Description

The years of Albrecht von Blumenthal's life, 1889-1945, coincided with those of Hitler, and likewise ended in a murder-suicide. Yet this is not the only reason which von Blumenthal's life can be used as a lens to view the Hitler era. He too was decorated in the trenches; it was he who introduced the Stauffenbergs to the prophet-poet Stefan George, whose influence led Claus to see himself as the would-be ridder of Hitler and saviour of Germany. It was also on von Blumenthal's estates that Dietrich Bonhoeffer set up his illegal Schlönwitz seminary.

On the other hand von Blumenthal's work and poetry aimed at restoring the Nietzschean outlook, which struck a chord with the ideology of National Socialism, and he has himself been accused - wrongly in the author's view - of having been a dedicated Nazi.

This book is for anyone interested in Stefan George, the Stauffenbergs, or the development of ,classical studies in Germany in the first half of the 20th Century.