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Paul De Lagarde, The Need To Transcend Liberalism

1995; Brill; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/oso/9780192892492.003.0052

2211-6257

Roger Griffin,

European history and politics

Abstract Paul de Lagarde (ne Botticher: 187r91) followed in the footsteps of the Grimm brothers by exploring the questions of German nationalism through an academic concern with philological and cultural issues. The main focus of his quest for a distinctive national identity was the corrosive effects of materialism and secularization and the corresponding need to create a German religious identity through a ‘German Christianity’. His German Writings, published between 1876 and 1881, made him one of the most famous critics of Bismarckian Germany, especially its liberalism and the allegedly harmfal influence of foreigners, particularlyJews (though his anti-Semitism remained ‘ethical’ rather than biological). He exerted considerable influence on the volkisch movement4 and his writings became part of the Nazi literary canon (see Stern 1961).