ABSTRACT
An intense skepticism and deep apprehension in respect to modernity in general arose throughout a broad cross-section of the German intellectual community in the latter half of the nineteenth century. With few exceptions, these cultivated members of the elite Bildungsbürgertum lambasted the impersonal and atomized “mass society” of mob rule and crude emotions. Democracy was also attacked, for it was believed to threaten all individual differences (von Hartmann 1896). Many spoke of the anonymity of urban life, “the tragedy of modern culture” (Simmel 1968: 116-47; 1971: 227-34, 375-93), and the “decline of the west” (Spengler 1923). Others predicted that the ascendance of the totally leveled society, “atomized modern man,” and merely functional (sachliche) and “homogenous” relationships spelled an end to intimacy and friendship. Some viewed modernity with extreme pessimism and even utter despair, and saw only nihilism on the horizon (Stern 1965; Nietzsche 1956, 1968).
