Follen, Charles (Karl) b. September 4, 1796; Romrod, Hesse d. January 13, 1840; near Long Island Sound, New York
The first German instructor and professor of German language and literature at Harvard University (“the first American Germanist”), Charles Follen played a significant role in introducing the German language, literature, and culture to the educated elite in the United States, especially in the Boston area.
Arriving in the United States in 1824 after fleeing his native Germany in the wake of his involvement in the student movement (Burschenschaft), Follen taught at Harvard College for a decade. As he commenced his teaching career, he began writing his own German grammar, initially published in 1828. It was the first to be used widely in American schools and eventually appeared in over twenty editions in the next three decades. In order to facilitate his teaching of literature, he published Deutsches Lesebuch fur Anfanger (A German Reading Book for Beginners, 1828), which included selections from the writings of numerous authors, including Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Christoph Martin Wieland, Novalis (Friedrich von Harden- berg), and Friedrich Schiller. This work, too, was used for several decades in American colleges. Follen was particularly successful in fostering a fuller appreciation of Schiller in the United States, where he had been known almost exclusively for his early work, Die Rauber (The Robbers, 1781). Follen’s numerous criticisms of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe were at least partially responsible for diminishing the reputation of the poet in the United States. In addition to his public lectures on German literature and philosophy, Follen promoted German culture in his social contacts with the Boston elite, including the Transcen- dentalists. At the same time he briefly taught ethics at the Harvard Divinity School and introduced Harvard to the German gymnastics movement. Dismissed from his academic post in 1835, partly because of his support of student protests against the college president and partly because of his involvement with the antislavery movement, Follen became a Unitarian minister. In this role he became intensively involved in the antislavery movement.Upon his appointment to the Harvard faculty, occasioned by the recommendation of the Marquis de Lafayette to George Tic- knor, Follen soon acquired a wide audience as a cultural intermediary between Germany and his adopted country. As an instructor and then professor of German language and literature after 1830, he experienced increasing enrollments and received positive testimonials from students and faculty. In public addresses and his inaugural address as professor, he promoted German literature from the Minnesanger (Minnesingers) to contemporary authors, including Goethe, in spite of his criticism of the poet’s perceived aloofness and perceptible lack of political commitment. At the same time he defended German poets and thinkers against accusations that they were skeptical, materialistic, and atheistic.
Follen also founded the Harvard German Society in 1828, which included such prominent figures as George Ticknor. In addition to his numerous public lectures on Schiller, Follen wrote an introduction to a newly published American edition of Thomas Carlyle’s Life of Schiller. He also assisted in the introduction of German philosophers and theologians to American audiences, especially Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Ernst Schleiermacher, and Wil- hem De Wette. At the same time, he also promoted German scholarship in history and psychology. On a personal level Follen had an influence on prominent Boston literary and cultural figures such as Theodore Parker, William Ellery Channing, Ralph Waldo Emerson, George Ripley, and Margaret Fuller.
Follen’s life on both sides of the Atlantic was marked by his strident, uncompromising promotion of freedom and nationalism. As a student at the University of Giessen and an instructor at the University of Jena, his views had become increasingly radical to the point of advocating political assassination and terrorism. With some reason, German authorities had suspected him of encouraging the student Carl Sand in his assassination of August von Kotzebue.
Shortly after his arrival in the United States, Follen joyfully embraced American nationalism and liberties, becoming a citizen and changing his name to Charles. After he had noted that American freedom was marred by slavery, he became a militant abolitionist and ally of William Lloyd Garrison, actively participating in national, state, and local antislavery organizations. Follen stopped short of advocating slave rebellions, in spite of his earlier espousal of violence. However, until his untimely death in 1840, his dogmatic and uncompromising commitment to freedom brought him into conflict with those of more moderate views. His life was cut short when his passenger ship caught fire and sank on his return trip to Boston.
John T. Walker
See also Fuller, Margaret; Muench, Friedrich; Ticknor, George; Transcendentalism; Turner Societies; U.S.-German Intellectual Exchange
References and Further Reading
Pochmann, Henry A. German Culture in America: Philosophical and Literary Influences, 1600-1900. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1957.
Spevack, Edmund. Charles Follens Search for Nationality and Freedom, 1796-1840. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997.
Spindler, George W. The Life of Karl Follen: A Study in German-American Cultural Relations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1917.
Vogel, Stanley W. German Literary Influences on the American Transcendentalists. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1955.