The Eucken Circle. Cultural Crisis and Neo-Idealistic Reform, 1900-1950

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Frank-Michael Kuhlemann
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: from 2011 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 206425590

The DFG's grant for the historiographical research project The Eucken Circle runs out on 28. 2. 2015. The project deals with a circle of persons from educated middle class background led by Rudolf Eucken, Professor for Philosophy and Nobel prize winner for literature. This circle was institutionalized as the Euckenbund Society in 1919, which existed up to the 1940s. The Eucken Circle dealt with the problems of a modernity diagnosed in terms of a crisis of culture and called for comprehensive cultural reform on neo-idealistic lines. The project critically reviews one of the most influential arguments in the historiographical debate on the German Bourgeoisie: Should the discourse on cultural crisis emerging at the beginning of the 20th century be seen as an intellectual denial of modernity by the educated middle classes turning away from liberal and civic principles, a path leading eventually to National Socialism? The empirical study is focussed on the organisation, programme and intellectual development of the Eucken Circle resp. the Eckenbund, as well as their activities in different fields of discourse and action. Because of problems posed by widely scattered source materials as well as the emergence of new important papers and documents it was not possible to finish the project in the allotted time. In order to include these valuable new source materials and to bring the project to an adequate conclusion, we apply for a prolongation of the DFG research grant of 12 months

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Cooperation Partner: Dr. Uwe Dathe
• Co-Investigator: Professor Dr. Manfred Nebelin