Vortrag der Goethe Gesellschaft: Schillers Idee der Freiheit – Heute

Hanskarl Kölsch, Munich: Schiller's idea of freedom - today

A timeless thought pervades Schiller's dramas: "Man is created free, is free, even if he were born in fetters." Eight years before the French Revolution, "The Robbers" explains why it must fail in a bloodbath, and "William Tell" ends by declaring freedom to be a law of nature. Bohemia, Italy, Spain, England, France, Switzerland, Germany - and in the "Demetrius Fragment" Poland and Russia - are the settings for the dramas. Schiller's idea of Europe is the idea of freedom.

The Goethe Society Erfurt regularly organizes academic and educational lectures, discussions on individual works by Goethe and educational trips to places where Goethe and other poets worked. If interested, it offers secondary school pupils and students from the region the opportunity to present their own work on the subject of Goethe for discussion. The society also invites authors to give readings. It closely follows the activities of the parent society in Weimar and maintains contacts with other local Goethe societies in Germany - in particular the Goethe Society in Gera - as well as with cultural associations in Erfurt. The Goethe Society Erfurt pursues the promotion of cultural purposes. Newly founded in 2014, it has set itself the task of cultivating and communicating Goethe's ideas, works and personality in accordance with the aims of the Goethe Society in Weimar. It does not represent any political or religious aims.

Further information about the Goethe Society can be found here.