Freud, Jews and Other Germans: Masters and Victims in Modernist Culture Book

In 'Freud, Jews, and Other Germans,' Peter Gay offers a collection of stimulating and elegant essays that look at Germany in the late 19th and early 20th centuries through its own values, rather than as an inevitable prologue to the rise of Hitler. Modern German culture, the author stresses, has far too often been interpreted as a preparation for the Holocaust of Nazism. Writers traditionally scan German history for clues as to how Nazism developed, rather than seeing Germany in the perspective of its own times. As Gay remarks, 'Hard as it may be to come to terms with the Germany of the late 19th century, the terms in which we see it must be our own.' This book ranges widely over German culture from the beginning of Imperial Germany in 1871 to Weimer Germany in the 1920s. Much of the book is concerned in some significant measure with the role of the Jews in German culture and the role of the modernist spirit in this culture. In Freud these two factors are brilliantly combined, and Gay's illuminating analysis reveals fascinating aspects of Freud's career. Other essays portray the role of Jews in turn-of-the century Germany and asses the special Berlin-Jewish spirit in relation to Weimer culture. Several essays look at different aspects of music in German culture; Brahams, critic Eduard Hanslick, enemy of Wagner, and Hermann Levi, chosen by the anti-semetic Wagner to conduct the world premiere of his ritual opera 'Parsifal' at Beyreuth.Read More