9 - The Outbreak of the First World War

Summary

IN CHAPTER 30 MANN ILLUSTRATES how Zeitblom takes the final step in the development of his predisposition to fascism. In order for the political approach of the Catholic humanist Zivilisationsliterat to shift from advocating communism to advocating fascism, three factors are necessary. First, he must be literally a Roman Catholic; second, his eroticism must espouse Nietzsche's glorification of life, the sacrifice of truth to life; and third, he must be an enthusiastic nationalist. Zeitblom has been shown to fulfill the first two requirements. However, there is, as yet, no political situation. All that has been established is Zeitblom's theoretical predisposition to fascism. The third factor, the concept of the ideal of “the nation,” the emergence of an enthusiastic emotional nationalism that will serve as the focus for the development of the movement, is now being tentatively introduced. Nationalism is not a characteristic of the principal Zivilisationsliterat in Die Betrachtungen eines Unpolitischen, who is a pacifist and advocates radical democracy, but of a variant Zivilisationsliterat. The views expressed by Zeitblom are among those that prompted Mann to start work on Die Betrachtungen eines Unpolitischen, where he analyses why such views are not an alternative to radical democracy. Mann's conclusion was that this variety equally reflects a disregard of individualism and subjective freedom, which are the fundamental values of German Protestant humanism, and those that distinguish it from Roman Catholic humanism.