Will-o'-the-wisp – on the map because of their influence as an ideologue of National Socialism, as an object of critique.

Alfred Baeumler

1887–1968

A first way ina deliberate simplification – the portrait says more

For Baeumler, Nietzsche was the political philosopher of a heroic, warlike realism – a reading that made him serviceable to National Socialism and is now regarded as a distortion.

Placement

Political Philosophy & Ethics (20th–21st c.) · Eastern Europe · Politics & Law, Aesthetics

German philosopher who wrote on Kant’s aesthetics, presented Nietzsche in 1931 as a “philosopher and politician” of the coming Reich and became, from 1933, professor of political pedagogy in Berlin and an official of the Amt Rosenberg; on the map as an object of critique.

Key ideas

Nietzsche as political philosopher (distorting reading)
Heroic realism
Political pedagogy under National Socialism
Kant’s Critique of Judgement and its history

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Influence

Influenced by 2

Johann Jakob Bachofen

influenced by
Baeumler, later a Nazi philosopher, presented Bachofen as mythologist of Romanticism and of a chthonic world before reason (1926); Thomas Mann criticised it as reactionary (Pariser Rechenschaft, 1926). A. Baeumler, “Bachofen der Mythologe der Romantik”, introduction to M. Schröter (ed.), Der Mythus von Orient und Occident (1926); T. Mann, Pariser Rechenschaft (1926)
Evidence: AI draft
Johann Jakob Bachofen › 1815–1887
Friedrich Nietzsche

influenced by
Baeumler appropriated Nietzsche for National Socialism, recasting the will to power as heroic realism (Nietzsche, der Philosoph und Politiker, 1931) – a reading scholarship treats as distortion. A. Baeumler, Nietzsche, der Philosoph und Politiker (1931); M. Montinari, “Nietzsche zwischen Alfred Baeumler und Georg Lukács” (1982); S. E. Aschheim, The Nietzsche Legacy in Germany 1890–1990 (1992)
Evidence: AI draft
Friedrich Nietzsche › 1844–1900

Criticism

Criticized by 2

Georg Lukács

criticised by
Lukács treated Baeumler’s heroic-political reading of Nietzsche (Nietzsche, der Philosoph und Politiker, 1931) as an example of the fascist appropriation of irrationalism (Die Zerstörung der Vernunft, 1954). G. Lukács, Die Zerstörung der Vernunft (1954); A. Baeumler, Nietzsche, der Philosoph und Politiker (1931)
Evidence: AI draft
Georg Lukács › 1885–1971
Martin Heidegger

criticised by
In his Nietzsche lectures (1936–37) Heidegger rejected Baeumler’s claim that the doctrine of eternal recurrence is unimportant beside the will to power (Nietzsche I, 1961). M. Heidegger, Nietzsche I (1961; lectures 1936–37); A. Baeumler, Nietzsche, der Philosoph und Politiker (1931)
Evidence: AI draft
Martin Heidegger › 1889–1976

Works

1931Nietzsche, Philosopher and Politician
Reads Nietzsche as the philosopher of a heroic, political realism and of the will to power, setting aside the eternal recurrence – the main academic text of the National Socialist appropriation of Nietzsche.

Position

Baeumler is on the map as an ideologue because the history of Nietzsche’s reception treats him as the main academic author of the National Socialist reading. He presented Nietzsche as a philosopher of the will to power understood as a heroic, warlike “realism” and of a coming Germanic Reich, and declared the doctrine of eternal recurrence unimportant for the system – a step that made the work politically usable. Heidegger objected in his Nietzsche lectures of 1936–37 that the recurrence cannot be set aside; Georg Lukács (1954) treated Baeumler’s book as a document of fascist irrationalism, although he himself read Nietzsche as a forerunner of fascism. Mazzino Montinari’s essay “Nietzsche between Alfred Baeumler and Georg Lukács” (1982) showed that both readings rested on the compilation “The Will to Power” and on selective quotation. Baeumler’s earlier work on the history of Kant’s aesthetics is still cited in Kant scholarship.

Life & context

Alfred Baeumler was born on 19 November 1887 in Neustadt an der Tafelfichte in northern Bohemia. He studied in Munich, Bonn and Berlin and took his doctorate in Munich with a thesis on Kant’s aesthetics; after service in the First World War he published “Kant’s Critique of Judgement: Its History and Systematics” (1923) and an influential introduction to Bachofen (1926). He taught at the Technical University of Dresden, where he became professor in 1929. In 1930 he edited Nietzsche’s works for the Kröner publishing house, and in 1931 he published “Nietzsche, Philosopher and Politician”. Close to Alfred Rosenberg’s Kampfbund für deutsche Kultur, he joined the NSDAP in 1933 and received the new chair of political pedagogy in Berlin; on 10 May 1933 he addressed students before the book burning. He later headed the science office in the Amt Rosenberg. After 1945 he was interned until 1948 and did not return to a university post. He died in Eningen near Reutlingen on 19 March 1968.

Further main works

Kant’s Critique of Judgement: Its History and Systematics (Kants Kritik der Urteilskraft. Ihre Geschichte und Systematik, 1923)
The Myth of Orient and Occident (introduction to Bachofen, 1926)
Men’s League and Science (Männerbund und Wissenschaft, 1934)