Germany's Conscience
Friedrich Meinecke: Champion of German Historicism
1st Edition
Published on 9. June 2021
302 pages
978-3-8394-5135-9 (ISBN)
Description
Questions of truth, ethics, state power, and propaganda, of how to render account of catastrophes and reconcile oneself with one's past are not only crucial to our time, they were also central to the German historian Friedrich Meinecke (1862-1954). Probably no generation of historians before Meinecke had lived through more unsettling transformations, during which these questions were most pressing. Reinbert Krol's analysis of Meinecke's intellectual development does not only give us insight into his philosophy of history - which turns out to be more conciliatory than previously assumed - it can also be a source of inspiration for scholars of history today.
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Besprochen inH-Soz-Kult, 26.11.2021, Anna CorstenMore details
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06/2021
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Person
Reinbert Krol, born 1979, teaches history at the University of Groningen. His research interests are German political and cultural history, with a specific focus on philosophy of history.
Content
- Cover
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- Meinecke studies
- Methodological principles
- Structure of the book
- 1. The Ideal of a unity
- Introduction
- 1.1 Nations, the national state and cosmopolitanism
- 1.2 The universal and the national
- 1.3 The reconciliation of cosmopolitanism and the national state?
- 1.4 The tradition of the ideal
- Conclusion
- 2. Struggling with a world view
- Introduction
- 2.1 Prelude
- 2.2 Staatsräson according to Meinecke
- State interest and an ideal of humanity
- 2.3 The tragic character of Meinecke's Staatsräson
- 3. A conscience akin to God
- Introduction
- 3.1 Staatsräson as a 'solution'
- 3.2 The statesman's conscience
- Conclusion
- 4. A world view in the making
- Introduction
- 4.1 The individualizing view
- 4.2 Pietism and Neoplatonism
- 4.3 Reason and Unreason
- 4.4 Traditionalism and historicism
- 4.5 The prelude to Meinecke's historicism
- 4.6 Science or world view
- Conclusion
- 5. Harmony regained
- Introduction
- 5.1 Polarities and harmony
- 5.2 Meinecke's Umdeutung of Goethe
- 5.3 Goethe and the daemonic
- 5.4 Harmony and dissonance
- 5.5 Meinecke and the crisis of historicism
- Conclusion
- 6. The authority of the personality
- Introduction
- 6.1 A controversial study
- 6.2 A catastrophic synthesis
- 6.3 Nature, chance, fate
- 6.4 Kultur as cure
- 6.5 Apotheosis
- Conclusion
- Final conclusions
- Bibliography
- Index
