ABSTRACT
‘To govern!’ writes Goethe in his diary. His first move is to persuade the young Duke to bring Herder to Weimar. The highest ecclesiastical post in the Duchy, that of General Superintendent, has been vacant for some years; ten elderly pastors, from old-established local families, have applied for it. Karl August wants young men around him; Herder is just 30, and that suits him perfectly. He has the reputation of being sarcastic, with a sharp pen and a sharp tongue - so much the better. Karl August has no use for ‘priests’; he hardly ever goes to church, later on he never goes at all. He knows the clergy disapprove his new way of life. It is a relatively uncontroversial post, he wants to begin asserting his authority and this is a good opportunity; at first, on his mother’s urgent advice, he had left everything in the government and administration as it was. No serious objections can be raised to Herder; he is Court preacher in Bückeburg, and his edifying sermons are greatly esteemed. Fiat voluntas! Goethe takes over the correspondence. He is going to ‘round up the fellows with hunting whips’, he writes to Herder. The latter, after some hesitation, comes.
