![]() ![]() 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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