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The German Genius is a virtuoso cultural history of German ideas and influence, from 1750 to the present day, by acclaimed historian Peter Watson (Making of the Modern Mind, Ideas). From Bach, Goethe, and Schopenhauer to Nietzsche, Freud, and Einstein, from the arts and humanities to science and philosophy, The German Genius is a lively and accessible review of over 250 years of German intellectual history. In the process, it explains the devastating effects of World War II, which transformed a vibrant and brilliantly artistic culture into a vehicle of warfare and destruction, and it shows how the German culture advanced in the war’s aftermath.
- Sales Rank: #425936 in Books
- Published on: 2011-07-26
- Released on: 2011-07-26
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.00" h x 1.98" w x 6.00" l, 2.50 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 992 pages
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. We are shamefully ignorant of German culture, asserts veteran British historian Watson (The Modern Mind) in this engrossing, vast chronicle of ideas, humanists, scientists, and artists: Bach, Goethe, Hegel, Gauss, and many more. Stirred by the French Revolution, German nationalism exploded. The same era in Germany produced the modern university—in which professors are expected to discover, not just teach, knowledge, and students learn to reason, not just memorize—and new forms of scholarship. There followed a cultural renaissance as important as Italy's earlier one. Science flourished, stimulated by new university-based laboratories. Modern medicine started as German medicine (bacteriology began with Robert Koch). From Bach to Schoenberg, music became overwhelmingly German. Kant, Marx, Hegel, Nietzsche, and others dominated Western intellectual life. An ominous byproduct, though, was a growing, pugnacious sense of national superiority. This led to trouble, but until Hitler wrecked everything after 1933, Germans won more Nobel prizes than Britain and America combined. English now dominates the arts and sciences, but Watson writes an absorbing account of a time not so long ago when German ruled. (June)
Copyright � Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* As shown in The Modern Mind (2001) and Ideas (2006), Watson has an abiding interest in showing how certain “Big Ideas” have defined the trajectory of history and a gift for accessibly presenting the vast and varied material required to substantiate such claims. Both qualities are amply displayed in his latest work, a panoramic review of German cultural and intellectual development from 1750 to the present. Examining the contributions of literally hundreds of German thinkers and doers and mapping the conceptual connections between them, the author demonstrates the breadth, volume, and influence of German output in philosophy, science, industry, art, literature, and all forms of scholarly activity. But Watson's true focus is the cultural crucible, forged in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and informed by notions of Bildung and inwardness, that gave rise to such accomplishments but also set the stage for the evil actions of the Third Reich. To some extent an effort to untether our understanding of German history from the conflicts of the twentieth century, this study is also a reminder that our modern Western worldview has deep German roots. The U.S. and Great Britain, says Watson, “may speak English but, more than they know, they think German.” Comprehensive, erudite, ausgezeichnet. --Brendan Driscoll
Review
“A compilation of essential German contributions to philosophy, theology, mathematics, natural and social science and the arts since 1750. Watson enshrines a vast pantheon of creative thinkers... [including] compressed summaries of some exceedingly difficult ideas. The range of subjects is impressive, from painters to physicists.” (New York Times Book Review)
“[The German Genius is] Watson’s eight-hundred-and-fifty-page love letter to the all-stars of the Teutonic intellect…his �lan generates its own momentum… The book’s breadth is part of the point.” (The New Yorker)
“Reveals several surprises. . . . A remarkable book on many levels. The research is first-rate and it is surprisingly accessible.” (Tucson Citizen)
“A tour de force. . . . It is impossible not to be impressed by his range and versatility as he bounds across the disciplines. . . . This intelligent book presents a breathtaking panorama.” (Sunday Times (London))
“[A] colossal encyclopaedia. . . . Heroic. . . . Watson derives the German genius from deep springs.” (The Guardian)
“Watson’s book is intended to subvert the negative German stereotypes. Though it checks in at just short of 1,000 pages, it is a usefully concise introduction to the principal themes and personalities of German scientific, philosophical, social, literary and artistic culture since 1750.” (The Times (London))
“Few wasted words—a welcome resource for students of modern history, literature and cultural studies.” (Kirkus Reviews)
“Watson tells how the Nazis’ first artistic blacklist appeared just six weeks after Hitler assumed power in 1933 - and how his catastrophic handling of his intellectual inheritance has unfairly overshadowed the country ever since. This exhaustive and virtuoso sweep through history goes some way to restoring the balance.” (Press Association)
“The German Genius present a huge corpus of scholarship in easily digestible form, and its range is astonishing. No professor, least of all a German one, would have dared to essay such a synthesis; so much the worse for the professors.” (Standpoint)
“He has an enviable gift of explaining lucidly and cogently ideas that are complicated or profound (or both). . . . Everyone interested in the sufferings and greatness of modern culture will be informed, entertained and provoked by it.” (Literary Review)
“Assembles such a wealth of information, based on an impressive range of sources, that The German Genius will be an essential work...for years to come.” (The Independent)
“Watson’s story is vibrating with life. It is unputdownable. It contains a lot one didn’t know. So much enlightenment and so much that moves.” (Frankfurter Rundschau)
“A joy, for its ambition, its seriousness and its moral integrity.” (The Scotsman)
“A powerful and vivid opus. . . . Watson’s story is brimming with life. You can barely put the book aside.” (Berliner Zeitung.)
“Few wasted words-a welcome resource for students of modern history, literature and cultural studies.” (Kirkus Reviews)
“[An] engrossing, vast chronicle. . . . English now dominates the arts and sciences, but Watson writes an absorbing account of a time not so long ago when German ruled.” (Publishers Weekly (starred review))
Most helpful customer reviews
116 of 126 people found the following review helpful.
German history ... and the human condition
By GDP
The book is intended as a history of German ideas over the last 250 years or so, and specifically not a political, economic, or comprehensive "national" history of Germany. The narrative begins near the end of Bach's life (1685-1750), well prior to a German nation having been achieved (1871), and continues beyond the events of 1989 and the subsequent re-unification of what we recall as East and West Germany.
The book considers German ideas as being those of German people, which exceeds the bounds of citizenship in any German nation but instead also includes people of German cultural background from Austria, Bohemia, Moravia and other territories where German-speaking peoples lived en masse. A reader may no doubt quibble with some of the persons who are included as being "German" by the author, but a disagreement over any one person is indeed a quibble, not an indictment of the underlying premise.
The book would seem to have at least three purposes:
1) By documenting the immense fertility of German culture in generating powerful advances in the arts, science and the humanities the author attempts to restore (for those for whom it is needed) a wider, more balanced perspective on Germany than apparently currently exists. Without any attempt to minimize, dismiss, or overlook the evil of the Nazi's and the Holocaust (for which "Germany" has been stigmatized), the narrative offers a reminder of great achievements that were not accidental, but a product of German culture and society.
2) By explaining the elements of German culture that gave rise to those fertile developments, an explanation is also proposed for reasons that some of those same elements could ironically allow or make possible the barbaric (and distinctly uncultured) Third Reich. The exploration of these German cultural elements that "cut both ways" seems even-handed, and consistent with a mature perspective that there is much in life that is ambiguous, with the potential for both good and unintended, tragic outcomes. Again without minimizing the horror of the Holocaust or the role of the German people, the author offers a nuanced view of the cultural ground soil within which the Nazi's were allowed to grow and seize power.
3) To follow the widening influence of German ideas throughout the Western Civilization, part of which reflects the mass emigration of talented Germans during the Third Reich (principally Jewish-German artists and scientists) and part of which reflects the sheer impact of notable Germans. As a quote from Erich Heller presented as an epigram to the book states, "Defeated in two world wars, Germany appeared to have invaded vast territories of the World's minds" or in the author's own words, "The United States and Great Britain may speak English but, more than they know, they think German."
Of noteworthiness is the scope of this book. Reporting that it is 849 pages (plus an author's note, an appendix, and end-notes) does not adequately convey the amount of information contained within. Short biographical sketches for noteworthy individuals pepper the text, usually arrayed to tell the story of the development of a branch of science, commerce or the arts.
The sheer bulk of this information may test one's patience, but it is the supporting evidence for the author's themes.
Well, enough about length, what of substance?
Both the Introduction, titled 'Blinded by the Light: Hitler, the Holocaust, and "the Past That Will Not Pass Away"' and the final chapter, titled 'German Genius: The Dazzle, Deification, and Dangers of Inwardness' are, quite literally, excellent summary bookends to the book's themes, which in some ways have to be culled out of the extensive narrative of people, events and achievements that are documented in between. Reading the introduction and conclusion in sequence proved very helpful.
The book delivers a compelling case for considering such persistent cultural elements as Prussian Pietism (which became institutionalized early through professorships of theology in both Halle and G�ttengen), the development of the German university ideal (whose trained graduates fed the burgeoning need for skilled thinkers and bureaucrats in an increasingly centralized world), the search for an agreeable concept of "nationality" for a group of people who had never shared a "nation" before (the concept of the volk was conceived to satisfy the search), and other notable elements (such as the concept of Bildung, a secular version of Pietism) as cultural influences that "cut both ways." These led to both outstanding achievements in the arts, industry and science, as well as led to a national mindset that made Nazi power a possibility and an unfortunate reality.
Quite correctly, there is nothing in this book that would be considered sympathetic to Nazi Germany. In fact, many prominent Nazi "thinkers" are quietly pilloried (like Theodor Frisch, a theologian who argued that Jesus was not a Jew, but that Galileans were actually Gauls, and therefore Jesus was really German!)or scientists Lenard and Stark (both Nobel Prize winners) who dismissed relativity as "a bogus Jewish science"... after the theory had been confirmed by experiment. The author appears interested only in a more complete understanding of the period and of the German people, which includes some empathy for the course of ordinary human lives and the human condition.
The author points out that, like many cultures, Germany was deeply influenced by a respect for classic antiquity. Greek models of the arts and intellectual thought materially shaped German culture. Which makes it doubly unfortunate then, that there was a collective failure to learn from one of the greatest of Greek achievements, tragic drama. The unfortunate experience of Germany and the victims of Nazi Germany appear as a cruel, ironic enactment of Greek Tragedy. Choices made for seemingly well-intended purposes result in, perhaps many years later, the preconditions for an enormous amount of suffering. The protagonists cannot foresee the looming disaster despite the chorus that tries to warn them. Perhaps one of the points of The German Genius, though, is that because of certain German cultural elements, the chorus wasn't loud enough to be heard.
As the author further points out, strains of the German Genius are still with us (including an emphasis upon science and technology, as well as an emphasis on "inwardness" - his description of the effects of Pietism or Bildung - at the expense of community involvement). Read this book, it is both a history and a timeless story.
199 of 226 people found the following review helpful.
Don't mention the war!
By Gaius Valerius Catullus
Oh please, with peace to the previous reviewer. Here's my problem with the review. When one says that they are rather ignorant of German culture and history and then goes on to myopically focus in on the Nazi era and holocaust as if it were the sum of German history, I have to wonder if they had learned anything constructive from Watson's excellent survey at all.
It is as if Anglos are perpetually in the grip of wartime propaganda some 70 years after the war. Actually, the propaganda really goes back to WWI in which the UK launched the first modern state propaganda campaign against another people, using race imagery btw.
Watson's book is an attempt at a corrective to this distorted and one sided view of history, and it should be applauded in so far as it succeeds. Unfortunately, based on the previous review, I wonder if he has. Although I'm of Anglo ancestry, I have lived in Germany and speak German with intermediate ability. It is a wonderful country and people, and being a classical musician, I can say that their achievement in that sphere is unparalleled in the history of mankind. The most we Anglos can muster seems to the Beatles and other such low rent music (Elgar, who spent summers in Bavaria, excepted). What does that compare with Mozart or Bach?
What galls me in such thinking is the presumptuous, arrogant and glib superiority complex that Anglos have about themselves. We view ourselves as the world's angels, forgetting the international slave trade (which Germans had nothing to do with), the creation of concentration camps (for Boers in S.A. during the Boer War), the wholesale extermination of various native tribes in North America, and host of other crimes against humanity. Yet, we continue to put on as if we are the greatest thing to happen to humanity while treating Germany as if she were still a rogue state (one only need think of Thatcher's reaction to German reunification). Bottom line is that we will go down as history's biggest hypocrites. Germans will fortunately be spared that epitaph.
There's no need for Watson to grill a great culture once more over their 'crimes.' Enough (not for some of course) has been written on that to occupy one for a lifetime. Watson's goal is to remind English speaking readers that the world we live in today in so many ways is a creation of German speaking technology and culture. This is an incontrovertible fact. While, on a purely geopolitical level, they failed to become dominant since the UK could not and would not dare imagine themselves after 1815 as anything but number #1 rather like the USA today, yet they succeeded in virtually every other sphere.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone with an open mind about Germany's many sided contributions to European and global culture. If you're looking for yet another 'Hitler and the Germans' or 'Germany and the Nazis' book, you need to look somewhere else. It is a much needed breath of fresh air into the discourse surrounding a people literally central to the present European Union.
38 of 41 people found the following review helpful.
The German contribution
By Ludvig
This work is compendious and detailed, indeed may be too heavy for some readers. There is a wealth, not only of facts
but also a comprehensive reporting of most aspects of society and the matrix in which modern German contributions and thinking across the spectrum of activities.
Definitely the best I've read on this subject
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