Beyond Catastrophe

Beyond Catastrophe examines the post-World War II leadership efforts of four major German intellectuals: Karl Jaspers, Thomas Mann, Friedrich Meinecke, and Bertolt Brecht. Clark focuses on the symbolic, practical, and theoretical contributions of these men to post-war cultural reconstruction, and pays special attention to their key works of the period — The German Catastrophe, Doctor Faustus, The Question of German Guilt, and Turandot — in which they addressed the key issues of the period including responsibility and guilt for the National Socialist regime, German distinctiveness, the possibility of a renewed humanism, and the relationship of intellectuals to the broader society. Addressing an important lacuna in twentieth-century intellectual history, Beyond Catastrophe will appeal to scholars of history and German studies.

This readable, well-researched study is an important contribution to German intellectual and political history. Highly recommended., Demonstrating admirable prose and analysis, Mark Clark assesses anew the contributions — and limitations — of four pre-eminent intellectuals who sought to bridge the nearly unbridgeable abyss between pre-war Germany and the traumatized societies, east and west, that painfully emerged after 1945.

Mark W. Clark is associate professor of history and philosophy at the University of Virginia's College at Wise.