ture of singingand its prefigurative function in the making of class identifica-
tions. In the context of nineteenth-century Germanculture, this means consider-
ing the role of aesthetic experience and aesthetic education in the sense defined
by Friedrich Schiller.His reflections,inLettersonthe Aesthetic Education of Man
(1794), address most explicitlythe inherent potential of aesthetic experiences to
advance the process of social changeand have been discussed extensivelyin re-
lationto theater and literature. In fact,workers’choral singingoffers an equally
compellingmodel for the interrelatedness of aesthetic education and political
mobilization.ForSchiller,the demands of aestheticautonomyand individual
self-realization are inseparable, and in the form of moral cultivation, aesthetic
cultivation becomes inextricablylinked to social transformation–that is, the re-
alization of shared human ideals. Schiller’soriginal conception of the theateras
amoral institution mayhavebeen developed withaview towardthe enlightened
elites,but it also drawsonaretrospective conception of folk, producing contra-
dictions that find foremost expression in the complicated status of aestheticau-
tonomyinthe workers’movement.Inthe Social Democratic approach to culture
and education discussed in chapter 8, the aesthetic is confirmed asasocial cat-
egory that, beyond individual works andauthors, reinscribes the public nature
of cultureand foregrounds its potential as an agent of change. Through its com-
munal and communicative qualities, the aesthetic continuouslycombines forms,
genres,and styles,bringingtogether images andtexts, originals and adapta-
tions, and theories and fictions. In the process, aesthetic practices are turned
into an experiential category that,instead of organizingthe retreat from politics,
facilitates their realignment in accordancewith the interests of the working
class.Forthe aesthetic, at least for Schiller,aims at engagementrather than de-
tachment–apoint recognized by several scholars who have studied workers’
choral societies and their contribution to the historical alliance of German mu-
sical culturewith oppositional politics.
In themost important work on the subject, musicologistJames Garrett has
examined the remarkable continuities of nineteenth-century musicalculture
from the fight for national unity and liberal democracy to the modern project
of socialreform and artistic innovation.²⁷Bourgeois institutions, such as the mu-
sical societies known asSingakademieand various singing clubs calledLiederk-
ranz,provided important models for workers’choral societies through their use
of associational life asamodel of community or public sphere and theirbelief in
the translatability ofmusical emotions into political emotions. ForGarrett,the
Foragood discussionofthe workers’choral movement in the contextofbourgeois musical
culture, see Garratt,Music,Cultureand Social Reform in the Age ofWagner,197–215.
94 Chapter 4