Influence and Relevance
In Confessions of a European Intellectual, Franz Schoenberner describes Brunner as "one of the more important figures" in Europe. Brunner corresponded with Walther Rathenau, Martin Buber, Gustav Landauer and Lou Andreas-Salomé. Albert Einstein read Brunner but, while appreciating his critical insight and sharing his devotion to Spinoza, rejected his philosophy, particularly where it stood opposed to Kant
Brunner attracted a large and devoted following among the Jewish youth in Czernowitz. The best known of his disciples in this group is the poet, Rose Auslander.
With the Second World War, Brunner's books were burned and his devotees scattered. His German disciple Magdalena Kasch managed to save the bulk of Brunner's writing from destruction by the Nazis. In 1948, she, with the help of some of Brunner's other surviving friends, founded the "Internationaal Constantin Brunner Instituut" (ICBI) in the Hague. However, there has been no major revival of interest in his work, despite the efforts of such luminaries as Yehudi Menuhin and André Breton.
Read more about this topic: Constantin Brunner
Famous quotes containing the words influence and/or relevance:
“I think of consciousness as a bottomless lake, whose waters seem transparent, yet into which we can clearly see but a little way. But in this water there are countless objects at different depths; and certain influences will give certain kinds of those objects an upward influence which may be intense enough and continue long enough to bring them into the upper visible layer. After the impulse ceases they commence to sink downwards.”
—Charles Sanders Peirce (18391914)
“The most striking fault in work by young or beginning novelists, submitted for criticism, is irrelevancedue either to infatuation or indecision. To direct such an authors attention to the imperative of relevance is certainly the most usefuland possibly the onlyhelp that can be given.”
—Elizabeth Bowen (18991973)