Hitler and the Germans / edited with an introduction by Ellis Sandoz.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Voegelin, Eric, 1901-1985.

Contributor:

Sandoz, Ellis, 1931-2023.

Weiss, Gilbert.

Series:

Collected Works of Eric Voegelin

The collected works of Eric Voegelin ; v.31

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

History--Philosophy.

History.

Philosophy.

Political science--Philosophy.

Political science.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (viii, 285 pages).

Place of Publication:

Baton Rouge : Louisiana State University Press, 1999.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Annotation Between 1933 & 1938, Eric Voegelin published four books that expressly stated his opposition to the increasingly powerful Hitler regime. As a result, he was forced to leave his homeland in 1938. Twenty years later, he returned to Germany as a professor of political science at Ludwig-Maximilian University. Voegelin's homecoming allowed him the opportunity to voice once again his opinions on the Nazi regime & its aftermath. In 1964 at the University of Munich, Voegelin gave a series of memorable lectures on what he considered "the central German experiential problem" of his time: Adolf Hitler's rise to power, the reasons for it, & its consequences for post-Nazi Germany. For Voegelin, these questions demanded a scrutiny of the mentality of individual Germans & of the order of German society during & after the Nazi period. Hitler & the Germans, published here for the first time, offers Voegelin's most extensive & detailed critique of the Hitler era. Voegelin interprets this era in terms of the basic diagnostic tools provided by the philosophy of Plato & Aristotle, Judeo-Christian culture, & contemporary German-language writers like Heimito von Doderer, Karl Kraus, Thomas Mann, & Robert Musil. His inquiry uncovers a historiography that was substantially unhistoric: a German Evangelical Church that misinterpreted the Gospel, a German Catholic Church that denied universal humanity, & a legal process enmeshed in criminal homicide. Hitler & the Germans provides a profound alternative approach to the topic of the individual German's entanglement in the Hitler regime & its continuing implications. This comprehensive reading of the Nazi period has yet to be matched.

Contents:

""Contents""; ""Editors' Introductions""; ""I. Eric Voegelin's "Hitler and the Germans" Lectures in the Context of the Germans' Treatment of Their Nazi Past""; ""II. The Philosophical Context of the "Hitler and the Germans" Lectures""; ""Editors' Note""; ""contents""; ""Part I Descent into the Abyss""; ""1. Central Experiential Problem: Hitler's Rise to Power""; ""2. The Experiential Occasion of the Lectures: Schramm's "Anatomy of a Dictator"""; ""3. The Stupidity of a Whole People: The "Buttermelcher Syndrome"""; ""4. Present-day German Laxity toward Former Nazis""

""5. The Cliché of the "Unmastered Past" versus the "Presence under God"" """6. The Cliché of "Collective Guilt" and the Representation of a Society""; ""7. Clichés of "State" and "Democracy"""; ""8. Philosophical and Biblical Understanding of Humanity and of Radical Stupidity""; ""9. Karl Kraus's Dritte Walpurgisnacht on Lies and Propaganda""; ""10. Robert Musil on Simple and Intelligent Stupidity""; ""11. Carl Amery on Bourgeois "Propriety" as Secondary Virtue Eclipsing Primary Virtues""; ""12. Criminal Stupidity and Loss of Experience of Reality in a Disordered Society""

""13. Schramm's Conceptual and Stylistic Incomprehension of Hitler"" ""14. Hitler's "Aura"""; ""15. Hitler and Christianity""; ""16. Hitler's Views on Religion""; ""17. Hitler and Women""; ""18. Hitler and His Entourage""; ""19. Hitler and "The Art of Reading"""; ""20. Hitler's Social Darwinism""; ""21. Conclusion: Schramm's Spiritual Illiteracy Contrasted with Alan Bullock's Diagnosis of Hitler""; ""22. Lack of a Theoretical Articulation of "Church"""; ""23. Intellectual and Spiritual Decline in the German Churches""

""24. Evangelical Church's Participation in Nationalistic- Völkisch Ideology"" ""25. Theological Opinions Regarding Race Laws""; ""26. Anti-Semitic Tendencies in Land Bishop Wurm and Pastor Niemöller""; ""27. Anti-Semitic Residues in Present- day Evangelical Church""; ""28. Theoretical Inquiry into Romans 13""; ""29. Layout of the "Hitler and the Germans" Lectures""; ""30. Difference between Catholic and Evangelical Attitudes toward Nazism""; ""31. Dehumanized Response of Catholic Church to State Authority and to Persecution of Those outside the Church""

""32. Karl Kraus on Concentration Camp Life""""33. Catholic Resistance to Dehumanization: Alfred Delp""; ""34. "Guidelines" for German Clerics and Theologians""; ""35. Tension between the Church as Social Institution and as Community of Universal Humanity under Christ""; ""36. Advances and Regressions in Differentiation of Knowledge of the Presence under God""; ""37. The Church's Representation of Universal Humanity: Its Duty and Its Failure""; ""38. The Rechtsstaat as a Specifically German Concept""; ""39. Conflict between Hierarchical Legal Systems and Separation of Powers, as in the German Basic Law (Grundgesetz)""

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN:

0-8262-6388-7

OCLC:

56723454

Publisher Number:

9780826212160