Germany's Conscience: Friedrich Meinecke: Champion of German Historicism (Time - Meaning - Culture)

Questions of truth, ethics, state power, and propaganda, of how to render account of catastrophes and reconcile oneself with one's past are not only crucial to our time, they were also central to the German historian Friedrich Meinecke (1862-1954). Probably no generation of historians before Meinecke had lived through more unsettling transformations, during which these questions were most pressing. Reinbert Krol's analysis of Meinecke's intellectual development does not only give us insight into his philosophy of history - which turns out to be more conciliatory than previously assumed - it can also be a source of inspiration for scholars of history today. Contents Preface Introduction 1. The Ideal of a unity Introduction 1.1 Nations, the national state and cosmopolitanism 1.2 The universal and the national 1.3 The reconciliation of cosmopolitanism and the national state? 1.4 The tradition of the ideal Conclusion 2. Struggling with a world view Introduction 2.1 Prelude 2.2 Staatsräson according to Meinecke 2.3 The tragic character of Meinecke’s Staatsräson 3. A conscience akin to God Introduction 3.1 Staatsräson as a ‘solution’ 3.2 The statesman’s conscience Conclusion 4. A world view in the making Introduction 4.1 The individualizing view 4.2 Pietism and Neoplatonism 4.3 Reason and Unreason 4.4 Traditionalism and historicism 4.5 The prelude to Meinecke’s historicism 4.6 Science or world view Conclusion 5. Harmony regained Introduction 5.1 Polarities and harmony 5.2 Meinecke’s Umdeutung of Goethe 5.3 Goethe and the daemonic 5.4 Harmony and dissonance 5.5 Meinecke and the crisis of historicism Conclusion 6. The authority of the personality Introduction 6.1 A controversial study 6.2 A catastrophic synthesis 6.3 Nature, chance, fate 6.4 Kultur as cure 6.5 Apotheosis Conclusion Final conclusions Bibliography Index