New building of the German Empire

Neubau des Deutschen Reiches is a font by Oswald Spengler . It was published in 1924 by CH Beck Verlag Munich.

The political context

Spengler's work falls into the crisis years that Germany went through after it lost the First World War (1914–1918). The November Revolution (November 9, 1918), the dictated peace of Versailles Treaty (1919), the uprisings and unrest from right and left, after the occupation of the Ruhr by France , the subsequent inflation and the extreme right-wing surveys in Bavaria until Hitler - coup ( 1923) formed the historical panorama of the unstable Weimar Republic .

The political and military declassification fueled resentment and defensive attitudes throughout the German Reich , sometimes also against political realities. Spengler himself participates in all these complexes, but does not share the rampant denial of reality among Germans.

So in this book there is no talk of heroic attitudes, but of the requirements of political, social, and economic patience.

The German 'swamp'

Spengler vigorously laments the wretchedness that Germany has become as a result of the loss of the war. However , Spengler differs from the ideologues of November betrayal, which were abundant at the time, such as the representatives of the stab in the back, in that he ascribes a large part of the blame for the war disaster to the Germans themselves.

Spengler identified serious deficits even in the Bismarckian era. The German Reich had already at that time did not understand it, "to educate the people - for the Kingdom" . That is why the party republic of Weimar presents such a deplorable picture politically, socially and organizationally.

Spengler's diagnosis of the current state of Germany is expanded to include a (characteristic of him) fundamental aversion to parliamentarianism and democracy .

Parliamentarism as ceremonial

As Spengler believes, the future belongs to the authoritarian, imperious gesture from above, the "extraordinary strengthening of governmental power with a high degree of responsibility" .

Spengler makes it clear what role he still essentially ascribes to the future parliament. It is immediately evident that under such conditions parliamentary work would rather degenerate into a ceremonial event. Spengler's repeated reference to the 'good example' set by Benito Mussolini in Italy (since 1922 ) is also irritating today.

Nevertheless, not everything that Spengler says about the desirability of parliamentary order is out of date today. After all, one of his ideas is that ministers should only be appointed and dismissed by the Chancellor, not through parliamentary resolutions. The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany of 1949 took up this idea (although certainly not directly from Spengler) within the framework of the Federal Chancellor's authority to issue guidelines and the responsibility of ministers.

Civil service and personality

A stricter understanding of civil service and duty contributed to the rebuilding of the empire. The talents for this are basically available in Germany. In this context Spengler even praises August Bebel (perhaps somewhat surprisingly) , including his talent for organization and education from above, reminiscent of the soldier king Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia.

For Spengler, a strict understanding of civil service can only flourish if the German population gets rid of the mistake that the state is there for their social welfare. On the contrary, generating too much wealth is harmful.

Spengler's ideas about future civil service are based on what is, as it were, a ' Prussian ' concept of duty and a rigid performance principle. Some of this, such as performance-based pay, is currently ( 2006 ) returning as the public service becomes more efficient . Other things seem hopelessly antiquated, according to Spengler's call for the civil servants to be 'dashing'. Still other demands fall under the heading of 'amusing' (Spengler's idea that the officials should do more sport).

Spengler, however, leaves no doubt as to what this concept of civil service is ultimately intended to achieve : “The goal of breeding here is a layer of first-rate commanders” .

New pedagogy

Spengler believes that Germany's resurgence must also be prepared on the level of concrete education. But this is criminally lacking, more precisely: the ideal of upbringing still suffers far too much from the humanistic education of the 19th century, which was unworldly and therefore politically irrelevant.

Spengler advocates practical training. The way he describes it, it is similar in some points to dual training . In particular, it demands, not entirely unfamiliar to today's ears, the improvement of language skills .

Spengler is also thinking about the future examination regulations. He rejects any examination privilege. Workers also belong in the educational activity of the state (and consequently have access to the higher ranks in the service of the whole).

Duty before law

For Spengler, the law is the result of obligations: “Everywhere there are obligations that create rights. Today's German law lacks this idea, just as it lacks all ideas. ” Spengler even believes that the reception of Roman law has spoiled the 'Germanic' German people.

It shouldn't be too daring, however, to qualify this passage on the new building as particularly strange and outdated. It is precisely here that Spengler delves into legal questions in great detail that can hardly find a place in modern criminal and civil law systems (at least in the Spengler's style): For example, problems of honor.

Inflation and Tax Bolshevism

The fact that Spengler was interested in questions of currency and the circulation of money was highly topical around 1924 . In the course of the war against the Ruhr , the German government declared passive resistance against France . This did not lead to success, but had the currency collapse as a side effect. It is hardly surprising that Spengler has taken on the topic, since he is concerned with a comprehensive, healthy new building in Germany.

According to Spengler, things had taken a decisive turn "with the relocation of the scene from Berlin to Paris and the involvement of the future currency in the reparation plan" . In Spengler's work, however, this goes hand in hand with a rather sinister conspiracy theory: Did this involvement “happen by chance or as planned? Did it come from the German side, was it approved or opposed by the German side or not understood at all? "

Whatever the case, Spengler sees a considerable number of light-shy elements at work in the democratic republic who have an interest in robbing society and in worsening the crisis. In addition to the direct expropriation through inflation , this also includes the redistribution of property through - as Spengler believes - absurd tax laws. Spengler goes so far as to call the procedure of the incipient social and welfare state “tax Bolshevism” .

The historical truth of this statement could of course be disputed. At least, however, Spengler addresses some aspects of modern tax policy that (mostly under a liberal auspices) dominate the discussions at the moment. The term “envy tax” paradigmatically stands for this.

Spengler diagnoses (also not without reference to the present) the weaknesses of the modern intervention and welfare state. These would consist in the mobility of property and, consequently, in the flight of capital from any tax burden, in the tendency to speculate with money that one does not have at all, in the excessive and expensive bureaucracy of maintaining the system, and of course in taxation itself.

Anti-Marxism

Spengler does not profile himself as an 'opponent of the workers'. Rather, he wants to free them from what he believes is a fateful ideology.

It goes without saying that opponents of Spengler would see this as the planned generation of 'false consciousness'. For Spengler, workers shouldn't be rich, but proud. This corresponds to Spengler's aristocratic image of man, which he also shares with Nietzsche on this point .

The other side of Spengler's anti-Marxism is often overlooked today. It consists in a warning against the wrong use of capital power. Here, too, Spengler thinks very nobly, not in terms of money (although as a philosopher of history he actually considers the rise of the rule of money to be inevitable).

World situation

Spengler closes his work with an outlook on the contemporary world situation. This is not surprising, since the context of the reflections on the new building of the German Reich is due to a long-term foreign policy goal. Germany should again have a say in world politics (actually for the first time).

Spengler advises patience, not activism. This corresponds to his sober conception of politics, which for him is something other than a hodgepodge of party papers, marches and pronouncements.

France was always an object of obsession in Spengler's thinking . As a German national philosopher and political thinker, the country fascinated him as much as he loathed it. With Spengler, anti-French resentment also emerged from the realization of a (as he thought) deep decadence of the 'grande nation'. France is internally worn out and old, poor in births and in ideas. It is all the worse that world fate has once again given France so much power.

"Today France leaves no doubt that it does not want Germany to have money, but rather power."

The “new building” of the German Reich ultimately turns primarily against the hereditary enemy in the West.

rating

Should one call Spengler's writing Neubau des Deutschen Reiches outdated or current? Both elements are present when the statements that can actually be updated are probably clearly in the minority. In addition, it is not enough to take individual remarks from Spengler's context and to assess them as 'correct in themselves'. Because all judgments, suggestions, suggestions, no matter how unimportant, are related to the establishment of an authoritarian state with Spengler. According to the maxims of Prussianism and socialism , this state would be a well-organized hierarchical (albeit internally permeable) community which, as a collective, should fulfill a historical mission. Namely, the one that Spengler awards to every people who keep or get themselves 'in shape': the mission of taking control over others, if possible over the entire decaying occidental culture. In this way, even the minor details of pedagogy or parliamentary procedure ultimately become functions for the future imperial reach. For that very reason (not because of the possible irrelevance of the individual observations) Spengler's writing is now dismissed.

expenditure

New building of the German Reich , Munich: CH Beck, 1924. Republication in Politische Schriften , Munich: CH Beck, 1933.

Web links

New building of the German Empire at Zeno.org .