Alexander's Aides-de-Camp: Hegelians in the 1820s. A Neglected Chapter in the History of 19th-Century German Philosophy

Abstract

Although Hegel’s school formed during his lifetime, this label is still used mainly for thinkers who published after 1831. Comparatively, very little effort has been made to investigate the activity and achievements of Hegel’s pupils before that year, Eduard Gans being the only exception. Still, a number of sources, and the testimony of some eye-witnesses as Gans, Michelet, Rosenkranz, and Erdmann, reveal that ‘Hegelianism’ was more a collective enterprise than so far assumed. In the 1820s, Hegel’s closest followers attempted to explain his system and to apply its principles to new problems. Both aims can be found in the early writings of Leopold von Henning (1791-1866), Hegel’s first assistant in Berlin. His doctoral dissertation (1821) not only appears to be the first ‘Hegelian’ account on feudalism; it also offers an insight into the meaning of Wirklichkeit, and a discussion of the question why there are four ages in world history, as the concept of freedom develops in three logical steps.