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The Neglected (III) Jacob Burckhardt ‐ Defender of Culture and Prophet of Doom

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2014

Wolfgang J. Mommsen
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Extract

IN THE STRICTEST MEANING OF THE TERM, JACOB Burckhardt , the eminent historian and widely acclaimed expert on European art, cannot be considered a neglected author. Yet nor does he belong to the mainstream of European political thinking; he is to be found on the sidelines as a remarkable, but somewhat erratic, figure, representing a unique sort of extreme cultural criticism directed against modernity.

Type
Original Article
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 18 , Issue 4 , 01 October 1983 , pp. 458 - 475
Copyright
Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 1983

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References

1 Burckhardt, Jacob, Über das Studium der Geschichte. Der Text der ‘Weltgeschichtlichen Betrachtungen’ auf Grund der Vorarbeiten von Ernst Ziegler nach den Handschriften herausgegeben von Peter Ganz, München, 1982 Google Scholar. See also Hardtwig, Wolfgang, Geschichtsschreibung zwischen Alteuropa und modener Welt. Jacob Burckhardt in seiner Zeit, Göttingen, 1974 Google Scholar and White, Hayden, Meta‐history, The Historical Imagination in 19th Century Europe, Baltimore, 1980, pp. 230–64Google Scholar. Also Rüsen, Jörn, ‘Jacob Burckhardt’, in Deutsche Historiker, ed. by Wehler, H.-U., Göttingen, 1972.Google Scholar

2 Cf. Löwith, Karl, Jacob Burckhardt. Der Mensch inmitten der Geschichte, Stuttgart, second ed., 1966, p. 127.Google Scholar Translations by the author.

3 Jacob Burckhardt, Gesammelte Werke, Darmstadt, 1956 ff., vol. 4, p. 7.

4 Burckhardt, Jacob, Historische Fragmente. Aus dem Nachlaß gesammelt von Emil Dürr, Stuttgart, 1957, pp. 260 ff.Google Scholar

5 Ibid., p. 269.

6 Ibid., p. 275.

7 Ibid., p. 276. Translated by the author.

8 Gesammelte Werke, vol. 4, p. 26.

9 White, op. cit., p. 236 f.

10 Gesammelte Werke, vol. 4, p. 3.

11 Cf. Rüsen, Jörn, ‘Die Uhr, die die Stunde schlägt. Geschichte als Prozess der Kultur bei Jacob Burckhardt’, in Historische Prozesse, ed. by Faber, K.-G. and Meier, C., München, 1978, pp. 189 ffGoogle Scholar.

12 Über das Studium der Geschichte, ed. P. Ganz, p. 226.

13 ‘Die historischen Krisen im Geschichtsdenken Jacob Burckhardts’, in Begegnungen mit der Geschichte, Göttingen, 1962, pp. 142 f.

14 Gesammelte Werke, vol. 5, p. 15.

15 Über das Studium der Geschichte, ed. Ganz, p. 257.

16 Gesammelte Werke, vol. 4, p. 70.

17 Ibid., p. 24.

18 Gesammelte Werke, vol. 4, p. 44.

19 Cf. Kaegi, Werner, ‘Europäische Horizonte im Denken Jacob Burckhardts’, Drei Studien, Basel, 1962, pp. 13 ff.Google Scholar

20 Löwith, op. cit., p. 156.

21 Historische Fragmente, p. 278.

22 Cf. Burckhardt, Jacob, Briefe, ed. Burckhardt, M., Bremen, 1965, p. 312 (26 04, 1872)Google Scholar.

23 Briefe, ed. M. Burckhardt, vol. III, p. 112.

24 Ibid., p. 146 (5 March 1846).

25 A few lines later Burckhardt speaks of ‘reconstruction [Neugestaltung] once the crisis is over’, as his and his partner’s destiny.