89. Idealism Against Anti-Semitism

Two strange books appeared in quick succession. The first was called "Law, Freedom and Morality of Artistic Creation". The author is Lothar von Kunowski. He has now followed up the first with a second book entitled "A Nation of Geniuses". Both volumes are intended to be only parts of an extensive complete work entitled: "Dutch Art for Life". In certain circles, Lothar von Kunowski is regarded as a prophet. One can hear expressions of the most unreserved admiration. What he says about the nature of art and the moral life is praised like a new gospel.

Although for those who really know the development of German intellectual life in the nineteenth century, there is no new thought contained therein, such a person can also agree with the judgment that has recently been passed on Kunowski from important quarters. His book is described as one in which "a serious man speaks out about questions that have tormented him for years: the cry of pain of an artist groping aimlessly in the dark; the jubilant cry of one who finally sees the goal".

There is certainly much that is immature in the two books; certainly everything Kunowski says has been said more thoroughly and comprehensively in the past: but there is something about the two books that is extremely refreshing, even for those who know the relevant literature. For decades, art and its relationship to life have not been discussed with the kind of idealism brought about by knowledge that Kunowski does.

Kunowski ascribes a great cultural mission to the German people. It should bring about a renewal of the moral worldview through a true understanding of art. "A new doctrine of art will have to be a new doctrine of life and vice versa, a new conception of life will have to be rooted in a rejuvenated doctrine of art... Few know what they are saying with the demand for a people's art, an art that makes every member of the people an artist in all acts of life." It could seem as if the way Kunowski talks about "art and the people" is to be exploited for their own purposes by those who want to spread all kinds of ethnic and racial antipathies under this slogan. And the first volume of the work, published a few months ago, has also been exploited in this sense - quite unjustifiably.

The second volume, which has now appeared, has thoroughly disappointed many who previously believed they could count Kunowski among their own. In many places, he speaks clearly and unambiguously about the "racial question". And what he says in such places shows how an idealistically-minded person must think about this "question". In particular, Kunowski rejects all anti-Semitism. He sharply rebukes the Englishman Chamberlain for his outbursts against the "Semites" in the book "Foundations of the Nineteenth Century." And from the same point of view, judgments are made that make it impossible for the anti-Semites to refer to Kunowski, whom they would otherwise certainly like to cite when they, in their sense, talk about the strong roots of education and culture in the "Volkstum". But Kunowski understands the term "Volk" in such a way that any anti-Semitism is incompatible with his view. "We Germans are determined," he said, "to reserve the form of the world to be remodeled for all peoples, to summon them all to carry out the work, especially the Romans and Semites, to whom we owe infinite things, with whom we, united in the infinite, will also jointly expand the finiteness of the earthly. In this loving justice lies the future of the German, lies its world empire, its rejuvenation into a new man, into a new people". Kunowski does not want a racial struggle; he wants to transfer what is significant about all races into the culture of the future: "The moral law of the Jew, the state of the Roman, the art of the Greek, the pyramid of the Egyptian" must be united in us so that we can "work independently in the world forge". This idea is expressed particularly beautifully in the following statement: "At our altars rest the cross, the crescent and the ark of the covenant, in our forests walk Zarathustra, Moses, Socrates, Dante, Rousseau, in our meadows grow anew Jerusalem, Athens, Sparta, Florence and Paris."

Kunowski contrasts this narrow-minded racial point of view with his own with the words: "The aim of world conquest is not to spread the unchanged German type, but rather to create a new cultural man who is neither Germanic, nor Romani, nor Semitic." This idea culminates in the sentence: "Peoples are created through the fusion of peoples in the embers of a new culture that burns racial hatred."

Kunowski's book can be seen as a significant symptom of the times. We want idealism again. Not a vague one that is only created by fantasy, but one that is based on knowledge and education. Kunowski makes himself the spokesman for such an idealism. It is significant that in doing so he automatically becomes an opponent of anti-Semitism, which is hostile to knowledge and education, of narrow-minded "Germanism".