Dreamland of Humanists
Dreamland of Humanists
The introduction unpacks the book title’s meaning, which combines Ernst Troeltsch’s designation of post-war Germany as a “dreamland of the armistice,” a country cautiously optimistic about Germany’s future in a new Europe, and the art historian Fritz Saxl’s description of the Warburg project as investigating a “humanist dreamland” in art over time. It argues that the historical setting and the intellectual project shared the preoccupation with the relationship between symbols and meaning. Borrowing Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of the “social conditions of possibility,” the introduction argues that Weimar-era Hamburg offered conditions for cultural and intellectual life distinct from those of other German cities. While much scholarship has focused on Berlin and anti-humanist trends in Weimar, the introduction makes the case for a turn to Hamburg, whose “free city” status and cosmopolitan spirit, often referred to as its “special case” offer a corrective to our portrait of the Weimar Republic.
Keywords: Ernst Troeltsch, dreamland of armistice, humanist dreamland, Fritz Saxl, Pierre Bourdieu, Berlin, Hamburg, Weimar, symbols, special case
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