I t was nearly midnight in the early spring of 1830. The new gas lamps on Berlin's Mauerstrasse cast a cold, incongruous glow on a candelabra-lit bust of Prince Louis Ferdinand displayed lovingly in the front room of Rahel and Karl August Varnhagen von Ense. Most of their guests had already departed-the singers, the après theater visitors, the usual smattering of foreign personalities and out-of-town liberals, even Alexander von Humboldt, who was usually the last to leave. Rahel's brother, Ludwig Robert, suppressed a yawn as the typically more lively and intimate portion of the evening began. ¹

"So tell us, Eduard," Rahel said seriously, "will Prussia travel the French road toward constitutionalism -- or, if you will humor me, republicanism?" The perfect hostess even at the most challenging intellectual moments, Rahel knew how Hegel's good friend Eduard Gans loved to debate politics. It was much more a part of him than the mundane legal studies he pursued at the university. The veteran dialectician responded somewhat evasively, however, for he preferred to enter the fray at a later stage, countering and dissect-

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