II. - Schloss Schwetzingen

not merely with reason, but even with natural
right. It is hardly surprising that Goethe,
fascinated by this interpretation, came to the
only possible and logical conclusion in his
collection of poems, West-östlicher Divan. In
the “Book of Proverbs” it says: “If Islam is
submission to God, in Islam we all live and
die.” 39
Somewhat more cautiously but respectfully
nevertheless, Herder wrote in his philosophical
work on history, Ideen zur Philosophie der
Geschichte der Menschheit: “The religion of
Mahomet impresses a calmness of the soul,
a unity of character on Man, which in fact
may be as dangerous as it is useful, but is still
in itself both worthy and praiseworthy.” 40 At
the same time Herder extols Muhammad as a
campaigner against idolatry and champion of
the doctrine of monotheism. 41
The Historical Context of the Inscriptions
and Adages
The building of the Schwetzingen mosque
must be considered in the general context
of a wide availability of Islamic literature
and a new, optimistic view of Islam, as a
“reasonable” religion in the late 18th century.
This is refl ected by the choice and distribution
of the inscriptions on the walls. Nicolas
de Pigage decided on decorating the eight
cartouches surmounting the archivolts in the
Schwetzingen mosque, with the name of Allah
in Arabic letters. Here the inscriptions are a
means of organizing the space. There are also
fi ve quotations from the Koran. Inscriptions
on or in buildings, from the 16th through
the 18th century, always serve to explain the
function, use or dedication of the building. 42
The fi rst verse of the fi rst sura on the black
marble slab in the central gable of the portico,
may be considered programmatic for the
building as a whole: There is no deity other
39 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, West-östlicher Divan. Buch der
Sprüche (= Goethes Werke in zwölf Bänden, vol. 2, Gedichte
und Versepen), Berlin/Weimar 1966, p. 63.
40 Johann Gottfried Herder, Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte
der Menschheit, Darmstadt 1966, p. 521.
41 Ibid. p. 515.
42 Peter Diemer, Inschriften an Bauten des 16.-18. Jahrhunderts
in Deutschland, Tübingen, n.d., p. 9 f.
II. Schwetzingen – A Prince Elector’s Eighteenth-Century Summer Residence
than God. This statement is supported by the
quotes in the neighbouring cartouches. The
mosque was thus dedicated to the deliberate
intellectual approaching of another religion,
once the centuries-old threat posed by it
had been eliminated by the realization of a
shared geographic and philosophical ancestry
and, more than anything else, by the shared
intellectual trait of reason. Reason dictated the
realization that all religions could be traced
back to one principle, belief in a superior
being. As Voltaire stated in Zadig in 1747,
“You are all of the same opinion, and there is
nothing to quarrel about.” 43
Lessing’s idea of an equal acceptance of the
three monotheistic religions has no place in
the Schwetzingen mosque. Tolerance in Carl
Theodor’s Palatinate was what contemporary
thinking meant by it, a tolerating of religious
and denominational minorities. The mosque
thus remains an expression of a changed
intellectual, spiritual and political view of the
Orient, 44 and of the abandoning of a mere
fashion – the decorative turquerie – in favour
of a place for the contemplation and appreciation
of Mahomedism.
43 Voltaire: Zadig (In: Sämtliche Romane und Erzählungen,
Frankfurt a. M./Leipzig 1992, p. 169).
44 The 18th century also saw the beginnings of independent
Oriental politics on the part of the German states. Cp. Erika
Günther, Die Faszination des Fremden. Der malerische
Orientalismus in Deutschland, Münster 1990, p. 19.
II.
Fig. 11: Johann Bernhard
Fischer von Erlach, Sultan
Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul
(Entwurf einer historischen
Architektur, Vol. 3, 1721).
53