Tristram Shandy and Hippel's Lebensläufe nach aufsteigender Linie

Tristram Shandy RQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA a n d H ip p e l's Lebenslaufe nach aufsteigender Linie H A M I L T O N H . H . B E C K It is nothing new in the field of German literature to compare Laur­ ence Sterne with his imitators in Germany, among them Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel. One recently published work on this topic is Peter Michelsen's L a u r e n c e S te r n e u n d d e r d e u ts c h e R o m a n d e s a c h tz e h n te n Ja h r h u n d e r ts ,1 which corrects a superficial overevaluation of Hip­ pel at Sterne's expense by German scholars from earlier in the cen­ tury.2 Michelsen's long overdue revision of their chauvinistic judgments praising Hippel as "deep" and brushing off Sterne as a lightweight nevertheless leads Michelsen—and most other scholars since his work appeared—to a misunderstanding and misrepresentation of Hippel's position. Hippel once used to be better known, at least in Germany. Kant, who knew Hippel well, praised him as a nuclear thinker ("Centralkopf ")—and saw himself forced to state publicly that he was not the author of the L e b e n s la u fe , which had been published anonymously and contained popularized excerpts from Kant's lectures. Jean Paul, the other German humorist who is often compared with Sterne, re­ garded Hippel as his immediate, and worthy, predecessor. Hegel spoke of the "wonderful individuality, freshness and vitality" of Hippel 's novel,3 and the young Karl Marx, when still in Trier, put into verse (in an album of poetry for the future Jenny Marx) some of Hippel 's prose translations of Latvian folk songs taken from the second volume of the L e b e n s la u fe . 261 262 / BECK The first volume of this novel appeared in 1778, as Hippel was just on the verge of the great successes in his career as a civil servant. Born in 1741 in Gerdauen, East Prussia, he first studied theology at the Albertina University in Konigsberg, but later switched to law. Vir­ tually penniless, he supported himself as tutor for the daughter of a noble family. He fell in love with his charge, who apparently re­ turned his affections. But the father put an end to the relationship: his daughter would marry only another member of the nobility. (The "von" in Hippel's name was added years later when Hippel success­ fully petitioned Joseph II, the Holy Roman Emperor, to renew the family title that had fallen into disuse.) Hippel was forced to leave, but resolved to overcome the deficien­ cies of his social background by means of a successful career. He be­ came chief of police, judge, mayor of Konigsberg, and Privy Council­ lor, a post he held until his death at the age of fifty-five in 1796. Hippel never married, though in various radical (and of course anonymous) treatises in the cause of women's rights he always de­ fended the institution of marriage.4 Parallel to this public career, however, Hippel followed a semi-pub­ lic one, where he operated either incognito or under a pseudonym. As a Freemason the by-now-wealthy Hippel, whose name in the Lodge was "Eugenius," founded a stipend for an orphan attending the university and in general was the moving force behind the phil­ anthropical activity of the Lodge.5 It is in this spirit of enlightened activity that Hippel's novel should be viewed. His magnum opus was the RQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA L e b e n s la u fe n a c h a u fs te ig e n d e r L in ie , which appeared in four volumes between 1778 and 1781. To be sure, Hippel's novel, when viewed as an imitation of T r is tr a m S h a n d y , falls short of its great model. It can be argued that every novel in Sterne's manner is condemned to be the work...