Klages and synchronicity

Ludwig Klages (1872-1956). The following anecdote shows that Klages combines a sharp intuition of what he calls genius loci – the guardian spirit of a specific location – with an overall premonition of imminent threat. 

Needless to say that Klages’ sensitivity to imminent threat pervades his entire philosophy (which is strongly inspired by environmental concerns and worries about the increasing agony of nature). Biographically, this sensitivity seems to have densified in 1910, during a short visit to a city park in Vienna with his host, a local friend who had invited him to his house. During the walk, Klages suddenly hears the vibrating strings of an Aeolian harp that had been hung in the trees. He responds to the sound by spontaneously quoting two lines from the Romantic German poet Nikolaus Lenau:

“Wie auf dem Lager sich der Seelenkranke, 

So wirft im Wind der Strauch sich hin und her.” 

His amazed host, whose wife happened to be severely ill at the time, informs Klages that in 1850, Lenau had died insane in the mental asylum neighbouring their park. There was even a commemorative plaquette. Klages showed himself just as amazed as his host, as he was fully unaware of the proximity of this mental asylum; moreover, he had not read Lenau for a long time. Relating this event many years after, Klages adds the following testimony: 

“Inbezug auf das kommende Geschick der Völker und der Menschheit habe ich nie geirrt, inbezug auf Einzelcharaktere oft, und vollends Vorgesichte und Ahnungen sind mir gänzlich versagt. Die Realität des genius loci aber hat sich mir mehr als ein Mal offenbart.” Nevertheless, Klages mildly concludes, “[g]leichwohl möchte ich die Sache für Zufall halten.”[1]

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[1] Hans Eggert Schröder (1996, 1972). Ludwig Klages. Die Geschichte seines Lebens. Das Werk I (1905-1920). Bonn: Bouvier Verlag, p. 501. Cf “Was den Organisten betrifft, der Euch draußen in dem Park schauerliche Chorale vorgespielt hat, so ist das niemand anders gewesen, als der Nachtwind, der durch die Lüfte brausend daherfuhr, und vor dem die Saiten der Wetterharfe erklangen. Ja ja, Kreisler, die Wetterharfe habt Ihr vergessen, die zwischen den beiden Pavillons am Ende des Parks aufgespannt ist.” E.T.A. Hoffmann (2006). Lebens-Ansichten des Katers Murr. Düsseldorf: Artemis & Winkler, p. 183.