A Poet's Reich: Politics and Culture in the George Circle
A re-examination of the George Circle in the cultural and political contexts of Wilhelmine, Weimar, and Nazi Germany.

Stefan George (1868-1933) was one of the most important figures in modern German culture. His poetry, in its originality and impact, has been ranked with that of Goethe and Hölderlin. Yet George's reach extended beyond the sphereof literature. In the early 1900s, he gathered around himself a circle of disciples who subscribed to his vision of comprehensive cultural-spiritual renewal and sought to turn it into reality. The ideas of the George Circle profoundly affected Germany's educated middle class, especially in the aftermath of the First World War, when their critique of bourgeois liberalism, materialism, and scholarship (Wissenschaft) as well as their call for new formsof leadership (Herrschaft) and a new Reich found wider resonance. The essays collected in the present volume critically re-examine these ideas, their contexts, and their influence. They provide new perspectives on the intersection of culture and politics in the works of the George Circle, not least its ambivalent relationship to National Socialism.
Contributors: Adam Bisno, Richard Faber, Rüdiger Görner, Peter Hoffmann, Thomas Karlauf, Melissa S. Lane, Robert E. Lerner, David Midgley, Robert E. Norton, Ray Ockenden, Ute Oelmann, Martin A. Ruehl, Bertram Schefold.

Melissa S. Lane is Professor of Politics at Princeton University. Martin A. Ruehl is Lecturerin German Thought and Fellow of Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge.
"1019682906"
A Poet's Reich: Politics and Culture in the George Circle
A re-examination of the George Circle in the cultural and political contexts of Wilhelmine, Weimar, and Nazi Germany.

Stefan George (1868-1933) was one of the most important figures in modern German culture. His poetry, in its originality and impact, has been ranked with that of Goethe and Hölderlin. Yet George's reach extended beyond the sphereof literature. In the early 1900s, he gathered around himself a circle of disciples who subscribed to his vision of comprehensive cultural-spiritual renewal and sought to turn it into reality. The ideas of the George Circle profoundly affected Germany's educated middle class, especially in the aftermath of the First World War, when their critique of bourgeois liberalism, materialism, and scholarship (Wissenschaft) as well as their call for new formsof leadership (Herrschaft) and a new Reich found wider resonance. The essays collected in the present volume critically re-examine these ideas, their contexts, and their influence. They provide new perspectives on the intersection of culture and politics in the works of the George Circle, not least its ambivalent relationship to National Socialism.
Contributors: Adam Bisno, Richard Faber, Rüdiger Görner, Peter Hoffmann, Thomas Karlauf, Melissa S. Lane, Robert E. Lerner, David Midgley, Robert E. Norton, Ray Ockenden, Ute Oelmann, Martin A. Ruehl, Bertram Schefold.

Melissa S. Lane is Professor of Politics at Princeton University. Martin A. Ruehl is Lecturerin German Thought and Fellow of Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge.
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Overview

A re-examination of the George Circle in the cultural and political contexts of Wilhelmine, Weimar, and Nazi Germany.

Stefan George (1868-1933) was one of the most important figures in modern German culture. His poetry, in its originality and impact, has been ranked with that of Goethe and Hölderlin. Yet George's reach extended beyond the sphereof literature. In the early 1900s, he gathered around himself a circle of disciples who subscribed to his vision of comprehensive cultural-spiritual renewal and sought to turn it into reality. The ideas of the George Circle profoundly affected Germany's educated middle class, especially in the aftermath of the First World War, when their critique of bourgeois liberalism, materialism, and scholarship (Wissenschaft) as well as their call for new formsof leadership (Herrschaft) and a new Reich found wider resonance. The essays collected in the present volume critically re-examine these ideas, their contexts, and their influence. They provide new perspectives on the intersection of culture and politics in the works of the George Circle, not least its ambivalent relationship to National Socialism.
Contributors: Adam Bisno, Richard Faber, Rüdiger Görner, Peter Hoffmann, Thomas Karlauf, Melissa S. Lane, Robert E. Lerner, David Midgley, Robert E. Norton, Ray Ockenden, Ute Oelmann, Martin A. Ruehl, Bertram Schefold.

Melissa S. Lane is Professor of Politics at Princeton University. Martin A. Ruehl is Lecturerin German Thought and Fellow of Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781571134622
Publisher: BOYDELL & BREWER INC
Publication date: 12/08/2011
Series: Studies in German Literature Linguistics and Culture , #108
Pages: 384
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Queen's College Cambridge, England

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations vii

Acknowledgments ix

List of Abbreviations xi

Introduction Melissa S. Lane Martin A. Ruehl 1

I Members and Mores

1 The George Circle: From Künstlergesellschaft to Lebensgemeinschaft Ute Oelmann 25

2 Stefan George's Homoerotic Erlösungsreligion, 1891-1907 Adam Bisno 37

3 The Secret Germany of Gertrud Kantorowicz Robert E. Lerner 56

II Poetry, Prophecy, Publics

4 The Poet as Idol: Friedrich Gundolf on Rilke and Poetic Leadership Rüdiger Görner 81

5 Kingdom of the Spirit: The Secret Germany in Stefan George's Later Poems Ray Ockenden 91

6 The Absentee Prophet: Public Perceptions of George's Poetry in the Weimar Period David Midgley 117

III Wissenschaft and Herrschaft

7 The Platonic Politics of the George Circle: A Reconsideration Melissa S. Lane 133

8 Political Economy as Geisteswissenschaft: Edgar Salin and Other Economists around George Bertram Schefold 164

9 "Imperium transcendat hominem": Reich and Rulership in Ernst Kantorowicz's Kaiser Friedrich der Zweite Martin A. Ruehl 204

IV The New Reich and the Third Reich

10 Third Reich and Third Europe: Stefan George's Imperial Mythologies in Context Richard Faber 251

11 From Secret Germany to Nazi Germany: The Politics of Art before and after 1933 Robert E. Norton 269

12 The George Circle and National Socialism Peter Hoffmann 287

13 Stauffenberg: The Search for a Motive Thomas Karlauf 317

Notes on the Contributors 333

Index 337

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