Emily was walking towards the classroom door and saw that most of the class was waiting outside the door to get in. Ben posted a sign on the outside of the door that prevented anyone from looking into the room. Brittany was working for Ben and guarding the door to get into the room. Brittany was armed with a toy squirt gun. People were uneasy waiting to get into class. Someone opened the door and we heard Ben ask for one person to enter at a time. Then there were other shouting voices coming from the room making everybody outside even more curious about what was going on. Kate G. really wanted to go into the classroom but Brittany was trying to stop her. Kate pushed through Brittany and entered the class. Emily entered the room and Heidi shouted through a megaphone demanding that I take off 1 shoe and she confiscated Emily’s water bottle. Other students that entered had to take off one or two shoes. Other personal belongings were taken away such as coffee, water bottles, bags, and purses. These items were placed on the counter underneath where Ben was sitting. Ben stacked a couple tables and was sitting on top playing the role of the lord. Then they forced Emily to start work on the farm. The white sheets of paper on the floor represented the farm. The class was forced to write quotes on the white sheets of paper. Meanwhile, Ben acting as the lord of the land was shouting and demanding that the peasants work faster. Ahmed challenged Ben. Ahmed requested the return of his shoes. They discussed the matter. Ahmed said that it was the will of the people to get their shoes back. Ben said, “Why should I care? You don’t have any rights. I am the one protecting everyone and your families from the infidels.” Ben was not convinced enough to return his shoes. Hallie led a peasant revolt to get all of our belongings back. The peasants won. Then Ben asked us to debrief in the context of the story we read. Ben looked at all of the quotes that the peasants added to the white poster paper. He told the class to look at the quotes and then we will discuss everything. The class stayed sitting down and Ben continued reading the quotes. Ben ordered the class to grab your book and something to write with in preparation to start discussion in class. Then, Ben asked everyone to consolidate and make a smaller circle. Ben took attendance on a piece of paper because he forgot to bring the attendance sheet. Mandi mentioned that this difficultation exercise would be better if the class didn’t know each other that well. She continued saying that Ben wouldn’t have had to deal with the peasants revolting if we weren’t so comfortable with each other. Ben replied saying that he specifically wanted to do this difficultation when we did know each other because he thinks he would freak people out too much if he did it in the beginning before everyone was comfortable. Ben added that it was good to do the difficultation now in the semester because everyone in the class knows each other like the peasants would have been in their time. Ben mentioned the date 1525 in German history and asked if anyone knew why this date was important. The class remained silent. Ben said we would come back to that and started talking about 1517. Ben lectured saying that this was the date Martin Luther published The Ninety-Five Theses in Wittenber (an important location in Michael Kolhaas story). Ellisa talked a little more about this saying that this revolt was against the Catholic Church. People were getting upset because the Catholic church was allowing people to have indulgences and then if you paid the church all of your sins would be forgiven. Martin Luther posted The Ninety-Five Theses. Ben commented saying that what Elissa said was the Hegelian myth. Ben said that the act of posting theses was not a big deal at the time because it was common. People posted theses all the time and it was a way of debating. However, this time it turned into a big deal. Ben returned to talking about 1525 saying that the German princes realized that in Martin Luther’s attack on the church there was a political advantage. Ben showed the class a small map of the Holy Roman Empire. Ben continued saying that the Holy Roman Empire did not actually crumble. It got too big and parts split off. Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity. Ben talked about understanding the people living in central Europe. The pope nominally ran the Holy Roman Empire. He was their religious leader. Ben said that the word Catholic means universal. Also, each lord managed the peasants living on their land. Ben continued saying, “you have a different role in history before and after that time.” There was a fundamental change in the way people understood themselves, others, and where they were living. After the change people understand themselves as autonomous. Individual people have an agency in the world. Individuals understood that they were able to go out into the world and make something of themselves. The future was open. Ben mentions the tripartite distinction being the past and present distinction. Things looked different during the Holy Roman Empire. Everyone who is Christian is living in the same universal empire and living at the end of times. How do you understand time? After this moment is the end of history in a Christian sense. Ben asked what was happening around Luther in 1517? Political power was weakening and Luther was losing power. There were multiple divisions on the small map shown on the board. They did not have nation states. They had individual fiefdoms. The lords ruled the land and had a feudal economy. The peasants worked on the land given to them by their lords and they would have to give the lord a large amount of what they produce. Likewise, we planned the class by providing quotes for discussion. During that time civil rights literally did not make any sense. Hallie began asking a question about serfdom. Ben interjected saying that serfs were close to slaves. Serfs were tied to the land because of debt and couldn’t go anywhere. Serfs were completely owned. Ben mentioned that Germany became a nation in 1817, which was really late. Hallie continued saying that there were certain protections peasants did have on their land and farm. They had some rights even though they probably weren’t that good. Hallie mentioned the transition to capitalism was the same idea but there wasn’t anybody to protect them. Ben said that this transition from feudalism to capitalism is a very real issue that has been debated and continues to be today. Ben said for right now the point is that life then was different. One didn’t have the ability to vote and didn’t have any rights. The second point was that the Holy Roman Emperor was losing power and the small lords were gaining power. In 1517 Martin Luther said that the Catholic Church is fundamentally corrupt and they are not the legitimate ruler. Ben wanted to preface everything saying that he is not speaking out against religion in any way. It’s about a historical moment. He asked the class to please not take this as anti-religious. Now Martin Luther did not have to respond to the Catholic Church anymore. This idea was convenient for the lords of the world because they had to give money to the church. Luther convinced the lords to follow the Lutheran doctrines. This shift angered the pope and the pope excommunicates Luther in 1519. Lutheranism is attractive to more than just lords. Luther says that religion is between you and god. He translated the bible into German and it gets distributed. Luther says that you don’t need the church to be your middleman. God was only interested if you read the bible and had faith. These ideas were also attractive to peasants and as a result they revolted against their lords. There were massive revolts that lead to the Peasant War in 1525. The lords were protecting Luther and at the same time not happy about the peasant revolt. Ben continued saying, “Marin Luther was in a pickle and wrote Against the Robbing and Murdering Hordes of Peasants.” Luther made it clear that when he was talking about your independence from hierarchy he was talking about your soul and not the body. Luther told the lords that they could murder all of the peasants necessary to restore order. Ben asked if anyone had thoughts or questions so far. Mandi asked if this book was before the Peasant War or after. Then, Ben opened up the floor for context boggle. Elissa said that he was a famous writer and he died young by committing suicide. Rachel said that before he committed suicide he shot his lover who had cancer and then killed himself. Hallie said that he was Prussian. Prussia was the empire that became Germany or at least some of it. Hallie mentioned that all of the information she found was in the first page of the book. Heidi said that Kleist’s father was a Prussian army captain. His father died when he was 11 years old and his mother died when he was 15 years old. Kleist was a soldier in the Prussian army as well. Gina added that Kleist went to Dresden and was arrested by a French spy. Hallie ended up winning context boggle with 1 point. Then Ben asked what Hegel thought of Kleist. He said that Hegel hated him. Hallie mentioned that this story was not about a great man doing great things. Ben added that it was not a coherent narrative about great men doing great things. It was just about a guy who did some stuff. The story is fragmentary and ambiguous. Ben said that this book was written in the 1st decade of the 19th century way after all of this happened. This book was written after the Peasant War and this isn’t in any way definite history. Ben argues that what he is talking about draws parallels to the Peasant War. The peasants were defeated in the Peasant War and this didn’t happen again until 1848. Ben mentioned a book called Peasant War in Germany. The book was published after 1848 about that revolutions and it looked back at the original Peasant War to analyze why that failed. Ben said that Kohlaas didn’t have the World Spirit because he was fighting for civil rights that at the time were unheard of. Hallie said that he was very ahead of his time in fighting for civil rights. Ben brought up reading Hegel in Fukuyama saying that the idea was already there but the material wasn’t there yet. He was fighting with common sense like Ahmed was. Michael Kohlaas says he has rights and the lords say the opposite. Ben handed out another paper that was John Locke’s Second Treatise on Government. This was from 1689. These were the things Kohlaas was fighting for. There was a revolution in England that made the King subordinate to law. Ben quoted the 1st paragraph and paraphrased it saying that now we have property rights. Then he quoted the 3rd paragraph saying, “Man being born, as has been proved, with a title to perfect freedom, and an uncontrolled enjoyment of all the rights and privileges of the law of nature equally with any other man or number of men in the world, hath by nature a power not only to preserve his property—that is, his life, liberty, and estate—against the injuries and attempts of other men, but to judge of and punish the breeches of that law in other as he is persuaded the offence deserves, even with death itself, in crimes where the heinousness of the fact in his opinion requires it.” Ben said that this is exactly what Kohlaas does. Before that you have the right to do what Kohlaas did in his time was an anachronism. Ben pointed out the passages with Kohlaas and his wife and supporters. They didn’t think that he was wrong but what he was doing was unintelligible. On page 121 Kohlaas said, “For despite the insults he had suffered, experience had already given him a realistic sense of the imperfection inherent in the order of the world, and this feeling inclined him to accept the loss of the horses as a just consequence, should the groom indeed be in some part guilty as the castle warden claimed.” Ben talked about this quote saying, yeah shit happens but it is too much. My sense of justice says it is not right. Ben wanted to highlight 2 key words. The first word was anachronistic meaning outside of that time. He gave the example of writing a story in the 1500’s with cars. The other word was mentalite(accent on the e). This is the French word for mentality. This was a term created by Annales School (journal they founded). Lucien Febvre created the term. He isn’t an atheist but he is questioning religion. At the time it was unintelligible to be an atheist. It was outside mentalite. To find mentalite you have to find something outside of time. Ben referred back to property rights (Ahmed and Hayek) saying that they were anachronistic because it was outside mentalite. Febvre said that being an atheist didn’t make any sense. Everything in your life was intertwined with religion. Ben argued that the closest thing to mentalite is individualism. Ben said he is different from everyone else and is doing different things in life. We have our own wills and this is part of mentalite. Ben thought Mandi was raising her hand but she was just stretching. Ben called on Sophie saying that she should know a little about this and Sophie tried explaining. Ben asked the class if all of this is making sense. He said to keep these concepts in mind during the next 3 weeks. Now Ben opens up discussion asking us what we want to talk about. Liz found a flyer that said “You Can Stop Injustice.” This was for a pro-life group. This is a controversial topic and they put the most appealing phrase on the front. The flyer is saying that you can change history and it’s global and universal. Liz said that the flyer also said “social justice begins in the womb.” Liz referenced Ben’s difficultation earlier and how we revolted against him. Liz asked could we ever stop injustice? Or is that impossible? Ben commented on the intentional diversity among the people and place on the cover of the flyer. Then Ben brought up Kohlaas saying that he was trying to stop injustice. Luther posts things on the door of the church. Individuals would write a writ. When you are a peasant in the Holy Roman Empire can you stop injustice? What does that mean? The notion that one person’s interests were disconnected with another doesn’t make sense during that time. Sophie point out with a quote on page 137 saying that Kohlaas’s thought he had authority and that didn’t give Luther a right to judge. This was totally achronistic. Then the question was posed does an independent trader have authority against a lord and god? Ben concluded class talking about what we should prepare for on Thursday. He said that there was no new reading. He mentioned four questions we should come prepared for on Thursday.
1. To what extent is Michael Kohlaas just? What did he do right?
2. Do you empathize with him or not? Or sometimes? If so, which times and why?
3. What happened in the conversation between Kohlaas and Luther? Come in with something to say about it.
4. How does this story end? What is the significance with everything we talked about today?
Ben lastly asks the class to bring back the book and handouts on Thursday.
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