Georg Simmel and German Culture

The significance of the German philosopher and social thinker Georg Simmel (18581918) is only now being recognised by intellectual historians. Through penetrating readings of Simmel''s thought taken as a series of reflections on the essence of modernity and modern civilisation Efraim Podoksik places his ideas within the context of intellectual life in Germany and especially Berlin under the Kaiserreich. Modernity characterised by the growing differentiation and fragmentation of culture and society was a fundamental issue during Simmel''s life underpinning central intellectual debates in Imperial Germany. Simmel''s thought is depicted here as an attempt at transforming the complexity of these debates into a coherent worldview that can serve as an effective guide to understanding their main parameters. Paying particular attention to the genealogy and usage of the concepts of Bildung culture and civilisation in Germany this study offers contextual analyses of Simmel''s philosophies of culture society art religion and the feminine as well as his interpretations of Dante Kant Nietzsche Schopenhauer Goethe and Rembrandt.