Early life and family Oswald Arnold Gottfried Spengler was born on 29 May 1880 in
Blankenburg,
Duchy of Brunswick,
German Empire, the oldest surviving child of Bernhard Spengler (1844–1901) and Pauline Spengler (1840–1910),
née Grantzow, the descendant of an artistic family. His elder brother was born prematurely in 1879, when his mother tried to move a heavy laundry basket, and died at the age of three weeks. Spengler was born ten months after his brother's death. His younger sisters were Adele (1881–1917), Gertrud (1882–1957), and Hildegard (1885–1942). His paternal grandfather, Theodor Spengler (1806–1876), was a metallurgical inspector (
Hütteninspektor) in
Altenbrak. Spengler's maternal great-grandfather, Friedrich Wilhelm Grantzow, a tailor's apprentice in Berlin, had three children out of wedlock with a Jewish woman named Bräunchen Moses ( 1769–1849) whom he later married, on 26 May 1799. Shortly before the wedding, Moses was baptized as Johanna Elisabeth Anspachin; the surname was chosen after her birthplace—
Anspach. Her parents, Abraham and Reile Moses, were both deceased by then. The couple had another five children, Like the Grantzows in general, Spengler's mother was of a
Bohemian disposition; before marrying Spengler's father, she accompanied her dancer sisters on tours. In appearance, she was plump. Her temperament, which Spengler inherited, was moody, irritable, and morose.
Education When Spengler was ten years of age, his family moved to the university city of
Halle. He received a classical education at the local
Gymnasium (academically oriented secondary school), studying Greek, Latin, mathematics, and sciences. He developed his propensity for the arts—especially poetry, drama, and music—and came under the influence of the ideas of
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and
Friedrich Nietzsche. At 17, he wrote a drama titled
Montezuma. After his father's death in 1901, Spengler attended several universities (
Munich,
Berlin, and
Halle) as a private scholar, taking courses in a wide range of subjects. His studies were undirected. In 1903, he failed his
doctoral thesis on
Heraclitus—titled
Der metaphysische Grundgedanke der heraklitischen Philosophie (
The Fundamental Metaphysical Thought of the Heraclitean Philosophy) and conducted under the direction of
Alois Riehl—because of insufficient references. He took the
doctoral oral exam again and received his
PhD from Halle on 6 April 1904. In December 1904, he began to write the secondary dissertation (
Staatsexamensarbeit) necessary to qualify as a high school teacher. This became
The Development of the Organ of Sight in the Higher Realms of the Animal Kingdom (
Die Entwicklung des Sehorgans bei den Hauptstufen des Tierreiches), a text now lost. It was approved and he received his teaching certificate. In 1905, Spengler suffered a
nervous breakdown.
Career Spengler briefly served as a teacher in
Saarbrücken then in
Düsseldorf. From 1908 to 1911, he worked at a grammar school (
Realgymnasium) in
Hamburg, where he taught science, German history, and mathematics. Biographers report that his life as a teacher was uneventful. In 1911, following his mother's death, Spengler moved to
Munich, where he lived for the rest of his life. While there, he was a cloistered scholar, supported by his modest inheritance. Spengler survived on very limited means and was marked by loneliness. He owned no books, and took work as a tutor and wrote for magazines to earn additional income. Due to a severe heart problem, Spengler was exempted from military service. During the war, his inheritance was useless because it was invested overseas; thus, he lived in genuine poverty for this period. Spengler began work on the first volume of
The Decline of the West intending to focus on Germany within Europe; however, the
Agadir Crisis of 1911 affected him deeply, so he widened the scope of his study. According to Spengler the book was completed in 1914, but the first edition was published in the summer of 1918, shortly before the end of
World War I. Spengler wrote about the years immediately prior to World War I in
Decline: When the first volume of
The Decline of the West was published, it was a wild success. Spengler became an instant celebrity. The national humiliation of the
Treaty of Versailles (1919), followed by
economic depression in 1923 and
hyperinflation, seemed to prove Spengler right.
Decline comforted Germans because it could be used as a rationale for their diminished pre-eminence, i.e. due to larger world-historical processes. The book met with wide success outside of Germany as well, and by 1919 had been translated into several other languages. The second volume of
Decline was published in 1922. In it, Spengler argued that German
socialism differed from
Marxism; instead, he said it was more compatible with traditional
German conservatism. Spengler declined an appointment as Professor of Philosophy at the
University of Göttingen, saying he needed time to focus on writing. The book was widely discussed, even by those who had not read it. Historians took umbrage at his unapologetically non-scientific approach. Novelist
Thomas Mann compared reading Spengler's book to reading
Arthur Schopenhauer's works for the first time. Academics gave it a mixed reception. Sociologist
Max Weber described Spengler as a "very ingenious and learned dilettante", while philosopher
Karl Popper called the thesis "pointless". The first volume of
Decline was published in English by
Alfred A. Knopf in 1926, the second in 1928.
Aftermath In 1924, following the social-economic upheaval and
hyperinflation, Spengler entered politics in an effort to bring
Reichswehr General
Hans von Seeckt to power as the country's leader. The attempt failed and Spengler proved ineffective in practical politics. A 1928
Time review of the second volume of
Decline described the immense influence and controversy Spengler's ideas enjoyed during the 1920s: "When the first volume of
The Decline of the West appeared in Germany a few years ago, thousands of copies were sold. Cultivated European discourse quickly became Spengler-saturated. Spenglerism spurted from the pens of countless disciples. It was imperative to read Spengler, to sympathize or revolt. It still remains so". In 1931, Spengler published
Man and Technics, which warned against the dangers of
technology and
industrialism to culture. He especially pointed to the tendency of Western technology to spread to hostile "Colored races" which would then use the weapons against the West. It was poorly received because of its anti-industrialism. This book contains the well-known Spengler quote "Optimism is cowardice". Despite voting for
Adolf Hitler over
Paul von Hindenburg in 1932, Spengler found the Führer vulgar. He met Hitler in 1933 and after a lengthy discussion remained unimpressed, saying that Germany did not need "a
heroic tenor but a real
hero". He quarreled publicly with
Alfred Rosenberg, and his pessimism and remarks about the Führer resulted in isolation and public silence. He further rejected offers from
Joseph Goebbels to give public speeches; however, Spengler became a member of the German Academy that year.
The Hour of Decision, published in 1933, was a bestseller, but was later banned for its critique of Nazism. While the Nazis welcomed Spengler's criticisms of
liberalism, he disagreed with their biological ideology and antisemitism. Although racial mysticism played a key role in his own worldview, Spengler had always been an outspoken critic of the racial theories professed by the Nazis and many others in his time, and was not inclined to change his views during and after Hitler's rise to power. Spengler was a German nationalist who viewed the Nazis as too narrowly German and not
Western enough to lead the fight against other peoples. The book also warned of a coming world war in which Western civilization risked being destroyed, and was widely distributed abroad before eventually being banned by the
Nazi Party. A
Time review of
The Hour of Decision noted Spengler's international popularity as a polemicist, observing, "When Oswald Spengler speaks, many a Western Worldling stops to listen", and recommended the book for "readers who enjoy vigorous writing", who "will be glad to be rubbed the wrong way by Spengler's harsh aphorisms" and his pessimistic predictions.
Later life and death On 13 October 1933, Spengler became one of the hundred senators of the
German Academy. Spengler spent his final years in Munich, listening to
Ludwig van Beethoven, reading
Molière and
William Shakespeare, buying several thousand books, and collecting ancient
Turkish, Persian (Median and
Achaemenid Empires), and
Indian weapons. He made occasional trips to the
Harz mountains and to Italy. Spengler died of a
heart attack on 8 May 1936, in Munich, at age 55. He was buried in the
Nordfriedhof in
Munich. == Views ==