Free or a Servant?

Abstract

In 1858, the German poet-jurist Theodor Storm wrote a small poem that keeps intriguing interpreters: “One man enquires: And then what? / The other, merely: Is it right? / And so, observing, we can spot / The free man – and the servant's plight.” Who is the free man – the one who merely asks whether something is right or the one who accepts responsibility for the consequences of his actions? Who is the servant – the one who fearfully allows his actions to be determined by their advantages and disadvantages or the one who does what his master says is right? The article asks what Theodor Storm meant, and what is actually correct.

Keywords:

• Theodor Storm
• free man
• servant
• ethics of conviction
• ethics of responsibility

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. What follows is a list of the most important titles of German literature consulted in preparing this article. Eugen Wohlhaupter, Dichterjuristen, ed. J.C.B. Mohr, 3 vols. (Tübingen: Paul Siebeck, 1953, 1955, 1957); Clifford A. Bernd, “Storm in der amerikanischen Schul- und Universitätsgermanistik,” in Theodor Storm und das 19. Jahrhundert, ed. Brian Coghlan and Karl Ernst Laageeds (Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag, 1989); Thomas Mann, “Theodore Storm,” in Gesammelte Werke, 9. Band, Reden und Aufsätze (Frankfurt: Fischer Verlag, 1960); Horst Sendler, “Zur richterlichen Folgenberücksichtigung und -verantwortung,” in Recht – Gerechtigkeit – Rechtsstaat, eds. Horst Sendler and Konrad Redeker (Munich: Carl Heymanns Verlag, 2006) contains a prominent interpretation of Storm's poem as being based on the ethics of conviction, broadening the scope of discussion from a focus on the moral issue to encompass the legal problem; Hartmut Jäckel, “Die Unterscheidung,” Frankfurte Allgemeine Zeitung, December 27, 2008, presents the most prominent interpretation of Storm's poem from the perspective of the ethics of responsibility; the most legally minded Storm biography is Heiner Mückenberger, Theodor Storm – Dichter und Richter. Eine rechtsgeschichtliche Lebensbeschreibung (Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, 2001); and the most recent Storm biography, with many excerpts from Storm's correspondence, is Jochen Missfeldt, Die graue Stadt am Meer. Der Dichter Theodor Storm in seinem Jahrhundert (Munich: Carl Hanser Verlag, 2013); the English translation of the quotation from Joseph und Seine Brüder is from Thomas Mann, Joseph and His Brothers, trans. John E. Woods (New York: Everyman's Library, 2005).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Bernhard Schlink

Bernhard Schlink is a Professor Emeritus of Public Law and Legal Philosophy at Humboldt University Berlin. He was a Justice at the Constitutional Court of the State of North Rhine-Westfalia.