ABSTRACT
Are Stefan George's disciples wholly without major contribution to world letters? The question is answered by the name Norbert von Hellingrath, subject of George's elegy. To rediscover Friedrich Holderlin and permanently establish his greatness, this was the major literary contribution of the circle and would have been impossible without the learning and the enthusiasm of Hellingrath and the guidance of George. From 1910 on, Hellingrath's Holderlin discoveries appeared as essays in George's Pages for Art. The universality of George's "Norbert" elegy makes it the fit epitaph for all these battlefield deaths of poets, whether German or English. Hellingrath died much too soon to know of such exciting discoveries, the lost holograph manuscript of Holderlin's "Friedenfeier." It was Karl Wolfskehl who persuaded George to write his first name with the more Nordic spelling "Stefan." Friedrich Gundolf's opening professorial address at Heidelberg tried to harness Holderlin to German chauvinism. This is why the discussion of Holderlin, though superficial, may not be superfluous.
