This is a study in the pathology of cultural criticism. By analyzing the thought and influence of three leading critics of modern Germany, this study will demonstrate the dangers and dilemmas of a particular type of cultural despair. Lagarde, Langbehn, and Moeller van den Bruck-their active lives spanning the years from the middle of the past century to the threshold of Hitler's Third Reich-attacked, often incisively and justly, the deficiencies of German culture and the German spirit. But they were more than the critics of Germany's cultural crisis; they were its symptoms and victims as well. Unable to endure the ills which they diagnosed and which they had experienced in their own lives, they sought to become prophets who would point the way to a national rebirth. Hence, they propounded all manner of reforms, ruthless and idealistic, nationalistic and utopian. It was this leap from despair to utopia across all existing reality that gave their thought its fantastic quality.
Product Identifiers
Publisher
University of California Press
ISBN-10
0520026268
ISBN-13
9780520026261
eBay Product ID (ePID)
439307
Product Key Features
Author
Fritz Stern
Format
Paperback
Language
English
Publication Year
1974
Number of Pages
367 Pages
Dimensions
Item Length
8.2in.
Item Height
0.9in.
Item Width
5.6in.
Item Weight
18.3 Oz
Additional Product Features
Lc Classification Number
Dd67
Edition Description
Reprint
PRODUCT_ORIGIN
TAMBOURINE_MIGRATED
Table of Content
Preface Introduction I. Paul de Lagarde and a Germanic Region 1. The Critic as Academician 2. The Idealism of Antimodernity 3. The Germanic Religion 4. The Germanic Nation 5. The Corruption of German Education 6. The Prophet Remembered II. Julius Langbehn and Germanic Irrationalism 7. The Critic as a Failure 8. Art and the Revolt against Modernity 9. Art, Politics, and the Heroic Folk 10. Langbehm and the Crisis of the 1890's III. Moeller van den Bruck and the Third Reich 11. The Critic as Exile 12. The Esthete's Turn to Politics 13. The Conscience of the Right 14. Toward the Third Reich Conclusion: From Idealism to Nihilism Notes Acknowledgment Bibliography Index