Zur geistigen Einheit von Hermann Brochs Werk: Massenpsychologie. Politologie. Roman

Objective and goal of the thesis is to show the connection and interrelationship of Hermann Broch's theoretical and rather abstract work on mass psychology with his four great novels The Sleepwalkers, The Death of Vergil, The Guiltless, and The Spell.;Broch himself considered his theory on mass psychology to be the underlying basis of all of his work, including his fictional writings. An examination of this theory thus yields a better understanding of his novels from a point of view which has so far been neglected.;The origins of his ideas on his mass psychology can be traced back to his first novel. All of the Sleepwalkers live and move in what Broch in his Mass Psychology called the realm of twilight--which he then recognized as the prevailing state of the human mind in general.;In the Mass Psychology itself Broch focuses his thoughts around the soul of the individual, and aims at a comprehension of totality that embraces the entire human being. At the same time he does not limit himself to merely a diagnosis but is also in search of a solution: For him the individual's duties are connected to a concept of human rights; and the struggle against mass psychosis in a political world of totalitarian regimes is assigned to democracies.;In his later novels it becomes evident how greatly his fiction was influenced by the theories on mass psychology. So for example in his description of the masses in the Death of Virgil as well as in the Mountain Novel. In both of those novels he also exemplifies the two types of leaders depicted in the Mass Psychology, the religious savior (anticipated by Virgil) on the one hand, and the demonic demagogue (Marius Ratti) who leads the masses--hereby resembling Hitler--on the 'path of archaic-infantile ecstasies.'.