Hölderlin’s Ghosts

A madman? A revolutionary? A Swabian idyllic writer? A national war hero? Or the pioneer of modern poetry? Friedrich Hölderlin, the man in the tower, is more hotly disputed than any other German poet. Karl-Heinz Ott retraces the ghosts he evoked, up to the present day.

For many years, a sentence was sprayed on the wall at the entrance to Hölderlin Tower in Tübingen: Hölderlin was a madman! And at the height of the ’68 protests, it was announced in Paris that Hölderlin had only simulated madness, fearing political persecution. When Roter Stern publishing, of all places, started publishing Hölderlin, a fierce ideological war began. Outdated tradition and contemporary confusion were the bogeymen.
In the 19th century Hölderlin was almost unknown; but after his rediscovery by the circle around Stefan George in the 20th century, he became omnipresent. In Karl-Heinz Ott’s essay, which is as witty as it is scholarly, Hölderlin is depicted as the great mirror of Germany, with Tübingen as the frame. This is where Hölderlin spent most of his life, and which he continues to haunt as a fascinating ghost to this day.