ABSTRACT
In the 1920s one of the most influential professors at the University of Heidelberg was Friedrich Gundolf. He was George's longest-lasting love, also his sharer of Weltanschauung, even though, during World War I, George criticized Gundolf for his anti-French nationalism. Theodor Adorno wrote his essay, "George and Hofmannsthal," dedicated to the memory of Walter Benjamin. From a Marxist viewpoint, he rejected George both for protofascist implications and for an outdated art nouveau style (praising Templars). Like the Frankfurt school in the Weimar Republic, some very able critics continue a "j'accuse" against George. They accuse him not of fascism but of "protofascism." The anti-Nazi George can perhaps be called protofascist. Certainly George used favorably the words "Reich" (imperium) and "Fuhrer" (leader). This was common German usage then. After World War I, like almost all Germans (democrats as well as Nazis and Communists), George detested the Versailles treaty and the French military occupation of the Rhineland.
