The Aesthetic Revolution in Germany refutes the stereotypical image of Germany as the country of romantic but unworldly poets and thinkers. In 1750, an aesthetic revolution takes place in Germany, at the beginning of which stands J.J. Winckelmann. The romantic movement (Schiller, Hölderlin, Kleist) paves the way for this aesthetic revolution, which Heine is one of the first to criticise. Since then, criticism has never fallen silent. Opposing the rationalisation of the world (Wagner), the aesthetic revolution climaxes in the philosophy of Nietzsche. During the 1920s and 30s, it becomes a conservative revolution (George, Spengler, Th. Mann, Benn) and fails inevitably. Beckmann and M. Walser show that particularly after 1945 the aesthetic perspective is still necessary.
Erscheinungsdatum: 10.03.2017

motw/The Aesthetic Revolution in Ger - Meindert Evers.pdf

Meindert Evers

Peter Lang GmbH, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften

PL Academic Research

Frankfurt am Main, 2017

Germany, Germany

producers:
Adobe PDF Library 10.0.1

Memory of the World Librarian: Slowrotation

Cover 1
Contents 9
Introduction 11
1. The birth of the aesthetic man in Germany 15
1.1. The birth of the aesthetic man. Johann Joachim Winckelmann 15
1.1.1. The romantic rebellion 28
1.1.2. Critical voices: from Heinrich Heine to Georg Lukács 36
1.1.3. In defence of the romantic rebellion 45
1.1.4. The aesthetic revolution as an alternative to the mechanistic world view. 57
Descartes (1596–1650) 58
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) 64
Isaac Newton (1642–1727) 66
1.1.5. The historical sense 69
Giambattista Vico (1668–1744) 72
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) 76
Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803) 81
Leopold von Ranke (1795–1886) and Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835) 85
1.2. Friedrich Schiller: Beauty and Freedom 89
1.3. Friedrich Hölderlin: Beauty and Revolution 95
1.4. Heinrich von Kleist: Radical Beauty 106
1.5. Richard Wagner: Regeneration of the culture 113
2. Nietzsche as culmination point of the aesthetic perspective 135
2.1. On Nietzsche’s life 135
2.2. Nietzsche’s criticism of historism 139
2.3. Nietzsche’s gospel of art. 144
2.3.1. Dionysus against Christ 162
3. The ambiguity of the aesthetic revolution 171
3.1. The Fin de siècle: End or turning point? Between decadence and awakening 171
3.1.1. The Fin de siècle as a turning point 181
3.2. The conservative Revolution. A discourse 197
3.3. Stefan George: Art and ‘Reich’ 210
3.4. Oswald Spengler: retrograde prophet? 225
3.5. Thomas Mann: Aesthete nolens volens 244
3.6. Gottfried Benn: architect of nihilism 268
3.7. Max Beckmann: the artist as the new god 291
3.7.1 Beckmann’s Work 310
4. Epilogue 321
4.1. Martin Walser’s novel A Gushing Fountain 321
4.2. The necessity of an aesthetic perspective for the modern era 326
Illustrations 339
References 341
Chapter I 341
Johann Joachim Winckelmann 341
Romantic Rebellion and mechanistic world view 341
Historical Sense 343
Friedrich Schiller 344
Friedrich Hölderlin 344
Heinrich von Kleist 345
Richard Wagner 345
Chapter II 346
Friedrich Nietzsche 346
Chapter III 347
Fin de siècle 347
Conservative Revolution 348
Stefan George 348
Thomas Mann 349
Oswald Spengler 350
Gottfried Benn 350
Max Beckmann 350
Epilogue 351
Index of Names 353

The rationalisation of the world is answered in Germany by an Aesthetic Revolution (Winckelmann, the romantic movement). It culminates in Nietzsche, and becomes a conservative revolution in the 1920s. After 1945, Beckmann and M. Walser embody the necessity of the aesthetic perspective.

2025-10-27