Dreamland of Humanists : Warburg, Cassirer, Panofsky, and the Hamburg School

Deemed by Heinrich Heine a city of merchants where poets go to die, Hamburg was an improbable setting for a major intellectual movement. Yet it was there, at the end of World War I, at a new university in this commercial center, that a trio of twentieth-century pioneers in the humanities emerged. Working side by side, Aby Warburg, Ernst Cassirer, and Erwin Panofsky developed new avenues in art history, cultural history, and philosophy, changing the course of cultural and intellectual history in Weimar Germany and throughout the world. In __Dreamland of Humanists__, Emily J. Levine considers not just these men, but the historical significance of the time and place where their ideas took form. Shedding light on the origins of their work on the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, Levine clarifies the social, political, and economic pressures faced by German-Jewish scholars on the periphery of Germany’s intellectual world. By examining the role that context plays in our analysis of ideas, Levine confirms that great ideas—like great intellectuals—must come from somewhere. Once dubbed a city of “festering merchants” where poets went to die, Hamburg was, by all accounts, an improbable setting for a major movement in the humanities. Yet through its mercantile spirit of openness and its civic tradition of cultural philanthropy, this “second city” on Germany’s periphery had important implications for Weimar cultural and intellectual history. This book shows how the scholars Aby Warburg, Ernst Cassirer, and Erwin Panofsky emerged from a unique combination of factors, including a new university, family networks, Jewishness, and urban life. It also traces the institutional development of the Warburg library, in which these scholars were active, to their divergent post-war receptions in the English-speaking world. These scholars have received increased attention in recent years for their contributions to the fields of art history and philosophy. But Hamburg, Dreamland of Humanists is the first book to consider their historical significance taken together in the time and place where their ideas took form. On one hand, the book sheds light on the intellectual impulses of these scholars’ work on the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. On the other, it argues that their scholarship clarifies the familial, political, and economic pressures characteristic of the German-Jewish scholar in twentieth-century Hamburg. Insofar as these scholars were themselves engaged in understanding the origins of ideas, Hamburg, Dreamland of Humanists fittingly re-examines how context can be both constructive and destructive for cultural and intellectual history and the role that context might—and should play—in our analysis of ideas Herbert Baxter Adams Prize 2015 * Deemed by Heinrich Heine a city of merchants where poets go to die, Hamburg was an improbable setting for a major intellectual movement. Yet it was there, at the end of World War I, at a new university in this commercial center, that a trio of twentieth-century pioneers in the humanities emerged. Working side by side, Aby Warburg, Ernst Cassirer, and Erwin Panofsky developed new avenues in art history, cultural history, and philosophy, changing the course of cultural and intellectual history in Weimar Germany and throughout the world. In Dreamland of Humanists , Emily J. Levine considers not just these men, but the historical significance of the time and place where their ideas took form. Shedding light on the origins of their work on the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, Levine clarifies the social, political, and economic pressures faced by German-Jewish scholars on the periphery of Germanys intellectual world. By examining the role that context plays in our analysis of ideas, Levine confirms that great ideaslike great intellectualsmust come from somewhere. *The Herbert Baxter Adams Prize is awarded annually by the American Historical Association for a distinguished first book published in English in the field of European history. "Deemed by Heinrich Heine a city of merchants where poets go to die, Hamburg was an improbable setting for a major intellectual movement. Yet it was there, at the end of World War I, at a new university in this commercial center, that a trio of twentieth-century pioneers in the humanities emerged. Working side by side, Aby Warburg, Ernst Cassirer, and Erwin Panofsky developed new avenues in art history, cultural history, and philosophy, changing the course of cultural and intellectual history in Weimar Germany and throughout the world. In Dreamland of Humanists, Emily J. Levine considers not just these men, but the historical significance of the time and place where their ideas took form. Shedding light on the origins of their work on the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, Levine clarifies the social, political, and economic pressures faced by German-Jewish scholars on the periphery of Germany's intellectual world. By examining the role that context plays in our analysis of ideas, Levine confirms that great ideas -- like great intellectuals -- must come from somewhere."--Provided by publisher Called by Heinrich Heine a city of dull and culturally limited merchants where poets only go to die, Hamburg would seem an improbable setting for a major new intellectual movement. Yet it was there, at a new university in an unintellectual banking city at the end of World War I, that a trio of innovative thinkers emerged. Together, Aby Warburg, Ernest Cassirer, and Erwin Panofsky, developed new avenues of thought in cultural theory, art history, and philosophy, changing the course of cultural and intellectual history not just in Weimar Germany, but throughout the world Dreamland of humanists -- Culture, commerce, and the city -- Warburg's Renaissance and the things in between -- University as "gateway to the world" -- Warburg, Cassirer, and the conditions of reason -- Socrates in Hamburg? Panofsky and the economics of scholarship -- Iconology and the Hamburg school -- Private Jews, public Germans -- Cassirer's cosmopolitan nationalism -- The enlightened rector and the politics of enlightenment -- The Hamburg America line: exiles as exports -- Epilogue: Nachleben of an idea Called by Heinrich Heine a city of dull and culturally limited merchants where poets only go to die, Hamburg would seem an improbable setting for a major new intellectual movement. This title clarifies the social, political, and economic pressures faced by German-Jewish scholars on the periphery of Germany's intellectual world.