Tribute to Carl Jung - II. On German Identity, Ethnic/Folk Faith, and the Wotan Archetype
by Sean Jobst 17 August 2020 Representation of Wotan as "Dezember" in Festkalender, by the German painter Hans Thoma (1839-1924) Another way that Jung has influenced me are his insights about German identity and the Wotan Archetype. Even before his mortal life, Jung inherited the memories and qualities of his ancestors, as with every individual even when not conscious of one's inheritance. One of his prized possessions was a robe from his paternal grandfather and namesake, Karl Gustav Jung (1794-1864), a Basel physician originally from Mannheim. The robe was in the black-red-gold colors of the nationalist revolution that tried to unify the German states, as Karl participated in Romantic ceremonies seeking to build a sense of cultural unity among descendants of the various German tribes.(1) The earliest record of the Jung family was in Mainz, beginning a trail from Rhineland to Schwaben and finally to Switzerland. On his maternal side, the Preiswerks, Carl Jung inherite...