Gentlemen and Amazons: The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory, 1861–1900

3. On the Launching Pad: J. J. Bachofen and Das Mutterrecht

36 3 On the Launching Pad J.J. Bachofen and ‘Das Mutterrecht’ I propose to investigate all aspects of matriarchal culture, to disclose its diverse traits and the fundamental idea which unites them. In this way I hope to restore the picture of a cultural stage which was overlaid or totally destroyed by the later development of the ancient world. —Johann Jakob Bachofen JOHANN JAKOB BACHOFEN,  Bachofen has been described by one of his twentieth-century disciples, Berta Eckstein-Diener, as a “soft, corpulent Basler patrician with a wonderful, halfopen child’s mouth [and] over a million Swiss francs, a professor of Roman law with many honorable titles and an almost inconceivable knowledge . . . about the feminine age under the hem of history.” This sketch captures the essentials: Bachofen ’s birth into wealth and status, his extensive education, and the work for which he is most remembered—his investigation into “the feminine age under the hem of history”: matriarchal prehistory. Bachofen was born into a conservative, wealthy, patrician Basel intent on retaining its self-determination as a canton within the Swiss confederation. The Bachofens were a prominent family, related by marriage to most of the other important families of Basel. According to biographer Andreas Cesana, Bachofen in mid-life was quite possibly the single richest man in Basel. The Bachofens’ wealth came from their silk ribbon manufacturing firm, long an institution in the city. In the years just before Bachofen’s birth, the family lived above the firm’s shops and offices in the Weisses Haus, along with the firm’s unmarried employees. The Basel into which Bachofen was born was steeped in medieval tradition, but the city was undergoing dramatic change. Between 1779 and 1880, the population of Basel leapt from fifteen thousand to sixty-one thousand, and by the latter half of the nineteenth century, workers were denouncing old relationships of On the Launching Pad 37 patronage and joining together to strike for better conditions and higher wages. These were tumultuous times, but if they touched Bachofen himself, they must have done so mostly subconsciously, for his letters describe Basel as provincial and boring: “An enormous centrifugal force dissipates everything and nothing significant happens.” And: “One day here is very much like another. We get up in the morning, consume four meals, then go to bed again.” Bachofen enjoyed a cosmopolitan education that took him to Germany, France, and England; he also traveled to Italy and Greece. Yet throughout his life, Bachofen remained wedded to his native city. Bred to take his place in Basel’s public life, Bachofen demonstrated his willingness to adhere to this plan, writing one of his earliest compositions, in 1831, on the subject of patriotism. He began his studies at the University of Basel in 1834, studying history and classical philology (historical linguistics), but moving shortly thereafter to Berlin, where Figure 4. Johann Jakob Bachofen (1815–78) as a young man 38 On the Launching Pad he pursued philology and Altertumswissenschaft (the study of antiquity) under Leopold Ranke, August Böckh, and Friedrich Karl von Savigny. These areas of scholarly inquiry were his first and last love, but family plans for his future career as a Basel jurist spurred Bachofen to focus on the law. He transferred to Göttingen , where a tutor drilled him so that he could pass his examinations and thereby complete his legal education. Still, he continued with his scholarly work on Roman law, inspired by his work with Savigny. After taking his degree in law, Bachofen spent a year in Paris, apprenticed to a French lawyer, and another year in England studying English law in London and Cambridge. Bachofen returned to Basel in 1841 and was immediately appointed to a chair of Roman law at the University of Basel. From the start, Bachofen’s appointment was controversial. As a member of the wealthy conservative elite, Bachofen clearly did not need the salary the position provided, and the opposition press did not hesitate to publish this fact. The press further criticized the university for continuing to appoint faculty in traditional fields like philology and law (which often had “more professors than students ”), while “modern subjects” such as the natural sciences, economics, political science, and foreign languages were severely underfunded. Bachofen quickly caved in to the pressure and stopped drawing a salary for his teaching. In 1844, he resigned his position completely. He nevertheless remained devoted to Basel. As...