Bäumler, Alfred

Born Nov. 19, 1887. German philosopher. One of the ideologists of German fascism.

From 1933 to 1945, Bäumler was a professor of political science at the University of Berlin. His views were formed under the influence of the “philosophy of life” (Nietzsche, Dilthey, and Simmel) and the “morphology of history” (Spengler). Characteristic of Bäumler are motifs of antiur-banism and nostalgia for “prebourgeois” culture with its “strong personality,” standing “beyond good and evil.” Written from these Nietzschean points of view, the works Nietzsche as a Political Educator (1931) and Politics and Education (1937) were acknowledged by Hitler’s government as guides for the education of youth. In his work Aesthetics (1934), Bäumler subjected the heritage of German classical philosophy to his so-called cultural criticism.