Vischer in Stuttgart

Goethe micrologists versus Hegel

Vischer never worked in the evenings, spending his time in taverns with such famous figures as Mörike and Count von Zeppelin.

Hegel and the writer Jean Paul were among his idols, and he never tired of battling against the type of philologists – who he referred to as "Stoffhuber" and "micrologists" – who tried to analyse the works of poets such as Goethe down to the most minute detail.

"Was it six or seven, - When this verse he did pen? Perhaps half seven on the dot – When these words he did jot, - This genius, this wit?"

Yet especially in his later years he became more reconciliatory and did admit that there were two opposing ways of seeing the truth: reading thoughts and reading pictures. "There need not be a dispute between aesthetics and philology."