Emily J. Levine
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226061689
- eISBN:
- 9780226061719
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226061719.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, History of Ideas
The third chapter examines the longstanding debate over the purpose of scholarship in a commercial city without a scholarly tradition. Warburg, for his part, often mediated between the camps of ...
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The third chapter examines the longstanding debate over the purpose of scholarship in a commercial city without a scholarly tradition. Warburg, for his part, often mediated between the camps of merchants and academics and stirred local pride with constant references to Berlin. This chapter shows how Aby and Max Warburg played an instrumental role in leading the city towards the ultimate founding of the University of Hamburg. Tabled because of the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the university was ultimately founded in the spring of 1919 in the midst of revolution. Born of the republic, the university would draw on Hamburg’s distinct internationalism, a potential asset in the new Europe. Broken by the war and unsatisfied with the university’s traditionalism, Warburg, however, would ultimately turn his intellectual sights to his library and retreat to Kreuzlingen, Switzerland, where he would recover from a mental breakdown.Less
The third chapter examines the longstanding debate over the purpose of scholarship in a commercial city without a scholarly tradition. Warburg, for his part, often mediated between the camps of merchants and academics and stirred local pride with constant references to Berlin. This chapter shows how Aby and Max Warburg played an instrumental role in leading the city towards the ultimate founding of the University of Hamburg. Tabled because of the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the university was ultimately founded in the spring of 1919 in the midst of revolution. Born of the republic, the university would draw on Hamburg’s distinct internationalism, a potential asset in the new Europe. Broken by the war and unsatisfied with the university’s traditionalism, Warburg, however, would ultimately turn his intellectual sights to his library and retreat to Kreuzlingen, Switzerland, where he would recover from a mental breakdown.
Emily J. Levine
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226061689
- eISBN:
- 9780226061719
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226061719.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, History of Ideas
Chapter nine focuses on Cassirer’s tenure as rector at the University of Hamburg during the academic year of 1929–1930, which represented one last attempt to carry on Warburg’s vision of a humanist ...
More
Chapter nine focuses on Cassirer’s tenure as rector at the University of Hamburg during the academic year of 1929–1930, which represented one last attempt to carry on Warburg’s vision of a humanist Hamburg. Yet when Cassirer assumed his post Warburg had died and he faced political conditions vastly different than those in 1928, including fierce nationalism, anti-Semitism, and antirepublicanism from the students. Within these institutional constraints, Cassirer tried to create a reception for a Weimar festival and ceremonial culture and presided over two university events at which he promoted—albeit to no avail—his unique brand of “cosmopolitan nationalism.” In contrast to the portrait of Cassirer as a non-political “Mandarin” intellectual, I argue that classic work, The Philosophy of Enlightenment, published in 1932, should also be read as a sublimated political critique.Less
Chapter nine focuses on Cassirer’s tenure as rector at the University of Hamburg during the academic year of 1929–1930, which represented one last attempt to carry on Warburg’s vision of a humanist Hamburg. Yet when Cassirer assumed his post Warburg had died and he faced political conditions vastly different than those in 1928, including fierce nationalism, anti-Semitism, and antirepublicanism from the students. Within these institutional constraints, Cassirer tried to create a reception for a Weimar festival and ceremonial culture and presided over two university events at which he promoted—albeit to no avail—his unique brand of “cosmopolitan nationalism.” In contrast to the portrait of Cassirer as a non-political “Mandarin” intellectual, I argue that classic work, The Philosophy of Enlightenment, published in 1932, should also be read as a sublimated political critique.
