Requiem für die Ignoranten, SV. 54

● Heinrich Heine, Zur Geschichte der Religion und Philosophie in Deutschland; zuerst erschienen in: »Revue des deux Mondes«, »De L'Allemagne depuis Luther« (Première Partie: März, Deuxième Partie: November, Troisième Partie: Dezember 1834). In: Der Salon Bd. II (1835)

Troisième Partie (third book): ... Christianity - and this is its most beautiful merit - has soothed to some extent that brutal Germanic fighting frenzy, but could not destroy it, and when once the taming talisman, the cross, breaks, then the wildness of the old fighters, the nonsensical berserk rage, of which the Nordic poets sing and say so much, rattle up again. That talisman is rotten, and the day will come when it will collapse miserably; the old stone gods will then rise from the lost rubble and rub the thousand-year-old dust out of their eyes, and Thor with the giant hammer finally jumps up and smashes the Gothic cathedrals. When you then hear the rumbling and clanking, beware, you neighboring children, you Frenchmen, and do not interfere in the business we do at home in Germany. It could get you bad. Beware of igniting the fire, beware of putting it out; you could easily burn your fingers on the flames. Don't smile at my advice, at the advice of a dreamer who warns you of Kantians, Fichteans and natural philosophers. Do not smile at the phantom, who expects the same revolution in the realm of apparitions that has taken place in the realm of the Spirit. The thought precedes the deed, like lightning precedes thunder. The German thunder is, of course, also a German and is not very limber and comes a little slowly rolled up; but it will come, and if you hear it once crack, as it has never cracked in world history, so you know, the German thunder has finally reached its goal. At this sound the eagles will fall from the air dead, and the lions in the farthest desert of Africa will pinch their tails and hide in their royal caves. A play will be performed in Germany, whereas the French Revolution will only appear as a harmless idyll ... And the hour will come. As if on the steps of an amphitheatre, the peoples will group around Germany to watch the great fighting game. I advise you, you Frenchmen, to then remain very still, and be careful not to applaud. We could easily misunderstand that, and, in our rude manner, send you somewhat harshly to rest; for if we could sometimes overwhelm you before, in our servil disenchanted state, we are still far more able to do so in the overmute of the young rush of freedom - you yourselves know what one can do in such a state, and you are no longer in such a state - beware!