Band 4: Idee von einem Christlichen Dorfe und andere Texte zur frühen Volksaufklärung

In addition to the early Enlightenment vision of a village utopia developed by the Swiss author Johannes Tobler, this volume contains further texts which were important for popular Enlightenment and which were difficult to access: by M. Claudius, J. G. Hamann, P. von Hohenthal, J. G. Jacobi, J. H. G. von Justi, A. von Knigge, G. E. Lessing, G. Ch. Lichtenberg, Ph. E. Lüders, J. F. Mayer, J. Möser, F. E. von Rochow, J. B. von Rohr, B. Sprenger, J. Tobler, G. H. Zincke among others. They document the discovery of the common people in the German Enlightenment. Just under 100 sources, most of which have not been published for more than two centuries, show how an Enlightenment interested in the welfare of society had evolved from the new orientation of a social class of scholars and educated people and how then the idea originated to provide the common man with the new findings on natural science so that these could be put into practice. The early debates about the goals and the means of enlightening the common man are fascinating, since it was in these that for the first time ideas were expressed stating that in addition to economic enlightenment it would be necessary to create an entire educational movement which was aimed at changing the mentality of the farmers. This also meant a change in the literary instruments of the Enlightenment of the common people.