Overview

First published in 1890, Rembrandt as Educator was a sensation. The title derives from Nietzsche's essay, 'Schopenhauer als Erzieher', and the text was a response to the consequences of German unification in 1871, when Prussia's political successes threatened to engulf Germany with its militarism, industrialisation, and rationalist tendencies in science and art. Marxists responded with economic projects based on the 'class struggle'. Idealists proposed a revolution through the renewal of German culture. Langbehn's work may be considered an early representative of the Conservative Revolution, since it sought to combat the downside of democratic culture at the turn of the century--established by parvenu cosmopolitan elites that promoted foreign, and especially French artistic fashions--with a return to the natural aristocratic ethos of Germany's strongest element. Langbehn's subtle and detailed analysis of the North German character aims at demonstrating its suitability to lead the newly formed German Reich, and to serve as a model for mankind in general. In this effort, Rembrandt symbolised for Langbehn the quintessential German spirit. Moreover, Langbehn's emphasis on the cultivation of the physique as a manifestation of the German's ethical personality found practical application in youth movements, such as the Wandervogel. This long-neglected, infamous, yet historically important work is now available in English for the first time, with footnotes, a comprehensive index, and a scholarly foreword placing it in its proper historical context.

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9781909606173

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'. . . more than any other exerted the widest influence in the 1890s in the spread of voelkisch views . . . ' --Eugene Lunn, author of Prophet of Community '... accurate critique of an overintellectualized culture '. --Douglas T. McGetchin, author of Indology, Indomania, and Orientalism '. . . a summons to the German people (Volk) to cast off . . . their mediocre conformity, and to emulate great individualists, such as Rembrandt'. --Catherine B. Scallen, author of Rembrandt, Reputation, and the Practice of Connoisseurship 'The most famous, or infamous, expression of the need for national regeneration' --James C. Albisetti, author of Secondary School Reform in Imperial Germany '. . . a fundamentalist source of inspiration . . .' '. . . the most influential theorist of the new nationalist ideology . . .' --Eric Storm, author of Culture of Regionalist: Art, Architecture and International Exhibitions in France, Germany and Spain, 1890-1939 'The eminence grise of the whole Heimat art movement' --Elizabeth Boa and Rachel Palfreyman, authors of Heimat - A German Dream: Regional Loyalties and National Identity in German Culture 1890 - 1990

'. . . more than any other exerted the widest influence in the 1890s in the spread of v lkisch views . . . ' --Eugene Lunn, author of Prophet of Community '... accurate critique of an overintellectualized culture '. --Douglas T. McGetchin, author of Indology, Indomania, and Orientalism '. . . a summons to the German people (Volk) to cast off . . . their mediocre conformity, and to emulate great individualists, such as Rembrandt'. --Catherine B. Scallen, author of Rembrandt, Reputation, and the Practice of Connoisseurship 'The most famous, or infamous, expression of the need for national regeneration' --James C. Albisetti, author of Secondary School Reform in Imperial Germany '. . . a fundamentalist source of inspiration . . .' '. . . the most influential theorist of the new nationalist ideology . . .' --Eric Storm, author of Culture of Regionalist: Art, Architecture and International Exhibitions in France, Germany and Spain, 1890-1939 'The minence grise of the whole Heimat art movement' --Elizabeth Boa and Rachel Palfreyman, authors of Heimat - A German Dream: Regional Loyalties and National Identity in German Culture 1890 - 1990

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