In 1790, Immanuel Kant published the Kritik der Urteilskraft, the Critique of Judgment. In section 53 he ranks the arts, and he separates two things. Speaking well and beautifully belongs to the fine arts. The art of the orator, ars oratoria, does not. Kant defines it as the art of using people’s weaknesses for one’s own purposes, even when those purposes are well meant or really good. Rednerkunst … ist … gar keiner Achtung würdig. It deserves no respect at all. Kant explains why. Such an art moves people to a judgment in important matters als Maschinen, as machines, and it takes away their freedom. He wrote that reading the best speech of a Roman orator, a member of parliament or a preacher was always mixed for him with an unpleasant feeling of disapproval of a deceitful art.
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The Compass Needle in the Storm
Carl von Clausewitz’s Vom Kriege, On War, was published after his death, from 1832 to 1834. In the chapter on military genius he defines a strong mind. Ein starkes Gemüt ist nicht ein solches, welches bloß starker Regungen fähig ist, sondern dasjenige, welches bei den stärksten Regungen im Gleichgewicht bleibt. A strong mind is not one that is merely capable of strong emotions. It is one that stays in balance during the strongest emotions. Clausewitz gives an image for it. Despite the storms in the chest, insight and conviction keep their free movement, like the needle of a compass on a ship in a storm. He calls the power behind it Selbstbeherrschung, self-control. It is the power to submit to reason even in moments of the most violent emotion.
The Leisure Park Debate
On 21 October 1993, Chancellor Helmut Kohl gave a government statement in the Bundestag on securing Germany’s future as a business location. He said: Meine Damen und Herren, wir können die Zukunft nicht dadurch sichern, daß wir unser Land als einen kollektiven Freizeitpark organisieren. Ladies and gentlemen, we cannot secure the future by organizing our country as a collective leisure park.
In May 2025, shortly before his first government statement, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said: Wir müssen in diesem Land wieder mehr und vor allem effizienter arbeiten. Mit Vier-Tage-Woche und Work-Life-Balance werden wir den Wohlstand dieses Landes nicht erhalten können. We must work more again in this country, and above all more efficiently. With a four-day week and work-life balance, we will not be able to keep this country’s prosperity. Criticism came from other parties and from within his own. In February 2026, the CDU’s business wing brought a motion to the party congress with the title Kein Rechtsanspruch auf Lifestyle-Teilzeit, no legal right to lifestyle part-time. After protests, the term was dropped from the motion.
Work by Day, Guests in the Evening
Goethe wrote the ballad Der Schatzgräber, The Treasure Digger, in May 1797. A poor man tries to raise a treasure by magic at night. Instead, a boy appears and gives him other advice, and the poem ends with it: Tages Arbeit, abends Gäste! / Saure Wochen, frohe Feste! / Sei dein künftig / Zauberwort! Work by day, guests in the evening! Hard weeks, happy feasts! Let that be your magic word from now on.
Kant on the Jack of All Trades
In the preface to his Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, of 1785, Immanuel Kant wrote that all trades, crafts and arts have gained from the division of labor. No one does everything. Each person restricts himself to one kind of work, so as to do it with the greatest perfection and more ease. Kant goes on: Wo die Arbeiten so nicht unterschieden und verteilt werden, wo jeder ein Tausendkünstler ist, da liegen die Gewerbe noch in der größten Barbarei. Where work is not distinguished and divided in this way, where everyone is a thousand-artist, the trades still lie in the greatest barbarism. Tausendkünstler is the German word for a jack of all trades.
The Age of One-Sidedness
In Goethe’s novel Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre, completed in 1829, Wilhelm talks with the character Montan. Wilhelm objects that a many-sided education has been held to be useful and necessary. Montan replies: Ja, es ist jetzo die Zeit der Einseitigkeiten; wohl dem, der es begreift, für sich und andere in diesem Sinne wirkt. Yes, now is the age of one-sidedness. Happy is he who understands it and works in this spirit for himself and for others. A little later he says: Sich auf ein Handwerk zu beschränken, ist das Beste. To restrict oneself to one craft is the best. At the end of The Protestant Ethic, Max Weber referred to the Wanderjahre. Restriction to specialized work, he wrote, is in today’s world the condition of any valuable action.
No Car Toll
In the TV debate with Peer Steinbrück on 1 September 2013, Chancellor Angela Merkel said: Mit mir wird es keine PKW-Maut geben! With me there will be no car toll. On 27 November 2013, the CDU, CSU and SPD agreed in their coalition agreement to introduce one. On 27 March 2015, the Bundestag passed it. That day the SPD member Lothar Binding explained in a written statement why he voted yes. Fair dealing with agreements, including coalition agreements, required it. He added: Deshalb wird mit Angela Merkel heute die PKW-Maut in Deutschland eingeführt. That is why the car toll is introduced in Germany today, with Angela Merkel.
The spoken promise gave way. The signed agreement held.
Weigh the Votes
Man soll die Stimmen wägen und nicht zählen. Votes should be weighed, not counted. The line comes from Schiller’s unfinished drama Demetrius, in the scene of the Polish parliament in Cracow. Prince Sapieha speaks it against the assembly: Was ist die Mehrheit? Mehrheit ist der Unsinn, Verstand ist stets bei wen’gen nur gewesen. What is the majority? The majority is nonsense. Understanding has always been with the few only.
In the play, the line argues against majority rule. As a saying, it is used to judge a contribution by its weight.
Faust to Wagner
In the scene Nacht in Goethe’s Faust I, published in 1808, Faust’s assistant Wagner says: Allein der Vortrag macht des Redners Glück, delivery alone makes the speaker’s fortune. Faust answers: Es trägt Verstand und rechter Sinn / Mit wenig Kunst sich selber vor! / Und wenn’s euch Ernst ist, was zu sagen, / Ist’s nötig, Worten nachzujagen? Understanding and true sense present themselves with little art. And if you are serious about having something to say, do you need to chase after words?
Pluck at My Wreath
In the first part of Also sprach Zarathustra, published in 1883, Friedrich Nietzsche’s Zarathustra says to his disciples: Man vergilt einem Lehrer schlecht, wenn man immer nur der Schüler bleibt. One repays a teacher badly if one always remains only the pupil. Und warum wollt ihr nicht an meinem Kranze rupfen? And why will you not pluck at my wreath?