Sunday, January 24, 2021

Introduction + Chronology





Welcome to Regieren, a blog for people interested in The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann -- but also a continuation of the blog After Ryecroft. (If you haven't already read that blog it would be best to do that first, as this text draws on what was written there. Here's the link.)


A word about the blog name: Regieren means “to govern” in German, but that’s not the way Mann used it in The Magic Mountain. John E. Woods translated this crucial word as “playing king” while H.T. Lowe-Porter, supposedly after consultation with Mann, translated it as “taking stock.” Regieren is what our young Hans is doing as he reclines on his, oh so comfortable lounge chair, while carefully tucked in his blankets on the balcony of his Davos sanatorium with the Swiss alps rising before him, and reflects on the world and his place in that world. By extension, it is also what we are doing as we -- a global community of like minded (addled) readers and thinkers -- try to parse his dense and annoying and, at the same time, strangely attractive fictional world.
Here's the response, from a local Goethe Institute intern, to my request for information on this word: “Unfortunately I’m not an expert for Thomas Manns The Magic Mountain. An equivalent of the O.E.D is for examples the dictionary of the brothers Grimm. Here is link: That gives you a lot of additional information. It’s all in German. So I’m not sure if that’s helpful for you.”


To confirm Google's ability to find this blog I searched on "regieren the magic mountain" and, it worked... but I also found this, "It is perhaps worth remarking that Hans Castorp's curious pursuit-his contemplative moments which he refers to from childhood on as "regieren"-reigning,governing-are also related to the instinctive animal well-being Mann admires in Goethe and Tolstoy. (It has been persuasively suggested that there is a sly reference to masturbation, the fleshly egoistic pursuit par excellence.) At such moments Castorp is wiser and sounder than the frenzied beings around him." -Source. And there's more interesting material there about the book and Mann.

And here's more, 
Castorps' responses to the various facets of the life at the Berghof are at first lively but bewildered, but they are active, and soon betray the purposefulness of a search to which he ultimately finds a name -- 'sich regieren' (II, 84). It is a complex term which means 'to direct oneself', but as a precondition 'to come to terms with things' and 'to come to terms with oneself'. In this sense he seeks experiences and ventures to 'experiment', begins to criticise his mentors, to challenge 'the uncanny' by his expeditions into the high mountains (II, 227). The enrichment from this life in death leads him swiftly to drop the claims and obligations of the old world, but his enquiries into disease and death also enhance his curiosity about life, so that the distinguishing peculiarity of his love for Clawdia Chauchat is his tenderness for endangered, diseased life... -"The Magic Mountain and Adorno's critique of the traditional novel by Roy Pascal from Culture and Society in the Weimar Republic edited by Keith Bullivant 

Already I'm making real progress and we've hardly begun


Rather than start directly with The Magic Mountain itself, it was my original intention to begin with The Birth of Tragedy by Friedrich Nietzsche, and then Goethe's Faust. I've already covered The Birth of Tragedy in my other blog (here), and, before I get into Faust, I want to begin, oddly enough, with another novel by Thomas Mann, Doctor Faustus. Trust me...


Here's hoping we don't end up riding the bobsled hearse to the Flatlands.

Contents

1. Doctor Faustus - Chapter I - VI
2. Doctor Faustus - Chapter VII - VIII
74. We resume
76. The Brothers K. Bk II. 1, 3, 4. & Conspiracy Theories

---------------------------------

Chronology of people and events (mentioned in black) 
+ Chronology of the main characters.
+ Related to The Periodic Table
> Related to Uncle Tungsten 

14th century
Edward I of England - Plantagenet (1272-1307)-35 [years of reign]
Edward II of England - Plantagenet (1307-1327)-20
Black Death (1346–53)
Renaissance begins in Italy, to 17th century [especially relevant to Doctor Faustus]
Little Ice Age begins, to 19th century
Edward III of England - Plantagenet (1327-1377)-50
Richard II of England - Plantagenet (1377-1399)-22
15th century
Petrarch, Coluccio Salutati (1331–1406) -75 [age at death]
Henry IV of England and Ireland - Lancaster (1399-1413)-14
Printing - Age of Discovery
Henry V of England - Lancaster (1413-1422)-9
Dr. Johann Georg Faust (c. 1480 or 1466 – c. 1541) [especially relevant to Goethe's Faust]
Hundred Years' War (1337-1453)
Constantinople falls to the Turks 1453
Henry VI of England - Lancaster (1422-1461)-39
Johannes Gutenberg (1398-1468) -70
Edward IV of England - York (1461-1483)-21
Richard III of England - York (1483-1485)-2
16th century
Henry VII of England and Ireland - Tudor (1485-1509)-24
Protestant Reformation begins
Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1450 – 1516) -65
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) -67
Albrecht Dürer (1471 – 1528) -57
Desiderius Erasmus (1466–1536) -70
Johann Crotus (1480? - 1539?)
Dr. Johann Georg Faust (c.1480–1540) (Possible historical Faustus)
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) -70
Martin Luther (1483-1546) -63
Henry VIII of England and Ireland - Tudor (1509-1547)-38
Edward VI of England and Ireland - Tudor (1547-1553)-6
Justus Jonas (1493 – 1555) -62
Mary I of England and Ireland - Tudor (1553-1558)-5
John Calvin (1509-1564) -55
Michel de Montaigne (1533 – 1592) -59
Richard Hooker (1554-1600) -46 [Ryecroft mentions]
Giordano Bruno (1548–1600) -52
17th century
Elizabeth I of England and Ireland - Tudor (1558-1603)-45
Fausto Paolo Sozzini, also known as Faustus Socinus or Faust Socyn (1539–1604) -65
Shakespeare (1564-1616) -62 - His career brackets 1600 as Goethe’s does (1800).
Age of Enlightenment - continues into late 18th
Plymouth Colony established 1620
James I of England and Ireland (1603-1625)-22 James VI of Scotland - Stuart (1567-1625)
Francis Bacon (1562-1626) -64
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) -78
English Puritanism - theaters closed by mid-century.
Eighty Years' War, or Dutch War of Independence (1568–1648)
Thirty Years' War (1618–1648)
Peace of Westphalia 1648 - Worst of Wars of Religion over -
   new Catholic-Protestant status quo in Europe
Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland - Stuart (1625-1649)-24
English Civil War and Commonwealth (1642-60)
René Descartes (1596-1650) -54
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) -63
John Milton (1608–1674) -66
Johannes, Jan or Johan Vermeer (1632-1675) -43
Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) -45
Izaak Walton (1594-1683) -89
Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland - Stuart (1649-1685)
   actually   (1660-1685)-25
James II of England and Ireland - Stuart (James VII of Scotland) (1685-1688)-13
Glorious Revolution 1688 (Last British RC King deposed)
> Robert Boyle (1627–1691) -64
Nine Years' War (1688–97)
18th century
William III of England and Ireland - Orange-Nassau (William II of Scotland) (1689-1702)-13
  also Willem III  Stadtholder of Dutch Republic (1672-1792)
> Robert Hooke FRS (1635–1703) -67
John Locke (1632–1704) -72
Friedrich I of Prussia (1657–1713) -56
Anne of England, Scotland and Ireland - Stuart (1702-1714)-12
War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714)
Louis XIV of France (1638–1715) -77
Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (1646–1716) -70
John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough (1650-1722) -72
George I of Great Britain and Ireland - Hanover (1714-1727)-13
  also Duke and Prince-Elector of Hanover (1698-1727)
Isaac Newton (1643–1727) -85
August Hermann Francke (1663 – 1727) -64
Christian Wolff (1679 – 1754) -75
Laurence Sterne (1713-1768) -55
George II of Great Britain and Ireland - Hanover (1727-1760)-33
   also Duke and Prince-Elector of Hanover (1727-1760)
Goethe starts work on UrFaust (1770s)
David Hume (1711 - 1776) -65
American Revolution 1776
Romantic period (1770?-1850?)
Voltaire (1694–1778) -84
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) -75
> Carl Wilhelm Scheele (1742–1786) -44
> Elements of Chemistry by Lavoisier (32 elements & new nomenclature for chemistry) (1789)
French Revolution 1789
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) -35
Steam power commercialized
> Antoine Lavoisier (1743 - 1794) -51
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) -38
19th century
Marie Francois Xavier Bichat (1771-1802) -31
> First electrochemistry & discovery of potassium and sodium (1802)
Immanuel Kant (1724 – 1804) -80
Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) -46
Goethe completes Part One of Faust (1808)
Marquis de Sade (1740 – 1814) -74
Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815)
> Prout's hypothesis (1815-1816)  
The “Year without a summer” (1816)
James Watt, FRS, FRSE (1736–1819) -83
George III of Great Britain and Ireland - Hanover (1760-1820)-60
  also Duke and Prince-Elector of Hanover (1727-1814) King of Hanover (1814-1820)
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821) -52
William Tuke (1732-1822) -90
David Ricardo (1772-1823) -51
George Gordon, Lord Byron, 6th Baron Byron, FRS (1788–1824) -36
Henri Saint-Simon (1760-1825) -65
Philippe Pinel (1746-1825) -79
> Joseph Louis Proust (1754–1826) -72
> Joseph Fraunhofer (1787–1826) -39 
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) -57
> Alessandro Volta (1745–1827)  -82
Franz Schubert (1797 – 1828) -31
> Humphry Davy (1778–1829) -51
George IV of Great Britain, Ireland, and Hanover - Hanover (1820-1830)-10
  Prince Regent (1811-1820)-9
July Revolution 1830
Goethe completes Part Two of Faust (1831)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) -83
George Cuvier (1769-1832)  -63
> Faraday coins terms "ion," "anion," and "cation" (1834)
Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768 – 1834) -66
William Godwin (1756-1836) -80
William IV of Great Britain, Ireland, and Hanover - Hanover (1830-1837)-7
Friedrich Hölderlin (1770 – 1843) -73
> John Dalton FRS (1766–1844) -78
> William Prout (1785-1850) -65 J. M. W. Turner (1775-1851) -76
Mary Shelley (née Wollstonecraft Godwin; 1797-1851) -54
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769-1852) -83
Gérard de Nerval (1808 – 1855) -47
Crimean War (1853-1856
> Amedeo Avogadro (1776–1856) -80
Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) -59
Auguste Comte (1798-1857) -59
The Great Stink (1858)
> Kirchhoff discovers that emission and absorption spectra coincide (1859)
> International Karlsruhe Congress of chemistry - atomic weights agreed upon (1860)
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) -72
Pre-Raphaelites (1848-?)
Electromagnetic radiation understood - unified theory of electricity, magnetism and light
American Civil War (1861-1865)
Franz Bopp (1791-1867) -76
> Michael Faraday (1791–1867) -76
> Helium discovered (in the sun) (1868)
> The Periodic Table of elements by Mendeleev (1869)
Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871)
Claude Bernard (1813-1878) -65
> Antoine César Becquerel (1788–1878) -89
> James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) -48
The Brothers Karamazov (1880)
Fyodor Doestoyevsky (1821-1881) -60
Charles Darwin, FRS (1809-1882) -73
Karl Marx  (1818-1883) -65
Ramakrishna (1836 – 1886) -50
> Gustav Kirchhoff (1824–1887) -63
Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria-Hungary (1858-1889) -31
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) -56
> Edmond Becquerel (1820–1891) -71 
Victoria of Great Britain and Ireland - Hanover (1837-1901) -64
  Empress of India (1876-1901)
> Heinrich Hertz (1857–1894) -37
> Argon (first inert gas) discovered (1894)
> Roentgen discovers X-rays (1895)
> Henri Becquerel discovers radioactivity of uranium
> J.J. Thompson discovers electron, first subatomic particle (1897)
> John Newlands (1837–1898)
> Curies discover polonium and radium (1898)
> Robert Bunsen (1811–1899) -88 
Adrian moves to Kaisersaschern at 14 (1899)
20th century
> Radon discovered (1900)
> Planck's law (1900)
George Gissing (1857-1903) -46
Adrian leaves Kaisersaschern for Halle  (1903)
Adrian moves to Leipzig (1905)
> Pierre Curie 1859–1906) -46 
Salome by Richard Strauss performed at the Graz Opera (1906)
> Rutherford & Soddy discover "half-life" of radioactive elements, 
> also the "decay chain" or "radioactive cascade" of uranium to lead (1907)
> Dmitri Mendeleev (1834 –1907) -72
> Antoine Henri Becquerel (1852–1908) -55 
Zeitblom in Italy & Greece (1908-1909)
Marriage of Adrian's sister. Adrian to Munich. (1910)
> Stanislao Cannizzaro (1826–1910) -84
> Rutherford model of the atom (1911)  
Adrian in Italy (1911-12)
> Bohr model of the atom (1913)
Adrian to Pfeiffering, Zeitblom to Freising (1913)

Zeitblom to the Western Front in the Great War (1914)
> Moseley's law 1913-1914
> Henry Moseley (1887–1915) -28 
Zeitblom back home with Typhus (1915)

Primo Levi born (1919)
> Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer, FRS (1836–1920) -84 
Mussolini and the National Fascist Party come to power in Italy (1922)
Marcel Proust (1871-1922) -51
> Wilhelm Röntgen (1845–1923) -78 
Beer Hall Putsch in Munich (1923)
Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler published (1925-26)
Apocalysis cumfiguris by Leverkuhn (1926)
> Copenhagen interpretation (of quantum mechanics) 1925-1927
The Lamentation of Dr. Faustus by Leverkuhn (1930)
Adrian's breakdown and return to his mother's care (1930)
Hitler appointed chancellor of Germany (1933)
> Marie Curie (1867–1934) -66 
Hitler Führer und Reichskanzler (leader and chancellor) (1934)
Germany reoccupies Rhineland (1936)
Italy conquers Ethiopia (1936)
> Guglielmo Marconi (1874–1937) -68 
Primo Levi at University of Turin (1937)
Race Laws in Fascist Italy (1938)
Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson, OM FRS(1871–1937)
Anschluss unites Austria with Germany and provides climax of The Sound of Music (1938)

Invasion of Poland starts WW2 (1939)
Ford Madox Ford (1873-1939) -66
Italy at war with Britain and France (1940)
Battle of France (May-June 1940)
Battle of Britain (July-Oct 1940)
Adrian Leverkuhn (1885-25 Aug 1940)
Italy invades Egypt (Sep 1940)
Italy invades Greece (Oct 1940)
Germany joins battle in North Africa (Feb 1941)
Germany joins battle in Greece and the Balkans (Apr 1941)
Germany invades USSR (Jun 1941)
Primo Levi graduates University of Turin (1941)
German attack on Moscow fails (Dec 1941)
U.S.A at war with Japan, Germany and Italy (Dec 1941)
1st 1,000 bomber RAF raid on Cologne (May 1942)
Mass gassing begins at Auschwitz (Jun 1942)
Allies invade Northwest Africa (Nov 1942)
German invasion of USSR reaches high-water mark and starts to recede (Jan 1943)
Serenus Zeitblom writing his memoir (May 1943-1945)
Allied invasion of Sicily (Jul 1943))
Mussolini deposed by King Victor Emmanuel III (Jul 1943)
Allies invade Italy (Sep 1943)
Germans occupy Italy (Sep 1943)
Thomas Mann also starts Doctor Faustus (1943)
Italy at war with Germany (Oct 1943)
Primo Levi arrested by Fascist militia (Jan 1944)
Primo Levi sent to Auschwitz by Germans (Feb 1944)
Allies invade France (Jun & Aug 1944)
V-1 attacks on Britain begin (Jun 1944)
V-2 attacks on Britain and Allied liberated Europe begin (Sep 1944)
Primo Levi secures position in I.G. Farben Buna-Werke plant (Nov 1944)
Primo Levi ill with scarlet fever when SS evacuate camp, liberated by Soviet Army (Jan 1945)
V-E day (May 1945)

Primo Levi returns to Turin (1946)
> Max Planck, FRS (1858–1947) -89
“Tete-a-tete with Antonin Artaud” (January 1947)
Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann published (1947) (completed in January 1947)
> Big Bang theory ("Alpha, Beta, Gamma" paper) 1948
The Accursed Share by Georges Baitaille published (1949)

Thomas Mann (1875-1955) -80
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) -76
> Frederick Soddy FRS (1877–1956) -79
> Erwin Schrödinger (1887-1961) -74
> Niels Bohr (1885–1962) -77 
George Bataille (1897-1962) -65
Aldus Huxley (1894-1963) -69
> George Gamow (1904–1968) -64 
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) -75
Michel Foucault (1926-1984) -54
Primo Levi (1919-1987) -68
Paul Dirac (1902-1984) -82
Richard Feynman (1918-1988) -70

21st century
> Hans Bethe (1906–2005) -98 
> Oliver Sacks (1933-2015) -82



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