Goethe, der Merkantilismus und die Inflation: Zum ökonomischen Wissen und Handeln Goethes und seiner Figuren by Heike Knortz and Beate Laudenberg (review)

Nothing renews interest in Goethe and the economy quite like a global financial crisis, as Heike Knortz and Beate Laudenberg demonstrate in their introduction to Goethe, der Merkantilismus und die Inflation. The collaboration between Knortz, an economic historian, and Laudenberg, a Germanist, adds to the growing body of post-2007 Goethe scholarship revisiting the topic of Goethe and economic matters in light of recent meltdowns and crises. Their contribution offers a unique and refreshing approach to a topic that has occupied scholars in both literary and economic circles since Goethe’s time. By approaching Goethe and his works through the lens of recent Goethe scholarship, on the one hand, and the history of economic thought and economic history, on the other, this volume has much to offer both to Goethe scholars and to those curious about Goethe’s economic knowledge and his representation of various economic issues throughout his key works.

The book unfolds more or less chronologically and gives a concise overview of economic matters in Goethe’s life and in his literary texts. The authors strike a nice balance between literary analyses of central figures and discussions of Goethe’s practical experience and knowledge of contemporaneous economic theories. Their well-researched study employs recent scholarship dealing with Goethe’s official duties as well as the history of political economy in Germany to revisit earlier approaches by Hans Christoph Binswanger and Bernd Mahl, for instance. Not surprisingly, the Faust drama serves as a backdrop against which to consider other key figures in Goethe’s work: Ferdinand (Unterhaltungen deutscher Ausgewanderten), Hermann (Hermann und Dorothea), Eduard and Charlotte (Die Wahlverwandtschaften), Wilhelm and Werner (Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre and Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre). Knortz and Laudenberg do not, however, limit their analysis to Faust II, as economic readings of Faust often do. Rather, following the introduction, the study begins with a section—the text is divided into sections rather than chapters—dedicated to “Margaretes ‘kleine Wirtschaft.’” Following are “Hermanns ‘große Wirtschaft,’” three sections (I–III) on “Goethes eigene Wirtschaft,” and “Die Wirtschaft des Herzogtums Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach bei Goethes Ankunft.” The theme of Wirtschaft continues throughout the study, as the coauthors toggle between variations of kleine Wirtschaft and große Wirtschaft in both literary texts and Goethe’s life. This approach works well not only because Goethe incorporates micro- and macroeconomic elements throughout his works but also because Knortz and Laudenberg are concerned with how political-economic context (mercantilism) and economic history (inflation) contribute to a better understanding of Goethe’s oeuvre.

With respect to contemporaneous economic theory, scholars have tended to read Goethe in terms of physiocracy, cameralism, and the work of Adam Smith. Goethe was indeed familiar with each of these as well as a number of other economic theories, texts, and their proponents. Knortz and Laudenberg argue that scholars have largely overlooked Goethe’s connection to mercantilism: “Durch seine Tätigkeit in Weimarer Staatsdienst nahm Goethe damit enge Tuchfühlung zu merkantilistischer Wirtschaftspolitik auf?” (149). His official encounter with “[m]erkantilistische[r] Gewerbe- und Industriepolitik, eine[r] dem theoretischen Anspruch des Handelsbilanzüberschusses verpflichtete[n] Zoll- und Handelspolitik,” was, however, ultimately a lesson in failure, as the duchy of Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach lacked the infrastructure, resources, and the means to implement mercantile economic policy successfully (153–54).

In the area of economic history, Knortz and Laudenberg demonstrate that Goethe was keenly aware of prices and inflation. “Preissteigerungen,” they write, “sind es dann auch, durch die sich Goethes kleine Wirtschaft mit der großen Welt zu verweben beginnt” (111). They note that Goethe witnessed Austrian inflation and its effects during his many visits to Bohemia over the decades and cite a diary entry from July 1806 in which Goethe writes: “Spatzieren, mit Fürst Reuß Politica. Über die östreichische Staatschuld. Bemerkung über die unglückliche Vermischung dreyer ganz separat zu haltender Capitel. 1. Staatsschuld. 2. Deficit...