Blue flower
The blue flower is a central symbol of Romanticism. It stands for desire and love and the metaphysical striving for the infinite. The blue flower was later also a symbol of longing for the distance and a symbol of the journey. As a real role models of the blue flower native plants are often seen in Central Europe about the cornflower or chicory; Novalis speaks of blue heliotrope.
Emergence of the symbol
With a picture of his friend Friedrich Sweden stone inspired Novalis used this symbol as the first in his unfinished novel Heinrich von Novalis. He begins with young Henry meditates before falling asleep on the encounter with a mysterious stranger:
He falls asleep and begins to dream. In the dream he traveled through strange places, until he finally at the foot of a mountain sees the opening of a corridor. He enters a cave in which a pool of water is, he swims across to the other bank:
Interpretation
In summary, one could say that not only nature, man and spirit join in the blue flower, it symbolizes the pursuit of the knowledge of nature and - following from it - the self, the actual goal of romance.
Man and nature combine what one sees first of all, that in Henry's dream in the middle of the flower (natural ) approaches the girl 's face - where is here to think of love and woman / woman, not only to the people in general. By " man " is in the romance the continuation of the human concept of humanism and the Enlightenment meant - only with romantic sign, the weight is on the personal feelings, not on abstract theory. Not for nothing thinking is based as a theoretical concept in the romance on the personal love. This is meant when it is said that the blue flower "the pursuit of knowledge [ ... ] of the self" symbolizes. The emphasis on individualism. The self embodies the feeling, the thinking of the individual, the ego. Where the interesting thing is that the self is named here as the result of his own cognitive process! The self is thus all in one: First: who thinks about himself, secondly, the one who feels, and is thinking about his feelings / thoughts, and thirdly, the result of reflection, namely a kind of higher self, higher self, what has been detected. The concept of cognition leads again to love. Knowledge of nature takes place as a result, by going through the love in all its manifestations. Then you recognize the nature and - in its impact his view of himself. These are basic ideas of Romanticism, which are summarized in the symbol of the blue flower.
The use of the symbol
Seal
Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff wrote a poem called The Blue Flower. Adelbert von Chamisso thought he had found in the resin, the " blue flower of romance " Heinrich Zschokke used it as longing and love symbol in the novel The Freihofstraße of Aarau. Goethe sought mainly in Italy its " archetypal plant ", which corresponds in some areas interpretation of the blue flower. In Wilhelm Müller's poem Tears rain from the cycle The Beautiful Miller, the Franz Schubert set to music, blue flowers are mentioned. ETA Hoffmann puts the figure Berganza in his narrative news of the latest fate of the dog Berganza an homage to Novalis and the Blue Flower as a symbol of "holy miracle of nature " in the mouth.
The naturalist Charles Henckell mocked the blue flower in the same poem as " romantic lies greenhouse ". Hertha bird full used the blue flower in her literary fairy tale The Silver Bridge as an element that lends his magical power the fairy tale ( as a character ). In modified form Captain - Blaubär inventor Walter Moers used this classic longing symbol in his love and adventure novel Rumo & The Miracles in the dark, to illustrate the still undetermined, but still strong love of his heroes: The blue flower is here to " silver thread ".
Painting
The eminent early romantic painter Philipp Otto Runge (1777-1810) used in several paintings sometimes the motive of the blue flower. Runge had dealt with the work of Novalis, as he created about 1808 or 1809, two versions of a romantic symbol image The morning. In both versions, a calyx before the night sky can be seen, which is symbolic of the desire for fulfillment and love.
The Düsseldorf landscape painter Fritz von Wille (1860-1941) painted 1906/1907 a view of the chapel at Totenmaar in the Eifel region with a slope full of blue and white flowers in the foreground. The image was given the title The Blue Flower, was acquired in 1908 by Kaiser Wilhelm II and still bears the prestige of the painter at. Will chose the title probably under the influence of neo-Romanticism of the early 20th century.
Migrant bird movement
1960 Werner Helwig published for the first time his book The Blue Flower of migrant bird on the history of the youth movement. In this framework, several songs have emerged that have taken up the icon.
Quote from the song we want to extend to country, text by Hjalmar Kutzleb:
"It blooms in the forest deep inside the blue flower fine, to win the flower, we draw into the world. It rustling the trees, it murmurs the river, and who wants to find the blue flower, which must be a wanderer. "
Student movement
In Berlin came in 1968 as part of the student movement, the solution to: "Beat the German dead, the blue flower turns red! " The Blue Flower was a pars pro toto for the German literature as a subject of German literature, which are denounced as " froze science" should.