Bildung and Freiheit in the first German Romanticism

Abstract

This article tries to show the connection of the notion of formation with that of freedom in the first German romanticism, as well as its implications in the plane of the individual subject but, especially also, in the plane of society and politics. In the first sense, this concern is discussed with the basic idea with which modernity is inaugurated, that is, the idea of the freedom of individuals as creators of their own history. And in relation to the second aspect, proposals are analyzed to produce a common political action space capable of making possible the convergence of wills and the effective participation of citizens in the organs and institutions that common political action implies. In particular, the nationalist foundation of collective identity in the feeling of people as nation, compared to its justification politically, in the sense of administrative structure that manages and resolves common objectives. Basically, the Romantics use the term «people» as a synonym for a «natural» community of race, language and culture, which is much more than understanding the nation as an entity simply formed on the basis of a social contract and a legally constructed cohesion between different and heterogeneous citizens.