houston stewart chamberlain, the importance of race summary houston stewart chamberlain, the importance of race summary

This book had already been published in, Die Rasse in den GeisteswissenschaftenBand II: Hauptepochen und Hauptvlker der. It was not really a success, mainly because Hitler did not agree with Chamberlains glorification of Christian culture; but also because he believed that Christ was a mixed-blood; he who was born, according to the Fhrer, from a Roman soldier and a Palestinian prostitute named Mary21: You cannot make an Aryan out of Jesus that is nonsense. Houston Stewart Chamberlain, "Kant: Excursus on the 'Thing in Itself,'" Immanuel Kant: A Study and a Comparison with Goethe, Leonardo da Vinci, Bruno, Plato and Descartes, vol. Hitler and Goebbels got the chance to pay him another visit, in May 1926, just before he passed away. After years of travelling and wandering/wondering about new ideas, he found in the racist theories of Schemann and other Rassentheoretiker of the time a unified vision of the worlda true Weltanschauung. 2 Schemann, Ludwig, Die Rasse in den GeisteswissenschaftenBand II: Hauptepochen und Hauptvlker der Geschichte in ihrer Stellung zur Rasse, Munich, Lehmanns Verlag, 1930, 419p. 3 Puschner, Uwe, Die vlkische Bewegung im wilhelminischen Kaiserreich. Having learned, from a very young age, at least two foreign languages, he almost wrote better in French and in German than he did in English. He mumbles, wants to speak, he can'tand then weeps like a child! In 1899 Chamberlain wrote his most important work, 'Die Grundlagen des Neunzehnten Jahrhunderts' . Chamberlain criticized them for their lack of political sense: The Greeks have always been, and are still today, unfaithful, unpatriotic, self-centred, . (M a h b h r a t a) 4 Translation from the German, based upon the 8th edition of Arische Weltanschauung, published by F. Bruckmann A.-G., Munich 1938 5 Dedicated to the indologist Leopold von Schroeder If Germanic blood is not protected against the Jewish infection, Europe will perish. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2005. , New York, Columbia University Press, 1981. , Stuttgart, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1960. , London, Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1962. , Munich, Franz Eher Verlag, Zentralverlag der NSDAP, 1926. , Wien, Zrich, New York, Europa Verlag, 1940. Now I believe I understand that it is precisely this that characterizes and defines your being: the true awakener is at the same time the bestower of peace, Indeed, this encounter and interview left such an impression on Chamberlain that he considered Hitler as the epitome of many essential virtuessuch virtues as warmth, kindness and selflessness, all embodied by the, Sie sind ja gar nicht, wie Sie mir geschildert worden sind, ein Fanatiker, vielmehr mchte ich Si. 29 Goebbels, Joseph, Das Tagebuch von Joseph Goebbels, 1925-1926, Stuttgart, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1960, 141p., in the English translation: The Early Goebbels Diaries, 1925-1926, London, Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1962, 156p., p.77. Wagner, Richard, Das Judentum in der Musik, Leipzig, 1869. Decultot, Elisabeth, Johann Joachim Winckelmann. As they wanted to destroy anything that was not Jewish, they fought against the Greeks. It was high time the saviour appeared. Greece has always gravitated around Asia, till Rome dragged it away, to the West. Chamberlain's ideas on race were greatly influential to Adolf . The son of a naval officerhis father was an admiral in the Royal Navy , he spent his whole youth travelling around Europe. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Athens was beautiful, but Greece was splendid: the people looked like statues, they had perfectly proportioned noses and marble skin, they spoke the language of books (written in Greek) and they invented not only mathematics but also the theatre and the art of warfare. idea ideal importance individual influence inner interest Italy Jewish Kant knowledge later less limited living material matter means mechanical merely mind moral mysticism nature never observation once original Paul personality philosophy political possess possible practical present principle proved purely . copies. After years of travelling and wandering/wondering about new ideas, he found in the racist theories of Schemann and other Rassentheoretiker of the time a unified vision of the worlda true Weltanschauung. They then engaged with the Romans: Carthage was a Jewish kingdom and Hannibal himself was some sort of a fighting rabbi! 21 Hitler, Adolf, private talk from Oct. 21st, 1941, Fhrerhauptquartier, quoted in Hitler, Adolf, Monologe im Fhrerhauptquartier, 1941-1944. After France, Italy, Belgium, he ended up in Vienna, then in Geneva, where he earned a Bachelors degree in Science. Houston Stewart Chamberlain was an Englishman who had married Richard Wagner's daughter. The Syrian bastard had taken possession of laws, and the Jew used the Library of Alexandria to adapt Greek philosophy to the Mosaic Law (). Cartea n dou volume a lui Chamberlain, Die . Like Hegel, Chamberlain praised the Greeks for inventing freedom and the key notion of personality: Over there, in Asia, in the East, no man had ever been a person. Jahrhunderts, Darmstadt, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2005. His book The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century explained the difference between races. Nordicism is an ideology of racism which views the Nordic race as a superior and sometimes as an endangered racial group. 2 19 20 . For todays readers, it is nothing more than a flood of words and phrases, an accumulation of commonplaces, false ideas and lies without any firm structure or real coherence. The Germanic Vision of Houston Stewart Chamberlain, New York, Columbia University Press, 1981, 565p. 5 Chamberlain, Houston Stewart, Die Grundlagen des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts, Munich, Bruckmann, 1899, 1031p. (2 volumes). Updates? (Houston Stewart Chamberlain, 1855 9 9 ~ 1927 1 9 ) , , . Das Rassen- und Nationalittlose Vlkerchaos des sptrmischen Imperiums, In the end, Rome triumphed. Outside the rain patters! Chamberlain, Houston Stewart, Sehr geehrter und lieber Herr Hitler 7. 12/02/2021 . This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Houston-Stewart-Chamberlain, The Official Site of Houston Stewart Chamberlain, The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century, The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century. Off we go. He became somewhat of a war hero during the First World War, during which he was a talented propagandist against his own country, Great Britain. In these publications, Chamberlain emphasized the heroic Teutonic aspects in the composers works. I, chap. He could have been a typical character from A Room with a View; he who could not embrace the military career his father had ambitioned for him and went on travelling instead. The known world, the oekoumene, reached its apex around the first century A.D., when the Romans, having conquered Greece, managed to combine their chtonian gravitas with the celestial intelligence and inspiration of the Greeks. Greece has always gravitated around Asia, till Rome dragged it away, to the West. Houston Stewart Chamberlain (September 9, 1855 - January 9, 1927) was an English author of books on political philosophy, natural science. In very ancient times, Germanic tribes had come from the north to colonize the south. [11] Ulterior a devenit cetean german i ginere al lui Richard Wagner, dup ce s-a cstorit cu fiica acestuia, Eva von Blow. This obsession with diseases and the assimilation of blood-mixing with infection is a common characteristic, as well as a deep concern, among the most convinced racists of the time. : to fight against the (revolutionary) French idea of Nation based on the (false) assumption of equality. Wo ist ein grosser, schpferischer Naturforscher unter den Rmern? His writing promoted German ethnonationalism, antisemitism, and scientific racism; and he has been described as a "racialist writer". Rome was destroyed by the Jews because it had not protected the purity of its race and because it was never able to lead a proper racial war: a total war of annihilation. Drben, im asiatischen Osten, hatten und haben nicht einmal die Menschen Persnlichkeit, hier, in. Ludwig Schemann exerted a great intellectual influence on the other members of the Wagner circle, popularizing what people started to call the Vlkisch ideology3: to fight against the (revolutionary) French idea of Nation based on the (false) assumption of equality. HomeIssues11Antique Bodies in Nineteenth CentPart I: Utopian BodiesTraining the Body: The Antique ModelFrom Humanism to Nazism: Antiquit Darwiniste social et raciste convaincu, Houston Stewart Chamberlain sest constitu une vaste culture dautodidacte. Historians must therefore make the effort to understand that, for Chamberlains coevals, his book was important in that it provided an answer, at the time, to important questions and, to a larger extent, tried to give a meaning to history. Chamberlain scorned this racial chaos of the late Roman Empire, which destroyed any racial and national principle, this chaos of peoples of the decadent Roman Empire being a capital sin against nature. Doch nicht etwa der fleissige Konversationslexikonsredakteuyr Plinius?, in Chamberlain. Wie Jesus zum Arier wurde. they believed that the Nordic race had become superior because harsh climatic conditions . Die Nazis erklrten ihn zu ihrem Vordenker. Jahrhunderts. , but this time for gooda word to the wise for people who were sent fighting the new Carthage of Jewish bolshevism on the Eastern front. 20 Bergen, Doris L., Twisted Cross. not object to Chamberlain's making the Germanic race (which means for him Celts, Teutons, and Slavs, the . Schemann, who held a doctorate in history from the University of Berlin, made a living as a raciologist (Rassenkndler) at the University of Freiburg and translated Gobineaus work in German. In Chamberlains work, the past is a warning for the present. Ein Beitrag zur historischen Methodenkritik, in, Hellas: Griechische Geschichte und deutsche Geisteswissenschaft. If the Greeks were philosophers, the Romans were lawyers. There is the force that stems from chaos and in turn leads to chaos, and there is the force which shapes the cosmos27. Ohne ihn ging der Tag des Indoeuropers zu Ende. Sie haben Gewaltiges zu leisten vor sich, aber trotz Ihrer Willenskraft halte ich Sie nicht fr e, Resorting to antique concepts and quoting Goethe, Chamberlain celebrates Hitler as the creator of a, , the hero who fights against every sort of, : You know Goethe's distinction between force and force. Was der Chamberlain da in seinen Grundlagen geschrieben hat, ist gelinde gesagt dumm, Hitler quoted in Rauschning, Hermann, Gesprche mit Hitler, Wien, Zrich, New York, Europa Verlag, 1940, p.51. The self-taught student had found his philosophical stone and was ready to share his revelation4 to the public. Greetings to you, spiritual father. 13 der rechtsmssige Erbe des Hellenen und des Rmers, ibid. Der Fanatiker will berreden, Sie wollen berzeugen, nur berzeugen, und darum gelingt es Ihnen auch; ja, ich mchte Sie ebenfalls fr das Gegenteil eines Politikers dieses Wort im landlufigen Sinne aufgefat erklren, denn die Asche aller Politik ist die Parteiangehrigkeit, whrend bei Ihnen alle Parteien verschwinden, aufgezehrt von der Glut der Vaterlandsliebe. Enqute sur la gense de lhistoire de lart, Paris, PUF, Perspectives Germaniques, 2000. The son of a naval officerhis father was an admiral in the Royal Navy , he spent his whole youth travelling around Europe. In the 1920s, he met Hitler. cit., pp. . 10, p.153. Goebbels, Joseph, Das Tagebuch von Joseph Goebbels, 1925-1926, Stuttgart, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1960. . The edict of Caracalla in 212 was the beginning of the end: the Romans were to die of a slow death, all victims of this blood disease, after having mixed their blood with Arabs, Africans and Jews. Here, in Greece, every river, every stone lives and is an individual. What mattered to them was biology and race, not the law or a mere artificial citizenship. Mind, Jew. 17Indeed, this encounter and interview left such an impression on Chamberlain that he considered Hitler as the epitome of many essential virtuessuch virtues as warmth, kindness and selflessness, all embodied by the Fhrer of the NSDAP: You are not at all, as you have been described to me, a fanatic. This would be taught in the ideological courses every member of the party (among which, members of the SS) had to take. Chamberlain was brought up by relatives in France. 28 Hitler, Adolf, Mein Kampf, Munich, Franz Eher Verlag, Zentralverlag der NSDAP, 1926, 782p. Quote from vol. 19 Fenske, Wolfgang, Wie Jesus zum Arier wurde. Why was the world precisely how it should be (the white population thus rewarded for its supremacy over the others)? Meuchelmrderisch hatte sich der asiatische und afrikanische Knecht bis zum Thron des rmischen Imperiums hinaufgeschlichen, inzwischen der syrische Bastard sich des Gesetzeswerkes bemchtigte, der Jude die Bibliothek zu Alexandria benutzte, um hellenische Philosophie dem mosaischen Gesetze anzupassen (). But something is as clear as the sun at midday: if the Phenician people had not been exterminated () mankind would never have experienced () this 19, century that we can consider with pride and hope, For Chamberlain, the victory of the Carthaginians over the Romans would have been a catastrophe: We have been saved by the brutal, of Cato and the likes. This idea was borrowed by Chamberlain from many racist historians and theoreticians of the time. , Mnchen, C.H. CHAMBERLAIN, HOUSTON STEWART(1855-1927) Houston Stewart Chamberlain, the Anglo-German race theorist and philosophical and historical writer, was born in Southsea, near Portsmouth, England. Counter-revolutionary theoreticians exalted in Germany the biological idea of the Volk and coined the word vlkisch as an alternative to the French adjective national. What can you say of a 1200 years long history that does not offer a single philosopher, not even the most modest one? This book has the reputation of being hard, if not impossible, to read. An Anthology of Texts, Health, Race and German Politics between National Unification and Nazism, 1870-1945. , Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1989. , Leipzig, 1869. Chamberlain saw in Hitler the new William II who could save Germany, as he wrote to him in a moving letter in the form of an accolade from the old philosopher of the race to the young racist politician.24 Chamberlain addresses a most respected and dear Herr Hitler, the only one who could give him strength and peace, confidence and energy, everything that he had lost in August 1914, when Germany entered a fateful war: I have been wondering why it was you of all people, you who are so extraordinary in awakening people from sleep and humdrum routines, who recently gave me a longer and more refreshing sleep than I have experienced since that fateful day in August 1914 when I was first struck down by this insidious sickness. What is left of Rome today is no other than a landscape of ruins which looks like the white skeleton of a dead civilization. He was therefore read and admired by the major figures of the Nazi ideologyone of whom was Hitlerand became, just before he died, in the 1920s, one of the leading minds of their movement. This is one of the better clichs of the German historiography of the second half of the 19. century: only the Nordic king, Alexander of Macedonia, managed to unify Greece and put an end to endless campaigns by creating an Empire, like King Wilhelm of Prussia who succeeded in 1871 in unifying the different German tribes and states into a mighty Empire. Nineteenth century racist thinkers, such as Houston Stewart Chamberlain and Guido von List as well as racist politicians like Georg von Schnerer exerted a significant influence on many in the generation of Adolf Hitler. This is a draft section of a chapter in my forthcoming Ph.D., in which I explore the racial and theological theories of 19th-century German philosopher Houston Stewart Chamberlain. So they Aryanised him. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. He reciprocated by paying a tribute to Chamberlain in Mein Kampf. Weindling, Paul, Epidemics and Genocide in Eastern Europe, 1890-1945, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2003. 6But what was to be said about Rome? "Foundations of the Nineteenth Century". He became a member of the Wagner circle and grew quite intimate with the family of the, whose daughter, Eva, he ended up marrying. The Germanic giants from the forests of the north were blood from their blood and spirit from their spirit12 and, as such, the true heir of the Romans and of the Greeks13. Hitler saw in Christianity a lethal plague that had affected Europe because of the Jews who made Christians out of Germans to weaken them. There is the force that stems from chaos and in turn leads to chaos, and there is the force which shapes the cosmos, , Munich, Franz Eher Verlag, Zentralverlag der NSDAP, 1926, 782p. Quote f, Although he did not agree with everything he had written in the, , Hitler knew how to value such honour. This meant rewriting, mimicking and sometimes even plagiarizing parts of Hegels, , which, since it had been posthumously published in 1837, had become mandatory homework for those who wanted an easy introduction to the work of the great philosopher. The immigration of strangers to the race was recurrently presented as the invasion of microbes and viruses into a healthy and sound body. Regrettably, a number of Chamberlain's most important works are still accessible only to those who know German, the language in which he did For many people in the 19th century, it was a vital question19: many Christian racists of the period could not bear the idea of their Messiah being a Jew. Trailblazer, pioneer! Chamberlain addresses a most respected and dear Herr Hitler, the only one who could give him strength and peace, confidence and energy, everything that he had lost in August 1914, when Germany entered a fateful war: Es hat meine Gedanken beschftigt, wieso gerade Sie, der Sie in so seltenem Grade ein Erwecker de, I have been wondering why it was you of all people, you who are so extraordinary in awakening people from sleep and humdrum routines, who recently gave me a longer and more refreshing sleep than I have experienced since that fateful day in August 1914 when I was first struck down by this insidious sickness. 10 Diese Anschauung von der Bedeutung der Kunst entspricht auch, wenn ich nicht irre, einer spezifischen Anlage des deutschen Geistes. Chamberlain chose to revisit this holy triangle through the vlkisch perspective. 5 Sourced Quotes. This second visit was, according to Goebbels, a heartbreaking episode which Berlins new Gauleiter described in his diary, in May 1926: Shattering scene: Chamberlain on a couch. 10, p.296, in the English translation by MURPHY, James, London, Hurst and Blackett, 1939, vol. This book had already been published in 1850, but anonymously. She married Siegfried, Richard Wagners only son, and was considered the only true custodian and bailiff in Bayreuth after Siegfrieds death, as well as a sort of muse for Adolf Hitler, whom she greatly admired. Johann Chapoutot, From Humanism to Nazism: Antiquity in the Work of Houston Stewart Chamberlain ,Miranda [Online], 11|2015, Online since 23 July 2015, connection on 05 March 2023. This book had already been published in 1850, but anonymously. You are not at all, as you have been described to me, a fanatic. Houston Stewart Chamberlain (September 9, 1855 - January 9, 1927) was a British-born German author of books on political philosophy, natural science and Richard Wagner. Die vlkische Bewegung im wilhelminischen Kaiserreich. We find that actual, concrete knowledge, that is, the great work of toilsome discovery, has one deadly enemy, omniscience. Houston Stewart Chamberlain - a Darwinist whom was identified as racist theorist was also a cultural critic. His big eyes burn like fire. Nearly as significant and important was the fact that, thanks to the Roman conquest, the Greeks finally turned their back to the East, in other words to Asia: Without Rome, undoubtedly, Europe would have been a mere perpetuation of the Asian chaos. This race of heroes which carried out a Herculean task by creating the Imperium was defeated by hybrid weaklings from Asia minor, Greeks and Jews who infiltrated the Empire and the most inner circles of imperial power, thus becoming the juridicial counsellors of the throne. He became ill but was reinvigorated by a visit Adolf Hitler paid him in 1923. , Leipzig, 1869. The naturalized German citizen Houston Stewart Chamberlain wrote in 1899 that the German race struggled to maintain its purity because of the Darwinian form of natural selection that caused Germans to feel a revulsion toward intermixing with lesser races. (). View all Houston Stewart Chamberlain Quotes. Later, the Wagner family would welcome another subject of the British Empire: Winifred Williams. Furthermore, his belonging to the Wagner family was a letter of credit and a sign of distinction in the small but growing world of the far right movements. houston stewart chamberlain, the importance of race summary. The Romans, of course, were the best, but they did not protect themselves; they did not protect the excellence of their blood. Chamberlain, Houston Stewart, Sehr geehrter und lieber Herr Hitler 7. This race of heroes which carried out a Herculean task by creating the, was defeated by hybrid weaklings from Asia minor, Greeks and Jews who infiltrated the Empire and the most inner circles of imperial power, thus becoming the juridicial counsellors of the throne. From his anthropological research, . More importantly, they would prevent any further decadence and avoid mixing with inferior races, like the Jews or other crossbreds. Ludwig Schemann exerted a great intellectual influence on the other members of the Wagner circle, popularizing what people started to call the Vlkisch ideology. Oktober 1923, quoted in Stackelberg, Roderick, Winkle, Sally. (). This is the decisive standpoint for men of action. Die Aufzechnungen Heinrich Heims, herausgegeben von Werner Jochmann, Hamburg, Albrecht Knaus Verlag, 1980, 496p., p.96. Jahrhunderts, Darmstadt, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2005. Long, long handshake! Houston Stewart Chamberlain was an English-born German writer who formulated the most important theory of Teutonic superiority in pre-Hitlerian German thought. Reassured though he was to have met the saviour of Germany and of the German race, Chamberlain did not die right away and had to wait four more years before falling into a deep and peaceful sleep. If you read the book carefully, the notion of plague as a potential threat is omnipresent. Racism, including racial antisemitism, was always an integral part of German National . (Edin. Silent nature awakes to the consciousness of itself, . Some 19th-century philosophers weren't content with the racism of White over Black people and other ethnicities. Houston Stewart Chamberlain 4: Hans Gnther 5: Hitler and Mein Kampf . As a true Wagnerian, Chamberlain needed heroes and saviours. While the Greeks had given Europe a soul, the Romans were busy shaping the body: the Imperium, the jus romanum, the legions. While the Greeks rejoiced in the company of ideas, the Romans were materialists in both the best and the worst sense of the term. 9During ancient times, the Germans ruled over their conception of the world and could therefore explore and organize it: the science of the Greeks helped understand the cosmos, while the legions and the laws of the Romans imposed the Nordic order to the world. Beck, 1999, 534p. NF, Beat, Von Perikles zu Hitler? In the 1031 pages of the two volumes, Chamberlain borrowed ideas from the leading sciences of the time (history and the natural sciences) and stood up for the dominant ideas, at the. By HOUSTON STEWART CHAMBERLAIN. He spent his winters in Cannes and springs in Florence. And Chamberlain would not be the last to perform such a, under the Third Reich; for instance, an official Protestant church pledged to the Nazi party, . What mattered to them was biology and race, not the law or a mere artificial citizenship. In that respect, he is not being entirely fair to the author. He was, for the Germans, the thinker who popularized Gobineaus ideas on the social Darwinists, providing the German bourgeoisie with a sense of its mission: am deutschen wesen soll die welt genesenthe German essence must heal the world. For "the most sacred of duties . 22 Den Jesus knnen Sie nicht zum Arier machen, das ist Unsinn. Why was the world precisely how it should be (the white population thus rewarded for its supremacy over the others)? This idea allowed Chamberlain to combine both his vast amount of knowledge in history as well as in the humanities, in general. They settled down in Greece and Rome, enjoying the benefits of cultural photosynthesis, thanks to the sun and mild climate of the Mediterranean. Says the author, Chika Onyeani, "We are a conquered race and it is utterly foolish for . So the Berbers of Morocco were Nordic originally. The Persians indeed were Jews, at least as much as the Greeks were Germans, and the Persian Wars were nothing else than a racial struggle which lasted over a century between Asia and Europe. Chamberlain could very well have been a poor mans Hegel: rewriting the history of civilization in a less than talented way, apologizing for not being able to elaborate further on what he was talking about because it would take too long and writing much nonsense on the science of the time which he was already busy repudiating. 1Houston Stewart Chamberlain was a typical member of the 19th century British gentry but had the most atypical destinya destiny which was built around the culture of two countries: England which he left early and Germany which was to become his true home. He could have been a typical character from, ; he who could not embrace the military career his father had ambitioned for him and went on travelling instead. Their existence is sin, their existence is a crime against the holy laws of life. Houston Stewart Chamberlain (September 9, 1855 - January 9, 1927) was a British-born naturalized German natural scientist, and author of popular scientific and political philosophy books (includes those on Richard Wagner, Immanuel Kant and Johann Wolfgang Goethe) as well as proponent of a nationalist and pan-Germanic antisemitism. Ein Beitrag zur historischen, Athens represented, for Chamberlain, the beauty of ideas and the greatness of philosophy, which as such is not a very original idea. Sie kennen Goethes Unterscheidung von Gewalt und Gewalt! Meuchelmrderisch hatte sich der asiatische und. The German Christian Movement in the Third Reich. Literature. I, chap. Jerusalem is to be destroyed: an imperative the Romans followed at least twice, to crush the rebellions of those Jews who spend their time revolting against every state order because their race was synonymous with chaos. Still, the Greeks were far from perfect. Dass der Schwerpunkt der Kultur endgltig nach Westen verlegt, dass der semitisch-asiatische Bann gebrochen (), dass das vorwiegend indogermanische Europa nunmehr das schlagende Herz und das sinnende Hirn der ganzen Menschheit wurde, das ist das Werk Roms, Ibid., p.168. Summary With a collection of 300 sources--each accompanied by an introductory essay and review questions--this two-volume primary source reader emphasizes the history of ideas. British-American philosopher and educator. Home; About; Program; FAQ; Registration; Sponsorship; Contact; Home; About; Program; FAQ; Registration; Sponsorship . Christianity is, for the author, a pillar of European culture. Furthermore, his belonging to the Wagner family was a letter of credit and a sign of distinction in the small but growing world of the far right movements. Without him, the Indo-Europeans would have disappeared. Since the purpose of his Foundations of the 19th Century was to try and explain everything about life and history, it naturally had to start with Antiquity for the authors exhaustive survey to have any semblance of logic at all. To prove the excellence of Germanic blood, scientists and race specialists had argued, since the 1830s, that every light came from the North, and not from the East. This idea according to which the Greeks and the Germans shared the same taste for beauty had been a commonplace for Konversationslexika since Johann Winckelmann published, in 1764, his Geschichte der Kunst des Altertums (History of Ancient Art).9 In the words of Chamberlain: This assumption of the importance of the arts corresponds to a specific character of the German mind, if I am not mistaken10.