Copyright by Perry Wayne Myers, Jr. 2002 The Dissertation Committee for Perry Wayne Myers, Jr. Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: The Double Edged Sword: The Cult of Bildung, Its Downfall and Reconstitution in Fin-de-Siècle Germany (Thomas Mann, Rudolf Steiner, and Max Weber) Committee: _______________________________________ Katherine M Arens, Supervisor _________________________________ John M Hoberman _________________________________ Janet K Swaffar _________________________________ Nina A Berman _________________________________ Benjamin Gregg The Double Edged Sword: The Cult of Bildung, Its Downfall and Reconstitution in Fin-de-Siècle Germany (Thomas Mann, Rudolf Steiner, and Max Weber) by Perry Wayne Myers, Jr., B.A., M.B.A., M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin August, 2002 Dedication To Susanne, who inspired me with her vision and willingness to travel new paths. Acknowledgements To adequately thank and acknowledge all those who have helped, guided and supported me in this project is an impossible task, but one that I believe can be better fulfilled by cutting the professional jargon and, as the saying goes, telling it like it is. To begin, I must begin by thanking Katie Arens, for whom the title of dissertation advisor does not even begin to describe the role that she played in this project. She has been more like a guardian angel, steering me around difficult corners, supporting me with a professional engagement that exemplifies what a mentor should be, and most importantly always seeming to know the right words. Her expertise and knowledge in the field are unmatched. I am also grateful to Janet Swaffar for helping me to better discern the links between the case studies that I pursued, to argue more effectively and concisely, and never allowing me to forget the pedagogical implications, to Nina Berman for helping me grasp the aesthetic culture of the era and especially for her input on Thomas Mann, to John Hoberman for his criticisms of the theoretical backdrop of the project and his insights concerning the religious cult movements, to Benjamin Gregg, who has provided valuable insight on the social theories of the nineteenth century and the link between factual detail and the more global claims in my analysis. I would also like to thank the University of Texas at Austin for a Continuing Fellowship and the University of Texas/University of Freiburg Exchange Fellowship which provided the time and financial support to complete the project. The Germanic Studies Department of the University of Texas at Austin has also been supportive in every way. Thanks go to the staff of the Deutsche Bibliothek in Frankfurt for their help and engagement during one full year in Germany and during several summers, to Karl-Ludwig Ay at the Weber archive in Munich for providing useful information and Wilhelm Hennis and Haide Hennis for an enlightening conversation on Max Weber at their home. v On a more personal note, a special thanks goes to Wallace Daniel and Frauke Harvey of Baylor University and Hafez Farmayan, who many years ago imparted to me the inspiration for intellectual pursuits. I would like thank Annette Osterloh for a friendly smile at a telephone booth in Freiburg, Germany, to Familie Rösch, who because of their remarkable hospitality made an eleven year sabbatical to Germany possible. Most importantly, I would like to thank my family, Karl and Renate Abel, who have provided a summer residence and the kind of support and positive attitude that most Schwiegersöhne can never expect. I would also like to express my gratitude to my own parents, Perry and Carlyn Myers, whose positive influence expresses itself every day in my private and professional pursuits. They instilled in me the hope that allows us to pursue our dreams, however unusual. I thank my two beautiful daughters, Larissa and Marina, who always know when to smile. My gratitude to my wife Susanne cannot be expressed in words. She is the sole reason this project ever got off the ground. She is my vision when I am blind. vi The Double Edged Sword: The Cult of Bildung, Its Downfall and Reconstitution in Fin-de-Siècle Germany (Thomas Mann, Rudolf Steiner, and Max Weber) Publication No. ___________ Perry Wayne Myers, Jr., Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2002 Supervisor: Katherine M Arens Around 1800, education or self-formation -- Bildung -- evolved into a primary status marker for the Bildungsbürgertum. Germany’s nineteenth-century socioeconomic landscape was dominated by these new social values, redefining traditional class structures and identity through Besitz and Bildung. By century’s end, the newly-cultivated began to take their status as fiats for self-assertion rather than for serving the community. The Double-Edged Sword traces in three cases studies how Bildungsbürger around 1900 confronted this breakdown in identity structure (or Lacanian Imaginary), trying to retain agency in shaping the nation. Thomas Mann (1875-1955), from a family affirming Besitz und Bildung, used Buddenbrooks (1901), Tonio Kröger (1903) and his play, Fiorenza (1905) to critique the bourgeoisie as aesthetic education confronts capitalism and mass democracy. I conclude that Mann criticized their behavior and modernity, without offering much hope for a rejuvenation of the Bildungsideal. Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), founder of anthroposophy and the modern-day Waldorf schools, reflected modernity's socioeconomic dynamics in Die Philosophie der Freiheit (1894), defining empirical science as degrading to human mind and spirit, which his "occult science" was designed to reconstitute. He underscored that vii lost social coherence in Grundlinien einer Erkenntnistheorie der Goetheschen Weltanschauung (1886), thus redefining the German Bildungsideal as a Lebenspraxis, as a quasi-religious community. The sociologist Max Weber (1864-1920) uses Bildung to define cultural agency and political progress. In the Wissenschaftslehre and his pedagogical texts, the pursuit of academic knowledge emerges as an honorable task enhancing the gebildete Bürger’s distinction and status. In “Der Sinn der ‘Wertfreiheit’ der soziologischen und ökonomischen Wissenschaften” (1913/1918), Weber redefined that “academic calling” in the service of value-neutral science as a political force. In “Parlament und Regierung in neugeordneten Deutschland” (1918), Weber argues that expert politicians with specialized knowledge must create an effective parliamentary model and overcome bureaucratic dominance to solve the state's problems. The Gelehrter, as a modern Bildungsbürger, regains community distinction by providing ethical knowledge. Taken together, these case studies document the German bourgeoisie’s failure to modernize as an "imagined community." Preserving German culture would ultimately come to mean something else than engaging the community and the state. viii Table of Contents Introduction 1 Building an Identity 6 Bildung and the Imaginary 11 Part 1 The Cult of Bildung Chapter 1 - The Double Edged Sword: The Cult of Bildung 16 What is a Bildungsbürger? 16 Knowledge and Salvation: The Rise of the Bildungsideal 20 Besitz und Bildung 29 Liberalism and the Double Edged Sword 35 Chapter 2 - The Demise of Bildung: The Cult of the Individual – Utilitarian Egocentrism 40 Haus am Markt and Villa Hügel 40 Losing Distinction: Besitz and Education 47 Self-Formation and the Loss of Spiritual Unity 56 Part 2 The Aesthetics of the Double Edged Sword: Thomas Mann Chapter 3 – Rejuvenating the Aesthetic Imaginary: Buddenbrooks 65 Thomas Mann: Aesthetics, Hard Work and Duty in Historical Context 67 Thomas Buddenbrook and the Collapse of the Imaginary 76 Death and Desire: Generating Change 91 Musical Epiphanies and Potential Rejuvenation 96 Music and Aesthetics Restored at the Turn-of-the-Century 99 Chapter 4 – The Double Edged Sword Revisited: Tonio Kröger’s Flight to the North 110 Revisited Spaces: Tonio Kröger’s Bildung 112 Transformed Spaces and the Reenlistment of Tradition 122 ix Dilettante Artists and the Continued Confrontation with Modernity: Fiorenza 132 Conclusion 149 Part 3 Reconstituting the Spiritual Community: Rudolf Steiner Chapter 5 – Bildung as a New Religion 153 Vast Space and Mythic Re-Birth: Art Failing the Community 154 Reconstituting the German Aesthetic 159 Urphänomene: The Unity of Geist and Matter 164 Occult Science as Meditative Practice: “Schüler der Weisheit” 176 Conclusion 184 Chapter 6 – The Political and Social Failures of the Religion of Bildung 186 The Dismantled Community: The Degradation of the Human Being 186 National Identity 196 Anthroposophy: The Reconstitution of the “Self-formed” Community 203 Conclusion 216 Part 4 Reconstituting the Mandarin Calling: Max Weber Chapter 7 – Unimpassioned Judgement 222 Biography and the Critics’ Weber 224 Pedagogy: “Die innere Hingabe an die Aufgabe” 236 Chapter 8 – Reconstituting the Bildungsideal as Academic and Political Calling 251 Science and the Nüchternheit des Urteils 251 Wertfreiheit and an Intellectual Aristocracy 262 The Political Calling: Leidenschaft, Verantwortungsgefühl, Augenmaß 277 Conclusion 288 Conclusion 294 Works Cited and Consulted 309 Vita 325 x Introduction At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Pietist notions of duty, hard work and introspection reinforced the Enlightenment ideal that human beings can