This is a massive life and times of the most influential German-language poet of the first half of the twentieth-century. “Poet” is not an entirely adequate description, for from the beginning, his career was marked by determination to make life and work a unity. His credo was that the stance of the poet is more important than the actual work produced.
This provoked ridicule from many of his contemporaries, but in a few found fertile ground, particularly among youths who were, as he had been, troubled loners. You can imagine where this is heading: the formation of a circle of devoted admirers subsumed to the ideal of pederasty as education.
In the light of further historical developments, detractors pointed to George’s early use of the ancient swastika symbol as a prominent design element in his books, portraying the poet as a forerunner of Hitler. That both used the same symbol is inconsequential. More eery is the language George used, stylising himself as “Führer” and heralding the coming of a New Reich. Even more than his vocabulary, his self-stylisation as high priest of a new religion, bent on imposing his absolute will on his followers, seems precursive. In fact, the pioneer German sociologist Max Weber was fascinated by the phenomenon of the George-circle, and used it to illustrate charismatic leadership, in distinction to legal and traditional leadership, in his final major work, Economy and Society.
In the last decade of his life, after his lyric inspiration was sapped, George’s work focused on reproducing his stance in a series of impressionable young men that his first circle of devotees were directed to scout out. It is fascinating that one of these, Claus von Stauffenberg, at first idolized Hitler, then attained immortality by attempting to assassinate the dictator. Facing death by firing squad, he exclaimed “long live secret Germany,” employing a term used by members of the George-circle to express their ambivalent ambition to foster the true essence of German culture while proclaiming their indifference to politics.
While less-remembered or read today than his erstwhile rival Rilke, many of George’s poems, which I first read a half-century ago in a seminar on modern German literature, remain among the best in the language. It is valuable to explore this very German cultural phenomenon. While perhaps most readers won’t need such an extensive treatment, those who do read this thoroughly-researched and well-written book are sure to find it as rewarding as I did. ( )