During the Allied bombing of Germany, Hitler was more distressed by the loss of cultural treasures than by the leveling of homes. Remarkably, his propagandists broadcast this fact, convinced that it would reveal not his callousness but his sensitivity: the destruction had failed to crush his artist's spirit. It is impossible to begin to make sense of this thinking without understanding what Wolf Lepenies calls The Seduction of Culture in German History.
This fascinating and unusual book tells the story of an arguably catastrophic German habit--that of valuing cultural achievement above all else and envisioning it as a noble substitute for politics. Lepenies examines how this tendency has affected German history from the late eighteenth century to today. He argues that the German preference for art over politics is essential to understanding the peculiar nature of Nazism, including its aesthetic appeal to many Germans (and others) and the fact that Hitler and many in his circle were failed artists and intellectuals who seem to have practiced their politics as a substitute form of art.
In a series of historical, intellectual, literary, and artistic vignettes told in an essayistic style full of compelling aphorisms, this wide-ranging book pays special attention to Goethe and Thomas Mann, and also contains brilliant discussions of such diverse figures as Novalis, Walt Whitman, Leo Strauss, and Allan Bloom. The Seduction of Culture in German History is concerned not only with Germany, but with how the German obsession with culture, sense of cultural superiority, and scorn of politics have affected its relations with other countries, France and the United States in particular.
Review:
... Lepenies's reflections on French-German and American-German culture wars suggest that cultural interpretation is as much a part of the social world as any social or political fact. . . . [H]is history of an idea . . . contains important political lessons for both Europe and the United States. The substitution of culture for politics is a dangerous road to travel. Andreas Huyssen(The Nation)
... At times German cultural pride has become so obsessive that it's distorted the development of society. In an audacious new book, The Seduction of Culture in German History, . . . Wolf Lepenies blames the catastrophes of 20th-century German politics on a tendency to overrate culture at the expense of politics. Robert Fulford(National Post)
Table of contents:
Introduction Bombs over Dresden and the Rosenkavalier in the Skies 1
Chapter 1: Culture: A Noble Substitute 9
Lessons in Diminished Particularity 9
A Strange Indifference to Politics 11
The German Spirit and the German Reich 16
Chapter 2: From the Republic into Exile 27
Reflections of a Political Thomas Mann 27
The Aesthetic Appeal of Fascism 36
Art and Morality 45
The Blurring of Exile and Emigration 48
Chapter 3: Novalis and Walt Whitman: German Romanticism and American Democracy 56
A Country without an Opera 56
Joseph in America 60
German Democratic Vistas 63
Emerson's Sponsors: Beethoven Bettina 70
Chapter 4: German Culture Abroad: Victorious in Defeat 76
The Closing of the American Mind 76
The German Mind in Jeopardy 85
A Calm Good-Bye to Europe 88
Chapter 5: French-German Culture Wars 93
Two Revolutions 93
Goethe in Exile 98
"Culture Wars" and Their Origin 100
A Puzzle in the History of Sociology 105
A Mediator: Maurice Halbwachs 107
An Expulsion from Berlin 110
The Murder of Maurice Halbwachs 112
Strange Defeat 114
Intellectual Resistance 116
Limits of the German Revolution 122
Chapter 6: German Culture at Home: A Moral Failure Turned to Intellectual Advantage 128
The German Catastrophe 128
The Resurrection of Culture 134
Inner Emigration and Its Discontents 138
German and Jewish Diaspora 145
Chapter 7: The Survival of the Typical German: Faust versus Mephistopheles 154
Goethe in the Polls 154
Goethe after 1945 159
Chapter 8: German Reunification: The Failure of the Interpreting Class 165
Cultural Guardians 165
Intellectual Disaster in the East 167
Intellectual Tragicomedy 170
Chapter 9: Culture as Camouflage: The End of Central Europe 176
Europe: Dream and Bureaucracy 176
A Victory of Culture over Power 178
Chapter 10: Irony and Politics: Cultural Patriotism in Europe and the United States 186
An American Patriot from Europe 186
Hamlet and Fortinbras 190
European Pygmies and the American Giant 195
The Irony of American History 196
Chapter 11: Germany after Reunification: In Search of a Moral Masterpiece 200
Culture and Realpolitik 200
Solving Political Problems in the Field of Culture 203
Notes 211
Bibliography 237
Acknowledgments 249
Index 251
This fascinating and unusual book tells the story of an arguably catastrophic German habit--that of valuing cultural achievement above all else and envisioning it as a noble substitute for politics. Lepenies examines how this tendency has affected German history from the late eighteenth century to today. He argues that the German preference for art over politics is essential to understanding the peculiar nature of Nazism, including its aesthetic appeal to many Germans (and others) and the fact that Hitler and many in his circle were failed artists and intellectuals who seem to have practiced their politics as a substitute form of art.
In a series of historical, intellectual, literary, and artistic vignettes told in an essayistic style full of compelling aphorisms, this wide-ranging book pays special attention to Goethe and Thomas Mann, and also contains brilliant discussions of such diverse figures as Novalis, Walt Whitman, Leo Strauss, and Allan Bloom. The Seduction of Culture in German History is concerned not only with Germany, but with how the German obsession with culture, sense of cultural superiority, and scorn of politics have affected its relations with other countries, France and the United States in particular.
Review:
... Lepenies's reflections on French-German and American-German culture wars suggest that cultural interpretation is as much a part of the social world as any social or political fact. . . . [H]is history of an idea . . . contains important political lessons for both Europe and the United States. The substitution of culture for politics is a dangerous road to travel. Andreas Huyssen(The Nation)
... At times German cultural pride has become so obsessive that it's distorted the development of society. In an audacious new book, The Seduction of Culture in German History, . . . Wolf Lepenies blames the catastrophes of 20th-century German politics on a tendency to overrate culture at the expense of politics. Robert Fulford(National Post)
Table of contents:
Introduction Bombs over Dresden and the Rosenkavalier in the Skies 1
Chapter 1: Culture: A Noble Substitute 9
Lessons in Diminished Particularity 9
A Strange Indifference to Politics 11
The German Spirit and the German Reich 16
Chapter 2: From the Republic into Exile 27
Reflections of a Political Thomas Mann 27
The Aesthetic Appeal of Fascism 36
Art and Morality 45
The Blurring of Exile and Emigration 48
Chapter 3: Novalis and Walt Whitman: German Romanticism and American Democracy 56
A Country without an Opera 56
Joseph in America 60
German Democratic Vistas 63
Emerson's Sponsors: Beethoven Bettina 70
Chapter 4: German Culture Abroad: Victorious in Defeat 76
The Closing of the American Mind 76
The German Mind in Jeopardy 85
A Calm Good-Bye to Europe 88
Chapter 5: French-German Culture Wars 93
Two Revolutions 93
Goethe in Exile 98
"Culture Wars" and Their Origin 100
A Puzzle in the History of Sociology 105
A Mediator: Maurice Halbwachs 107
An Expulsion from Berlin 110
The Murder of Maurice Halbwachs 112
Strange Defeat 114
Intellectual Resistance 116
Limits of the German Revolution 122
Chapter 6: German Culture at Home: A Moral Failure Turned to Intellectual Advantage 128
The German Catastrophe 128
The Resurrection of Culture 134
Inner Emigration and Its Discontents 138
German and Jewish Diaspora 145
Chapter 7: The Survival of the Typical German: Faust versus Mephistopheles 154
Goethe in the Polls 154
Goethe after 1945 159
Chapter 8: German Reunification: The Failure of the Interpreting Class 165
Cultural Guardians 165
Intellectual Disaster in the East 167
Intellectual Tragicomedy 170
Chapter 9: Culture as Camouflage: The End of Central Europe 176
Europe: Dream and Bureaucracy 176
A Victory of Culture over Power 178
Chapter 10: Irony and Politics: Cultural Patriotism in Europe and the United States 186
An American Patriot from Europe 186
Hamlet and Fortinbras 190
European Pygmies and the American Giant 195
The Irony of American History 196
Chapter 11: Germany after Reunification: In Search of a Moral Masterpiece 200
Culture and Realpolitik 200
Solving Political Problems in the Field of Culture 203
Notes 211
Bibliography 237
Acknowledgments 249
Index 251