![]() ![]() ![]() In essence, George dreamed of that terribly persistent political fantasy: a future inspired by the past. His words swam in oceans of irrationalism: of pagan gods, ancient destinies and a “spiritual empire” he called “Secret Germany” bubbling beneath the surface of normal life. But that didn’t matter to his followers to them he was something more than human: “a cosmic ego,” “a mind brooding upon its own being.” Against the backdrop of Weimar Germany - traumatized by postwar humiliation and the collapse of faith in traditional political and cultural institutions - George preached an alternate reality through books of poetry. George was 61 years old that year, had no fixed abode and very little was known of his personal life and past. His name was Stefan George, but to those under his influence he was known as “Master.” Alongside them was a picture of a long-since-forgotten German poet. ![]() President Woodrow Wilson, the Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin and India’s anti-colonialist leader Mahatma Gandhi. ![]() In 1929, one of Germany’s national newspapers ran a picture story featuring globally influential people who, the headline proclaimed, “have become legends.” It included the former U.S. Joe Zadeh is a writer based in Newcastle. ![]()
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