Friedrich Nietzsche, the author of _Thus Spake Zarathustra_ and the
inventor of the new ideal called the "overman," is commonly regarded
as the most extreme egotist, to whom morality is non-existent and who
glories in the coming of the day in which a man of his liking--the
overman--would live au grand jour. His philosophy is an individualism
carried to its utmost extreme, sanctioning egotism, denouncing altruism
and establishing the right of the strong to trample the weak under
foot. It is little known, however, that he followed another thinker,
Johann Caspar Schmidt, whose extreme individualism he adopted. But this
forerunner who preached a philosophy of the sovereignty of self and an
utter disregard of our neighbors' rights remained unheeded; he lived in
obscurity, he died in poverty, and under the pseudonym "Max Stirner" he
left behind a book entitled _Der Einzige und sein Eigentum_.
The historian Lange briefly mentioned him in his _History of
Materialism_, and the novelist John Henry Mackay followed up the
reference which led to the discovery of this lonely comet on the
philosophical sky.[1]
The strangest thing about this remarkable book consists in the many
coincidences with Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy. It is commonly
deemed impossible that the famous spokesman of the overman should not
have been thoroughly familiar with this failure in the philosophical
book market; but while Stirner was forgotten the same ideas
transplanted into the volumes of the author of _Thus Spake Zarathustra_
found an echo first in Germany and soon afterwards all over the world.
Stirner's book has been Englished by Stephen T. Byington with an
introduction by J. L. Walker at the instigation of Benjamin R. Tucker,
the representative of American peaceful anarchism, under the title
_The Ego and His Own_. They have been helped by Mr. George Schumm and
his wife, Mrs. Emma Heller Schümm. These five persons, all interested
in this lonely and unique thinker, must have had much trouble in
translating the German original and though the final rendering of the
title is not inappropriate, the translator and his advisers agree
that it falls short of the mark. For the accepted form Mr. B. R.
Tucker is responsible, and he admits in the preface that it is not
an exact equivalent of the German. _Der Einzige_ means "the unique
man," a person of a definite individuality, but in the book itself our
author modifies and enriches the meaning of the term. The unique man
becomes the ego and an owner (_ein Eigener_), a man who is possessed of
property, especially of his own being. He is a master of his own and
he prides himself on his ownhood, as well as his ownership. As such he
is unique, and the very term indicates that the thinker who proposes
this view-point is an extreme individualist. In Stirner's opinion
Christianity pursued the ideal of liberty from the world; and in this
sense Christians speak of spiritual liberty. To become free from
anything that oppresses us we must get rid of it, and so the Christian
to rid himself of the world becomes a prey to the idea of a contempt
of the world. Stirner declares that the future has a better lot in
store for man. Man shall not merely be free, which is a purely negative
quality, but he shall be his own master; he shall become an owner of
his own personality and whatever else he may have to control. His
end and aim is he himself. There is no moral duty above him. Stirner
explains in the very first sentence of his book:
"What is not supposed to be my concern! First and
foremost, the good cause, then God's cause, the cause of
mankind, of truth, of freedom, of humanity, of justice;
further, the cause of my people, my prince, my fatherland;
finally, even the cause of mind, and a thousand other
causes. Only my cause is never to be my concern. 'Shame on
the egoist who thinks only of himself!"
Stirner undertakes to refute this satirical explanation in his book
on the unique man and his own, and a French critic according to
Paul Lauterbach (p. 5) speaks of his book as _un livre qu'on quitte
monarque_, "a book which one lays aside a king."
Stirner is opposed to all traditional views. He is against church and
state. He stands for the self-development of every individual, and
insists that the highest duty of every one is to stand up for his
ownhood.
J. L. Walker in his Introduction contrasts Stirner with Nietzsche and
gives the prize of superiority to the former, declaring him to be a
genuine anarchist not less than Josiah Warren, the leader of the small
band of New England anarchists. He says:
"In Stirner we have the philosophical foundation for
political liberty. His interest in the practical
development of egoism to the dissolution of the state
and the union of free men is clear and pronounced, and
harmonizes perfectly with the economic philosophy of
Josiah Warren. Allowing for difference of temperament
and language, there is a substantial agreement between
Stirner and Proudhon. Each would be free, and sees in
every increase of the number of free people and their
intelligence an auxiliary force against the oppressor.
But, on the other hand, will any one for a moment
seriously contend that Nietzsche and Proudhon march
together in general aim and tendency--that they have
anything in common except the daring to profane the shrine
and sepulcher of superstition?
"Nietzsche has been much spoken of as a disciple of
Stirner, and, owing to favorable cullings from Nietzsche's
writings, it has occurred that one of his books has been
supposed to contain more sense than it really does--so
long as one had read only the extracts.
"Nietzsche cites scores or hundreds of authors. Had he
read everything, and not read Stirner?
"But Nietzsche is as unlike Stirner as a tight-rope
performance is unlike an algebraic equation.
"Stirner loved liberty for himself, and loved to see any
and all men and women taking liberty, and he had no lust
of power. Democracy to him was sham liberty, egoism the
genuine liberty.
"Nietzsche, on the contrary, pours out his contempt
upon democracy because it is not aristocratic. He is
predatory to the point of demanding that those who must
succumb to feline rapacity shall be taught to submit with
resignation. When he speaks of 'anarchistic dogs' scouring
the streets of great civilized cities, it is true, the
context shows that he means the communists; but his
worship of Napoleon, his bathos of anxiety for the rise
of an aristocracy that shall rule Europe for thousands
of years, his idea of treating women in the Oriental
fashion, show that Nietzsche has struck out in a very
old path--doing the apotheosis of tyranny. We individual
egoistic anarchists, however, may say to die Nietzsche
school, so as not to be misunderstood: We do not ask of
the Napoleons to have pity, nor of the predatory barons
to do justice. They will find it convenient for their own
welfare to make terms with men who have learned of Stirner
what a man can be who worships nothing, bears allegiance
to nothing. To Nietzsche's rhodomontade of eagles in
baronial form, born to prey on industrial lambs, we rather
tauntingly oppose the ironical question: Where are your
claws? What if the 'eagles' are found to be plain barnyard
fowls on which more silly fowls have fastened steel spurs
to hack the victims, who, however, have the power to
disarm the sham 'eagles' between two suns?
"Stirner shows that men make their tyrants as they make
their gods, and his purpose is to unmake tyrants.
"Nietzsche dearly loves a tyrant.
"In style Stirner's work offers the greatest possible
contrast to the puerile, padded phraseology of Nietzsche's
_Zarathustra_ and its false imagery. Who ever imagined
such an unnatural conjuncture as an eagle 'toting' a
serpent in friendship? which performance is told of in
bare words, but nothing comes of it. In Stirner we are
treated to an enlivening and earnest discussion addressed
to serious minds, and every reader feels that the word
is to him, for his instruction and benefit, so far as he
has mental independence and courage to take it and use it
The startling intrepidity of this book is infused with
a whole-hearted love for all mankind, as evidenced by
the fact that the author shows not one iota of prejudice
or any idea of division of men into ranks. He would lay
aside government, but would establish any regulation
deemed convenient, and for this only _our_ convenience
is consulted. Thus there will be general liberty only
when the disposition toward tyranny is met by intelligent
opposition that will no longer submit to such a rule.
Beyond this the manly sympathy and philosophical bent of
Stirner are such that rulership appears by contrast a
vanity, an infatuation of perverted pride. We know not
whether we more admire our author or more love him.
"Stirner's attitude toward woman is not special. She is
an individual if she can be, not handicapped by anything
he says, feels, thinks, or plans. This was more fully
exemplified in his life than even in this book; but there
is not a line in the book to put or keep woman in an
inferior position to man, neither is there anything of
caste or aristocracy in the book."
It is not our intention to enter here into a detailed criticism of
Stirner's book. We will only point out that society will practically
remain the same whether we consider social arrangements as voluntary
contracts or as organically developed social institutions, or as
imposed upon mankind by the divine world-order, or even if czars and
kings claim to govern "by the grace of God." Whatever religious or
natural sanction any government may claim to possess, the method of
keeping order will be the same everywhere. Wrongs have been done and in
the future may still be committed in the name of right, and injustice
may again and again worst justice in the name of the law. On the other
hand, however, we can notice a progress throughout the world of a slow
but steady improvement of conditions. Any globe-trotter will find by
experience that his personal safety, his rights and privileges are
practically the same in all civilized countries, whether they are
republics like Switzerland, France and the United States, or monarchies
like Sweden, Germany and Italy. At the same time murders, robberies,
thefts and other crimes are committed all over the world, even in
the homes of those who pride themselves on being the most civilized
nations. The world-conception lying behind our different social
theories is the same wherever the same kind of civilization prevails.
Where social evils prevail, dissatisfaction sets in which produces
theories and reform programs, and when they remain unheeded, a climax
is reached which leads to revolution.
Stirner's book begins with a short exhortation headed with Goethe's
line,
"My trust in nothingness is placed."
He discusses the character of human life (Chap. I) and contrasts men
of the old and the new eras (Chap. II). He finds that the ancients
idealized bodily existence while Christianity incarnates the ideal.
Greek artists transfigure actual life; in Christianity the divine takes
abode in the world of flesh, God becomes incarnate in man. The Greeks
tried to go beyond the world and Christianity came; Christian thinkers
are pressed to go beyond God, and there they find spirit. They are
led to a contempt of the world and will finally end in a contempt of
spirit. But Stirner believes that the ideal and the real can never be
reconciled, and we must free ourselves from the errors of the past. The
truly free man is not the one who has become free, but the one who has
come into his own, and this is the sovereign ego.
As Achilles had his Homer so Stirner found his prophet in a German
socialist of Scotch Highlander descent, John Henry Mackay. The reading
public should know that Mackay belongs to the same type of restless
reformers, and he soon became an egoistic anarchist, a disciple of
Stirner. His admiration is but a natural consequence of conditions.
Nevertheless Mackay's glorification of Stirner proves that in Stirner
this onesided world-conception has found its classical, its most
consistent and its philosophically most systematic presentation.
Whatever we may have to criticize in anarchism, Stirner is a man of
uncommon distinction, the leader of a party, and the standard-bearer
of a cause distinguished by the extremeness of its propositions which
from the principle of individualism are carried to their consistent
ends.
Mackay undertook the difficult task of unearthing the history of a man
who, naturally modest and retired, had nowhere left deep impressions.
No stone remained unturned and every clue that could reveal anything
about his hero's life was followed up with unprecedented devotion. He
published the results of his labors in a book entitled "Max Stirner,
His Life and His Work."[2] The report is extremely touching not so
much on account of the great significance of Stirner's work which to
impartial readers appears exaggerated, but through the personal tragedy
of a man who towers high above his surroundings and suffers the misery
of poverty and failure.
Mr. Mackay describes Stirner as of medium height, rather less so than
more, well proportioned, slender, always dressed with care though
without pretension, having the appearance of a teacher, and wearing
silver-or steel-rimmed spectacles. His hair and beard were blonde
with a tinge of red, his eyes blue and clear, but neither dreamy nor
penetrating. His thin lips usually wore a sarcastic smile, which,
however, had nothing of bitterness; his general appearance was
sympathetic. No portrait of Stirner is in existence except one pencil
sketch which was made from memory in 1892 by the London socialist,
Friedrich Engels, but the criticism is made by those who knew Stirner
that his features, especially his chin and the top of his head, were
not so angular though nose and mouth are said to have been well
portrayed, and Mackay claims that Stirner never wore a coat and collar
of that type.
[Illustration: PENCIL SKETCH OF MAX STIRNER. The only portrait in
existence.]
Stirner was of purely Frankish blood. His ancestors lived for centuries
in or near Baireuth. His father, Albert Christian Heinrich Schmidt of
Anspach, a maker of wind-instruments, died of consumption in 1807 at
the age of 37, half a year after the birth of his son. His mother,
Sophie Eleanora, née Reinlein of the city of Erlangen, six months later
married H. F. L. Ballerstedt, the assistant in an apothecary shop in
Helmstedt, and moved with him to Kulm on the Vistula. In 1818 the boy
was sent back to his native city where his childless god-father and
uncle, Johann Caspar Martin Sticht, and his wife took care of him.
Young Johann Caspar passed through school with credit, and his
schoolmates used to call him "Stirner" on account of his high forehead
(_Stirn_) which was the most conspicuous feature of his face. This name
clung to him throughout life. In fact his most intimate friends never
called him by any other, his real name being almost forgotten through
disuse and figuring only in official documents.
Stirner attended the universities of Erlangen, Berlin and Königsberg,
and finally passed his examination for admission as a teacher in
gymnasial schools. His stepfather died in the summer of 1837 in Kulm at
the age of 76. It is not known what became of his mother who had been
mentally unsound for some time.
Neither father nor stepfather had ever been successful, and if Stirner
ever received any inheritance it must have been very small. On December
12 of 1837 Stirner married Agnes Clara Kunigunde Burtz, the daughter of
his landlady.
Their married life was brief, the young wife dying in a premature
child-birth on August 29th. We have no indication of an ardent love
on either side. He who wrote with passionate fire and with so much
insistence in his philosophy, was calm and peaceful, subdued and quiet
to a fault in real life.
Having been refused appointment in one of the public or royal schools
Stirner accepted a position in a girls' school October 1, 1839.
During the political fermentation which preceded the revolutionary
year of 1848, he moved in the circle of those bold spirits who called
themselves _Die Freien_ and met at Hippel's, among whom were Ludwig
Buhl, Meyen, Friedrich Engels, Mussak, C. F. Köppen, the author of a
work on Buddha, Dr. Arthur Müller and the brothers Bruno, Egbert and
Edgar Bauer. It was probably among their associates that Stirner met
Marie Dähnhardt of Gadebusch near Schwerin, Mecklenberg, the daughter
of an apothecary, Helmuth Ludwig Dähnhardt. She was as different from
Stirner as a dashing emancipated woman can be from a gentle meek man,
but these contrasts were joined together in wedlock on October 21,
1843. Their happiness did not last long, for Marie Dähnhardt left her
husband at the end of three years.
The marriage ceremony of this strange couple has been described in the
newspapers and it is almost the only fact of Stirner's life that stands
out boldly as a well-known incident. That these descriptions contain
exaggerations and distortions is not improbable, but it cannot be
denied that much contained in the reports must be true.
On the morning of October 21, a clergyman of extremely liberal
views, Rev. Marot, a member of the Consistory, was called to meet
the witnesses of the ceremony at Stirner's room. Bruno Bauer, Buhl,
probably also Julius Faucher, Assessor Kochius and a young English
woman, a friend of the bride, were present. The bride was in her
week-day dress. Mr. Marot asked for a Bible, but none could be found.
According to one version the clergyman was obliged to request Herr Buhl
to put on his coat and to have the cards removed. When the rings were
to be exchanged the groom discovered that he had forgotten to procure
them, and according to Wilhelm Jordan's recollection Bauer pulled out
his knitted purse and took off the brass rings, offering them as a
substitute during the ceremony. After the wedding a dinner with cold
punch was served to which Mr. Marot was invited. But he refused, while
the guests remained and the wedding carousal proceeded in its jolly
course.
In order to understand how this incident was possible we must know that
in those pre-revolutionary years the times were out of joint and these
heroes of the rebellion wished to show their disrespect and absolute
indifference to a ceremony that to them had lost all its sanctity.
Stirner's married life was very uneventful, except that he wrote the
main book of his life and dedicated it to his wife after a year's
marriage, with the words,
"Meinem Liebchen
Marie Dähnhardt."
Obviously this form which ignores the fact that they were married,
and uses a word of endearment which in this connection is rather
trivial, must be regarded as characteristic of their relation and their
life principles. Certain it is that she understood only the negative
features of her husband's ideals and had no appreciation of the genius
that stirred within him. Lauterbach, the editor of the Reclam edition
of Stirner's book, comments ironically on this dedication with the
Spanish motto _Da Dios almendras al que no tiene muelas_, "God gives
almonds to those who have no teeth."
Marie Dähnhardt was a graceful blonde woman rather under-sized, with
heavy hair which surrounded her head in ringlets according to the
fashion of the time. She was very striking and became a favorite of
the round table of the _Freien_ who met at Hippel's. She smoked cigars
freely and sometimes donned male attire, in order to accompany her
husband and his friends on their nightly excursions. It appears that
Stirner played the most passive part in these adventures, but true
to his principle of individuality we have no knowledge that he ever
criticized his wife.
Marie Dähnhardt had lost her father early and was in possession of a
small fortune of 10,000 thalers, possibly more. At any rate it was
considered quite a sum in the circle of Stirner's friends, but it did
not last long. Having written his book, Stirner gave up his position
so as to prevent probable discharge and now they looked around for new
resources. Though Stirner had studied political economy he was a most
unpractical man; but seeing there was a dearth of milk-shops, he and
his wife started into business. They made contracts with dairies but
did not advertise their shop, and when the milk was delivered to them
they had large quantities of milk on hand but no patrons, the result
being a lamentable failure with debts.
In the circle of his friends Stirner's business experience offered
inexhaustible material for jokes, while at home it led rapidly to the
dissolution of his marriage. Frau Schmidt complained in later years
that her husband had wasted her property, while no complaints are known
from him. One thing is sure that they separated. She went to England
where she established herself as a teacher under the protection of Lady
Bunsen, the wife of the Prussian ambassador.
Frau Schmidt's later career is quite checkered. She was a well-known
character in the colony of German exiles in London. One of her friends
there was a Lieutenant Techow. When she was again in great distress she
emigrated with other Germans, probably in 1852 or 1853, to Melbourne,
Australia. Here she tasted the misery of life to the dregs. She made a
living as a washerwoman and is reported to have married a day laborer.
Their bitter experiences made her resort to religion for consolation,
and in 1870 or 1871 she became a convert to the Catholic Church. At her
sister's death she became her heir and so restored her good fortune to
some extent. She returned to London where Mr. Mackay to his great joy
discovered that she was still alive at the advanced age of eighty.
What a valuable resource her reminiscences would be for his inquiries!
But she refused to give any information and finally wrote him a letter
which literally reads as follows: "Mary Smith _solemnly avowes_ that
she will have _no more_ correspondence on the subject, and authorizes
Mr. -------[3] to return all those writings to their owners. She is ill
and prepares for death."
The last period of Stirner's life, from the time when his wife left him
to his death, is as obscure as his childhood days. He moved from place
to place, and since his income was very irregular creditors pressed him
hard. His lot was tolerable because of the simple habits of his life,
his only luxury consisting in smoking a good cigar. In 1853 we find
him at least twice in debtor's prison, first 21 days, from March 5 to
26,1853, and then 36 days, from New Year's eve until February 4 of the
next year. In the meantime (September 7) he moved to Philippstrasse 19.
It was Stirner's last home. He stayed with the landlady of this place,
a kind-hearted woman who treated all her boarders like a mother, until
June 25, 1856, when he died rather suddenly as the result of the bite
of a poisonous fly. A few of his friends, among them Bruno Bauer and
Ludwig Buhl, attended his funeral; a second-class grave was procured
for one thaler 10 groats, amounting approximately to one American
dollar.
During this period Stirner undertook several literary labors from which
he possibly procured some remuneration. He translated the classical
authors on political economy from the French and from the English,
which appeared under the title _Die National-Oekonomen der Franzosen
und Engländer_ (Leipsic, Otto Wigand, 1845-1847).
He also wrote a history of the Reaction which he explained to be a mere
counter-revolution. This _Geschichte der Reaction_ was planned as a
much more comprehensive work, but the two volumes which appeared were
only two parts of the second volume as originally intended.
The work is full of quotations, partly from Auguste Comte, partly from
Edmund Burke. None of these works represent anything typically original
or of real significance in the history of human thought.
His real contribution to the world's literature remains his work
_Der Einzige und sein Eigentum_, the title of which is rendered in
English _The Ego and His Own_, and this, strange to say, enthrones
the individual man, the ego, every personality, as a sovereign power
that should not be subject to morality, rules, obligations, or duties
of any kind. The appeal is made so directly that it will convince all
those unscientific and half-educated minds who after having surrendered
their traditional faith find themselves without any authority in
either religion or politics. God is to them a fable and the state an
abstraction. Ideas and ideals, such as truth, goodness, beauty, are
mere phrases. What then remains but the concrete bodily personality
of every man of which every one is the ultimate standard of right and
wrong?
[1] See also R. Schellwien, _Max Stirner und Friedrich Nietzsche_; V.
Basch, _L'individualisme anarchiste, Max Stirner_, 1904.
[2] _Max Stirner, sein Leben und sein Werk_. Berlin, 1898.
[3] The name of the gentleman she mentions is replaced by a dash at his
express wish in the facsimile of her letter reproduced in Mr. Mackay's
book (p. 255).