Title: Genius, power and magic : a cultural history of Germany from Goethe to Wagner /
Authors: Cavaliero, Roderick,
Year: 2013
Subjects: Civilization; Intellectual life; Kultur; Kulturhistoria Tyskland.; Germany Civilization.; Germany Intellectual life; Germany Intellectual life; Germany; Deutschland
Abstract: "Before unification in 1871, Germany was a loose collection of variously sovereign principalities, nurtured on deep thought, fine music and hard rye bread, somewhat lacking in cultural cohesion. Yet between the end of the Thirty Years War and unification under Bismarck, Germany became the land of philosophers and poets, writers and composers. Roderick Cavaliero provides a fascinating overview of Germany's cultural zenith and its artistic exports - including the literature of Goethe and Grimm, the music of Wagner, Schumann and Mendelssohn and the philosophy of Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Schiller and Kant. Providing a comprehensive and highly-readable account of Germany from Frederick the Great to Bismarck, 'Genius, Power and Magic' is fascinating reading for anyone interested in European history and the extraordinary cultural legacy of this golden age."--Amazon.com.
Contents: Introduction -- Fitzboodle in Pumpernickel -- A German panorama -- Genius : Germans in search of god -- Genius : Germans in search of man (1) -- Genius : Germans in search of man (2) -- Potentates and patrons (1) -- Potentates and patrons (2) -- The Catholic south -- Magic : musical Germany -- Pumpernickel discovered -- Revolution across the Rhine -- The return of "Pumpernickel" -- Romance on the Rhine -- The Tales of the Hoffmen -- Harmony and dissonance -- Butterflies or maggots -- "Pumpernickel" by binoculars -- Power over genius and magic.