Problems with Religion and Politics 335Kant was a friend of this house for thirty years. It was characterized by the loveliest
society {Geselligkeit) and men of the most excellent minds were at home as soon as their
moral character was estimated as highly as their brain. Kant loved the society of the
deceased Countess, who was a very witty and educated woman. I often saw him there,
so polite and entertaining that you would never have expected the deep thinker in him,
who brought about such a revolution in philosophy. In societal conversation he could
at times clothe even the most abstract ideas in a lovely dress, and he analyzed clearly
every view that he put forward. Beautiful wit was at his command, and sometimes his
speech was spiced by light satire, which he always expressed with the driest demeanor.^25
Kant, who could be funny in a direct and obvious way when he was in the
company of his equals, could also be subtle and witty in noble society.^26 He
spoke both languages, so to speak, and he knew how to act in both worlds,
for they were still two quite different worlds in the Königsberg of the late
eighteenth century, no matter how much progress had been made in ad¬
vancing equality.
The world of the nobility could appear strange to an outside observer.
Thus one visitor related that he found some of the behavior of the old Key-
serlingk disconcerting:
The old man appeared, when we sat down at the table, in a very warm overcoat made
from linen and decorated with the order of the black eagle. After soup, two servants
took off the overcoat, and he now revealed a formal coat also of linen and with the or¬
der of the black eagle. When the roast was served, he handed that coat over as well and
now the Count was sitting there in a light silk dress that did not lack the order of the
black eagle either. Had there been another transformation, I could not possibly have
suppressed an admiring outcry; but as it was, for dessert there appeared only the two
grandchildren of our well-meaning host, children from about five to seven years, in
gala dress, powdered locks {Flügellocken) and with a sword on their sides, which per¬
fected the comical view.^27
We do not know whether Kant, who was quite used to this scene, found it
equally funny. The attitude of detached critique and amusement that this
commoner expressed would have been more familiar to him than the meta¬
morphoses of his host.
Even after the count was dead, the dinner parties continued. This is clear
from a scene Hippel recorded on the evening of Tuesday, December 16,
1788.^28 Hippel, who by this time had transformed himself from a com¬
moner into a member of nobility, was in the habit of recording conversations
and other events that he might use later in verfremdeter form in his novels.
This sketch shows what was on the minds of Kant and other intellectuals
in Königsberg at the time. As always, it had to do with developments in