Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer
Encyclopedia
Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer (10 December 1790, Brixen
– 26 April 1861) was a Tyrol
ean traveller, journalist, politician and historian, best known for his controversial (some even say racist) theories concerning the racial
origins of the Greeks
, and for his travel writings
.
in Tyrol
. The region was at the time of Fallmerayer's birth subject to the Habsburg Monarchy
, in 1805 it became a part of Bavaria
, and is today located in Italy. His parents were small farmers. From the age of seven Fallmerayer attended the local school in Tschötsch and worked as a shepherd.
In 1801 the family moved to Brixen, where Fallmerayer's father found employment as a day-laborer. Fallmerayer was enrolled in the Volksschule, where he impressed the priests with his talents. In 1803 he entered the cathedral school as a Gymnasiast
, whence he was graduated in 1809 with a diploma in metaphysics, mathematics, and the philosophy of religion. (The Gymnasium in Brixen today bears Fallmerayer's name). He then left Tyrol, at the time in the midst of a freedom struggle
against Bavaria, for Salzburg
.
In Salzburg Fallmerayer found employment as a private tutor, and enrolled in a Benedictine seminary, where he studied classical, modern, and oriental philology, literature, history, and philosophy. After a year's study he sought to assure to himself the peace and quiet necessary for a student's life by entering the abbey of Kremsmünster, but difficulties put in his way by the Bavaria
n officials prevented the accomplishment of this intention.
At the University of Landshut (today the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich
), to which he removed in 1812, he first applied himself to jurisprudence, but soon devoted his attention exclusively to history and classical and oriental philology. His immediate necessities were provided for by a stipendium from the Bavarian crown.
, Fallmerayer decided to seek his fame in military service and joined the Bavarian infantry as a subaltern
. He fought with distinction at Hanau
on October 30, 1813, and served throughout the campaign in France. He remained in the army of occupation on the banks of the Rhine until the battle of Waterloo
, when he spent six months at Orléans
as adjutant to General von Spreti. Two years of garrison life at Lindau
on Lake Constance
convinced him that his desire for military glory could not be fulfilled, and he devoted himself instead to the study of modern Greek, Persian and Turkish.
Resigning his commission in 1818, he was engaged as a teacher of Latin and Greek in the gymnasium at Augsburg
, where his students included the young Napoleon III. In Augsburg his liberal, anti-clerical, tendencies, which had already begun to develop during his student years, expressed themselves in opposition to the growing ultramontanism
of the Bavarian state.
In 1821 Fallmerayer accepted another position at the Progymnasium in Landshut
, where he continued to teach classical languages, in addition to religion, German, history, and geography. Landshut was at the time still a great university city, and Fallmerayer took advantage of its resources to continue his study of history and languages.
In February 1823 Fallmerayer became aware of a prize offered by the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters
to encourage research into the history of the Empire of Trebizond
. This medieval kingdom, located on the south coast of the Black Sea
, was at the time known only through scattered references in Byzantine and Turkish chronicles. Fallmerayer began to collect additional sources in a number of languages, including Arabic and Persian, from libraries across Europe, and corresponded with various scholars, including Silvestre de Sacy
and Carl Benedict Hase
. In December of the same year Fallmerayer submitted the resulting manuscript to the Danish Academy, and in 1824 he was awarded the prize. Fallmerayer's study, the Geschichte des Kaisertums von Trapezunt, was however not published until 1827.
Fallmerayer attempted to convert his success into professional advancement in the Bavarian educational system. In the fall of 1824 he was named Professor at the Landshut Gymanasium, but in a series of letters to the kings of Bavaria, first to Maximilian I and then, following his death, to Ludwig I
, Fallmerayer requested further funding for his research and a position as a professor at the University of Landshut. These requests were however denied, perhaps on account of Fallmerayer's liberal political views.
In 1826 the University of Landshut was moved to Munich
, the capital of the Bavarian state, while the Munich Lyceum
was moved to Landshut. Fallmerayer was named Professor of History at the latter institution. In the academic year 1826-27 he offered a lecture course on universal history
. His inaugural lecture was marked, once again, by his anti-clericalism and reformist-liberal political views. He returned to these themes in his final lecture, in which he presented a vision of a unified Europe under "the rule of public virtues and of laws." These lectures, together with his distinctly "unpatriotic" lectures on Bavarian history, began to draw criticism from the more conservative elements of the academic establishment.
In 1827 the Geschichte des Kaisertums von Trapezunt was finally published, and met with universal praise from its reviewers, including Barthold Georg Niebuhr
and Carl Hase. The reaction of the Bavarian establishment was somewhat cooler, in part due to the book's preface. Here Fallmerayer had stated as a "law of nature" that the attainment to earthly power by priests leads to the "deepest degradation of the human race."
. In particular, he developed his theory that the ancient, "Hellenic", population of the south Balkans had been replaced during the Migration Period
by Slavic peoples
. A similar idea had already been proposed by the British traveler William Martin Leake
, but Fallmerayer turned it into a theory, which he advocated with characteristic zeal.
The first volume of Fallmerayer's Geschichte der Halbinsel Morea während des Mittelalters appeared in 1830, and he expressed his central theory in the foreword as follows:
This phenomenon was further interpreted by Fallmerayer as an indication of the potential of the "Slavic" nations to overwhelm the "Latin" and the "German", a line of thought which he would later develop in his political writings. He further argued that the Great Powers who had supported the Greek War of Independence
had been led by a "classical intoxication" to misjudge the character of the new Greek state
. Fallmerayer's work was deeply ideological, driven by political motives and aspirations. By fear of a Russian expansion to the Mediterranean, he wanted a strong Ottoman Empire
, and made an appeal to the European forces to abandon their philhellenism
and suppress the Greek War of Independence
against the Turks.
The Geschichte der Halbinsel Morea set Fallmerayer at loggerheads with the European philhellenes
in general, and with the Bavarian King Ludwig I
in particular, a convinced philhellene who already in 1829 had begun to advance the candidacy of his son, Otto
, for the Greek throne (Otto became King of Greece in 1832). Ludwig's philhellenism was in fact grounded in the conviction that the Greek revolt against Ottoman rule represented the return of antique Hellenic virtue. Ludwig's displeasure with Fallmerayer led to a long delay in the confirmation of Fallmerayer's election to the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities
.
The earliest scholarly reviews of Fallmerayer's work were likewise negative. He was accused of philological errors by the Slovenian linguist Jernej Kopitar
, and of misreading the historical sources by the historians Johann Zinkeisen and Carl Hopf. Fallmerayer's ideas caused fierce reaction from various scholars of the newly established Greek state and triggered a search for continuity within Greek historiography, in an attempt to prove the existence of links between modern Greeks and the ancient Greek civilization."
arrived in Munich, seeking a learned companion for an eastward journey. Fallmerayer applied for and received a year-long leave from his teaching duties, and in August 1831 departed from Munich with Ostermann-Tolstoy.
The two sailed first from Trieste
to Alexandria
, planning to arrive in Jerusalem by Christmas. Instead they remained in Egypt for nearly a year, leaving for Palestine in the summer of 1832.
Early in 1833 they sailed for Constantinople
by way of Cyprus
and Rhodes
. In November 1833 Fallmerayer finally set foot in the Morea, where the party remained for a month before travelling north to Attica
. There Fallmerayer was struck by the preponderance of Arvanitika
, an Albanian
dialect. The party arrived in Italy in February 1834, and returned to Munich in August of the same year.
Upon his return Fallmerayer discovered that the Landshut Lyceum had in the meantime been moved to Freising
, and that his position had been eliminated. Behind this early "retirement" lay Fallmerayer's "known convictions, which, particularly in religious matters, are incompatible with the teaching profession." He was instead offered an Ordinarius position as a member of the Bavarian Academy, where his first lecture concerned the "Albanisation
" of the population of Attica. His lecture was answered with an attack on his theories by Friedrich Wilhelm Thiersch, and the two opposing lectures led to a controversy in Munich academic circles, as well as in the popular press.
The controversy had a pointedly political dimension, with Thiersch representing the "Idealpolitik" position, according to which Bavaria should support the Greek state, and Fallmerayer advocating a hands-off "Realpolitik." This political polemic was further provoked by the preface to the second volume of Fallmerayer's Geschichte, published in 1836, in which he wrote that the Greek War of Independence was a "purely Shqiptarian Albania
n, not a Hellenic Revolution." He advocated furthermore the replacement of the German monarchy in Greece by a native regime.
1839 marked the beginning of Fallmerayer's career as a correspondent for the Allgemeine Zeitung
, where he would continue to publish until his death. Fallmerayer's contributions to the AZ included travel essays, book reviews, political columns, and Feuilleton
s.
Fallmerayer soon after left the country again on account of political troubles, and spent the greater part of the next four years in travel, spending the winter of 1839–1840 with Count Tolstoy at Geneva
. Between July 1840 and June 1842 Fallmerayer embarked on his second major journey, setting out from Regensburg
and travelling along the Danube
and across the Black Sea
to Trapezunt. After long stays in Trapezunt, Constantinople, Athos
–Chalkidiki and the rest of Macedonia
, and Athens, he returned to Munich via Trieste and Venice.
Fallmerayer published numerous reports from this journey in the AZ, in which he offered a mix of political observations, restatements and further developments of the Greek theory, and "charming descriptions of Anatolian and Turkish landscapes [that] bear comparison with the best examples of 19th-century Reisebilder (travel images)." During his year-long stay in Constantinople (October 10, 1841 through October 24, 1841), Fallmerayer began to advocate European support of the Ottoman Empire
as a bulwark against the growing influence of the Russian Empire
in the Balkans. These articles were collected and published in 1845 as the Fragmente aus dem Orient, the work on which Fallmerayer's fame as a littérateur largely rests.
Fallmerayer's anti-Russian sentiments were not yet fully developed, and upon his return to Munich in 1842, he was befriended by the Russian poet and diplomat Fyodor Tyutchev
. This latter had been entrusted by Karl Nesselrode
and Alexander von Benckendorff
to find a new spokesperson for Russian interests in Germany. Fallmerayer's Greek thesis had aroused interest in Russian circles, and it was perhaps for this reason that Tyutchev approached Fallmerayer and proposed that he should serve as a journalistic mouthpiece for Czarist policy. Fallmerayer declined, and it has indeed been suggested that his growing opposition to Russian expansionism was provoked by this encounter.
By 1845, when the Fragmente were published, Fallmerayer's distrust of the Tsars had led him to a view of world-historical development that was opposed to the idealistic accounts of Hegel
and of Fallmerayer's most vocal opponent, Thiersch. Instead of steady progress toward freedom, Fallmerayer perceived a fundamental polarity between "East" and "West":
Thiersch once more replied to these polemics in an article, also published in the AZ, arguing that the placement of western-European rulers on the thrones of the new Slavic states in the Balkans would be sufficient to prevent the rise of a "new Byzantine-Hellenic world empire."
Fallmerayer's essays in the AZ drew the attention of the Bavarian Crown Prince Maximilian
, whose political views were significantly more liberal than those of his father. Between 1844 and 1847 Fallmerayer served Maximilian as a mentor, and occasionally as a private tutor, on historical and political questions. His analysis of Balkan politics, commissioned by Maximilian in 1844, is preserved.
In May 1847 Fallmerayer set out on his third and final eastern journey, leaving from Munich for Trieste, whence he sailed to Athens, where he had an audience with King Otto
. By June he had arrived in Büyükdere, the summer residence of the Constantinople elite, where he remained for four months before travelling south to the Holy Land via Bursa and İzmir
. In January 1848 he sailed from Beirut back to İzmir, where he stayed until his return to Munich. Fallmerayer's contributions to the AZ from this period emphasized the strength of Ottoman rule and reformist tendencies in the Turkish government, which he contrasted to the "desolate" condition of the Kingdom of Greece
.
, where he was to replace the recently deceased Johann Joseph von Görres
. Fallmerayer, still in İzmir, received the news in March and, completely surprised, returned immediately to Munich.
Fallmerayer never offered a single class at the University, however, for on April 25, before the beginning of the summer semester, he was chosen as a Bavarian delegate to the Frankfurt Parliament
, a product of the Revolutions of 1848
. In May, Fallmerayer's former pupil Maximilian II, King of Bavaria since the abdication of his father in March, called on Fallmerayer to serve as his political advisor, in which role he served until the end of 1848.
As the parliamentary debates turned in August toward the relationship between church and state, Fallmerayer assumed an uncompromising anti-clerical stance, and his reputation among the left delegates increased. In October he supported a series of motions put forward by the far-left faction. In January 1848 he again supported the far-left proposal according to which the new, united Germany was to be led by a democratically-elected president. In June, finally, he followed the radical Rumpfparlament, which represented the last attempt to preserve the parliamentary structure that had been established in 1848, to Stuttgart
. The Bavarian regime had forbidden its delegates to participate in the Stuttgart Parliament, and following its forcible break-up on June 18 by Württembergian
troops, Fallmerayer fled to Switzerland. In September 1849 his appointment to the faculty of the University of Munich was revoked by Maximilian II. In December 1849 the Bavarian members of the Stuttgart Parliament were offered amnesty, and in April 1850 Fallmerayer returned to Munich.
delivered an "explosive" lecture at a public session of the Bavarian Academy, where he denounced the arrival in Bavaria of a "philosophical Left", marked by liberalism and irreligiosity, that viewed all religion as a "pathological condition." Fallmerayer was present at the lecture and viewed it as an opportunity to reenter the public sphere. His reply was published in January in the Leipzig Blätter für literarische Unterhaltung, a liberal journal that had been founded by Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus
. There he not only responded to Ringseis' account, but furthermore expressed his general opinions on the function of academic institutions, and advocated the "Right to Free Research and Free Speech." He also made a number of unflattering remarks regarding Ringseis' personal appearance.
In reaction the ultramontanist party in Munich launched an organized offensive, in both the press and in official circles, to discredit Fallmerayer. An article published in the Tiroler Zeitung claimed that, as a result of unspecified transgressions committed in Athens, Fallmerayer had been punished by rhaphanidosis
. On January 25, Peter Ernst von Lasaulx
proposed the formation of a commission to consider Fallmerayer's expulsion from the Academy; despite a spirited defense of Fallmerayer by Leonhard von Spengel
, the motion was passed with a vote of 10 to 8. The commission was formed in March, and while it declined to expel Fallmerayer, resolved to compose an official rebuke, which was published in the AZ on March 12.
In his last decade Fallmerayer continued to publish a stream of political and cultural articles, in particular in the journals Donau and Deutsches Museum. With the outbreak of the Crimean War
in 1854, Fallmerayer's activity as correspondent for the AZ once more increased. In this conflict he naturally supported the European-Ottoman coalition against the Czar. He also returned to more academic pursuits, devoting particular attention to a series of publications on the medieval history of Albania
.
Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer died in Munich on April 26, 1861, as a result of weakness of the heart. The last entry in his diary, written the previous evening, reads Fahle Sonne (meaning "pale sun").
, as discoverer of the divisive Greek theory, as a prophet of the world-historical opposition between Occident and Orient, and finally as a brilliant essayist." Fallmerayer has been described as "one of the greatest German stylists," and the Fragmente aus dem Orient is a classic of German travel literature.
Fallmerayer was one of three scholars (together with Gottlieb Lukas Friedrich Tafel and Georg Martin Thomas) who laid the foundation for Byzantinistik (Byzantine studies) as a self-sufficient academic discipline in Germany. Their achievements were crowned in the following generation by the establishment of the first German Lehrstuhl for Byzantinstik at Munich, whose first occupant was Karl Krumbacher
.
Among Fallmerayer's scholarly contributions to Byzantine studies, only the History of the Empire of Trebizond is still cited as an authority. His general characterization of Byzantine society has also on occasion been revived, most notably by Romilly Jenkins. His Greek theory was already widely disputed in his lifetime, and is not accepted today. Its primary significance was as a "strong impetus for research in Byzantine as well as in modern Greek studies." Early criticisms were published by the Austrian scholar Bartholomaeus Kopitar, Friedrich Thiersch
, Johann Wilhelm Zinkeisen, and by George Finlay
.
Fallmerayer's work played a decisive role in the development of Byzantine history as a discipline in Greece, where a number of late 19th- and early 20th-century scholars sought to disprove the thesis of Greek racial discontinuity (notable examples include Kyriakos Pittakis and Constantine Paparrigopoulos; Paparrigopoulos demonstrated in 1843 that Fallmerayer's theory had many pitfalls)). On account of his insistence on the Slavic origin of the modern Greeks, Fallmerayer was considered a pan-Slavist
by many in Greece, a characterization which in any case stood in opposition to his actual writings on contemporary politics. Fallmerayer's name eventually became "a symbol for hatred of the Greeks", and Nikos Dimou
wrote (only partly in jest) that he had been raised to imagine Fallmerayer as a "blood-dripping Greek-eater" (αιμοσταγή ελληνοφάγο). In the twentieth century the charge of "neo-Fallmerayerism" was occasionally used by Greek scholars in an attempt to discredit the work of certain Western European scholars, including Cyril Mango
, whose work bore no actual relation to Fallmerayer's. (The charge was also heard outside of Greece, for example, in the course of a debate between Kenneth Setton
and Peter Charanis
.) The first modern Greek translation of Fallmerayer's work appeared in 1984.
Fallmerayer's account of the split between "Occident" and "Orient" hinged on his interpretation of the Russian Empire, which he perceived as a powerful blend of Slavic ethnic characteristics, Byzantine political philosophy, and Orthodox theology. Although he initially perceived this constellation with admiration, and viewed Russia as the potential savior of Europe from Napoleon
, his view changed in the mid 1840s, perhaps as a result of his encounter with Fyodor Tyutchev
, and he soon came to see Russia as the major threat to Western Europe. By the late 1840s he was convinced that Russia would conquer Constantinople and the Balkans, and perhaps further the Slavic lands of the Habsburg and Prussian Empires. In the mid-1850s he was overjoyed by the success of the European/Ottoman coalition in the Crimean War
. Fallmerayer's account of East and West represented a crucial break from Hegel
's idealistic philosophy of history, and has been characterized as a precursor to Samuel P. Huntington
's "Clash of Civilizations
" thesis.
who had recently supported the creation of the modern Greek kingdom
suspected political motivations in his writings; namely an Austrian desire for expansion southwards into the Balkans, and Austrian antagonism to Russian interests in the area reflected in his other writings. In this context, the calls by English and French intellectuals for a revival of "the glory that was Greece" were seen by Austrians in a very negative light, and any Austrian theory on the Greeks was looked on with suspicion by the philhellenes in the West.
Fallmerayer was first among his contemporaries to put forward a ruthless Realpolitik
on the Eastern Question
and the expansionist designs of Czarist Russia. He was a Slavophobe and "argued vehemently that only a strong Ottoman State could prevent Russian expansion into Western Europe."
Fallmerayer's theory was popular as part of the Nazi propaganda
in Axis occupied Greece (1941-1944) during World War II
; while classical educated Nazi officers, used it as an excuse to commit numerous atrocities against the Greek population.
At Google Books:
Brixen
Brixen is the name of two cities in the Alps:*Brixen, South Tyrol, Italy*Brixen im Thale, Tyrol, AustriaBrixen may also refer to:*Bishopric of Brixen, the former north-Italian state....
– 26 April 1861) was a Tyrol
County of Tyrol
The County of Tyrol, Princely County from 1504, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire, from 1814 a province of the Austrian Empire and from 1867 a Cisleithanian crown land of Austria-Hungary...
ean traveller, journalist, politician and historian, best known for his controversial (some even say racist) theories concerning the racial
Racialism
Racialism is an emphasis on race or racial considerations. Currently, racialism entails a belief in the existence and significance of racial categories, but not necessarily that any absolute hierarchy between the races has been demonstrated by a rigorous and comprehensive scientific process...
origins of the Greeks
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
, and for his travel writings
Travel literature
Travel literature is travel writing of literary value. Travel literature typically records the experiences of an author touring a place for the pleasure of travel. An individual work is sometimes called a travelogue or itinerary. Travel literature may be cross-cultural or transnational in focus, or...
.
Education
Fallmerayer was born, the seventh of ten children, in Weiler Pairdorf, a village in Tschötsch near BrixenBrixen
Brixen is the name of two cities in the Alps:*Brixen, South Tyrol, Italy*Brixen im Thale, Tyrol, AustriaBrixen may also refer to:*Bishopric of Brixen, the former north-Italian state....
in Tyrol
County of Tyrol
The County of Tyrol, Princely County from 1504, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire, from 1814 a province of the Austrian Empire and from 1867 a Cisleithanian crown land of Austria-Hungary...
. The region was at the time of Fallmerayer's birth subject to the Habsburg Monarchy
Habsburg Monarchy
The Habsburg Monarchy covered the territories ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg , and then by the successor House of Habsburg-Lorraine , between 1526 and 1867/1918. The Imperial capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, when it was moved to Prague...
, in 1805 it became a part of Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
, and is today located in Italy. His parents were small farmers. From the age of seven Fallmerayer attended the local school in Tschötsch and worked as a shepherd.
In 1801 the family moved to Brixen, where Fallmerayer's father found employment as a day-laborer. Fallmerayer was enrolled in the Volksschule, where he impressed the priests with his talents. In 1803 he entered the cathedral school as a Gymnasiast
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
, whence he was graduated in 1809 with a diploma in metaphysics, mathematics, and the philosophy of religion. (The Gymnasium in Brixen today bears Fallmerayer's name). He then left Tyrol, at the time in the midst of a freedom struggle
Andreas Hofer
Andreas Hofer was a Tirolean innkeeper and patriot. He was the leader of a rebellion against Napoleon's forces....
against Bavaria, for Salzburg
Salzburg
-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...
.
In Salzburg Fallmerayer found employment as a private tutor, and enrolled in a Benedictine seminary, where he studied classical, modern, and oriental philology, literature, history, and philosophy. After a year's study he sought to assure to himself the peace and quiet necessary for a student's life by entering the abbey of Kremsmünster, but difficulties put in his way by the Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
n officials prevented the accomplishment of this intention.
At the University of Landshut (today the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich
Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich
The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich , commonly known as the University of Munich or LMU, is a university in Munich, Germany...
), to which he removed in 1812, he first applied himself to jurisprudence, but soon devoted his attention exclusively to history and classical and oriental philology. His immediate necessities were provided for by a stipendium from the Bavarian crown.
Early career
In the fall of 1813, in the midst of the Napoleonic WarsNapoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
, Fallmerayer decided to seek his fame in military service and joined the Bavarian infantry as a subaltern
Subaltern (rank)
A subaltern is a chiefly British military term for a junior officer. Literally meaning "subordinate," subaltern is used to describe commissioned officers below the rank of captain and generally comprises the various grades of lieutenant. In the British Army the senior subaltern rank was...
. He fought with distinction at Hanau
Hanau
Hanau is a town in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is located 25 km east of Frankfurt am Main. Its station is a major railway junction.- Geography :...
on October 30, 1813, and served throughout the campaign in France. He remained in the army of occupation on the banks of the Rhine until the battle of Waterloo
Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands...
, when he spent six months at Orléans
Orléans
-Prehistory and Roman:Cenabum was a Gallic stronghold, one of the principal towns of the Carnutes tribe where the Druids held their annual assembly. It was conquered and destroyed by Julius Caesar in 52 BC, then rebuilt under the Roman Empire...
as adjutant to General von Spreti. Two years of garrison life at Lindau
Lindau
Lindau is a Bavarian town and an island on the eastern side of Lake Constance, the Bodensee. It is the capital of the Landkreis or rural district of Lindau. The historic city of Lindau is located on an island which is connected with the mainland by bridge and railway.- History :The name Lindau was...
on Lake Constance
Lake Constance
Lake Constance is a lake on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps, and consists of three bodies of water: the Obersee , the Untersee , and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhein.The lake is situated in Germany, Switzerland and Austria near the Alps...
convinced him that his desire for military glory could not be fulfilled, and he devoted himself instead to the study of modern Greek, Persian and Turkish.
Resigning his commission in 1818, he was engaged as a teacher of Latin and Greek in the gymnasium at Augsburg
Augsburg
Augsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. It is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...
, where his students included the young Napoleon III. In Augsburg his liberal, anti-clerical, tendencies, which had already begun to develop during his student years, expressed themselves in opposition to the growing ultramontanism
Ultramontanism
Ultramontanism is a religious philosophy within the Roman Catholic community that places strong emphasis on the prerogatives and powers of the Pope...
of the Bavarian state.
In 1821 Fallmerayer accepted another position at the Progymnasium in Landshut
Landshut
Landshut is a city in Bavaria in the south-east of Germany, belonging to both Eastern and Southern Bavaria. Situated on the banks of the River Isar, Landshut is the capital of Lower Bavaria, one of the seven administrative regions of the Free State of Bavaria. It is also the seat of the...
, where he continued to teach classical languages, in addition to religion, German, history, and geography. Landshut was at the time still a great university city, and Fallmerayer took advantage of its resources to continue his study of history and languages.
In February 1823 Fallmerayer became aware of a prize offered by the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters
Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters
Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters is a Danish non-governmental science Academy, founded 13 November 1742 by permission of the King Christian VI, as a historical Collegium Antiquitatum...
to encourage research into the history of the Empire of Trebizond
Empire of Trebizond
The Empire of Trebizond, founded in April 1204, was one of three Byzantine successor states of the Byzantine Empire. However, the creation of the Empire of Trebizond was not directly related to the capture of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade, rather it had broken away from the Byzantine Empire...
. This medieval kingdom, located on the south coast of the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
, was at the time known only through scattered references in Byzantine and Turkish chronicles. Fallmerayer began to collect additional sources in a number of languages, including Arabic and Persian, from libraries across Europe, and corresponded with various scholars, including Silvestre de Sacy
Silvestre de Sacy
Antoine Isaac, Baron Silvestre de Sacy , was a French linguist and orientalist. His son, Ustazade Silvestre de Sacy, became a journalist.-Early life:...
and Carl Benedict Hase
Carl Benedict Hase
Carl Benedict Hase , French Hellenist, of German extraction, was born at Sulza near Naumburg.Having studied at Jena and Helmstedt, in 1801 he made his way on foot to Paris, where he was commissioned by the comte de Choiseul-Gouffier, late ambassador to Constantinople, to edit the works of Joannes...
. In December of the same year Fallmerayer submitted the resulting manuscript to the Danish Academy, and in 1824 he was awarded the prize. Fallmerayer's study, the Geschichte des Kaisertums von Trapezunt, was however not published until 1827.
Fallmerayer attempted to convert his success into professional advancement in the Bavarian educational system. In the fall of 1824 he was named Professor at the Landshut Gymanasium, but in a series of letters to the kings of Bavaria, first to Maximilian I and then, following his death, to Ludwig I
Ludwig I of Bavaria
Ludwig I was a German king of Bavaria from 1825 until the 1848 revolutions in the German states.-Crown prince:...
, Fallmerayer requested further funding for his research and a position as a professor at the University of Landshut. These requests were however denied, perhaps on account of Fallmerayer's liberal political views.
In 1826 the University of Landshut was moved to Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, the capital of the Bavarian state, while the Munich Lyceum
Lyceum
The lyceum is a category of educational institution defined within the education system of many countries, mainly in Europe. The definition varies between countries; usually it is a type of secondary school.-History:...
was moved to Landshut. Fallmerayer was named Professor of History at the latter institution. In the academic year 1826-27 he offered a lecture course on universal history
Universal history
Universal history is basic to the Western tradition of historiography, especially the Abrahamic wellspring of that tradition. Simply stated, universal history is the presentation of the history of humankind as a whole, as a coherent unit.-Ancient authors:...
. His inaugural lecture was marked, once again, by his anti-clericalism and reformist-liberal political views. He returned to these themes in his final lecture, in which he presented a vision of a unified Europe under "the rule of public virtues and of laws." These lectures, together with his distinctly "unpatriotic" lectures on Bavarian history, began to draw criticism from the more conservative elements of the academic establishment.
In 1827 the Geschichte des Kaisertums von Trapezunt was finally published, and met with universal praise from its reviewers, including Barthold Georg Niebuhr
Barthold Georg Niebuhr
Barthold Georg Niebuhr was a Danish-German statesman and historian who became Germany's leading historian of Ancient Rome and a founding father of modern scholarly historiography. Classical Rome caught the admiration of German thinkers...
and Carl Hase. The reaction of the Bavarian establishment was somewhat cooler, in part due to the book's preface. Here Fallmerayer had stated as a "law of nature" that the attainment to earthly power by priests leads to the "deepest degradation of the human race."
The Greek theory
Following the publication of his Trebizond study, Fallmerayer devoted his scholarly activities to another Greek-speaking region of the Middle Ages, namely, the MoreaMorea
The Morea was the name of the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece during the Middle Ages and the early modern period. It also referred to a Byzantine province in the region, known as the Despotate of Morea.-Origins of the name:...
. In particular, he developed his theory that the ancient, "Hellenic", population of the south Balkans had been replaced during the Migration Period
Migration Period
The Migration Period, also called the Barbarian Invasions , was a period of intensified human migration in Europe that occurred from c. 400 to 800 CE. This period marked the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages...
by Slavic peoples
Slavic peoples
The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
. A similar idea had already been proposed by the British traveler William Martin Leake
William Martin Leake
William Martin Leake, FRS , British antiquarian and topographer, was born in London.After completing his education at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and spending four years in the West Indies as lieutenant of marine artillery, he was sent by the government to Constantinople to instruct the...
, but Fallmerayer turned it into a theory, which he advocated with characteristic zeal.
The first volume of Fallmerayer's Geschichte der Halbinsel Morea während des Mittelalters appeared in 1830, and he expressed his central theory in the foreword as follows:
The race of the Hellenes has been wiped out in Europe. Physical beauty, intellectual brilliance, innate harmony and simplicity, art, competition, city, village, the splendour of column and temple — indeed, even the name has disappeared from the surface of the Greek continent.... Not the slightest drop of undiluted Hellenic blood flows in the veins of the Christian population of present-day Greece.
This phenomenon was further interpreted by Fallmerayer as an indication of the potential of the "Slavic" nations to overwhelm the "Latin" and the "German", a line of thought which he would later develop in his political writings. He further argued that the Great Powers who had supported the Greek War of Independence
Greek War of Independence
The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution was a successful war of independence waged by the Greek revolutionaries between...
had been led by a "classical intoxication" to misjudge the character of the new Greek state
History of modern Greece
The history of modern Greece covers the history of Greece from the recognition of independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1832 after the Greek War of Independence to the present day.- Background :In 1821, the Greeks rose up against the Ottoman Empire...
. Fallmerayer's work was deeply ideological, driven by political motives and aspirations. By fear of a Russian expansion to the Mediterranean, he wanted a strong Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
, and made an appeal to the European forces to abandon their philhellenism
Philhellenism
Philhellenism was an intellectual fashion prominent at the turn of the 19th century, that led Europeans like Lord Byron or Charles Nicolas Fabvier to advocate for Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire...
and suppress the Greek War of Independence
Greek War of Independence
The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution was a successful war of independence waged by the Greek revolutionaries between...
against the Turks.
The Geschichte der Halbinsel Morea set Fallmerayer at loggerheads with the European philhellenes
Philhellenism
Philhellenism was an intellectual fashion prominent at the turn of the 19th century, that led Europeans like Lord Byron or Charles Nicolas Fabvier to advocate for Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire...
in general, and with the Bavarian King Ludwig I
Ludwig I of Bavaria
Ludwig I was a German king of Bavaria from 1825 until the 1848 revolutions in the German states.-Crown prince:...
in particular, a convinced philhellene who already in 1829 had begun to advance the candidacy of his son, Otto
Otto of Greece
Otto, Prince of Bavaria, then Othon, King of Greece was made the first modern King of Greece in 1832 under the Convention of London, whereby Greece became a new independent kingdom under the protection of the Great Powers .The second son of the philhellene King Ludwig I of Bavaria, Otto ascended...
, for the Greek throne (Otto became King of Greece in 1832). Ludwig's philhellenism was in fact grounded in the conviction that the Greek revolt against Ottoman rule represented the return of antique Hellenic virtue. Ludwig's displeasure with Fallmerayer led to a long delay in the confirmation of Fallmerayer's election to the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities
Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities
The Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities is an independent public institution, located in Munich. It appoints scholars whose research has contributed considerably to the increase of knowledge within their subject...
.
The earliest scholarly reviews of Fallmerayer's work were likewise negative. He was accused of philological errors by the Slovenian linguist Jernej Kopitar
Jernej Kopitar
Jernej Bartol Kopitar was a Slovene linguist and philologist working in Vienna. He also worked as the Imperial censor for Slovene literature in Vienna...
, and of misreading the historical sources by the historians Johann Zinkeisen and Carl Hopf. Fallmerayer's ideas caused fierce reaction from various scholars of the newly established Greek state and triggered a search for continuity within Greek historiography, in an attempt to prove the existence of links between modern Greeks and the ancient Greek civilization."
Travels
Upset by the critical reaction to his Morea study, Fallmerayer resolved to travel abroad to collect material for the projected second volume. An opportunity presented itself when the Russian Count Alexander Ivanovich Ostermann-TolstoyAlexander Ivanovich Ostermann-Tolstoy
Alexander Ivanovich Count Osterman-Tolstoy was a Russian nobleman and soldier in the era of the French Revolutionary Wars...
arrived in Munich, seeking a learned companion for an eastward journey. Fallmerayer applied for and received a year-long leave from his teaching duties, and in August 1831 departed from Munich with Ostermann-Tolstoy.
The two sailed first from Trieste
Trieste
Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...
to Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
, planning to arrive in Jerusalem by Christmas. Instead they remained in Egypt for nearly a year, leaving for Palestine in the summer of 1832.
Early in 1833 they sailed for Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
by way of Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
and Rhodes
Rhodes
Rhodes is an island in Greece, located in the eastern Aegean Sea. It is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of both land area and population, with a population of 117,007, and also the island group's historical capital. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within...
. In November 1833 Fallmerayer finally set foot in the Morea, where the party remained for a month before travelling north to Attica
Attica
Attica is a historical region of Greece, containing Athens, the current capital of Greece. The historical region is centered on the Attic peninsula, which projects into the Aegean Sea...
. There Fallmerayer was struck by the preponderance of Arvanitika
Arvanitika
Arvanitika also known Arvanitic is the variety of Albanian traditionally spoken by the Arvanites, a population group in Greece...
, an Albanian
Albanian language
Albanian is an Indo-European language spoken by approximately 7.6 million people, primarily in Albania and Kosovo but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an Albanian population, including western Macedonia, southern Montenegro, southern Serbia and northwestern Greece...
dialect. The party arrived in Italy in February 1834, and returned to Munich in August of the same year.
Upon his return Fallmerayer discovered that the Landshut Lyceum had in the meantime been moved to Freising
Freising
Freising is a town in Bavaria, Germany, and capital of the district Freising. Total population 48,500.The city is located north of Munich at the Isar river, near the Munich International Airport...
, and that his position had been eliminated. Behind this early "retirement" lay Fallmerayer's "known convictions, which, particularly in religious matters, are incompatible with the teaching profession." He was instead offered an Ordinarius position as a member of the Bavarian Academy, where his first lecture concerned the "Albanisation
Albanisation
Albanisation is a term used to describe a linguistic or cultural assimilation to the Albanian language and Albanian culture.- In Kosovo :The term is used in reference to Kosovo....
" of the population of Attica. His lecture was answered with an attack on his theories by Friedrich Wilhelm Thiersch, and the two opposing lectures led to a controversy in Munich academic circles, as well as in the popular press.
The controversy had a pointedly political dimension, with Thiersch representing the "Idealpolitik" position, according to which Bavaria should support the Greek state, and Fallmerayer advocating a hands-off "Realpolitik." This political polemic was further provoked by the preface to the second volume of Fallmerayer's Geschichte, published in 1836, in which he wrote that the Greek War of Independence was a "purely Shqiptarian Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
n, not a Hellenic Revolution." He advocated furthermore the replacement of the German monarchy in Greece by a native regime.
1839 marked the beginning of Fallmerayer's career as a correspondent for the Allgemeine Zeitung
Allgemeine Zeitung
The Allgemeine Zeitung was in the first part of the 19th century the leading political daily journal in Germany. It has been widely recognised as the first world class German journal and is a symbol of the German press abroad....
, where he would continue to publish until his death. Fallmerayer's contributions to the AZ included travel essays, book reviews, political columns, and Feuilleton
Feuilleton
Feuilleton was originally a kind of supplement attached to the political portion of French newspapers, consisting chiefly of non-political news and gossip, literature and art criticism, a chronicle of the latest fashions, and epigrams, charades and other literary trifles...
s.
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
. Between July 1840 and June 1842 Fallmerayer embarked on his second major journey, setting out from Regensburg
Regensburg
Regensburg is a city in Bavaria, Germany, located at the confluence of the Danube and Regen rivers, at the northernmost bend in the Danube. To the east lies the Bavarian Forest. Regensburg is the capital of the Bavarian administrative region Upper Palatinate...
and travelling along the Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
and across the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
to Trapezunt. After long stays in Trapezunt, Constantinople, Athos
Athos
Athos may refer to:* Athos , one of the Gigantes in Greek mythologyAthos may also refer to:-Places:* Athos, a village in France, part of the commune Athos-Aspis...
–Chalkidiki and the rest of Macedonia
Macedonia (region)
Macedonia is a geographical and historical region of the Balkan peninsula in southeastern Europe. Its boundaries have changed considerably over time, but nowadays the region is considered to include parts of five Balkan countries: Greece, the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, Serbia, as...
, and Athens, he returned to Munich via Trieste and Venice.
Fallmerayer published numerous reports from this journey in the AZ, in which he offered a mix of political observations, restatements and further developments of the Greek theory, and "charming descriptions of Anatolian and Turkish landscapes [that] bear comparison with the best examples of 19th-century Reisebilder (travel images)." During his year-long stay in Constantinople (October 10, 1841 through October 24, 1841), Fallmerayer began to advocate European support of the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
as a bulwark against the growing influence of the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
in the Balkans. These articles were collected and published in 1845 as the Fragmente aus dem Orient, the work on which Fallmerayer's fame as a littérateur largely rests.
Fallmerayer's anti-Russian sentiments were not yet fully developed, and upon his return to Munich in 1842, he was befriended by the Russian poet and diplomat Fyodor Tyutchev
Fyodor Tyutchev
Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev is generally considered the last of three great Romantic poets of Russia, following Alexander Pushkin and Mikhail Lermontov.- Life :...
. This latter had been entrusted by Karl Nesselrode
Karl Nesselrode
Baltic-German Count Karl Robert Nesselrode, also known as Charles de Nesselrode, was a Russian diplomat and a leading European conservative statesman of the Holy Alliance...
and Alexander von Benckendorff
Alexander von Benckendorff
Count Alexander von Benckendorff, was a Russian Infantry General and statesman, Adjutant General of the H. I. M. Retinue and a commander in the Patriotic War of 1812 best remembered for having established the Gendarmes in Russia....
to find a new spokesperson for Russian interests in Germany. Fallmerayer's Greek thesis had aroused interest in Russian circles, and it was perhaps for this reason that Tyutchev approached Fallmerayer and proposed that he should serve as a journalistic mouthpiece for Czarist policy. Fallmerayer declined, and it has indeed been suggested that his growing opposition to Russian expansionism was provoked by this encounter.
By 1845, when the Fragmente were published, Fallmerayer's distrust of the Tsars had led him to a view of world-historical development that was opposed to the idealistic accounts of Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was a German philosopher, one of the creators of German Idealism. His historicist and idealist account of reality as a whole revolutionized European philosophy and was an important precursor to Continental philosophy and Marxism.Hegel developed a comprehensive...
and of Fallmerayer's most vocal opponent, Thiersch. Instead of steady progress toward freedom, Fallmerayer perceived a fundamental polarity between "East" and "West":
For nearly eighteen aeons [Äonen], all history has been the result of the struggle between two basic elements, split apart by a divine power from the very beginning: a flexible life-process on the one side, and a formless, undeveloped stasis on the other. The symbol of the former is eternal Rome, with the entire Occident lying behind her; the symbol of the latter is Constantinople, with the ossified Orient.... That the Slavs might be one of the two world-factors, or if one prefers, the shadow of the shining image of European humanity, and therefore that the constitution of the earth might not admit philosophical reconstruction without their assent, is the great scholarly heresy of our time.
Fallmerayer's essays in the AZ drew the attention of the Bavarian Crown Prince Maximilian
Maximilian II of Bavaria
Maximilian II of Bavaria was king of Bavaria from 1848 until 1864. He was son of Ludwig I of Bavaria and Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen.-Crown Prince:...
, whose political views were significantly more liberal than those of his father. Between 1844 and 1847 Fallmerayer served Maximilian as a mentor, and occasionally as a private tutor, on historical and political questions. His analysis of Balkan politics, commissioned by Maximilian in 1844, is preserved.
In May 1847 Fallmerayer set out on his third and final eastern journey, leaving from Munich for Trieste, whence he sailed to Athens, where he had an audience with King Otto
Otto of Greece
Otto, Prince of Bavaria, then Othon, King of Greece was made the first modern King of Greece in 1832 under the Convention of London, whereby Greece became a new independent kingdom under the protection of the Great Powers .The second son of the philhellene King Ludwig I of Bavaria, Otto ascended...
. By June he had arrived in Büyükdere, the summer residence of the Constantinople elite, where he remained for four months before travelling south to the Holy Land via Bursa and İzmir
Izmir
Izmir is a large metropolis in the western extremity of Anatolia. The metropolitan area in the entire Izmir Province had a population of 3.35 million as of 2010, making the city third most populous in Turkey...
. In January 1848 he sailed from Beirut back to İzmir, where he stayed until his return to Munich. Fallmerayer's contributions to the AZ from this period emphasized the strength of Ottoman rule and reformist tendencies in the Turkish government, which he contrasted to the "desolate" condition of the Kingdom of Greece
Kingdom of Greece
The Kingdom of Greece was a state established in 1832 in the Convention of London by the Great Powers...
.
1848
Already in 1847 Ludwig I of Bavaria had initiated a liberal-leaning reform of the Bavarian educational system, and on February 23, 1848, he appointed Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer Professor Ordinarius for History at the Ludwig Maximilians University of MunichLudwig Maximilians University of Munich
The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich , commonly known as the University of Munich or LMU, is a university in Munich, Germany...
, where he was to replace the recently deceased Johann Joseph von Görres
Johann Joseph von Görres
Johann Joseph von Görres was a German writer and journalist.-Early life:Görres was born at Koblenz. His father was moderately well off, and sent his son to a Latin college under the direction of the Roman Catholic clergy...
. Fallmerayer, still in İzmir, received the news in March and, completely surprised, returned immediately to Munich.
Fallmerayer never offered a single class at the University, however, for on April 25, before the beginning of the summer semester, he was chosen as a Bavarian delegate to the Frankfurt Parliament
Frankfurt Parliament
The Frankfurt Assembly was the first freely elected parliament for all of Germany. Session was held from May 18, 1848 to May 31, 1849 in the Paulskirche at Frankfurt am Main...
, a product of the Revolutions of 1848
Revolutions of 1848 in the German states
The Revolutions of 1848 in the German states, also called the March Revolution – part of the Revolutions of 1848 that broke out in many countries of Europe – were a series of loosely coordinated protests and rebellions in the states of the German Confederation, including the Austrian Empire...
. In May, Fallmerayer's former pupil Maximilian II, King of Bavaria since the abdication of his father in March, called on Fallmerayer to serve as his political advisor, in which role he served until the end of 1848.
As the parliamentary debates turned in August toward the relationship between church and state, Fallmerayer assumed an uncompromising anti-clerical stance, and his reputation among the left delegates increased. In October he supported a series of motions put forward by the far-left faction. In January 1848 he again supported the far-left proposal according to which the new, united Germany was to be led by a democratically-elected president. In June, finally, he followed the radical Rumpfparlament, which represented the last attempt to preserve the parliamentary structure that had been established in 1848, to Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
. The Bavarian regime had forbidden its delegates to participate in the Stuttgart Parliament, and following its forcible break-up on June 18 by Württembergian
History of Württemberg
Württemberg developed as a political entity in south-west Germany, with the core established around Stuttgart by Count Conrad . His descendants managed to expand Württemberg, surviving Germany's religious wars, changes in imperial policy, and invasions from France. The state had a basic...
troops, Fallmerayer fled to Switzerland. In September 1849 his appointment to the faculty of the University of Munich was revoked by Maximilian II. In December 1849 the Bavarian members of the Stuttgart Parliament were offered amnesty, and in April 1850 Fallmerayer returned to Munich.
Late years
Shortly after Fallmerayer's return to Munich, in November 1850, the Munich Professor Johann Nepomuk von RingseisJohann Nepomuk von Ringseis
Johann Nepomuk von Ringseis was a German physician born in Schwarzhofen, Oberpfalz.He received his education at the University of Landshut, where he was a student of Andreas Röschlaub . Afterwards he furthered his studies in Vienna and Berlin , and in 1816 moved to Munich as a personal physician...
delivered an "explosive" lecture at a public session of the Bavarian Academy, where he denounced the arrival in Bavaria of a "philosophical Left", marked by liberalism and irreligiosity, that viewed all religion as a "pathological condition." Fallmerayer was present at the lecture and viewed it as an opportunity to reenter the public sphere. His reply was published in January in the Leipzig Blätter für literarische Unterhaltung, a liberal journal that had been founded by Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus
Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus
Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus was a German encyclopedia publisher and editor, famed for publishing the Conversations-Lexikon, which is now published as the Brockhaus encyclopedia.-Biography:...
. There he not only responded to Ringseis' account, but furthermore expressed his general opinions on the function of academic institutions, and advocated the "Right to Free Research and Free Speech." He also made a number of unflattering remarks regarding Ringseis' personal appearance.
Rhaphanidosis
Rhaphanidosis is the act of inserting the root of a plant of the raphanus genus into the anus. It is reported to have been a punishment for adultery in ancient Athens of the 5th and 4th centuries BC...
. On January 25, Peter Ernst von Lasaulx
Peter Ernst von Lasaulx
Peter Ernst von Lasaulx was born on March 16, 1805 in Koblenz, the eldest son of well-known architect, Johann Claudius von Lasaulx and his wife, Anna Maria Müller . He was named for his grandfather, Peter Ernst Joseph von Lasaulx , who served as Syndic for Koblenz...
proposed the formation of a commission to consider Fallmerayer's expulsion from the Academy; despite a spirited defense of Fallmerayer by Leonhard von Spengel
Leonhard von Spengel
Leonhard von Spengel was a German classical scholar, born at Munich. He became known through his edition of Varro's De Lingua Latina and was appointed in 1826 lector, in 1830 professor in the Wilhelmsgymnasiun of Munich. From 1842 to 1847 he was professor at Heidelberg, but he returned to Munich...
, the motion was passed with a vote of 10 to 8. The commission was formed in March, and while it declined to expel Fallmerayer, resolved to compose an official rebuke, which was published in the AZ on March 12.
In his last decade Fallmerayer continued to publish a stream of political and cultural articles, in particular in the journals Donau and Deutsches Museum. With the outbreak of the Crimean War
Crimean War
The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...
in 1854, Fallmerayer's activity as correspondent for the AZ once more increased. In this conflict he naturally supported the European-Ottoman coalition against the Czar. He also returned to more academic pursuits, devoting particular attention to a series of publications on the medieval history of Albania
Albania in the Middle Ages
The Middle Ages in Albania is that period that starts after the region that is now Albania in the Byzantine Empire, until their incorporation in the Ottoman Empire....
.
Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer died in Munich on April 26, 1861, as a result of weakness of the heart. The last entry in his diary, written the previous evening, reads Fahle Sonne (meaning "pale sun").
Contributions
Fallmerayer is considered one of the great 19th-century intellectuals in the German-speaking world. He is remembered as "a co-founder of Byzantine studiesByzantine studies
Byzantine studies is an interdisciplinary branch of the humanities that addresses the history, culture, costumes, religion, art, such as literature and music, science, economy, and politics of the Byzantine Empire. The discipline's founder in Germany is considered to be the philologist Hieronymus...
, as discoverer of the divisive Greek theory, as a prophet of the world-historical opposition between Occident and Orient, and finally as a brilliant essayist." Fallmerayer has been described as "one of the greatest German stylists," and the Fragmente aus dem Orient is a classic of German travel literature.
Fallmerayer was one of three scholars (together with Gottlieb Lukas Friedrich Tafel and Georg Martin Thomas) who laid the foundation for Byzantinistik (Byzantine studies) as a self-sufficient academic discipline in Germany. Their achievements were crowned in the following generation by the establishment of the first German Lehrstuhl for Byzantinstik at Munich, whose first occupant was Karl Krumbacher
Karl Krumbacher
Karl Krumbacher was a German scholar who was an expert on Byzantine culture.He was born at Kürnach im Allgäu in Bavaria, and was educated at the Universities of Munich and Leipzig, and held the professorship of the middle ages and modern Greek language and literature in the former from 1897 to his...
.
Among Fallmerayer's scholarly contributions to Byzantine studies, only the History of the Empire of Trebizond is still cited as an authority. His general characterization of Byzantine society has also on occasion been revived, most notably by Romilly Jenkins. His Greek theory was already widely disputed in his lifetime, and is not accepted today. Its primary significance was as a "strong impetus for research in Byzantine as well as in modern Greek studies." Early criticisms were published by the Austrian scholar Bartholomaeus Kopitar, Friedrich Thiersch
Friedrich Thiersch
Friedrich Wilhelm Thiersch , was a German classical scholar and educationist.-Biography:He was born at Kirchscheidungen...
, Johann Wilhelm Zinkeisen, and by George Finlay
George Finlay
George Finlay was a Scottish historian. He was the brother of Kirkman Finlay.Finlay was born at Faversham, Kent, where his Scottish father, Captain John Finlay FRS, an officer in the Royal Engineers, was inspector of government powder mills. His father died in 1802, and his Scottish mother and...
.
Fallmerayer's work played a decisive role in the development of Byzantine history as a discipline in Greece, where a number of late 19th- and early 20th-century scholars sought to disprove the thesis of Greek racial discontinuity (notable examples include Kyriakos Pittakis and Constantine Paparrigopoulos; Paparrigopoulos demonstrated in 1843 that Fallmerayer's theory had many pitfalls)). On account of his insistence on the Slavic origin of the modern Greeks, Fallmerayer was considered a pan-Slavist
Pan-Slavism
Pan-Slavism was a movement in the mid-19th century aimed at unity of all the Slavic peoples. The main focus was in the Balkans where the South Slavs had been ruled for centuries by other empires, Byzantine Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Venice...
by many in Greece, a characterization which in any case stood in opposition to his actual writings on contemporary politics. Fallmerayer's name eventually became "a symbol for hatred of the Greeks", and Nikos Dimou
Nikos Dimou
Nikos Dimou, born in 1935 in Athens, is a Greek writer. He has worked in advertising and as a columnist for magazines and newspapers.- Biography :...
wrote (only partly in jest) that he had been raised to imagine Fallmerayer as a "blood-dripping Greek-eater" (αιμοσταγή ελληνοφάγο). In the twentieth century the charge of "neo-Fallmerayerism" was occasionally used by Greek scholars in an attempt to discredit the work of certain Western European scholars, including Cyril Mango
Cyril Mango
Cyril Alexander Mango is a British scholar in the history, art, and architecture of the Byzantine Empire. He is a former King's College London and Oxford professor of Byzantine and Modern Greek Language and Literature. He is the brother of Andrew Mango.One of his major works The Mosaics of St...
, whose work bore no actual relation to Fallmerayer's. (The charge was also heard outside of Greece, for example, in the course of a debate between Kenneth Setton
Kenneth Setton
Kenneth Meyer Setton was an American historian and an expert on the history of medieval Europe.- Early life, education and awards :...
and Peter Charanis
Peter Charanis
Peter Charanis was a Greece born American scholar of Byzantium and the Voorhees Professor of History at Rutgers University. Dr. Charanis was long associated with the Dumbarton Oaks research library.Dr. Charanis was born in Lemnos, Greece...
.) The first modern Greek translation of Fallmerayer's work appeared in 1984.
Fallmerayer's account of the split between "Occident" and "Orient" hinged on his interpretation of the Russian Empire, which he perceived as a powerful blend of Slavic ethnic characteristics, Byzantine political philosophy, and Orthodox theology. Although he initially perceived this constellation with admiration, and viewed Russia as the potential savior of Europe from Napoleon
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
, his view changed in the mid 1840s, perhaps as a result of his encounter with Fyodor Tyutchev
Fyodor Tyutchev
Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev is generally considered the last of three great Romantic poets of Russia, following Alexander Pushkin and Mikhail Lermontov.- Life :...
, and he soon came to see Russia as the major threat to Western Europe. By the late 1840s he was convinced that Russia would conquer Constantinople and the Balkans, and perhaps further the Slavic lands of the Habsburg and Prussian Empires. In the mid-1850s he was overjoyed by the success of the European/Ottoman coalition in the Crimean War
Crimean War
The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...
. Fallmerayer's account of East and West represented a crucial break from Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was a German philosopher, one of the creators of German Idealism. His historicist and idealist account of reality as a whole revolutionized European philosophy and was an important precursor to Continental philosophy and Marxism.Hegel developed a comprehensive...
's idealistic philosophy of history, and has been characterized as a precursor to Samuel P. Huntington
Samuel P. Huntington
Samuel Phillips Huntington was an influential American political scientist who wrote highly-regarded books in a half-dozen sub-fields of political science, starting in 1957...
's "Clash of Civilizations
Clash of Civilizations
The Clash of Civilizations is a theory, proposed by political scientist Samuel P. Huntington, that people's cultural and religious identities will be the primary source of conflict in the post-Cold War world....
" thesis.
Political impact of Fallmerayer's Ethnic Theories
In the 1830s, philehellenesPhilhellenism
Philhellenism was an intellectual fashion prominent at the turn of the 19th century, that led Europeans like Lord Byron or Charles Nicolas Fabvier to advocate for Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire...
who had recently supported the creation of the modern Greek kingdom
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
suspected political motivations in his writings; namely an Austrian desire for expansion southwards into the Balkans, and Austrian antagonism to Russian interests in the area reflected in his other writings. In this context, the calls by English and French intellectuals for a revival of "the glory that was Greece" were seen by Austrians in a very negative light, and any Austrian theory on the Greeks was looked on with suspicion by the philhellenes in the West.
Fallmerayer was first among his contemporaries to put forward a ruthless Realpolitik
Realpolitik
Realpolitik refers to politics or diplomacy based primarily on power and on practical and material factors and considerations, rather than ideological notions or moralistic or ethical premises...
on the Eastern Question
Eastern Question
The "Eastern Question", in European history, encompasses the diplomatic and political problems posed by the decay of the Ottoman Empire. The expression does not apply to any one particular problem, but instead includes a variety of issues raised during the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, including...
and the expansionist designs of Czarist Russia. He was a Slavophobe and "argued vehemently that only a strong Ottoman State could prevent Russian expansion into Western Europe."
Fallmerayer's theory was popular as part of the Nazi propaganda
Nazi propaganda
Propaganda, the coordinated attempt to influence public opinion through the use of media, was skillfully used by the NSDAP in the years leading up to and during Adolf Hitler's leadership of Germany...
in Axis occupied Greece (1941-1944) during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
; while classical educated Nazi officers, used it as an excuse to commit numerous atrocities against the Greek population.
Selected works
- 1827: Geschichte des Kaisertums von Trapezunt (History of the Empire of Trebizond) (Munich).
- 1830: Geschichte der Halbinsel Morea während des Mittelalters. Teil 1: Untergang der peloponnesischen Hellenen und Wiederbevölkerung des leeren Bodens durch slavische Volksstämme (History of the Morea Peninsula during the Middle Ages. Part one: Decline of the Peloponnesian Hellenes and repopulation of the empty land by Slavic peoples) (Stuttgart).
- 1835: Welchen Einfluß hatte die Besetzung Griechenlands durch die Slawen auf das Schicksal der Stadt Athen und der Landschaft Attika? Oder nähere Begründung der im ersten Bande der Geschichte der Halbinsel Morea während des Mittelalters aufgestellten Lehre über die Enstehung der heutigen Griechen (What influence did the occupation of Greece by the Slavs have on the fate of the city of Athens and of the countryside of Attica? Or, a more detailed explanation of the theory regarding the origin of the present-day Greeks that was proposed in the first volume of the History of the Morea Peninsula during the Middle Ages) (Stuttgart).
- 1836: Geschichte der Halbinsel Morea während des Mittelalters. Teil 2: Morea, durch innere Kriege zwischen Franken und Byzantinern verwüstet und von albanischen Colonisten überschwemmt, wird endlich von den Türken erobert. Von 1250-1500 nach Christus (Part two: Morea, devastated by internal wars between the Franks and the Byzantines, and inundated by Albanian colonists, is finally captured by the Turks. From 1250 through 1500 A.D.) (Tübingen).
- 1843-44: Originalfragmente, Chroniken, Inschriften und anderes Material zur Geschichte des Kaisertums Trapezunt (Original fragments, chronicles, inscriptions, and other material on the history of the Empire of Trebizond) (Abhandlungen der Historischen Klasse der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Bd. 3, Abt. 3, pp. 1–159 and Bd. 4, Abt. 1, pp. 1–108).
- 1845: Fragmente aus dem Orient (Fragments from the Orient) [2 volumes] (Stuttgart). Available online
- 1852: Denkschrift über Golgotha und das Heilig-Grab: Der Evangelist Johannes, der jüdische Geschichtsschreiber Flavius Josephus und die Gottesgelehrtheit des Orients (Meditation on Golgotha and the Holy Grave: John the Evangelist, the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, and the divine erudition of the Orient) (Abhandlungen der Historischen Klasse der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Bd. 6, Abt. 3, 643-88).
- 1853: Das Tote Meer (The Dead Sea) (Abhandlungen der Historischen Klasse der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Bd. 7, Abt. 1, pp. 39–144).
- 1857: Das albanesische Element in Griechenland. Abt. 1: Über Ursprung und Altertum der Albanesen (The Albanian element in Greece. Pt. 1: On the origin and antiquity of the Albanians.) (Abhandlungen der Historischen Klasse der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Bd. 8, Abt. 2, pp. 417–87).
- 1860-61: Das albanesische Element in Griechenland. Abt. 2 und 3: Was man über die Taten und Schicksale des albanesischen Volkes von seinem ersten Auftreten in der Geschichte bis zu seiner Unterjochung durch die Türken nach dem Tode Skander-Bergs mit Sicherheit wissen kann. (Pts. 2 and 3: What can be known with certainty about the deeds and fate of the Albanian people from their first appearance in history until their subjugation by the Turks after the death of Skanderberg.) (Abhandlungen der Historischen Klasse der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Bd. 8, Abt. 3, pp. 657–736 and Bd. 9, Abt. 1, pp. 3–110).
- 1861: G.M. Thomas, ed., Gesammelte Werke. Bd. 1: Neue Fragmente aus dem Orient. Bd. 2: Politische und kulturhistorische Aufsätze. Bd. 3: Kritische Versuche. (Collected works. V. 1: New fragments from the Orient. V. 2: Political and cultural-historical essays. V. 3: Critical essays.) (Leipzig). Available online
- 1877: G.M. Thomas, ed., Fragmente aus dem Orient (2nd edition, Stuttgart).
- 1913: H. Feigl and E. Molden, eds., Schriften und Tagebücher: Fragmente aus dem Orient. Neue Fragmente. Politisch-historische Aufsätze — Tagebücher (in Auswahl) (Writings and diaries: Fragments from the Orient, New fragments, Political-historical essays — Selections from the diaries) (Munich and Leipzig).
- 1943: E. Mika, ed., Byzanz und das Abendland: Ausgewählte Schriften (Byzantium and the West: selected writings) (Vienna).
- 1949: F. Dölger, ed., Hagion Oros oder der Heilige Berg Athos (Hagion Oros, or, the Holy Mount Athos) (Vienna).
- 1963: H. Reidt, ed., Fragmente aus dem Orient (Munich).
- 1978: F.H. Riedl, ed., Hagion Oros oder der Heilige Berg Athos (Bozen). ISBN 88-7014-008-3
- 1978: A. Kollautz, ed., Antrittsvolesung über Unversalgeschichte, gehalten zu Landshut am 20. November 1862 (Inaugural lecture on universal history, held at Landshut on November 20, 1862) (Der Schlern 52, pp. 123–39).
- 1980: Geschichte des Kaisertums von Trapezunt (reprint of 1827 edition) (Hildesheim). ISBN 3-487-00585-9
- 1984: E. Thurnher, ed., Reden und Vorreden (Speeches and Forewords) (Salzburg and Munich). ISBN 3-7025-0198-3
- 1990: E. Thurnher, ed., Europa zwischen Rom und Byzanz (Europe between Rome and Byzantium) (Bozen). ISBN 88-7014-576-X
- 2002: E. Hastaba, ed., Der Heilige Berg Athos (Bozen). ISBN 88-7283-174-1
- 2003: N. Nepravishta, tr., Elementi shqiptar në Greqi (Albanian translation of Das albanesische Element in Griechenland) (Tirana). ISBN 99927-950-0-X
- 2007: Fragmente aus dem Orient (Bozen). ISBN 88-7283-254-3
Sources
- G. Auernheimer, "Fallmerayer, Huntington und die Diskussion um die neugriechische Identität", Südosteuropa 47 (1998), 1-17.
- F. Curta, "Byzantium in dark-age Greece (the numismatic evidence in its Balkan context)", Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 29 (2005), 113-45. PDF online
- W. Jens, ed., Kindlers neues Literatur-Lexikon (Munich, 1988–92). ISBN 3-463-43200-5
- T. Leeb, Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer: Publizist und Politiker zwischen Revolution und Reaktion (Munich, 1996). ISBN 3-406-10690-0
- P. Speck, "Badly ordered thoughts on Philhellenism", in S. Takacs, ed., Understanding Byzantium (Aldershot, 2003), 280-95. ISBN 0-86078-691-9
- E. Thurnher, Jahre der Vorbereitung: Jakob Fallmerayers Tätigkeiten nach der Rückkehr von der zweiten Orientreise, 1842-1845 (Vienna, 1995). ISBN 3-7001-2188-1
- E. Thurnher, ed., Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer: Wissenschaftler, Politiker, Schriftsteller (Innsbruck, 1993). ISBN 3-7030-0258-1
- E. Thurnher, Jakob Philipp Fallmerayers Krisenjahre, 1846 bis 1854: auf Grund der Briefe an Joseph und Anna Streiter in Bozen (Vienna, 1987). ISBN 3-7001-1197-5
- G. Veloudis, "Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer und die Enstehung des neugriechischen Historismus", Südostforschungen 29 (1970), 43-90.
- N. Wenturis, "Kritische Bemerkungen zu der Diskussion über die neugriechische Identität am Beispiel von Fallmerayer, Huntington, und Auernheimer", Südosteuropa 49 (2000), 308-24.
Works
At Austrian Literature Online:At Google Books: