Der Fuehrer - Hitler's Rise to Power (1944) - Heiden

INTERLUDE 217herent in the things themselves; but to reveal itself or to 'realize' itself,as Hegel says, it must 'appear in an endless wealth of forms,phenomena, and shapes,' until it finally can enter 'conscience'; that is, begrasped by the human mind.This principle of reason, or the 'world spirit,' is realized in history insuccessively higher forms, or, as Hegel calls them, 'stages'; one of thesestages is the 'national spirit,' but the highest is the state. Hence the stateis a thing 'rational in itself; indeed Hegel calls it 'the moral universe,'and as a philosopher he indignantly rejects any idea of instructing orimproving the state. As the highest revelation of the world spirit, thestate stands above individuals and their supposed rights, for 'the right ofthe world spirit is above all special privileges.' And 'world history is noempire of happiness. The periods of happiness are the empty pages ofhistory, because they are the periods of agreement, without conflict.' Forhistory goes on only by conflict between its successive 'stages.'Hegel is the intellect triumphant on the summit of self-confidence. Anexalted and pitiless reason rules the world, and the German intellectaroused by Napoleon thinks history which it cannot yet make. TheAntichrist assembles his scattered limbs and begins to take form. TheGerman contribution to this world figure begins at this point. TheGerman Nationalist Movement in the first half of the nineteenth centuryderives its strength from the classical flowering of German literatureand philosophy. The educated classes multiplied enormously. Theycreated the first form of modern national pride in Germany: thedemocratic belief in equality of all by virtue of education.But all this dreaming cult of Napoleonic greatness and state omnipotencewould not have been possible without the misery of actualGerman politics. In the mind of most German intellectuals stateomnipotence was only another expression for the people's sovereigntyin its desperate struggle against Germany's countless petty, shabby, andridiculous princes.This German intellectualism was part of an intellectual and at thesame time political uprising through Europe. Students, professors,lawyers, writers, journalists, banded into secret societies, and if theywere discovered, ended in terrible prisons. Agents of the