3. The Impact. Indeed, the idea of Volksgeist as a
descriptive concept as well as a normative demand of
faithfulness to a given national genius and spirit influ-
enced various trends in political life, in historiography,
in literature, in legal and philosophical discussions, etc.
The various nationalist ideologies in Germany,
France, Italy, and Poland explicitly used the concept
of Volksgeist and of Volkstum; the description of the
latter pointed out a certain intellectual and spiritual
trend within peoplehood. The nationalist ideologies
based on the concept of Volkstum or Le Peuple are
related to this concept. Whether these ideologies have
been influenced directly by the masters of the notion
of Volksgeist or by more popular thinkers who enter-
tained the idea, like Justus Möser and Adam Müller
in Germany, or Madame de Staël in France, is of
secondary importance. Sometimes those who based
their ideological demands on the notion of Volksgeist
placed the political center of gravitation on the people
as against dynasties, assuming that only the people is
the authentic representative and transmitter of national
tradition.
In the description of the subjects of the historical
processes historical research took advantage of this
concept. German historical literature, including the
opus of Leopold von Ranke, displays this influence. But
the same applies to a large extent to the contemporary
historical writings in France which had been influenced
by Herder and by the German romantic ideas. It is
interesting to point out that Madame de Staël, who
carried the German influence to France, took charac-
terization of peoples as a basic principle for the high
praise of the English people and its institutions.
In the literary sphere romanticism is closely related
to the concept of Volksgeist. The shift toward the folk
saga is due to the preference given to folkloric produc-
tions over individual creations. For Jakob Grimm the
community was the creative force; law and poetry are
closely related and have a common source. Wilhelm
von Humboldt speaks about national spirit when deal-
ing with Greek history; and in his philosophy of lan-
guage, while stressing the inner activity expressed in
language, he stresses along with the inner form of
language also its relation to Volksgeist. Though the
linguistic capacity is a characteristic feature of man
as man, the individual languages are manifestations of
the national spirits.
The Historical School of Law gave rise to a peculiar
controversy as to the extent to which Germanic law
may absorb elements of Roman law or whether it
should be purified from the intrusion of elements which
do not express the German mind. This controversy is
known as the controversy between Germanists and
Romanists; it centers to some extent around the prob-
lem known as the “reception” of Roman law into the
texture of Germanic law. Savigny advocated this
absorption, while those who took issue with him argued
against him and his followers on the basis of his own
ideas, pushed, as it were, to their decisive and ultimate
conclusion. For Otto von Gierke the Germanic legal
system is characterized by the preference given to
organic ties between individuals and is thus close to
the idea of the law of Genossenschaften. The Roman
tradition and its manifestations in natural law, in eco-
nomic liberalism, individualism and capitalism has a
destructive effect on the Germanic tradition. Von
Gierke took further the idea of Volksgeist as a slogan
for nationalistic attitudes and stated, during World War
I, that the Volksgeist amounts to a Common Ego
(Gesamt-Ich). The mythological interpretations of the
Volksgeist, the drawing of distinctions between Volks-
geist and race, confused by the Nazi ideology, followed
this line in their own way.
There is a close affinity between the application of
the idea of Volksgeist in the legal sphere and the appli-
cation of this idea or of some of its derivations in the
sphere of economic theory. The counterpart of the
rejection of the alleged individualism in the legal
sphere is the rejection of the isolated homo aeconom-
icus, an idea allegedly characteristic of the English
economic theory as it is stated in the polemic which
accompany these discussions. The specific Volksgeist
exhibits its uniqueness also in the economic domain.
This idea was expressed by Friedrich List (1789-1846)
when he said that every people has its own political
economy, and every great nation has to strive to be
a whole for itself. The mission of political economy
is to furnish the economical education of the nation
and to prepare it for its proper place in the universal
association of the future.
