- German history of the early 18th century -

No. 1.

10 / 01 / 2009

Ausgaben:

Project „gallant world“



You'll get the actual issue right under „Project gallant world“.

The Gallant World of the Holy Roman Empire

If we would travel right back to the Holy Roman Empire of the year 1709 we hardly could hear the word barock (baroque) there. The Germans of the early 18th century are used to call their time and fashions just „galant“, adapting a lot from France. After all they've even found their own gallant manner, which even has been morally stricter than in France. They call their own world „galante Welt“ (gallant world) or speak of „galante Zeit“ (gallant time). By using those original terms, we can even get deeper into that historical world. This gallant world never died, it's still there, because you can still find it in old books. The only problem is the large change of the German language and orthography since those days, which has been quite extremly. English or French books of the early 18th century are not very hard to read, but German old books are indeed. On this page we'll try a simpler way to get in there.

Louis Bonin, a very famous Saxon dancing teacher, who imigrated from France to Germany, tells us that Galanterie is just the modernity of his time. The gallant manner had changed that old Germany very extremly and Bonin feels, this all had improved the world near to its absolute perfection:

„Die heutige galante Welt hat ihre Vollkommenheit bey nahe erreichet/ indem man alle Künste und Geschicklichkeiten dergestalt floriren siehet/ daß man öffters* urtheilet/ es schiene unmöglich/ daß der menschliche Verstand einen höhern Grad erreichen könnte.“ (Louis Bonin, „Die Neueste Art zur Galanten und Theatralischen Tantz-Kunst“, 1712)

The term „bey nahe“ means nearly ('nearby'), in modern German we would say „beinahe“, but the word „bei“ was always written „bey“ at that time. „Erreich(e)t“ means reached/achieved. By „Geschicklichkeiten“ Bonins time means above all dancing, fencing, riding, but also wrestling etc. - Generally Bonin means arts and siences, but we have to consider, that the meaning at that time has been extensive, much further reaching than in our days. The German word „Wissenscha(f)ft“* (sience) meant just knowledge („Wissen“) and even „Künste“ (arts) were just skillfullness and agility in general speaking. So we can say that arts and siences at that time have been more democratic, than in our highly professional world. Bonin continues, that skills would be flourishing (florirende**).

Some old German vocabularies are written with th, like for example „thun“ (tun = to do) and so is „Theil“ (Teil = part). „Urtheilen“ (to judge) in fact contains the word „Theil“, but there is also the verb „theilen“ (to split or to share). Bonin ends this sentence by expressing, that human intellect („der menschliche Verstand“) seemed to have reached it's highest grade and it would have been impossible to reach a higher grade - „einen höher(e)n Grad“.

In future we'll consider examples, how far Galanterie influenced German everyday live in the early 18th century.


* Some old German (Teutsch) vocabularies are written with ff, in the 19th century one f then vanished.

** Old Teutsch term for „by flourishing“ - in modern German language it would be written „florierend“. But historicaly this modern German „ie“ is supposed to be absolutely wrong, because „-iren“ had been a French ending, that came to Germany during the middle age. There are even many other points, where old Teutsch is simply correcter, than modern German orthography ... - The last e in the Teutsch word „florirende“ made old Teutsch speech much more chanting. In fact a lot of vowels have died out later, which made modern German as rough and sharp as it is. The famous tenor Caruso spoke and sung many languages, but refused to sing German, because he was afraid, it could harm his voice. As apposed to that rough modern German the good old Teutsch is much more comfortable to sing.

The GalanteWelt, Extraordinari Avisor vor die galante Nachwelt, belongs to the page galantewelt.de which apears in original „Teutsch“ language (old German/Deutsch), in the orininal german orthography of the early 18th century.