Wyneken and Walter Benjamin
The young Walter Benjamin's political aesthetics were greatly influenced by a stay (1905-1907) at a Wyneken boarding school (Haubinda in Thüringen) where he became close to Wyneken. He was also influenced by the Wyneken-edited radical youth journal Der Anfang ('The Beginning'). Here Benjamin found...
- "... an elitist, aristocratic and fiercely intellectualist wing of the German youth movement ... Wyneken's ideal (was) of an elite and highly ethical Männerbund devoted to the ideals of Kant, Hegel, Goethe and Nietzsche." (Rabinbach, 1985)
However, when Gustav Wyneken gave a broadly pro-war speech in Munich in November 1914, the pacifist Benjamin reluctantly broke with his mentor. Wyneken did, however, also urge that... "We must dare to keep a certain distance from the Fatherland and from the unthinking patriotism in which we have been educated."
Read more about this topic: Gustav Wyneken
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