Reactionary Modernism: Technology, Culture, and Politics in Weimar and the Third ReichIn a unique application of critical theory to the study of the role of ideology in politics, Jeffrey Herf explores the paradox inherent in the German fascists' rejection of the rationalism of the Enlightenment while fully embracing modern technology. He documents evidence of a cultural tradition he calls 'reactionary modernism' found in the writings of German engineers and of the major intellectuals of the. Weimar right: Ernst Juenger, Oswald Spengler, Werner Sombart, Hans Freyer, Carl Schmitt, and Martin Heidegger. The book shows how German nationalism and later National Socialism created what Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's propaganda minister, called the 'steel-like romanticism of the twentieth century'. By associating technology with the Germans, rather than the Jews, with beautiful form rather than the formlessness of the market, and with a strong state rather than a predominance of economic values and institutions, these right-wing intellectuals reconciled Germany's strength with its romantic soul and national identity. |
Contents
The paradox of reactionary modernism | 1 |
The conservative revolution in Weimar | 18 |
bourgeois antinomies reactionary reconciliations | 49 |
Ernst Jüngers magical realism | 70 |
Technology and three mandarin thinkers | 109 |
technology and the Jewish question | 130 |
Common terms and phrases
abstract Adorno aesthetic analysis anti-Semitism anticapitalism anticapitalist antitechnological Arbeiter authoritarian beauty Benjamin blood bourgeois capitalism capitalist Carl Schmitt claimed conservative revolution conservative revolutionaries contributed creative criticism cultural crisis Der Untergang Deutsche Technik Deutscher Dialectic of Enlightenment domination economic Enlightenment Ernst Jünger essay Fascism Frankfurt Freyer Fritz Geist Georg Lukács George Mosse German engineers German nationalism German socialism Germany's Gestalt Goebbels Hans Freyer Hardensett Hitler Horkheimer Ibid idea individual industrial society Jewish Jews labor liberalism Lukács machine Martin Heidegger Marx Marxism modern technology Munich National Socialism National Socialist nationalist nature Nazi ideology nazism nology philosophy postwar production reactionary modernism reactionary modernist tradition regime rejected right-wing intellectuals romantic romanticism Schroter social theory Sociology Sombart soul soulless Sozialismus Spengler spirit Stuttgart tech technical advance Technik und Kultur themes Third Reich Todt totalitarian trans Untergang des Abendlandes Volk völkisch Weber Weihe Weimar Republic Werner Sombart Wirtschaftsleben wrote York Zivilisation