Das Reich der Seele Walther Rathenau’s Cultural Pessimism and Prussian Nationalism ~ Dieuwe Jan Beersma 16 juli 2020 Master Geschiedenis – Duitslandstudies, 11053259 First supervisor: dhr. dr. A.K. (Ansgar) Mohnkern Second supervisor: dhr. dr. H.J. (Hanco) Jürgens Abstract Every year the Rathenau Stiftung awards the Walther Rathenau-Preis to international politicians to spread Rathenau’s ideas of ‘democratic values, international understanding and tolerance’. This incorrect perception of Rathenau as a democrat and a liberal is likely to have originated from the historiography. Many historians have described Rathenau as ‘contradictory’, claiming that there was a clear and problematic distinction between Rathenau’s intellectual theories and ideas and his political and business career. Upon closer inspection, however, this interpretation of Rathenau’s persona seems to be fundamentally incorrect. This thesis reassesses Walther Rathenau’s legacy profoundly by defending the central argument: Walther Rathenau’s life and motivations can first and foremost be explained by his cultural pessimism and Prussian nationalism. The first part of the thesis discusses Rathenau’s intellectual ideas through an in-depth analysis of his intellectual work and the historiography on his work. Motivated by racial theory, Rathenau dreamed of a technocratic utopian German empire led by a carefully selected Prussian elite. He did not believe in the ‘power of a common Europe’, but in the power of a common German Europe. The second part of the thesis explicates how Rathenau’s career is not contradictory to, but actually very consistent with, his cultural pessimism and Prussian nationalism. Firstly, Rathenau saw the First World War as a chance to transform the economy and to make his Volksstaat a reality. Secondly, he was a neoconservative intellectual who dreamt of a homogenous society. He distrusted the representative democracy of the Weimar Republic. Thirdly, after the war, Rathenau waged an ‘economic war’. Together with Chancellor Joseph Wirth, Rathenau constantly obstructed peace negotiations to make his independent German empire a reality. The last part of the thesis discusses the interpretation of Rathenau made by the Austrian writer Robert Musil in his magnum opus Der Mann Ohne Eigenschaften, a work which has been underdiscussed in the scholarship on Rathenau. This thesis argues that Musil’s literary caricature, Dr. Paul Arnheim, is a very insightful interpretation of Rathenau’s neoconservatism. Bio Dieuwe Jan Beersma received a bachelor’s degree in Political Science at the University of Amsterdam. Due to his passion for history and literature he decided to write his master’s thesis at the History department. His thesis on Walther Rathenau combines his knowledge of international relations and politics with his passion for German history and literature. The incorporation of Robert Musil gives his thesis an interdisciplinary character and it deepens our understanding of Walther Rathenau’s legacy. II Nun folgt sofort ein Widerspruch: Damit das Spiegelbild klar und rein erscheine, muß die projizierende Flamme gleichmäßig leuchten: nur homogene Gemeinschaften haben Ideale. Walther Rathenau, Zur Kritik der Zeit, p.99 III Table of Contents Introduction 1 Chapter 1 – Rathenau’s Intellectual Career 6 1.1. Der Geist – The rise of the educated middle class 6 1.2. Die Zukunft - The rise of neoconservatism 9 1.3. Höre Israel - Rathenau’s antisemitism 13 1.4. Mitteleuropa – Rathenau’s German Colonial Empire 15 1.5. Entgermanisierung - Rathenau’s cultural pessimism and racial theory 17 1.6. Von Kommenden Dingen - Rathenau’s technocratic Utopia 20 Chapter 2 Part One - Rathenau’s Career During the First World War 27 Chapter 2 Part Two - Rathenau’s Post-War Career 35 2.2.1. The Broader Context 36 2.2.2. Rathenau and Wirth’s Wirtschaftskrieg 40 2.2.3. The Genoa Conference and the Rapallo Treaty 48 2.2.4. Harry Graf Kessler and the myth of ‘preventive diplomacy’ 53 2.2.5. Rathenau’s assassination 55 Chapter 3 - Musil’s Arnheim: An early interpretation of Walther Rathenau in ‘Der Mann Ohne Eigenschaften’ 59 3.1. Robert Musil and Rathenau 59 3.2. Arnheim - Musil’s literary portrait 61 Conclusion 67 Bibliography 71 IV Introduction Walther Rathenau was born in 1867 into a wealthy Jewish family in the rising industrial city of Berlin. Hans Fürstenberg (1890-1982), the man who would come to write an insightful memoir on Rathenau’s life, grew up in the same neighbourhood. In one of Fürstenberg’s childhood memories, he would later describe, his mother came to kiss him goodnight while Walther stood in the doorframe of his bedroom.1 The men met again during their student days and later in life through work and travels. They both served in the army and both of them were, what was called, Bildungsbürger: men with a broad education and a passion for the arts and literature.2 Their family businesses worked together intensively over the years. Hans’ father, Carl Fürstenberg (1850-1933), was one of the prominent Jewish bankers who financed projects of Walthers’ father, Emil Rathenau (1838-1915). In all of Fürstenberg’s memories, Walther Rathenau acted as a ‘proud man, full of self- knowledge’.3 Fürstenberg knew, however, that behind this ‘veneer of strength lied a persisting feeling of inferiority’.4 When he looked back on Rathenau’s life in 1962, Fürstenberg was surprised that many regarded him as a ‘patron saint of the Weimar Republic’.5 Fürstenberg outlived Rathenau by many years and wrote a memoire on his childhood friend in 1962 named Erinnerung an Walther Rathenau. According to Fürstenberg, the mythical- and saint- like image of Rathenau was caused by how he had been presented in the historiography. Fürstenberg stated that the biography written by Harry Graf Kessler (1868-1937) had been especially influential.6 Kessler’s biography Walther Rathenau: Sein Leben und Sein Werk (1928) has become the standard in Rathenau-scholarship. Its central thesis is that Rathenau had a contradictory character: 1 Hans Fürstenberg,‘Erinnerung an Walther Rathenau, Ein Kommentar’ In: Kessler, Harry Graf, Walther Rathenau, Sein Leben und Sein Werk (Wiesbaden 1962) 390. 2 Ibidem, 396-398. 3 Ibidem, 390. 4 Ibidem, 390. ‘Sofern er Minderwertigkeits-Komplexe besaß – und daran ist kaum zu zweifeln -, wußte er sie gut zu verbergen.’ 5 Ibidem, 386. ‘Schutzheilige’ 6 Ibidem, 387. 1 […] [der] Doppelbestimmung Walther Rathenaus, zu jenem nie in ihm ausgeglichenen Konflikt zwischen dem Hang zu weltfremder seelischer Verinnerlichung und der geheimnisvoll unwiderstehlichen Nötigung zu eng auf einen Zweck eingestelltem kaufmännischem und technischem Schaffen, zu jener Doppelheit, die ihn schließlich tragisch innerlich zerriß und äußerlich zu einem Gegenstand des Anstoßes und des Hasses für Millionen machte […].7 Kessler argued that there was a clear and problematic distinction between Rathenau’s intellectual theories and ideas and his political and business career.8 He stated that for Rathenau the differences between his intellectual and practical career were so strong, so contradictory, that this led to ‘internal divisiveness’. Many more biographies on Rathenau have been written in the meantime, which all differ in content and character. Kessler’s concept of contradiction, however, has stuck. In 1967, for instance, the Dutch historian H.W. von der Dunk emphasized the contradictory nature and ambivalence of Rathenau’s character.9 Peter Berglar emphasized Rathenau’s multiplicity (vielschichtige Gestalt) in 1970.10 In 1997 Dieter Heimböckel called Rathenau a ‘Widersprüchlicher Universalist’.11 This approach persevered and returned in the biographies of Wolfgang Michalka in 2008 and Lothar Gall in 2009.12 The ‘contradiction’-argument seems to have become a myth in itself, which has been haunting research on Rathenau for decades. Perspectives in the historiography might be changing slowly, however. In 2009, Dieter Heimböckel, who had once claimed differently, stated that a new approach to the study of Rathenau might be needed.13 Kessler also presented Rathenau as an ‘Erfüllungspolitiker’, working towards solidarity with both the Russians in the East and the Allied Powers in the West.14 Kessler presented Rathenau as a politician who brought peace to the continent.15 7 Harry Graf Kessler, Walther Rathenau, Sein Leben und Sein Werk (Wiesbaden 1962) 25. 9 Hermann Von der Dunk, ‘Walther Rathenau 1867-1922, Leven tussen aanpassing en kritiek’, Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 80 (1967) 331. 10 ‘Peter Berglar, bekannt durch zahlreiche literarische, zeitkritische, philosophische und historische Arbeiten, bringt die vielschichtige Gestalt Walther Rathenaus (1867-1922) zur lebendigen Anschauung.’, Quote from the back cover of Peter Berglar, Walther Rathenau: Ein Leben zwischen Philosophie und Politik (Vienna 1987). 11 Dieter Heimböckel, ‘Widersprüchlicher Universalist : der Industrielle, Politiker und Schriftsteller Walther Rathenau.’ Schweizer Monatshefte : Zeitschrift für Politik, Wirtschaft, Kultur (1997) 77.11. 12 Lothar Gall, Walther Rathenau, Portrait einer Epoche (Munich 2009) 258; Michalka, Wolfgang. ‘Vordenker der Moderne’ In: Michalka, Wolfgang e.a. ed., Walther Rathenau (Berlin 2008) 28: ‘Rathenau’s Vielseitigkeit und Widersprüchlichkeit.’ 13 Dieter Heimböckel, ‘Kunst contra Mechanisierung’, In: Delabar, Walther e.a. ed., Walther Rathenau: Der Phänotyp der Moderne. Literatur- und kulturwissenschaftliche Studien zu Walther Rathenau (Bielefeld 2009) 12. 14 Kessler, Rathenau, 297, 300. 15 Ibidem, 352. 2 But we now