Goethe
Observing nature observed: the art of Caspar David Friedrich
Friedrich’s scenes may appear to depict nature unbound, but they are also famous for their Rückenfiguren in the foreground, the men and women with their backs to us, facing what we also see
The art of the incel
The roots of incel subculture – and its magnificent memes – stretch back to Goethe’s Werther and beyond, says Nina Power
Fickle fortune
Here’s an intriguing thought experiment: could Damien Hirst disappear? By that I mean not the 52-year-old artist himself — that…
Books aren’t medicine. They’re more powerful than that
If we claim books can heal, we must accept they can also harm
Marlene Dietrich, George Orwell and the rebirth of a nation
The purpose of Lara Feigel’s book is to describe the ‘political mission of reconciliation and restoration’ in the devastated cities…
Alexander Humboldt: a great explorer rediscovered
The Prussian naturalist Alexander von Humboldt was once the most famous man in Europe bar Napoleon. And if you judge…
Schubert’s Lieder as never before
There can be no good reason why Graham Johnson’s marvellous three-volume encyclopaedia of Schubert’s songs has been so neglected by…
From Plotinus to Heidegger: a history of European thought in 48 pages
T.S. Eliot liked to recall the time he was recognised by his London taxi driver. Surprised, he told the cabbie…
The Nightwatches of Bonaventura: a masterpiece of German Gothic
In the early 19th century, the Romantic movement was in full swing across Europe. You could probably date its birth…
Those ancient Greeks were bores — but things are looking up
Thick snow is falling hard and heavy, muffling sounds and turning the picturesque village postcard beautiful. I am lying in…
German history is uniquely awful: that’s what makes it so engrossing
As I grew up half German in England in the 1970s, my German heritage was confined to the few curios…
Germans see the best of their soul in Weimar. Everyone else, on the other hand..
For centuries hailed as the home of poetry, music and liberalism, Weimar was ruthlessly exploited by the Nazis and later served as a showcase for communism, says Philip Hensher
Nietzsche's school jeremiad sounds oddly familiar
Toby Young 5 March 2016 9:00 am
When Friedrich Nietzsche was offered a professorship in classical philology at the university of Basel in 1869 he was so…