Stefan Georges gedicht 'Geheimes Deutschland' (German text)

The thesis examines Stefan George's late poem “Geheimes Deutschland.” In this hymn, as in much of his poetry, he reflects and addresses the dangers of unregulated economic and scientific activity, of war and crime and of an excessive mobility; the consequence of this is the loss of cultural and personal roots. The poet presents a series of personalities who embody a vision of a different life. Among them are six of his friends, who had experienced the existence of powers which cannot be fully understood by reason.; George raises concerns similar to those of Martin Heidegger and Ernst Jünger. Heidegger's concept of “Machenschaft” or machination is comparable to George's criticism of his time. My interpretation of “Geheimes Deutschland” follows Heidegger's lectures on the poet Hölderlin in assuming that the poem originates from a “Grundstimmung” or basic mood. This leads to further examples of Heideggerian concepts, developed in relation to Hölderlin, which can be used to analyse “Geheimes Deutschland.”; I use Ernst Jünger's archetype “Waldgänger” to elucidate the seven portraits of the poem's middle section. The last part outlines basic features of a philosophy of history embodied in George's poetry in the light of Hölderlin's fragment “Das Werden im Vergehen.”...