What is Humanismus?
Humanism, Enlightenment, and the Liberal Arts
Humanism is one of the most important concepts in the history of ideas, with origins going back to ancient Greece and having a long, largely continuous development to the present day. Indeed, one could validly claim that humanism is a cornerstone of the modern world. 
Though the spirit of humanism derives from them, the word was not used by the Greeks themselves, but rather first came into regular use during the German Klassik, or Classical Period, at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries, one of the greatest eras of humanistic achievement in history. German historians at the time needed a term to describe the Zeitgeist, or spirit, of the Italian Renaissance, and they used a form of the Italian word umanista, which in turn was taken from the Latin humanitas, to describe what they discerned as a largely purposeful historical movement coursing through the Renaissance. German thinkers at the beginning of the 19th century began applying the ending, or suffix, -ismus (or -ism in English), to words to denote a systematic body of thought or values held by particular groups in society. The combining of humanitas with -ism was an important moment in intellectual history, it was the recognition by German historians that they had identified what they considered a consistent system of values among certain social groups in the Renaissance, while at the same time establishing a clearly defined body of thought and values for their own contemporaries in coining the term humanism. For German intellectuals and cultural historians, establishing humanism as a coherent body of thought both recognized its existence in the Renaissance and affirmed its value in early
19th century Germany. This later came to be known as neo-humanism, the second great phase of humanism in European intellectual history.
The German Klassik is the period in history that brought forth such an extraordinary wealth of cultural genius that it formed the foundation, the basis, for the modern era that continues to resonate today. Goethe and Schiller in literature; Kant, Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel in philosophy; Mozart and Beethoven in music; Herder, Winkelmann and Wilhelm von Humboldt in cultural and language studies; Alexander von Humboldt in natural history and geography; Niebuhr in history, Schleiermacher in theology; Hölderlin and Novalis in poetry; and the list goes on. This period in German history had a profound impact on later cultural history, and these names strongly influenced European intellectual life in the 19th century and 20th centuries. It was an important reason, for example, it had become de rigeur for Americans in the 19th century to study at a German university for at least a part of their academic career to be considered truly educated. The great thinkers of the German Klassik not only lived the values they identified under the rubric humanism, they also pushed the boundaries of human endeavor to realms of creative activity unimagined in earlier times. As we have just seen, in science, philosophy, literature, music, and art, German cultural activity greatly expanded what it meant to be human by discovering, inventing, and creating new realms of human achievement. This humanistic activity in turn had a profound impact on our sense of freedom and, potentially, on our quality of life. This deliberate expanding of human potential, of pushing out human boundaries through methodical effort and creative genius, is the essence of humanism. Through humanism mankind could wield control over the nature of what it means to be human, man could begin to methodically influence the course of his own destiny.
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As noted earlier, when one generally speaks of humanism today, the implication is that one is referring to Renaissance humanism, the epoch in European history emanating from the Italian city-states of the 15th and early 16th centuries. Renaissance humanism found its inspiration in classical antiquity, in particular the culture of Hellenic Greece of the 5th and 4th centuries BC., even though the word humanism itself stems from the Latin. 
Renaissance humanism quickly spread throughout Europe, and at various times most European regions and countries experienced their own form of the Renaissance. As noted earlier, historical accounts of humanism will tend to emphasize the literary, or textual, nature of the world of the Renaissance humanists, without spending much time probing into the central, unifying themes and interests that these figures shared. More importantly, historical accounts have neglected investigating humanism in terms of the history of ideas: what was it in the Greek and Latin texts that kindled the spirit of the Renaissance humanists, and in turn, what did the German and other 19th century thinkers find in the Renaissance humanists that led them to conclude that the roots of modern European thought were to be found there?
In following these historical ties from Ancient Greece to northern Italy to Germany on through to the present day, a common thread can be identified, one that is pan-European in its scope and universal in its value claims. As the word implies, humanism is centrally concerned with the human condition, its focus is on the variety of humanity as it is manifested throughout the world. This may seem like a general definition lacking in tangible form or meaning, but approaching the term historically, culturally, and linguistically will aid in better understanding humanism as a system of values.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines the English word humanism as:
Any system of thought or action which is concerned with merely human interests (as distinguished from divine), or with those of the human race in general (as distinguished from individual); the ‘Religion of Humanity’...
At first glance this definition may seem clear enough, but closer scrutiny reveals that is is somewhat vague. What are the distinguishing ‘systems’ that humanism infers as a counter reference? Are there ‘systems of thought or action’ that do not have the concerns of humanity as their central object of interest? Is humanism setting itself up in contradistinction to, for example, misanthropic forms of thought? What is meant by “merely” human interests? These questions can best be answered in their historical context, in regarding humanism as a response to other predominant forms of thought at particular times in European history.
The German definition of Humanismus (taken from the Meyers Grosses Taschenlexikon)
...das Bemühen um Humanität, um eine der Menschenwürde und freien Persönlichkeitsentfaltung entsprechende Gestaltung des Lebens und der Gesellschaft durch Bildung und Erziehung und/oder Schaffung der dafür notwendigen Lebens- und Umweltbedingungen selbst.
[English translation: [Humanism is ...the striving for humanity, human dignity and the unfettered unfolding of the personality corresponding formation of life and society through liberal and practical education and the creation of the corresponding necessary living and environmental conditions
As with any investigation in which the real nature of something needs to be uncovered, one can discern through their writings that the Renaissance humanists had become acutely aware of
In the definition of humanism in the Oxford English Dictionary there is also a distinctly moral or ethical tone to the word:
The character or quality of being human; devotion to human interests.
Being ‘humanistic’ thus infers that one is striving to a higher moral standard, one that makes the interests and needs of humanity the primary object of attention.
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It is important, in understanding the history of humanism and its essential nature, to recognize that while humanistic endeavor was carried out by self-identified ‘humanists’ as far back as the 15th and 16th centuries, there was no ‘-ism’ in this focus on humanity at that time, that is, there was no formal system of thought that had been deliberately worked out in a manner that later became characteristic in the 19th century. In rediscovering the values that illuminated the Greek and Roman world, the Renaissance humanists
19th century European scholars, in tracing the history leading up to their times, looked back to the humanistic ferment of the Italian city-states in the 15th century and found in them the origins of the values that made up modern European society. This history became an essential element in the development of the modern mind in the 19th century, in forging the modern European identity. This helped to unleash the explosion of creativity that resulted when German Romanticism broke away from the more classical traditions of the Enlightenment. The individual freedom that grounds the thought of Schiller, Hegel, Beethoven, and their contemporaries is a result of positioning the drama of human life in the center of our attention. For the first time
As noted earlier, ‘humanism’, as a systematically worked out body of thought with its own value structure--in contradistinction to the other developing ‘-isms’ of the 19th century--was first developed in Germany as Humanismus in the late 18th century, and then was more fully developed in the next century throughout Europe. Though the word appears in 18th century texts, it is generally accepted that Friedrich Immanuel Niethammer was the first to apply the word within a conceptual framework in his 1808 book Der Streit des Philanthropinismus und des Humanismus in der Theorie des Erziehungs-Unterrichts unsrer Zeit (The Dispute between Philanthropinism and Humanism in the Educational Theory of our Time). 
It is with 19th century scholars, in recognizing the essential continuity of the humanistic manner of thinking in the Renaissance, who then applied the word humanism when many of the essential characteristics of a movement were recognized in the endeavors of the Italian and other European Renaissance scholars. In other words, humanistic endeavor began with the scholars of Renaissance Italy and quickly spread throughout Europe, but the ‘-ism’ of humanism does not become a self-reflective, conscious way of thinking until late 18th century Germany and 19th century Europe.
Niethammer’s work is illustrative of how scholars framed the essential values embodied in humanism at the time, and it also anticipates the 19th century age of “-isms” and ideology, or the attempt to develop more structured or systematic ways of organizing ideas to better influence the cultural direction in society. Niethammer believed that the humanist ideas crystalizing at the time conflicted with
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The universal and fundamentally humanistic nature of late 18th and early 19th century German thought was buried in the rubble of the Second World War and largely forgotten. In attempting to understand the tragedy of Nazi Germany, historians looked back to this great period in German history and re-interpreted it retrospectively, in looking back from the ruins of 20th century German civilization, and in so doing attempted to discover the roots of National-Socialist thought in German intellectual history. Once this line of historical inquiry took hold, it was relatively easy to find a laundry list of modern evils in the thought of Kant, Hegel, and their German contemporaries: racism, paternalism, antisemitism, arrogant rationalism, secularism, and so on. The English and French cultural traditions, which had dominated European life in the centuries before the 19th, only begrudgingly acknowledged the ascendency of German cultural life in the 19th century as the European countries competed in a form of cultural imperialism. What is lost in this modern reinterpretation of the classical Germany of Goethe and Hegel, in this crisis of “German ideology”, is the essentially humanistic impulse of the era.
If humanism had lost its power and influence as a body of philosophical and ethical principles in the 19th century, we would at best find ourselves studying it only as an historical phenomenon, such as medieval scholasticism, no longer relevant to us today. The movement, however, and the ‘-ism’ of the systematic nature of humanism, still inspires us today, and it continues... Humanistic principles, for example, played a prominent role in battling the various strains of dictatorial ideologies of the 20th century, both on the right--as fascism, and on the left--as communism. We see here that, much like the absolutist nature of religious fundamentalism that tolerates only one form of theological dogma, humanism stands in contradistinction to any systematic form of thought or ideology that
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Humanism can on the one hand be regarded as an historical phenomenon and on the other as a body of ideas or general principles. Historically, humanism ultimately has its roots with the Greek development of human ideals in antiquity, ideals that are rediscovered and developed in the Renaissance, and then are methodically formed into a systematic Weltanschaung (or world view) with its own historical identity during the period of German classi
cism and later. In the 20th century a variety of humanistic types develop, including secular humanism, religious humanism, and educational humanism. In studying the historical roots of humanism, the primary qualities or values that make up a humanistic outlook have been delineated, so that it is now possible to define humanism in a more general manner.
Of greatest relevance to us today is the role that humanism has played in providing a basis, a fundamental definition, of man and humanity, in developing modern forms of education. As a result of Enlightenment thought, the developing modern nation-states recognized two fundamentally juxtaposed roles that education could play in society. One, This manner of construing humanism plays out in many ways in society, in ways more subtle than in opposing fascist or fundamentalist ideologies. In education, for example, humanism has played a central role in the development of liberal education in the United States. It is no coincidence, that a wellspring of American humanistic or liberal education can be found in the writings of the German Wilhelm von Humboldt.
As with many other movements or ideas with long histories, the question What is Humanismus can be answered succinctly, but to do it justice a full-length monograph would be necessary. I plan on writing that book some day, but for those needing some quick information to settle a debate, or for those students with a paper due tomorrow, here are the essential aspects of the concept...
