.
�
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Speeches, presentations, and other lectures
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Speeches, presentations, and other lectures given at St. John's College. These include convocation addresses delivered in both Annapolis, MD and Santa Fe, NM.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Speeches, presentations, and other lectures" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=15">Items in the Speeches, presentations, and other lectures Collection</a></strong> to <span>view and sort all items in the collection.</span>
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speechespresentationsotherlectures
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18 pages
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Laity and churches in the Third Reich
Description
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Typescript of a paper read by Beate Ruhm von Oppen at a conference on "Christianity and Resistance" at the University of Birmingham, England. 19-23 April, 1995.
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Ruhm von Oppen, Beate
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England
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1995-04-[19-23]
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St. John's College has been given permission to make this item available online.
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text
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pdf
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English
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lec Ruhm von Oppen 1995-04-19
FaFi-Ruhm von OppenB007
Tutors
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PDF Text
Text
Inauguration speech 9.16.16
Thank you to all who have spoken, to my friend Greg Avis, Ms
Morf, Pam Saunders Albin, Matt Davis and Chris Nelson for your
kind words. And also to former presidents Mike Peters, and John
Agresto for being with us tonight. And all those who made this
event happen, led by Sarah Palacios.
And thank you to all those who make this college happen - the
BVG, who hired me, the tutors, who inspire us every day with
their dedication and insight, the staff who provide the scaffolding
which allows the whole show to go on, to the alumni who make
the college a permanent and important part of their lives –
including those here for Homecoming and their leaders, the
Alumni Association board -- and to our amazing students…who
are why we are all here.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------When we were beginning to plan this ceremony last February I
had been at the college for only a month. I had been thinking a
great deal about what makes the college unique. I had been
thinking, too, about how I would fit here and what I could do to
advance the life-changing work that is done at St. John’s.
Those of you who with a longer and deeper association with the
college may not remember as acutely as I do the combination of
excitement and bewilderment a person can feel when
encountering this place for the first time. St. John’s looks and
behaves, on the surface, like any other college: students and
faculty meet in classrooms, there are dormitories, a dining hall, a
bookstore, a gym…and even a bell tower.
1
�But St. John’s is not like other colleges. Faculty aren’t called
“professors,” because it is not their job to “profess.” No, at St.
John’s, faculty are called tutors, and their mission is NOT to help
students come to preordained conclusions but to provoke
learning by asking questions to which, in many cases, they
themselves are still searching for the answers…to actually learn
alongside students. The books and ideas in the academic program
are not means to an end – a good grade, the fulfillment of a
major, a light and shallow dip into one topic or another. They are,
simultaneously, the means and the end.
There is a purity to this, and a radicalism, that I have not seen
before. It can be difficult to take in. And as I began to take it in, I
realized that to succeed for the college in the way I wish, I would
somehow have to move these concepts from my head into my
heart, blood, and bones.
At that same time that I was thinking about these issues and
about how to make this ceremony meaningful, my wife, Dorothy,
and I watched the film Seymour: An Introduction.
The film, along with Seymour himself and his student, American
populist intellectual Michael Kimmelman, says so much about
what we seek to do here and about how we search for meaning in
our lives.
I am so grateful that Michael and Seymour agreed to be with us
this weekend. And I encourage any of you who have not seen the
film to do so and to join them and our own Sarah Davis for a panel
discussion about work and life’s meaning tomorrow, followed by
Seymour’s master class.
It will be worth your while.
2
�Seymour Bernstein is an extraordinarily gifted man who could
have spent his life perfecting his own craft. He certainly did not
have to take the path he chose – to be a teacher and mentor
above all else. But he made his choice knowing not only what he
was gaining, but also what he was giving up. His choice was to
follow his joy and pass that joy along to students like Michael
Kimmelman, with a brand of devotion that you heard earlier,
when they played Schubert.
This evening, and in other inauguration events, we are
highlighting teachers and students. Our processional music was
played by Evan Quarles, a Santa Fe student who is part of a senior
seminar in which I am a participant. Mr. Quarles will also
participate in Seymour’s master class tomorrow afternoon. Hoop
dancer Josiah Enriquez and drummer Duh-love-eye Denipaw
represent the long tradition of cultural mentorship in Native
American communities.
Tomorrow’s panel discussion and the piano master class will
amplify the idea that there is inherent joy in teaching and learning
and that the value of learning in community is irreplaceable –
even if the “community” is as small as just one teacher and one
student or two students together.
We say, correctly, that our academic program sets St. John’s apart
from all other colleges. What we don’t always underscore is how
much the success of the program depends on the way it is
executed – in community. But I would argue that the execution is
as well designed and intentional as the content and that it
deserves an equal share of credit when our students and alumni
reflect on what St. John’s means for their lives.
3
�For Exhibit A - observe that beautiful Steinway. There it sits, the
Schubert score in the rack, and anyone who reads music could
come to the bench and at least understand the sounds the
Steinway should make if played correctly. In the same way – and
many Johnnies will have heard this – anyone can get a list of the
books we study here and go off and sit under a tree and read
them.
But sheet music alone is not Schubert. Schubert “happens” when
Michael Kimmelman and Seymour Bernstein practice and
perform, and when we listen. Books alone are not Plato, Tolstoy,
Woolf or Shakespeare. St. John’s comprehends that, and the
Program we revere works because we understand that we are
enriched not only by the ideas of geniuses but by the
interpretations and insights we achieve together – in our
classrooms, in discussions at the koi pond or at the dorm, when
students and tutors, students and students, tutors and tutors
engage with the material and with each other.
This is the part of St. John’s that I have seen in the classroom and
in the faculty and student discussions and that makes me so
grateful to be standing here, about to be invested as president.
My challenge to all assembled here this evening is that we must
cherish this Program. We must do everything we can to ensure
that this radical form of learning doesn’t simply survive as some
kind of curiosity, but thrives as a viable alternative in the
increasingly homogeneous landscape that is mainstream higher
education.
But it is fair to ask exactly why does it matter that St. John’s
survive and prosper?
4
�This question is especially important right now, for, as many of
you know, St John’s has some significant organizational and
financial challenges that we must address.
And that makes it even more critical that we explore what
difference it would make if this small college disappeared, aside
from the – not insignificant – fact that students, tutors, and staff
who love it here would lose their home and would find no other
place like it.
Organizations come into being, and organizations fade away.
Why does St John’s matter so much?
While I was working on this speech I asked that question in
various forums, of tutors, staff and students, and, this being St.
John’s, answers came in large numbers, and many were very
beautiful.
One tutor views a St. John’s education as a curative for “the echo
chamber that passes as contemporary thinking.” Meaning, he
said, that by reading great books, students can learn to find their
own intellectual path in a society where many institutions that
past generations relied on for moral and intellectual direction
have faltered or lost influence.
Many pointed out that Americans find it difficult to talk
respectfully across difference. They noted that those kinds of
conversations occur at St. John’s every day, in and outside the
classroom.
A staff member and St. John’s graduate told me: “We leave this
place with confidence in our own identity, seeking authenticity in
5
�our interactions with the world we encounter.” She underscored
the view that many tutors shared, that “we are the only college
wholly devoted to the project of studying the great books with a
view to freeing ourselves from mere prejudice so that we can
think for ourselves.”
One tutor reminded me of how often we describe St. John’s by
saying what it is not rather than what it is. Offering what he called
a “positive account,” he said: “We are trying to show by actions,
the actions of thinking, speaking, reading, and writing, and of
living together in this residential college, that it is our deepest
nature to learn; that learning is a shared enterprise; and that it
fulfills us as human beings, makes us happy and assures us that
we belong with one another in the world as doers. The books we
read are like love letters. They invite us to happy marriages.”
I often use the word “radical” to describe the way learning occurs
on our two campuses – I have done so more than once in this
speech. That word may sound discordant if you think of St. John’s
as a place that teaches Great Books by “dead white men.” Isn’t
that kind of curriculum conservative to the core? How can we
reconcile the words “radical” and “conservative?”
We can do so by playing with the idea that in many ways what St.
John’s conserves is that which is radical in Western thought.
Arguably, everything a student encounters in the Program
demonstrates not incremental thought but radical disruption.
Thinkers like Socrates, who students get to know in their first
year, shake up everything in the known world. They express ideas
that can get a person killed. They unmoor us by insisting that all is
open to question, and they jar us from our complacency. A tutor I
spoke with earlier this fall told me that it is a rare student who
6
�reads and discusses Socrates and Plato in the Program and
doesn’t come away changed forever.
That is the “why” and the “so what” of St. John’s. It changes
people who can go on to change the world. Many St. John’s
alumni choose to teach, and many take a version of the Program
into their classrooms, where they give students the daylight in
which to examine ideas. Others take these habits of mind into
every profession you can imagine and into personal lives that are
of enormous consequence in the communities where they live.
We find ourselves on a planet beset by challenges. If we are to be
successful in facing down those challenges, we will need minds
tempered in a forge like St. John’s, at home with intellectual
disruption and subversion and able to embrace the quantum over
the incremental.
My commitment to preserving this education and celebrating its
impact is unwavering. I know that to succeed, we will do the work
before us in community, just the way we learn. We will question
everything. And we will attend to all voices.
And, I hope, when we think back on this weekend we will
remember not just the challenges in front of us but the joy and
beauty of the enterprise in which we are engaged. Schubert
becoming Schubert because we are here together. A hoop that
symbolizes eternity and interdependence and a young dancer
expressing the import. A ceremony as old as academia that
celebrates bold new thought. And above all else, this small,
wonderful, one-of-a-kind college that is unafraid to sail against
prevailing winds and that brings us all together, in community.
Thank you.
7
�
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Title
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Speeches, presentations, and other lectures
Description
An account of the resource
Speeches, presentations, and other lectures given at St. John's College. These include convocation addresses delivered in both Annapolis, MD and Santa Fe, NM.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Speeches, presentations, and other lectures" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=15">Items in the Speeches, presentations, and other lectures Collection</a></strong> to <span>view and sort all items in the collection.</span>
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St. John's College Greenfield Library
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speechespresentationsotherlectures
Text
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digital
Page numeration
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7 pages
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Presidential Inauguration Speech, 2016
Description
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Typescript of the inauguration speech given by Mark Roosevelt on September 16, 2016 in Santa Fe, NM.
Creator
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Roosevelt, Mark
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Santa Fe, NM
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2016-09-16
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St. John's College has been given permission to make this available online.
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text
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pdf
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English
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Roosevelt Inauguration Speech - 2016-09-16
Inauguration
Presidents
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�����������������
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Speeches, presentations, and other lectures
Description
An account of the resource
Speeches, presentations, and other lectures given at St. John's College. These include convocation addresses delivered in both Annapolis, MD and Santa Fe, NM.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Speeches, presentations, and other lectures" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=15">Items in the Speeches, presentations, and other lectures Collection</a></strong> to <span>view and sort all items in the collection.</span>
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St. John's College Greenfield Library
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speechespresentationsotherlectures
Text
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Original Format
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paper
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17 pages
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Biographical sketch of Hector Humphreys
Description
An account of the resource
Photocopy of Biographical Notice of the Rev. Hector Humphreys, D.D. Late Principal of St. John's College; "True Freedom the Gift of God the Son," a Baccalaureate Sermon; and the Register of St. John's College, for the Year MDCCCLVIII.
The Greenfield Library does not own an original copy of the publication.
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Proud, J. G. (John Greene), -1883
Publisher
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Thomas J. Wilson
Coverage
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Annapolis, MD
Date
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1857
Rights
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Copyright undetermined.
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text
Format
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pdf
Language
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English
Identifier
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COM_Proud_John_Greene_1857
Subject
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Humphreys, Hector, 1797-1857
Commencement
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Title
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Speeches, presentations, and other lectures
Description
An account of the resource
Speeches, presentations, and other lectures given at St. John's College. These include convocation addresses delivered in both Annapolis, MD and Santa Fe, NM.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Speeches, presentations, and other lectures" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=15">Items in the Speeches, presentations, and other lectures Collection</a></strong> to <span>view and sort all items in the collection.</span>
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St. John's College Greenfield Library
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speechespresentationsotherlectures
Sound
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CD
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01:33:58
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Peters, Ralph, 1952-
Title
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The price of erasing history
Date
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2013-04-03
Format
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mp3
Description
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Audio recording of a lecture delivered on April 03, 2013 by Ralph Peters as part of the LCDR Erik S. Kristensen Lecture Series.
The lecture is the first in a newly established joint lectures series between St. John's College and the U.S. Naval Academy to honor the memory of Lieutenant Commander Erik S. Kristensen. An alumnus of the United States Naval Academy and the St. John's College Graduate Institute, Kristensen, a Navy SEAL, was killed in the line of duty in Afghanistan in 2005. This lecture series aims to create even greater ties between the two schools, as well as to educate the public about civil-military relations and the place of the liberal arts in education of naval and military professions.
Publisher
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St. John's College
Coverage
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Annapolis, MD
Rights
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A signed permission form has been received stating, "I hereby grant St. John's College permission to: Make an audio recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation in the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make an audio recording of my lecture available online. Make a typescript copy of my lecture available for circulation and archival preservation in the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make a copy of my typescript available online."
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sound
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English
Identifier
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Bib # 80767
Kristensen lecture series
U.S. Naval Academy
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