Hegel on Tacitus and the Teutonic Freedom

Abstract

A research on the presence (and the absence) of Tacitus in Hegel's work is crucial in order to understand the political and philosophical position of this thinker, particularly in the Jena period. After a few remarks on Hegel's knowledge about the Roman culture and history, an analysis of his notion of "Teutonic freedom" will be undertaken: Hegel fights against the neo-Roman French revolutionaries, but at the same time also against the Teutomaniac essentialism of German conservative thinkers (grounded on a strongly ideological use of Tacitus' "Germania"), as well as against the outdated Imperial institutions. This double opposition places Hegel between two political streams (and moreover, between two fighting armies) and is a manifestation of a position that may be called "mediation without nostalgia”

Keywords

• idealismo alemán
• romanitas
• derecho romano
• latín
• historia de las fuentes
• constitución