In a letter to his mother from October 1798 Friedrich Hölderlin explains his reasons for having left his position as a private tutor with a wealthy family in Frankfurt. According to the young poet the degradation of tutors to mere servants and the transactional relationship that results from this view diminishes severely the possibility of genuine Bildung.

Learn more about Hölderlin’s Poetic Idealism and his idea of leisurely being at my German Idealism course.

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Hölderin "What is Bildung?"