“DAS GESTALTLOSE ZUR GESTALT BRINGEN”: REPRESENTATIONS OF THE MASS IN THE WORKS OF HERMANN BROCH By Brett E. Sterling Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Vanderbilt University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in German August, 2013 Nashville, Tennessee Approved: Professor Meike Werner Professor Christoph Zeller Professor John A. McCarthy Professor Barbara Hahn Professor Helmut Walser Smith Copyright © 2013 by Brett E. Sterling All Rights Reserved ii To my beloved wife, Jenny, and to Honeybee. You inspire and sustain me. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like first to express my sincere gratitude to my adviser and committee chair, Dr. Meike Werner. Her keen insights helped give shape to a topic that began as my own personal struggle with the relationship between political/social engagement and the pursuit of academic study. Her guidance and support were instrumental in bringing this dissertation to fruition, and her encouragement at every step of the process helped me to find my voice and become a scholar. I would also like to thank the members of my committee, Dr. Barbara Hahn, Dr. John A. McCarthy, Dr. Helmut Walser Smith, and Dr. Christoph Zeller. Their advice during the conceptual stage of my dissertation was invaluable in opening up new directions in my approach to Hermann Broch’s writings. I am also thankful for the affirmation and intellectual challenge each provided in conversations throughout the writing process and in the dissertation defense. For introducing me to my “Gesinnungsgenosse” Hermann Broch, I would like to thank Dr. Ralf Klausnitzer of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. For reading and critically engaging with my text in its various iterations, I am extremely grateful to my colleagues, Dr. Kathryn McEwen and Jessica Riviere. Their comments and critiques helped smooth out the rough patches in my work, theoretical as well as compositional. Additionally, I am indebted to my friend Benjamin R. Farley for enhancing and deepening my understanding of Broch through hours of inquiry, discussion, and debate. v I would also like to thank my family for their constant encouragement and positivity during my entire graduate career. Most importantly, I owe my success and sanity to my wonderful wife, Jenny. Without her limitless patience and unwavering faith, I would never have made it this far. And lastly, I would like to credit our unborn son for giving me the excitement and energy to finish. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION ................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... iv INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. ix I. “DIE STRASSE.” BROCH’S NASCENT MASS THEORY .................................1 Gemeinschaft ...............................................................................................3 Genuss ..........................................................................................................6 Politik ...........................................................................................................7 Die Periode des Absolut Politischen ..........................................................10 The Intellectual vs. the Mass .....................................................................12 Der Tod des Vergil .........................................................................12 “Ethische Pflicht”...........................................................................15 “Die Intellektuellen und der Kampf um die Menschenrechte”......................................................................18 II. THE MASSES, THE MASS, AND THE CROWD. THE CONCEPT OF “MASSE” IN ITS HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT .....................................23 The Origins of “Masse” .............................................................................23 From the Masses to the Crowd ..................................................................30 Gustave Le Bon..........................................................................................32 Sigmund Freud ...........................................................................................34 Theodor Geiger ..........................................................................................43 José Ortega y Gasset ..................................................................................53 “Die Straße” in Context .............................................................................61 III. 1918-1929. AUSTRIAN POLITICS AND BROCH’S PRIVATE LIFE ..............64 Austria After the War.................................................................................64 Politics in a New Key ................................................................................69 Society on the Brink of Collapse. Hunger, Outrage, Desperation .............71 The Industrial Socialist. Broch in Post-War Austrian Politics and Society ...........................................................................................74 “Konstitutionelle Diktatur als demokratisches Rätesystem” .....................77 Bolshevism on the Horizon ........................................................................86 Competing Demands. Broch’s Life Between Work, Family, and Learning ........................................................................................88 vii IV. LITERARY REPRESENTATIONS. SCENES OF THE MASS IN BROCH’S FICTION ...........................................................................................100 Esch oder die Anarchie ............................................................................106 Die Entsühnung ........................................................................................114 Die Unbekannte Größe ............................................................................123 Der Tod des Vergil ...................................................................................126 V. THE INDIVIDUAL, THE MASS, AND DIE VERZAUBERUNG .....................137 Triad of Influence. Doctor – Marius – Mutter Gisson .............................142 Marius Ratti, the “Massenführer” ............................................................149 Absorption in the Mass. The Murder of Irmgard Miland ........................165 VI. THE INDIVIDUAL ECLIPSES THE MASS. THE MASSENWAHNTHEORIE ..........................................................................192 Context .....................................................................................................193 Establishing the Field of Inquiry..............................................................201 The Individual in the Context of Value ...................................................205 “Irrationalbereicherung” and “Rationalverarmung” ....................207 “Ekstase” and “Panik” .................................................................209 The Two Types of “Führer” .........................................................214 The “Dämmerzustand”.............................................................................218 From “Durchschnittsmensch” to “Massenmensch” .....................224 What is the “Masse”? ...............................................................................227 Conviction, Conversion, and Total Democracy .......................................234 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................250 WORKS CONSULTED ..................................................................................................256 viii INTRODUCTION In her introduction to the first volume of Hermann Broch’s essays, Dichten und Erkennen (1955), published as part of the Gesammelte Werke, Hannah Arendt describes Broch as a unique individual in the world of literature, a man whose life and work were defined by the attempt to balance three distinct activities: literature, knowledge, and action. Der Lebens- und Schaffensumkreis, der Horizont, in welchem sich auch erfahrungsmäßig Brochs Werk bewegt, war eben kein Kreis, sondern glich eher einem Dreieck, dessen Seiten man am präzisesten mit den Worten: Dichten – Erkennen – Handeln bezeichnen kann und dessen räumlichen Inhalt nur sein Wesen in seiner Einmaligkeit ausfüllen konnte.1 The triangular field that Arendt describes is useful for an understanding of the various paths taken and conflicts present in Broch’s life and work, specifically his ambivalent relationship to literature. As Arendt explains, Broch had high expectations for literature and its ability to combine the intellectual achievements of science with practical action in the political and social sphere: Daß diese drei grundsätzlich voneinander geschiedenen Tätigkeiten des Menschen, denen wir ganz und gar verschiedene Begabungsqualitäten zuordnen, die künstlerische, die wissenschaftliche und die politische, eigentlich zusammenfallen und eines sein müßten, war die nie ganz offen ausgesprochene, aber überall latent sich geltend machende Forderung an den Menschen und an sein irdisches Leben, mit der Broch auf die Welt gekommen ist. Was er verlangte, war, daß die Dichtung die gleiche zwingende Gültigkeit besitzen solle wie die Wissenschaft, daß die Wissenschaft die “Totalität der Welt” genau so entstehen lasse wie das Kunstwerk, dessen “Aufgabe die ständige Neuschöpfung der Welt ist”,