The Italian Renaissance in the German Historical Imagination, 18601930 [Paperback]

Explores German engagement with the Italian Renaissance in the decades from German unification to the Weimar republic.For more than half a century, the Italian Renaissance was an object of both passionate admiration and fierce polemics in the realm of German letters. Examining the writings of five key figures as well as numerous visual sources, Martin Ruehl brings to life these controversies and shows how the German engagement with the Renaissance gave birth to a myth of modernity that continues to define our historical thinking.For more than half a century, the Italian Renaissance was an object of both passionate admiration and fierce polemics in the realm of German letters. Examining the writings of five key figures as well as numerous visual sources, Martin Ruehl brings to life these controversies and shows how the German engagement with the Renaissance gave birth to a myth of modernity that continues to define our historical thinking.Towards the end of the nineteenth century, Germany's bourgeois elites became enthralled by the civilization of Renaissance Italy. As their own country entered a phase of critical socioeconomic changes, German historians and writers reinvented the Italian Renaissance as the onset of a heroic modernity: a glorious dawn that ushered in an age of secular individualism, imbued with ruthless vitality and a neo-pagan zest for beauty. The Italian Renaissance in the German Historical Imagination is the first comprehensive account of the debates that shaped the German idea of the Renaissance in the seven decades following Jacob Burckhardt's seminal study of 1860. Based on a wealth of archival material and enhanced by more than one hundred illustrations, it provides a new perspective on the historical thought of Imperial and Weimar Germany, and the formation of a concept that is still with us today.List of illustrations; Acknowledgements; 1. Introduction: Quattrocento Florence and what it means to be modern; 2. Ruthless Renaissance: BurckhardlÓw