Notes on ‘Out of Revolution – Autobiography of Western Man’

by Feico Houweling and Lise van der Molen

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When Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy published the first edition of Out of Revolution in 1938, he presented his book to a well-educated American readership. Many names, quotations and facts, for example from American history and the American society, are not or less known to later readers, particularly not those in other countries.

In order to make the book more accessible and understandable, the Dutch translation of 2004 has been complemented by an appendix with notes on the text.

This appendix to the Dutch translation forms the basis for the text below. We hope that these comments and explanations may help other translators and that other people who may have additional information will add their knowledge to this text.

Eventually, this list of notes may form the basis for a scientific edition of Out of Revolution. Quality and  is therefore of the utmost importance. This is exclusively a list of additional, checked facts and explanations. Personal opinions and interpretations are in many cases valuable and important, but they should not be included in this text. For such a purpose special list or article could be compiled.

Each note ends with the initials of the author, who can be contacted for further information on the subject involved. The following people contributed:

  • Feico Houweling, The Netherlands (FH),
  • Lise van der Molen, The Netherlands (LvdM).

Further contributions are welcome!

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Chapter 1

Page 3 – As this book was published in 1938, the word ‘war’ refers to World War I (WWI, 1914-1918). (FH)

Page 11 – Praz, Mario, ‘The Romantic Agony   The Flesh, Death and the Devil in Nineteenth Century Romanticism, London, Oxford University Press, H. Milford, 1933; translation of: ‘La carne, la morte e il diavolo nella letteratura romantica’, Sansoni Editore, Firenze 1930, 1948. German: ‘Liebe, Tod und Teufel  Die schwarze Romantik’, Carl Hanser Verlag, München 1960, DTV 2. Auflage 1981. (LvdM)

Page 11 – Rosenstock-Huessy published this book also in German, however in a different composition. See: ‘Die Europäischen Revolutionen und der Charakter der Nationen’, Stuttgart, W. Kohlhammer Verlag 1951, 1961(revised edition), Moers, Brendow Verlag 1987, isbn 3 87067 301 X. (FH)

 

Chapter 2

Page 16 – Gouverneur Morris (1752-1816), aristocrat and fervent supporter of the American Revolution. See Chapter 15. (FH)

Page 18 – ‘Black shirts’ refers to Italian fascists, ‘Consomols’ to the Sovjet-Russian communist youth movement and ‘Storm Troopers’ to German Nazi’s. (FH)

Page 18 – Aeschylus (525-456 v.Chr.), first great Old Greek dramatist. (FH)

Page 18 – Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), third president of the USA. (FH)

Page 19 – Aristide Briand (1862-1932), general secretary of the Parti Socialiste in France and co-founder of the communist newspaper L’Humanité. See Chapter 5. (FH)

Page 19 – Ramsay MacDonald (1866-1937) was the first English prime minister for the Labour Party. See Chapter 6. (FH)

Page 19 – Otto Bauer (1881-1938), prominent member of the Austrian Socialist Party. (FH)

Page 23 – ‘Homo sum, nil humani a me alienum puto’, I am a human being, so nothing human is strange to me, quotation by Publius Terentius Afer (ca. 195/190 – 159 v. Chr). (FH)

 

Chapter 3

Page 26 – Sorel, Albert (1842-1906), French historian, author of ‘L’Europe et la Révolution Française’. (FH)

Page 26 – Pareto, Vilfredo (1843-1928), Italian economist and sociologist. (FH)

Page 29 – Webster,  Daniel (1782-1852), American lawyer. See the remarks about the ‘Dartmouth College case’ in chapter 15. (FH)

 

Chapter 4

Page 37 – The Brest-Litovsk Treaty of 3 March 1918 was the end of the Eastern Front in WWI. (FH)

Page 37 – The Valdaj-plain is situated betwee Moscow and St. Petersburg (Leningrad). (FH)

Page 40 – Sokolovski, Paul, ‘Die Versandung Europas’, Berlin 1929. See Chapter 5. (FH)

Page 41 – The Thirteen Colonies: the northeastern states of the USA. (FH)

Page 42 – Rasputin (real name: Grigory Yefimovich Novykh, 1872?-1916) a religious charlatan of great influence at the court of Tsar Nicolas II. (FH)

Page 46 – Genghis Kahn (Djingiz Chan, born ca. 1155, died ca. 1227), stichter van het Mongoolse wereldrijk. With his raids he reached Poland. (FH)

Page 46 – Montesquieu (1689-1755), French philosopher and political author. The book mentioned is his main work. In it, he explains the principle of the separation of powers: division of the legislative, executive, and judicial functions of government among separate and independent bodies. (FH)

Page 46 – Stolypin, Pjotr Arkadjevitsj, (1862-1911), Russian prime minister from 1907-1911. His reforms aimed at creating a middle class of Russian farmers. (FH)

Page 48 – Lukács, Georg,(1885-1971), Hungarian marxist  literary historian. (FH)

Page 62 – Duma: the Russian parlement. (FH)

Page 63 – Free Soil Party, small political party in the USA, 1848-1856. Slogan: Soil, free speech, free labor, and free men. (FH)

Page 71 – “Erst kommt das Fressen, dann kommt die Moral”, says Mackie Messer in Brecht, Bertold, ‘Die Dreigroschenoper’, Suhrkamp Verslag, Berlin, 1955. (FH)

Page 85 – Erg: unit of labor, the labor needed to move 1 gram over a distance of 1 centimeter. (FH)

Page 96 – The Central Powers in WWI were Germany, Italy and their allies. (FH)

Page 96 – Kerenski, Alexander Fjodorovitsj (1881-1970). Leader of the revolution of March 1917, which preceded the communist October Revolution. (FH)

Page 98 – ‘In a torture of tension’, ‘Tortur der Spannung’, see: Nietsche, Friedrich, ‘Nachgelassene Fragmente 1887-1889’ (FH)

Page 99 – Between 1914 and 1924 St. Petersburg was named Petrograd, and from 1924 until 1991 Leningrad. After that year the name St. Petersburg was restored. (FH)

Page 105 – ‘Our withers are unwrung’, quotation of Shakespeare, Hamlet act 3, scene 2. (FH)

Page 106 – The Great Depression began with the crash on Wall Street, the New York stock exchange on 24 October 1929. The consequences were felt until WWII. (FH)

Page 116 – Georges Clemenceau (1841-1929), French politician. The French version of this fragment as it is given in Rosenstock, Eugen, ‘Die europäischen Revolutionen und der Charakter der Nationen’, page 398: “A cette heure déchirante, qui ne regrettera les douleurs ennoblies d’espérance, perdues dans l’ombre du passé? Oui, nos fils ne seront là que l’horrible massacre des temps historiques, et même la barbarie primitive, leur sembleront de l’humanité heureuse au regard de l’effrayante catastrophe qui, d’un pas irrésistible, à toute heure gagnera sur eux. Ce serait, jusque dans la décadence dernière, une monstrueuse ascension de douleur si la notion, déjà présente, de la fin nécessaire, ne suscitait en nous la philosophie supérieure qui nous permets d’affronter toute destinée sans pâlir.

            L’affreuse décroissance insensiblement sous nos yeux s’accomplira. La décrépitude envahissante amortira les chocs pour la conscience de sensibilité diminué, et pas à pas, par le chemin de mort déjà parcouru vers la vie, l’homme venu de la terre, retournant à la terre, trouvera sa tombe dans son berceau, noyé d’oubli dans la source de douleur. La lente régression sans pitié fera son oeuvre. Le dernier humain qui vivra s’éteindra dans la même mystère où surgit le premier qui vécut. Ainsi s’achèvera, dans la suprême misère, la lutte commencée pour la vie aux jours de la naissance heureuse dans le monde enchanté.

            La vie humaine avait été de domination mortelle sur toute vie inférieure. De nouvelles conditions de vie font maintenant de nouvelles conditions de lutte. L’heure est venue de la grande revanche de la nature d’en bas contre la nature d’en haut. L’organisme inférieur, moins exigeant que ses grands concurrents, se contente de conditions médiocres pour vivre. A mesure que les conditions de vie s’atténuent, l’homme, la bête, l’arbre, rabougris, s’appauvrissent, s’anémient, s’étiolent. Incapables de réprimer plus longtemps l’obscure végétation des formes primitives, ils reculent maintenant: et la vie inférieure envahit l’immense domaine d’où la vie supérieure la refoula jadis. C’est la suprême bataille, la grande déroute de la vie cédant le terrain pas à pas, sous le regard des siècles, indifférents à quelque moisissure humiliée qui dans quelque bas-fonds ignoré,  attends dès à présent son heure.

            Nos cités croulantes, parmi d’informes vestiges humains, les dernières ruines effondrées sur la vie mourante, toute la pensée, tout l’art. — “ (FH/LvdM)

 

Chapter 5

Page 126 – The constitutional oath was the oath at the Champs de Mars on 14 Juli 1790, one year after the destruction of the Bastille. (FH)

Page 127 – Mount Vernon, home of the American president George Washington (president 1789-1797). (FH)

Page 134 – Carlyle, Thomas (1795-1881), Scottish author, writer of ‘The French Revolution’ (1837).  (FH)

Page 135: “Passivement subi, … etc.”: ‘The Second Empire, which we endured passively, has marked us in a decisive way. Our belief in the militant nature of the ideology of the French Revolution decreased, as did our belief in the superiority of the liberation armies.’ (FH)

Page 141: “I will bring thy seed..etc.”, Jesaja 43 verse 5. (FH)

Page 143 – The Pillars of Hercules: Gibraltar, Spain. (FH)

Page 144 – Europe or Christianity: see Novalis (Friedrich Hardenberg, 1722-1801), ‘Die Christenheit oder Europa’, 1799. (FH)

Page 145 – ‘Lettres Persanes’ , first work of Montesqieu (1689-1755), a fictional story in which to Persians travel through Europe. (FH)

Page 146 – ‘La Trahison des Clercs’, see the remark for page 254. (FH)

Page 148 – Wilson’s Fourteen Points: In 1918, during WWI, the American president Woodrow Wilson presented a list of fourteen conditions for peace. (FH)

Page 150 – Paracletus, advocate, intercessor, the Holy Ghost. See John 14. (FH)

Page 158 – Descartes, René, ‘Discours de la Méthode’, see chapter 18. (FH)

Page 162 – Minute Men: The American Revolution started on 17 April 1775 near Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts, when the British colonial army started a campaign against the American civil militian called the Minute Men. (FH)

Page 165 – De Fronde, rebel movement under Louis XIV, active between 1648 and 1653. (FH)

Page 175 – Sansculotte ‘(without knee breeches’) nickname for citizens who had no means to buy a decent pair of (knee) trousers, also used for radical revolutionairies. (FH)

Page 185 – Bergson, Henry (1859-1941) ‘L’Évolution Créatrice’, Paris 1907. (FH)

Page 197 – Orléanisten, supporters of the House of Orléans, royalists. (FH)

Page 198 – Louis XVIII, French king from 1814 to 1824. The Charte Constitutionelle was the constitutional basis for his reign. (FH)

Page 213 – Avenel: most probably: d’Avenel, Vicomte G., ‘Histoire économique de la France’, 1907. See also page 237. (FH)

Page 214 – The Fourteenth Amendment: “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law (. . .).”  (FH)

Page 214 – Poilu, a French common soldier. (FH)

Page 220 – ‘The Jews, as one of them wrote in the first book which tried to explain our Christian faith in Jewish terms’: meant is Franz Rosenzweig. See his ‘Der Stern der Erlösung’, Frankfurt am Main 1921. [English translation: ‘The Star of Redemption’, Boston/Toronto 1972] Dutch translation: ‘De Ster der Verlossing’, Delft 2000. (LvdM)

Page 222 – Heinrich Brüning (1885-1970) German chancellor from1930 to 1932. He had to resign when his plans for a land reform in the eastern part of Germany failed. (FH)

Page 223 – Shylock, character in The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare, a ruthless usurer. (FH)

Page 233 – Paillière, most probably: Pallière, Aimé, Le sanctuarie inconnu: ma conversion’ au judaisme’ , F Rieder et cie, Editeurs, Paris, 1926. (FH)

Page 234 – Humanité is a French communist newspaper. Émile Zola, however, published his ‘J’accuse’  on 13 January 1898 in L’Aurore. (FH)

Page 237 – Poincaré, Raymond Nicolas Landry, ‘Ce que demande la Cité’ , Hachette, Paris, 1912. Poincaré was president of France during WWI. (FH)

Page 237 – d’Avenel, see the remark for page 213. (FH)

Page 238 – Stendhal, ‘Vie de Henri Brulard’ , G. Charpentier, Paris, 1890

Page 241 – Dickens, Charles ‘The posthumous papers of the Pickwick Club’, 1836. (FH)

Page 241 – Grand Jury: in the USA and Canada a Grand Jury decides if there is enough evidence to bring a case before Court. (FH)

Page 244 – Action Française: royalist-nationalist movement, antidemocratic and antisemitic, in France. It had its origins in the Dreyfus Affair. (FH)

Page 246 – Loti, Pierre, pseudonym of Julien Viaud, (1850-1923), French author and naval officer. (FH)

Page 254 – Benda, Julien, ‘La trahison des clercs’, 1927. (FH)

Page 255 – Aragon, Louis (1897-1982), French author, originally surrealist but from the late 1920s communist.‘Le Paysan de Paris’, 1926. (FH)

 

Chapter 6

Page 259 – Hobbes, Thomas (1588-1679), English philosopher and politician. See also chapter 7. (FH)

Page 274 – The Act of Supremacy was the law through which the English King Henry VIII made himself and his descendants head of the curch and the clergy of England in 1935. (FH)

Page 280 – Habeas corpus, first words in an English law of 1679, assuring every person in arrest that he will be brought before Court in person in order to hear the reason for his arrest. It protected the people against arbitrary imprisonment. (FH)

Page 282 (voetnoot) – ‘The Scarlet Letter’, novel by Nathaniel Hawthorn, Boston, 1850

Page 297 – Illi robur et æs triplex circa pectus erat. (From: “Illi robur et æs triplex Circa pectus erat, qui fragilem truci Commisit pelago ratem Primus!”). Horace, Carmina 1, 3, 10. Free translation : ‘Three layers of bronze and oak encircled the breast of the man who first committed his fragile bark to the cruel sea.’ (FH)

Page 298 – John Allsebrook Simon was British Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1931 to 1935 minister. Samuel John Gurney Hoare held that function from 1935 to 1937. (FH)

Page 302 – Roundhead, nickname for the Puritans during the English Civil War. (FH)

Page 326 – See Psalm 15, verse 4: “He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.” (King James Bible). (FH)

Page 330 – Covenanters: presbyterians, Scottish followers of John Knox. (FH)

Page 332 – A hymn of Arthur Campbell Ainger (1841 – 1919). Hymn 315 : 1 and 4 in the Anglican Hymnbook, 6th Ed. 1986. (LvdM)

Page 354 – Thomas Carlyle, see chapter 5. Henry Campbell-Bannerman (1836-1908). British Prime Minister from 1905 to 1908. Ramsay MacDonald (1866-1937), British Prime Minister from 1929 to 1931 en van 1931 tot 1935. All three were born in Scotland. (FH)

Page 355 – Rabble in arms: a loosely organised group of Americans who brought great losses to the British during the Battle of Bunker Hill on 17 June 1775.  (FH)

Page 357 – Fabian Society: socialist society founded in 1883–84 in London, having as its goal the establishment of a democratic socialist state in Great Britain. (FH)

Page 357 – G.J. Renier, “The English: Are They Human?”  Leipzig, Bernhard Tauchnitz., 1932. (FH)

Page 358 – Free translation of the footnote: “’Cromwell (…) told me one day that one never reaches as high as in times when one does not know ones direction.’ The answer of the cardinal: ‘Do you know, I said to Mr. De Bellièvre, that I am afraid of Cromwell. However great this man who is much recommended to us may be, I despise of him if that is what he thinks. I think he is mad.’” (FH)

 

Chapter 7

Page 359 – Royal Prerogative: the privilige of the British king to act autonomously. (FH)

Page 360 – Rip van Winkle: character in a novel by Washington Irving. During the Revolutionary War he sleeps for a period of twenty years. See: Geoffrey Crayon, Gent (Irving’s pseudonym), ‘The Sketch-Book’, (1819), ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and  Rip Van Winkle’. (FH)

Page 397 – Praeceptor Germaniae: a preceptor teaches the classic languages. (FH)

Page 401 – Hugenberg, Alfred, (1865-1951), German politician, anti-democratic, served as a Minister of Economic Affairs under Hitller for a short period. (FH)

Page 405 – Hobbes, Thomas, ‘Leviathan, or, The matter, forme, & power of a common-wealth ecclesiasticall and civill.’ 1651 (see also chapter 6). (FH)

Page 409 – Bodin, Jean,  (1530-1596), French lawyer and economist. (FH)

Page 410 – Prince Klemens von Metternich (1773-1859), Austrian statesman, chairman of the Vienna Congress of 1814, which stipulated the principles of the European state organisation during the nineteenth century. (FH)

Page 415 – Schleiermacher, Friedrich ,‘Über die Religion, Reden an die Gebildeten unter ihren Verächtern’, Berlin 1799 (6. Auflage, van Rudolf Otto) Vanden Hoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1967. (FH)

Page 415 – Harnack, Adolf, (from 1915 von Harnack, 1851 – 1930) published his ‘Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte’ in three volumes between 1885 and 1890. (FH)

Page 422 – Nietzsche, Friedrich, ‘Jenseits von Gut und Böse’ (page 256) “ – Ist das noch deutsch? (…) Dies weihrauch-düftelnde Sinne-Reizen? (…) Denn, was ihr hört, ist Rom – Roms Glaube ohne Worte!”. (FH)

Page 433 – “Limiting concept” is a translation of  the German ‘Grenzbegriff’. It’s a term coined by Immanuel Kant in his ‘Kritik der reinen Vernunft’ – ‘Criticism of pure Reason’ – and has to do with his epistemology. True science is possible only within the limits, i.e. the framework of the forms of observation (Erscheinungsformen). Therefore it has only validity for mechanical explanations. At their borders explanations of a different kind are needed, e.g. to explain life. These forms have a different quality. See Windelband/Heimsoeth, ‘Lehrbuch der Philosophie’  § 30,8 ; § 40, 6. See also p. 609. (LvdM)

Page 444 – Potempa (Wüstenrode): formerly a place in Upper-Silesia, now in Poland (Potepa). In 1932 SA-members killed a communist. They where brought to justice and punished for that act. (FH)

Page 444 – Rosenberg, Alfred, ‘Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts’, (1930), a work in which Rosenberg tried to demonstrate that anti-semitism could be argued for in a scientific way. (FH)

Page 446 – The Prussian War of Seven Years: the war which Frederik II the Great (1712-1786) waged against Austria between 1756 and 1763 voerde tegen Oostenrijk. At stake was the possession of Silesia. Both Prussia and Austria tried to find allies through intensive diplomatic efforts. (FH)

 

Chapter 8

Page 454 – The footnote of p. 454 refers to Aristotle, Politics VIII. It has to be: Politics V. (LvdM)

Page 458 – “Wenn es Götter gäbe, wie hielte ich’s aus, kein Gott zu sein!.” See: Nietzsche, Friedrich, ‘Also sprach Zarathustra’, 2, Teil, chapter: ‘Auf den glückseligen Inseln’. (FH)

Page 460 Court of St. James: the official residence of the British king and queen until Queen Victoria moved to Buckingham Palace.  (FH)

Page 473 –  Goethe, ‘Die natürliche Tochter’, Act 5, scene 8. (FH)

Page 474 – Madariaga y Rojo, Salvador de,‘Ingleses, franceses y expañoles’, 1926. (FH)

Page 474 – Ortega y Gasset, José, ‘La rebelión de las massas’ (1930). (FH)

Page 477: In ‘The Driving Power of Western CivilizationThe Christian Revolution of the Middle Ages’, The Beacon Press, Boston 1950, the chapters 8 and 9 of  ‘Out of Revolution’ were published as a separate book with a foreword of Karl Deutsch. At the list in ‘Out’ the author is adding the footnote (p. 27): “The word list could be amplified by any student of Italy, Spain etc. For instance, some Italian equivalents are: Kultur : CiviltaHuman being : Figlio di madreLiberal  : Guelph. (p. 110). (LvdM)

 

Chapter 9

Page 493 – Eamon de Valera (1882-1975), Irish political leader and fighter for indepence. Sun Yat Sen (1866-1925), founder of the modern, nationalistic China after the revolution of 1911 and before the communist revolution of 1948. (FH)

Page 500 – “For who would bear…etc.”, see: Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’, Act III, Scene I. (FH)

 

Chapter 10

Page 522 – When he was installed as a pope, Aenea Silvio Piccolomini asked the people ‘to forget Aeneas and to accept Pius’, referring to ‘pius Aeneas’, main character in the‘Aeneïs’ by Vergilius. (FH)

Page 535 – The author is adding to his remarks on Paul and the two swords in his book ‘The Driving Power of Western Civilization’, The Beacon Press, Boston 1950 p. 110: “I now feel able to date the new role of Paul’s two swords with relative precision. On January 22, 1075, Gregory VII wrote: ‘We ought to use either hand as right hand in crushing the savagery of the wicked.’ (Migne, ‘Patrologia Latina’ Vol. 148, 400D.) This is the vision which explains the two swords in Paul’s hands. Whence took Gregory these two ideas, first, that two swords should be used, and, second, that Paul must swing them? He found both combined in Judges 3 : 15f. There, a Benjaminite who was lefthanded smote Israel’s enemy with a double-edged sword. The tribe of Benjamin, in Gregory’s times, always stood for Paul the Apostle, who came from Benjamin. The two edges of the sword, however, had to be changed by Gregory VII into ‘either hand as right hand’! This very slight change is significant enough to make us say: 1. In January 1075, the two swords appear for the first time. 2. This first moment coincides with the very hour of the Revolution of the Holy See.”(LvdM)

Page 535 – The paper discussed before the Mediaeval Academy of America is called: ‘The Role of the Apostle Paul in the Papal Revolution of the Eleventh Century’, April 28, 1934, 46 pp. Microfilm Reel 6, item 301.(LvdM.)

Page 547 – To bear the degree of a Doctor (Dr.) was a title of honour which belonged to the learned class. From the 12th century it was the title of scholars who had the right to teach at a university. (See the author’s contribution: ‘Principium Doctoris’ in: ‘Festgabe für Rudolf Sohm’, Leipzig, Dunker und Humblot, 1914 p. 87 – 101.) (LvdM).

Page 550 onderaan – The Italian name of the wall painting is ‘Stanza d’Eliodoro’ . It shows the miracle of the mass in Bolsena 1263, where drops of blood fell from a consacred wafer. (FH)

 

Chapter 11

Page 557 – ‘Limiting concept’, see the remark to p. 433. (LvdM)

Page 571 (footnote) – Potthast, A.  The title of the book is: ‘Bibliotheca medii aevi’, 2 Ed. 1896 Nr. 8425. (LvdM)

Page 574 (footnote) – Translation of the Latin quotation of Johannes v. Viterbo: ‘Therefore men in power and governors of cities and other places may learn and in a manifest way may know from the prescripts that they are from God and so may take no movement of heart from elsewhere and learn that they have the sword from the Lord himself. Therefore they must have exclusively before their eyes God and his righteousness, as is said above. They have to know for certain that their judgement on others isn’t severer than that  with which they themselves will be judged. For, with what measure they will measure they will be remitted with the same.’ (LvdM)

Page 576 – Pollard. Meant is: Albert Frederic Pollard, ‘The Evolution of Parliament’, Longmans, Green and Co, London, New York, Bombay, Calcutta and Madras, 1920. The quotation is from p. 231 and runs: ‘The way in which parliament magnified Henry VIII is written in the statutes of the latter of his reign; and the king repaid the compliment. “We”, he declared to the commons, “be informed by our judges… etc.” till the end of the quote. Reference in a following footnote (1) : ‘Letters and Papers of Henry VIII’, Vol. XVII pp. IV, 107. Holinshed, Chronicles, III, 956.(LvdM)

Page 580 – The calculation of square miles seems not to be correct. ‘Die europäischen Revolutionen etc.’, page 352 gives the following figures: ‘In Italy 3,000 square kilometres, in Germany 20,000, in Great Britain 217,000, in France 600,000 square kilometres’. Given that a square miles equals 2.59 square kilometres, the figures would be respectively: Italy 1,158 – Germany 7,722 – Great Britain 83,784 and France 231,660 square miles. (FH)

Page 583 – Franceso Petrarca, ‘Il Canzoniere’ 303. vert. : flower, leave, grass, shade, cave, wave, lovely air. (FH)

Page 585 – The text refers to Psalm 142, but this may be a typing error. The end of Psalm 147 goes as follows: “God gave his laws and teachings to the descendants of Jacob, the nation of Israel. But he has not given his laws to any other nation. Shout praises to the Lord!” (FH)

Page 589 – In Verona on the day called ‘devotio’ Johannes of Vicenza reconciliated hundreds of thousands of civilians from various cities with each other. (FH)

 

Chapter 12

Page 596 – Autodafe: the burning of people to death condemned as heretics by the Spanish inquisition. Portuguese for: actus fidei = ‘act of faith’, but in mediaeval Latin ‘justice over the faith’. The Order of the Knights Templar was outlawed in 1312, after which the Grand Master and many knights were sent to stake by Philip IV of France. (FH)

Page 600 – On 6 July 1415 the church council of Konstanz sent John Hus to stake for heresy and executed him on the same day. (FH)

Page 600 – The Constantine Donation is a falsification in which it is stated that the emporer Constantine donated large gifts to pope Sylvester I (314-35). The document is wrought between 750 and 850. (FH)

Page 601 – IHS, the name of ‘Jezus’ derived from the first three characters of the Greek version of the word. (FH)

Page 608 – Solesmes is a village in France, near Le Mans. The Benedictine abbey there was restored in 1853 by Prosper Louis Pascal Guéranger OSB (1805 – 1875). Here the renewal of the Roman liturgy was pursued, in particular the renewal of Gregorian song. It’s here that the several times quoted source ‘Migne Patrologia’ was started. (LvdM/FH)

 

Chapter 13

Page 612 – ‘contresens dans l’Europe moderne’: a ‘misplacement’ or ‘misinterpretation’ in modern Europe. (FH)

 

Chapter 14

Page 624 – Vehme or Fehmgericht, secret tribune in West-Phalia, supposedly established by Charlesmange in order to curb the disorder in his territory. (FH)

Page 625 – Edward VIII (1894 – 1972) in 1936 was forced to resign from the crown when he disclosed his wish to marry the American mrs. Wallis Simpson (1896 – 1986) who had been divorced two times. He was followed up by George VI. (LvdM)

Page 631 footnote 1 – It was stated that it was not Pershing himself but a member of his staff, Charles E. Stanton, who in Paris on 4 Juli said at Lafayette’s grave: “Lafayette, nous voilà! Lafayette, we are here.”; See: New York Tribune, 6 September 1917; ‘The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations’, Oxford University Press, 1999.  (FH)

Page 632 a.o. – Cf. the paper of the author: ‘Vorurteile’, 1917. Microfilm Reel 1, Item 55. (LvdM)

Page 642 – Het American navy ship ‘USS Panay’ was shot at inadvertently by Japanese bombers in December 1937. (FH)

 

Chapter 15

Page 645 – To the quotation of Barrett Wendel: ‘And the old grey house of the Pepperells..’ Meant is the house, i.e. the family of the Pepperells. Page Smith who was a pupil of Rosenstock-Huessy at Dartmouth College and later Professor of History at the university of California, writes about it in the first volume of his History of the USA: “Between 1744 and 1748, colonial troops fought in King George’s War, the American accompaniment to the War of the Austrian Succession. King George’s War marked the most notable success of colonial arms in the series of protracted conflicts that characterized the first half of the eighteenth century: A well-supplied and well-organized attack against the French fort at Louisburg, one of the strongest fortresses in the New World, by Sir William Pepperell, leading volunteers from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire, forced the surrender of the fort. Encouraged by this triumph, New England militia attempted an abortive invasion of Canada; …”, ‘A New Age Now Begins’  Vol. One, Mc. Graw-Hill Book Company, New York etc. 1976, p. 122. (LvdM)

Page 647 – free translation of the French quote: There is nobody in England who, lacking a visionary mind, would not admit that the colonies she ownes in America will form an independent state one day; it is the shape of this revolution which I would like to foresee. (FH)

Page 650 – A majority of the American states wished to ban slavery, but the votes were equally divided because the various states had different numbers of votes. (FH)

Page 652 – On Abraham’s righteousness. The author refers to Genesis 15 : 6: ‘And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness.’ ( See also the letter of Paul to the Romans, chapter 4 : 3 – 5: “Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” (King James’ translation) In The New English Bible: “ ‘Abraham put his faith in God, and that faith was counted to him as righteousness.’ Now if a man does a piece of work, his wages are not ‘counted’ as a favour; they are paid a debt. But if without any work to his credit he simply puts his faith in him who acquits the guilty, then his faith is  indeed ‘counted as righteousness’.”) (LvdM)

Page 652 – Carpetbaggers: inhabitants from the North who moved to the southern states after the Civil War, keen on financial or political profit. (FH)

Page 666 – Boston Tea Party, one of the confrontations during the prelude to the American War of Freedom. Bostonians dressed as Indians threw overboard the tea with which three English cargo vessels were loaded. (FH)

Page 668 – Delaware Corporation: the State of Delaware has special laws for companies. Many head offices of major American companies are registered in this state. (FH)

Page 681 – In all editions of Out of Revolution we read: “we may translate Natural Law as the eight evolutionary phases of creation.” In his own copy Rosenstock-Huessy made a correction. There we read: “we may translate Natural Law as one of the eight phases of creation.”  This conjecture of the translators being confirmed the Dutch translation followed it up. (LvdM)

Page 683 – “There’s good in everybody. Boost. Don’t knock.” Citation of Warren G. Harding, American president 1921-1923. (FH)

Page 685 – For the role of Daniel Webster, defender in the ‘Dartmouth College Case’ see Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy’s article on Webster in The American People’s Encyclopedia, Grolier, Inc., New York, 1962, Vol. 19, p. 593 – 596 and the article on the case in Vol. 6, p. 796. (LvdM.)

Page 685 – The Dartmouth College Case: In 1816 the State of New Hampshire intended to amend the 1769 Dartmouth College charter in order to make the institution public. Webster argued successfully that this amendment violated the American Constitution because the charter was to be seen as a contract. The U.S. Supreme Court decided that the charter was in effect inviolable. This decision made the contract clause in the Constitution an important instrument for the protection of property against the state. At the same time, the decision was seen as an important victory for the American Whig Party, a predecessor of the American Republican Party, which between 1833 and 1855 promoted the interests of traditional, pre-industrial professions. (FH)

 

Chapter 16

Page 691 – ‘Erewhon’ (anagram of nowhere), novel by Samuel Butler (1835-1902) about a country where the customs and traditions were opposite to those of normal human logic. (FH)

Page 693 – The quotation from Edmond Burke in the Dutch translation is brought in a footnote and is amplified there as: Edmond Burke, ‘Works’, London Ed. of 1856, VI, p. 146. (LvdM)

Page 693 – Belle Alliance, place near Waterloo, Belgium where on the night of 18 June 1815 the British and Prussian armies celebrated their victory over Napoleon. (FH)

Page 695 – ‘John Brown’s Body’, poem about the horrors of the American Civil War, written in 1928 by Stephen Vincent Benét. (FH)

Page 696 – The ‘infandum dolorem’, i.e. the ‘unspeakable pains’ of Virgil is the answer of Aneas at Dido’s asking to tell about the struggle around Troy (Aen. 2, 3). (LvdM)

Page 709 ff. – The kernel of several passages is: “In the same way there exist in the life of every living soul one or two solemn moments when he speaks the full truth about himself.” The author refers here to the passage from a letter Franz Rosenzweig wrote to him. Rosenstock-Huessy used it as motto for the second and third edition of his German book on the Revolutions of Europe: ‘Die Europäischen Revolutionen und der Charakter der Nationen’.  It runs as follows: “Es gibt im Leben alles Lebendigen Augenblicke oder vielleicht nur einen Augenblick, wo e s die Wahrheit spricht. Man braucht also vielleicht überhaupt nichts über das Lebendige zu sagen, sondern man muβ nur den Augenblick abpassen, wo es  selber sich ausspricht. Den Dialog aus diesen Monologen halte ich für die ganze Wahrheit.” (Rosenzweig, Franz, ‘Briefe’, (1935), p. 712. [English translation in: ‘Judaism despite Christianity’, University of Alabama Press, 1969, p. 147f. Rosenstock-Huessy’s criticism in footnote 175]. (LvdM)

Page 731 – Straits Settlements: Name of the colonies Singapore, Malacca and Penang which were under direct English administration. (FH)

Page 744 – ‘Amalgamate false natures’, citation from ‘Lady Geraldine’s Courtship’, a poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861). (FH)

Page 748 –  “Who art thou, man, that I should care for thee?” The author refers to Psalm 8 : 4: “What is man, that thou art mindful of him and the son of man, that thou visitest him?” (King James’ transl.) (LvdM)

Page 749 – “Modern man no longer believes in any certainty of existence on the strength of abstract reasoning.” It is of importance to know that the author in his German translation renders this as: “The no-more modern man”: Der nicht-mehr-moderne Mensch. See: ‘Ich bin ein unreiner Denker’  in: ‘Das Geheimnis der Universität  Wider den Verfall von Zeitsinn und  Sprachkraft’, Stuttgart, W. Kohlhammer Verlag, 1958, p. 104. (LvdM)

 

Appendix

Page 565: Labour camp movement: Rosenstock-Huessy was actively involved in the labour camps for workers, farmers and students, ‘Arbeitslager für Arbeiter, Bauern und Studenten’, which took place at the end of the 1920s in Silesia, then Eastern-Germany and now the Western-Polish province Slàsk. This initiative was very successful, untill Hitler came to power and the idea was misused by the nazis. In 1940 a labour camp, Camp William James, was established in the American state of Vermont by students from Harvard University and Dartmouth College with assistance from Rosenstock-Huessy. Ideas from this camp were used by president John F. Kennedy when he established the American Peace Corps in 1960.

See: Rosenstock-Huessy, Eugen, Planetary Service, A Way Into The Third Millennium, Argo Books, Norwich (VT), USA, 1978, ISBN: 0912148-09-8; translated by Mark Huessy and Freya von Moltke from ‘Dienst auf dem Planeten, Kurzweil und Langeweile im Dritten Jahrtausend’, uitg. W. Kohlhammer GmbH, Stuttgart-Berlijn-Keulen-Mainz, 1965. Also in Dutch: ‘Dienen op de planeet, korte en lange ademin het derde millennium’, uitg. Vereniging Rosenstock-Huessy Huis, Haarlem. 1988, isbn 90-800256-1-5.

About the American camp: Preiss, Jack J. (1978): “Camp William James”; Argo Books, Norwich (VT), USA; ISBN: 0-912148-08-X (paper) – ISBN 0-912148-07-1 (cloth).

See also: James William (1910): ‘The Moral Equivalent of War’ (essay), geschreven voor en het eerst gepubliceerd door de Association for International Conciliation (Leaflet No. 27) en later o.m. in “Memories and Studies”, ed. Henry James Jr. (New York: Longmans, Green and Company, 1911). (FH)

 

Page 767 – ‘Peter carrying the key, Peter carrying the sword.’ Two times Peter. This is a misprint. It has to be: ‘Peter carrying the key. Paul carrying the sword.’ Cf. ‘Die Europäischen Revolutionen’ p. 160. (LvdM).