Philipp Mainländer

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Philipp Mainländer (born October 5th, 1841, in Offenbach, Hesse, Germany; died April 1st, 1876, in Offenbach) was a German poet and philosopher. Born as Philipp Batz, he later changed his name into Mainländer (vaguely translated as: resident of the area of the Main), out of adoration for his hometown Offenbach am Main.

In his central work Die Philosophie der Erlösung (English: “The Philosophy of Redemption”) —according to Theodor Lessing “perhaps the most radical system of pessimism known to philosophical literature” (German: „vielleicht das radikalste System des Pessimismus, das die philosophische Literatur kennt“^[1])—Mainländer proclaims that there would be no higher meaning in life, and that “the will ignited by the perception that non-being is better than being is the topmost principle of all morale” (German: „[der] von der Erkenntnis, daß Nichtsein besser ist als Sein, entzündete Wille [ist] das oberste Prinzip aller Moral“^[2]).

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Development of The Philosophy of Redemption 2 References 3 External links

[edit] Biography

Born “as a child of marital violation” (German: „als Kind ehelicher Notzucht“^[3]) on October 5th, 1841, in Offenbach, Philipp Mainländer grew up as the youngest of six siblings. A dismal atmosphere must have prevailed within the fabricant household Batz—three of the six siblings would later commit suicide.

On paternal instruction, Mainländer 1856 educated to become a merchant at the commercial school of Dresden. Two years later, he acquired an employment in a trading house in Naples, Italy, where he learned Italian and acquainted himself with the works of Dante, Petrarca, Boccaccio, and—most notably—Leopardi. Mainländer would later describe his five Neapolitan years as the happiest ones of his life.

It was also in this period, when Mainländer discovered Schopenhauer’s central work The World as Will and Representation. Mainländer, who was nineteen years old at this time, would later describe this as a kind of revelation experience, this very day of February 1860 as the “most important of [his] life” (German: „[den] bedeutungsvollsten Tag [seines] Lebens“^[4])—and indeed Schopenhauer would remain the most important influence on Mainländers later philosophical work.

In 1863, Mainländer returned to Germany and worked in his father’s business. In the same year, he also brought the threepart poem Die letzten Hohenstaufen (“The Last Hohenstaufen”) to paper. Two years later, on October 5th, Mainländer’s 24th birthday, his mother died. Deeply moulded by this loss experience, Mainländer more and more turned away from poetry and towards philosophy within the following years, studied Schopenhauer, Kant (“not poisoned through Fichte, Schelling und Hegel, but rather critically strengthened through Schopenhauer”; German: „nicht durch Fichte, Schelling und Hegel vergiftet, sondern vielmehr durch Schopenhauer kritisch gestählt“^[5]), Eschenbach’s Parzival, the classics from Heraclitus to Condillac.

In March 1869, Mainländer acquired an employment in the banking house J. Mart. Magnus in Berlin. He set himself the target of piling up a small wealth within a few years and leading a decent life from the interest earnings. However, the stock market crash at the Wiener Börse on May 8th, 1873 (“Wiener Krach”), totally ruined Mainländer and caused a sudden end to this plans. In 1873, Mainländer resigned from his employment at the bank without really knowing what to do afterwards.

[edit] Development of The Philosophy of Redemption

Albeit the wealthy parents bought him off from military service already in 1861, Mainländer—according to the desire he expressed in an autobiographic note, “to be absolutely in all things submitted to another one once, to do the lowermost work, to have to obey blindly” (German: „einmal unbedingt einem anderen in allem unterworfen zu sein, die niedrigste Arbeit zu tun, blind gehorchen zu müssen“^[6])—sedulously undertook numerous attempts to be allowed to serve with weapons. On April 6, 1874 (Mainländer is already 32 years old) a request to emperor Wilhelm I of Germany finally was crowned with success, and Mainländer saw himself appointed to the Cuirassiers in Halberstadt, beginning September, 28th. During the remaining good four months up to his conscription, Mainländer—virtually falling obsessed with work—composed the first volume of his main work The Philosophy of Redemption.

The completed manuscript Mainländer handed over to his sister Minna, in order that she may find a publishing house for it, while he himself would fulfill his military service. Mainländer composed a letter to the unknown publisher, in which he asks for not being mentioned under his birth name, but under the name "Philipp Mainländer", as he would abhor nothing more than “being exposed to the eyes of the world” (German: „als den Augen der Welt ausgesetzt zu sein“^[7]).

On November 1st, 1875, Mainländer—originally committed for three years, but in the meantime, as he noted in a letter to his sister Minna, “exhausted, worked-out, […] at completely […] healthy body ineffably tired” (German: „verbraucht, worked out, […] bei vollkommen […] gesundem Körper unaussprechlich müde“^[8])—was prematurely released from military service, and traveled back into his hometown Offenbach, where he—again having become obsessed with work—within mere two months corrected the unbound sheets of The Philosophy of Redemption, composed his memoirs, wrote down the novella Rupertine del Fino, and completed the 650 pages strong second volume of his magnum opus.

From February that year on, Mainländer’s mental collapse—in many respects not dissimilar to the collapse Nietzsche would suffer only years later^[9]—became apparent. Meanwhile descented into megalomania, and believing himself to be a messiah of social democracy^[10], in the night on April 1st, 1875, Mainländer hanged himself in his residence in Offenbach. As a pedestal served a pile of voucher copys of The Philosophy of Redemption, which had arrived the previous day.

[edit] References

1. ^ Theodor Lessing: Schopenhauer, Wagner, Nietzsche. Eine Einführung in die moderne Philosophie. Leipzig 1907
2. ^ Philipp Mainländer: Philosophie der Erlösung. Quoted after Ulrich Horstmann (Ed.): Vom Verwesen der Welt und anderen Restposten, Manuscriptum, Warendorf 2003, p. 85.
3. ^ Fritz Sommerlad: Aus dem Leben Philipp Mainländers. Mitteilungen aus der handschriftlichen Selbstbiographie des Philosophen. Printed in Winfried H. Müller Seyfarth (Ed.): ‚Die modernen Pessimisten als décadents.‘ Texte zur Rezeptionsgeschichte von Philipp Mainländers ‚Philosophie der Erlösung‘. p. 95
4. ^ Ibid., p. 98
5. ^ Ibid., p. 102
6. ^ Ibid., p. 88
7. ^ Philipp Mainländer: Meine Soldatengeschichte. Tagebuchblätter. Quoted after Ulrich Horstmann (Ed.): Vom Verwesen der Welt und anderen Restposten. Manuscriptum, Warendorf 2003, p. 211
8. ^ Walther Rauschenberger: Aus der letzten Lebenszeit Philipp Mainländers. Nach ungedruckten Briefen und Aufzeichnungen des Philosophen. ‚Süddeutsche Monatshefte‘ 9, p. 121
9. ^ Ulrich Horstmann: Mainländers Mahlstrom. Über eine philosophische Flaschenpost und ihren Absender. In Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 508, 1989.
10. ^ Walther Rauschenberger: Aus der letzten Lebenszeit Philipp Mainländers. Nach ungedruckten Briefen und Aufzeichnungen des Philosophen. ‚Süddeutsche Monatshefte‘ 9, p. 124

[edit] External links

• The Riddles of Philosophy, Part II, Chapter VI Modern Idealistic World Conceptions. An essay by Rudolph Steiner that mentions Mainländer.