Motley, John Lothrop b.April 15, 1814; Dorchester, Massachusetts d. May 29, 1877; Dorsetshire, England
Historian, man of letters, and diplomat who is best known as the author of The Rise of the Dutch Republic (1856) and his other works on Dutch history, but who was also an important cultural intermediary between Germany and America.
In his literary reviews, the native Bostonian was an incisive interpreter of German culture; at the same time, much of the impetus for his historical work was derived from German au- thors—above all, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller. His studies of Dutch history, as well as his views of the American past, were infused with a belief in the supremacy of German culture. And his lifelong friendship with Otto von Bismarck, stemming from their student days at Gottingen and Berlin, acquainted him with German power, as well as German intellect.Motley’s interest in German language and culture began when he studied German at the Round Hill School in Northampton, Massachusetts, cofounded by George Bancroft. Later at Harvard (1827—1831) he studied with Carl Follen, the college’s first professor of German, who introduced him to contemporary German writers, above all, Friedrich Schiller. At the same time Motley came to an appreciation of the genius of Goethe and the role he had played in the sudden flowering of German literature.
Following graduation, Motley studied in Gottingen, where he formed a close relationship with his fellow student Otto von Bismarck, subsequently sharing accommodations with him when they studied at the University of Berlin. Bismarck would emerge in Motley’s first novel, Morton’s Hope (1839), as the dueling, drunken, and rebellious Otto von Rabenmarck. In a sense, Motley was arguably Bismarck’s first biographer.
Upon his return to Boston, Motley played a significant role as an interpreter of German literature in America, in addition to translating poems and other works of German authors.
Most significant were his two lengthy reviews of Goethe’s works (Dichtung und Wahrheit [Poetry and Truth] and Faust, among others) in the New York Review in 1838 and 1839.Although the reasons for his decision to turn his attention to Dutch history are not well documented, his longstanding passion for Goethe and Schiller was a major factor. The background of Goethe’s Egmont was the Dutch revolt against Spain; it featured some of the important protagonists and themes of The Rise of the Dutch Republic. Schiller’s historical writings and his dramas most likely had an even greater influence on Motley’s choice of theme, as well as on his dramatic narrative style. Motley had read Schiller’s study of the Thirty Years’ War, Geschichte des Abfalls der vereinigten Nieder- lande von der spanischen Regierung (History of the Revolt of the Netherlands, 1788), as a youth, and it is likely that he also had read Schiller’s study of the Dutch revolt. In addition, Don Carlos, and Wilhelm Tell both dramatically portray struggles against tyranny, while Wallenstein is centered on a great historical figure.
After Motley completed his research in archives in Dresden and Belgium and submitted his manuscript of the Rise of the Dutch Republic for publication, he had his first meetings with Bismarck after two decades. In 1855, and again in 1858, he visited his old friend in Frankfurt, where he was serving as Prussian envoy to the Diet of
the German Confederation. Clearly their friendship had endured, in spite of their differing political views. Motley, enthralled by Bismarck’s political skills, predicted that he could very well reach the highest position in his government. This prediction had been fulfilled as they next met in 1864 in Vienna, where Motley was serving as American ambassador to Austria. Both men were clearly exuberant over their meeting, though their political differences still remained.
With Germany’s unity achieved in 1871, Motley came to believe that his old friend, whom he had always viewed as a reactionary, was now leading Prussia and Germany toward progress and freedom.
In fact, Motley had long believed in the ultimate triumph of freedom in Germany, the original European home of liberty. In his The Rise of the Dutch Republic, he had presented the ancient Germans as the vanguard of the historic struggle for freedom, which the Anglo-Saxon race eventually spread to the New World. Upon his return to the United States in 1868 he expressed this view of German superiority as well as his admiration for Bismarck in a speech to the New York Historical Society, entitled “Historical Progress and American Democracy.” His old friend was clearly playing a heroic role, just as William of Orange had been a hero in the Dutch struggle for independence.Motley and Bismarck did not meet again until the summer of 1872, a reunion marked by nostalgia and exultation over Bismarck’s stupendous political triumphs. Bismarck, in recounting the events of the last few years, buoyed the spirits of his longtime friend, who was still depressed over his inglorious dismissal from his position as ambassador in London two years previously. It was the last time that the two men would see each other. It was also Motley’s final visit to Germany. Appropriately, one of his last excursions in Germany on his way home was his brief stay at the Brocken, where he reread the scene from Faust that has immortalized that mountain in German and world literature.
John T Walker
See also American Students at German Universities; Bancroft, George; Follen, Charles; Gottingen, University of
References and Further Reading
Edwards, Owen Dudley. “John Lothrop
Motley. ” In Dictionary of Literary Biography. Vol. 30: American Historians, 1607-1865. Ed. Clyde N. Wilson.
Detroit, MI: Bruccoli Clark Layman/The Gale Group, 1984, pp. 175-192.
Levin, David. History as Romantic Art. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1959.
Long, Orie. Literary Pioneers: Early American Explorers of European Culture. Cambridge: Harvard University, 1935.
Walker, John T. “John Lothrop Motley: Boston Brahmin and Transatlantic Man.” In Traveling between Two Worlds: German- American Encounters. Eds. Thomas Adam and Ruth Gross. College Station: Texas A & M, 2005.