Weimar Thought: A Contested Legacy PDF
Preview Weimar Thought: A Contested Legacy
Weimar Thought Weimar Thought A Contested Legacy Edited by Peter E. Gordon and John P. McCormick PrinCEton UnivErsity PrEss Princeton and Oxford Copyright © 2013 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW press.princeton.edu Jacket art: Raoul Hausmann (1886–1971), The Spirit of Our Age (Mechanical Head), 1919. Wooden head with various objects attached to it. 32.5 x 21 x 20 cm. AM 1974-6. Photo Credit: CNAC/MNAM/Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY. © ARS, NY. © 2013 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Weimar thought : a contested legacy / Edited by Peter E. Gordon and John P. McCormick. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-691-13510-6 (alk. paper) – ISBN 978-0-691-13511-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Germany— Intellectual life—20th century. 2. Germany—History—1918–1933. 3. Social sciences—Germany— History—20th century. 4. Humanities—Germany—History—20th century. 5. Political culture— Germany—History—20th century. I. Gordon, Peter Eli, editor of compilation II. McCormick, John P., 1966– editor of compilation DD239.W365 2013 943.085–dc23 2012038154 British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available This book has been composed in Minion Pro and Ideal Sans Printed on acid-free paper. ∞ Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents Introduction: Weimar Thought: Continuity and Crisis 1 Peter E. Gordon and John P. McCormick Part I: Law, Politics, Society 1 Weimar Sociology 15 David Kettler and Colin Loader 2 Weimar Psychology: Holistic Visions and Trained Intuition 35 Mitchell G. Ash 3 Legal Theory and the Weimar Crisis of Law and Social Change 55 John P. McCormick 4 The Legacy of Max Weber in Weimar Political and Social Theory 73 Dana Villa Part II: Philosophy, Theology, Science 5 Kulturphilosophie in Weimar Modernism 101 John Michael Krois 6 Weimar Philosophy and the Fate of Neo-Kantianism 115 Frederick Beiser 7 Weimar Philosophy and the Crisis of Historical Thinking 133 Charles Bambach 8 Weimar Theology: From Historicism to Crisis 150 Peter E. Gordon 9 Method, Moment, and Crisis in Weimar Science 179 Cathryn Carson Part III: Aesthetics, Literature, Film 10 Walter Benjamin, Siegfried Kracauer, and Weimar Criticism 203 Michael Jennings v vi Contents 11 Writers and Politics in the Weimar Republic 220 Karin Gunnemann 12 Aesthetic Fundamentalism in Weimar Poetry: Stefan George and his Circle, 1918– 1933 240 Martin A. Ruehl 13 Weimar Film Theory 273 Sabine Hake 14 The Politics of Art and Architecture at the Bauhaus, 1919– 1933 291 John V. Maciuika 15 Aby Warburg and the Secularization of the Image 316 Michael P. Steinberg Part IV: Themes of an Epoch 16 Eastern Wisdom in an Era of Western Despair: Orientalism in 1920s Central Europe 341 Susanne Marchand 17 Weimar Femininity: Within and Beyond the Law 361 Tracie Matysik 18 The Weimar Left: Theory and Practice 377 Martin Jay 19 The Aftermath: Reflections on the Culture and Ideology of National Socialism 394 Anson Rabinbach Weimar thought: A Chronology 407 Contributors 417 index 423 Weimar Thought Introduction Weimar Thought: Continuity and Crisis Peter E. Gordon and John P. McCormick This volume brings together a broad range of papers on diverse themes pertain- ing to the intellectual and cultural history of the Weimar Republic. It includes a great variety of contributions by scholars affiliated with manifold disciplines, including, but not limited to, history, political theory, philosophy, sociology, the history of science, film theory, art history, and literary criticism. Our aim has been to provide a critical companion for specialized research that, while adding to current scholarship, would nonetheless remain accessible to the more gen- eral reader. Few if any single-volume works have succeeded at offering a unified portrait of the rich developments of Weimar thought, and we believe the time is right to offer a guidebook to the German interwar era, a compendium focused primarily on the major intellectual trends of the time. What was “Weimar thought”? To a remarkable degree, much of the litera- ture we now regard as foundational for modern thought derives from a single historical moment: the astonishing cultural and intellectual ferment of interwar Germany circa 1919–3 3. The era of the Weimar Republic was arguably the fore- most crucible of intellectual innovation in political theory and sociology, cul- tural criticism and film theory, psychology and legal theory, physics and biology, and modernism in all of its diverse forms. Its brief lifespan saw the emergence of intellectuals, scholars, and critics who rank amongst the foremost thinkers of the twentieth century. A representative list would no doubt include philosophi- cal radicals such as Walter Benjamin, Martin Heidegger, and Max Scheler; theo- rists of political crisis such as Carl Schmitt, Ernst Jünger, Hannah Arendt, Hans Kelsen, and Oswald Spengler; innovators in theology such as Karl Barth, Franz Rosenzweig, Gershom Scholem, and Ernst Bloch; and exponents of aesthetic re- bellion in literature, film, drama, music, and the fine arts, including Alfred Döb- lin and Siegfried Kracauer, Bertolt Brecht and Ernst Krenek, Hannah Höch and Kurt Schwitters. No doubt the list could well be expanded to far greater length. Intellectual labors of the era were noteworthy, too, for the way in which they exemplifed a boldness of inquiry that would, in current jargon, be characterized as “interdisciplinary.” Scholars, critics, and artists frequently cut across the cus- tomary boundaries separating philosophy, history, and artistic criticism, politi- cal theory and theology, not to mention science and metaphysics. In this respect it might be argued that the leading figures in Weimar thought not only antici- 1
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