Letter: Building on Romantic rubble
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Sir: Lord Weidenfeld's anodyne response ('The Romantic earthquake', 29 September) to Andrew Graham- Dixon's critique of German Romanticism just will not do. Auschwitz is not a side issue for Romanticism. As proof I suggest he re-reads Fichte, who Isaiah Berlin identifies as 'the true father of romanticism'.
On reading the Addresses to the German Nation - with its ideals of the purity of the 'volk', the division of mankind into superior and inferior races, the realisation of a historic destiny, the ego-imperialism of will, 'I believe because I will', etc - it is impossible not to recognise a fundamental caesura of historical understanding which, while exhilarating, is fundamentally pernicious. The 'Gothic Image' of darkly brooding emotion and unrestrained monstrous will, was from the outset an irrational quest based on a flawed understanding of human nature: a nightmare which Hitler turned to reality.
The challenge today is not to excuse this, nor 'to build our cities on the slopes of Vesuvius' (Nietzsche), but to build communities of compassion and reasoned restraint out of the rubble of Romanticism.
Yours sincerely,
DOMINIC KIRKHAM
Canons Regular of Premontre
Manchester
29 September
(Photograph omitted)
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments