Robert Forster and Elborg Forster, eds., European Society in the Eighteenth Cen¬
tury (New York: Harper & Row, 1969), p. 232.
Rink, Ansichten, p. 14. See also Herbert Sinz, Lexikon der Sitten und Gebräuche im
Handwerk (Freiburg: Herder Verlag, 1986), p. 153: "There were drawn out con¬
frontations between the saddle makers and the harness makers about the similarity
of their tools and their trade." See also Otto Kettemann, "Sattler und Riemer,"
in Reinhold Reith, ed., Lexikon des alten Handwerks. Vom Spätmittelalter bis ins 20.
Jahrhundert (München: C. H. Beck, 1990), pp. 188-191. The dispute Kant de¬
scribes was obviously part ofthat larger conflict. Fritz Gause, Die Geschichte der
Stadt Königsberg in Preußen, I, Von der Gründung der Stadt bis zum letzten Kur¬
fürsten (Köln/Graz: Böhlau Verlag, 1965), p. 533, points out that the saddle and
harness makers had a twenty-five-year-long dispute about which parts of the har¬
ness and other equipment for carriages were the work of which trade. The saddle
makers also disputed the right of the harness makers to use certain (more fancy)
kinds of leather (weißgegerbtes).
Wolfram Fischer, Quellen zur Geschichte des deutschen Handwerks. Selbstzeugnisse
seit der Reformationszeit (Göttingen: Musterschmidt Verlag, 1957), pp. 79-91.
Kraus in Reicke, Kantiana, p. 5n.
Borowski, Leben, p. 12; see also Jachmann, Kant, p. 135, who claimed that Kant
often called his education a shield (Schutzwehr) of the heart and morals against
wicked impressions (lasterhafte Eindrücke). Jachmann also called Kant's education
both at home and at school "entirely Pietistic."
Draft of a letter to Lindblom, Oct. 13, 1797 (Ak 13, p. 461; the letter itself: Ak 12,
pp. 205-207). This is the only pronouncement on his parents written by Kant him¬
self. It lends credibility to what others report. How important the moral standing
of his family was to Kant can also be seen from a letter to the fiance of his brother's
daughter of December 17, 1796 (Ak 12, p. 140), where he said: "Since the blood
of my two esteemed parents in its different streams has never been sullied by any¬
thing morally indecent, I hope that you will find this in your loved one.. ."
Emil Arnoldt, "Kant's Jugend," in Emil Arnoldt, Gesammelte Schriften, 6 vols.,
ed. Otto Schöndörffer (Berlin, 1907-1909), I, pp. 608-609. See also Stuckenberg,
Kant, p. 6.
Jachmann, Kant, p. 169. He also says that Kant's eyes were always filled with tears
when he spoke of his mother, and that he called her "a loving, sensitive, devout,
and righteous woman and a tender (zärtlich) mother who led her children to fear
God through her devout teachings and virtuous example. She often took me out
of the town and called attention to the works of God." See also Wasianski, Kant,
pp. 25of.
Wasianski, Kant, p. 246.
Ak 7, p. 310. The words "enthusiastic" or "schwärmerisch" refer to highly emo¬
tionalized religiosity, which was common in many Pietist groups, especially the
Herrnhuter. It had a long history. John Locke had already argued against it in
his Essay. See John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, edited with
an introduction by P. H. Nidditch (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1975),
pp. 697-706.
